How many High Explosives?

[Bomb Bloke]

Explosions are round, not square.

[Zombie]

Explosions are not round as the game cannot form circles. Everything in the battlescape is made up of tiles. Since tiles are square, the game tries it's best to form a circle while only using squares. The result is nither a square nor a circle. The shape formed approximates a diamond.

 

A 3x3 explosion looks like a + sign: (1,3,1)

A 5x5 explosion looks more like a diamond: (1,3,5,3,1)

 

     3x3            5x5

     X              X
    XXX            XXX
     X            XXXXX
                   XXX
                    X

[Bomb Bloke]

Given that it is impossible to create a perfect circle anyway, my memory says that the bigger the blast, the closer to the shape of a circle will the blast pattern become.

 

For example, a blaster bomb explosion looks nothing like a square or a diamond. Best viewed with the overhead map.

[Jasonred]

...

 

So, no one believed my theory until I actually did the test and posted the results. grr... just as well I did it then. I would have thought my using logic and elimination to do it would have sufficed, but it would seem people here like statistics and data better...

 

Anyhow... I'm still rather blank at peeking into program data, so what impact does this have with the hull vs walls and their strength+resistance etc etc? Come to think of it, what figures were arrived at for those?

 

Also... how did everyone determine that being shot in the head does no extra damage as compared to arms or legs? Really strong modified soldiers, with modified 0 armor, and shoot them up? geez. With randomised damage, you'd have to make, errr... probably 100 shots per location on average? Can someone direct me to the results of said test, anyhow? (I have no interest in performing 500+ shots, reloads, edit etc... ;( )

 

How about stun bombs? Are they just explosives that do stun damage instead, or are they governed by some other bizzare ruleset? (I still don't completely get incindieries and fire)

[FullAuto]

Your theory?

[NKF]

I've had a lot of my theories tossed and corrected over the years thanks to a bit of number crunching or practical testing. The more this happens, the more refined my answers become. Nevertheless, I've never expected anyone to outright believe anything I've ever said or suggested. I've always expected them to go out and find out for themselves.

 

It's always good to be prepared to believe anything with X-Com - the game constantly pulls out something new to shoot down any new theories you may have even after you think you've mastered everything there is to know about it.

 

Now to re-enforce your theory: I've always found that the scenery and actors adhere to somewhat different rules and it's true, the type of damage dealt by explosives appear to be much more consistent with the scenery than it is with the actors. If it were random, then we'd have damage that looks like swiss cheese with odd unharmed bits in between the carnage and anywhere in between. Can't have that now can we?

 

---

 

Stun damage is indeed basic HE damage but with the main rule change being the type of damage that is done (adds to paralysis levels rather than deducting from health) and it doesn't touch the terrain.

 

---

 

As for locational damage - this game is relatively simple. It's hard enough to just hit the target let alone aim for a specific bodypart. As for how I tested the range of damage values to come with a value between 0 - 200%, I did indeed set armour to 0, boost health to a nice round number with 0's in it and then ran multiple tests until I was able to obtain a min and a max value. My tests aren't as comprehensive as Zombie's, who takes it several steps beyond what I'm normaly after. Still, from both our tests, damage does indeed go between 0 and 200% before you take into account the damage resistance modifiers.

 

And if it's any consolation, I got variable damage no matter where the bullet appeared to hit the target. The leg, the arm, the back of the head, in the gut, etc. It didn't matter.

 

---

 

To add to the circle on tile discussion:

 

Bomb Bloke's right. You can probably think of the blast area like this. Imagine a circle of a certain size. Lay it down on the playing grid - the centre being the centre of the blast, naturally. Fill in the grids are inside the circle and all the ones that the edge of the circle passes through and you should get your roughly circular area. Smaller circles start off as diamonds but as the resolution increases (so to say), it becomes more circle-like.

 

- NKF

[Jasonred]

Eh. Another thing about that formula would be that Blaster Bombs would have a blast radius of 20 tiles. I don't think they're quite THAT bad...

 

Obviously, the damage required to punch a hole in the hull/ ceiling is EXACTLY the strength of the blaster bomb, no more, no less, and the damage isn't random.

 

Since:

1. Same results always occur

2. Similiar tiles which receive marginally less damage are never destroyed.

3. That target tile is always destroyed.

 

QED.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

That theory. Which Fullauto contested, saying explosive damage could still be random. NEhow... back onto explosive damage and possible tests.

 

Explosive damage might be applied tile by tile, starting from the center. I have no idea how it spreads out... on wide open spaces, fine. But when walls and objects get in the way? Ummm...

 

I tested using a barn in a farmyard, entrance to barn on the East.

 

Sending a BB into the East wall right next to the door resulted in the south wall totally blown away, BUT the blast did not damage tiles after that wall. So, the blast appeared to have "spent" itself on the south wall?

 

Sending a BB into the East wall two tiles from door had similiar results.

 

Hitting the INSIDE of the barn of the barn next to the door resulted in the south walls destruction AND damage to tiles past the wall?

 

So... when do explosions expend themselves after destroying obstacles, and when do they keep going. Do they do the same damage if they had to knock over a wooden wall between the epicenter and the victim?

 

Blasts also seem to somehow "turn corners" somewhat. An explosion 1 square north and two West of a corner will somehow travel to the corner, phase one tile south, and continue East. Eh?

 

These tests may be particularly useful in actual game combat, since you might want to know before hand whether that wall/ corner is going to protect your soldier/ that darned alien from the blast!