Re: DM: Advice on Struggling PRipper

From: ben@abby.chem.ucla.edu

Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1992 19:42:30 +0000

In article <1992Nov4.140818.10095@news.tufts.edu>, gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris) writes:

>	I've got a PRipper whose progress I'm not to happy with, and I was
>wondering if the net.wisdom agrees or disagrees with my assessment.
>
>	He's 12(13)-8-6-17-13-9-19,
>Very Frail

Two things. First, 19 DF nets you nada, so I assume you're planning to train it
to 21.  This will cost you 20 skills, a bad thing to do if you want to cut it
in primus.  Not that this guy is primus calibre or anything, but you never
know.
Second, this Very Frail rating isn't helping you.  You'll probably want to
train CN, at least until you get to "Cannot take alot..."
I lied.  Three things.  The third thing you should keep in mind is that I don't
know beans about actually running PR's.  My only current one (in 63) is 1-4
with stats: 10--17. So take this advice with a grain of salt.  You may ask,
"Why should I bother even listening"  you ask.  Well from my point of view, I
get the mega managers to say something if I give you bad advice, (right John)

>
>	He's got a 17 WT, great.  His fights average 2.6 minutes when he's
>training for skills, so I don't think that's much of a factor.  But he has
>trained skills in 5 fights, and has learned 4 skills.  0.8 per fight, ouch.
>It's a long way to ADM at that rate.

What's his record in the fights that he trained skills.  It's possible (not a
fact) that loosing a fight decreases your chance to learn skills.  This seems
to be true in my _general_ experience.  Also, you'll learn alot less from
newbies (this I don't think anyone will disagree with.  John? Dennis?) If you
learn 3+ skills in a fight, either you have a 21 WT, or you fought someone with
3 times (or 10 more) you fights. This isn't totally a skill-differential based
effect; real bad warriors, with no skills but a lot of fights can teach you
bunches.  For example, in Khalums (53), there's a guy named 'King Reed' a BA at
(14-46) with _NO_ Experts.  This guy is great, if you can get a challenge
through.  You win, and get like 4 skills for the effort.  We call guys like
this 'Skill-o-ramas'.

>	Then, yesterday I was figuring his starting skills with some charts
>I got recently (thanks, Dennis).  From stats alone I figure he got 17 Riposte
>skills.  However, he's had three Rip learns, and still hasn't made AdEx (that
>should be at 20, right?).  So, unless these charts are inaccurate wrt Riposte,
>he got a 1-skill *penalty* on Riposte on roll-up!  For a Parry-Riposte!

Dennis' charts are good, but me and a buch of others who use them complely
disbelive the number of Ripose skills you get for DF.  I usually throw out the
skills you allegedly get at the even DF numbers, that works a lot better.
There are 4 of them, meaning you probably got +15 Rip, rather than -5.

>	These two factors, plus the fact that he just lost a three-minute fight
>to a *rookie* PLunger, is making me believe in the luck factor, and that this
>fighter has it, all bad, in spades.  So, do you think I should give this guy
>a little more time, or should I DA him now and hope for a luckier roll-up?

It's possible he has a bad luck factor, or a bad learning factor or both
(Unless you, like me, don't belive in them...)  But I doubt after 7 fights you
could really tell. (John, Dennis??)  Check the 'age' of your opponents when
training skills, and whether you won or loss. These factors are at least as
relevant as a luck factor (IMHO; It's only supposed to go from +15/-15, anyway,
right)  You could DA _alot_  of guys before you found Decent (high WT/WL/DF)
rollups, and were 'lucky' in their first ~10 fights.
Also, keep in mind that PR's and other 'finesse' styles often start very slow.
As a friend of mine used to say "Cursed with long-term potential".

References

DM: Advice on Struggling PRipper
gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris)
Wed, 04 Nov 1992 14:08:18 +0000