Is it worth pushing skill levels above 100%?

M

Memnoch

First time out of the vault
I'm replaying Fallout Tactics as I never got a chance to finish it before.

Does anyone know if there's any value in having your skill %age above 100%? The manual indicates that whether or not a skill is over 100% there will always be a 5% chance of failure. Well, doing the math on this tells me that the skill is effectively capped at 95%, with a 5% chance of failure, and any skill points devoted to improving it above this will be wasted effectively.

Is this interpretation correct? How is having 130% sneak skill better than 95% sneak skill, if there's a 5% chance of failure for both?

And how does this affect non-active skills like small arms, energy, etc?

First post, btw. :D
 
You get better odds of success, and in case of weapons are more liklley to do more dammage, with higher skills.


Keep in mind tactics is totaly fucked up, in the real fallout the skills play a larger part and are more useful.
 
To clarify. If you have a skill at 95% and you use it, then you have 95% to succeed. If you have a skill at 95%, and there is a modifier of 30% (ie darkness) then you have 65% chance of success. Therein lies the reason for pushing skills over 100%.
 
Actually range is also a major factor. If you are say, 10 hexs away and you have 100% small gun skill and are using a rifle, you might get a 95 % chance. But now say they are the max distance away even with 100% skill it might only be around 80% chance to hit. Therefore if you plan on shooting farther get over 100.
 
From what I've the "%" symbol after skills is completely meaningless in the SPECIAL system. So go ahead and increase your skills.
 
Retlaw83 said:
From what I've the "%" symbol after skills is completely meaningless in the SPECIAL system. So go ahead and increase your skills.
Click to expand...
HAve you missed the conversation above your post?

I suggest that you read it, it's educationnal.
 
I don't think that the comment was made to me for any good reason, so I responded in kind.

The only thing I can see that I did wrong was I forgot to put the word "read" after "I've" in my post. I don't proofread so well at 2 in the morning.
 
Ok then, i'll give you a chance to educate us on how the percentage is meaningless in the SPECIAL system.
 
Percentages aren't meaningless. But the "%" symbol after a skill is - its just decoration on the interface. All the skills have a minimum of 0 and a max of 200 or 300 points, depending on which Fallout you're playing, and without modifiers like perks, traits and armor. These skill points are NOT a percentage; there are merely points. However, your skill is capped at 95% of its effectiveness regardless of how many points you have in a skill. However, alot of confusion comes in because the documentation for every game referes to skill points as percents. This false fact probably got into the manual because the interface says skill points are precentages and manuals are often written by people who didn't develop the game.

So, in practicality, if your Small Guns skill is at 100 points, it is only effectively at 95 points because of the five percent rule. On the other hand, if your Small Guns skill is at 300, it is effectively only at 285 points, that being 300 less 5%.

I apologize for not being clearer before.
 
Reply

also..i have had my small guns skill at 40...and at point blank range with a pistol...i can get a 95% chance to hit...

(i doubt it has any signifigance...but o well)
 
Im pretty sure that AC has alot to do with your % to hit also. You would have a less % chance to hit a guy in power armor with 100% skill points then you would lets say a raider with leather armor at the same range.
 
Hmmm....interesting. Why did they decide to put a % after the skill levels then? Was that just to confuse us? :shock:

In any case, I'll not use 100% as a barrier then.
 
Retlaw, you dont know shit.


A: The %'s do have a bearing, when at 95% you are GOING to hit, unless you happen to get unlucky.

B: the higher skills you have in your weapons skills means that in dark maps or at range, you still have a higher % to hit.
 
Look like i forgot the check back on his answer..

and my verdict is Retlaw go back to reading the post above yours, just as i stated in my first post here.

quick math:

1.00 = 100%
0.95 = 95%
3.00 = 300%

300% minus 5% is 295% ( 3.00 - 0.05 = 2.95)

as for modifiers, it has been stated correctly by Dove (amonst other poeple)
 
You're half right and half wrong. The 5% isn't subtracted from the base skill, its subtracted from the final percent to hit. For instance if you have 125% small gun skill(THAT percent sign is meaning less as it has nothing to do with being out of 100), and you are aiming in very dark conditions, you might have a large subtraction from your ability to hit(say - 40) then your REAL percent(the one you get when you look put your cursor over your enemy) will be 125-40=85% likely to hit. In well lit conditions, where there is nothing blocking your aim and you are at point blank range, then your chance to hit would be 125 rounded down to 100%(as there is no percent higher than 100) minus the 5% subtracted for random error, making it 95%. My point is if it was done your way, and you subtracted the 5% from the base skill point, then your percent to hit would be 125-5=120% in normal conditions(giving you an impossible accuracy) and in the bad conditions you would get a 5% penalty for no reason, making your chance to hit (125-5)-40=80%.

Its actually a whole lot more complicated than that, with all kinds of multipliers and other factors coming in to play, but for the purposes of our argument thats about what it amounts to.

In short, YES it is worth it to pump your skill higher than 100%, but not a whole lot and mainly when dealing with combat skills. 300% is pointless.
 
The idea behind having skills cap at 300% is that many of these skills are opposed. AC, lighting conditions, cover etc.

Another example is when you are coming up against another character. Let's pick gambling since someone else mentioned that already. If the skill capped at 100%, and both characters involved were maxed out, then what? my 100% skill, minus 100% for the opponents skill... so we both have 0% chance to win? that doesn't make much sense. Now if I have 150% in gambling, vs. the NPCs 100%, now I have a significant advantage.

The system _IS_ percentage based. Just because it doesn't stop at 100 doesn't mean it isn't.
 
If we look at SG skill (which is the most convenient), there are quite a few modifiers that would affect your chance to hit. Namely (and as far as I can remember) they are: Range (dependant upon weapon), lighting conditions, opponents AC, whether the target is obscured at all, your Perception (including whether you have taken damage to the eyes). On top of that, I believe that higher skill levels give you chances of getting better criticals (not more, just better - the percentage chance for criticals is based on your Luck, and various stats or perks).
Also, as far as I know, the chance to hit (and presumably the chance of success in other skills) is capped at 95%, meaning that it can't get any higher than 95% not that 5% is taken off after the modifiers.
 
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