Re: Aimed Blow design: one last time.

From: 900667c@ace.acadiau.ca (Gerald Cameron)

Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1992 00:44:30 +0000

In article <18877@aggie.ucdavis.edu> ccs012@george.ucdavis.edu (Riff-Raff) writes:

>In article <900667c.87@ace.acadiau.ca> 900667c@ace.acadiau.ca (Gerald Cameron) writes:
>>Well, after having read Vlad's ideas on AB design, I have changed my opinion
>>on things a bit, so I thought I'd offer it up, just to get some final
>>reaction.  In addition to stat ranges, this time I'm going to put in the
>>order in which I'd add points to stats...

>Demon, you've lost me.  And that's not easy to do, considering that I
>make a living leaving people in the dust, conversation-wise.  Up to
>a point I understand you, and then I begin to feel like I did when
>I was taking Numerical Analysis.

What do you do for a living, Dennis?  Anyways, as I shall soon show (I hope)
all that Greek is just English in sheep's clothing :)

[first two steps deleted due to tototal understanding on Dennis's part]

>>3) raise WL to the highest breakpoint you can reach UP TO 13

>Subject to debate.

Yeah, well, This is the main change I made after listening to Vlad for a
while.  As I hope to show soon, though, I still don't agree with him totally.

>>4) IF SZ >= 9 raise ST to 11 (if possible, otherwise, maximize)
>>   IF SZ < 9 raise ST to 7

>The beginnings of confusion.  Shouldn't this be the other way
>around?  SZ greater than 9, and you can leave ST at 7?  Otherwise,
>you're dooming the little guys to little damage.

Actually, what I was looking at here was looking at here was weapoon
selection.  If you're over SZ 9 it's nice to be able to use the QS.
Otherwise, EP is about the bare minimum.  I don't think that damage is all
that important to ABs.  After all, if you can hit a guy at will fifteen
times, why worry about how much damage each individual blow does?  I'm
sure you'll come up with some counter-arguement, but that's what this
group's all about, right?

>>5) raise WL to the highest breapoint you can reach

>But you've already done that, haven't you?  Why do it twice?

AH, but I haven't!  At least not necessarily.  If you can get WL to 15 or
higher, it currently stands at 13, and should be raised some more. Kapish?

>>6) raise ST to 11 (if not there already), maybe higher

>So, now that you've spread the points around to WT, WL, ST, and more
>WL, you're going to give him more ST???  I'm lost.

Again, If you still have any points left over by now, you want a little more
ST for damage and added weapon selection.  Sort of the same as what I did
for WL.

>>7) raise SP to maximum

>SP?  No...never SP!!!  Leave it at 3.  Now I'm really confused.  Maybe
>you mean CN?  Maybe you mean, raise SP to a coordination breakpoint,
>then put the rest in WL?  Why SP?

I seriously doubt there are many roll-ups that could actually get to the
poijnt where you want to add SP, but it's here for the sake of
completeness.  No need to get hysterical, Dennis.

>>Well, that should be good for another round of flames and comments ;)

>Flames?  No.  Comments?  Yes.

Awwwww, you're no fun :D

>Why fundamentally change the way that you design characters so that
>it can be one particular style?

*sigh* If you've decided that you want character X to be an AB, this is how
you should (in my mind) assign points to make him "all he can be."  I'm
really sorry if my format caused this much confusion to everyone.  I think
that the stat requirements were pretty much laid out for everyone to see by
me and Vlad.

>The way I design characters is this:
>Starting with WT, and then moving to WL, DF, ST, and SP, I push each
>stat to the nearest breakpoint.  These breakpoints are 5, 9, 13, 17
>and 21

Isn't 7 a breakpint?

>thus, I never add more than 3 points to a stat, since if it's
>on a break I leave it alone (i.e. 5 SP), and if it's below I break
>I push it up (i.e. 15 DF to 17).  After that has been done, I look
>at how many points I have left (or, how many points I've gone over),
>and see what the character looks like.

>After this, I begin pushing the numbers around to see what kind of
>a character comes out.  This includes pushing stats past breakpoints
>to other odd numbers, reducing stats below breaks, and just generally
>taking a look at what I get.

Actually, that's a neat way of going about things.  I wind up with muchthe
same results of you, but I don't really get very structured about it.

[dream character designing deleted]

>Then, I start messing around with things like endurance, survivability,
>and damage.  But, I _don't_ nail this guy down to a style before I even
>look at home.

I nail down some vague ideas about style from proto-ideas that spring to
mind as I look at the stats.  I then design him 3-4 different ways, and see
which I like best.  I try to consider those other factors as I'm doing these
designs.

>Only people who design AB's do that...

You forgot your smiley.

>For the record, I would make this guy a 13-5-6-21-17-5-17 Aimed Blow,a
>and watch him die on his 20th fight, just before his induction to Primus
>straight from regular DM. *sigh*

Yeah, just like I'll watch that guy from the Men in Black die on his second
fight :(

>>Dennis, I leave it up to you whether or not Vlad sees this.

>It's on its way.

That should be fun :)

References

Aimed Blow design: one last time.
900667c@ace.acadiau.ca (Gerald Cameron)
Mon, 23 Mar 1992 17:50:07 +0000
Re: Aimed Blow design: one last time.
ccs012@george.ucdavis.edu (Riff-Raff)
Tue, 24 Mar 1992 05:10:12 +0000

Referenced By

Aimed Blow design: one last time.
900667c@ace.acadiau.ca (Gerald Cameron)
Mon, 23 Mar 1992 17:50:07 +0000
Re: Aimed Blow design: one last time.
ccs012@george.ucdavis.edu (Riff-Raff)
Tue, 24 Mar 1992 05:10:12 +0000