Topic: the mysterious 'Hands' stat~ What is it, how is it formulated, what is it for, and what is it's potential? We know in our current source it served and serves no function, and did not have one, but was likely a placeholder stat, apparently for a forgotten or unimplemented aspect of the game. Later, it was used to determine the quality of your own finessed DIY maker items, a lovely and apropos function if I do say so myself. First question, for GMs or those that can answer: how is the hands stat formulated? Is it from dex, level, etc? This would be very helpful for this thread. answered! The hands "formula" is simply the flat sum total of INT, DEX, LUK, from AP and equip stat+ bonuses. If you have 347 LUK, 26 DEX, 17 INT, 10 STR total from AP/equips your hands stat would be 390. Everyone put your hands together for @Soren for giving us a hand! :^] ~~~ Now, as hands serves no current function in the game, it gives it an interesting potential to do so. Before I go on, what do you think hands could be used for functionally here in the server? Very interested in all ideas you might have. It seemed the hands stat was higher in higher dex chars (aka ranged chars, plus bandits). I always thought hands gave you the chance to not be knocked off ropes/ladders/etc while climbing, and this realistically makes sense, but it would also make sense warriors would have a harder time getting knocked off too (grip STR, but apparently not!), that was just headcannon anyway, but more on all that later. The first idea I have could potentially help a problem all ranged chars (and shads) suffer from, platform falling, repositioning, reclimbing, especially at HT and to a smaller extent zak. As these classes all don't have stance (except technically shads do), hands could help chars from being knocked off ropes, and also have a chance to be knocked to the very edge of a plat, but not over it. This small saving grace chance could be a welcome QoL that doesn't outright give ranged chars stance, but at least when being knocked around, a chance to not entirely fall off a plat. Maybe a 1/10, the opposite of max stance, depending on your hands stat. This working independently from stance would be a nice QoL for warriors who are asking for 100% stance. It wouldn't be 100% still, but it would help a bit more for their recovery. "Ledge grab/catch" or recovery effect, or whatever we wanna call it could also by dynamic, making the players hold up and press jump to recover instead of just keeping them from falling. Would be a bit thrilling extra bit of flair while bossing. I know this sounds a bit novel, but it's just a fun idea, hands could be used for lots of other ideas. As I mentioned it could also give you climbing grip, so you are less likely to be knocked off when climbing slightly. It could increase climbing/descending speed, and it could also increase avoidability while climbing. This is a 2D game so this becomes important in some places, especially the "HTJQ" Interestingly, the two classes most affected by this ledge fall, shads and warriors, share the skill Endure, which allows and increases recovery while hanging (assassin's do too, but they have the luxury of back row attacking and flash jumping) Endure could also just be buffed, ignoring hands altogether to: increase "ledge recovery" (being hit to the edge but not falling over, like using rush near an edge) avoidability while climbing climbing speed (although not by much, if I'm being fair) climb kb resistance. ...while the hands stat to the rest of the classes that are affected by ledge fall sit in comfortable back row positions, archers, sins, sairs, and mages, who have high dex/luck/int. The only class this misses is buccs, who have stance-lite, and lots of iframes, but also attack on the edge at HT. They could best have a hands/endure-like buff packed into Knuckle Mastery (+X Hands, at max etc, or "improved endure" perks.), or be boosted during their trans states, to be more in balance with shads/warrior shifter/stance effects, and contend a bit better with other classes hands stat. Would probably be weird if the ocean monks had bad hands, right? Also interesting dynamic where "bad" zak helms would be reconsidered for their dex/luk/int THA (total hands amount), if hands were to play some role in the future ~~~ So, what are some other potential ideas or functions for this untapped stat? Can open chests/boxes slightly faster with a chance (not in bonuses)? Small increase for EQ to be less likely to be grey? Slight increase pixel range to grab a rope/ladder in the air (not in real JQs), or delay reduction during iframes to regrab rope/ladder (would help if getting knocked off rope)? Increased chance when collecting HPQ ingredients to get a chaos elixir, or just a slightly better HP potion (better hands; better ingredients; better potions; Papa Ruel's®), +11, +12 etc.? Increased inventory? Increased closeness points when playing with pet? Increased value in [Pickpocket] coins (so it scales better over time)? Small increasing scaled chance to [Steal] an item instead of mesos from a mob as your hands stat increases over time? Small chance to recover projectiles (not consume a projectile, formula added via mastery skill in conjunction with hands stat over time)? Increased damage from [Shadow Meso] (so it actually scales over time)? Crossbowman's [Final Attack] has a chance (10%?) to proc an extra line on [Strafe] if hands is over a certain total? Hunter's [Final Attack] has a chance (2.5%?) to proc an extra line on [Hurricane] if hands is over a certain total? Should STR factor in at .5? Should LUK be less than 1? With the droprates in royals, I don't really see the need to implement the maker skill here personally, and it would clash with the godly system anyway. Timeless equips could be forged by any npc prompt. It really only benefits the weird self imposed challenge characters, like cave people, Lego people. Handing it off to you!
I had that in the OP, I guess folks missed it. Yeah I did consider it but not by a drastic speed increase more. It seems weird STR has no affect at all on hands, but that's just how it works currently
Its actually a pretty interesting stat because its an independent stat but also scales over time, therefore could be factored in to help dead end skills over time as opposed to lots of additional fixes. It could be plugged into lots of things that have come up, that don't scale so great, like pickpocket, shadow meso (the hermit skill that throws mesos), steal, focus, shield mastery, shadow web, re-working archers final attack to work with strafe by adding a line if FA would proc if hands reaches maybe a determined mid/end game total for the late buff they often need. "Hands" being the sum stat of intelligence, dexterity, and chance, could also be renamed to something like Efficiency, Proficiency, Finesse, Technique. This could similarly bolster skills that fall flat over time, or don't scale, or are "useless" (but be without the literal hand element lol), such as the aforementioned skills, and adding element composition, meditation (increasing meditations stats +1 only after high hands/technique thresholds), MM's strafe and mortal blow, technique threshold could allow archers hamstring/blind to affect bosses after a total hands/tech threshold, increasing hermits alchemy effect (not for att pots though), bandits chance to steal or amount of mobs that could be stolen from. Also reformulating STR if you're a warrior class only, to be .7 or .8 or .9 hands/technique per STR point instead of 0 would give warriors a pool to work with in their own class to improve some skills that don't scale great, like iron body, iron will, threaten, shout, power/armor crash, beholder effects, and even letting FA proc an extra line on blast at like a 10% chance after a very high threshold like 999 hands Wild? Sure lol, but it's a perfect available and hidden stat to use for scaling that's not direct AP numbers, which gives it flexibility or restrictions based on the directions it could be taken (hands/tech could be worth less than current to lower power creep due to MW % based buff, or not affected by MW)
To be fair, STR classes have stance/bubble, so in terms of climbing back up ropes in the middle of a fight i'd say they are not the ones in a disadvantage. Climb speed would help the squishy range classes way more. Archers, Theifs, Sairs and Mages would all benefit from spending less time climbing the ropes in HT. And in general, these classes should be more "agile" than STR classes, so having them climb a little faster isn't out of character. [well, maybe it is a bit for mages lol]
How about adding a probability to survive a mortal blow but instead survive at 1 HP? I thought about scrolling luck or reduced boom rate for dark scrolls and all other sorts of OP stuff but that would be obviously ridiculous and break everything. Or: Make different kinds of perks and they may rotate throughout the year. That way there would be different things at different times and make the game a bit dynamic for end game especially
