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[RoguelikeRazuka]

I think it'd be cool if you introduced into adventure mode items which could change character's fate very drastically. For example, by delivering him good luck or more troubles. Magical cards, sacred or cursed ankhs, items of the dead, items granted by gods. I read story of one guy's character, and I was admired. He encountered some epic monster which was unreachable by melee weapons, but could be hit by thrown items. The guy had thrown all the items he had to throw exept one - a dagger - and it didn't deliver any harm to the monster. And then he thows that dagger - the monster's head falls down from his shoulders. It was such a great piece of luck! These insane happenings could be provided by holding items like those I have mentioned, don't you think so?

[Arx]

Artifacts are planned to have magical effects in the future, I believe, which might do some of this stuff. Luck doesn't really figure into DF, though.

[Witty]

Not luck persay, but there is sort of a random factor in combat. Being cursed for example will cripple your ability to hit anything. So having a weapon/artifact that has an opposite effect wouldn't be so out of place.

[Arx]

That's true. Some kind of magical boost to combat skills.

[Deboche]

Not luck persay, but there is sort of a random factor in combat. Being cursed for example will cripple your ability to hit anything. So having a weapon/artifact that has an opposite effect wouldn't be so out of place.

This wouldn't really feel like luck though, rather lack of skill. Luck is what was described in the first post but in that case it was actually luck.

So if luck was to be featured in the game, it'd have to be the same as it exists in other games like critical hits and stuff like that. DF seems to have plenty of that already, we've all seen situations where an unarmed and apparently helpless creature manages to one-hit a dwarf.

[Dirst]

Not luck persay, but there is sort of a random factor in combat. Being cursed for example will cripple your ability to hit anything. So having a weapon/artifact that has an opposite effect wouldn't be so out of place.

This wouldn't really feel like luck though, rather lack of skill. Luck is what was described in the first post but in that case it was actually luck.

So if luck was to be featured in the game, it'd have to be the same as it exists in other games like critical hits and stuff like that. DF seems to have plenty of that already, we've all seen situations where an unarmed and apparently helpless creature manages to one-hit a dwarf.

"Luck" would enter into the die-roll part of a skill check.  Internally, computers use a uniform distribution from 0 to 1 for random numbers (so it could be 0.006 or 0.8711247 or 0.9987163 or whatever) and the programmer manipulates that into the range of random numbers actually desired.

So, suppose the chance to hit was something exceedingly simple like:

if attacker_skill + weapon_quality - defender_skill - armor_quality - shield_bonus + random_number() > 0 then
    hit
else
    miss
end if

An easy way to incorporate "luck" would be to change the random_number() function to something that is still 0-to-1 but can be skewed high or low.  The beta distribution has that property, and a beta with the right parameters can even recreate a uniform random number.

The cost is that evaluating a beta is necessarily slower (under the hood, it still uses a uniform random number then transforms it), and DF seems to involve a lot of random numbers.  Fortunately, the current bottleneck in DF performance seems to be memory bandwidth rather than processor speed, so this might not make a big difference.

[Magistrum]

Luck is already in the game, for example, the mummy curse is a reaction that makes your character "unlucky" and you get a 1/5 chance of getting the worse result possible in a combat roll. Also, once you're cursed you will never get lucky again.

[Deboche]

"Luck" would enter into the die-roll part of a skill check.

This is exactly what I mean, it wouldn't really be luck, your character would just be somewhat better or worse everytime he attacks. Having a higher probability of dealing or being dealt a critical hit is more similar to actual luck but still not quite.

[Putnam]

Luck doesn't really figure into DF, though.

CE_SKILL_ROLL_ADJUST is pretty explicitly a magical luck change.

[RoguelikeRazuka]

I believe it should work like Wild Wasteland trait from Fallout New Vegas. Not always for the good, but still fun and, which is more important, fatalistic.

[vjmdhzgr]

I believe it should work like Wild Wasteland trait from Fallout New Vegas. Not always for the good, but still fun and, which is more important, fatalistic.

If you want the Wild Wasteland perk try playing a new release right after a bunch of new features have been added. All anybody says is "it's inevitable", there's animal militaries, and yelling to yourself causes the game to crash.

[Dirst]

Luck doesn't really figure into DF, though.

CE_SKILL_ROLL_ADJUST is pretty explicitly a magical luck change.

There's a difference between a straight adjustment and what I proposed above.  The CE_SKILL_ROLL_ADJUST is like a "+2 to all rolls" which can result in previously impossible achievements (or for a negative make previously achievable goals impossible).  The beta distribution doesn't change the bounds of what's possible, it just makes better or worse results more likely.

It only gets really interesting if the two parameters are a bit independent of one another.  Suppose we impose normal luck as 1, and let it range from 0.5 to 1.5 (to keep things from getting too far out of hand).  The outcome of Beta(attacker_luck,defender_luck) will skew as you might expect.  If both are lucky, results tend toward the middle and if both are unlucky, results tend toward the extremes.  If you'd prefer it the other way, just use Beta(1/defender_luck,1/attacker_luck).

[Deboche]

Maybe luck could be a 1/big number chance at each frame to have something extremely good happen to you. If you're having a conversation, the person you're talking to falls in love with you or something; if you're in battle, score a critical hit or prevent a lot of damage; if you're just walking around, stumble on a jewel encrusted weapon and so on.

Similarly bad luck would be another 1/big number chance of having something terrible happen to you.

The big numbers are randomized when you create your character. And maybe you can pray to a god of luck and he'll randomize them again.

[Sergarr]

Low chance things, while realistic, are horrible both in testing and in gameplay.

[Putnam]

Well, the chance per tick of getting an artifact is 1/5000. Ticks are pretty short.