Bio Engineer Archive

From my experimenting, and using some of the data posted here to help out, I am fairly sure the attribution of specials is dependent on slot, quality of sample and has a random aspect to it.

Special One - Primary slot Aggression,

Special Two - Primary Slot Aggression (maybe Physique - somedata causing me problems on this one))

I believe (almost impossible to confirm at this stage) that any other slot may provide the special if the primary one does not, and that there seems to be an order of preference to them.

Now, the reason we are all seeing 'random' specials assigned to slots is that the special will not always 'stick'. My best guess (supported by data) is that VHQ samples have a very high chance of sticking and that chance drops as quality drops. In addition, in any slot beyond the primary, I would expect there to be (and again the data seems to support this) a further modifier to the chance of a special sticking.

Some numbers to help illustrate;

• VHQ - 90% chance of carrying through


• HQ - 75% chance of carrying through


• AA - 60% chance of carrying through


• Primary slot - 100% modifier


• Second slot - 80% modifier


• Third slot - 60% modifier


• Forth slot - 40% modifier


• Fifth slot - 20% modifier

So, putting a VHQ sample in the primary slot has a (.9 x 1.0) 0.90 (90%) chance of getting that special to carry through. However, if it does not the system checks the other samples, in order, to see if a special from one of those will carry through. If our primary VHQ one doesn't work, and we have a HQ sample in the second slot, that would then have a (0.75 x 0.80) 0.60 chance (60%) of carrying through to the final template.

I am fairly sure specials aren't based on stat numbers - that theory just doesn't fit the data I have. The concept above helps explain some of the oddities we see with specials while matching the more consistent data as well. At this stage I have no idea atall what the real numbers are, the ones I used here are purely for illustration. I also don't know what the full priority order for the slots is, although I have some strong suspicions. It is entirely possible that the slot order is the same for both specials (perhaps AGG > PSY > PHY > PRO > MEN), but I suspect there are some differences to make things interesting.

As far as I cab tell the ranged property is entirely dependent on the sample in the Mental slot. The higher quality samples have a better chance of it sticking (mine have never failed at HQ or above) but its not something I have tested much as it seemed fairly basic in concept (and ranged attacks isn't a high priority for me ).