Proficiencies for traps!

[I-am-Erk]

Summary

SUMMARY: Balance "Make trap related proficiencies functional"

Purpose of change

I added proficiencies for trap setting and disarming when I created the Devices skill, but I didn't make them do anything yet. A few redditors have noticed so I guess my clever ruse is failing... better act quick before word gets out.

Describe the solution

DISARMING

• The randomization in this process was an utter hash. I replaced it with a prototypic version of my proposed standard roll system and in the process learned a little about maybe how to better do this. Now the disarm is a normal_roll with a standard deviation of 3. Here are the results of 25 dice rolls using this routine, on a mean_roll of 7 (which corresponds to Devices skill 7, perception/dexterity 8, and no traps proficiencies at all, or Devices 5, average stats, and basic traps proficiency)
  
• You no longer get a morale boost or penalty for disarming traps. That's not because it's not a good idea, but because it was engaged in a really weird and idiosyncratic way that doesn't apply to lots of other appropriate stuff. If we want something like this we should add a system for standardized morale effects for accomplishing or failing complex tasks.
• You now gain experience in traps and disarming for disarming traps.

The disarming roll is now determined by:

• Devices skill
• Weighted average of Dex3, Perc2 and Int*1, with every 4 points of the average counting as +1 to your skill
• Proficiencies: No traps proficiencies are -2 to your roll, basic traps proficiency negates that bonus, disarming proficiency adds +4, and the trapsetting proficiency adds a nominal +1 bonus.

The roll itself has a standard deviation of 3, so the results are fairly randomized and have a wide swing.

Most mundane traps have a difficulty of 1-10. This difficulty conveniently corresponds to the skill level at which you have as good a chance of disarming the trap as you do of failing, if you have no proficiencies at all and average stats. The highest difficulty disarmable trap is the teleporter, with a difficulty of 20. The highest mean_roll you can achieve with average stats is at devices 10 with all proficiencies, for 17. At that level you can pretty frequently disarm a teleporter, but you still need a good roll. I think that's pretty much perfect.

I also included a debug message displaying your roll, your mean_roll, and the trap difficulty.

TRAP DETECTION:

• Similar to above, I changed the very complicated original formula to a normal curve.
• For trap detection, attributes (particularly perception) are way more important than skills, but your devices skill does help.
• Proficiencies apply as above, but the relevant proficiencies are traps, spotting, and trapsetting.
• Replaced a previous bonus related to the stimulant drug effect with a smoother bonus depending on your current focus. This will get slicker still as we have stimulants impact your focus.
• Fatigue, distance, and eye encumbrance reduce your ability to spot traps.
  With no devices skills, no proficiencies, and average attributes, you have a 10% chance to spot a landmine. That increases to 25% with the basic traps proficiency, and goes up with other proficiencies.
• As you get to higher bonus levels, you get better at spotting traps at a distance or when tired or poorly equipped. Go you.

Describe alternatives you've considered

DISARMING:
I considered adding mutations into the roll and some things like that, but didn't want to get too complex.

It may be worth looking into adding a tool quality or two to the mix to improve your chances, but I don't know what we would use.

TRAP DETECTION:

• I am not sure it's the right time to ditch the stimulant effect, but I don't want to go back and rewrite this in ten minutes.

Testing

DISARMING:
Extensively tested.

With a low devices skill and no proficiency, I shot myself with shotguns a lot, but was able to gain XP and on a few occasions managed to disarm the trap. XP gain in proficiencies followed the expected pattern, first giving me basic traps and then disarming.

Increasing my skills increased my chances of success. Due to the wide swing of rolls it was still possible to mess up but became less and less common the more skill I gained. All in all it did not feel much different from before, but I did find that disarming was less of "in the bag" at high levels than before. There remains a small risk even at higher levels, especially without proficiency.

DETECTION:
I like, walked around and tried not to get eaten by landmines. When I was bad at spotting I got eaten by more than when I was good at spotting.

Look, I gained XP!

SETTING:
The time to set a trap is now no longer just the moves value defined in JSON. That is the major factor, but the final move cost is calculated by:

• multiply moves by the difficulty of the trap squared, then divide by your Devices skill level
• multiply the result by 2 if you don't know trapsetting, and 4 if you don't know traps.
  You gain traps and trapsetting XP based on the difficulty of the trap you're setting.

Additional context

Requires #44860 to be merged first.

[Shodan14]

Could we also get new traps with like grenades and tripwires and whatnot?

[I-am-Erk]

That's way out of scope for what I'm doing here

[I-am-Erk]

As far as I can tell, this is ready.

Trap setting should be made an activity now that it can take longer, but as far as I can tell that's a pretty involved process. I could revert the time changes there if it's a problem.