Dwarven Research: A Study of the 'Archer' and 'Marksdwarf' Skills
INTRODUCTIONLittle information is available concerning the exact effects military skills have on dwarven battle performance. It is generally accepted that two skills are associated with ranged crossbow combat: the 'Marksdwarf' skill and 'Archer' skill. The former is a weapon skill and its general effects - increase in accuracy and rate of fire - are known
[1]. The effects of the 'Archery' skill, however, are shrouded in mystery, and it is only known that skill level increases with the use of any ranged weapon
[2]. The aim of this study is to elucidate the exact effects of these two skills.
METHODOLOGYIn order to address a wide range of performance criteria, the Author divided the study into three experiments:
In all of the above Arena Dwarves (defined
here) were the test subjects. Similar to the Author's previous studies, arena dwarves were divided into two teams: A (Assailant) and D (Defender). Details are given in the table below.
| | Team A | | Team D |
| Weapon: | | Cedar crossbow | | None |
| Ammo: | | 100 [varies] bolts | | None |
| Armor: | | None | | varies |
| Skills: | | Archer: varies
| Marksdwarf: varies | |
| |
Damage TestThe damage tests were performed in the same manner as the author's
previous study i.e., by using a large number of tiny 1vs1 cells with a single fortification tile separating Assailant and Defender. In order to further improve on the accuracy of the results, 5000 such cells were used to evaluate weapon performance in each scenario.
8 scenarios were tested:
(Bolt vs Armor) (Skill) (Skill)
--------------------------------------------
(Steel vs Copper) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 0)
(Steel vs Copper) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 0)
(Steel vs Copper) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 14)
(Steel vs Copper) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 14)
(Copper vs Steel) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 0)
(Copper vs Steel) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 0)
(Copper vs Steel) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 14)
(Copper vs Steel) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 14)
The purpose of these was to see how and if different skill extremes affect damage in two characteristic bolt-armor scenarios - bolts-tearing-armor and bolts-bludgeoning-armor.
The results, as if to spite the Author's 40'000 dwarf sacrifice, are utterly unimpressive. Skill level in both 'Marksdwarf' and 'Archer' made almost no difference on the type of damage sustained by Defenders. 'Marksdwarf' showed traces of influence, ever so slightly increasing the percentage of fractured (by 10% in Copper vs Steel and by 7-8% in Steel vs Copper) and shattered bones (by around 30%), but since they constitute no more than 10% and 2% of all injuries in the first place, respectively, this does not make a significant difference on combat performance. Probabilities of hitting a particular body part also remained the same throughout all scenarios, conforming to results presented on the
Virtruvian Dwarf (bottom of post). This strongly coincides with the relative sizes of the body parts found in the raws, as supplied by Urist da Vinci
hereThe only difference found was in the Average Number of Bolts Fired in Order to Kill a Dwarf (Fig 1.)
At first glance, it seems that a counter-intuitive result is obtained: Assailants with higher 'Marksdwarf' skill used up more bolts to kill a Defender. This, however, can be easily explained by the following test.
Rate of Fire TestRate of Fire was obtained by counting the number of ticks between consecutive shots by Marksdwarves of equal skill. Due to the troublesome nature of counting ticks, only 10 1vs1 cells were used and only 6 volleys were fired, giving 40 to 50 samples. All arena dwarves had the same equipment:
| | Team A | | Team D |
| Weapon: | | Cedar crossbow | | None |
| Ammo: | | 100 copper bolts | | None |
| Armor: | | None | | All steel armor |
| Skills: | | Archer: varies
| Marksdwarf: varies | |
| |
4 scenarios were tested:
(Skill) (Skill)
--------------------------
(Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 0)
(Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 0)
(Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 14)
(Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 14)
The results are presented in figure 2:
Again, only the 'Marksdwarf' skill has any effect on Rate of Fire. Grand Master Marksdwarves (skill level 14) fire roughly 1.7 times quicker then Dabblers.
Rate of Fire also explains why better marksdwarves use up more ammunition to kill a dwarf. There are a number of injuries (upper/middle spine bruising/tear, throat/heart tear) that cause death after a time delay, and only one (brain tear) that causes instant death. The probability of dealing a time-delayed death blow is the same for all skills, but the masters can get in more shots before the the victim actually suffocates/bleeds out. Thus, they are more wasteful in the ammunition department.
Range Test [+Dodging]Three ranges were tested: 5 tiles, 10 tiles and 20 tiles. The design for the range experiments is given on Figure 3.
In order to remove the effects fortifications may have on accuracy, they were removed. The only other method to restrict movement known to the Author was to surround test subjects with pits, and thus it was done. Unlike previous experiments, Defenders can move to tiles surrounding them - this enables dodging, and thus dodging was included to the Test criteria. Unfortunately, a dodging Defender is certain to move off its prison pillar and fall into the pit below, thus changing its distance from the the Assailant and changing the Test's parameters. In order to bypass this difficulty, each assailant was given exactly ONE bolt. 4000 Experiments per scenario were performed, giving 4000 bolts fired per scenario. Arena dwarves were equipped as follows:
| | Team A | | Team D |
| Weapon: | | Cedar crossbow | | None |
| Ammo: | | 1 copper bolt | | None |
| Armor: | | None | | All steel armor |
| Skills: | | Archer: varies
| Marksdwarf: varies | |
| |
12 scenarios were tested:
(Range) (Skill) (Skill)
--------------------------------------------
(5) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 0)
(5) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 0)
(5) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 14)
(5) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 14)
(10) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 0)
(10) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 0)
(10) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 14)
(10) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 14)
(20) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 0)
(20) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 0)
(20) (Archer 0) (Marksdwarf 14)
(20) (Archer 14) (Marksdwarf 14)
The following criteria were evaluated:
Probability of Hit (PoH) - Hits occur when the flying bolts trajectory crosses the tile occupied by the defender. A hit does not mean that the dwarf takes damage - it can lead to a deflection, glance off, dodge or miss before actually doing damage.
Probability of Dodge (PoD) - provided that a bolt hits, this criterion gives the probability that the dwarf dodges or misses it. Misses are included, since they basically seem to function similarly to dodges, with the exception that the dwarf does not move from the tile he is occupying. Note that all Defenders had absolutely no skill in dodge, so this value depend purely on Assailant skills.
Figure 4 shows the results obtained for PoH for different ranges and different skills:
Observations:
- 'Archer' skill makes no difference.
- Increasing 'Marksdwarf' skill provides significant boost to accuracy.
- Accuracy seems to be (approximately) inversely proportional to distance, at least in the case of Dabbling Marksdwarfs. More generally, perhaps there is an exponential decay of accuracy with distance, whose curve depends on 'Marksdwarf' skill?
Finally, results on PoD values were obtained and presented in Figure 5. These did not vary with range, so range data is omitted.
Observations
- 'Archer' skill is not useless! It actually has a role in the dodge skill role.
- 'Marksdwarf' skill still has a leading role, as it decreases the PoD to a larger degree than 'Archer' skill.
Conclusions- The 'Marksdwarf' skill is confirmed to affect weapon accuracy and rate of fire. It also decreases enemy dodge chance. It has negligible effect on the damage type.
- The 'Archer' skill is has almost no impact on crossbow ranged performance. The sole exception found in this study was dodge chance, which decreased significantly with an increase in skill (but still not as significantly as with 'Marksdwarf'). There was absolutely no significant correlation between 'Archer' skill level and damage type.
[Edited for fallacious conclusions]
Author
Topic: Dwarven Research: A Study of the 'Archer' and 'Marksdwarf' Skills (Read 25962 times)