So you've been running around ROCKtropia for a couple of days, shooting vampire girls with a ZK1. Bang, bang, bang, and what's this? You see another B.A.M.F. shotgun in your loot window!!! Sweet!!! You run away from the vampire chicks and double click that gun in your window and its no ZK1, its a ZK2. "This is great!" you think to yourself as you equip the new gun. All of a sudden you see this yellow warning in the chat window that you aren't able to use the gun effectively. What a bummer!!! "Why can't I use this gun effectively?" you wonder to yourself.

Well, I'm going to show you the important information in the information window, so that you can see what it means when you aren't quite ready for a particular weapon. Follow along with the color-coded explanation of the picture to see what all the numbers mean, so that you can use the right gun for your skills...

RED
This part has to do with your Ranged (Damage) Professional Level. If you click the Star icon on the top of your screen you can view your professional levels. This gun requires a Ranged BLP professional level of 45 to start using it. I am 75.4% of the way to being able to use this gun. You'll notice that down below there is a section called "Damage range". The damage profession affects this statistic which shows (the damage range you'll get with your skills)/(the maximum damage range possible on this weapon). When the professional requirement is met, and you have 100% progress up at the top, the damage range will start increasing towards the maximum possible. When the two numbers listed for damage range are identical, then the weapon is said to be "maxed" for this statistic, meaning you are getting the most damage per shot possible with the gun.

YELLOW
This part has to do with the Skill Increase Bonus period of use. When you have not yet reached the professional requirements for the weapon, you will see "Not Yet", as in this example. This means you will not gain extra skills while using the weapon. When you have reached the minimum requirement, this will say "Yes". This means you are gaining skills at an increased rate until, a few levels later, you "max" the gun, and then the Skill Increase Bonus area will read, "Not Anymore". Once it says "Not Anymore", you are no longer receiving extra skills, but you have now "maxed" the gun, and use it with maximum efficiency.

GREEN
This area deals with the profession of BLP Sniper (Hit). The Sniper profession has to do with how accurately you can shoot the weapon over long distances. It only applies to rifle type weapons, as opposed to pistols. The Sniper profession affects 4 categories, Attacks per min, Range, Hit Ability, and Critical Hit Ability. As with before, the first number out of the two listed are what you will do with your skills, and the second number is the maximum possible value of the particular weapon. Attacks per minute is how quickly you can reload and fire again. Range is the maximum distance that the weapon can be used effectively. Hit ability is related to how many, (or few) times that you miss instead of hitting the target. Critical Hit Ability is how often you can cause extra damage with a Critical Hit (double damage). You will notice that the Hit Ability is a number out of 10, and not a direct percentage. 0/10 means you will hit the target about 80% of the time. 10/10 means that you will hit about 91% of the time. Critical Hit is not an exact percentage, but the higher number out of 10 means that you'll get double the damage more often. As with the Ranged profession, once you reach the minimum requirement, you'll see these numbers start moving up until they "max". When all statistics are completely maxed, you'll be using the gun as effectively as possible.


As you can see, it is fairly straight forward to determine if you are able to use a weapon effectively; just look for a "Yes" or a "Not Anymore" under the Skill Increase Bonus section. If you aren't yet ready, you can see how far you have to go by looking at the "Skill Progress" section for each profession to see how close you are to beginning to qualify for that weapon. There are a lot of numbers to consider as you get more involved in hunting, but I hope this explanation has been able to help you understand the information page a little better, so that you can choose your weapon wisely.

Stay tuned next week for the next edition of "Tipsy Thursdays with EZ!!!" as we learn just what skills you need to increase the professional levels up to your next weapon.

Good luck and may Lootius bless you and your hunts!!!

Nicely done EZ, keep it up

narfi

Well done, but cleaning the Wet Wolf Creek spawn of uber mobs would LET NOOBS HUNT!

I like the tip.. and i agree with Majandi, please bring the update. soon.. NOT later...

Oh do i see a EZ star on the walk? Nahh well maybe one day.. Great Job..

You got skills, I got skills, we all got skills. The question is, what skills do what, exactly, and what is this about professions? There are well over 100 different kinds of skills and 80 professions available to avatars in ROCKtropia. With so many skills that overlap and affect seemingly unrelated professions its easy to get confused and not understand what exactly contributes to what. I am going to try and give you some insight into what skills most affect the most common professions, hunting and mining.

