What is the standard skill level?

[jpwrunyan]

So this is not exactly a technical question but more of a standardization question... so I should just ask up front: is there a coding standard for RimWorld?

This isn't an open source project so I totally understand if there isn't. But I would like to make sure. Anyway, here's what concerns me:

What is considered to be the "normal" level of skill in RimWorld? By that I mean, what skill level is considered to be 100% time efficient? ie, at skill level x you take the prescribed amount of time to do a task. This is a hard question to ask so bear with me...

Recipes have a "workAmount" variable. I assume that "workAmount" is how long it should take an average competent person to do the task. Like I expect a competent carpenter to build my house in the "workAmount" time. If he takes more time to do so, I will think he sucks. If he takes less time to do so, I will think he's awesome. So what skill level should define competent?

A miner with skill level 0 mines at 50% the normal speed (assuming he could even mine to begin with). At level 3 it's 95% speed (5% penalty). At level 4 it's 110% speed (10% bonus). At level 10 it's 200% speed! So level 3/4 appears to be "average" mining.

Now compare to stone cutting. At level 0-3 (?), it's 205% "normal time". At level 8 it's 130% "normal time". And at level 10 it's finally 100% "normal time" (and it's also 100% "normal" yield). So level 10 is "average" crafting???

Now in the skill files you can set "baseFactor" and "bonusFactor" to whatever crazy numbers you want as well as setting the "workAmount" to whatever you feel like. All these things can be completely relative to each other... like time and space in general relativity. But I'd kinda like to think they're not. I'd like to know, when looking at the numbers what an "average" score is for different skills. Right now, depending on the skill, it appears the number is different. Ok, fine, I can deal with that if that's the case. So then what should be considered average for each skill then? Like I said, it appears anything above 3 is above average mining while anything less than 10(!) is considered unskilled crafting. So when I target crafting with my SkillNeedDef entries, I should calculate  "baseFactor" and "bonusFactor" to be 1.0 at skill level 10???

The reason I care about this is because I want any mod I make to balance with the core game and with other mods.

Thanks, I know this is a long post on a rather fine point.

[pawnstorm]

The skill level for any pawn without any bonus or malus from their backstory is 3.

[jpwrunyan]

Thank you! That information goes a long way. But should 3 be considered average competence? I was spawned with no bonus or malus but I would consider myself an incompetent carpenter...

Again, just want to know how other people approach skill definition...