Luck-how it works?

N

Ninjaz

First time out of the vault
We always see luck in character creation menu.It increases critical chance and punish/award you in some way that only Black Isle could think of.But what is really purpose of luck?What you think guys?
 
Thats topic I was going to post :-)
So taking the opportunity I wanted to quote some in-game description of Luck:

Fate. Karma. An extremely high or low Luck will affect the character - somehow. Events and situations will be changed by how lucky (or unlucky) your character is.
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...and fragment form The Vault:

In Fallout, Luck primarily affects your chances with the virtual dice of the game: a high Luck means you're more likely to succeed a roll, while the opposite is also true.
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Somehow? But how? And what events and situations can be changed by LK? And what the hell is that virtual dice of the game? Is that means if there is a situation connected with LK, the virtual dice of the game starts to roll, and my chances to pass the roll depend on value of my LK? So there could be a script determines an algorithm where - for example - you need to loss six spots on that "dice" in any situation or event related to LK to pass the roll and your chance to make it is based on your LK?

I just remembered about that Magic 8-Ball which can tell you some interesting things about the game in Fallout 2 if your LK is high enough.
 
"Virtual dice" refers to the mechanic the game uses to determine whether something is a success or a failure. It operates like a traditional tabletop roleplaying or miniatures game, with the "dice" being rolled whenever your character takes an action and your chances of success being determined by the roll plus your character's skill modifiers. In general, most skill- or attribute- based actions-- from shooting guns to lockpicking to stuff like the Magic 8-Ball or whether you run across a special encounter on the world map-- makes a roll of the dice.

That said, I've always wondered whether (and to what degree) luck actually affects rolls, and I have no clue. Unfortunately, I'm not skilled enough to crack into the game files and check the scripts.
 
Well, situations where you need one of your skills or stats being on some particular level I would simply call checks, like Barter check, Perception check etc. If stat or skill (or both because there can be situtations connected with some stat and - additionally - skills related to that skill, like Charisma/Speech) is high enough you pass the check but if not you can't make it. E.g. the Magic 8-Ball bases on LK check.
And from descriptions I posted results that LK may affect any check in the game, or maybe just some of them, but how it really works looks like a big mystery. And seems the only way to find it out is that some talented modders will check the game files.
 
You could test it. Fire tons of shots at something with constant accuracy, first with LK 1 and then LK 10. If there's a difference then a meta-factor applied to the roll could be the explanation. My guess is you wouldn't see any difference, but who knows.
 
I really didn't think Luck was a topic that required this much attention.

As previously mentioned the idea of luck affects a metaphorical 'dice' in which the results of your combat are mostly altered. Beyond that I don't know if it really doing much else for you but I just know that it's one of the stats I never did much with. Yeah you can hit some cool crits with em but other than I wouldn't waste much more conversation on it.
 
There's also a handful of perks requiring decent Luck in Fallout 2. Some of them are pretty good (Better Critical, Toughness), other not so much (Bonus Ranged Damage, Light Step, Fortune Finder, Mysterious Stranger).

..ah, and characters with high Luck could raise their hitpoints by drinking fuckton of Alkohol-Z in Vault City too! :smile:
 
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Looks like theres a good reason to start a new game with pretty low LK. Because I was - and 98% of us I believe :-) - always creating chars with high LK, mainly for high critical chance hit. And that brilliant perk Better Criticals, 'cause instant kill factor is soooo cool :-) Especially when you figthing bunch of much bigger and much stronger enemies when carrying much smaller and much weaker gun :-)

BTW - I didnt know that LK influences critical hit effects. I didnt check that tables posted by Valcik because its a bit too long :-) but is it like the higher the LK the higher the chance to get one of these effects?
 
