How to make a weapon down an opponent quickly but deal little damage?

[EpicJ]

I'm working on a melee weapon that functions a little bit like a taser. It delivers a shock upon impact in order to down opponents without seriously harming them.

The problem is i have no idea how to do this reliably. I've been tweaking stuff like base damage and the damage type, and have settled on decent poke damage and fast swinging. This seems to down an opponent more often than killing them, but it still occasionally just kills them outright which is not ideal.

Is there any way to have a weapon deal high 'pain damage' but low actual damage? Any other method of downing an opponent quick whilst dealing minimal injuries would be great too.

[wwWraith]

I think you should create new damage type which will give increased pain or other hediff directly reducing consciousness (or maybe movement). I saw tasers mentioned in some mods, but haven't used them personally and can't recall their names. But I think you can find good examples in Sparkling Worlds (pain stick/gun) and Rim of Madness - Vampires (Sleep vampiric ability). Also you may find useful Truly Non-Lethal and Custom Death Randomness.

[vovik]

You can look at this mod:
Shocker pack
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=39323.msg400758

[Jernfalk]

I think you should create new damage type which will give increased pain or other hediff directly reducing consciousness (or maybe movement). I saw tasers mentioned in some mods, but haven't used them personally and can't recall their names. But I think you can find good examples in Sparkling Worlds (pain stick/gun) and Rim of Madness - Vampires (Sleep vampiric ability). Also you may find useful Truly Non-Lethal and Custom Death Randomness.

I recommend lowering mobility to zero, since it causes no damage. Zero consciousness causes "Coma" with can be fatal.

[ExoticButts]

Just remember though, downing any non-Colonist has a 67% chance to instakill, hardcoded. I've got a few weapons I'm working on that do some pretty cool stuff, and have had to balance them around this instakill chance.

[kwang4]

Really? The way I made my weapon was to use a hediff that dealt extreme pain. So far i've used it quite a few times without one-shotting anyone. The problem was that it still did minuscule amounts of damage.