Fencer Archive

FAQ: What do all the individual stats on my Weapon mean?

The information available when you “examine” your weapon can vary depending things such as the weapon category and details about its creation. However, we are Fencers here, so I will only be detailing the information on a typical One-handed Weapon.

Here is how the information will be arranged on the Weapon Details screen:

Variation Of:
Certified:
Condition:
Volume:
Object Creator:
Serial Number:
Armor Piercing:
Attack Speed:

Damage
Type:
Min:
Max:
Wound:

Range Modifiers
Point Blank:
Ideal:
Max:

Special Attack Cost
Health:
Action:
Mind:

Below are the details of each statistic.

Variation Of:
Not all weapons will have this detail, butcrafted weapons often will if the default name has been changed.

Certified:
This lets you know if you possess the current Certification for this weapon. Not having a Certification for a weapon reduces it effectiveness.

Condition:
This is a representation of the structural condition of the weapon. The number to the right of the slash is a representation of the weapon’s original unblemished (maximum) condition. The number to the left of the slash is a relative representation of the weapon’s current state of use or decay. The left hand number dropping toward zero illustrates the effects of wear and tear upon the weapon.
Time itself has no current impact on its condition. Normal use of the weapon drops the current status only very slightly. In fact, it may require several fights to see even a 1 point reduction. Performing Special Attacks creates a slightly elevated rate of decay, based upon the type of special used. There have also been certain incoming attacks that could reduce a weapon’s condition, but the jury is still out as to whether or not these should stay in the game.
Currently, a reduced condition does not impact any of the weapon’s ability. The only aspect you need to worry about it is if the current condition finally reaches zero; for at this point it becomes useless for anything other than an heirloom. You receive periodic warnings as your equipped weapon reaches certain condition levels. These warnings occur at 50%, 25%, 10%, and 0%.
As long as a weapon still has some condition left, it has a chance of being repaired. Repair is either successful or it is not, and a failure destroys the any remaining condition. No second chances. Also a repair does not completely restore the weapon to its original glory; its maximum condition will be slightly reduced in the process. Anyone can attempt to repair a weapon using a Weapon Repair Kit. The percentage of the weapon’s condition is an important factor in the chance for success. Generally, if the condition is above 50% you have a pretty decent chance of repair, but it can still fail. I wouldn’t recommend attempting repair at this point. Between 50% and 25% and you have a less likely chance of repair, but it’s still reasonable. This is why the first warning that your weapon has reached 50% condition is important to note... if you plan on trying to repair this weapon, now would be the time. Anything below 25% and the odds of repairing the weapon seem to drop dramatically. It is worthwhile to note that some professions gain bonuses to their chances of repairing a weapon’s condition.

Volume:
This detail shows the amount of space the weapon will take up in your inventory.

Object Creator:
This only detail only applies to crafted weapons. The name displayed is that of the Weaponsmith. This is a nice feature if you see or possess a weapon you really appreciate. You’ll know who to contact to get another.

Serial Number:
This is an 8-digit number the game engine’s database uses to track the object.

Armor Piercing:
This detail will reveal the extinct of the weapon’s ability to ignore an opponent’s Armor Rating. This will be listed as “None” (AP0), “Light” (AP1), “Medium” (AP2), or “Heavy” (AP3).

Attack Speed:
This detail is a representation of the weapon’s base speed. However, it is often misinterpreted since the number is actually the delay period between swings. This detail would be more accurately called “Attack Delay”. Therefore a higher number means a slower weapon, and a lower number means a faster weapon. This delay is in seconds, and is rounded to the nearest 1/10th of a second.
Fencers gain a modifier called “One-handed Weapon Speed” that serves as a percentage reduction of the weapon’s base speed, thereby making the weapon faster.

Damage/Type:
This describes the force the weapon utilizes to generate damage. Currently One-handed Weapons have two possible Damage Types, but nearly all use “Kinetic” force. Unfortunately, this is also the most prominent Resistance in the game. Therefore most opponents will be able to partially reduce the damage generated by these weapons.
There is one Fencer weapon that utilizes the “Stun” Damage Type. Don’t confuse this with producing a “Stun” effect on the opponent, as this is not what it does. The primary benefit of generating this Damage Type is that Stun Resistance is far less prominent than Kinetic Resistance, and as such more of the damage can get through. Additionally, there are many Armor-types and Creatures that have a vulnerability to Stun damage. This not only means no Resistance is gained, but also advanced Armor Ratings simply do not apply… 100% of the damage makes it through to the target. (Of course Toughness and Mitigation can still apply)

Damage/Min:
This is the least amount of damage the weapon will produce on a successful hit, prior to any modifiers. This number is the root damage number of the weapon, and the number from which the Max is derived.

