Under Combat Revision 2.0, it’s important to understand the terminology and how each aspect relates to the others. There are three terms you should know when it comes to CR2.0: Stats, Attributes, and Influences.

Attributes (Properties)

On the code-side of The Matrix Online, Attributes and Properties have somewhat distinct flavors. Attributes are associated with Abilities and are expressed in numbers. Properties are essentially the same, except they are associated with inherent properties of the game, such as characters and the combat system, instead of with Abilities. However, from the player perspective, it’s easier to consider everything that falls in this group “Attributes”.

Each Ability is made up of several Attributes, such as Damage and Area of Effect.

Stats

Your five character Stats (Focus, Perception, Reason, Belief, and Vitality) give you bonuses based on their scores. You get one point to add to any Stat each time you go up a level—the higher your score in a Stat, the larger the bonus.

For point a Stat is above 5, you get a +2% bonus. Note: This bonus is subject to change during testing. This is our team’s biggest “lever” for balancing combat and Abilities, so this is the initial value.

Each Stat has a number of Influences associated with it, which tell you what bonuses raising that Stat will give you.

Influences

Each Influence carries the same name as the Attribute it gives a bonus to. Influences are expressed as percentages that are added to the Attribute when an Ability is used.

Putting it All Together

Here’s an example that should help you understand how this all works. We’ll see how scores in two different Stats can change the effect of a single Ability.

Now, let’s say you had scores of 15 in Focus and 20 in Belief. That translates to a +20% bonus from Focus Influences and a +30% bonus from Belief Influences. Focus has both Ballistic Accuracy and Melee Damage Influences, while Belief has a Melee Accuracy Influence.

Your use of the Despoiler Ability would now look like this:

Note: When calculating the percent bonuses, The Matrix Online truncates any decimals.

Now, if we reverse the scores to 20 Focus and 15 Belief, Despoiler would look like this:

Character Bonuses

While the above is an example of how Influences affect the Attributes of an Ability you use on someone else, they also affect Attributes that are inherent to your character. For example, combat Styles are essentially Abilities that give buffs to your character. When you have an active combat Style, any Influence bonuses you have based on your Stats will be applied to matching Attributes of that Style.

Let’s look at the same example using Self Defense.

You’ll notice that the Attributes of Self Defense are based on the level of the Ability. So, let’s say you have Self Defense at level 20. That would make your base Attributes:

Let’s assume again that you have 15 Focus (+20%) and 20 Belief (+30%). Focus has Ballistic Accuracy, Melee Damage, and Melee Defense Influences, while Belief has Melee Accuracy and Viral Defense Influences.

Applying these bonuses to the appropriate Attributes results in the following: