very confused about skill...

[infael]

I created a mine to improve extracting skills. Extracting dragon tears won't increase my skill because it's 38 and I have 40.0, but when I went to Hawk City to get a gold wing, my skill was 33. Huh??? Why do I have 40 in the Hill of 7 Mirrors but extracting skill drops to 33 in Hawk?

[Deva]

Location bonus from a mine.

[Maracor]

Your total skill is calculated from a number of sources.
1) Hero skill (average of hero's skill in the field, and skill in the specific trade)
2) Companion skill
3) Tool skill
4) Location skill
5) Magic (potions and jewellery)

1-4 are combined (highest to lowest) by taking percentages 40%/30%/20%/10% and then adding them. (e.g. Hero skill 20, companion skill 15, tool skill 12 and location skill 10 give ((20*0.4)+(15*0.3)+(12*0.2)+(10*0.1)) => 8+4.5+2.4+1 = 15.9)

Magic bonuses are added at 100% - so a 1.3 ring + a 2.1 potion gives 3.4 which is added to the 40/30/20/10 score.

Your chance of skilling up is based on the two components of your hero score. If either of them is less than 5 points above the task difficulty, it has a chance to skill up, if they are both in that range, they both have a chance.

It's complicated, but you get used to it

[Balok]

When you made rails for extracting, they had an extraction skill level. This is the "location bonus" that people speak of. And it's why it matters what you make facilities out of. Look for Gopol's spreadsheet for machines. I can only find a French version of some of his things since the migration; hopefully he will see this and repost.