Game Design: Weapon Damage Question

[Waru]

You have an Iron Sword. Here are it's stats:

Iron Sword
------------
Common

ATK: 8

In a very basic battle system, be it fps, rts, mmorpg, etc. How much does this sword actually do? 8 straight up? between 1 and 8 being the max hit? some range predefined the average is 8? There's no right answer, but I'm asking for opinion. If it was the range should the range be stated? or should the average be stated?

more to come

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[DestroyerOfBlocks]

from what ive seen generally 8 damage without any other stats attached translates to 8 damage per second but without any context nobody will ever know

[Alphadin]

In a very basic battle system, be it fps, rts, mmorpg, etc. How much does this sword actually do? 8 straight up? between 1 and 8 being the max hit? some range predefined the average is 8? There's no right answer, but I'm asking for opinion. If it was the range should the range be stated? or should the average be stated?

more to come

Eight straight up is the most intuitive barring all external conditions, and I'd argue in any situation barring external conditions, the right choice. The sword does eight damage.

If it was range, the range should be stated, with the average being optionally offered by the developer.

If we start throwing in our own conditions we're assuming a lot from a very basic and barren question.

[gr8dayseth]

if it says 8 it should do 8

[DestroyerOfBlocks]

what is this for anyway