273 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
273 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
chapter 3 "Your Health and Abilities"
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In the previous chapter you learned the basics of getting
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around and taking care of yourself. It's important also to care
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*for* yourself, and this chapter describes the various aspects of
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your body's state and what abilities you may have.
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The command that tells you almost everything you need to
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know is "stat". This diplays a whole lot of stuff, perhaps some of
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it completely unfamiliar. Let's start at the top, using my output
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as an example.
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First line:
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----------
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%^CYAN%^Cratylus aka Cratylus the unaccomplished, level 10 male human Explorer%^RESET%^
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Here you see my short name, my name with title, my level, my
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gender, my race, and my class. Let's go over each.
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* short name: What a person would use to address you. "look at cratylus",
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for example.
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* name with title: This displays my title. Creators can have whatever title
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they want. Players can only have the titles they earn. As a player, a
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title is usually earned when you are promoted a level or complete a
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quest, though it is not always so on every mud.
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* level: This is a measure of your overall experience, expertise, and
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all-around game status. Being promoted a level means your skills,
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health, and vital statistics increase. This often means you can handle
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tougher monsters, for example, or tackle more challenging quests, learn
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new spells, and so on.
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* gender: This has no effect on your status. It is a cosmetic feature
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of your body that is only useful to you in the social context of your
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fellow mud players.
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* race: In Dead Souls, race has nothing to do with your local genetic
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makeup on planet Earth. In the mud, "race" refers to what one typically
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would call "species" in real-life. An example of a race other than human
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might be "orc" or "feline". Not all races are available for players. Once
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you have chosen a race to play, it is in theory possible to change it, but
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there is a nonzero chance you'll hose up your player file and lose your
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character forever. Besides, it's up to your local admins whether race
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changing is permitted on your mud. Different races have different
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abilities. Elves see better in darkness, for example. Orcs are stronger
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than some other humanoids, but dumber, too (which does affect gameplay).
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* class: This can be considered an occupational specialty. In the real
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world you have plumbers, doctors, soldiers, etc. In the mud world,
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we can have explorers, fighters, mages, and the like. Each class brings
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its own unique advantages and disadvantages to your gameplay. A fighter
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can really kick more butt in melee combat than a mage, but a mage
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gets to cast powerful spells. Explorers are a middle of the road class
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that gives you a bit of everything without specializing in anything.
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Next line:
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%^CYAN%^Alive / Awake%^RESET%^
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It is indeed possible for your virtual body to cease life functions.
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When this happens your spirit speeds off to the land of the dead,
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where you drift until you decide to "regenerate" and regain your
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physical form. Except for some special magical items, anything you
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were carrying when you died is with that dead body, so it's a good
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idea to rush your new body back to the scene of the fatality and get
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your stuff back before someone else grabs it. Death is not only
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inconvenient, it also incurs major penalties on your statistics, so it
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should be avoided.
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It is also possible to sleep. If you are drunk and asleep, your
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injuries will heal more quickly. It's magic, don't worry about the
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logic behind it.
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If you are attacked while sleeping, you will wake up. You can
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force yourself awake, too, but it's a bit tedious.
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Next line:
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%^CYAN%^Health: 350/350 Magic: 560/560 Stamina: 400/400 Carry: 1184/1300%^RESET%^
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In each case, the number on the left of the slash indicates the
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current level, and the number on the right indicates what the maximum is.
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health: When I am 100% healthy, I have a total of 350 hp. If my hp ever
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reach 0 or less (!), I die. Poison and illness can cause hp's to
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gradually decrease, and although with time my hp's will normally
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return to 350 as I heal, poison and illness can slow down that healing
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or even cause me to die. Injury in combat is the most common source
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of hp loss, though spells, falls, and other adverse events can cause
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you injury or death.
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magic: I cast magic missile! Spell casting takes a toll on your magical
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abilities, and mp measure how much magic you've got left in you at
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any given point. Like hp, mp gradually grow back to your max if you
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avoid spellcasting for a while.
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stamina: Fighting is tough work, and swinging around swords while
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getting bashed with hammers really takes a lot out of a guy. Therefore
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keep an eye on this stat while you're fighting, because if it gets too
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low you will collapse and be unable to do anything for a while.
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carry: Objects have mass, and your body is of limited size and strength.
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My carry capacity is 0 when I carry nothing, and 1300 when I can
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carry no more. Creators are allowed to exceed their bodies' carry
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capacity, but players cannot.
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Next line:
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%^CYAN%^Food: 0 Drink: 0 Alcohol: 0 Caffeine: 0 Poison: 0 %^RESET%^
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These are pretty self-explanatory. Alcohol is good for healing,
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bad for fighting. Food and drink also help speed healing. Poison
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has the opposite effect. Caffeine can speed up your combat slightly,
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but tends to prevent full rest.
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You will not die from lack of food or lack of drink, but you
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will do better with a body not starved for nutrients.
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Your maximum load for any of these is not fixed, and varies
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depending on many factors, such as level, endurance, etc.
