How damage and bullet penetration works
Hello there. New to posting here but I've read it a while, so I figured I'd make my first post informative and useful. I've been figuring out how damage is calculated and solid object penetration works, so I'll share what I know. It may help you do better and be a semi-tutorial for new modders that will at least give you a better understanding on how the game works. So let's begin:
First, to start off this subject everything in the game has a "material" that defines its properties for various situations (Not the full definition but in the scope of this report it will do. Correct me if I'm wrong though.)
I figure I'll start off with a few main points:
Do bullets penetrate people?
What, exactly, determines the ability of a bullet to penetrate objects?
How much damage do bullets do after going through something?
What's this stuff in the tweak files about solid and liquid penetration?
Do bullets penetrate people?
No. I find no reason to think that they do. My testing (detailed at the end of the post) shows no evidence of this. Solid penetration is for world objects. That's it. Not player objects (people) or player controlled objects (tanks, jeeps, etc.). But experience tells you to the contrary? Well, I think I can offer an explanation for the illusion that bullets go through people. Say that 4 guys come running down a small alley. You are at the end with a M249. You cut down the first guy. What happens? The game turns him into a ragdoll/non controllable object. Bullets go through these. After you shoot the guy he is still standing for a split second and the bullets you are firing off are now going through the ragdoll into the next guy. After the ragdoll falls down a few bullets might have already gone past it, so the next guy was taking damage even though you couldn't see him. You now should see how this could lead to the incorrect assumption of bullets going through people.
What, exactly, determines the ability of a bullet to penetrate objects?
I think this is solely dependant on the AllowSolid/LiquidPenetration variables. Tweak files might not be the final say in how the guns act, so this could explain why through experience people say certain guns can go through objects, but the two variables are missing in some of the .tweak files.
How much damage do bullets do after going through something or hitting someone?
Ahh, my favorite question that was the most fun to find the answer to. I told you a bit about "materials" at the beginning and now I will elaborate on what they do. There are calculations involved on how much damage a bullet will do. It's basically:
Weapon Damage * (Attacker Material vs. Defender Material), where:
Attacker Material is the attacker's projectile (such as small_arms, 50cal, 20mm_shell)
Weapon damage is the attacker's weapon damage (25,30, 190, etc)
Defender material is the properties of what's being hit (tank_rear_armor, metal_plating, body, body_kevlar, etc.)
There's really a kind of chart: http://img436.imageshack.us/my.php?i...alchart0ve.jpg
Please note that the game apparently defines limbs as legs past the knee and arms past the elbow. Kevlar/Body extends to the thighs and upper arms.
So say you have the M95. You do 190 damage with Attacker Material "Bullet_50caliber". The person who gets hit has defender material "Human_body_kevlar". Just consult the chart so you get a value of .5, which is the modifier.
Soldiers have 100 health so: 190 * (.5) = 95
So someone with kevlar that just got shot now has 5 (2 bars) health remaining.
You headshot someone with the pistol: 20 * (3) = 60 Victim now has 40 health.
Someone gets headshot with a 50cal bullet through cockpit glass. Trickier, since now you have to consult the charts twice:
(190 * .45) (the modifier for shooting through bulletproof glass) * 1.5 (modifier for headshot w/ 50cal) = 128.25, a killing shot.
Same with everything else, the game just calculates it based on those values. So now you see how 50cal bullets ignore armor, because they have the same modifier vs. human_body_kevlar and human_body. This also works in location-specific damage, different mods for different zones (head,body,limbs). Simple, no?
What's this stuff in the tweak files about solid and liquid penetration?
Solid penetration is the final say if something will go through another object or not. You can have a 1, 3, or even 5x modifers for materials but it doesn't mean anything unless the projectile can go through other things. Liquid penetration I'm assuming is when someone is in water it determines if you can hit their legs that are underwater.
So how did you figure all this stuff out anyways?
Well, I changed some of the material and penetration settings and disabled the AI so I had a bunch of dummy soldiers that stood there for target practice. They all stood in a line, so that's how I tested if bullets go through people. I also changed the small_arms material so it'd do 1x mod vs. everything (I mean EVERYTHING, so you could blow up tanks with a pistol), and that's how I figured out how damage is dealt with the location-specific damage.
