Weekly Seed #19 [Alpha 4b] [Seed: Happy Miner]

[karlnp]

@karlnp : When you say caves, do you mean mines? Typically, if you see a bunch of med matter storage units and mining lasers around the staircase, then you can safely assume that the staircase will take you to mines. Also, you drop stuff from your inventory by press Alt + (inventory id). So, if you want to drop the first inventory item, press Alt + 1. I don't think you can drop the parts that are attached you directly. I am not sure, though.

Huh, I could swear that I'd tried that.

Oh, perhaps I meant mines, but I meant where branches appear in general - aside from garrisons, which I think are red, is there any way to tell if it's a branch or a main area behind a staircase?  I'm assuming not.

[Kyzrati]

Oh, perhaps I meant mines, but I meant where branches appear in general - aside from garrisons, which I think are red, is there any way to tell if it's a branch or a main area behind a staircase?  I'm assuming not.

Not until you know where it leads, in which case they will show as a different ASCII/tile. Branches show a door instead of stairs, and in ASCII mode the standard '<' up stairs switches to '>'.

[karlnp]

Cool. Lots to discover in this game. It's a fun feeling.

[Decker]

Thanks for the answers.

Spoiler

- Effective damage is projectile_damage*(1 + weapon_dmg_mult)*(1 + res).
I guess? Not sure what weapon_dmg_mult refers to--there are a number of possible multipliers to damage, but nothing specific to an individual weapon.

weapon_dmg_mult => stuff like particle chargers. So I guess I got the formula right.

  - Core analyzer damage transfer percentage [0.5, 1.0].
There's X% chance to transfer half the damage; there are no ranges involved here. (And note that half of the damage is not applied multiple times, it is instead redirected to the core.)

This explanation conflicts with the in-game part description "Enables X% chance to automatically transfer at least 50% of attack damage to target core". Why is the "at least" qualifier there if it's exactly 50%?

  - Number of parts hit with launcher [1, 3].
True, except for EM launchers which don't spread at all--always one part.

Good to know! I never realized that.

- If armor integrity procs, armor pieces are ignored when dealing damage.
Not sure what this one means.

"Enables 50% chance to bypass target armor." What does this mean exactly? I interpreted that as "roll a X% dice, if the test passes, then ignore all parts having the 'armor' flag when finding the part to damage with a projectile". In other words, armor is bypassed/unaffected when this effect triggers.

There are also things like various shields, special effects like slash-severing, bonuses from analysis records and hacking links, modifiers from utilities like particle chargers, and more

Essentially true. Analysis records is modeled indirectly through the base hit chance. Same for shield with resistances. Particle charger is modeled directly. Hacking link & slash effect are not accounted for, but rarely come into play.

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I'm hoping to use the simulator to show that many combat utitilies have a negligible effect overall.

Also, I formally file a complaint against this prototype. A +400 delay on this is like putting mustard on a chocolate bar. 

Spoiler

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[Kyzrati]

Yes, we pretty much just hide entire threads in spoilers around these parts...

  - Core analyzer damage transfer percentage [0.5, 1.0].
There's X% chance to transfer half the damage; there are no ranges involved here. (And note that half of the damage is not applied multiple times, it is instead redirected to the core.)

This explanation conflicts with the in-game part description "Enables X% chance to automatically transfer at least 50% of attack damage to target core". Why is the "at least" qualifier there if it's exactly 50%?

That was a bit of a dilemma with the wording, because what it does is split the damage in half and force half to hit the core, while the other half is still free to choose its own target and possible still hit the core. So you can end up doing 100% of damage to the core. The "at least" in this case refers to the weapon damage as a whole, not really what this part "enables," so it's a bit easy to misinterpret. I'll just remove "at least" to prevent confusion--hadn't realized the other interpretation. It's exactly 50% that transfers (assuming the chance test passes).

  - Number of parts hit with launcher [1, 3].
True, except for EM launchers which don't spread at all--always one part.

Good to know! I never realized that.

They do such low damage already (more akin to guns) that splitting it would imply the only use is corrupting a target (which would be kind limiting), so we want at least a chance of outright destroying especially smaller robots weak against it (e.g. Swarmers, Watchers...).

The splitting quality is determined by damage type, not weapon type, thus the manual only discusses this feature with respect to EX damage.

"Enables 50% chance to bypass target armor." What does this mean exactly? I interpreted that as "roll a X% dice, if the test passes, then ignore all parts having the 'armor' flag when finding the part to damage with a projectile". In other words, armor is bypassed/unaffected when this effect triggers.

Yep, that's exactly what it means. ("bypass" sounds more interesting and in-theme
than the very mechanical "ignore" )

I'm hoping to use the simulator to show that many combat utitilies have a negligible effect overall.

Haha, I hope you're wrong . It would be difficult to prove that, since you can use various intentional combinations of weapons + utilities to gain some impressive benefits, most especially when you start stacking those benefits. Some of my best runs have been doing things like that. Plus this can depend highly on your intended targets and the environment.

Of course I'm very interested to see the results!

Also, I formally file a complaint against this prototype. A +400 delay on this is like putting mustard on a chocolate bar. 

Spoiler

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I 100% agree . Honestly it's a surprisingly terrible weapon to begin with; appearances are deceptive in this case, something I believe should be changed. In Alpha 5 it will definitely have to change given that volley base times are changing. Thanks for bringing it up, as it's an easy mod--I'll look at it today.

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[zxc]

HA! We should have a spoiler forum with restricted access to winners only! Improved incentives perhaps?

[Kyzrati]

Hm, that's an interesting idea. I don't think I'd want to fracture the small community at this early point, though technically 90% of the regular posters have won the game... (Of course, there are a number of regular lurkers as well, people who'd just rather not post.)

There was discussion of a dedicated spoilers board before, but not a ton of support for it. And I don't really like the idea much myself, since it can combine lots of different topics into the same board, things that could normally be split into Ideas, Strategies, General, etc. (That's referring to it as an open board, though, not some kind of area restricted to "elite Cogminds" . That might work as and when Complex 0b10 gets easier. I believe we'll have yet more new winners in Alpha 5... on that note, it's about time jimmijamjams actually won!)

Maybe one day there will be need for these things. Perhaps when the community is larger? It would be nice to not have to bother spoiler tagging so much stuff

[zxc]

I was just kidding. I honestly wouldn't mind such a forum if it meant not bothering with spoiler tags all the time, but I agree that the community is far too small to make this a worthwhile idea.

[Kyzrati]

Everyone is certainly being quite responsible with spoiler tags, that's for sure

I do think it's a possibility for one day, though!

@Decker: Both Rocket Arrays are getting a buff as we speak. I've been wanting to do that for a while, anyway, since I always pass them up when playing. They are fun to watch but relatively worthless.

[Happylisk]

I'm sitting this one out since I watched K stream and saw where some of the Factory exits are.   Have to be an honest cogmind!  Really looking forward to Alpha 5 though.