Hi, all. I’m theorycrafting a new character who can maximize his ranged accuracy in power armor, which is, I believe, 5 eye encumbrance and 5 arm encumbrance (at least for basic and heavy varieties).
I need 17 perc then, right? So that I am still at 12 after the -5 penalty for eye encumbrance? Could hit this with 15 raw perc and +2 from diamond corneas.
And what about dexterity? Does having above 12 dexterity counter the arm encumbrance penalty to ranged accuracy? I don’t think it does, but perhaps it does. If not, I guess I could just take 12 raw dex (or lower if there is a bionic to add dex) and suffer the -5 arm encumbrance penalty for shooting.
Any tips appreciated! Please keep this thread relatively spoiler-free. I’m really just wondering if dex above 12 will counter arm encumbrance and if there are +dex bionics.
You could go for an 8/8/8/8 Alpha character. The post threshold Prime stats will +7 them all up to 15/15/15/15, you could then get the Diamond Cornea and Wired Reflexes CBMs for +2 Perception and Dexterity which would let you overcome the encumbrance penalties without spending points at chargen.
Accuracy penalties are additive and can’t be negated.
Dexterity and perception don’t give bonuses, they just help you avoid the penalty. Same for skills, low encumbrance, bad guns etc.
Effects of dexterity and perception cap out at 12, of skills at 10.
Above that the only ways to reduce penalties are to lower encumbrance, get more accurate gun/ammo, install targeting CBM, lower gun’s volume (if shooting at nearby target) and take time to aim before each shot.
Penalties can’t become bonuses and cancel each other out. If your encumbrance penalty is 5, your dispersion won’t go below 5. You can still get headshots occasionally due to how accuracy is rolled, but you will see that encumbrance penalty no matter your skills and stats.
Thanks, guys! Shopkeep, I hadn’t known about Alpha, and now I am addicted to becoming Alpha in-game without spoilers. So thanks a lot for sending me to my certain death 500+ times. (But seriously, thanks–that looks dope, and I dislike all the new “beast” mutations, so I will try to acquire this. If my stats are, say, already at 14, they only get pushed to 15, right?)
Coolthulhu, thanks again for your help. But are you saying that if I have, say, 14 natural perception and a riot helm (level-2 eye encumbrance), the perception for purposes of calculating ranged accuracy will actually drop to 10, because the difference of 2 between 12 and 14 won’t act as a buffer?
Regardless, could you clarify for me whether dexterity is tied to arm encumbrance the way perception is tied to eye?
Still not clear on whether having 14 perception and wearing a riot helmet (2 encumbrance level) would make me a incur a -30 penalty to accuracy (if the natural is capped at 12, although I have 14) or if my extra 2 points would save me from that fate
I said it quite unambiguously. Penalties can’t be negated and are added separately.
Penalty from perception below 12 is totally unrelated to eye encumbrance, arm encumbrance and penalty from dexterity below 12. Except for the fact that they are all penalties to accuracy.
Thanks, Cool! Part of my confusion stemmed from my impression that Kevin Granade’s and others’ (quite old) comments on the issue seemed to contradict your own. Here’s an example; someone asks a question about ranged accuracy (in a thread about the same) and then Kevin replies:
“how is raising perception above 12 a ‘cushion’ against a penalty. The penalty is 0 at 12. All perception has done is improve your range bonus. if the max bonus is 0 (starts negative) then is there any reason at all to raise perception above 12. Not an ‘i guess’. Does anyone know?”
Kevin’s reply: “The penalty people mentioned is a penalty to perception, which it’s quite easy to acquire by e.g. the glare condition, or encumbering your eyes with headgear, or mutations. These reduce your effective perception, so if you want to operate at peak effectiveness even when impaired, it’s worthwhile to have a buffer.”
Kevin doesn’t expressly state that ranged accuracy itself can be preserved via this buffer, but he seems to suggest as much, as the question and the overall thread are expressly focused on ranged accuracy. The game UI as well suggests that, with 2 eye encumbrance from my riot helmet, I operate with “-2 perception for the purpose of ranged weapons and spotting traps” (I may paraphrase). So you can see why I was confused :). But you clearly know this game like the back of your hand and now I can confidently reroll this dude with full knowledge of things. So thanks again!
The game might have worked like that before. Many mechanics do change quite radically, so old info isn’t always good.
More - not even info from the devs is always correct. Most of the time is, but sometimes we miss an update, forget something or misread someone’s (or own) code.
In the current code (checked to be sure), extra perception can’t buffer against eye encumbrance when it comes to accuracy.
It can help with glare and similar effects by keeping your perception 12 or above even when lowered, but that’s it.
Perception’s effects on spotting traps are uncapped, I think. Also, perception helps with melee critical hits and that effect has huge cap (50 perception to hit the cap). Perception’s effects on throwing accuracy are uncapped.
But gun accuracy won’t benefit from current perception above 12, regardless of eye encumbrance.
You’re the best! And using diamond corneas and the like to increase perc WILL matter for the 12-point cap right? It’s not just raw perc. It’s modified. right?
