[please help] MD negative value

[tangar]

In V variants (PWMA and Tangaria) we wanna add possibility to give certain races/classes negative MD, so stupid races and non-magical classes will have less chances of using MDs. Something like make it ~30% chance of success on using Staves of Speed instead of 90% which we got atm (38 lvl archer with 64 MD).

But it seems that MD formula is pretty complex, so it's hard to understand how negative MD could be implemented. Please help us to solve this puzze

Thanks in advance!

[Nick]

There's a line for skill-device in each of p_race.txt and class.txt, and negative values are fine - half-trolls have a device skill of -8 in V, for example.

[tangar]

yep.. but eg Hydra race (in T) with skill-device:-50 have 83% chance for success with cure light wounds staff.. as in character sheet (shift+C) hydra got 0 at MD. So it seems we need to change formula somehow

[PowerWyrm]

Originally Posted by Nick

There's a line for skill-device in each of p_race.txt and class.txt, and negative values are fine - half-trolls have a device skill of -8 in V, for example.

Doesn't work. The calculated skill is rounded up to 0, which translates to a formula in get_use_device_chance() of fail = 100 * (- lvl - 140) / (lvl - 90).

A level 0 device would have fail = 15% and a level 40 device (like staff of speed) would have fail = 36%. There aren't many devices with higher level

This formula always uses negative values for whatever reason and is outright bugged (rod of speed is level 95 and gives negative value of fail chance, which is translated to 1% fail chance). I think this needs to be simplified.

[Nick]

Ah, I thought you were talking about input values.

Agreed, that formula is obscure and outdated (looks like there weren't any level 95 devices when it was written). Also there's the

/* TODO: maybe use something a little less convoluted? */

comment, which is itself very old...

I'll mark this as to fix for 4.2, but it probably won't make 4.2.2.