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Next line:
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%^CYAN%^Training Points: 0 Quest Points: 0 Experience Points: 50 %^RESET%^
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Training points can be cashed in with special NPC's called
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trainers, who can help you improve some skills. A trainer that
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specializes in fighting might be able to raise your "blade attack"
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skill, for example. you earn training points when you are
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promoted a level.
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Quest points are awarded when you complete a quest. In
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the default version of Dead Souls, you cannot advance past a
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certain player level unless you earn some qp's. Read the sign
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in the adventurers guild for more details on this.
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Experience points can be awarded for various reasons: completing
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a quest, solving a puzzle, winning a contest. Most often you
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will receive xp after killing an NPC. The amount of xp awarded
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will depend on the level of the NPC. Like qp, xp are needed to
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qualify for level advancement.
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Limb section:
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------------
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Remember how wearing armor requires the right body parts?
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Well here they are, and this is their health. You can issue the
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"body" command for a quicker self-check.
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Let's look at what the numbers mean with an example:
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%^CYAN%^left leg (2) 160/160%^RESET%^
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Obviously the first item identifies the limb in question.
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The (2) is a kind of "importance score", indicating how critical
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a body part is. If this number is (1), like the head, it means that
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losing that limb causes immediate death.
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The number on the right side of the slash indicates the hit point
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damage you may receive on that limb before it is severed. The number
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on the left is how many of those hits you have left.
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It doesn't mean my leg has 160 of my hitpoints. If that were true,
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my hit points would add up to a heck of a lot more than 350.
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This means that if I've lost, say, 200hp fighting a troll, and
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159hp of those hits were on my left leg, getting hit there again means I
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lose my left leg.
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I would then collapse and have to crawl away to seek medical attention.
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Wearing armor on your limbs is a great way to minimize the danger of
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this happening.
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Skills section:
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--------------
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Let's review skills by examining one of mine:
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%^CYAN%^blade attack (1) 00% - 20/24%^RESET%^
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This measures how likely I am to hit an opponent when I
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use a blade, and how good a hit it was. The number (1) means
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that this is a skill critical to my class. If an explorer can't
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swing a sword, he oughta think about another line
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of work.
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The 00% means I have thus far earned no blade attack
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experience toward achieving the next level of this skill.
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The 20 is my current proficiency level.
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The 24 is the maximum level I can reach at my current
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player level and with my current stats.
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What's all this mean? Well, if I practice a lot of blade
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attacking, that 00% will gradually climb up to 99, and one more
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point causes me to go from a level 20 slicer of things to a
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level 21 slicer of things. This increases my likelihood of
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hitting my target in the future.
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Meaning, in short, practice a skill, and you'll get
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better at it.
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Of course, if my blade attack level reaches 24, I can advance
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my blade attack skills no further until my player level rises.
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Stats section:
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-------------
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Remember these from Dungeons & Dragons? No? Well these vital
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statistics measure your general giftedness in that feature of your
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body. Let's look at one of mine:
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%^CYAN%^coordination (2) 42/42%^RESET%^
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Coordination is one of those important stats for fighting and
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such. The more coordinated you are, the more likely you are to hit your
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target. The (2) indicates that this stat is important to my class,
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but not critical. This influences its effect on my skills.
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42/42 means that my coordination is not currently impaired. If
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someone cast a "stumble" spell on me, for example, this might look more
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like 30/42, and if I were drunk, it would look very shabby indeed.
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New characters should avail themselves of the "customize" command.
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When you create a character, you are assigned stats based on
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random numbers modified by the race you choose. For example, humans
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are physically weaker than other races, so you might have a
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strength of 15 as a human, whereas a dwarf might expect something
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like 42. On the other hand, humans tend to be quite smart, and so
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your human character might have a high intelligence stat, and
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the dwarf a substantially lower one. To balance out stats that
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are grossly unfair, new characters are given 15 points to spend
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to add to their stats. As a human with 15 strength, you might
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choose to throw all your customization points into strength, adding
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up to a whopping 30. Or you might choose to distribute points
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among your stats in a manner most suited to your playing style.
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For syntax and details, type:
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help customize
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Last section:
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------------
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"Cratylus has amassed a net worth of 11 gold." means that when you
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add up the money in my bank accounts and the money I'm carrying,
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converted to gold, I have 11 gold to my name. It looks bad, but gold
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is actually quite valuable in the default Dead Souls economy.
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"Money on hand: 79 dollars, 34 silver" means that this is the amount of
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money I'm carrying. Don't forget that the amount of money you are carrying
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affects your overall carry capacity. Gold is an especially heavy
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currency.
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Final notes:
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-----------
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"stat" is a great command to get thorough information about
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yourself. It is, however, quite a screenful. Briefer reports can be
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viewed with the following commands:
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%^GREEN%^body%^RESET%^
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%^GREEN%^skills%^RESET%^
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%^GREEN%^stats%^RESET%^
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%^GREEN%^score%^RESET%^
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%^GREEN%^status%^RESET%^
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