# 'Advanced' Skill Rust Suggestion

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/advanced-skill-rust-suggestion/10670>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [October 9, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/advanced-skill-rust-suggestion/10670 "2015-10-09T16:19:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dubby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Dubby](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Dubby)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/advanced-skill-rust-suggestion/10670/1 "2015-10-09T16:19:58Z")

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Essentially, after having spent two or three weeks playing this game, I’ve come to the conclusion that skill rust (Int) is too unforgiving, yet skill rust (IntCap) is too forgiving. Ergo I will outline some concepts for an advanced or (IntAdv) skill rust system:

First, there would be a slight differentiation in skill priority. Skills granted via a starting profession (if using a class mod) or present at the start of a character’s life (if not using a class mod) are considered ‘primary skills’, whereas all others are considered ‘secondary skills’. While the rate of rust is still largely based on intelligence, many other factors would come into play.

1: Intelligence cannot decrease the ratio of skill rust below 10%.  
2: Both primary and secondary skills have one or more ‘dependent’ attributes (statistics), in the case of multiple attributes the values are averaged together for this purpose.  
3: Primary skills cannot rust below half the value of their dependent attribute, secondary skills cannot rust below one quarter the value of their dependent attribute. This is referred to as the ‘skill floor’.  
4: Primary skills have a 25% chance to rust, instead of 50%.  
5: The degradation scale for turns to rust based on skill level is offset by the skill floor value. (For instance a skill with a floor of 3 will be able to rust at a value higher than 3, treating level 3 as though it were level 1)  
5: Once a secondary skill’s level is greater than the dependent attribute value, the chance to rust is doubled (chance is essentially ignored).  
6: For every skill level a primary skill grows past their dependent attribute value, their skill floor is increased by one. For every two skill levels a secondary skill grows past their dependent attribute value, their skill floor is increased by one. (this uses the highest obtained skill level and compares it to the dependent attribute value, rather than relying on only the current level)

I’d probably program this in myself, but after a quick look through the files I’m not sure where to start.

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**Author:** ![Valpo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/valpo/32/341_2.png) [@Valpo](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Valpo)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/advanced-skill-rust-suggestion/10670/2 "2015-10-09T20:07:56Z")

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What do you mean by dependent attribute?

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**Author:** ![Dubby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Dubby](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Dubby)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/advanced-skill-rust-suggestion/10670/3 "2015-10-09T20:29:40Z")

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str, dex, int, per

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**Author:** ![Valpo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/valpo/32/341_2.png) [@Valpo](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Valpo)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/advanced-skill-rust-suggestion/10670/4 "2015-10-09T20:36:14Z")

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How is skill dependent on anything but int?  
Atributes like that may effect how well you can perform a skill… but they ll not influence how well you remember something.

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**Author:** ![hobophobic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/hobophobic/32/11698_2.png) [@hobophobic](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/hobophobic)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/advanced-skill-rust-suggestion/10670/5 "2015-10-11T20:26:41Z")

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[quote=“Valpo, post:4, topic:10670”]How is skill dependent on anything but int?  
Atributes like that may effect how well you can perform a skill… but they ll not influence how well you remember something.[/quote]

Muscle memory. Proficiency in a physical task relies not just on your brain’s stored instructions which are sent to your muscles, but also the development of the actual muscles used in completing the task. So even if you still have a perfectly stored mental image of how to do something, you may still have to re-develop your strength and dexterity in order to get back to that mental level of proficiency.