The fantastic skill system...

[Nick]

I've noticed that my best warrior continues to decline in skill, even though he constantly fights.
Maybe skills are wearing off too fast?

[west]

Conversely, no matter how much they hunt or fight, none of my characters get any better at it. I don't think improvement is implemented, or if it is it's pretty infinitesimal. You hunt every day for five years in real life and don't get any better?

[Genevieve]

I was wondering, since I stopped playing for so long, just exactly how I was supposed to know what my charries were good at. I don't remember enough to know if 1/2 a hit w/ a sabre should do 16 damage, or 5. lol. Or maybe 25? Who knows. Ah well. For newbie "oldies" haha like me, I didn't even think to check that sorta thing before deciding the life of my people....

I guess when a charrie does like 25% damage w/ a longbow that is falling apart, and another does the same damage with a sabre, I should have figured something out. Oh well! Both are too set in their careers to change now!

[The Sociologist]

*pops head out of foxhole*

Other people complaining besides me?

*ducks head back into foxhole*

[The Industriallist]

I've noticed that my best warrior continues to decline in skill, even though he constantly fights.

Are you sure of that? Scary if the minus part of the system is working, but not the plus.

One of my characters has been hunting at the same (very high) value since the skills came in, I believe. He does seem poor at shooting people...at least he did the last time he tried it...I can't tell if it's poorer than it was.

Maybe skills are wearing off too fast?

At all would probably be too fast considering how they don't appear to ever rise...

[kinvoya]

Can anyone tell if chars are better with one kind of weapon over another? Like, she is skilled with a slingshot but not a sabre?

Also, are some chars good at hitting animals but not people and vice versa?

[west]

That's a lot of questions.

First, do people know either answer?
Second, will they tell?

It seems to me some of my characters are good at hunting animals and bad at hunting people, and some are the other way around. I'm not sure if the skills are related, though: if someone who's better at attacking is also better at hunting, or what.

I'd tell if I knew, though.

Well, I'd tell everyone but you.

[swymir]

Well I have a character who can hit over 45% with a Crossbow. But really it doesn't matter that your hitting for 25% if everyone is hitting like that, now does it? Also when hitting people the more injured, hungry, tired they are the more damage you do which helps greatly. I can hit animals for 25% but people I have hit for 35%.

[Hagan]

My characters are just now getting into hunting... and I only have one that has ever struck a fellow Canterian his skills have stayed the same..... But I have one that hasnt been that good at gathering but he can do 35 damage to every animal he hits with a steel broad sword.. how does that compare.... everyone else refers to sabers... should I try to find him one of those and see how he does?

[west]

Wouldn't bother.

Sabres and crossbows (back in the day) were the best weapons around. Used to be, a sabre would hit for 41, and a crossbow for 42, across the board. An iron shield blocked 35, only those two weapons could penetrate and were worth building (as far as I know)and there you have it.

That all changed, of course.

There's a whole new host of bows and swords now that I haven't tried, and the whole concept of which item is 'better' is a whole lot more complicated now.

CD: don't you dare edit out those values. They're obsolete anyway.

[The Sociologist]

But I have one that hasnt been that good at gathering but he can do 35 damage to every animal he hits with a steel broad sword.. how does that compare...

What you have there is likely a "Category 3" hunter. A "Category 4" hunter would score about 10 more, a "Category 2" hunter about 10 less, and so on.

And no, a poorest-grade "Category 1" hunter won't suddenly hit a fellow cantrian for 40, in my opinion, no matter what the weapon, though you will improve your score against those who are themselves poorly skilled, very tired and suchlike.

It is therefore utterly impossible to determine "combat skill" in an anecdotal way by hitting the odd newspawn thief or two, because you have no idea what their skills are. You would need tons of statistics.

It works exactly the same way as in the case of lion attacks. I've seen a lion do 32 damage to someone with an iron shield where that person had especially poor skills and was very tired.

Finally, I consider it unlikely that "genetics" is working, as claimed in the... uh... "French bashing" thread. One moment you have a "Category 1" newspawn in Kriff Hills and the next moment a "Category 4" newspawn in Drojf, which seems to be as good as it gets.

Drojfian "genetics" produces supermen? Really? No, I think not.

(The above is based on lengthy, exhaustive and very painful thumb-sucking by The Sociologist. Use at your own risk).

[Agar]

So, I got myeslf a character on Aki back in the middle of march. She's been hunting like it's a religeon (contemplating that, if we ever outnumber the viscious animals). I've been keeping turn reports too, and tarted running numbers through a spreadsheet, because I AM that crazy.

I've had two different weapons, but nothing suggests my character was better with one more than the other. There was an increase in damage that can mainly be attributed to the other weapon being a much better weapon.

Now over the process of about two weeks time, my character HAS been doing more damage. Not tons more, but a bit more damage in a consistant manner, not a random lucky shot.

That's all the answers I have. More you'll have to get from staff.

[west]

You'll do more damage to an already-damaged animal than a healthy animal. My elephant hunter hit an elephant every day, did 1% more damage every day...from 8% all the way to the mid-30s before that damn elephant expired. His skill with hunting other animals didn't change, nor for other elephants.

[Surly]

Character on the Aki island...

Hunts every day, has hunted every day without fail for the last week. No improvements (although he is pretty good with his bow anyway)

A week ago, he got hit by a bear and saved 48 percent damage with his shield.
Yesterday a wolf attacked him. He saved 40 percent.

Is this a change in the way attacks are written (it always used to be that it said the total amount you could save, rather than how much you actually saved on that occasion) or has his skill with the shield slipped because he hasn't attacked a Cantrian? If it is the former, I think we should be told. It wouldn't affect anything. If it is the latter, then I have grave concerns about the future of the game whilst this poorly explained and apparently harsh skill system is still implemented.

[Just A Bill]

I heard someone comment that they had a character who had 20 years experience with a saber and was not hitting well with it. Assuming that the character was handed the saber as a newspawn, that character is now 40. Using a more realistic assumption that he took 5-10 years to make or otherwise acquire it, he is now almost 50. Perhaps age is a factor.

I know its not going to make me popular, but if age is not a factor, it should be. War is a young mans game... IRL, I would be more worried about a 25 year old with a knife than a 60 year old with claymore.