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Help Keywords : Newsaves.
Help Category : Information.
Related Helps : Saves.
Last Updated : 2013-01-18 20:15:56.
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"Saves" in the context of this help file means the chance to avoid/reduce
the impact of a skill/spell, not the "saves vs spell" stat.
There are multiple factors that affect your chances to avoid a skill/spell
completely or reduce its affect. How much each factor counts towards
the overall result will vary based on the skill or spell, but the
following are all important. Most differences are also graded on a curve:
* Absolute stat difference in the primary stats for the skill between
target and victim. Luck is almost always included too, but to a lesser
degree.
The problem with absolute stat difference on a curve is that it
works great at high level, but discounts stat differences at low level.
A level 20 with 60 stats should easily land a spell against a level 20
with 20 stats, but in absolute stat difference 40 stats is quite small.
To make smaller stat differences more relevant at lower level, a second
factor being used is stats relative to the max for the level. If the
caster percentage of max stats for their level in the relevant stats
for the skill is higher than that of the target, the spell is going to
be stronger even though the stat difference in actual numbers may not be
that high. This means that 200 stats at level 150 counts for more than
200 stats at level 200.
This would, however, be more than made up for by the 50 level
difference- see below.
* Level difference is ignored completely for the first few levels,
usually around 10. After that, level difference is on a curve in the
opposite direction - it slowly starts to count for more and more as the
difference increases. Some people disagree that level should be a 'stat'
in these terms. Neither argument is right or wrong; we prefer to keep
it in, as level *is* an important stat, particularly on a MUD so based
around leveling.
All else equal, a level 200 should beat a level 180 most times. With
everything else not equal, stats should be able to override that level
difference.
* Almost all abilites have a particular damage type (focus) for which
the appropriate resistance is checked. Resistance helps reduce the
strength of a spell or avoid it completely, depending on the spell.
* The practiced level of the target and caster in the skill/spell itself
has a slight impact on success rate. You will find it slightly easier to
use a skill or spell against a target who doesn't know it.
Note that the 'saves' stat has no part of this particular formula - it
is being phased out over time.
Stat Curves:
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This section is to help explain what we mean by 'stat curves'. It is
basically diminishing returns on stats - adding more stats will always
help, but the value of each additional stat is less as the total increases.
Imagine that the formula being used for the curve is the square root of
difference in stats, multiplied by 3.
If the caster has 25 more stats than the target, they are going to have
15 points added (5 * 3). If the stat difference is 100 total stats, they
are going to have 30 points added ( 10 * 3). 200 total stat difference
would be a bonus of just over 42 points and 900 stat difference would
be a total of 90 points (30 * 3).
In most cases "points" will equate to percentage so that 90% will almost
guarantee success, unless there is a massive level difference or the target
has extremely high resistance to the damage type.
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