Obtaining player's ear

[Kanhef]

I'm actually trying to get the player's ear item, but without much success. I've let the Masticator beat on one character (110 max HP) for the whole 12 rounds without losing an ear. Does anyone know what the exact conditions are that let it happen?
(using an unmodded copy of F2, official patch only)

 

[Sander]

From Per's guide:

If you have about 115 HP or fewer and the Masticator hits you, you may get the message "In the heat of the fight, the Masticator tears your ear off." If you look in your inventory you'll now have a Player's Ear item... and your CH drops by 1 permanently. This is not so good, so you should probably do what the game says and reload. If you keep fighting, though, and have Unarmed at about 160% or higher, you may end up with a Masticator's Ear as well - vengeance is sweet! No use for it, I'm afraid, but it's worth $750. In the unpatched version losing your ear could give you a bonus to your CH, because the command to change the stat was being used incorrectly. This bonus would be equal to your current CH minus one, except if this would take your new CH above 10 in which case nothing would happen.

 

[Kanhef]

Yes, I've read that (have a copy on my computer, actually). I have less than 115 HP, but it hasn't happened after being hit dozens of times, so I'm wondering if there are any other factors that could be keeping it from happening.

 

[Per]

The script does this ("self" refers to the M):

            the_roll := roll_vs_skill(self_obj, SKILL_UNARMED_COMBAT, -dude_max_hits);
            if (is_success(the_roll)) then begin
               if (is_critical(the_roll)) then begin
                  set_masticator_bit_ear;
               end
            end

Because he needs to score a critical, the chance drops sharply as your HP approaches his Unarmed skill. I don't recall the M's exact Unarmed, but I think I picked the numbers so the chance wouldn't be just a few percent. This is what happens when you bite, by the way:

               the_roll := roll_vs_skill(dude_obj, SKILL_UNARMED_COMBAT, -self_max_hits);
               if (is_success(the_roll)) then begin
                  if (is_critical(the_roll)) then begin
                     set_player_bites_masticator_ear;
                  end
               end

 

[Kanhef]

Thanks!