Damage/Max:
This is the most amount of damage the weapon will produce on a successful hit, prior to any modifiers. This number is derived as a positive “offset” from the Min. Each weapon type has this associated offset from its Min that determines the Max. This is why any two of the same type of weapon (even with very different ending stats) maintains virtually the same spread between the Min and Max damage numbers, because they both have the same offset. If you tell me the Min of any particular kind of One-handed Weapon, I can tell you the Max within a just few points, because I know their offsets. Experimentation by the Weaponsmith can impact the offset by a small amount, but it generally has a much larger impact on the Min which (through the offset) is reflected in the Max.
It is this “offset” between the Min and Max that the skill “Mitigation” reduces. By reducing this offset by some percentage the Max is effectively reduced, thereby lowering the effective damage range of the weapon. However, the Min remains the same.

Damage/Wound:
Wounds are special damage that cannot be healed or regenerated through the normal means. They show up as a black area on the far right of the Wounded HAM pool; with more details in the stats window.
This weapon stat is the percent chance that a successful hit that creates damage will also Wound the target’s stats. The attacker does not receive any direct message they have Wounded their target, but the target does.
The total amount of Wounds generated for a normal attack is approximately equal to 20-22% of the damage of the hit that generated those Wounds. (Rounding issues make this total percentage seem to vary a bit, especially with lower damage hits.) The various specials all seem to have their own percentages, with ScatterHit2 only being around 10%, and Hit3 exceeding 30%.
Not all generated Wounds go to the same place. Each time a Wound condition is generated, there are actually 3 separate Wounds created. 80% of the total Wound damage goes into to the “Main Wound,” with two Auxiliary Wounds receiving another 10% each. No Wound will be less than 1, so anything less is rounded up. The Main Wound will be directed to the HAM category that was damaged by the attack, with the Auxiliary Wounds being directed toward the other 2 categories. Once the Wounds have all been assigned to their primary HAM category they are randomly assigned to a stat within that category.
Finally each real Wound, regardless of the amount, will also generate 1 point of “Shock” damage. Since there are always 3 Wounds, there is always a total of 3 points of Shock damage generated. Shock damage increases your Battle Fatigue.

Example: An attack lands for 100 damage on the Health pool, and the weapon successfully makes its Wound% roll. Three wounds will be generated:

22% of 100 damage = 22 total Wound damage.
Main Wound (80% of 22) = 18 Wounds
Auxiliary Wounds (10% of 22) = 2 Wounds, each

Since the Health pool was the damaged pool, the Main Wound will be randomly assigned to either Health, or Strength, or Constitution. (Let’s say it turned out to be Constitution.) One Auxiliary Wound will be randomly assigned to either Action, or Quickness, or Stamina. (We’ll say Action.) Finally one Auxiliary Wound will be randomly assigned to either Mind, or Focus, or Willpower. (I’ll pick on Focus this time.) The final results of this hit would be:

100 Damage to Health
18 Wounds to Constitution
2 Wounds to Action
2 Wounds to Focus
Battle Fatigue +3

Range Modifier/Point Blank:
There are two numbers shown here. The number to the right of the “@” is the numbers of meters that this weapon considers to be “Point Blank.” The number to the left of the “@” is the calculated Accuracy modifier at this range. This modifier is combined with the One-handed Weapon Accuracy modifier, along with various other situational Accuracy modifiers such as penalties for running, penalties from being Blind, etc.

Range Modifier/Ideal:
This works the same as the Point Blank Range Modifier, except that it is for the “Ideal Range” for this weapon. The Ideal Range (which may be identical to either of the two other ranges) is where the best possible Accuracy is obtained for this weapon.

Range Modifier/Max:
Same as above, except that this is the maximum effective range of this weapon, and it is impossible to hit anything beyond this range.

Note for all Ranges: The above range modifiers are simply specific points on a line, and not the only 3 modifiers available. This line may or may not always be linear. Melee weapons are all linear. The various ranged weapons might not be, but this isn’t a ranged profession, so I haven’t tested them enough to be absolutely certain. A target at Max range that begins approaching does not suddenly cross an invisible “threshold” and sudden shift to the Ideal Range Modifier. It is a smooth transition, meter by meter. By plotting out the listed values for Point Blank, Ideal, and Max, you could calculate approximate value between them.

