RFE - Background stories and their implications
issueid=2053 03-30-2013 03:13 PM
Member
Number of reported issues by Bieks: 47
RFE - Background stories and their implications
Perhaps background stories should have a more rigid influence on starting stats (with regards to stat minima or maxima)
I just rolled a new character, a ratling necromancer. This is the PC's background story:

Your parents are travelling adventurers. They are doing moderately well but are talented enough to survive.
As a child you lived through happy days. Your parents tried to ease your life as much as possible and gave you a lot of comfort
During your youth you had a lot of fun playing with other kids of your age. You always were a natural leader and the center of interest.
As a young adult you were a credit to your family. Your parents supported your plans and were very understanding. They tried to help you along your way with all means at their disposal.
You decided to become a necromancer.

I chuckled for a moment at the implications that the ratling adventurer parents are totally cool with their son becoming a necromancer, then went to check my stats.

St:16 Le:14 Wi:7 Dx:17 To:17 CH:1 AP:1 Ma:14 Pe:19

A natural leader and the center of interest with 1 charisma and 1 ap? Did my character grow up in a freakshow? How did they get so low? My Ch and Ap potential maxima are 4 and 2, respectively. My character is still only 13 years of age, what on earth might have happened? Did the other kids I grew up with have negative values for their stats or something?

I know that background stories influence stats and all that, but perhaps some of them should set an arbitrary limit or something on how low or high a stat could be. I find it impossible to believe that this character truly was a natural leader when at age 13 the monster memory states he's pretty much the ugliest thing alive and hated by everyone.

Biggest problem is that it's probably a whole lot of effort to code for a few fringe cases.
Issue Details
Issue Number 2053
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category All
Status Suggested
Priority 10 - Lowest
Suggested Version ADOM 1.2.0 pre 12
Implemented Version (none)
Milestone (none)
Votes for this feature 2
Votes against this feature 2
Attachments 0
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




03-30-2013 04:30 PM
Junior Member
Lol
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03-30-2013 04:52 PM
Joe Joe is offline
Senior Member
the ugliest thing alive and hated by everyone.
Sounds like it must be the leader! :)
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03-30-2013 05:01 PM
Ancient Member
I lol'ed too :)

It could be argued that you were a natural leader during your youth, before your necromancer apprenticeship. But I would agree with the proposal, because going from that to 1 Ch sounds too extreme.

Also, sometimes the messages do correspond with the stats you get...

Code:
        In your youth you became seriously ill and suffered for many years.
 When your disease finally was cured you were left weakened, both
 physically and spiritually, and bereft of the joys of youth.

St: 1  Le:15  Wi:15  Dx:18  To: 4  Ch: 6  Ap:13  Ma:15  Pe:12
Code:
        In your youth you became seriously ill and suffered for many years.
 When your disease finally was cured you were left weakened, both
 physically and spiritually, and bereft of the joys of youth.

St: 7  Le:17  Wi:17  Dx:12  To: 1  Ch: 4  Ap:13  Ma:23  Pe:17
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04-01-2013 12:38 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by anon123
I lol'ed too :)

It could be argued that you were a natural leader during your youth, before your necromancer apprenticeship. But I would agree with the proposal, because going from that to 1 Ch sounds too extreme.

Also, sometimes the messages do correspond with the stats you get...

Code:
        In your youth you became seriously ill and suffered for many years.
 When your disease finally was cured you were left weakened, both
 physically and spiritually, and bereft of the joys of youth.

St: 7  Le:17  Wi:17  Dx:12  To: 1  Ch: 4  Ap:13  Ma:23  Pe:17
Yes, when attribute score of 10 considered average, spiritually weakened person obviously can have 17 Willpower.
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04-01-2013 02:43 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by _Ln_
Yes, when attribute score of 10 considered average, spiritually weakened person obviously can have 17 Willpower.
Spiritually weakened could mean that his religious or philosophical beliefs were weakened. But he could still be a stubborn guy willing to fight to death if necessary.
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04-01-2013 05:05 PM
Ancient Member
I actually played the second PC upon generating him, just for kicks. Lasted around five minutes, thanks to 1 To and a trapped door :D Still have the initial SVG in case anyone wants it.
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04-01-2013 05:44 PM
Member
The PC's background, it seems, was probably only designed to affect stats in a minor way. Maybe the reason that race is the more important factor than background is that the PC isn't necessarily going to be accepted by other races just because (s)he was a "natural leader" amongst their own kind?

It seems that ratlings always get terrible Charisma and Appearance scores, whether they're necromancers or not. The low Charisma thing seems strange in itself, since ratlings naturally do good trading deals with most other races, so they really shouldn't usually be "hated by most people"...
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04-01-2013 09:56 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by Al-Khwarizmi
Spiritually weakened could mean that his religious or philosophical beliefs were weakened. But he could still be a stubborn guy willing to fight to death if necessary.
I'm note sure whether we should start a discussion about that here, but I rather think willpower is the thing that powers all kinds of faith.
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04-02-2013 12:03 PM
Member
Quote Originally Posted by kNightCrawler
The PC's background, it seems, was probably only designed to affect stats in a minor way. Maybe the reason that race is the more important factor than background is that the PC isn't necessarily going to be accepted by other races just because (s)he was a "natural leader" amongst their own kind?

It seems that ratlings always get terrible Charisma and Appearance scores, whether they're necromancers or not. The low Charisma thing seems strange in itself, since ratlings naturally do good trading deals with most other races, so they really shouldn't usually be "hated by most people"...
The manual explicitly states that ratlings tend to blend in well and that nobody really has a problem with them, it's just information dissonance in this case.

It's just probably not really worth fixing this because it'll lead to a myriad of bugs and problems with character stat limits (the way I would like to see it sorted)
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04-02-2013 05:36 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by Bieks
The manual explicitly states that ratlings tend to blend in well and that nobody really has a problem with them, it's just information dissonance in this case.
Ditto with it saying PCs have better stats than an average member of their race, because they're meant to be heroes. I guess some of the dark elves who don't venture to the Drakalor Chain also have negative stats!
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