Stage 01
So, here’s the problem: the defense formulas in RM2K3 are kind of lame and status effects are limited to halving or doubling stats. Doubling the player’s defense stat doesn’t halve the physical damage they take. Halving an enemy’s attack power also doesn’t halve the damage the player takes.

Here’s why.

The formula for physical damage from a normal attack is:

Damage = Att/2 - Def/4

If you make a physical skill, you can set it to be a percentage of this. So if you set a skill to be 60% physical the formula becomes:

Damage = (Att/2 - Def/4) * 0.6

In skills, you can also add a flat number to this damage. This number is not affected by anything at all. So if you make a skill that’s 60% physical and has a damage value of 300 the formula becomes:

Damage = 300 + ((Att/2 - Def/4) * 0.6)

Magical skills work the same way but the base formula is different. The base formula for magic skills is:

Damage = Mag/4 - Mag/8

The fact that the magic stat only has half as big of an effect is designed to make up for the fact that it acts as both magical attack and magical defense.

If you actually want someone to take half or double damage you can’t use status effects. You can’t use the defense, attack, or magic stats at all. You have to use elements.

Now that I’ve explained the problem, I’ll explain the solution.

Stage 02
Once it existed, the shell was a necessary and indispensable place to stay inside; a defense for survival. It was a lucky thing she had made it, but while she was making it, she had no idea of making it, because she needed it. It was like when somebody lets out a sound they didn’t necessarily have to make, like “ha” or “hmph” or “mm” (but also… the act of that making: irrational, unintentional, compulsory), that’s how she made the shell: simply to express herself. And in that self-expression, she put all of her thoughts she didn’t know how to otherwise express, her amorous ways of thinking, that desire to be her for her fully so that they could fully be themselves. And the self-love that she put into her love for them; all of those things that could only be said in that breath.

Stage 03
Shell contains club music slowly uninstalled — the progress bar moves along in non-linear fashion, and it’s unclear if the bar carries the advance or the advance carries the bar (sub “advance” and “bar” for “rhythm” and “samples” and you get what I mean (but also I get rid of that idea of carrying, evolve and shed)); expected timelines are all flipped into what I can only understand as a series of beginnings because of their freshness, their openness, their resistance toward resolve, plus teased endings that behave like short stories that stop so suddenly so as to prompt a double-take, wanting more, instantly wondering about everything all around me, like how “Cleanhouse” kind of refuses to end, coyly, and “Valenzetina” becomes the seraphic star it articulates, and remixes from Elliot Reed, Jasmine Infiniti, Sinceer, and Emily Glass are alliterations like magic cards that are constantly being reshuffled and laid back upon the table, disorienting as a spiral; which way are we traveling along each bend? Shell holds a community that pronounces itself phonetically.

Shell EP by Ariel Zetina

Stage 01
So, here’s the problem: the defense formulas in RM2K3 are kind of lame and status effects are limited to halving or doubling stats. Doubling the player’s defense stat doesn’t halve the physical damage they take. Halving an enemy’s attack power also doesn’t halve the damage the player takes.

Here’s why.

The formula for physical damage from a normal attack is:

Damage = Att/2 - Def/4

If you make a physical skill, you can set it to be a percentage of this. So if you set a skill to be 60% physical the formula becomes:

Damage = (Att/2 - Def/4) * 0.6

In skills, you can also add a flat number to this damage. This number is not affected by anything at all. So if you make a skill that’s 60% physical and has a damage value of 300 the formula becomes:

Damage = 300 + ((Att/2 - Def/4) * 0.6)

Magical skills work the same way but the base formula is different. The base formula for magic skills is:

Damage = Mag/4 - Mag/8

The fact that the magic stat only has half as big of an effect is designed to make up for the fact that it acts as both magical attack and magical defense.

If you actually want someone to take half or double damage you can’t use status effects. You can’t use the defense, attack, or magic stats at all. You have to use elements.

Now that I’ve explained the problem, I’ll explain the solution.

Stage 02
Once it existed, the shell was a necessary and indispensable place to stay inside; a defense for survival. It was a lucky thing she had made it, but while she was making it, she had no idea of making it, because she needed it. It was like when somebody lets out a sound they didn’t necessarily have to make, like “ha” or “hmph” or “mm” (but also… the act of that making: irrational, unintentional, compulsory), that’s how she made the shell: simply to express herself. And in that self-expression, she put all of her thoughts she didn’t know how to otherwise express, her amorous ways of thinking, that desire to be her for her fully so that they could fully be themselves. And the self-love that she put into her love for them; all of those things that could only be said in that breath.

Stage 03
Shell contains club music slowly uninstalled — the progress bar moves along in non-linear fashion, and it’s unclear if the bar carries the advance or the advance carries the bar (sub “advance” and “bar” for “rhythm” and “samples” and you get what I mean (but also I get rid of that idea of carrying, evolve and shed)); expected timelines are all flipped into what I can only understand as a series of beginnings because of their freshness, their openness, their resistance toward resolve, plus teased endings that behave like short stories that stop so suddenly so as to prompt a double-take, wanting more, instantly wondering about everything all around me, like how “Cleanhouse” kind of refuses to end, coyly, and “Valenzetina” becomes the seraphic star it articulates, and remixes from Elliot Reed, Jasmine Infiniti, Sinceer, and Emily Glass are alliterations like magic cards that are constantly being reshuffled and laid back upon the table, disorienting as a spiral; which way are we traveling along each bend? Shell holds a community that pronounces itself phonetically.

Shell EP by Ariel Zetina