More control over random damage in decorate

[Talonos]

I would like to propose a system to make finer control over random damage values that is a more flexible version of the StrifeDamage flag.

As I currently understand it, Doom picks a value from one to seven, multiplies it by the number after "Damage," and then a projectile deals that much damage. If the STRIFEDAMAGE flag is set, the number picked is one to four instead.

I propose two things. First, a value that defines the size of the "Dice" used to roll damage perhaps called DAMAGESIZE, and second, a flag, perhaps called RANDOMDAMAGE, that tells the computer to generate as many random numbers as the value of "damage". Thus, a projectile that deals five damage, instead of dealing 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, or 35 damage with an equal probability of each will deal anywhere from 5 to 35 damage with a nice bell curve centering around 20.

Examples: (NOTE TO POSTERS: NOT REAL CODE!)

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DAMAGE 5

Same as I mentioned above. It will deal 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, or 35 damage with an equal probability of each.

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+STRIFEDAMAGE
DAMAGE 5

Deals either 5,10,15,or 20 damage.

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+RANDOMDAMAGE
+STRIFEDAMAGE
DAMAGE 5

does 5-20 damage in a bell curve with both 5 and 20 being highly unlikely.

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DAMAGESIZE 10
DAMAGE 5

would deal 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, or 50 damage.

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DAMAGESIZE 10
+RANDOMDAMAGE
DAMAGE 5

Would deal 5-50 damage with 5 and 50 being highly unlikely.

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+RANDOMDAMAGE
DAMAGESIZE 50
DAMAGE 1

Would make the projectile deal 1-50 damage with an equal probability of each number occuring.

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DAMAGESIZE 1
DAMAGE 25

Would make it so it always deals 25 damage.

This would make things either more predictable or more random depending on how it's used. Knowing that a certain projectile always deals five damage would make certain monsters less scary and more predictable, and knowing that the next time a certain projectile hits you, you could take anywhere from 1 to 100 damage (Distributed evenly) would scare the crud out of players. Also, because it works off of new values and flags, backwards compatability is retained.

Would this work?

[Deathsong12]

Yup. I would have a field day with this request. But my magical Graf-awnser predict-o-matic tells me that there is a 96.7% chance that he'll reject it on the basis of ZDoom compatability or on the basis of not having to rewrite the damage code.

[Graf Zahl]

Doing this fpor projectile damage is simple (i.e. one place in the code) but for hitscan and melee attacks it gets messier because that is done in each function separately.


But as you correctly guessed, I'd rather like to see Randy add all the other stuff he hasn't yet to his code first. I don't consider this that important. The randomness is one highly crucial factor in Doom's gameplay and the railgun code is a good example how lack of randomness can screw up a WAD.

[Talonos]

I don't consider this that important.

The randomness is one highly crucial factor in Doom's gameplay and the railgun code is a good example how lack of randomness can screw up a WAD.

Um... so do you consider this request important or not? You seem to say both that this is unimportant and that it's crucial.

And even if only projectiles worked like this, it would still be very useful to me.

[Graf Zahl]

I said that the randomness as applied is crucial. The most likely use for this feature would most likely be to get rid of it altogether.

[Shinjanji]

I do like that bell curve idea. It could be useful for people who also want a semi-high range of damage randomization, but not as high as Doom, or as low as Strife. (I know I don't like either of them too much; Strife feels too weak, and Doom can feel overpowered at times)

[Epoch]

Hmm... with railguns you can actually use a random(a,b) for the damage, and that adds some randomness, though it's still a bit annoying.

However, I must agree that such a system would be nice for projectiles, with very customizable damage. Better yet would be a MINDAMAGE parameter, to keep things consistently damaging.

In the end though, the damage is sufficiently controlled for the time being with the STRIFEDAMAGE flag, so serious changes would be a bit silly at this point, unless there is some case in which nothing else can be done.