As you recall from my first post, the weapons (or finders) use Professional Requirements to determine whether your avatar is skilled enough to use a particular item. Skills contribute to many different Professions, so often times, you will be shooting something, gain skill in your Anatomy Skill, for example and your Paramedic Profession will increase. While it may seem odd to gain a Paramedic Profession from shooting something, or gain an Electronics Engineer profession after dropping a survey probe, it is actually because of the interrelationships between the skills that makes the system so interesting. This also can make it a bit tricky to "chip in" or "chip out" skills, as far as what effect it will have on your avatars professional ranking. I will explain as much as I can, and provide a few charts that should help bring a little clarity. Items marked with (H) means that skill is hidden until you unlock it, by achieving the specified professional level.


BLP/Laser Sniper:
Agility
Aim
Combat Reflexes
Combat Sense (H) - Level 50 in any Hit Profession
Commando (H) - Level 70 in any Hit Profession
Marksmanship (H) - Level 10 in any Ranged Profession (Hit/Dmg)
Rifle
Weapons Handling
BLP Weaponry/Laser Weaponry Technology
Coolness (H) - Level 40 in any Hit Profession
Courage
Dexterity
Perception
Serendipity (H) - Level 30 in any Profession

Ranged BLP/Laser:
Agility
Inflict ranged damage
Kill Strike (H) - Level 80 in a Dmg Profession
Marksmanship (H) - Level 10 in any Ranged Profession (Hit/Dmg)
Ranged Damage Assessment (H) - Level 18 in any Ranged Dmg Profession
Wounding (H) - Level 45 in any Dmg Profession
BLP Weaponry Technology/Laser Weaponry Technology
Serendipity (H) - Level 30 in any profession
Anatomy



As you can see, there are many different skills that contribute to a single profession, and that there is plenty of crossover from one profession to the next. If you are trying to reach a certain profession to unlock a particular weapon or skill, these are the skills that help you do that. Here is a reference for miners...

Prospector:
Intelligence
Perception
Serendipity (H) - Level 30 any Profession
Geology
Ground Assessment (H) - Level 12 Prospector or Surveyor
Miner (H) - Level 50 in any Mining Profession
Mineral Sense (H) - Level 30 Prospector or Surveyor
Prospecting

Surveyor
Intelligence
Perception
Serendipity (H) - Level 30 any Profession
Geology
Ground Assessment (H) - Level 12 Prospector or Surveyor
Miner (H) - Level 50 in any Mining Profession
Mineral Sense (H) - Level 30 Prospector or Surveyor
Surveying

So again, to improve your skills in the Mining professions to get to a particular level, these are the skills that you are looking for. Almost all the skills cross over from Prospecting to Surveying, which helps those professions stay balanced.

I hope this helps you as you gain skills, and unlock new weapons and finders. Stay tuned for more EZ tips on Tipsy Thursdays with EZ!!!!

Life is pretty good! You're running along killing things, now that you know what guns to use, and you're building up your skills so that you can get to the next weapon in the series. Thing is, these low level Vixens and Club Dolls are getting a little boring... I mean, they're great, but its time to try something new, you know. You wander out into the wilds a bit and run across some Old Wolves and try sweating them. AAAhhh, 20.4, 35.6, 28.9 hit points and you're dead! What gives? They don't look MUCH different from the City Wolves that hit for 6 or 8 points... You notice in that global chat window that someone has just killed an Old Wolf for 97 PED, so they must be able to be killed... How do you face a monster that kills you in just a couple of hits? The answer, my friend, is armor. There are 109 known varieties of armor, and they have an information screen much like the weapons which we discussed earlier. Here is a few examples of commonly used beginning armor.







Settler armor is available from the TT or Trade Terminal. As you read its stats, you'll see that it offers a few kinds of protection:
Penetration: 0.5
Impact : 1.0
Burn : 0.5
Cut: 1.0
Stab 0.5

The numbers are how much damage will be absorbed by the armor when attacked by a creature, or another player when in PvP. Each creature has it's own unique damage signature, or proportion of different damage types. There are 9 different known types of damage: Stab, Cut, Impact, Penetration, Shrapnel, Burn, Cold, Acid, and Electric. A creature my have a profile that is, for example, 50% Impact, 30% Burn and 20% Cut. If this creature attacks for 10 HP, it would be 5.0 points from Impact, 3.0 points Burn and 2.0 points of Cut. If you happen to be wearing Settler armor when the creature attacks you, the armor would absorb 1.0 points of Impact, 0.5 points of Burn, and 1.0 points of Cut., so the creature would only hit you for 7.5 points instead of 10. Now if you're thinking, "This Settler armor doesn't seem to offer a whole lot of protection," you're right. Most players start out with Pixie armor, which you would need to buy from the auction, or from another player. The impact and cut protection are 2 of the most common types of damage done by creatures, and you get 12 points of protection. Notice that if the same creature hit you, even though you have no protection from Burn, the armor would absorb all 5 points of Impact, and all 2 points of Cut, meaning you'd only take 3 damage. The last number that is important to know is the Durability rating. Basically, the higher this number, the better, as the amount of decay per hit is lower.

