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The taskmaster is the system by which the MUD compares skills, and determines whether or not to award a player a free advance (also known as a TM) in a level as a result of using a particular skill.

A TM shows up in different coloured text while playing (by default, yellow), and often contains the words 'You feel more able to...' or 'You learn something new about...'. They are awarded randomly based on the difficulty of the task you are attempting, and are 'free' in that they cost no experience points. You can see any TMs you have acquired during a session by using the hskills command.

See the TM Project for the actual reported TMs.

## Noncompetitive skill checks

There are two different types of basic skill check implemented on the Disc for noncompetitive skill checks - that is, those where you are being tested against a fixed difficulty, not someone else's bonus:

### Linear skill check

Linear skill check

A linear skill check tests your bonus in the given skill against a minimum and maximum bonus, with the following results:

• If your bonus is less than the minimum, you will always fail the test.
• If your bonus is greater than the maximum, you will always succeed.
• If your bonus is inbetween, then the chance of success is directly proportional to where your bonus is between the minimum and maximum.

An example may help illustrate this. Imagine that you are attempting to light a fire by magical means, and that this involves a linear skillcheck with the following properties:

If your magic.methods.elemental.fire bonus is 100, you will always fail to light the fire, as your bonus is below the minimum. If your bonus is 250, you will always succeed, as it is greater than the maximum. If your bonus is 160, then this is 20% of the way between the minimum (150) and the maximum (200), hence you will succeed 20% of the time. If your bonus is 180, then this is 60% of the way between the two, so you will succeed 60% of the time.

### Decay skill check

Decay skill check

A decay skill check requires you to have a minimum level in a given skill, and then halves your chance of failure for each multiple of a set number of bonus points (called the half-life) above the minimum. Unlike a linear skill check, there is no maximum bonus for which you will always succeed a decay skill check - increasing your skills makes failure increasingly unlikely, but never impossible.

Again, an example, may help illustrate this. Imagine that we are now attempting to extinguish the fire by magical means, and this involves a decay skillcheck with the following properties:

If your magic.methods.elemental.water bonus is 50, you will always fail to extinguish the fire, as your bonus is below the minimum. If your bonus is 150, then this is exactly one half-life above the minimum - your chance of failure is halved once, resulting in a 50% chance of success. If your bonus is 200, then this is exactly two half-lives above the minimum, so your chance of failure is halved, and then halved again - resulting in a 75% chance of success.

## TMing skills

The chance of TMing a skill is related to the shape of the skill checks above. The basic idea is that you are most likely to TM a successful skill check when you are only just able to succeed - that is, your chance of success is low, but non-zero. As your chance of success increases, so your chance of TMing per success decreases. Your chance to TM per attempt is dependent both on your chance to succeed the attempt, and your chance to get a TM, given that you succeed.

### Linear skill checks

For a linear skill check, your chance to TM per successful skill check is:

• Zero if your bonus is less than the minimum.
• Zero if your bonus is greater than the maximum.
• Inversely proportional to your chance of success otherwise.

So, your chance to TM if you succeed is greatest just as you pass the minimum bonus, then falls off steadily to zero as you reach the maximum.

Your chance to TM per attempt is greatest half-way between the minimum and maximum bonuses, and falls off to zero as you approach either limit.

### Decay skill checks

For a decay skill check, your chance to TM per successful skill check is:

• Zero if your bonus is less than the minimum.
• Inversely proportional to your chance of success otherwise.

So, your chance to TM if you succeed is greatest just as you pass the minimum bonus, then halves with each half-life worth of bonus after that.

Your chance to TM per attempt is greatest one half-life above the minimum bonus, and falls off to zero as you approach the minimum or increase your bonus above one half-life.

### TM types

The total chance to TM a skill across all bonuses is scaled according to the type of action being performed, as follows:

Type of skill check Details Example TM chance scaling
Fixed Testing against a fixed difficulty. Climbing a tree. 100% (baseline)
Free Tests which cost the player nothing. Making a snowball. 25%
Continuous Actions players do very frequently. Parrying during combat. 50%
Command Skills used in guild commands. Octograving. 100%
Ritual Performing rituals. Performing Holy Aegis. 50%
Spell Used for spell stages. Casting Hag's Blessing. 60%
None Used for tests against skills that the creators don't want you to TM. Unknown 0%

## Competitive skill checks

Chance to succeed against an opponent with 150 bonus (zero modifier)

Competitive skill checks are checks of one player or NPC's bonus against another's. For example, attempting to hit an enemy with a sword might involve a skill check of your fighting.melee.sword bonus against their fighting.defence.parrying bonus.

The chance of success in a competitive skill check is initially based on the ratio of the offensive to defensive bonuses, as follows:

• If the offensive bonus is greater than the defensive, then the %chance of success is 50 * off_bonus/def_bonus.
• Otherwise, the %chance of success is 100 - 50 * def_bonus/off_bonus

At this point, the basic consequences of the above are that:

• The attacker has a 0% chance of success if their bonus is half the defender's.
• The attacker has a 50% chance of success if their bonus is equal to the defender's.
• The attacker has a 100% chance of success if their bonus is twice the defender's.
• Note that this chance may be less than 0% or greater than 100% at this point, if the attacker's bonus is more than twice the defender's bonus or vice-versa.

The chance may then have a modifier applied to it by various factors associated with the skillcheck. For example, there are to-hit modifiers in combat that depend on varying factors ranging from the weight of the weapons to each party's tactics-attitude.

Finally, there is always a chance that either player will succeed, irrespective of their skills. Hence, the chance of success is capped at a maximum of 99% and a minimum of 1% (this also deals with 'impossible' percentages that are still less than 0% or greater than 100% at this point).

The chance of TMing from a competitive skillcheck is only applied to whoever wins the check, and is treated as equivalent to a non-competitive skillcheck against the opponent's bonus (with appropriate TM type and modifiers as above).

## Shared TMs

If you are in a group with someone and in the same room, you can sometimes share a TM with them--in other words, they'll TM a skill and you'll learn something by watching them.

The chance of sharing someone else's TM is approximately:

%chance to share = 25000 / (500 + diff2 + sqrt(level))

Where:

• Diff is the difference between their level and your level in the appropriate skill, OR the difference between their bonus and your bonus in that skill - whichever is greater.
• Level is your level in the skill that was TMed.

Basically, you're more likely to share someone's TM if you're near the same level/bonus as the person you were watching in the TMed skill, and you're more likely to TM the lower your level in that skill.

Note that language, adventuring.perception and any points skill TMs are not shared.

## Inspired

If you are in a group and in the same room as someone who gains a TM, you may also be 'inspired' by their success. This displays in the same colour as a TM and contains the key word 'inspire' but does not grant you the level.

Instead it dramatically increases your own chance of TMing that skill for a short period of time.

## Related achievments

There are several tm-related achievements in the Lucky category:

• Scrounger and Good Friend, for shared TMs
• Very Fortunate, for tming skills over level 300
• Lucky Bugger, for tming skills over level 500
• Jammy Bugger, for tming skills over level 800