(heavily re-edited)
In the 10+ years CT's been out we've learned a great deal about its inner workings. A lot of that material is available here in the Compendium, which is great. But for the perfectionists out there (myself included) there's still room for improvement.
Case in point: I've recently started working on the exact relationships between some of the weapon stats. And not all of them line up with the established "knowledge" about CT.
Here's an example. According to what we know, damage is determined by the following formula:
4/3 * (character's PWR stat) + 5/9 * (weapon strength) *2
for an enemy with normal defense. This is also twice the character's attack power statistic--i.e. a maxed out Crono with 99 PWR and Rainbow (220 weapon strength) has an attack power of 254. This formula would dictate Crono should do around 508 points of damage with each attack.
It turns out that the true number is 517, slightly higher. Why? No idea; it's not caused by equipment or the other stats. Several hundred tests prove it though. In every single case the true damage done is higher than this older formula predicts. Here's the true formula if anyone cares to know it:
((11/8) * PWR + (5/9) * WPN) *2, +- 1%
(And to add in the effect of an enemy's defense, multiply by (255 - DEF) / 128.)
Okay, so 9 damage points isn't that big a deal. But I think the Encyclopedia could benefit from a "average damage per hit" statistic, taking into account true HP damage, critical rate, and special bonuses, which to my knowledge has never been calculated. When you do this, which weapons are the best end up changing. For example, Crono's weapons listed in order of Attack Power:
57 Mop
62 Wood Sword
72 Iron Blade
91 SteelSaber
103 Lode Sword
116 Bolt Sword
128 Red Katana
152 Flint Edge
160 Slasher
177 Dark Saber
226 Aeon Blade
274 Demon Edge
323 AlloyBlade
360 Star Sword
384 VedicBlade
582 Swallow
509 Kali Blade
540 Slasher 2
571 Shiva Edge
1212 Rainbow
According to this list, the Swallow, not the Shiva Edge, is the second-best sword, due to its high critical rate.
Anyway, to make a long story short: If the Powers That Be desire this kind of information, I'll be happy to provide it. Right now I'm trying to:
--Calculate true average damage per weapon
--Produce in-game screenshots of each weapon in action
--Verify critical rates and special effects of each weapon
And I'll move to other parts of the game as time allows.
I'm posting here to get any feedback. Waste of time? Already been done? Please let me know.