In my second post, I will show you a few other armors that are very commonly used, though they are a bit more expensive than the 3 in this post, any of which can be acquired for under 50 PED. I will also talk about how creatures attack the armor.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how armor absorbs damage, and reduces the hit points that your avatar takes, I'm going to delve a little deeper in to the mechanics of armor, and hopefully dispel a few common misconceptions about how armor works. We'll also take a look at some more mid-level armors, which can allow you to hunt a great many of the creatures found on ROCKtropia.

How Creatures Attack

There are 7 different zones that creatures can attack on an avatar's body: Head, Chest, Arms, Hands, Thighs, Shins, and Feet. Correspondingly, there are 7 pieces in an armor set : Facemask/Helmet, Harness/Backstrap, Arm Guards, Gloves, Groin/Thigh Guard, Shin Guards, and Foot Guards. A creature's attack will always land on one of the 7 areas, and if you're wearing armor on that body part, it will absorb as much of the damage as described in last weeks article. If you're not wearing armor on the area that the creature attacks, then you will take the full damage that was given. Many players who are just getting started will buy armor one piece at a time, or upgrading from one armor to another one piece at a time. Its important to know that the protection is not aggregate, but individual to the area in which the creature attacks.

Now, if you've been out in the wilds a few times, you will notice that sometimes a creature does more damage than normal, and you get a red number instead of orange. This means that the creature dealt a "critical hit", often called a "crit" for short. There are 2 kinds of critical hits, "armor penetration", and "extra damage." Armor penetration means that the creature dealt a normal amount of damage, but your armor did not protect you. If a creature does 10-20 damage, and hits you for 15.0, you would get the full 15.0 hit, as though you did not have armor on. The "extra damage" critical hit means that the creature dealt double the normal amount of damage, and your armor protects you as normal. In this case, the creature normally does 10-20 damage range,and your armor gives you 10 points of protection. The damage would double, turning an ordinary 15 point hit into a 30 point hit, of which only 10 points would be absorbed by your armor leaving you to take 20 points of damage.

It's worthy of mentioning defense skills here also, to clear up some another common misconception. When fighting any creature that doesn't shoot you, you will gain Evade skill. Some people believe that this reduces the damage dealt to you by a creature, as you gain Evade skill. This is not the case. What actually happens is that the creature has a larger chance of "missing" you entirely. This is good because a "miss" means that you don't absorb any damage, and your armor doesn't take any decay. The more Evade, (and Avoidance/Intuition, as you progress) the less likely that the attack finds you at all.

Mid-Level Armors










These are three of the most commonly used all-around armors. I'll give a brief description of each.

Shogun is the cheapest of the three, but is also the least protection, and the least durable. The protection it offers covers all the most common damage types, is well-balanced, and can be tailored to fit mobs with lots of different plates. If you're moving up to something like Werewolves, Motorheads or some of the mid-level zombies, and you don't want to spend a ton of PED, Shogun is a great choice, and with the right armor plates, it can serve you well into mid-level play.

Ghost is one of the best all-around armors that you can find. It has a wide variety of protection, is very solid against the most common damages, and allows you to hunt almost anything you'll run across. The durability is probably the weakest point, though it is well within the normal range. The foot guards tend to be very expensive, as they are the least common part, and many people will often use foot guards from Shogun or Vigilante in place of the Ghost. If you're looking for an armor that allows you to face at least the smallest maturity creatures of almost any race, this is the armor for you.

Vigilante is like an upgraded version of Shogun. It offers more of the same types of protection as Shogun, with added durability. It doesn't cover the less common damage types, like cold, electric and acid, but it is more evenly balanced across the most common damages. With the right armor plates, (Mark.6A), Vigilante is often referred to as "The Poor Man's PK" armor. If you mine in PvP4 areas, or like battling your fellow ROCKtropians in the ring, this armor protects well against the common ranged weapon types of damage.

There are a lot of factors to consider when purchasing your armor, and I hope the last two articles can help you decide what best suits you on your journey through ROCKtropia.