85 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
85 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
By default, Dead Souls uses body characteristics of different races
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(e.g. ogres, deer, fish, human) to calculate all sorts of things...
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combat effectiveness, learning proficiency, etc. Some of these
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characteristics are "stats", like strength or intelligence.
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For example, orcs can be formidable warriors because their
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starting strength stats tend to be very high. In addition,
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strength is high in importance to the orc body...its "stat class",
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or how important it is, is 1, which is the highest level of
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importance. This means that orc players increase the strength
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stat by one point every time they are promoted one player level.
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Therefore an orc player who started with a strength stat of 40
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would have a strength stat of 50 upon reaching level 11.
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Humans, however, have a low starting strength and the human
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stat class for strength is 3, meaning that human players get a
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strength point added every 3 level promotions. A human with
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a starting strength stat of 15 would, upon reaching level 11,
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have reached a strength stat of 18.
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This can seem a little unfair to a person that wants to play
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a human warrior...and in a way it *is* somewhat unfair, since it's
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entirely possible for there to be freakishly strong humans or
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humans who devote themselves to becoming very very strong.
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One way to make up for this is to use "customization points".
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They allow you to add a small number of stat points to the
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stats you feel are most important. But you only get 15 customization
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points ever, and they go quick. And even if you use all of them
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to jack up a stat...if that stat has a low stat class you'll
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always be lagging behind.
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For example, if our human warrior jacks up her strength from
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15 to 30 by using up all her customization points in that stat,
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she'll still be struggling somewhat against physically stronger
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races of her same player level.
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Similarly, orcs tend to have low starting intelligence and
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a dismal intelligence stat class. This makes playing an orc
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mage a torturous experience, such that it would be quite
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rare to ever see a player choose that race and class combination.
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But orc mages do exist in some settings, and making it practically
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impossible seems a bit unfair.
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Stat deviation is a way of helping make it possible to have
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these unusual class and race combinations without torturing
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players unnecessarily for them. Stat deviation is an alteration
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of a player's stat class which allows them to gain stat points
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more quickly than her racial defaults normally would allow. This
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alteration comes at the cost of a percentage of experience points
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gained while so deviated.
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For example, our human warrior princess could choose to deviate
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her stat class from the default of 3 to a more favorable 2,
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allowing her to gain a strength point every other level, rather than
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every third level.
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Each deviation point comes at a 22% cost of XP gained, meaning that
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once she deviates by one point, killing a monster that would normally
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earn her 1000 XP now earns her 780 XP. If she wants to max out on
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the strength stat class and use 2 deviations on it, it'll cost her
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44% of the XP she gains from then on, meaning a 1000 XP monster
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for her is now just worth 560 XP.
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Clearly deviations are severely expensive, and will tend to slow
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down a player's overall advancement, but they do offer the possibility
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of playing the kind of race with the kind of class you prefer, facing
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opponents with a more class appropriate set of attributes. Rather
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than it being, for example, practically impossible to reach level
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20 as an orc mage, and being nearly useless as an orc mage even at
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that level, deviating right would actually *allow* you to reasonably
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hope you could get to that level one day, and that at that level you
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would actually be able to stand up to nearly-level-appropriate opponents.
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Since deviation is something that involves your character's devotion
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to improving herself and doing things in a way that is different from
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others of her race, it makes sense that there is a cost (XP) but
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also that it cannot be revoked. Once you deviate, you're a deviant
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forever, so think long and hard before using the "deviate" command.
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You may not miss the XP now, but you might miss them later, when you're
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a mighty player and that 22% is now thousands of XP.
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See also: deviate, customize, stat, score
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