Per said:
You could test it. Fire tons of shots at something with constant accuracy, first with LK 1 and then LK 10. If there's a difference then a meta-factor applied to the roll could be the explanation. My guess is you wouldn't see any difference, but who knows.
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You know, I'm starting a new playthrough on the Restoration Patch...so I might actually do this in FO2. Create two identical characters, make absolutely sure they have the same stats/equipment, (everything will be the same, except for their names), and then fire an assload of bullets and see what happens :)


Hey, any suggestions for what I should set the chosen weapon skill to? *probably small guns?* I imagine if there is a diff it would be more noticeable at the mid-ranges, say 50-70; you think?
 
I was thinking more along the lines of using Falche to change the LK stat in a single save, but given the way stats are recorded, this would not be watertight.

I'm fairly sure the game just rolls a d100 for skill checks... but since we have no idea whether this hypothetical LK modifier is proportional, absolute or whatever, I'm not sure if any skill range would be better than any other.
 
I can't get Falche to find my save-game files, even though I'm directing it RIGHT TO the data folder--so I use that other mod, can't think of the name...F2SE or something like that. But with those editors, like you said, the way they handle stats, it's not very reliable because you also have to give yourself the bonuses that go with raising the special--too much for me to bother with. I'd just make a duplicate char with different luck.

Presuming that luck should ALWAYS effect your "to hit" chance, then what I could do is try it at any skill level. Even if my chances to hit are low, in theory if my luck is high, I should hit more often then if my luck is low. I might even try this with different ranges of skill just to see if the effects seem to change or not. How many times you guys think I should fire? I was thinking like 10 or 20 times--think that's enough to get an idea?
 
Per said:
I'm fairly sure the game just rolls a d100 for skill checks... (...)
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Do you mean theres no need to have any skill above 100% to pass all checks based on skills? So why theres 200% scale in Fo1 and 300% in Fo2? Looks like its a big waste of skill points.
 
Some checks have modifiers or look for absolute skill levels, but pretty much anything above 150% is excessive. For some skills success is capped at 95% after modifiers (and in at least one stupid case, before modifiers).
 
Yamu said:
I've always wondered whether (and to what degree) luck actually affects rolls...
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Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiignificantly! If your luck is within a median that can be described as "Average", meaning between 4 to 6, you won't notice much influence of LK on your gameplay, besides of course those few instances that it directly comes into play in determining things, such as Skill Checks. But when you have luck that can be described as in "Extremes", 3 and below or 7 and higher, you notice a MAJOR difference. At lower levels, you find yourself being slapped with critical failures frighteningly often (if anyone here has ever played D&D, this is akin to rolling a 1, which is a NIGHTMARE!!! T_T) and at higher levels you see critical failures affecting others more often. Basically if your LK is shit you'll feel like you're beset by the negative half of the Jinxed Trait, and if it's supernatural you'll feel like you're granted the positive half of Jinxed.

Depending on how you play, this can prove to be a major difference, or utterly meaningless and/or unnoticeable to you. To each their own.
 
Per said:
Some checks have modifiers or look for absolute skill levels, but pretty much anything above 150% is excessive. For some skills success is capped at 95% after modifiers (and in at least one stupid case, before modifiers).
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What do modifiers you have on mind?

SnapSlav said:
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiignificantly! If your luck is within a median that can be described as "Average", meaning between 4 to 6, you won't notice much influence of LK on your gameplay, besides of course those few instances that it directly comes into play in determining things, such as Skill Checks. But when you have luck that can be described as in "Extremes", 3 and below or 7 and higher, you notice a MAJOR difference. At lower levels, you find yourself being slapped with critical failures frighteningly often (if anyone here has ever played D&D, this is akin to rolling a 1, which is a NIGHTMARE!!! T_T) and at higher levels you see critical failures affecting others more often. Basically if your LK is shit you'll feel like you're beset by the negative half of the Jinxed Trait, and if it's supernatural you'll feel like you're granted the positive half of Jinxed.

Depending on how you play, this can prove to be a major difference, or utterly meaningless and/or unnoticeable to you. To each their own.
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If LK has so huge impact on gameplay, could you describe some examples beyond critical failures in combat?
 
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