Magicka and CRB: I still want to review that a bit more. I started doing that yesterday, but I've also got a Bash code project (nothing new, just mostly code review with a little cleanup) that's been taking up my time. Plus RL stuff too. There are still a lot of GMST differences between CRB and RBP, and those are going to affect your starting magicka, even if the birthsigns, etc. are otherwise the same.
Actually... the birthsigns and race bonuses between RBP and CRB are not the same. Here's the background:
- CRB uses Vanilla's static Magicka bonuses. Example given if you pick the Mage birthsign, you'll get 50 Magicka at the beginning of the game, and it will stay the same for the rest of the game.
- RBP uses a more dynamic system, which tries to mimic Morrowind. You'll get 1/10th of the bonus at the beginning, and when you invest in intelligence, it grows.
=> result: In Vanilla / CRB you could create a Nord battlemage, pick the Apprentice, and be done with it. Don't need to invest (much) in Intelligence. In RBP this won't work, because without intelligence the bonus won't be that noticeable.
Additional differences, those ugly GMST changes are actually all documented into a single table in RBP's readme. CRB uses Vanilla settings here:
Vanilla system / CRB:
- 2 Magicka points per intelligence
- Magicka Regeneration = 0.75 + 0.02 * Willpower
- Armor Penalty min = 0.05, max = 0.30
- Skill spell cost decrease: 0.2 + ( 1 - Skill / 100 ) * 1.2
- Full Magicka bonus at the beginning
- Fatigue does not affect spell effectiveness
RBP
- 5 Magicka points per Intelligence
- Magicka Regeneration = -1.00 + 0.05 * Willpower
- Armor Penalty min = 0.20, max = 1.00
- Skill spell cost decrease: 0.4 + ( 1 - Skill / 100 ) * 0.75
- Magicka bonus is Intelligence dependent.
- Fatigue does affect spell effectiveness
Of course this doesn't say much. Especially if you don't interpret the numbers correctly. Therefore here's an example (in RBP's readme it's colored and bolded. I'll skip the fluff here
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Q: Are you really, really serious about your changes to Magicka?
A: I've got a lot of question concerning the Magicka pool ("Are you serious!?"). Now of course I'm always pointing then to all optional files to make it like in Vanilla. Nevertheless today I'd like to say a few words about that. Warning - this will be a bit of boring math now!
Magicka is a currency. You're buying spells with Magicka. Now when comparing Oblivion to Morrowind, you'll see that you get for the same amount of Magicka in Morrowind much stronger spells. So Morrowind Magicka has a higher value than Oblivion Magicka. What I'm doing is to change many aspects of Oblivion's Magicka currency - to put it bluntly, you can't easily compare them, because the currency has also another value.
Let me give you an example. And let's use an armored Altmer with Mage birthsign for it. When everything is maxed out, his Magicka is 350 in Vanilla and 1000 in RBP. Now let's say he wants to cast spells doing 100 fire damage, and his destruction level is master.
- Vanilla: One spell costs 87 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 4 of them.
- RBP: One spell costs 217 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 4 of them.
As you see from this example, because of many changes to how much Magicka is worth as a currency, it's not a single spell more possible. But wait, what if the Altmer goes unarmored?
- Vanilla: One spell costs 82 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 4 of them.
- RBP: One spell costs 163 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 6 of them.
Now there's a reason to go unarmored . This time he's got 50% more Magicka - which is still much less than 200%.
So why all these hassle when everything is only altered slightly, just with higher values? The thing is, it's not. While I did find magic due to Magicka pools in very high levels playable (like the examples given - as you see, the difference is not that high), I found magic due to Magicka pool in lower levels next to unplayable. Now let's take a look at the same Altmer, when all his stats are at 60 (which means a Magicka of 270 in Vanilla and 520 in RBP). This time he wants to deal only 35 points of fire damage. Armored, as ever:
- Vanilla: One spell costs 77 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 3 of them.
- RBP: One spell costs 99 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 5 of them.
Now it looks a bit different, suddenly he has nearly 70% more Magicka. And now let's take a look at him when he's unarmored!
- Vanilla: One spell costs 72 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 3 of them.
- RBP: One spell costs 74 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 7 of them.
And now he finally has around 135% more Magicka. Now considering that at this skill levels for most enemies he usually needs five to ten spells, he atleast has enough for one of them. The rest? Well, there's regeneration. Which also plays a major role, but isn't the topic now . I think my changes are making magic depending characters playable in medium levels (where I think they're seriously lacking Magicka in Vanilla), while not overpowering them in higher levels - where they were playable imho.
Anyway, that's not present in CRB. When someone notices a strange difference in Magicka between e.g. CR Hidden Elves and CRB Hidden Elves, it's only due to different starting intelligence and different starting bonuses between these "two" iterations of the same race
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» Fri May 27, 2011 6:12 am 
I chose the Mage birthsign and have 5 major spell schools but that's the highest I've had yet. Mystic Elves gave me 127 in comparison so I was wondering bg2408 if you could let me know if starting that high was your intention.
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