List one (1) helpfile that you consider to be too vague or lack important information. I'll review those named and adjust them as I see necessary to remedy if I agree.

Is it size based? Does luck stat play into landing cleaves? Does weight of the weapon matter? Size of the opponent other than you can't cleave people 2x bigger?

The helpfile says that you can heal quicker if not bloody from battle.

What point is not bloody from battle? Does this mean that if you can sleep the edge kicks in? Or do you need to be at the point where you can enter your guild?

Explore ones are good, others less so.

Can't really remember which ones were terrible save Arboria (gone thanks to Malakhi) and Corte. But some were terrible.

I'm terrible at these things. Turrible.

Word on the eastern road says that push followed by knife increases damage dealt. Any truth to this? Also, would be nice to see something like "A particularly strong thief may be more successful with this skill" or something, that hints at what stats and circumstances affect the success rate of the skill.

Just an underused skill. Some more insight into it, may help with it's popularity

Putting someone in the resting position does effect how much damage they take from being hit... For example you could blackjack + backstab for big backstab damage. Then maybe thief waylay, push and knife them to maximize the damage. Without the waylay it may be pretty hard to get the knife off before they stand back up, depending on how much they've spammed.

Under "Hidden Resistances", Vilhazarog confirms that position is a factor in applying damage. That much is hinted at in help #269 (REST SLEEP STAND SIT WAKE CRAWL).

Whether or not someone is more vulnerable when sleeping vs resting is another question entirely.

Push does increase damage a bit. It also has a good chance to fail (tested on a high dex, lower str character) at 100%, so its hard to use in conjunction with any openers like knife or backstab.

Maybe a duergar or svirf thief might get better mileage out of it, but I'd probably just skip it altogether. Too many thief skills already rely on other skills to be successful (Thinking binder path mostly), that the diminishing returns aren't really worth it.

Say you've got a 80% chance to land knife, and a 65% chance to land push. That leaves you with 72.5% success, 27.5% failure. My math is rusty, but I seem to remember something like multiplying the failure rate by something per every check needed. 1.5 maybe? Leaving us with something like 59% chance of a push/knife combo working.

I'm sure that math isn't spot on, but I'm (pretty) sure every skill that relies on a previous attempt reduces the success rate of the final skill.

It allows you to waylay/knife polearm specs, among other things. Charge set doesn't work while resting.

Chilling Embrace

The school of the Chilling Embrace held that combat is best enhanced through focus on its fundamentals. The style of fighting their members used relies on short, efficient strikes, which land with more force than could be expected from their size and strength. While lacking somewhat in finesse or flair, few wished to duel a warrior who was wise in its ways.

ADDITION: This legacy adds +8 to your dam roll, permanently.

(or whatever the number is)



I'm using Chilling Embrace as an example, but I really think every single legacy helpfile could benefit from a one line addition to the bottom that gives the game mechanic change in plain English. When applicable it should also mention the stat it keys off of and who would benefit from it (e.g., I think you said chars that already dodge well won't benefit from the dodge legacy, but chars that are bad at dodge will?)

All of those helpfiles are high on roleplay and low on substance. I can't imagine making sense of legacies without an "unofficial" source of info as it stands now. You've been pretty great at giving us details when we ask on the forum, but that stuff needs to get into the helpfile.

Also, I second the motion below that when you give a "this is how XYZ works" answer on these forums...it should usually make its way into the helpfile!

The official Wiki had a great start and the idea was to link info to forum posts by people in the know when necessary.

Wiki's are supposed to be a community effort though, and they won't let the community in to edit so...

Least they never granted me access when I asked.

What are the bonuses to this?

nt

It is widely said that stalking is ruined if someone sees you stalking them. Can we elaborate on the help file to explain productive stalking and what ruins stalk counts?

This doesn't tell me much...


The key to a successful assassination is preparation. There is nothing
random about this, and the trained assassin will leave nothing to chance.

The victim must be shadowed so their patterns and abilities are known to
the assassin. Over time, continued stalking greatly improves the
assassin's chances.

It is a lot of words that only say, "Stalk improves assassination chances."

It's very difficult to figure out for a newbie.

The concept isn't universal across muds, and what's worse is that lag doesn't work on NPCs the same, so there's no way a new player leveling up would figure it out.

Not sure if the problem is the help or the spell itself :P

Oh man, I thought that immediately when I saw this.

There I picked just one. No real clue how this skill works or how to really use it or what affects the chances. I have a vague idea of what I think it might do, but that's quite vague indeed.

I think the helpfile there actually had all the most important details but I added some more of what I know.

