Alternate Core Documents

[Night Light]

That's a problem with the system though. Ideally what needs to happen is weapon nerfs across the board, and nerfs on all the bonus damage perks. One thing I've noticed is on the tiered weapon list, melee/unarmed weapons have both a SPECIAL-based damage bonus as well as a high base damage, to cite one issue. Ideally, pretty much every single weapon should have its damage cut by half, maaaybe a third for some of the weaker ones, on average. And the bonus damage perks need some kind of restriction to prevent them from giving rediculous bonuses when used with multi-hit and low AP weapons.

Realistically, a boost to HP would be a much cleaner way to reduce the lethality of the system. uSea has done an amazing job of balancing the weapons against each other (and is continuing to do such) and it feels like that would be the better core to start with. As far as the weapon spec perks are concerned, I have great faith in uSea to balance the low AP/rapid fire/auto fire weapons in such a way that, while they'll certainly benefit the most from them, they won't be the be-all and end-all of weapon options. As it is, the perks are quite fun to play with, and really not all that terrible to have used against you. Strong? Yes. Ridiculous? Hardly.

Either way, Clever Prancer DOES need a nerf. The fact that it's a must-have perk by such a wide margin if you can get it at all means that it's too good. As it is, Clever Prancer is just an incredibly overpowered band-aid.

For a tanking/frontlining character, yes, I'd agree it's a must-have perk. But then, given the perks essentially make the "classes" for FOE, it makes sense that some perks might be required for certain builds. For the other characters that can stay out of the line of fire, utilizing stealth, cover, or distance to stay safe, not so much. Crits are such a relatively rare occurrence in the game that I've had it come up only a couple times since I picked it up back at level 15. It was certainly a lot of fun for all of us playing when it did and it meant I didn't have to waste AP the next round downing a potion, it wasn't a game-changer though. Granted I wasn't being crit by a Gauss Rifle, but that's a whole mess on its own. Perks that give bonus weapon damage, bonus DT, give evasion against attacks, or reduce AP costs of actions, those will almost always come up during a fight, but it's pretty rare in my experience to see more than a couple critical hits per combat. Given the level it's available at and the situational utility of the perk, I would seriously disagree with the argument that Clever Prancer needs a nerf. I could see removing the second rank of the perk, that may well be excessive, and while it does reward a character for wearing Medium armor, most medium armor is pretty darn good already and comparable to Heavy for the most part.

[Kkat]

Regarding defensive perks: I do agree that there are too few of them. How does the following perk idea strike you?

Combat Veteran (special requirement: no SPECIAL below 4, Level 8, 3 ranks): All attacks which directly target you and that deal normal damage, magical energy damage or stun damage have their damage dice reduced by -1d10 per rank (minimum 1d10).



Regarding Clever Prancer: Keep in mind that the original Fallout perk that Clever Prancer is based on grants a +5% crit chance, a -25% chance to be critted, and can only be used while wearing light or no armor. The perk, as written in Fallout: Equestria, is:

Clever Prancer – Through agility and reflexes, you have become deft at striking where it hurts while preventing your enemies from doing the same. You gain an additional 5% chance to score a critical hit; your enemies suffer a 25% penalty to their chance to critically hit you. This perk is only effective when wearing light or no armor.

I want to keep the spirit of the perk as much as possible. So I see three potential fixes to Clever Prancer:

• The perk can be made a two-rank perk, each rank granting a +2% crit chance and a -25% chance to be critted, the second rank not available if wearing Heavy Armor, or...
• The perk can be made a one-rank perk which grants a +2% crit chance and a -50% change to be critted. Or...
• The perk can be made a one-rank perk which grants a +4% crit chance and a -50% change to be critted, but can only be used when wearing light or no armor.

Instead of nerfing Heavy Armor, the third version makes Light Armor a serious choice for a higher-level character. I rather like that, as right now there is no reason to chose light armor at higher levels. Between that and being more accurate to the story and spirit of the original perk, I personally lean towards the third option, but only a little.

Which do you think would be the best revision?



Regarding Pegasus Magic: I have changed the number of Trick Points a pegasus gets to (CHA+AGI)/2, rounded up. Correspondingly, Extra Tricks now gives +3 TP per rank.

[Thanqol]

I prefer the second option. Having a chance to block a critical is really desirable in the mid to lategame where crit chances are in the double digits and everyone should have access to it. It's not necessary for every build but it's a good, solid choice up there with a bunch of other good, solid choices available at that level and I like it.

