[MH1] Mathematical analysis of ambient energy draw

[PK]

It's complicated, especially considering the cumulative -1 penalty for every third attempt. That penalty is what makes the real difference between skill levels at higher levels -- e.g., not only can my skill-18 caster bring in a teeny bit more energy per attempt than your skill-16 one, but he can draw energy eight times before dropping below skill-16 as opposed to you dropping there after doing it twice.

But to answer your title question, yes, someone did -- while the RPM system was being developed, Thomas Weigel did a detailed analysis of the ambient energy potential vs. critical failure risk for each skill level. His results were far too complex to try working into a product, but I did use them for some quick-n-dirty rules that will show up in MH4, as they'll be especially useful for an application of one of the templates there.