Skills at 100 percent

[PennyAnte]

Sorry if this already has been covered, but will skills go over 100 percent with a combination of character points and items? Or will 100 percent be the maximum? If so, will 100 percent always mean success, or is there still a failure chance?

Basically, how will the number crunching under the hood work out in that regard?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Skills aren't measured in %. The max is 300, avg is 150. 300 in a skill represents a lifetime commitment and dedication. I doubt you'd be able to reach 300 in more than 2 skills.

You to hit chance is [your equipped weapon skill] - [your opponent's highest defense skill (block or dodge)]. Min is 5%, max is 95%.

 

[St. Toxic]

Max is 95%? Why not 125%?

 

[DraQ]

Why is min not 0%?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Why is min not 0%?

miraculous stroke of luck is my guess, as opposed to the 95% being a miraculous stroke of bad luck which makes you miss even if you are a proffesional gunslinger.

 

[thesheeep]

Though not completely related to the poic....

You to hit chance is [your equipped weapon skill] - [your opponent's highest defense skill (block or dodge)]

Block and dodge seem to be equal values here. What is the difference between them/how do they affect other mechanics?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Though not completely related to the poic....

You to hit chance is [your equipped weapon skill] - [your opponent's highest defense skill (block or dodge)]

Block and dodge seem to be equal values here. What is the difference between them/how do they affect other mechanics?

Dodge is for light fighters (inspired by Fallout's awesome, but useless leather jacket). You wear no or light armor (as armor comes with Dodge penalties).

Heavy armored fighters are easy to hit (heavy armor limits mobility), so they rely on armor DR and shields. That's where Block comes in. You block attack with your shield, but shields could be split (watch the combat video) or bypassed (anti shield weapons like pilums).

So, Dodge and Block are basically very different defense styles.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Why is min not 0%?

You should always have a small chance. Nothing is 100%.

Why is min not 0%?

miraculous stroke of luck is my guess, as opposed to the 95% being a miraculous stroke of bad luck which makes you miss even if you are a proffesional gunslinger.

Exactly.

 

[Bluebottle]

or bypassed (anti shield weapons like pilums).

Out of interest, does the Pilum negate the shield for the specific attack it is thrown, or does it cause the shield user to (have a chance?) of dropping the shield?
Or something else entirely?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Both. When thrown pilums ignore shield and may force your opponent to drop it (10% chance).

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

This may be interesting to you.

Does the usefulness of a skill (chance to succeed, etc.) increase linearly as you improve in that skill?

Sharon Shellman 9/22/2000

Skills advance in a linear fashion. Although the starting point is adjusted depending upon the skill. (e.g. not all skills start at 0)

For instance, if you have no points in Backstabbing, you will never get a backstabbing bonus when trying to use that skill. On the other hand, with no points in melee, you still have a chance of hitting your opponent with a melee weapon, although it is not a very good one.

When I said that not all skills start at zero, I was speaking about the underlying system. What you will see is a zero for all skills when you start (unless they were modified by race or background).

Everything used to be zero when it said zero a few months ago. But that meant with a zero in melee you had absolutely NO chance to hit another creature, even with your bare hands. This felt really dumb. So we adjusted the underlying starting point for Melee. So now, even though your character sheet says you have a zero in Melee, you still have a chance to hit.

All skills start at zero when you begin a game. The only way to adjust these prior to spending points is through your race or background modifiers.

Thus Bow, Melee, Throwing and Firearms start at 25% to hit chance in Arcanum.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks, Drog. Our skills system is similar to Fallout (skill values are determined by the stats), so we don't have the "0 value" problem.

 

[Thydron]

IF i'm reading this right there's no point putting points into both dodge and block?
ie- pick an armour class and improve the appropriate defence skill?

 

[Skald]

Both. When thrown pilums ignore shield and may force your opponent to drop it (10% chance).

Interesting.

 

[Ion Flux]

IF i'm reading this right there's no point putting points into both dodge and block?
ie- pick an armour class and improve the appropriate defence skill?

That might depend on whether you will always have access to heavy armor. There may be situations (e.g., pitfights or prisons) that may temporarily deny you the ability to block. Dodge might come in handy then.

 

[Claw]

You can't block with your weapon?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

No parry skill? Say it aint so!

 

[Vault Dweller]

No, for balance reasons, otherwise heavy armor + parry would be an almost invulnerable combo.

 

[Argosy]

I likes parry.

No, for balance reasons, otherwise heavy armor + parry would be an almost invulnerable combo.

I'm probably being naive here, but could a system not have been implemented so that a two-handed weapon(presuming such things exist in AoD) use the block rolls(at a disadvantage compared to shields or with a greater ease of being circumvented than shields) or their own skill as an alternative to block (again with a disadvantage compared to shields to balance the advantage in reach/damage afforded by two-handed weapons)?

As for one-handed weapon+ shield, could a parry skill as an alternative to using block skill(or using block rolls that are declared by the player to be used for parry) that has less block rate than a shield(and/or is easier to circumvent by special tactics/weapons and/or a chance to be dropped on block) but has a (higher?) chance of disarming an an opponent on a successful parry not have worked?

Or can heavy armor and shields not be used together?

 

[PennyAnte]

My guess would be that the loss of block is the tradeoff you make for the extra damage of a two-handed weapon.