Many younger spacemen believe luck to be just a superstition and die. The veterans of NovusCorp will keep to their superstitions and live another day.
You'll often hear someone say “It's not my lucky day” or “Lucky me!”, but just how does luck work? There are 3 kinds of luck:
Caused by having certain items on you, but their luck/unluck giving depends on where the item is located and just how lucky/unlucky the item is. A 4-leaf clover will give you luck anywhere in your backpack, while some lucky clothing will only give you luck when worn. This luck does not decay in intensity but will instantly go to zero whenever the item is not on you. Stacks additively.
Clovers can have anywhere from 0 to 7 leaves, with the luck they provide having direct relation. The process to get a lucky clover depends on plant potency and luck, meaning you will get luckier clovers the luckier you are.
Icon Leaves Luck Description Clover0.png 0 ‒10000 Bad luck and extreme misfortune will infest your pathetic soul for all eternity. Clover1.png 1 ‒500 This cursed clover is said to bring nothing but misery to the one who bears it. Clover2.png 2 ‒25 This clover only has two leaves. How unfortunate! Clover3.png 3 0 A cheerful little herb with three leaves. Clover4.png 4 25 This clover has four leaves. Lucky you! Clover5.png 5 100 A marvel of probability, this exquisitely rare clover is said to bring fantastic luck. Clover6.png 6 1000 A closely-guarded secret of the leprechauns. Clover7.png 7 10000 The fates themselves are said to shower their adoration on the one who bears this legendary lucky charm.
Acquired from butchering a rabbit and taking their back left foot, these are charged with condensed lucky energies equal to 50 luck, or 2 4-leaf clovers.
Caused by performing certain lucky or unlucky actions and will stay at max potency for the duration of the blessing/curse. Once the timer runs out, the effect is removed immediately and you go back to your baseline.
None currently.
Breaking either handheld personal mirrors or wall mounted mirrors by smashing them with/against something will curse you with 7 years of -50 luck.
If you somehow manage to spill salt (disabled), you will be cursed with -50 luck for an indefinite amount of time.
The most heinous of crimes is punished not only by men, but by the gods themselves. A mime that breaks his vow will be cursed with -250 luck.
Luck associated with the creature itself. Has two variants, Permanent and Temporary:
Associated to the creature's very being. It will remain constant unless somehow modified, either via adminbus or some sort of unknown mechanism.
Acquired when consuming “Lucky/Unlucky” stuff, such as clovers. Eating a clover will give you the exact amount of luck (positive or negative) it had as an item as temporary luck. This temporary luck dissipates multiplicatively over time, the higher your temporary luck, the faster it dissipates, so it's better to raise your temporary luck just before doing whatever you wanted to gamble on. You need to 'eat' the lucky food. Grinding it and drinking the juice does not work.
Alright, now you're a lucky spaceman, but what do you do with this luck?
Finding special clovers: The luckier you are, the easier it is to find both highly-lucky and highly-unlucky clovers. Conversely, the unluckier you are, the harder it is. Be aware that just because you're incredibly lucky does not mean you'll get the coveted 7 leaf clover anytime soon.
Shuttle Console Kicking: Kicking a transport shuttle console has a baseline 5% chance to send it to its current target destination, affected by luck. A very lucky person can send the shuttle back and forth as they please with no access, while an unlucky person could kick until the heat death of the universe and still not get it going.
Russian Roulette: Shots get “re-rolled” depending on luck. If you were set to get shot, but were lucky enough, the shot gets rerolled to see if you survive. The amount of rerolls depends on luck. A sufficiently lucky person could shoot themselves a thousand times with no bullet coming out. If you're unlucky and survive, the shot gets rerolled to see if you die. With enough bad luck every time you shoot will be the bullet.
Lotto Tickets: You're guaranteed some constant wins with high level clovers and have a 1/1000 chance to hit the jackpot if you're at the luck ceiling (10 7-leaf clovers).
Radiation Storm Mutations: If you're lucky enough you could irradiate yourself completely and get only good powers and no disabilities. It follows that being unlucky will give you only disabilities.
Slot Machines: Slots will get “re-rolled” depending on luck. If you were set to fail, but were lucky enough, the slots reroll for a second chance towards being aligned, more chances with higher luck. Conversely, high unluck will jostle the wheels towards being unaligned.
Central Command Grand Slam-Stellar-Lottery: High luck will raise the odds of any one of your tickets being the winning one. Conversely, high unluck will make sure you wasted every single credit.
When luck shifts a probability, two parameters come into play: The luck-factor, and the luck-ceiling. Let's use German:
Glücksfaktor and Glücksdecke
The graph below displays luck-shifted probability on the vertical axis, versus base probability on the horizontal axis. The blue line represents the non-luck-influenced case. It's a straight line that passes through (0,0), (50,50), and (100,100). In other words, the “shifted probability” in the non-luck-influenced case is identical to the base probability. The pink solid line represents a luck-influenced case. As we can see, (0,0) and (100,100) remain unshifted. This means that base probabilities of 0% or 100% remain unchanged. However, the (50,50) point does shift. The Glücksdecke corresponds to the maximum amount that (50,50) can shift towards either maximally lucky (0,100), or maximally unlucky (100,0) — in other words, the Glücksdecke equals the length of the pink dotted line, and can range from 0 to √2 * 50.
While the Glücksdecke corresponds to the maximum degree to which a probability can be shifted, the actual shift is also a function of both the luck of the creature under consideration and the Glücksfaktor. At low levels of luck, there is an effectively linear relationship between luck and the probability shift. With 50% base probability and maximal Glücksdecke, the slope of this linear relationship is the Glücksfaktor. Accordingly, a high Glücksfaktor means luck is more effective at shifting the probability, while a low Glücksfaktor means the opposite. A negative Glücksfaktor corresponds to an inversion of the shift — in other words, positive luck causing a probability shift towards 0% instead of 100%. As the magnitude of the shift increases, however, this linearity wanes; diminishing returns kick-in, and the probability asymptotically approaches the maximum-shift boundary established by the Glücksdecke, or the pink solid line.
In summary, the Glücksfaktor corresponds to how strongly the probability shift scales with luck, and the Glücksdecke corresponds to the maximum magnitude of the probability shift.
Note that the above doesn't apply to situations where luck affects rerolls, like Russian roulette and slot machines.