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Numdead: An Alternative to Power Scaling in VS Battles

Numerical Deadliness: An Alternative to Power Scaling in VS Battles

Deadliness

I first became interested in power scaling a couple years back. Queue attempting to engage with online spaces based on fiction scaling, and I quickly learned to just figure the shit out myself. We can attempt to sloppily apply numbers to things, but this ignores how the characters actually engage with the world around them.

Numdead, or Numerical Deadliness, is a further take on my Deadliness Scale. It streamlines it and turns character research into viable stat feats with corrections for personality and intellect. Rather than make a new write-up, I've upgraded this one.



Stats:

Like Tac'd Out, included stats are dependent on the people discussing the topic. Speed, durability, power, intelligence, and character are a good baseline in my opinion. For deadliness, we will be looking at Character more than expected.



Power Ups:

Power ups act as you interpret. Additives are additives and multipliers are multipliers. We will save these for the end.



Special Properties:

This is a space for noting abilities and hacks that may transcend a power equated fight. This may be abilities that defy stats, such as moves that ignore opponent durability or elevate understanding of the fiction, such as writer level tiering. I won't get into how this effects fights as it is up to interpretation and is case by case in vs battles anyway.



Setting:

A big part of tactical fights is adaptation to the environment. Because of this, picking interesting battlefields should be part of the vs process. It may also be advantageous to run fight simulations in multiple environments, as upper hands are extremely common.




Stats

Some stats have multiple ways of finding scaling. You can choose one category or average each one within the individual stat. My numbers stem from my own understanding of human capability.



Worth:

Value of stat ratings:

  • LH: Low Human | 1 Point
  • BH: Basic Human | 2 Points
  • AH: Athletic/Advanced Human | 3 Points
  • PH: Peak Human | 5 Points
  • BST: Bestial | 5 Points
  • SPR: Super Human | 10 Points
  • SPR2: Super Human x2 | 20 Points

Power:

Lifting Strength:

  • LH: 25lbs / 11,000g
  • BH: 75lbs / 34,000g
  • AH: 150lbs / 68,000
  • PH: 1000lbs / 450,000
  • SPR: 2000lbs / 910,000 (compact car)
  • SPR2: 4000lbs / 1.8M (large car/truck)
Striking Strength and/or Combat Damage
  • LH: 10 joules
  • BH: 50 joules
  • AH: 150 joules
  • PH: 1,500 joules
  • SPR: 3,000 joules
  • SPR2: 6,000 joules


Speed:

Movement:

  • LH: 2 m/s or less
  • BH: 4 m/s
  • AH: 8 m/s
  • PH: 12 m/s
  • SPR: 24 m/s
  • SPR2: 48 m/s

Perception (dodge):

(generally double or more of movement speed)

  • LH: 2 m/s projectile
  • BH: 7 m/s projectile
  • AH: 25 m/s projectile
  • PH: 50 m/s projectile (baseball)
  • SPR: 200 m/s projectile
  • SPR2: 400 m/s projectile (bullet)

Durability:

Hardness:

  • BH: Human skin
  • BST: Pelt-like - Similar to wood
  • SPR: Metallic - Unbothered by human strikes, similar to multiple layers of sheet metal
  • SPR2: Plate carrier - Somewhat bothered by super human strikes, similar to thick metal
  • SPR5: Concrete wall - Similar to thick concrete
  • SPR35: Tank armor

Resilience:

  • LH: Child-like in stamina and recovery
  • BH: Human-like stamina and recovery
  • AH: Professional boxer/MMA-like stamina and recovery
  • BST: Bear-like stamina and recovery
  • SPR: Elephant/Rhino-like stamina and recovery


Shock Absorption:

  • BH: Reliably survives gun shot shockwave at non point-blank ranges
  • PH: Reliably survives single grenade shock waves that are lethel with ~10 yards
  • SPR: Reliably survives single car bomb explosions that deal minor structural damage at close range and civilian casualty as ~1 house length away
  • SPR9: Reliably survives single truck bomb explosions that deal heavy structural damage at mid range and civilian casualty as ~1 block away

Intelligence:

Wisdom:

  • LH: Completely naive
  • BH: Somewhat naive
  • AH: Not naive, somewhat wise from life experience
  • PH: Wise from age or experience
  • SPR: Stereotypical ancient wisdom

Tactical Soundness:

(note: tactics should be referred to in-battle and not just as a stat)

