Attributes and Skills
Attributes and skills are inseparable in Diaspora. A Soul will develop skills as they perform tasks, and the learning rate and maximum proficiency level will be affected by its attributes. In turn, using skills that exercise attributes may lead to an increase in that attribute that will positively feed back into the skill learning process. A Soul’s attributes and skills are found on the fleet member configuration panel.
Souls are created with significant abilities that far outstrip anything a human could hope to achieve, but they are not hard-coded in their behaviours as any set of homogenous pre-programmed behaviours would be exploitable by opposing forces. Souls are “born” and expected to develop in competence by orders of magnitude by practice and application of skills in their speciality areas. In game terms, this means that a newly created combat ship will perform worse than one given time to grow accustomed to its physical form and practice with its effectors.
Attributes
A Soul’s attributes will start with a value of twelve. For comparison, an average human would have attributes of zero on this scale. Soul’s abilities are orders of magnitude greater than a human.
| Attribute | Abbreviation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Perception | PER | The effective use of physical sensors to monitor the state of the world. Despite vast intellectual resources Soul’s still need to develop effective filters as the amount of data received from the environment has scaled just as much as their ability to process it |
| Reaction | RCT | The ability to make quick decisions despite inherent uncertainty. A higher reaction skill implies that the Soul will make decisions of higher utility under the conditions of bounded rationality in the time given |
| Prediction | PRE | The accuracy of estimating the behaviour of external agencies in uncertain conditions and limited time |
| Planning | PLN | The ability to improve behaviour selection when more time is given. A higher planning attribute implies that the Soul will develop plans with a greater rate of increase of utility in a given time |
| Creativity | CRE | The ability to rapidly switch contexts where the current mode of thinking leads to a sub-optimal local maxima in effectiveness |
Skills
Any non-trivial action by a Soul will have an associated skill that will increase through use. Most skills are developed entirely through active use (application), although combat skills are initially developed by simulation up to a reasonably competent level, after which only use in combat will increase them towards their maximum.
The maximum mastery level (ML) for a skill is 100 plus the average of attributes supporting that skill
| Skill | Attributes | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | [PLN,PLN,PER,RCT,PRE] | Running agricultural factories. A higher skill will lead to shorter growing times |
| Barrage | [PER,PER,RCT,RCT,PRE] | Chance to hit with Nova Emission or Antimatter effectors. |
| Chemical Engineering | [PLN,PLN,PER,RCT,PRE] | Running chemical factories. A higher skill will lead to shorter processing times |
| Command | [PLN,PLN,CRE,CRE,PRE] | Increased in combat, the maximum Command ML within a fleet is used to determine how many rear manoeuvring action points are available each turn |
| Component Fabrication | [PLN,PLN,CRE,CRE,PRE] | Running component factories. A higher skill will lead to shorter manufacturing times |
| Construction | [PLN,PLN,PER,CRE,PRE] | Construction of self or inside contained shipyards. A high skill will lead to decreased construction time |
| Deflector Modulation | [RCT,RCT,CRE,CRE,PRE] | Defence versus Physical Dissociation attacks, which requires reactionary field use to counteract active attempts to change local physical constants. |
| Electro-magnetic Penetration | [CRE,CRE,PLN,PLN,PRE] | Use of kEM effectors to try to disable opposing effectors. |
| Electro-magnetic Protective Measures | [RCT,RCT,CRE,CRE,PRE] | Defence against kEM effectors. |
| Evasion | [PER,PER,RCT,RCT,PRE] | Opposing skill to Barrage for defence against kNE/kAM effectors, decreases chance to hit. |
| Logistics | [PLN,PLN,CRE,CRE,PRE] | Running supply factories. A higher skill will lead to shorter processing times |
| Materials Science | [PLN,PLN,PER,CRE,PRE] | Running materials factories. A higher skill will lead to shorter processing times |
| Ordnance Fabrication | [PLN,PLN,PER,RCT,PRE] | Running munitions factories. A higher skill will lead to shorter processing times |
| Product Assembly | [PLN,PLN,CRE,CRE,PRE] | Running product factories. A higher skill will lead to shorter manufacturing times |
| Physical Dissociation | [CRE,CRE,PLN,PLN,PRE] | Chance to hit with kPD effectors. |
| Refining | [PLN,PLN,PER,RCT,PRE] | Running refineries. A higher skill will lead to shorter refining times |
| Resource Extraction | [PER,PER,PLN,PLN,PRE] | Running extraction facilities. A higher skill will lead to shorter extraction times |
| Xenoanalysis | [PLN,PLN,PER,CRE,PRE] | Running xenoanalysis research facilities. A higher skill will lead to shorter research times and an increased chance of technical advancement |
| Research Operations | [PLN,PLN,PLN,PRE,CRE] | Running incremental research facilities. A higher skill will lead to shorter research times |
| General Mathematics | [PLN,PLN,PRE,CRE,CRE] | Running incremental research facilities. A higher skill will lead to an increased chance of technical advancement |
| Applied Physics | [PLN,PER,PRE,CRE,CRE] | Running incremental research facilities. A higher skill will lead to an increased chance of technical advancement |
| Systems Engineering | [PLN,PLN,PRE,PER,CRE] | Running incremental research facilities. A higher skill will lead to an increased chance of technical advancement |