This post piece from Ynami caught my eye:

>"Better" tools were simply better bonded with their Moon Mage. Due to tool breakage, tools sold in sect shops would break before they reached the bond level of other tools from special sources that started with a higher bond. Now in the new system where prediction tools do not break, that difference can be overcome with time invested.

The word "overcome" in the last part made me think Ynami meant that since tools don't break now, you can just keep overdriving them until they eventually cap.

I thought I must be misinterpreting that since it would contradict what Raesh (Did he really resign a year and a half ago?) told us and what our own tests so far have indicated, for the most part anyway. I asked Ynami about it and explained what I understood about tools, and he asked me to put my questions on the boards so everyone can take part. He expressed concern that players might not have a clear picture of how tools work. So here we are!

I won't discuss everything, but I'll summarize the main points that I know about. If I get something wrong, someone please point it out. You don't have to wait until Ynami comments. I'll use examples from my own bones.

- Invoking a new tool bonds it with the mage. This bonding is a binary condition.

- The idea is to increase the tool's bonding with the plane of probability through the use of predictions. This is indicated by bonding messaging. EXAMPLE - You feel the planar boundary weaken as the flow of probability increases through the Krr-tich. Actually, I tend to think of the tool as a type of conduit linking the mage to the plane of probability, and the more open and free-flowing that conduit, the better the situation the mage will have. I don't know if this is the correct way of looking at it, however.

- The four bonding qualities (Potency, Duration, Skill, and Polarity) all start at the lowest possible level. EXAMPLE - A lone strand of probability trickles through the Sek-rith.

- There will be a top state once a quality is capped. EXAMPLE - A raging torrent of probability crashes through the Moon Sphere.

- At that point a quality is immune to a fumble that would cause the quality to decrease probability bonding. (Thank you again, Raesh)

- Each prediction creates a chance that the tool’s bonding will either increase or decrease in one or more qualities.

- The three things that affect whether any given prediction will increase the bonding are (tool damage, full pools, charisma) Players have speculated forever that Astrology plays a part in bonding, but Raesh only talked about those three.

Tool damage = bad
Full pools = good
Charisma = the more, the merrier

- Each prediction creates a chance that there will be an increase of physical damage to one or more qualities.

- The more damaged a tool is, the less chance it will bond on any given prediction. This means that as a tool accumulates damage over time, its ability to further increase its probability bonding decreases.

- The chance to bond on any given prediction never drops to zero regardless of damage, but it reaches a point where future bonding is so unlikely that the tool has become, for all practical purposes, junk. It might as well be thrown away. I call this point the new "breakage" since it really amounts to the same thing. After tool conversion, my set of ivory warcat bones had to be thrown away after about 750 rolls because they were pretty much destroyed. I didn't get a single bonding after about roll 250.

- The expensive tools, such as the 5K ones at Future is Now at HE or the Nomlas tools have a much better chance of capping for two reasons. 1) They start in much better condition, so they have further to drop in damage level before they approach that point of no return where future bonding becomes super unlikely. 2) Their construction is much better, "extremely resistant to damage" for the 5K, so that they experience far fewer damaging predictions over time than tools of worse construction. They can actually cross the finish line without much damage. My capped bones have less damage than typical shop and sect tools start with, including the ones at Guildfest currently. I was unable to come anywhere close to capping a tool until the 5K shop came out.

I called it the point of no return, but the truth is that the chance to bond is always non-zero, so in theory it is possible to cap any tool in game. But you might have to make one prediction after another until the pyramids are dust. I don't want it to be easy, but I would appreciate it being practical. I don't remember exactly how many predictions my bones took, but I'm pretty sure it was 1200-1500.

The way it was explained long ago, Raesh intended to make it not just possible but reasonable that a mage might be able to cap any tool. I'm all for that even if it does take a while. But as far as I know, he wasn't able to get that fully in place before he resigned. However, as I mentioned to Ynami, we players have no idea what might have been changed about the system since Raesh left. I'm eager to hear any good news about that.

~ Vanxa

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You see Grazhir cracking open in one sharp movement.
The World Dragon emerges, roaring soundlessly.
It moves to sear Katamba to a lifeless black.
You see the night sky, filled with stars.

The chance to bond with a tool is influenced by how full your prediction pool was, the tool's current craftsmanship (the physical qualities from ANALYZE), and to a lesser extent, your charisma.

It's possible to reach the maximum bond with any tool, but it might take quite a few predictions to get there. The more expensive tools will be easier to bond with by design, but they're also intentionally much more rare/expensive.

I wouldn't go so far as to say a tool becomes completely useless, even with very low craftsmanship, because a tool with a high bond will still better control the outcome of a prediction than a tool with a low bond or no tool at all.

-GM Ynami

>I would have expressed it as physical quality, rather than tool damage. Each of the four properties has a current quality, and it's this quality that is decreased when the tool takes damage. There's no difference between a tool that starts at quality X and one that started higher but was damaged down to quality X.

>I don't think we're disagreeing on how things work, just looking at it from different directions.

We're totally in agreement, but I see where my phrasing was a little misleading. Current quality is a better way of saying it than tool damage. Thanks for making it clearer.

>Keep in mind that the chance of fumbles which drop quality doesn't go down, so there comes a point where quality is more likely to decrease than to increase.

Exactly. It doesn't get any better. And it helps gives tool bonding a bit of the Gambler's Fallacy - Just one more roll! My luck is bound to change!

Well, maybe. At some point a mage has to decide if they should cut their losses. Sunk costs and all that. A mage might do 50,000 predictions and not cap a tool.

Thanks for adding to the discussion.

~ Vanxa

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You see Grazhir cracking open in one sharp movement.
The World Dragon emerges, roaring soundlessly.
It moves to sear Katamba to a lifeless black.
You see the night sky, filled with stars.