Ability power - what is it?

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phoenixffyrnig
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Ability power - what is it?

Post by phoenixffyrnig »

Some units, eg anti cav, have their passive ability (the anti-mounted damage weapon) getting stronger with ability power. What does this mean in practical terms, does a boost of 1 to ability power = a boost of 1 to the base dam?

And regarding units with an active ability that has an ability chance, eg converters, how does a boost of 1 to ability power effect their ability chance?

And what effects ability power? Morale - does this work both ways, bonus or malus ? Except for various auras or abilities such as divine right / chants (that say so in the description), is there anything else?
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Endru1241
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Re: Ability power - what is it?

Post by Endru1241 »

phoenixffyrnig wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:54 pm Some units, eg anti cav, have their passive ability (the anti-mounted damage weapon) getting stronger with ability power. What does this mean in practical terms, does a boost of 1 to ability power = a boost of 1 to the base dam?
In AoS almost all damaging (or all) ability damage of effect is straight = ability power, including anti-mounted damage.
But what ability power does really depends on effect implementation.
If effect has a description "Stronger with Ability Power(*)" then that means ability power is used as a multiplier to base effect.
Commonly base is just 1, but e.g. healers Promote Loyalty is +5 mental resistance *ability power.
Ability power can also be used as addition to effect power (I don't think I used it anywhere yet) or making effect run as many times as ability power indicates ("Stronger with Ability Power(x)") - Hwacha case.
phoenixffyrnig wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:54 pm And regarding units with an active ability that has an ability chance, eg converters, how does a boost of 1 to ability power effect their ability chance?
Ability Power never affects chance.
There is stat Ability Possibility, that affects all unit effects chances (actually it's named convertPossibility in json, but whatever).
It's clearly written in details of effects/techs if it's changed.
phoenixffyrnig wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:54 pm And what effects ability power? Morale - does this work both ways, bonus or malus ? Except for various auras or abilities such as divine right / chants (that say so in the description), is there anything else?
Effects/techs that affect ability power have it written in their doc.
Most common are High Morale +1 and Low Morale -1.

Seriously - we worked with stratego to upgrade unit docs to display as much info as possible (and needed) over last months (actually mostly in the summer if I remember right), so right now it should have enough information for any player.
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Re: Ability power - what is it?

Post by phoenixffyrnig »

OK, so it's literally just a multiplier for anything that has the "stronger with ability power" tag? Cool, thanks for the info - was just a bit confused seeing units with different stats for ability power - couldn't work out why it was written down if it's only the change that has effect and not the different values. Thanks
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Re: Ability power - what is it?

Post by Endru1241 »

phoenixffyrnig wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 11:01 pm OK, so it's literally just a multiplier for anything that has the "stronger with ability power" tag?
Beware of the details!
It's "Stronger with Ability Power(*)" for multiplication.
"Stronger with Ability Power(x)" for applying effect as many times as ability power (so e.g. armor is counted each time too).
Hwacha attacks and then applies effect multiplied by attack power as many times as hwacha ability power (3 times).
And "Stronger with Ability Power(+)" in case of adding ability power to initial effect power.
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Re: Ability power - what is it?

Post by phoenixffyrnig »

The devil is in the detail (old English saying, no idea what it really means, but it seemed appropriate :lol: ).

Sweet, I do like to know the details and do the exact mental maths as I take my turns, cheers.
I also play an RTS game called Life 8-)
And I also like drinking beer! :D
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Re: Ability power - what is it?

Post by Endru1241 »

phoenixffyrnig wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 11:22 pm The devil is in the detail (old English saying, no idea what it really means, but it seemed appropriate :lol: ).

Sweet, I do like to know the details and do the exact mental maths as I take my turns, cheers.
Not that old.
In English at least.
It was first published somewhere in the sixtees.
English, French, German, Spanish and Polish have national variant of that, but not sure how old is each, but there are some clues, that German variant appeared as early as 1930.
There is also similar saying, which can be traced back to first half of 19th century - a French one, that can be translated as - God is in the detail.

Generally "devil in the details" means, that smallest details can hide some flaws from you and later ruin whole work, so you should be very precise and careful. So German.
"God is in the detail" however means to be precise around details as it's closer to divine or at least - liked by higher power.
It was probably a variation on Charles Colton (probably) "trifles make perfection, perfection is no trifle", that was written as anecdote of Michelangelo Buonarotti commenting his own work.

Btw. recall a linguist stating, that original folk saying in Polish was something like "God is in small things, but the Devil in the details" - good luck in small things comes from the God blessing, but the Devil puts something to ruin it in unrecognisable at first details. Which actually totally changes the meaning, but nobody use it like that.
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