10d6

Even if we chalk up all the transparency in the Infinity Engine games to just copy pasting a D&D manual, that still doesn't account for the console THAC0 display. That wasn't needed, even if you make the argument that it was leftover debug code, they provided an option to switch it on and off in the menu. And seeing how powerful the console commands were of the BG games, I doubt that THAC0 feedback if it were a debug function was something they had a menu for. And even if they did, it still made it into the final menu. And even if they did copy paste, they still did it, twice. They didn't need to make a manual that had the spell list. But they did it anyway. And for god sakes... Black Isle had it easy because all they did was copy paste and other developers didn't have that luxury? You have the game code to copy paste from. Game Mechanic transparency doesn't need "Shoots a ball of fire that flies through the air and then explodes in a blah blah blah" It can as simple as [CHARLEVEL]*rnd(1,6) As I said it doesn't have to be already existing games, it can be done for a new game. One that has yet to be coded, just in case the excuse of "Need to search through the game code" is going to be used. Also Planescape Torment had stat values that went way over normal AD&D limits. Sure maybe, just maybe there was some AD&D ruleset that they copied that from but I seriously doubt it. And what about Blizzard? Blizzard didn't just do this for RPGs, the Starcraft Manual had values for Damage Types and Armor. Where did they copy paste that from? If Blizzard is the exception, they're a pretty damn fine one and why not emulate what they're doing? And this isn't about having awesome graphics, awesome sounds, awesome voice acting, or a gigantic crapload of lore. It's just copy pasting bits and pieces of the game code into a text pad. It doesn't even need to be dressed up the way Blizzard does it (would be nice but totally unecessary) That's it. We could go on and on about how Developer A had it "easy" other Developers didn't, but what exactly is being asked for here? Just a copy paste of the accuracy formula. If that task is monumental and requires a load of effort then forgive me assuming all it took were a couple of keystrokes.

"Just because other games don't do it" is a pretty poor excuse. Plus, let's not forget that the mother of all RPGs has it's mechanics all laid out in the open (okay granted that mechanical transparency is a requirement for tabletop RPGs) And let's look at major RPG developers, Blizzard is pretty open with a good portion of the mechanics. Even if they don't reveal everything, they at the least don't give half done formulas. You fully can calculate Accuracy and Damage. Going back to D&D, let's look at the Infinity Engine games. They could have just said "Look at a D&D manual if you want to know the numbers" but they copied all the spell description with numbers into the game. Then took a step further and put it into a manual. There's even THAC0 feedback in the game console. That shows the actual roll. That kind of detail could have been skipped, but they went and did it anyway. Some developers if they don't show the numbers are kind enough to work together with the game guide makers. I've read a couple of game guides where you have a staff member from the development team working together with the guide writers.

Ah well, I hope it's because he's too lazy to create documentation and thinks munchkins expect the a certain amount of of fluff for their mechanics as a D&D Handbook. No siree, munchkins would be perfectly happy even if 19/20ths of the material were ripped out and the remaining 1/20th condensed into 1/5th it's size and then probably what's left could be even reduced to half by just using abbreviations. And that would still have more fluff than needed. We only need the barebones formulas. No flavor text. At least I'm happy with just that.

It doesn't have to be the old games, well those would be nice, but the new ones. A6 and G5. Or how about starting it with the new game series? Like I said what min maxers are looking for (at least the ones I've run into) aren't Math Book examples where there's a whole paragraph detailing every single variable. I'm pretty happy with something like A = X*5 + Y*5 + D*40 - E*3 You don't even need to give a super detailed legend, one word for each variable. Min maxers can probably figure out what each of those variables mean. Some game manuals (like say that Baldur's Gate) where the 5 table(?, can't remember exactly) appendix detailing certain stat bonuses can be miniaturized into a single table. Or take the page on Attack Rating from Diablo 2's guide on B.Net. There's like 10 paragraphs but the formula itself is just 3 lines I think and can be compressed to 1 line with the legend taking up just 4 lines. Hell he can even omit pressing the Enter Key if that's too much of a hassle. Make the legend one long line, no spaces even. I really doubt someone who wants to know the mechanics will care about how pretty or how much "fluff" there is. Copy pasting the line(s) of code relating to that would still be understandable. I mean some of the munchkins are the people who sludge through Assembly Code to get the formula. A line from a high level programming language is at least 10 times easier to understand.

So lately I've been playing the Exile and Avernum titles, and one thing I noticed is how only a part of the mechanics are shown. Like half of a formula is shown, the other half is pretty vague. For example Skill A gives 5% per point to accuracy, while the description for Skill B says "it boosts your accuracy", Boosts? Boosts by what? 50% per point? 1% per point? Why go halfway? Not to overload the player with too much information? Then why not stuff it into the helpfiles, like in the appendices. I don't see this task taking a huge amount of time, and it's not like the guy doing this is someone tracing the game code using a de-assembler, watching as how the assembly code goes step by step. I've seen mechanics discussion on various forums (like GameFAQs) for example, and the actual "meat" of the content, or the formulas, only take a few minutes to write down. Some game mechanics guides are 1MB long but this is because the guy writing it tries to make it as simple as possible. Like making a 2 sentence description of each variable in the formula. The actual formula however is just a single straight line. So it can't be that heavy on text if you just want to provide the facts. I mean anyone who's really interested in the mechanics of the game would probably figure out the formula on their own with just a simple legend like D = Dexterity S = Strength. And god knows that there are a good number of RPG players who like knowing the mechanical side of things. I mean for god sakes WoW is filled to the brim with munchkins. I understand that sometimes munchkins ruin the fun for "casuals" or pure "role"players but who exactly is the game being ruined for in a single player RPG? Casual and pure "role"players can simply ignore the appendix, or the portion of the website that says "GAME MECHANICS" or "FORMULAS AND STATS" While the munchkins and people who enjoy a little bit of min maxing would be pleased for those really few lines of code detailing how much more damage they'll be getting per point in Strength.

