There has been some controversy over Masterwork bonus conferred by armor on skill check penalties. I would like members here to confirm whether or not it works for them. With a Fighter equipped with Masterwork Chain Shirt and Masterwork Buckler by adding the appropriate entries to start_equipment.mes, I started the game. Opened inventory screen for Fighter. Clicked on skills tab and checked scores for skills. Tumble (total: -1) Breakdown: +2 Initial value (this represents ranks) +1 Dex bonus -2 Item: Masterwork chain shirt +1 Masterwork: Masterwork chain shirt -1 Item: Masterwork buckler +1 Masterwork: Masterwork buckler -3 Medium Encumbrance Notice that the Masterwork bonus is +1. However a board member at the Obsidian forums reports that it is a -1 bonus for him. After patching with the 2nd official patch and Co8 mod pack v3.0.3 does this also happen to your game? See http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=1497&st=30 for details
The problem with the Masterwork items was what it made me stop playing, the elven armor lost all the fun . But since I installed the 2nd official patch and the 3.0.0 Co8 patch it is working fine. The bonus applied in my game are just the same as yours zhuge.
Yeah, just to add to it, I found what you were talking about as well. It seems that, since masterwork armors and magic armors already have a lower penalty in protoss.tab, it should not be looking for this in the skill check area. In other words, masterwork/magical does not give a +1 bonus to skill checks, but reduces the penalty by one (affects the armor, not the skill). This looks like an exe change to me, but it seems that simply removing the masterwork/magic check in the skill level calculation would enable all the armor check penalties to be entered correctly via protoss.tab.
Erm... you mean your Masterwork bonus is also -1 instead of +1? If they are coded as having lower penalty in protoss.tab then I agree that they shouldn't have this check for being Masterwork in the skill check area. However since this check appears to be governed by the exe (I have no idea how to get rid of it), I suppose we have to adjust the protos.tab value so that the final bonus is correct. Since the Masterwork check already adds +1 (simulates having a lessened penalty for the armor), I have adjusted all values to be the same as their normal counterparts instead of having a reduced penalty. It looks like an exe change to me too but removing the Masterwork label from armor is no go because crafting needs that Masterwork label. Removing a Masterwork label from an already magical item still makes the item undergo a check simply because it is magical. I think I first noticed this change after the 1st official patch.
zhuge: To clarify... First, I meant the +1 for masterwork in skill checks. I'd always looked just at the inventory screen box where it shows the skill check penalty, I'd never checked the actual skill calculation. Second, I wasn't suggesting the removal of the masterwork label. Let me try to code out my meaning Seems the game works like this (in regards to skill levels): 1. Get base skill. 2. Determine governing ability and add ability modifier. 3. Determine misc modifiers and add. 4. Check for Masterwork armor and add 1 5. Display effective skill value. My suggestion would be not removing masterwork, but removing line 4 from the previous list. This would be an exe change, something to perhaps suggest to Steve. Then, the skill check penalties could be set properly in the protoss.tab, crafting would still work, and skills and non-proficient AC would be correct. It seems as though the Masterwork flag is not affecting the displayed, base skil check penalty (i.e.-the SCP in protoss for elven chain is -3, it displays as -3 in all locations). However, the routine that determines effective skill levels is applying the protoss.tab SCP and then adding a check for masterwork/magical items, which is unneeded. Masterwork items are seperate items in the protoss, thus the SCP can be coded seperately without needing a flag. The only thing the flag would be needed for is crafting. All other masterwork or magical attributes can be set in protoss.tab: Hit/attack bonus, SCP, price, weight, etc. Therefore, the "add +1 if armor=masterwork" check when calculating effective skill levels is superfluous and causes errors.
Ah, now that seems like the best way out of this mess and would effectively solve everything!! But as you say, that's an exe change. Well, I'll try to bring it to Steve's attention. Deleting something in the exe shouldn't be too hard... I think. We'll again have to adjust all protos.tab values but that's a small price to pay for perfection.
