Written By: Dragoon Falcon

There is, unfortunately, one major thing missing from this tutorial, and that is a formula for how often attacks hit.
This tutorial deals only with how combat damage is determined- I also recommend reading my Stats tutorial for complete understanding.

There are two ways to deal combat damage in Sim RPG Maker 95. One is what I will call "normal combat". This is when one unit attacks with its equipped weapon. The other way is through attack magic.

The damage that one hit in normal combat will do is equal to the attacker's "Attack" minus the defender's "Defense", minus 1/3 of the "GeoEffect" (rounded down) of the square that the defender is standing on.
That's:
Damage = Attack - Defense - GeoEffect/3

If the total for "Damage" is 0 or less, the attack will do no damage (I believe this is displayed as a "miss").

Simple, right? Well, there's one more thing you should know about normal combat.
In the "Game Properties" screen, there is an option for "Counter-Attack" and for "Counter-Counter-Attack".

The attacker always gets one hit to begin with.

If Counter-Attack is turned ON, then the defender (provided it is still alive) gets to make one attack after the attacker goes.

If Counter-Counter-Attack is turned ON, then the attacker (provided it's alive) gets to make one attack at the end IF the attacker's "Attack Speed" is at least 3 greater than the defender's "Attack Speed".

Note: It is possible to turn on Counter-Counter-Attack even if Counter-Attack is off.

I don't know exactly how to compute how often attacks hit, but I know it has something to do with Attack Speed and/or the Useability of a weapon. GeoEffect also affects this- a higher GeoEffect is better for the unit on that square.

Magic damage is easier to compute. Take the "damage" value of the spell. Add the user's "Magic Power". Subtract the defender's "Magic Defense". It's easy.
Damage = Spell damage + Magic Power - Magic Defense

And, no matter what, the magic spell happens once, and that's it. There are no additional attacks for anybody, whether or not they're in range or still have MP.

Hope this helps, and have fun using Sim RPG Maker 95!