Rifleman Archive

Further AP testing.

You have 4 armor levels which can describe either Armor or Armor Piercing ability. Each rating has a number associated with it thus:

0 = No armor
1 = Light
2 = Medium
3 = Heavy

As I understood things, when you shot a critter, the game engine calculated the Base Damage (i.e. the unmodified damage that shows up in the Combat window). The base damage would then be multiplied by (1.25)^N, where N = (AP - AR). This would give you an "Interrim Damage" value. The final "Floaty Damage(tm)" value would be the Interrim Damage with resists subtracted.

For you math geeks, here's a formula:

Floaty Damage(tm) = [Base Damage * (1.25)^N] * (1 - Resistance)

No armor, no resists

I have verified that this formula works for MOBs with no armor and no energy resists. In this case, the formula boils down to simply:

Floaty Damage(tm) = [Base Damage * (1.25)^AP]

Whatever the AP is of your weapon, stick it in this formula. That's how damage works against unarmored MOBs with no resists.

Vynocks have no armor and no resists. With a laser rifle (AP2), the multiplier should be (1.25)^2. With a T21 (AP3), the multiplier should be (1.25)^3. And, indeed, this is precisely how it works. Some test data:


T21 Rifle (AP3)

BD FD(tm) Mult.
-----------------------------
366 714 1.951
459 897 1.954
375 732 1.952
290 567 1.955
378 738 1.952
470 918 1.953
193 377 1.953
356 695 1.952


Note that (1.25)^3 = 1.953125

A similar set of data was obtained using a Laser Rifle, with the experimental multiplier being calculated as 1.564. Note that (1.25)^2 = 1.5625

So clearly, AP works against critters with no armor and no resists.


No armor, but with resists

Bagerasets on Corellia have no armor, but are 15% resistant to Energy. According to our formula, the Floaty Damage(tm) should be calculated thusly:

Floaty Damage(tm) = [Base Damage * (1.25)^AP] * (1 - 0.15)

According to this formula, if I shoot a Bageraset with a Laser Rifle for 1000 points of base damage, the Floaty Damage(tm) should be:

Floaty Damage(tm) = [1000 * (1.25)^2] * 0.85 = 1328

Which means that for a no-armor MOB with 15% resistance vs. energy, the base damage from a Laser Rifle (or any other AP2 weapon) will be multiplied by 1.328 to get the floaty damage. Some test data:


Laser Rifle (AP2)

BD FD(tm) Mult.
-----------------------------
470 624 1.328
521 692 1.328
137 182 1.328
689 916 1.329


Using a T21 (or any other AP3 weapon), the multipler would be 1.66. Experimental data verifies this to be true as well. Therefore, AP and AR work vs. MOBs with no armor, but which have some relevant resists.


Light armor, with resists

Grondas on Corellia are 5k HAM MOBs (or thereabouts) with AR1 (Light Armor) and 50% resistance to Energy. According to the formula, the Floaty Damage(tm) should be calculated thusly:

Floaty Damage(tm) = [Base Damage * (1.25)^N] * (1 - 0.50)

For a T21, N = 2 since (AP3 - AR1 = 2). So with this formula, if we shoot a Gronda with a T21 for 1000 points of Base Damage, the Floaty Damage should be:

Floaty Damage(tm) = [1000 * (1.25)^2] * 0.50 = 781

Based on this, if I shoot a Gronda with a T21, the Floaty Damage will be (Base Damage * 0.781). Some test data:


T21 Rifle (AP3)

BD FD(tm) Mult.
-----------------------------
363 283 0.780
636 497 0.781
1365 1066 0.781
1885 1471 0.780


So, again, we have verified that AR/AP works in instances where the MOB has armor and resists AND where your weapon has a higher AP rating than the critter's armor.

Come Saturday, I will grab a DLT20a and track down some Grondas. The DLT20a has no armor piercing rating. We will then check to see if it works vs. the Grondas in the way the Devs say it does, or if it works in some other way.

Very well done VolstedGridban...

Nice to see something working like it's supposed to!

Question on the damage though ---- What is the REAL damage inflicted upon a creature? I notice my combat window damage and the damage stated above the creature are always different. What value is correct?

Very nice post.

Too bad Bria is still without T21s.

The value above the critter is the real damage done to it. Annoying since you have to be watching, and makes post-combat analysis very misleading.

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Ryche_Mykola wrote:
Question on the damage though ---- What is the REAL damage inflicted upon a creature? I notice my combat window damage and the damage stated above the creature are always different. What value is correct?

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The damage actually inflicted upon a critter is the Floaty Damage(tm). The overwhelming majority of the Floaty Damage(tm) is applied to a single HAM pool, but there is a small amount (I'd guess around 1% or so) that gets distributed to the other two HAM pools. This is why you can kill a critter with 1 or 2 Health points left even if you don't hit the Health pool directly.

Hey, what's the deal with this 'Floaty Damage(tm)' ? I wanted to learn more, so I tried www.floatydamage.com, but no luck, so then i tried 'floaty_damage.com'. Same result. Finally I went to google and did a search on "floaty damage". No such critter (but I did find one page that had both 'floaty' and 'damage' on the same page!) How do we know this whole post isn't some massive SOE plot to confuse and disorient riflemen?