  • LH: Little to no tactical thought process
  • BH: Some tactical thought
  • AH: Trained in one or two skills
  • PH: Master in one or two skills
  • SPR: Master in many skills (4+)

Mental Fortitude:

  • LH: Not mentally sound, easy to disrupt; makes simple decisions
  • BH: Fragile, fairly easy to disrupt; makes simple decisions with some forethought
  • AH: Focused through suffering, determined; makes important choices and creates plans
  • PH: Essentially unable to be disrupted; able to create and execute plans in real time
  • SPR: Unable to be disrupted, determination unable to be broken; able to stay one to two steps ahead of the rank below this


Applying Stats

Once each stat is averaged, it is good to take note of each individual stat category's rating (Ind), but we will be using the number found from averaging each stat category (Comp).

In order to continue, we must address a stealth stat: Character:

Character involves:

  • Blood lust
  • Morals/Goals
  • Mentality
  • Will

Each of these parts of character help us understand the character's readiness to fight.
In fictional fights (and nonfictional if we want to keep it real (pun intended (is that a pun?))) there are multiple stages to the fight. Characters don't bring their all right away as that wouldn't be fun to watch and wouldn't resemble human nature. Things ramp up. Pain doesn't open with Shinra Tensei, Superman doesn't jump in with black-hole-grabbing strength, the roadman doesn't pull the box cutter right away, and my mom doesn't start with a closed fist.

Fights have choreography that starts at testing the waters and ends with life and death choices. Ignoring this fact would be strange. But what do we do? Act like we can guess character moves in-character? Nope. Just apply theoretical multipliers depending on readiness to fight. The gaps that the character multiplier create will simulate how hard that particular character will fight.
Keep in mind, this character buff or nerf isn't meant to accurately represent the character's abilities, but meant to represent how powerful they are in the context of willingness to break that classic fight pacing.

Readiness is subjective but is generally easy to guess based on the situation. Unlike the other categories, readiness isn't about fitting things to exact categories. Still, Minimally/Maximally Willing aren't within any character's base range:

Readiness:

  • Minimally Willing (this isn't natural): 0.25x to Comp
  • Docile: 0.50x to Comp
  • Defensive: 0.75x to Comp
  • Aggressive: 1.25x to Comp
  • Feral/Extremely Aggressive: 1.5x to Comp
  • Maximally Willing (this isn't natural): 1.75x to Comp

Next up is additives and multipliers (modes). These may multiply or add to stats and generally get applied last as they usually buff all stats (even if not stated as such) as each stat is generally reliant on each other stat to project new found strength/ability:

Modes:

  • Slow to activate: Apply then lower readiness by two or three | i.e. Jiraiya's Sage Mode
  • Minor activation time: Apply then lower readiness by one | i.e. Opening Gates
  • Instant/Near Instant: Apply | i.e. Mangekyo Sharingan
  • Preemptive: Apply then raise readiness by one | i.e. Letting Kisame start in Shark Mode for the sake of conversation



Example

For this example, I will be talking about myself vs my cat. We both have a unique arsenal and bring a lot to the table.

Me:
Power: Basic Human | 2 Points
Speed: LH movement, BH perception | 2 Points (rounded up)
Durability: Basic Human | 2 Points
Intelligence: AH wisdom, BH tactical soundness, AH fortitude | 3 Points (rounded up)

9 points total. 2.25 points on average.
I'm somewhere between docile and defensive, I'll call it closer to defensive; 0.65x multiplier with no mode to utilize.
Final: I'm about 1.46 stats on average, somewhat under Basic Human.

Maple:
Power: Low Human | 1 Point
Speed: AH movement, PH perception | 4 Point average
Durability: Basic Human | 2 Points
Intelligence: LH wisdom, BH tactical soundness | 2 Points (rounded up)

9 points total. 2.25 points on average.
Maple is also somewhere between docile and defensive, I'll call it closer to docile despite her temper; 0.60x multiplier with no mode to utilize.
Final: Maple is 1.35 stats on average, a little above Low Human

Verdict:
Based on numbers alone, I could beat my cat with it being a struggle. This sounds about right.
Since it is so close, I'd refer to each stat individually, leading me to believe that my cat is a bit too fast for me but I look better in terms of DPS. Breaking off into ability, my critical thinking skills and ability to chuck small animals probably give me the win here.
I win. No surprise.


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