User:Basophilous/Persuasion/Notes

How-to interpret a solution table

By convention, the 4 quadrants of the persuation wheel will always be examined clockwise, in this order:

• North (Admire),
• East (Joke),
• South (Coerce) and
• West (Boast) quadrants.

Lookup the wedge configuration at the start of a new round in the first column of the table.

Key to encode the value in the first column:

• The letter "F", followed by
• First digit is the North quadrant at round start
• Second digit is the East quadrant at round start
• Third digit is the South quadrant at round start

Digit values:

• 1 when the wedge is 1/4 full at round start
• 2 when the wedge is half full at round start
• 3 when the wedge is 3/4 full at round start
• 4 when the wedge is full at round start

The second column provides you with the best solution as long as you've reached Apprentice level in the Speechcraft skill (over 25 points), which gives you a free rotation. Note that 2 to 12 permutations among the 120 different possibilities sometimes provide the same, best result. If any of them does not involve rotating the wheel (no "zero" digit), it'll be listed in priority, since this permutation can also be used by Novices.

Key to decode the solution:

• 0: rotate the wheel
• 1: select the North quadrant
• 2: select the East quadrant
• 3: select the South quadrant
• 4: select the West quadrant

If there are no solutions achieving the best result without rotation, the third column will provide a less effective alternative for Novices in Speechcraft who cannot rotate the wheel (less than 25 skill points).

Example

Let's suppose the following configuration at the start of a new round:

• North quadrant has a 3/4 full wedge (3)
• East quadrant has a full (4/4) wedge (4)
• South quadrant has a half (2/4) full wedge (2)
• and of course the remaining West quadrant is 1/4 full

Use the "Find" feature of your web navigator, usually Control-F, to search for "F 342":

Sample table extract only -- not for production use

Wheel configuration at round start	Best solution	Less effective alternative for Speechcraft Novices
F 342	20314	4231

If your Speechcraft skill is at least 25 (Apprentice), the best solution is 20314:

• select the East quadrant first (2)
• then rotate the wheel (0)
• then the South quadrant (3)
• then the North quadrant (1)
• then the West quadrant (4), to complete the round.

If you are still a Novice in Speechcraft, the best solution for your skill is 4231 instead:

• select the West quadrant first (4)
• then the East quadrant (2)
• then the South quadrant (3)
• then the North quadrant (1), to complete the round.

Notes

The Speechcraft minigame can be used to increase Disposition, but only up to a predetermined maximum value depending on your Speechcraft skill. Here's how to raise one character's disposition permanently above 100 without bribing them:

• Lower temporarily one character's disposition towards you by 10 points by drawing your weapon or fists.
• If you have access to any Altar of Spellmaking: create a custom Instant Speechcraft spell: Fortify Speechcraft 100 points for 2 seconds on self, to be cast immediately before talking to the character.
• Talk to the character and play the disposition minigame using these tables until his disposition is maxed out (usually above 90 points).
• End the conversation and sheathe your weapon. As you talk again to this character, your disposition will now be permanently at 100 and above, without the need to bribe them.

This operation should be performed on any merchant you intend to buy or sell items to!

The total increase in disposition appear to follow a logarithmic law: the same best permutation will not get you the same increase depending on your starting disposition value:

• starting the round with an initial disposition of 10, you might end up at 60 (gaining +50 points) for instance, while
• starting the same round with an initial disposition of 88 and using the same permutation might take you to a disposition of 93 with only a +5 points gain.

However, the progression rate is not very important: playing 3 to 5 rounds of the persuasion mini-game with the matching solution sheet should allow you to max out one character's disposition at 90 points or above -- which translates into a disposition of 100 once you sheathe your weapon or fists.

For the mathematical-savvy reader, I did a black-box modeling of the game's formulas, and I simply compute the output of each of the 120 possible permutations of the (0, 1, 2, 3, 4) set to identify the best solutions. While the actual formulas implemented by the game are probably slightly different, the results appear to be very close. Novices in Speechcraft are restricted to one of the 24 permutations of (1, 2, 3, 4) instead.