Padding
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Padding is a rare defensive property, typically found on armor, that provides greater-than-normal protection from critical hits (known as "critical padding") or health point loss (known as "damage padding"). The level of padding is represented as a number (usually from 0 to 50), known as combat effective points (CEP), which collectively make up an item's combat effectiveness rating (CER) (CEP and CER can be used interchangeably). Skilled warriors can ASSESS an item to get the full details of its CER and number of merchant services applied. The relationship between combat effective points and assessed estimates is shown on the table to the right. For example, an item that assesses as "heavily padded against critical blows" has 9-10 points of critical padding. The worded description provides an in character way to describe the padding.
Spells and abilities can also provide temporary padding while they are in effect.
This property is typically not found on off-the-shelf armors from town shops, but may be available in varying levels from special merchants, or box-found on armor from the treasure system.
As of the August 2017 update, padding has been changed to a Category C item property and can coexist with all other properties, including both critical and damage padding on the same item.
Critical Padding
Critical padding reduces the critical severity of a successful attack by subtracting a phantom amount (up to the number of combat effective points, subject to possible randomization if the padding is greater than 6 CEP) from the raw HP damage before resolving the critical rank. Critical padding cannot reduce a critical that would have been rank 1 or higher to a rank 0. Characters have natural critical padding derived from CON bonus, but the exact formula is not known.
For attack rolls (Attack Strength vs. Defensive Strength), to calculate the maximum critical rank generated by a given endroll it is necessary to know the Damage Factor of the weapon vs the armor (reduced by a factor if redux is active), the critical divisor of the armor, and the number of combat effective points the armor has. If the attacker's weapon has critical weighting, its weighting CEP are added to the phantom damage. The general formula for determining the maximum critical rank is:
| Max Critical Rank = Truncate[((Endroll - 100) * Damage Factor - Randomize(Padding CEP) + Weapon Weighting CEP) / Critical Divisor] |
where Randomize(Padding CEP) = Padding CEP exactly if Padding CEP ≤ 6, otherwise it is a random number in the range [6, Padding CEP] with an unknown distribution.
(Note: Critical weighting is not randomized and always adds a fixed amount of weighting CEP.)
After computing the max critical rank, the actual critical rank of the attack result may be reduced by critical randomization (separately from the randomization of padding level).
Critical damage taken from other sources than attack rolls (such as from flares or maneuvers) is also reduced in many cases, but the exact formulas and conditions where it is applicable are not known.
Sample Calculations
The following sample calculations use standard (unweighted) weapons with 200 endrolls and utilize 10 CEP of critical padding:
- Handaxe vs. Brigandine : ( (200 - 100) * 0.270 - 0 + 0 ) / 7 = 3.86 ≈ Rank 3 critical
- Handaxe vs. HCP Brigandine : ( (200 - 100) * 0.270 - 10 + 0 ) / 7 = 2.43 ≈ Rank 2 critical
- Handaxe vs. Hauberk : ( (200 - 100) * 0.240 - 0 + 0 ) / 9 = 2.67 ≈ Rank 2 critical
Critical Rank Table
The table below shows how the critical ranks from a handaxe and maul with various endrolls scale across the different armor groups. The calculations including padded armor assumed 10 CEP of padding. Where noted (*) the padding is sufficient to reduce the critical rank to 0 if it wasn't otherwise restricted to a minimum of rank 1.
(Note: These tables assume no active redux. If redux is active then the endroll margins required to achieve the same results should be multiplied by 1/(1 - redux_factor).)
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Damage Padding
Damage padding directly reduces the health point loss inflicted, but will not reduce the critical rank of the original attack. For example, if a particular attack would deal 20 HP damage and a wound from the critical, then against someone wearing armor with 6 damage padding CER ("somewhat padded") the attack would instead deal 14 HP, but the wound and critical rank would remain the same.
Randomization
The amount of padding CEP applied to a successful attack may be randomized (note that this is distinct from critical randomization). For critical or damage padded armor up to "somewhat" padded, the amount of padding applied is fixed. That is, any armor with 6 CEP or less (inclusive) of damage or critical padding will always provide the maximum amount of padding it can to any attack. In the case of greater levels of padding, the amount of padding CEP applied will be randomized but the armor will never provide less than somewhat critical or damage padding. The exact probability distribution of the possible values is unknown. This change was announced by GM Warden in early 2008.
