Character stats in CSBuild

Des · Post by **Des** » Mon May 03, 2004 1:28 am

When customising characters in CSBuild (via Edit Portrait), there are four unlabelled values for experience in each of the categories: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom and Vitality. It seems that the total determines the starting level in Fighter, Ninja, Priest and Wizard respectively.

Does it make any difference how you spread the values? For example a total of 8000 gives you a Craftsman, but does it affect the character's performance if you go 0,0,0,8000 or 2000,2000,2000,2000?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon May 03, 2004 3:50 pm

Does it make any difference how you spread the values

Yes. Each of those skills (or attributes) is used for different things.
But, to answer the obvious question before it is asked, I don't know.

sucinum · Post by **sucinum** » Mon May 03, 2004 4:38 pm

just a raw guess:
each of the 4 classes is divided into 4 subclasses, which may be (or not):
priest: potions, shields, shock-effect (warcry, horn of fear), ?
wizards: missiles, support (light, darkness), ?, ?
fighter: damage, chance to hit, chance to dodge, ?
ninja: damage, chance to hit, throwing range, ?

so i think that even numbers create allrounders (in the class), divided values more specialist (like a priest who knows potions very good).
if you know what are the 4 subclasses and how you get experience in them (any way to see that in the code?), it is maybe possible to name them in csbuild.
i am very sure that those subclasses exist, because you sometimes experience that your potion-levelled priest has problems with creating equal shields etc.

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon May 03, 2004 5:00 pm

Of ocurse, the easiest way is to put obscenely unbalanced values in and see what they are good and bad at : )

sucinum · Post by **sucinum** » Mon May 03, 2004 5:38 pm

before doing that, you have to know the 4 subclasses to test that. so i think, looking in the code which action gives experience in which subclass-id would be better. after that, you can think of the subclasses.
but maybe someone knows more than me

als claimed before, i'm a player and editor but hostile with any part of coding and other complicated stuff

Des · Post by **Des** » Mon May 03, 2004 10:19 pm

Thanks guys. Sucinum's postulation sounds reasonable to me, though I'd guess at a slightly different breakdown ...

For a fighter, 4 weapon types - sword, axe, mace, staff.
For a ninja, 4 attack types - punch/kick, throw, shoot, and stab (dunno about coin-flipping?)
For wizards and priests perhaps spells are in 4 groups by type, so you could have something akin to specialists in AD&D.
It's probably more complicated than that.

Anyway for a dungeon where you want customised characters (e.g. a short "resurrect and go" adventure), I guess an even spread is best, though I'm tempted to try Beowuuf's suggestion of a bit of experimentation (giving up quick if it doesn't get anywhere).

Post by **Lunever** » Tue May 04, 2004 6:27 pm

If you get any result by experimentation please let us know!

sucinum · Post by **sucinum** » Sat May 08, 2004 7:46 pm

as you can see - defense is one of the 4 subclasses of a fighter.
source: http://dmweb.free.fr/DMSecretsOfDungeonMastery.htm

another try for the subclasses:
fighter: chance to hit, damage, defense, ?
ninja: throwing range, missile damage, chance to hit, close combat damage
priest: shield-spell success, shield-spell power, potion success, potion power
wizard: support/missile chance to cast/power

Des · Post by **Des** » Sun May 09, 2004 2:37 am

Sounds plausible, but I guess fighters could just get better at defending by level rather than it being affected by the split of XPs.

I did have a quick bash at experimenting, but it's late and I've given up.

I tried moving 8000 XPs around the four slots (all in one each time) in each character class. Spellcasting and fighting monsters (with and without weapons) for a brief period was not particularly revealing, though I would imagine a longer test might be.

I also tried loading the charcaters up with magic weapons, and whilst not many differences were apparent I did see that...

Fighter only gets "thrust" on the Delta in some postions
Wizard only gets "fireball" on Fury in some positions

So all I can really say from the above is that the distribution of XPs does make a difference of some kind, but I'm jiggered if I can specify what it is.

Post by **Zyx** » Sun May 09, 2004 11:02 am

You may find all the answers to your questions using the CSBedit tool by Rain.
Each action (using a spell or a weapon) has the following characteritics:

Required level: (for a spell or an attack)
- Fighter 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5
- Cleric 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5
- Ninja 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5
- Wizard 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5

(I guess sublevel 1 is the generic level, while sublevels 2 to 5 are really sublevels)

Difficulty (for a spell or a combo)
From 0 to 16?