Quote:
Originally Posted by adzling
Wouldn't you just calculate:
Current Magic x 5 to determine improvement cost?
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Actually, that would be "Current Magic + 1" x 5. The cost is based on the new rating, not the current rating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adzling
Why both tracking essence at all?
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If I understand the RAW and their intent, (permanent) essence loss causes a permanent loss in magic (or resonance). Even if the Essence is regained at a later point, through one of the recovery / rebuild processes, the magic does not automatically come back. The maximum magic would increase though. The magic would need to be purchased with karma, starting from the where it ended after the loss.
I added "permanent" to the loss above, because something is telling me there is a variant where the essence loss is temporary. Works more like a background count that suppresses magic until you leave. I can not place where that happens. Just a niggling uncertainty. Mathias example of not having essence holes, where removing an augmentation would recover the essence is still a permanent loss. Removing the augmentation would increase the essence and maximum magic, but not the current magic rating.
Anyway, reducing essence needs to reduce both current and maximum magic ratings. Recovering essence will increase the maximum but not the current. Increasing magic with karma will cost based on the new rating, whether it is done before or after recovering essence. So HL needs to know the magic rating at the time of the karma spend.
Even without any possibility of essence recover, HL still needs to know what the current (and maximum) magic/resonance is at any time. Consider a starting character with magic 3, maximum 6. Add an augmentation, reducing essence by (up to) 1. Magic changes to current 2, maximum 5. Spend karma to increase magic, going to current 3, maximum 5. Add another augmentation, reducing to magic 2, maximum 4. Spend more karma to increase magic to current 3, maximum 4. HL needs to track all of the loses and gains, to be able to correctly come up with the karma spent and current values.
If I understand the code structure / flow, and Mathias wording about the considerations for implementation seem to match, there are cases where HL [re]calculates current ratings by starting from initial build values, and all of the actions in sequence from then that would affect the current value. Each essence loss and each karma spend, and the times they occurred, are needed to for example calculate the karma spent. The karma spend is (I think) recorded as "spend enough karma to increase magic from current to current + 1, as of date and time". Not "spend 15 karma to increase magic from 2 to 3 as of date and time". So HL needs to know the current values as of the time point of any action that could change them.