Quick and dirty analysis of race/class for factions

[renarð]

Given my limited experience with ns4 and really having only looked at NC and SL builds in any depth, I was wondering if all the factions felt as contrained when coming up with builds. So i did a quick and dirty analysis and came to the quick and dirty conclusion that everyone does Feel free to gaze at the numbers and take what you will away from them, I have no agenda.

Methods: I looked first for presence and absence of classes for each faction, then normalized so that the most prolific faction's value was 1, thus all numbers are a ratio of the top faction in that category.

Weighting function: I looked for races/classes that were significantly constrained by addition of faction restrictions and only counted them as half. Ironically, this only affected the SL numbers, so call bias if you wish.
For an example of racial constraint: earth gens in SL cannot be monks, whereas every other faction that allows monks, and allows earth gens, the combination is allowed. The racial constraint category only cropped up for SL and most of the human subraces, I found no restrictions on bard or barbarian similar to the above. This was surprising to me.
The only significant class constriant I found was SL harper (only drow as they must be nonevil).

The numbers:
Weighted race
1.00 MA
0.96 NC & TC
0.91 SL (1.00 if you unweight the equation)
0.79 AO
0.29 RK

Weighted class
1.00 RK
0.88 AO
0.84 SL (.88 if you unweight the equation)
0.81 MA & TC
0.75 NC

Conclusions: If you put any stock in my weighting function then everything seems well and good to me, high on one list usually implies low on the other, though I feel for the guys in RK when it comes to race choice, NC might also feel a little shafted.
If you hate my weighting function, SL is overly lax on the restrictions, Praise Lolth!.
Props to the devs either way

Personal Findings: SL feels so constrained to me because i love monks (bye bye human subraces) and full bab casting classes (pally & ranger), not that we are overly restricted in choices.

Disclaimer 1: Quick and dirty implies a few minor errors may be present
Discalimer 2: I realize not all classes/races are equal, harpers are almost nonexistent (for good reason) whereas pally 5 is an awesome bargain, RK only has one ecl 3 race to pick from etc, but that is not considered in this analysis.
Disclaimer 3: Give RK earth gens, it's the only thing dirtier than a dorf.

[LinuxPup]

Racial limitations matter much less than class limitations

[frogofpeace]

yeah, and look at the raw deal NC has - they should get both rogues AND sorcs

*ducks*

[renarð]

I agree and wasn't going to post them, but if you weight class 3x more than race (which felt about right to me /shrug) and do the numbers...

0.99 MA
0.99 TC
1.00 SL
0.93 NC
1.00 AO
0.95 RK

[Amoenotep]

too many numbers for tep to care....

[Alkapwn]

I just got a nose bleed from reading that.....

[Lorkar]

So with that formula were you able to find the specific gravity of LA?

[VagaStorm]

I did not at all get those numbers, but I'd figured I'd add inn the AO clerics can not be erthgen either since erth domain is not allowed

[Ace-of-Spades]

You you failed to mention the fact (based on your collected data) that MA is the most restricted faction there is. If you add together both race and class weights for all factions, I believe MA's is the highest. Which make it the most restricted, I think. At least...it felt that way when I started my MA character. >_<

[frogofpeace]

FIne - give sorc and rogue to MA, too

[Lokey]

Racial limitations matter much less than class limitations

Except when you can't be half-ogre.

What kind of math does it take to coax a positive number for RK racial selection (probably a delta)? Svirf is good, but that's a lot of dwarf to offset and no halfogre to do it with

[frogofpeace]

yes, yes - sorc and rogue for RK, pronto!

Seriously, if you take those numbers, looks like things are pretty balanced. Of course there's no test for significance, so it's hard to tell, but I'm the kind of scientist who prefers interpreting hte data to suit the hypothesis.

[Ace-of-Spades]

Hah, I'm pretty sure Rogue and Sorcerer are already playable classes in MA.

[Tsavong]

There all restricted in some way, which gives each faction its feal, is that not why we like them?

[Tru3Fals3]

when you add the fact that for example, to be a worthwhile spotter in rk, your only choice is svirf, race restrictions become much more apparent as they also restricts class (same as the no earth gen clerics in ao), try doing a similar equation counting alignment restrictions aswell, should come up with some interesting results