I'm not going to lie, I've not tried often because it's always seemed like a waste... I seem to recall it doesn't work on NPCs and I can't imagine the situation in which something vs. an orc horde lasts long enough to be overrun, but then I don't know how long it takes to happen.

kinds just seemed like another version of spinebreaker to me except higher success rate if they stick around for it.


I could be way off though.

It's a carte blanch offer to explain any skill you don't know all the effects of and no one is taking the offer? :(

How about...netcasting just to pick a random one? The helpfile actually doesn't say anything about what the net does ;)...

Come on guys...pick some skills.

I'm not 100% sure I didn't miss any details but there's significantly more information there now.

n/t

Has a little bad gouge there. i.e. "write a note about it to
the imps (the format would be: note to Galadriel BoltThrower Balgrimnr Pico Jullias Nepenthe),"

Also, this isn't a help file.. per say, but the tribunal books about powers should be updated a little. At least to say that Provincials have leader like powers.

Updated pray extra.

This is now an ability taught in a guild, two paths of shaman have it. How much DR is it?

Do 'help protection from evil' and replace 'alignment' with 'ethos'

This field intentionally left blank

.

help why should be changed to:

"Because I said so"

Order

It's got stuff in it fitting for way back when that doesn't
happen anymore. Unless with various poisons etc.. players are
technically charmies for a bit.

You have been very forth coming with the info of late in posts. Like posting that bash lag is pure random and only size/weight/etc. matters in the landing of bash.

Perhaps you could talk another Imm, or make it easy enough for yourself to update the helpfile with the info you put in response to gameplay posts. Like, instead of answering, you put "Helpfile updated" and then people can check the new helpfile to see what the updated info is.

Alternatively, you could post as always and have a lower level Imm charged with putting that info into helpfiles. If this came to pass I would be more than willing to go through past posts and put links so someone else could update the helpfiles.

It would sure be nice to be able to see in the helpfile if an edge is repertoire specific.

Updated the edge list.

nt

Anything more to it than regen/learning rates?

You're not even trying, there's already more than that in the helpfile!

I'll add a little more.

Note that the helpfile doesn't say that morale helps you learn skills. That's because it doesn't.

Wearing light/heavy armor is vague. Is it material? Is it weight? Is it armor class?

Detail added.

nt

Jeez this is hard then. Will have to think on it for a while, or make a bunch of accounts...

"Wielding different weapons will affect the success and effect of different variants of ambush"

Can we get more details on this (weapon/ambush type it affects)
Can we get more information on what skills smear mud affects?

Sidequestion: How much str/dex does ambush cripple take off at hero,
under optimal circumstances? Would be nice if 'deft ambush' allowed
one to pick the malediction beforehand.

Counting is hard. :)

Edit: Ambush helpfile updated.

xf s sf

nt

The ranger's weapon type vs. their opponent's weapon type matters
exactly as it does for the disarm skill.

Just makes me wonder which weapons are good for disarming others.

It's weapon type vs. weapon type. So it depends. :)

Generally, daggers and bows are bad. Whip/flail/staff/spear are usually on the better end of things, I think.

Is a table of weapon vs weapon showing which of them parry well/are parried well vs others, i.e. should I be using a flail, a whip a dagger or something else vs that sword wielder, and how this is different vs a staff wielder, etc etc

I suppose that's more complex and in depth then I'm going to get a comprehensive answer for though

I doubt you'll get that, but it seems like info that could be in a helpfile to me.

Would be nice to know anything more than the helpfile tells, its bare minimum. What do some of the nerve strikes affect?


Wasn't nerve changed lately to be able to lag in some way? There's just nothing hardly about it in there.

With the nerve edge nerve becomes a skill that has/has the potential to have less then one round of lag. So you're basically opening up a fight/reengaging with less lag then murder.

I'll say that I don't KNOW this but it was the only reason I could think of why he opened so much with it despite the skill in general being #### on by the playerbase for a decade or more.

Before that you had murder/trip/dirt/strangle/assassinate as your options. If you weren't assassinating, the opponent was flying, strangle was just going to cause a flee then it's between nerve, murder and dirt - dirt is a 2-round lag so if you want to follow up with a throw or a kick that leaves murder or nerve as your best options. I guess nerve just won out over murder.

Updated.

.

doesn't mention it helping disruption.

That's one everyone is fresh on the mechanics of, I'm surprised you picked it.

It's like I offered you a wish for anything in the world and you asked for a warm six-pack of Bud. :)

(Done.)

The helpfile has some odd spacing for me:

Syntax: cast 'torment spirit' <victim>



This necromantic magic wracks an undead being, reminding them of their eternal

torment and distancing them from their source of power-- the Negative Material

Plane. The undead creature may become weakened and sluggish, and will recover

from injury more slowly.



A high level of skill with Torment Spirit results in marginally more effective
use of the Disruption spell.



See also: DISRUPTION