Special Attack Cost/Health:
This is the base Health pool deduction associated with performing a Special Attack with this weapon. Each Special Attack has a multiplier (although some of the weaker specials have a multiplier less than x1.0) that modifies this base cost. Secondary stats also impact this cost. The higher a specific secondary stat, the smaller the final HAM pool costs. (The specifics of this process are detailed in another FAQ thread.) Since encumbrance values on Armor reduce these secondary stats, it elevates the HAM costs of any Special Attacks performed while it’s worn.

Special Attack Cost/Action:
Same as above, except that it is the base Action pool deduction.

Special Attack Cost/Mind:
Same as above, except that it is the base Mind pool deduction.

There is also a text description for the weapon at the very bottom that may give some interesting information or history, and a rotating 3d image of the weapon to the right to let you know what it will look like if equipped.

Message Edited by Raphayl on 12-10-2003 05:37 PM

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Raphayl wrote:

Variation Of:
Not all weapons will have this detail, but most crafted weapons will and all high quality crafted weapons will. The presence of this detail simply means this weapon does not have the “standard” statistics for this weapon based upon the resources used. IE: Experimentation was used in its creation. In fact, the presence of this detail is generally a good sign; as the lack of it means the creator did not bother (or was not capable) to improve upon the base stats.

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No. This simply means that the name was changed (ie doesn't have the default name).

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Certified:
This is a game engine mechanism designed to verify to examiner that this is a legitimate object; and not a forgery or dupe weapon. Of course any protection feature can eventually be broken, so seeing “Certified” does not absolutely guarantee that it’s legit; but the lack of it is definitely cause for alarm.

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Wrong again. This field tells you whether or not you can use the weapon effectively (ie if you have the certification for it). Certifications can be found in the skill tree.

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Condition:

Incapacitation and Death both take a clean PERCENTAGE (1-3%) of the weapon’s condition (whether or not it is equipped), and as such are among the top sources of weapon decay.

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Not sure on this one, but I think incapacitation and death have no effect on weapon condition.

hi raph great faq. although i thought that certified meant whether u were certified to use the weapon or not as u advance up the skill trees. i could be wrong.

Agree with others on the topic of Certification. It tells you whether you have the certification or not. The only possible values are 'Yes' or 'No'.

Also, volume is the amount of inventory the item takes up in your inventory. It is not a count of uses, like food has, which you seemed to be suggesting. For example, factory crates used to default to a volume of 5. Now they default to a volumeof 1. This means that no matter how many items are in the factory crate, the crate will only take up 1 space in the inventory. I believe locked/unlocked containers may also have a default volume of 2 inventory spaces, but will increase with the more items that are placed in them (different then crates). I have never seen a weapon that takes up more then one inventory space, but then, I also haven't been paying much attention to that particular stat. You could check this out by looking at those heavy weapons that do have a limited number of charges and see if I'm right or not.

You're right on Certification, I was thinking about the serial number. I changed it above. Same with Version of, and Volume. I had my mind on the more important details and those slipped by. Good catch.

Death and Incap DO reduce the Condition of a weapon: 3% and 1%

Message Edited by Raphayl on 12-09-2003 07:29 PM

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Raphayl wrote:

Death and Incap DO reduce the Condition of a weapon: 3% and 1%

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I'd like to see your tests on this please...

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HypertextEye wrote:

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Raphayl wrote:

Death and Incap DO reduce the Condition of a weapon: 3% and 1%

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I'd like to see your tests on this please...

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These values are straight from the Developers, not something tested. The when decay upon Death/Incap were first incorporated these values were originally much higher... something like 20% and 5%. But fortunately, we won that war and got the values dropped.

However, if you are just one of those "I never believe it until I see it" then I invite you to accompany me during any of my testing. You can usually find me on Test Center around 15-20 hours a week doing nothing but testing. I invite you to come along, I can always use the assistance. That way you can see the results for yourself.

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HypertextEye wrote:

I have died, and I insure every time.

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Message Edited by Raphayl on 12-10-2003 05:47 PM

i have to think they took out the incap and deathdecay on weapons... i incap constantly (like 10+ times a day) due to my constant pointless duels i know i am gona lose... my gafi and curved sword should be broken but they are still easily at 95% since i havent bothered to have them sliced and they are decaying very slow. also i have probably died holding the gafi alot since my clothing is down to i think 75% and i insure it and every time i die im holding the gafi. (you would too if your clothes cost 10k+ per piece but only 100 to insure)