I think that making it a one-rank perk is also really good for un-boringing my character sheet, which currently has LEVEL 12: CLEVER PRANCER. LEVEL 13: CLEVER PRANCER AGAIN.

[AMARDA]

I like the 3rd option.

Has it also been looked at perks for if you are unarmored or wearing light armour. Or maybe a set of perks that give bonuses to Light/Medium/Heavy maybe?

[uSea]

I also think that damage numbers are kinda high but it does mean that even poorly armed raiders can be a threat. DT also does a good job mitigating hits, except against crits, which brings me to an idea.
If Clever Prancer is seen as a must-have since it is the only defence against crits, then perhaps critical hits themselves do too much damage.

What if magical crits only did 2 x damage (double Base, double bonus dice, like regular crits do at the moment)
and regular crits only did +4d10 damage

This would be a reduction in burst damage suffered by players and npcs (especially with high-end weapons), and means that DT wouldn't be quite as overwhelmed as it can get currently. It also reduces math for non-magic weapons. Multiplying by 2 isn't hard but adding a set amount of bonus dice is even easier. 4d10 giving an extra 22ish damage isn't too shabby, especially since How We Do It Down On The Farm could increase it more.

I'd like to keep magical crits as a multiple of damage, so the really dangerous thing about magic crits would be that they scale with weapon damage (and perks, etc).

Or how about something like regular crits doing +2d10 damage and ignoring 1/2 DT (representing a lucky hit striking a weak point in the Armour/Hide/Shield)?

These are just ideas of course, but I think that critical hits doing less than 2x/3x damage is worth considering given how much of a requirement the only crit-defence perk seems to be for a character focused on combat.

[TyrannisUmbra]

Regarding defensive perks: I do agree that there are too few of them. How does the following perk idea strike you?

Combat Veteran (special requirement: no SPECIAL below 4, Level 8, 3 ranks): All attacks which directly target you and that deal normal damage, magical energy damage or stun damage have their damage dice reduced by -1d10 per rank (minimum 1d10).

3 ranks might be overkill for that. -3d10 would break anyone's damage without ranks of a +1d10 perk. And... I'm not sure how I feel about the 'no SPECIAL below 4' requirement. I'd much prefer that be an END 6 or something. Maybe even END 7 since it's such a strong perk, but END 6 would make it more accessible.

Regarding Clever Prancer: Keep in mind that the original Fallout perk that Clever Prancer is based on grants a +5% crit chance, a -25% chance to be critted, and can only be used while wearing light or no armor. The perk, as written in Fallout: Equestria, is:

Clever Prancer – Through agility and reflexes, you have become deft at striking where it hurts while preventing your enemies from doing the same. You gain an additional 5% chance to score a critical hit; your enemies suffer a 25% penalty to their chance to critically hit you. This perk is only effective when wearing light or no armor.

I want to keep the spirit of the perk as much as possible. So I see three potential fixes to Clever Prancer:

• The perk can be made a two-rank perk, each rank granting a +2% crit chance and a -25% chance to be critted, the second rank not available if wearing Heavy Armor, or...
• The perk can be made a one-rank perk which grants a +2% crit chance and a -50% change to be critted. Or...
• The perk can be made a one-rank perk which grants a +4% crit chance and a -50% change to be critted, but can only be used when wearing light or no armor.

Instead of nerfing Heavy Armor, the third version makes Light Armor a serious choice for a higher-level character. I rather like that, as right now there is no reason to chose light armor at higher levels. Between that and being more accurate to the story and spirit of the original perk, I personally lean towards the third option, but only a little.

Which do you think would be the best revision?

The first. Two ranks of -25% keeps the effective bonus the same, while at the same time requiring a serious perk investment to get the strong benefit from it, making it more of something you 'spec into' than something you just get because it's free and only one rank. (I would even not complain at all if the "light or no armor" was applied to both ranks of this version, since it makes complete sense to be a light armor perk. But I DO think it needs to be two ranks, to make it a serious investment)

Realistically, a boost to HP would be a much cleaner way to reduce the lethality of the system. uSea has done an amazing job of balancing the weapons against each other (and is continuing to do such) and it feels like that would be the better core to start with. As far as the weapon spec perks are concerned, I have great faith in uSea to balance the low AP/rapid fire/auto fire weapons in such a way that, while they'll certainly benefit the most from them, they won't be the be-all and end-all of weapon options. As it is, the perks are quite fun to play with, and really not all that terrible to have used against you. Strong? Yes. Ridiculous? Hardly.

