Appraisal

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Appraisal
Definition:	This skill is used to determine a variety of information about many commmon objects.

Contents 1 Uses of Appraisal 1.1 General Appraisal 1.2 Appraisal in Combat 1.3 Appraisal & Poisons 1.4 Appraisal & Craftsmanship

Uses of Appraisal

Appraisal is arguably the most useful multi-purpose skill, ranging in several benefits when trained on its own and even more benefits when trained with certain other skills. Appraisal's defining statistic is Intellect, and possibly Mentality. It should be noted that the higher one's Appraisal rises, the quicker he will become at it (lesser roundtimes when appraising.)

General Appraisal

• General Appraisal can be used to appraise items of all sorts. Almost each and every item appraises differently, though each appraisal will always give one of two things: If it can(not) be worn, and how much you think it's worth. If the item being appraised is a container, it will also show how much the container can hold, and how much of it is full. How much you appraise the item being worth is based off the skill, the higher your Appraisal the more accurate your price range will become. Use: APPRAISE <ITEM>

Examples:

 You carefully look over an Aroai stone.
 It cannot be worn.
 You are somewhat confident that an Aroai stone is worth $3.
 Roundtime: 4 sec.

 You carefully look over a pair of black ankle-boots.
 It is worn upon the feet.
 You think a pair of black ankle-boots is basically worthless.
 Roundtime: 5 sec.

 You carefully look over a black canvas backpack.
 It is worn upon the back.
 It looks like the backpack will hold about 132 pounds of weight.
 The backpack currently holds about 109 pounds of items.
 This object may not be altered in any way.
 You are somewhat confident that a black canvas backpack is worth $159.
 Roundtime: 5 sec.

• Weapon & Armor Appraisals, including shields, are very useful for their purpose, revealing several important things about your weapons and armor. In the cases of weapons, it will reveal several important things such as the weapon's damage, its quality, and range suitability. When used with armor it will also reveal the quality of said armor, while revealing how well it is at protecting against the major damage types. Appraising weapons and armor will also show how much they are worth, once again based on skill so higher Appraisal skills produce more accurate results, as well as if they can be worn or not. Use: APPRAISE <ITEM>

Examples:

 You carefully look over a Rtuzma pulse rifle.
 It is worn on or over a single shoulder.
 Use of this weapon in melee combat requires proficiency in the blunt weapons skill.
 Use of this weapon when fired requires proficiency in the pulse weapons skill.
 You are certain it is of average quality and workmanship.
 This weapon uses pulse cores or hybrid cores for ammunition.
 This weapon is unsuited for use in underwater environments.
 
 This weapon is capable of doing weak blunt damage.
 This weapon is not suitable for piercing attacks.
 This weapon is not suitable for slashing attacks.
 This weapon is capable of doing impressive damage when fired.
 This weapon is capable of firing a single shot at a time.
 
 It looks as though it could be wielded effortlessly at melee range.
 It looks as though it would be excellently suited to wield at pole range.
 It looks as though it would be advantageous at pilum range.
 It looks as though it would be practical at missile range.
 
 This weapon requires two hands to wield.
 That item appears to be on sale for $1,140.
 Roundtime: 3 sec.

 You carefully look over a klulza standard suit.
 A klulza standard suit is classified as heavy armor.
 You are certain it is of average quality and workmanship.
 This armor provides poor protection against blunt damage.
 This armor provides slight protection against cold damage.
 This armor provides poor protection against electrical damage.
 This armor provides poor protection against erosion damage.
 This armor provides slight protection against heat and fire damage.
 This armor provides fair protection against piercing damage.
 This armor provides poor protection against slashing damage.
 This armor provides no protection against magics.
 This armor provides no protection against psionics.
 It appears this armor provides protection for the chest, waist, legs, arms, neck, 
 back, and abdomen.
 Considering your current armor in addition to a klulza standard suit you would be 
 much better off completely avoiding this armor.
 If you were using only a klulza standard suit you would be much better off completely 
 avoiding this armor.
 That item appears to be on sale for $2,755.
 Roundtime: 3 sec.

• Appraising Weights is also one of the more beneficial uses of Appraisal, revealing how much something weighs. Given enough skill in Appraisal, one can eventually anything with no roundtime whatsoever, and an appraisal skill of above 210 (base, not bonused) will reveal weights under 1 pound to the exact ounce. Weighing items with appraisal is skill based, though you will never read something that actually weighs 5 pounds as being 20 pounds, instead you may get a message that "you think this object weighs between 3 to 8 pounds". The higher your appraisal score, the more accurate your weighing attempts will become. Use: WEIGH <OBJECT or PERSON>.

Example:

 By your best estimates, some exquisite sahe weighs roughly between 1 and 2 pounds.
 Roundtime: 16 sec.

 By your best estimates, a sludge-covered llirae safe weighs about 5 pounds.

