bacon on 31/7/2007 at 02:06

---

anyone know how SS2 treats rounding? i read on the "analysis" guide at gamefaqs that the game does recognise decimals when it comes to weapon durability, meaning 8.9 and 8.1 durability both display as "8" in-game, but the game knows where the durability is to 2 decimal points in the case of weapons like the assault rifle which lose .05 per shot.

however, i am wondering how the game calculates damage since there are often a wide variety of damages in the game, including very low ones like the laser pistol and the shotgun pellets.

the general attitude i see around guides and faqs is that the laser pistol in primary mode is really bad, and i just finished reading a thread about how the pellets in the shotgun arent strong enough. i think this is probably due more to rounding issues that anything else, since the whole number damages that these guns do is very small.

shotgun thread:
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97501)



i think it is incorrect to calculate 1 damage times 6 pellets and simply substitute the number 6 in calculation.

example:

lets say you are trying to kill a rumbler with anti personel shotgun pellets, a scenario reviewed in the thread above:

max damage with the pellets would be 6 weapon mastery for +45% damage (3 x +15%), double modification for +25%, research bonus +25%.

1 x (1 + .45 + .25 + .25) = 1.95

1.95 x 6 pellets = 11.7

6 x (1 + .45 + .25 + .25) = 11.7 as well

the problem is that the game may then round down to a whole number of 1, rather than to 2. this makes the damage as low as if the gun had no upgrades whatsoever, if the game in fact rounds down, rather than to the nearest whole number.

even if the game does round to the nearest whole number, rounding issues will always be more pronounced with 1 damage by 10 pellets than 10 damage by one slug, because 14.1 damage rounded down to 14 beats 1.41 damage x 10 where 1.41 is rounded down to 1. any amount of increased damage on a base of 1 which does not reach a new whole integer is basically wasted, and so small changes from things like the passive sharpshooter mod are much more valuable on larger base damages.

in fact, assuming SS2 does round down, you would require the sharpshooter mod to hit 2 damage with a shotgun pellet against a rumbler:

1 x (1 + .45 + .25 + .25 + .15) = 2.05

this is assuming that all the damage bonuses such as research, weapon mastery, modification, sharpshooter, and armor penalty are all weighted equally.

so, anyone know if SS2 rounds down, or if it rounds to the nearest whole number?

the problem is that i often cant seem to match calculations with in-game experience. i know that fully upgraded, i can kill rumblers in 3 shots with anti personel rounds from the assault rifle, but i cant really find a way to turn 10 base damage into a third of 220. its possible that the stats from internet guides are simply wrong, and that there isnt any good way to do testing by playing, but maybe some of you editors might know the answers.

this is the damage table ive been using from the analysis guide:

Type Annelid Swarm Half-Annelid Half-Mech Mech Basic SHODAN
.......................................................................
Anti-Annelid_______4 1 1 0 0 0 0
Anti-Human_______0 0 2 1 0 0 0
Armor Piercing____.5 0 .5 2 4 1 1.25
Cold_____________1 0 1 .5 1 1 1
Droid Fusion*_____1 0 1 1 1 1 0
Soma Transference_1 0 1 1 0 0 0
Electricity_________1 0 1 4 4 1 0
EMP______________0 0 0 2 4 0 1.5
Energy___________.5 0 1 1 2 1 .5
High Explosive______2 0 4 1 .5 1 .75
Incendiary_________2 0 2 .5 0 1 1
Psi_______________2 0 1 1 0 1 1
Standard__________1 0 1 1 1 1 1
WeaponBash_______1 0 1 1 .5 1 0

however, i believe that energy does 1.5 damage against half mechs, based on my own testing.

bacon on 31/7/2007 at 05:21

---

analysis guide:

(http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/185706/41882)

based on my own testing, i was able to kill a midwife in one shot from an oversharged laser pistol with the following setup:

sharpshooter OS = 15%
research = 25%
mod 2 = 25%
level 4 energy = 45%

base damage is 12 according to the analysis guide

12 x (1 + .45 + .25 + .25 + .15) x 1.25 = 31.5

midwife has 36 hp according to the analysis guide, so i assumed that the armor penalty was 1.5, since that would reach past 36 hp.

with the same setup i was also able to kill a midwife with 7 hits from the primary fire.

base damage is 2 according to the analysis guide.

2 x (1 + .45 + .25 + .25 + .15) x 1.25 = 5.25

round down to 5

5 x 7 hits = 35

i think the midwife hp listing is wrong, the damage from the laser pistol is wrong, or the armor penalty is wrong. or something is wrong with the calculations, but i cant see what.

Some_twerp on 31/7/2007 at 10:18

---

I always found pellets to do a decent job against hybrids-I usually take them out in one shot, and they seem just as good with Straylight's mod-last run, I had a standard of 4 and was killing rumblers with 3-4 shells on single shot with the shotgun.
If anything should be tweaked, the shotgun's triple shot damage should be made consistent-it either fires three shells and does triple damage or it fires two shells and does double.

Nameless Voice on 31/7/2007 at 11:26

---

The text descriptions for the Sharpshooter OS are incorrect.
It actually does +35% damage.
And damage is rounded to the nearest whole number, since an Assault Rifle, using standard rounds at Standard 6 deals 10 points of damage normally, and 14 points of damage using Sharpshooter (10 * 1.35 = 13.5 ==> 14).

Edit: Ah, too slow.

Nameless Voice on 31/7/2007 at 19:25

---

Modification values for the Assault rifle are 1.1 and 1.14, cumulative.
So, a double-modified AR at level 10 would deal 16.929 damage with standard rounds and Sharpshooter.
A Rumbler is a hybrid, so it has half-annelid vulnerabilities, and takes 4x damage from anti-personnel rounds. That would be a total of 67.716, or 68 points of damage.