torhu wrote:Some people have suggested limiting the damage the pistols do at long ranges more than is currently done. This would be a way of weaking the pistols. I've tried to find an easy way to do this, one way is shown in
this image, made with this web-based
graphing calculator. The three first functions are for the pistols, the last for the two cheapest rifles.
It's just a cubic function that involves base damage, distance to target, and a 'damage retention constant'. Not sure what to call that last one. Note that 'range' is not used. In addition, damage reduction could be capped at maybe half base damage.
Is it something like this that you had in mind, guys? I'm not saying that I think this is a good idea, I'm just investigating options.
About 'damage retention constant', you can think it of the distance at which damage will decrease of one point.
Everyone should remind something, the damage applied will always be rounded to an integer before it is applied. That's essentialy why I don't think we should use complicated formula and we should only define few well-defined ranges with simple linear approximation.
So here is what I would like to try, where D is the hit distance, and R a damage reduction factor:
1) [0;RANGE] is defined as the range where full damage is applied. So if D<RANGE, DAMAGE=FULL_DAMAGE
2) [RANGE;2*RANGE] is the range where damage is reduced which such a formula: DAMAGE = FULL_DAMAGE - R * (D-RANGE)
3) [2*RANGE;10xRANGE] is the range where damage is reduced smoother to a minimum MIN_DAMAGE. In such range, the formula would become: DAMAGE=FULL_DAMAGE - 2/3 * (FULL_DAMAGE - MIN_DAMAGE) - R /10 * (D-2*RANGE)
4) [10xRANGE;infinity], DAMAGE=MIN_DAMAGE
In that way, we could define the reduction factor like this: R= 2 * (FULL_DAMAGE - MIN_DAMAGE) / ( 3 * RANGE )
So at 2*RANGE, DAMAGE will be reduced by 2/3*(FULL_DAMAGE - MIN_DAMAGE).
Of course, this is only a proposition. But we can start to add a cvar to select a damage reduction model and add the models described in this thread.
My point of view requires also to find a good minimum damage definition. I think we can safely define it as half the full damage, rounded to lower integer.
I updated the chart to compare it to the others. This is the green line in the graph.
Btw, in my opinion, if we reduce damage in that way, we should also reduce the spread for every weapon. So more people won't complain about hazardous shots.
Another point, people complains to players not being killed with their big heavy shot... what do you think if we add a feature to say something like 'You hit this guy, he got X points of damage' ? So people will have a better idea if their shot strength is really big... and this can help also people to choose a weapon with the distance they are trying to shoot someone.
I would also like to enhance the spread calculation using a player accuracy capacity which may be shown on the client part as a gauge. Such a gauge should decrease when player is running or jumping and should than only grown after a minimum delay. It should also decrease for a very short time just after any shot. And we may also have it grown toward 150% or 120% when staying crouched without moving or just standing up without moving.
Edition: Fixed missing "- 2/3 * (FULL_DAMAGE - MIN_DAMAGE)" in 3) formula