• Encumbrance Appraisal is arguably the best reason to train appraisal in the first place. At around 85 points in the Appraisal skill, players will notice when looking at their information screen that next to the "You are so and so encumbered" tag there is now a numbered percentile range in parenthesis next to it. This giving a readout of how, in percentage, encumbered your character is. The lower your skill, the broader your range of viewing it can be, making exact encumbrance percentage had to determine. The more skill you possess in the Appraisal skill, the lower your range will be making it very easy to average out just how encumbered your character is. It is also important to note that your Strength and Vitality scores come into play here. For example, someone with 100 strength and 100 pounds carrying something 50 pounds heavy won't be as encumbered as someone with 10 strength and 10 vitality carrying something 50 pounds, thus resulting in varying encumbrance weight readouts. Use: Simply view your INFORMATION sheet when you have an adequate amount of appraisal.

Example:

 Encumbrance: You are fairly burdened by encumbrance (50-56%).

 Encumbrance: You are slightly encumbered (20-22%).

Appraisal in Combat

Appraisal in combat is simply one's ability to accurately appraise Mob and ascertain several details. This is highly skill based and requires Appraisal as well as Tactics in even amounts. In this case, you can not over compensate for lack of one skill with another (200 Tactics and 50 appraisal will not allow you to appraise a mob to it's full information.) Varying levels of skill in both Appraisal and Tactics will reveal different things. Use: APPRAISE <MOB>.

• The first thing to be revealed through small amounts of both skills will reveal the level of the mob. It should be noted that no skill in either Appraisal or Tactics is necessary to determine if a mob is aggressive towards you.
• The second set of information requires a bit more skill and will reveal how a mob's Agility, Coordination, Perception, and Strength compares to yours.
• The third and final set of information requires even scores of 150 ranks of Appraisal and Tactics in cases where a profession does not have a bonus to appraising certain types of mobs. This reveals the weakness and strength of a certain Mob.

Certain professions have bonuses to appraising certain types of mobs:

• Guardian: All humanoids and undead.
• Mage: All elementals.
• Mercenary: All non-undead humanoids.
• Psionic: All undead.
• Technician: Mechanical.
• Tracker: Non-humanoids that are not undead or mechanical.
• Trooper: All non-undead humanoids.

A note about the resistance feature: If a creature is equally "most" or "least" resistant to multiple specific types (say its lowest resist is to both heat and electrical for instance) only one will be shown and it will be the lowest one in alpha order, so heat in this case. Also, resistance to poison, magic and psi is not appraised, only the elemental and physical attack resistances.
Example:

 You try to size up a young scallywag ...
 A young scallywag does not appear to be aggressive toward you.
 A young scallywag agility seems inferior to yours.
 A young scallywag coordination seems inferior to yours.
 A young scallywag perception seems inferior to yours.
 A young scallywag strength seems inferior to yours.
 A young scallywag seems to be susceptible to piercing attacks.
 A young scallywag seems to be resistant to cold attacks.
 [This is a level 12 creature.]

 You try to size up the Modan Kucho ...
 The Modan Kucho appears to be aggressive toward you.
 The Modan Kucho agility seems inferior to yours.
 The Modan Kucho coordination seems inferior to yours.
 The Modan Kucho perception seems inferior to yours.
 The Modan Kucho strength seems superior to yours.
 The Modan Kucho seems to be susceptible to blunt attacks.
 The Modan Kucho seems to be resistant to cold attacks.
 [This is a level 75 creature.]
 Roundtime: 6 sec.

Appraisal & Poisons

The Appraisal and the Poisons skill in conjuncture with each other serve to reveal several bits of information about weapons, more specifically and most logically poisoned weapons. It is possible to determine a number of these things with the Poisons skill alone, though for determining the number of uses of a poison type left on a weapon, it is important to have some skill in Appraisal. Determining the uses of a poison left is skill based, and a lower appraisal skill will reveal a broad range, "Between 230 and 250 uses left", and as the skill progresses the range will lessen, allowing the appraiser to accurately pinpoint just how many uses are left. It should be noted that to accurately identify what poison a weapon has been poisoned with, one must know the mixture. It has been stated that anyone may learn a poison mixture, but only Agents and Medics may mix them. Use: APPRAISE <POISONED WEAPON>.
Example:

 This weapon requires one hand to wield.
 It has been treated with the Vial of Immobilization poison.
 By your best guess, the poison on it will last for another 57 to 59 uses.
 You are somewhat confident that a sleek hand blade with a barbed spike jutting 
 from the pommel is worth $1,352,828.
 Roundtime: 11 sec.

 This weapon requires one hand to wield.
 It has been treated with the Vial of Immobilization poison.
 By your best guess, the poison on it will last for another 438 to 446 uses.
 You think a balanced throwing knife with a smooth onyx hilt engraved with 
 ruby roses is basically worthless.
 Roundtime: 9 sec.

Appraisal & Craftsmanship

Appraisal and Craftsmanship are the necessary skills for Jewel Crafting, though at the moment Appraisal helps, but is not 100% necessary. When gems can be faceted, Appraisal will play a much larger role in the Jewel Crafting system.