Thanks for reading, hopefully you know how damage is handled and I didn't confuse you too much
. Corrections are welcome.
First, to start off this subject everything in the game has a "material" that defines its properties for various situations (Not the full definition but in the scope of this report it will do. Correct me if I'm wrong though.)
I figure I'll start off with a few main points:
Do bullets penetrate people?
What, exactly, determines the ability of a bullet to penetrate objects?
How much damage do bullets do after going through something?
What's this stuff in the tweak files about solid and liquid penetration?
Do bullets penetrate people?
No. I find no reason to think that they do. My testing (detailed at the end of the post) shows no evidence of this. Solid penetration is for world objects. That's it. Not player objects (people) or player controlled objects (tanks, jeeps, etc.). But experience tells you to the contrary? Well, I think I can offer an explanation for the illusion that bullets go through people. Say that 4 guys come running down a small alley. You are at the end with a M249. You cut down the first guy. What happens? The game turns him into a ragdoll/non controllable object. Bullets go through these. After you shoot the guy he is still standing for a split second and the bullets you are firing off are now going through the ragdoll into the next guy. After the ragdoll falls down a few bullets might have already gone past it, so the next guy was taking damage even though you couldn't see him. You now should see how this could lead to the incorrect assumption of bullets going through people.
What, exactly, determines the ability of a bullet to penetrate objects?
I think this is solely dependant on the AllowSolid/LiquidPenetration variables. Tweak files might not be the final say in how the guns act, so this could explain why through experience people say certain guns can go through objects, but the two variables are missing in some of the .tweak files.
How much damage do bullets do after going through something or hitting someone?
Ahh, my favorite question that was the most fun to find the answer to. I told you a bit about "materials" at the beginning and now I will elaborate on what they do. There are calculations involved on how much damage a bullet will do. It's basically:
Weapon Damage * (Attacker Material vs. Defender Material), where:
Attacker Material is the attacker's projectile (such as small_arms, 50cal, 20mm_shell)
Weapon damage is the attacker's weapon damage (25,30, 190, etc)
Defender material is the properties of what's being hit (tank_rear_armor, metal_plating, body, body_kevlar, etc.)
There's really a kind of chart: http://img436.imageshack.us/my.php?i...alchart0ve.jpg
Please note that the game apparently defines limbs as legs past the knee and arms past the elbow. Kevlar/Body extends to the thighs and upper arms.
So say you have the M95. You do 190 damage with Attacker Material "Bullet_50caliber". The person who gets hit has defender material "Human_body_kevlar". Just consult the chart so you get a value of .5, which is the modifier.
Soldiers have 100 health so: 190 * (.5) = 95
So someone with kevlar that just got shot now has 5 (2 bars) health remaining.
You headshot someone with the pistol: 20 * (3) = 60 Victim now has 40 health.
Someone gets headshot with a 50cal bullet through cockpit glass. Trickier, since now you have to consult the charts twice:
(190 * .45) (the modifier for shooting through bulletproof glass) * 1.5 (modifier for headshot w/ 50cal) = 128.25, a killing shot.
Same with everything else, the game just calculates it based on those values. So now you see how 50cal bullets ignore armor, because they have the same modifier vs. human_body_kevlar and human_body. This also works in location-specific damage, different mods for different zones (head,body,limbs). Simple, no?
What's this stuff in the tweak files about solid and liquid penetration?
Solid penetration is the final say if something will go through another object or not. You can have a 1, 3, or even 5x modifers for materials but it doesn't mean anything unless the projectile can go through other things. Liquid penetration I'm assuming is when someone is in water it determines if you can hit their legs that are underwater.
So how did you figure all this stuff out anyways?
Well, I changed some of the material and penetration settings and disabled the AI so I had a bunch of dummy soldiers that stood there for target practice. They all stood in a line, so that's how I tested if bullets go through people. I also changed the small_arms material so it'd do 1x mod vs. everything (I mean EVERYTHING, so you could blow up tanks with a pistol), and that's how I figured out how damage is dealt with the location-specific damage.
Thanks for reading, hopefully you know how damage is handled and I didn't confuse you too much
. Corrections are welcome.
. Nice first post
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