Interactions
Redux
If redux is active, then for the purposes of calculating max critical rank, critical padding is applied after weapon damage factor reduction. In the Max Critical Rank formula above, the Damage Factor should be reduced by the redux factor. For example, for a handaxe against chain armor, the usual DF is 0.240. If there is 50% redux then simply use 0.120 as the DF, the rest of the crit rank calculation proceeds the same.
Damage padding is applied to the end result after all redux effects.
Armor Accessories
NOTE: GM Naijin revealed that as long as 10 services (1 CER) of padding is present on an enhanced/flaring/spiked armor accessory, the padding present on the main (torso) armor will carry over and be applied to the armor accessory and not be halved in effectiveness. If it is critical padding, then the 1 CER present on the accessory must be critical padding for it to carry over and not be halved in effectiveness. If it is damage padding, then the 1 CER present on the accessory must be damage padding for it to carry over and not be halved in effectiveness. If the main (torso) armor has both critical and damage padding then the accessory must have at least 1 CER of both critical and damage padding for it to carry over and not be halved in effectiveness.
Combining armor items with enhancements have various effects. Note that the effects only take place in the active area. i.e. Effects due to enhancement of armor remain unchanged with respect to the head, neck, torso, and arms when worn in conjunction with leg greaves that bear an enhancement.
Padding + Padding (Similar) Armor accessories with padding types similar to the armor they cover result in the area having padding equal to the highest rank between the two. e.g. Masterfully critical padded leg greaves worn with heavily critical padded hauberk results in masterful critical padding of the legs. When the same type of padding is present on the main armor and an armor accessory, the higher of the two will always take priority in regards to combat resolutions. This means it is possible to have a 20 CER critical padded metal breastplate and a pair of leg greaves with 1 CER and the 20 CER critical padding of the metal breastplate would be applied to the leg greaves. However, if the leg greaves did not have that 1 CER of critical padding present, then the 20 CER of the metal breastplate would not be applied to the leg greaves. The same is true for damage padding. Padding + Padding (Dissimilar) Armor accessories with padding types different from the armor they cover causes both types of padding to be halved in effectiveness. e.g. Heavily critical padded leg greaves combined with heavily damage padded hauberk results in somewhat critical and somewhat damage padding of the legs. However, if a player gets 10 services (1 CER) of the same type of padding present on the hauberk on the leg greaves in the above example, in this instance the heavy damage padding of the hauberk would carry over to the heavily critical padded leg greaves. Padding + Spikes/Flares Armor accessories with flares combines with critical or damage padded armor results in the padding being halved in that coverage area. e.g. Fire flaring leg greaves combined with heavily damage padded hauberk results in somewhat damage padding of the legs with the appropriate flaring effects. However, if a player gets 10 services (1 CER) of the same type of padding present on the hauberk on the leg greaves in the above example, in this instance the heavy damage padding of the hauberk would carry over to the fire flaring leg greaves. Padding + Enhancement For these purposes, enhancement refers to resistance to specific damage types, an active bless, or TD enhancement. Armor accessories with such enhancements cause padding of the base armor to be halved in effectiveness. e.g. Heavily critical padded hauberk worn with blessed leg greaves results in somewhat critical padding of the legs. However, if a player gets 10 services (1 CER) of the same type of padding present on the hauberk on the leg greaves in the above example, in this instance the heavy critical padding of the hauberk would carry over to the blessed leg greaves. Padding + Stat/Skill Enhancement Armor accessories that are only skill or stat enhancives will retain the padding of the main armor. e.g. Heavily critical padded double leather with +2 strength arm greaves will retain heavily crit padding in that area.
Flares
Temporary flares applied to an item (such as Consecrate (1604) plasma flares) have reduced strength if the item has padding. If the padding is 10 points or more, temporary flares will not take effect. This restriction only applies for temporary flares; permanent flares are not reduced.
