Does anyone know the actual numbers behind quality rolls for item crafting?
Toady offers some information with the SKILL_ROLL_RANGE token, but the information seems ambiguous/wrong:
[SKILL_ROLL_RANGE:<basic range>:<multiplier>]
The skill roll is: random(basic range) + random((skill level * multipler)/2 + 1) + random((skill level * multipler)/2 + 1)
random(x) returns a number between 0 and x-1, so basic range is always 1 or more. The default is 11.
The default multiplier is 5.
For the basic range to always be 1 or more, it'd need to be x+1.
It also doesn't account for attributes, which I know (at least in the past) have an effect on skills rolls, so either that's changed/it's not the case for raw-defined reactions/that information isn't included in the formula.
It also doesn't really mention what the skill roll actually amounts to in the end - when a roll turns up a value of 19, what does that actually mean in terms of the quality that's assigned?
The wiki also mentions that a series of dice rolls are made at successively higher difficulty levels to determine quality. Does that mean that there are multiple checks performed against higher and higher difficulties and the quality keeps rising until a check fails; or that a single check is made and that result is compared against a table to get the quality of the item, and the "series of rolls" bit just alludes to the fact multiple random rolls are included in that one check? (that information was added in this edit in 2016 without any comments about the source :c)
Measure of best guess is that
its exactly the same as some of the activities like combat when it applies to doing a particular job such as herbalism, example chosen specifically because it is reliant and trains the memory mental attribute. The wiki tracks attribute linked jobs pretty comprehensively. I wouldnt pay any attention to the nitty gritty math as it has likely changed significantly but rather to the direct roll modifiers that deal in division malus still being applicable ontop of what you write out in your skill roll as all of the enclosed are actually proven to make your dwarf worse at workshop tasks.
Now if we must consider what is detractive, how exactly is it applied, does it entirely replace the affected reactions natural skill rolls per station, should we be writing out more detailed fields? Toady left it a little bit too vague on the functionalities but a possible clue emerges that it seems to be posessing a natural cap, which may determine that after 30 levels of default skill going way over legendary 15 more times the skill roll must find a purpose no longer operate.
<required_skill_ip_total>
</required_skill_ip_total>
Rolling it back to a much smaller number, it'd perhaps mean that a SKILL_IP of 2 through the modifier actively either maxes out or simply stops improving in terms of speed & quality, and to apply this logic also means that a certain attribute stops being beneficial after its cap, which is a more natural 11, which
could very well fit into 0 - 5000 if taken in steps of 454 (though anybody's guess how to access it, it may be hardcoded that looms 'Always' process kinesthetic as a priority skill roll, so this field means nothing on a custom workshop)
Putting it together, basic range and modifier, works until skill level x, and attribute 454(xnum) with the +1's probably not counting for anything, probably expecting that being focused adds another *1 modifier like it makes dwarves more competent at combat.
I know i ask more questions than i answered, possibly got it all wrong but id like to thoroughly know and understand it too.
How i look and feel at the moment after reading back this mad collection of e-scribbles.