Ancillary/Trait Scripting Tip to Devs for 2.6

[TheSavage]

Back on TWC after many years and read a thread yesterday about the traits. I think one of the devs was saying that even at the minimum chance of acquiring a trait (1%), it is still very likely to be acquired over the course of the lifetime, and that's why certain bad traits seem to appear too frequently.

To the devs, there is a way in the trigger to easily reduce the Chance far below 1%. You can use RandomPercent in the trigger conditions. Then, the actual chance will equal the RandomPercent multiplied by the specified Chance. For example...

If you have this, resulting in 1% chance...

Trigger XYZ
WhenToTest CharacterTurnEnd


Condition IsGeneral
and EndedInSettlement


Affects Trait_XYZ 1 Chance 1

And you think it should actually be a 0.1% chance per turn, you can change it to this...

Trigger XYZ
WhenToTest CharacterTurnEnd


Condition IsGeneral
and EndedInSettlement
and RandomPercent <=10




Affects Trait_XYZ 1 Chance 1


Or for a 0.01% chance per turn...

Trigger XYZ
WhenToTest CharacterTurnEnd


Condition IsGeneral
and EndedInSettlement
and RandomPercent <=1




Affects Trait_XYZ 1 Chance 1

That works in the ancillary triggers and it should work for Trait triggers as well. Just thought I'd share, since I rarely see it being used but can be very helpful.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

Thank you, that might well be useful.

Our thrust in a possible v2.7, however, is more likely to be a 'fixed base characterisation' that runs just once. Just as in those RL characterisations (I'm an Assertive-Nurturer classically, for example) and/or based around ~6 basic attributes. We'll then use the Every Turn chances to then develop and tweak from that base.

Whatever %age we use, the triggers that run every turn can result in traits we would wish to limit more than they are, without necessarily having the %age's so low. But useful extra knowledge anyway.