Triple Damage artifact or Double Damage

This discussion is continued from a post over on the Banter board.

Szlat wrote:

As a suprise even to me, I think that in invasion, the Triple damage does the same damage as the double damage.
Mystic wrote:

oh great, will that mean a stronger lr combo? lol
No, because actually having it as a triple would cause so many more problems. I might just change the name to DD

(perhaps we need to discuss this on a separate thread as it is a bit off-topic)

And I know there will be some heated thoughts here, so let's keep it calm.

At the moment, the triple damage artifact triples damage in DM but only doubles damage in invasion. In both cases it uses the same adrenaline per second.

So, what do we do with it?

Szlat wrote:

This discussion is continued from a post over on the Banter board.

Szlat wrote:

As a suprise even to me, I think that in invasion, the Triple damage does the same damage as the double damage.
Mystic wrote:

oh great, will that mean a stronger lr combo? lol
No, because actually having it as a triple would cause so many more problems. I might just change the name to DD

(perhaps we need to discuss this on a separate thread as it is a bit off-topic)

And I know there will be some heated thoughts here, so let's keep it calm.

At the moment, the triple damage artifact triples damage in DM but only doubles damage in invasion. In both cases it uses the same adrenaline per second.

So, what do we do with it?

This definitely warrants some testing to make sure that this is true. Seems like I've got a number of things to test tonight!

Assuming it's true... I doubt I would make any changes to functionality. The item is powerful enough as-is without making it any cheaper. Though going more expensive in non-invasion gametypes is an option.

Just got the chance to test this out, and surprisingly confirmed that Triple Damage is only x2 damage. Interesting twist, really.

Szlat, if you don't mind, could you explain what's going on here if you know? Why would DamageScaling be applied when damaging player Pawns but not Monsters (subclasses of Pawns)?

Wail wrote:

Szlat, if you don't mind, could you explain what's going on here if you know? Why would DamageScaling be applied when damaging player Pawns but not Monsters (subclasses of Pawns)?

The bit of code that actions DamageScaling is in the DeathMatch.ReduceDamage function (called from Pawn.TakeDamage). So all games based on DeathMatch should pick it up and use it.

Invasion is based on Deathmatch. What gametypes normally do is implement their own bit of code for the differences, and allow the base classes to handle everything else. In the Invasion.ReduceDamage routine, in most places it calls Super.ReduceDamage(..) in order to let the DeathMatch code do its stuff.

However, in the specific bit of code dealing with the Injured pawn being a monster, it does a
return Damage
rather than a
return Super.ReduceDamage( Damage,injured,instigatedBy,HitLocation,Momentum,DamageType )
Which means the deathmatch code doesn't get called.

I think it is just a bug in the original code, and someone forgot it. Or they deliberately omitted it for performance reasons, because who cares about reducing damage on Monsters?

As an aside, the DeathMatch.ReduceDamage also calls Super.ReduceDamage .... down the line, until you get to GameInfo.ReduceDamage, which calls GameRulesModifiers.NetDamage. It is this call that actions all the RPG weapon magic and abilities, which is done in UT2004RPG's RPGRules.NetDamage.

This meant that the RPG NetDamage code wasn't called if the Injured was a monster. So Mysterial gave all monsters a FakeMonsterWeapon and called the RPG NetDamage code from in there. To get around the same problem.

So Mysterial knew the DeathMatch.ReduceDamage wasn't being called for Monsters. Did he know about the resulting affect on the triple? No idea.