Avernum 2: Chance to Hit

[Golgolath]

Just started another A2:CS playthrough and wow, the problems with accuracy in this game are so much worse than I remembered, it borders on absurd. I frequently miss 3-4 times in a row with melee and spells when the game is showing a 90% chance to hit.

 

Exile 2 and the original Avernum 2 are among my favorite games, and while I really loved the A:EftP remake, the problems with Chance to Hit in this game are so omnipresent that I frequently want to uninstall it and go back to Avernum 2 instead. Did anyone by any chance ever figure out a way to mod the game such that accuracy isn't such an issue?

Edited January 5, 2018 by Golgolath

[Randomizer]

In the early part, fighters especially miss because they are wearing too much encumbering armor.  Removing some armor will let you hit better. Soon you will get to the maximum of 95% to hit chance no matter how much armor you wear.

 

Even at maximum to hit chance you can have streaks of missing. But remember this can happen to the monsters too. The earlier games didn't have the chance of missing or auto hit like Dungeons and Dragons.

[Golgolath]

Is there a version of A2:CS where the hit chance is capped at 95%? The steam version of A2:CS seems to cap at 90% which I assume was true with all versions of it.

[Randomizer]

I thought it was capped at 95% because that was in other recent games, but I see that you are right that it is capped at 90%.  The to hit caps are hard coded into the game.

[Slawbug]

Yes, A2:CS is capped at 90% -- this was a change from previous games.

 

Given a large enough sample size, however, it's totally expected to miss 3-4 times in a row at least a few times.  I'm not sure just how frequent you mean by "frequently."  But we're talking about something that happens 10% of the time.

 

You might think, well, getting that to happen 3 times in a row, the odds are 10% * 10% * 10% or 1 in 1000.  That's accurate if you only make three attacks in the first place.  But actually, you make hundreds or thousands of attacks during one play session.  And because you're simply noticing this result when you get misses in a row, it can be *any* sequence of 3 or more misses out of those hundreds or thousands of swings.  That makes the odds a *lot* better.

 

I did some quick calculations in a spreadsheet, and the odds of seeing three such misses in a row at least once, after 1000 attacks, are 59.39%.  The odds of seeing four misses in a row at least once after 1000 attacks are 8.59%.

 

[Rhinestone Jedi]

I've been playing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and they did something really interesting with the "chance to hit" mechanic.  Basically, it's either 0% "not going to hit,"   50% "might hit might not",  or 100% "you're going to hit."

 

Loses a little complexity, but also no strategy destroyed because a 97% hit failed you.  Wondering how a hit% strategy like this would play out in an Exile game.  Maybe it could be applied to Casual mode, at least.  Probably would need to compensate for it by tinkering with resistances, but eh.

[Muscleguy]

You don't say what your Strength or Dexterity stats are, they will enhance your chance to hit for Melee and Missile weapons/spells respectively.

 

Also I don't remember what stat reduces the chance of encumbrance and it is not hinted at. Used to be the Defence stat in older versions. Does Hardiness affect this in A2:CS?

 

Other than that invest in Strength and seek out Strength boosting belts etc and give them to your fighters.

 

Also once you try to start dual wielding you really need to invest in it to hit with both weapons more frequently.