Is Woodscraft a group skill?

[Curtis]

In Resurrection, does the game engine count the highest Woodscraft skill in the party (like First Aid and Herbcraft), or does it count the total of all the levels in the group (like Barter and Arcane Lore from Avernum)?

[Randomizer]

It takes the group total.

[Curtis]

Thank you.

 

I realize I'm going off-topic in my own thread, but in your stickied thread at the top of the page, under Abilities and Skills, the Armor Use entry link does not function for my machine. (Instead of a 'link broken', it came up with something like 'the forum search engine could not find'.)

 

By the way, thank you for compiling that. I came here hoping for something like the Avernum help and hints that are in the main part of the site, and it seems there's nothing like that for Nethergate: Resurrection.

[Randomizer]

Thanks for pointing out the broken link and it got fixed. It had a typo giving it a post number that was too large.

 

Try the Walkthrough link in the header for more help and hints. There aren't as many players for this game so it has less information.

[Curtis]

I saw the walkthrough, but isn't it for the older game (Nethergate)? I have a friend who plays the PC version of Nethergate (he can't get Resurrection to run on his machine), so I'll tell him about it.

[Randomizer]

There are two new areas and a few quests added from the original game, so the walkthrough has mostly the same information. The character building has changed with the game engine change.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

The character building has changed with the game engine change.

Ah. So is the advice from your sticky still good about levels of Armor Use skill?

One of them says that, despite the armor claiming it decreases chance to hit in 5% blocks (which it called levels), it really decreases in 6% blocks, and 'phantom' levels are added at the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 10th and 13th levels, so armor claiming to give a total of 25% reduction (5 levels) actually gives a 42% reduction (7 levels).

Aside from the above, is this reduction a subtraction, or a multiplication? By that I mean if a character's base chance to hit is 150%, would a -42% bring it down to 108%, or to 87%? And what is the effect of having a final adjusted 'to hit' that's over 95%? Is it just wasted?

The other thread claims that Armor Use is useful even with non-encumbering armor, requiring one level of Armor Use per 4% or fraction thereof of armor effectiveness to get the full defensive benefits from armor. Is this still believed to be the case? And is that per 4% of all armor totaled, or just per piece?

Finally, that same thread started out with a claim that you can get more than the listed amount of damage reduction if you increase Armor Use above level 10. I thought that was the most amazing claim, but it seemed to receive little acknowledgment. Is this still believed to be true?

I have been playing my Celt Druids to use no encumbering armor, and so have not been giving them any levels in Armor Use. Have I been hurting myself?

[Randomizer]

Jeff made it possible for Celts to wear armor and still cast spells in Resurrection. This was a big change from the original game.

 

From play everyone has seen an increase in armor protection with taking the armor use skill. I don't remember the adjustment, but it becomes more effective.

 

Armor has always been multiplicative in each piece reducing a fraction of the damage from the previous piece of armor. Jeff used to just show it as additive when displayed even though he didn't count it that way in determining damage. This lead to displays of 100%+ armor when you still took damage.

[Curtis]

Okay, your last paragraph explains a lot. Thanks.

 

Since you're being so helpful, when I look at my thread from the main page (where it's listed second), it has the number of replies followed by a red '1'. What the the one mean?

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

Armor has always been multiplicative in each piece reducing a fraction of the damage from the previous piece of armor. Jeff used to just show it as additive when displayed even though he didn't count it that way in determining damage. This lead to displays of 100%+ armor when you still took damage.

He was asking about the effect on chance to hit, not on damage received. Armour's effect on your accuracy is subtractive, not multiplicative.

The red 1 means that this topic has one (1) post that you haven't read yet.

[Slarzahl]

Armor's damage reduction also wasn't multiplicative in the original Nethergate, or in any games that preceeded the Geneforge engine. Before Geneforge, it was adding integers instead of multiplying percents.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted By: Thuryl

He was asking about the effect on chance to hit, not on damage received. Armour's effect on your accuracy is subtractive, not multiplicative.

The red 1 means that this topic has one (1) post that you haven't read yet.

Thank you, on both points. Do you know if having a chance to hit in excess of 95% means anything, or is it just a waste? I believe there is always at least a 5% chance of missing, yes?

Originally Posted By: Slarty

Armor's damage reduction also wasn't multiplicative in the original Nethergate, or in any games that preceeded the Geneforge engine. Before Geneforge, it was adding integers instead of multiplying percents.

Thank you. I did know how it worked in Avernum 1-3. I think I rather prefer the older system, though I suspect it made it easier to zero out damage received.

I want to thank everyone for being so quick to help a newbie in a forum section that sees little traffic. It speaks well for your intensity of interest — and degree of politesse. (hope I used that word correctly)

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Curtis

Thank you, on both points. Do you know if having a chance to hit in excess of 95% means anything, or is it just a waste? I believe there is always at least a 5% chance of missing, yes?

Chance to hit does indeed seem to max out at 95%. It's fairly easy to get to a point where nearly all of your attacks hit even on the highest difficulty, so you probably shouldn't be worrying too much about accuracy once you're past low levels.

Quote:

Thank you. I did know how it worked in Avernum 1-3. I think I rather prefer the older system, though I suspect it made it easier to zero out damage received.

This is why it was changed. It's quite hard to balance armour against enemy attacks under the old system without making it either too strong or nearly useless, especially when different character builds will have different amounts of armour; it's much easier if you can count on armour blocking between about 40% and 80% of damage in all cases.

[Ouroboros]

And where can I train Woodscraft and Barter? And does Nethergate/Nethergate Resurrection have other special skills?

[Randomizer]

You buy these skills and a few other at your starting town. Ask around because there are a few other things that people say that may be helpful.

[Ouroboros]

But I have to cure the Curse for Celt first is that correct?

[Alorael at Large]

Nethergate doesn't have special skills like BoA, A4, or A5. It does have skills accessible only to one side or another normally, most of which you can get a few points of (like Craft Circle as Romans) from quests. There's also one special skill that you can get at the very end. It's obvious when you get it.

 

—Alorael, who believes you have to cure the curse to get much of anything from the town of Nethergate. Otherwise you're free to play with it, except your party will be fairly bad at everything.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted By: BloodMagi

But I have to cure the Curse for Celt first is that correct?

Not correct. I have learned nine total levels of Woodscraft in my group and have not yet been cursed. Just go to the Roman trainer and pay him what he demands.