AC softcap and low level hardcap discussion

[bcbrown]

The concern about whether the squelch point is truly only a mob characteristic is a legitimate one. My testing was done on toons who all had 200 defense. Here's the experiment I was thinking about last night when I first read this thread:

First, identify 4-6 mobs across a range of levels. Something like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and ideally each mob has no level variation. Find the upper squelch point, and the midpoint. This will mean multiple 5-minute fights, each time subtracting 10 worn AC, until you hit the squelch point. Then repeat the same process to find the midpoint.

To address the question of whether the squelch point is impacted by defense skill, repeat for each of these mobs as you level a toon up to 25 or 30, running the process every 5 levels, for every mob of the same or lower level. So at level 15 you'd do the measurements against the level 5, 10, 15 mob.

Now you've got a handful of mobs with known squelch points and are ready to test the existence of an AC cap. Calculate what level gives a Haynar cap at the midpoint for each mob. Fight each mob with a toon at that level, with worn AC equal to the squelch point.

If the cap doesn't exist, the results will have minimal max hits. If there's a hardcap, the results will show equal min and max hits. If there's a softcap, there will be some number more min hits than max hits.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by bcbrown [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The concern about whether the squelch point is truly only a mob characteristic is a legitimate one. My testing was done on toons who all had 200 defense. Here's the experiment I was thinking about last night when I first read this thread:

First, identify 4-6 mobs across a range of levels. Something like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and ideally each mob has no level variation. Find the upper squelch point, and the midpoint. This will mean multiple 5-minute fights, each time subtracting 10 worn AC, until you hit the squelch point. Then repeat the same process to find the midpoint.

To address the question of whether the squelch point is impacted by defense skill, repeat for each of these mobs as you level a toon up to 25 or 30, running the process every 5 levels, for every mob of the same or lower level. So at level 15 you'd do the measurements against the level 5, 10, 15 mob.

Now you've got a handful of mobs with known squelch points and are ready to test the existence of an AC cap. Calculate what level gives a Haynar cap at the midpoint for each mob. Fight each mob with a toon at that level, with worn AC equal to the squelch point.

If the cap doesn't exist, the results will have minimal max hits. If there's a hardcap, the results will show equal min and max hits. If there's a softcap, there will be some number more min hits than max hits.

I will try my test first. Honestly I don't have time to level a character to 30 just to do all of this.

If you are worried about an overlap between the squelch point and the Haynar cap, increasing your level by 1 would show you if the squelch point was 55 AC or not.

If I tested 10 different level 5 mobs, and the AC cap was 55 for all of them, that would be evidence of the Haynar cap as well. This is because the Haynar cap and the squelch point would be 100% redundant if they were always the same value.

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I will try my test first. Honestly I don't have time to level a character to 30 just to do all of this.

If you are worried about an overlap between the squelch point and the Haynar cap, increasing your level by 1 would show you if the squelch point was 55 AC or not.

If I tested 10 different level 5 mobs, and the AC cap was 55 for all of them, that would be evidence of the Haynar cap as well. This is because the Haynar cap and the squelch point would be 100% redundant if they were always the same value.

Sure, do as you like, I'm just explaining the level of rigor in methodology and experiment design before I'd accept the results as conclusive. Proper science takes a lot of time, and there's a reason I haven't wanted to do this [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

For what it's worth, the "squelch point" stuff for me is no more than a working hypothesis, not conclusive. It's the best theory to fit the data obtained, but there's a lot more experiments necessary for it to be conclusive.

Your proposed experiment will provide some clues, but no proof. For one thing, I worry that a single level's difference won't be enough difference to discern the signal from the noise. But if you want to run some smaller experiments, here's what I'd suggest:
First, run parses at level 5 at 40 and 50 AC. If the squelch point is lower than 55 AC than you should be able to find what the value is.

Next, level up to 10, running parses at each level. Run at least 1000 hits/parse. Keep an eye out for what Jimjam noticed, and see whether there's a constant proportion of min/max hits in each parse. At each level first parse at the Haynar cap, and then remove AC in increments of 5-10 until you find the squelch point at that level.

That won't be enough for anything conclusive, but it should be suggestive.