Difference between revisions of "Experimentation Source 13 (Source)"

Part VII: The mathmatics behind armorcrafting

This section is provided as a starting point for armorcrafters to understand a bit more about how they get the results they do. Since the actual equations behind crafting have not been released by the game developers, this section may not be fully accurate. However, it does describe the best understanding we have of how the system actually works.

In order to understand how the final result is produced, you first need to understand the basic formula. Essentially, the game calculates a minimum experimental statistic. This minimum experimental statistic is a function of the weighted average experimental quality. By spending experimentation points, you can increase this experimental statistic above the minimum at a fixed rate. The degree to which you can raise the experimental statistic is capped, a limit that is also a function of the weighted average experimental quality. The final experimental stastic is then mapped to an actual statistic in the final item.

A. How the weighted average experimental quality is calculated

This section describes how the weighted average experimental quality is calculated based on resource attributes. Essentially, for each experimental statistic there is weighted average quality that depends on a)the attributes of each resource used, b)the amount of each resource required by the schematic and c) the weighting of each attribute. Depending on the number of resources and attributes, this can be very simple (for example, in the case of batteries, only one resource and one attribute) or very complex (multiple resources and multiple attributes, each with different weights). In order to simplify the explanation, base resists will be used.

When you experiment on a piece of armor, you get three options, one of which is Experimental Quality. Experimenting on experimental quality raises the base resists of the item. However, in order to know how experimentation will effect the base item, you first need to calculate the weighted average quality of the item for that particular experimental statistic.

The weighted average quality for Experimental Quality on all armor is based on the Overall Quality and Shock Resistance at a 50-50 ratio. The shock resistance of each material multiplied by the quantity used divided by the sum of the total quantites of the materials used. This will give you the average shock resistance for the item. The same process is performed for Overall Quality and a weighted average of the two (50/50 in this case) is determined. For materials that do not have one of the values (for example solid petrochem fuel), the equation simply removes that factor from the calculation.

For example, say you're making a composite helm using the following materials (we're only going to list the OQ/Shock of these theoretical materials, since that's all applies to resistances): Intrusive Ore 800 OQ 900 Shock Solid Petrochem Fuel 950 OQ Nabooian Fiberplast 700 OQ 900 Shock Aluminum 600 OQ 800 Shock Beyrllius Copper 700 OQ 400 Shock Wooly Hide 900 OQ 600 Shock

You're looking effectively using the following total quality of material...

((((70*800) + (70*950) + (35*700) + (40*600) + (30*700) + (30*900)) / (70 + 70 + 35 + 40 + 30 + 30 )) + (((70*900) + (35*900) + (40*800) + (30*400) + (30*600)) / (70 + 36 + 40 + 30 + 30)))) / 2

In the above equations, the average OQ would be 796 while the average SR would be 729. Consequently, the weighted average material rating for this experimental attribute would be 762.5.

The full equation for finding the weighted average attribute quality is described below:

General equation:

OQ1: Material 1 Overall Quality SR1: Material 1 Shock Resistance n1: Number of Material 1 required in schematic

OQ2: Material 2 Overall Quality Material 2 does not have a Shock Resistance n2: Number of Material 2 required in schematic

OQ3: Material 3 Overall Quality SR3: Material 3 Shock Resistance n3: Number of Material 3 required in schematic

( ( ((OQ1*n1) + (OQ2*n2) + (OQ3*n3)) ) + ( ((SR1*n1) + (SR3*n3)) ) ) (n1+n2+n3) (n1+n3) _______________________________________________

( 2 )

B. Experimental minimums and maximums

Experimental minimums and maximums are directly related to the average weighted quality of the resources used. Currently, the benefit gained from using each experimentation point is fixed at 7%, regardless of resource, although this will almost certainly change at some point in the future.

1. Each point of experimentation placed into the object resulted in a 7% gain, regardless of material, as was expected.

2. There is a fairly clear linear relationship between average material quality and starting/final percentages. The fit is not perfect, suggesting that there is a more complicated relationship at work, but this fit is very close (R2 = 99, n=6), which is good enough for pratical purposes. Any deviations are in the fractions of single percents and won't affect our work.

Basic Equations: starting experimental percentage y = 0.0003x - 0.0369 max experimental percentage y = 0.001x - 0.0012 incremental gain: .07 (7%)

Ultimate equation: x = average material quality for the relevant attribute EM>n = number of experimentation points spent

final attribute percentage = (0.0003x - 0.0369) + (n*(.07)), but capped at 0.001x - 0.0012

Note that depending on how many experimentation points you have and the resource qualities, you may have points left over that can be spent in other areas.