How would aggro be handled then? Would enemies go after the character that dealt the most damage in the last round? Or would they simply go after the nearest character that dealt damage?

I know XP is shared, I'm talking about how it's distributed between the killer and the rest of the party.

If I were to design a party where 1 of my characters is a pure tank (All defensive skills) and just stands in the front line parrying. While the other three members shoot stuff and cast spells. How would that work for XP? How far back in levels would not killing anything cause that character to be?

I see, so the first 4 points of Dex are a pretty good trade off in terms of Skill Points and Accuracy. On a different note, what kinds of attacks bypass Luck's death prevention mechanic? Also is there any way for a character to gain a good amount of XP without having to kill stuff? Does the damage dealt matter? Or just the simple act of killing an enemy? Like if say I had two characters, PC A brings the enemy down to 1 HP then PC B deals the killing blow, is that any different from PC B killing the enemy all on his own?

Ah I see, misconception there on my part. But how does Dex affect the Hit Rate? Does it add an actual number? Because +5 for 18x3 skill points is kind of... tiny (granted Dex does give other bonuses) However that situation is somewhat favorable, if the actual bonus was what was added then that would mean the actual penalty would also be tiny. Sacrificing 3% Accuracy for 9 points that could be spent elsewhere is pretty good deal

Going back to Dex, the skill description say it improves Hit Rate. But according to your mechanics post it's only used in Bare Handed combat. So someone with 1 Dex and someone with 19 Dex have the same chance to hit with any weapon provided they have same amount of points in the relevant weapon proficiency?

Thanks. Wait so getting 20 in a stat is pointless?

Interesting read, thanks. Now I have a few questions though, what are the sweet spots for the various Strength and Int Bonuses? I assume for the Negative values of the Int Bonus the progression is 1 (-3) 2 (-2) 3 (-1) 4 (0) Since the game recommends a minimum of 4 Int for Spell Casting, so I'd assume that would mean that would be the value for 0 sweet spot. (and I assume 20 gives +5) What about the remaining +1 to +4? How is that distributed from 5-19? Also the post mentions an additional +1 from Micah's Gloves, does this mean that the actual Int Bonus is only up to +4 and that +5 is only attainable with those gloves? Meaning 20 gives +4? So the progression is 1(-3),2(-2),3(-1),4(0)...20(+4) Or can you attain +5 without the gloves? So the progression is 1(-3),2(-2),3(-1),4(0)...20(+5) so I can set one of my spellcaster's to have an Int value of x(+4) and get to +5 but just equipping the gloves, saving me some Skill Points. Inversely that would also mean the gloves are useless to a max Int spellcaster. Ditto for Magically Apt. Or is the progression 1(-3)...20(+5) but only as far as Int is concerned, so extra bonuses (gloves and Magically apt) would stack on top of the Int Bonus for a maximum of +7? Can't seem to find any values for the Str Bonus. Also the in-game description for Dex has something about how it is recommended to have at least 3 for Missile combat. But according to that page the factor that goes into accuracy is the character's skill in the weapon. There seems to be a discrepancy here. Also regarding accuracy, since there's no "dodge" skill and enemies don't seem to use the Parry Option, would it be safe to assume that Sliths and Nephs don't need to max out their Polearms and Missile skills respectively? At least absolutely no need for the Neph, seeing as there's still a chance to dodge that enemies can gain from Bless for melee attacks. Which leads me to overflowing Accuracy. Suppose my Slith has maxed Polearms and +40% accuracy bonus from stacked Bless. So 99% + 10% + 40%, will the game add all of that then subtract the enemy's chance to dodge (let's say he also has 40% dodge from Bless), giving me 109%? Or will the game cap the values off before comparing them? Giving me a flat 60%? Also how about Dual Wielding? What's the penalty applied to both swings?

How is Accuracy calculated for the various weapon types? How is the final melee/missile Damage calculated? What are the mechanics/formula behind Assassination? Does Luck only prevent you from dying? In any case what are the mehanics/formulas behind the effect(s) of Luck? Is there a list for the spell damage mechanics? To head off any misconceptions regarding my questions. I'm not talking about generic "Strength increases your damage" stuff but rather specific mathematical formulas. And, yes I know there are skill point potions, which, with the right amount, ultimately make decisions regarding "twinking" nonsense. However I'd like to play through the game without using those in the best statically optimal way I can. And before anyone asks or tosses one of those "but you're supposed to have fun in this game!" nonsense at me. Yes I finshed the game. Twinking is one of the most enjoyable styles of playing for me. Sorry in advance if that disclaimer is unnecessary and pre-emptively hostile. But in almost every single forum I run into hordes of those morons who think that it's impossible to have fun if you twink. Thanks.