Which is why I suggested a reduction by the same amount across the board. Cutting all weapon damage by 50% is effectively the same as doubling HP, and much more true to the system, and smaller numbers instead of larger ones make the game much cleaner overall. Number bloat is not a pretty thing.

And no, low AP/rapid/auto weapons are incredibly ridiculous with the +1d10 perks. With a RoF of 4, and a base damage of 12+1d10, having all ranks of the +1d10 perk for the assault rifle gives it an effective damage of 48+16d10 -- which is useable twice in a round. Not even the shotguns get more than 5d10 base, and those get range loss as well as triple DT! Unless you're wearing at least medium armor (Which can be a serious concern to obtain at first!), automatic weapons will shred you to pieces.

For a tanking/frontlining character, yes, I'd agree it's a must-have perk. But then, given the perks essentially make the "classes" for FOE, it makes sense that some perks might be required for certain builds. For the other characters that can stay out of the line of fire, utilizing stealth, cover, or distance to stay safe, not so much. Crits are such a relatively rare occurrence in the game that I've had it come up only a couple times since I picked it up back at level 15. It was certainly a lot of fun for all of us playing when it did and it meant I didn't have to waste AP the next round downing a potion, it wasn't a game-changer though. Granted I wasn't being crit by a Gauss Rifle, but that's a whole mess on its own. Perks that give bonus weapon damage, bonus DT, give evasion against attacks, or reduce AP costs of actions, those will almost always come up during a fight, but it's pretty rare in my experience to see more than a couple critical hits per combat. Given the level it's available at and the situational utility of the perk, I would seriously disagree with the argument that Clever Prancer needs a nerf. I could see removing the second rank of the perk, that may well be excessive, and while it does reward a character for wearing Medium armor, most medium armor is pretty darn good already and comparable to Heavy for the most part.

There is no such thing as a tanking character in this game. Any and all characters can be targeted as long as they're seen. You've said it yourself, Clever Prancer is completely necessary for everyone who can take it if they like not suddenly dying to a random crit. Not only that, but the suggested nerfs are incredibly tame in comparison to the treatment it /could/ receive.

I also think that damage numbers are kinda high but it does mean that even poorly armed raiders can be a threat. DT also does a good job mitigating hits, except against crits, which brings me to an idea.

DT doesn't do a good job mitigating against some low AP/rapid/auto weapons, which is nuts considering that's exactly the kind of weapon it should be best at mitigating.

If Clever Prancer is seen as a must-have since it is the only defence against crits, then perhaps critical hits themselves do too much damage.

What if magical crits only did 2 x damage (double Base, double bonus dice, like regular crits do at the moment)
and regular crits only did +4d10 damage

This would be a reduction in burst damage suffered by players and npcs (especially with high-end weapons), and means that DT wouldn't be quite as overwhelmed as it can get currently. It also reduces math for non-magic weapons. Multiplying by 2 isn't hard but adding a set amount of bonus dice is even easier. 4d10 giving an extra 22ish damage isn't too shabby, especially since How We Do It Down On The Farm could increase it more.

I'd like to keep magical crits as a multiple of damage, so the really dangerous thing about magic crits would be that they scale with weapon damage (and perks, etc).

Or how about something like regular crits doing +2d10 damage and ignoring 1/2 DT (representing a lucky hit striking a weak point in the Armour/Hide/Shield)?

These are just ideas of course, but I think that critical hits doing less than 2x/3x damage is worth considering given how much of a requirement the only crit-defence perk seems to be for a character focused on combat.

I like the idea of reducing crit damage by a bit though, but adding flat d10s is probably not a good idea, since it would make low AP weapons much stronger on crits than they already are. I'd much rather go with 50% bonus damage crits, which /still/ isn't hard math, and makes sure that unless a weapon explicitly states it, all weapons are equal in terms of crit damage.

[TenMihara]

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Light_Touch

This is the perk Clever Prancer was based on. There was never anything wrong with it being +5% Crit, 25% Chance to avoid a critical hit in the first place, since most of the perks in this game are based on their New Vegas counterparts to begin with.

[Kkat]

The Pegasus Trick Storm Cloud Architecture has had a bit of a retooling. I think the rules are almost ready to be added to the mane document for playtesting.