Spells and Abilities
Padding from spells and abilities are applied additively to any existing padding on armor. This includes Mage Armor (520) and the Sigils of Minor/Major Protection of the Guardians of Sunfist. For example, if a character is wearing armor with 10 CEP ("heavily padded") and uses Sigil of Major Protection for 10 additional CEP, they would have 20 padding CEP for the duration of the sigil (equivalent to "masterfully padded").
Empaths receive a base of heavy critical padding (10 combat effective points) for 30 seconds through Regeneration (1150).
Elemental Barrier (430) can provide padding through lore benefits. Training in Earth Lore provides a percentage chance equal to the seed 10 summation of ranks trained to gain +10 combat effective points of critical padding for any single attack.
Merchant Services
- Main article: WPS smithy
| Weighting/Padding/Sighting (W/P/S) Combat Effectiveness Rating (CER) vs. Total Services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The merchant service to add combat effective points (CEP) will, in most cases, offer to increase the number of services on an item. The relationship between combat effective points and services is shown on the table to the right. Weighting (for melee weapons), padding (armor), and sighting (for ranged weapons) all share this table and are collectively known as W/P/S. The number of CEP on an item is also known as the combat effectiveness rating (CER).
For example, adding 20 services of critical padding to a non-padded item will give it a 2 CER. Adding 20 services to an item that already has 130 services (9 CER) will take it to a total of 150 services (10 CER).
If the number of services on an item fall within an intermediate CER, the item will provide a % chance equal to the progress towards the next CER to increase the combat effectiveness to the next value: an item with 145 services will have a 75% chance to confer a 10 CER (150 services) in combat instead of 9 (130 services). It is possible for an item to have both critical and damage padding or weighting, as applicable, and they can be added separately with a corresponding price surcharge. The total number of services per item is still capped at 5000.
Service Windows
When a W/P/S merchant service is offered, the price (silvers or event currency) of adding services increases as more services are added within the same Service Window, which is set as six two-month periods (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec) spanning a calendar year. This Service Window is tracked per item across all merchants and venues. Cost per service only increases with the number of services added within this window, not the total number of existing services on an item.
Every W/P/S service done an item within a two-month service window (as specified above) will increase the Service Count within that window. Items will become more expensive to work on as the Service Count increases. Price increases happen at Service Counts of 5, 10, and 15, with significant price increases starting at 20+. On the first service after a Service Window ends, the Service Count is reset.
Service Pricing
W/P/S service pricing is dependent on the other mechanical attributes of the item other than the one being serviced. Each attribute is assigned a point value that is summed to determine the total gear points for the item.
| Weighting/Padding/Sighting (W/P/S) Gear Point Values | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Silvers price is then calculated for each gear point, with higher gear points costing more per point.
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A few item properties are not calculated in the above manner and instead are added on after the value above is determined.
| Additional types of W/P/S: | |||||||||||
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| 500 silver * Number of Services of types other than the type currently being serviced. | |||||||||||
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Finally, The value is multiplied by the Service Count multiplier and any service type multiplier.
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Service Type Multipliers
- Critical Weighting/Padding carries a 10% increase on the final price.
Currencies
- All calculations use a base price of silvers, then are converted to alternate currencies at an exchange rate.
Cost Minimums
- GM Merchant Offerings - 10,000 silvers for damage/sighting or 11,000 silvers for critical. Requires 6 gear points or higher to go above minimum.
- WPS Wandering Wagon - 75,000 silvers for damage/sighting or 82,500 silvers for critical. Requires 33 gear points or higher to go above minimum.
- Please see conversion rates below for other currency offerings when offered.
Conversion Rate
The conversion rate varies from event to event.
- Bloodscrip - At Duskruin 2018 the conversion rate was 750 silvers per bloodscrip*
Premium Point Padding
Heavy Padding (only) is available through the Premium Point system at a cost of 1200 points + (armor enchant bonus * 100 points). For example, to add heavy critical padding to 4x (+20) suit of armor would cost 1200 + (20 * 100) = 3200 premium points. The premium point benefit is not additive; it will simply take an item to 150 services, or 10 CER.
Adventurer's Guild
Temporary damage padding (50 hits) can be obtained through the Adventurer's Guild using bounty points. ORDER 16 at any guild Treasure Master to get a price quote for Somewhat or Heavy, as prices vary based on an armor's item properties.