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!