[Viewing_Glass]

Hrm...I am not sure that the 10 DT difference in Light and Medium Armor and the even smaller difference in DT between medium and heavy armor is worth the restriction. I mean, its an interesting choice from a balance perspective. Do you take the perk and get mowed down by an automatic weapon cause you are wearing light armor? Or do you wear the heavy armor and not get mowed down by the automatic, but instead get destroyed by the sniper?

It makes for a very interesting choice.

[Night Light]

Regarding defensive perks: I do agree that there are too few of them. How does the following perk idea strike you?

Combat Veteran (special requirement: no SPECIAL below 4, Level 8, 3 ranks): All attacks which directly target you and that deal normal damage, magical energy damage or stun damage have their damage dice reduced by -1d10 per rank (minimum 1d10).

Counter-rolling for damage seems very interesting, and I like that it doesn't touch on explosives which already have a counter. I'd agree with Tyrannis that an Endurance prereq might be more appropriate, alternately maybe Endurance or Strength?

I want to keep the spirit of the perk as much as possible. So I see three potential fixes to Clever Prancer:

• The perk can be made a two-rank perk, each rank granting a +2% crit chance and a -25% chance to be critted, the second rank not available if wearing Heavy Armor, or...
• The perk can be made a one-rank perk which grants a +2% crit chance and a -50% change to be critted. Or...
• The perk can be made a one-rank perk which grants a +4% crit chance and a -50% change to be critted, but can only be used when wearing light or no armor.

I'll definitely agree with Thanqol here and say the second one. It's less perks to take to be counter-critical damage, and it doesn't functionally rebalance how useful different types of armors are. It also keeps a functional form similar to Hit the Deck!.

I also think that damage numbers are kinda high but it does mean that even poorly armed raiders can be a threat. DT also does a good job mitigating hits, except against crits, which brings me to an idea.
If Clever Prancer is seen as a must-have since it is the only defence against crits, then perhaps critical hits themselves do too much damage.

I quite like your ideas there, or at least the seeds you've got. Armor piercing on a crit would interact a bit oddly with Flesh Wound, but the perk could always just be tweaked. Tyrannis has some solid points here, 50% might also just be appropriate. If either change went through, Clever Prancer would definitely need to be tweaked.

Cutting all weapon damage by 50% is effectively the same as doubling HP, and much more true to the system, and smaller numbers instead of larger ones make the game much cleaner overall. Number bloat is not a pretty thing.

I don't know if doubling HP would actually be appropriate, hence why I said "a boost to". However, there is a difference between those two approaches. If we just tweak the formula for how hit points are gained for players (and NPCs built as players), then you're done. If you change how weapons deal damage, you suddenly have to tweak monsters and spells as well.

And no, low AP/rapid/auto weapons are incredibly ridiculous with the +1d10 perks. With a RoF of 4, and a base damage of 12+1d10, having all ranks of the +1d10 perk for the assault rifle gives it an effective damage of 48+16d10 -- which is useable twice in a round. Not even the shotguns get more than 5d10 base, and those get range loss as well as triple DT! Unless you're wearing at least medium armor (Which can be a serious concern to obtain at first!), automatic weapons will shred you to pieces.

Auto weapons are absolutely scary to someone in light armor, they're supposed to be, especially if that pony has sunk three weapon specialization perks into them. But, let's look at the math. Assuming somepony did use that twice a round, they'd do 96+32d10, or 272 damage taking average rolls (let's assume all the attacks hit). So, 272-8*DT, definitely scary if you've only got 10 DT, eating 192 damage there. But, at a DT of 20, easily available with 500 caps dropped into armor, that amounts to 112 damage - scary, but far from unreasonable. At my character Night Light's current DT of 31 with 20% DR, he'd take a whopping 20 damage from that full-round attack. Some weapons are good against low DT targets, some are better against high DT targets.

There is no such thing as a tanking character in this game. Any and all characters can be targeted as long as they're seen. You've said it yourself, Clever Prancer is completely necessary for everyone who can take it if they like not suddenly dying to a random crit.

There is absolutely such a thing as a tanking character in this game, I should know, I'm playing one. You're the pony running out into the open, stands in front of your teammates, or jumps on top of the bomb. Just because there isn't a tanking mechanic doesn't mean that you can't play the distraction who just won't die, which is often enough to let your team avoid being targeted.