Making armor useful again

[Shurp]

But keep in mind a helmet won't protect you from an arrow that goes in through your eye.  So we should still occasionally see colonists getting brained by shortbows... just very very rarely.

(60% of head hits >> rarely)

It would definitely help if rimworld modelled interior *bone* armor.  So before the arrow can smash your brain it has to first smash your skull.  Likewise an arrow has to destroy your sternum first.  And like with any armor there's a chance it would "slip through" -- an arrow to the eye, a knife between the ribs, and oops, you're dead.

[vzoxz0]

an arrow to the eye knee

[Thane]

It seems like Rimworld colonists wear their organs on the outside. I don't know about you, but my brain is protected by a really hard skull. Destroying my heart is also not a simple matter of hitting me where the heart is - there are ribs in the way. But in Rimword, if you know the magic spot to hit, BAM instant death. You don't even have to hit hard. A rolled up newspaper would suffice.

It's a quasi-realistic system which in some ways ends up even less realistic (and annoying!) than simpler systems in most other games. Turtles biting your eyes, colonists fighting and headbutting someone's knee, predators on the map being the first to die (bleeding to death from wounds inflicted by herbivores).

The carnivores dying thing is really annoying. They should be easily overcome. A rat should not kill a cobra.

[vzoxz0]

The rat weighs like 8 kilograms dude. An 8 kilogram rat can totally take down a cobra.

[Thane]

WTF? Rats are 20 pounds? What is this? The Princess Bride?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYj_krIHoLs

[b0rsuk]

In real life, a helmet doesn't stop a bullet. They are for shrapnel from artillery fire, grenades, and other types of explosions (or simply from debris flying as a result of bullets flying around you).

In Rimworld, there's no shrapnel, debris and ricochets.

In real life, helmets have an actual purpose. In Rimworld - not really.

[Shurp]

WTF? Rats are 20 pounds? What is this? The Princess Bride?

LOL!!!  ROUS!

As for helmets and bullets... if you're lying on the ground, and he's standing above you and shoots down straight at your head, yeah, you're gonna die.  But if he's standing 50 feet away and hits the top of the helmet it has a good chance of deflecting it.  Your skull wouldn't hold up nearly as well.

[Razzoriel]

I think it's just helmets that need re-examined. If a simple helmet can't help against what's probably the worst ranged weapon (or is that molotov cocktail?), what's the point of helmets? I mean it was a shortbow that instakilled my colonist.

In real life, a helmet doesn't stop a bullet.

They do. Modern helmets can stop even rifle bullets. They just don't retain the protection after the first bullet hits, though.

[Scavenger]

You think your Tshirt would stop a screw driver, let alone an armor piercing sniper round?

I think a leather shirt would be useful vs a screwdriver.

Ya, leather would help vs that, and a bit vs knives. But not vs bullets lol.

[Scavenger]

It seems like Rimworld colonists wear their organs on the outside. I don't know about you, but my brain is protected by a really hard skull. Destroying my heart is also not a simple matter of hitting me where the heart is - there are ribs in the way. But in Rimword, if you know the magic spot to hit, BAM instant death. You don't even have to hit hard. A rolled up newspaper would suffice.

It's a quasi-realistic system which in some ways ends up even less realistic (and annoying!) than simpler systems in most other games. Turtles biting your eyes, colonists fighting and headbutting someone's knee, predators on the map being the first to die (bleeding to death from wounds inflicted by herbivores).

A turtle biting your eye out is amazing lol. They have bitten the tale off many of my big cat pets:P

I believe predators have a stun ability on their first attack to give them the upper hand when hunting, but it should be a bit more than that.. I don't see them die too often when wild, but my tamed ones get ridiculous injuries from hunting all the time.

[Scavenger]

But keep in mind a helmet won't protect you from an arrow that goes in through your eye.  So we should still occasionally see colonists getting brained by shortbows... just very very rarely.

(60% of head hits >> rarely)

It would definitely help if rimworld modelled interior *bone* armor.  So before the arrow can smash your brain it has to first smash your skull.  Likewise an arrow has to destroy your sternum first.  And like with any armor there's a chance it would "slip through" -- an arrow to the eye, a knife between the ribs, and oops, you're dead.

that would be cool!

[Scavenger]

WTF? Rats are 20 pounds? What is this? The Princess Bride?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYj_krIHoLs

ROUS are no joke! They've got teeth like this!!

Also, rats and other rodents do often leave nasty scars on snakes and other predators irl. I've found many snakes with gashes and warped scales from it, even anacondas get it pretty bad from capybara and what not. And rodent bites are known to leave bad infections lol. Maybe not so far off as you would think. But bigger predators would generally kill them near instantly, dogs and big cats and crap.

[zizard]

But keep in mind a helmet won't protect you from an arrow that goes in through your eye.  So we should still occasionally see colonists getting brained by shortbows... just very very rarely.

(60% of head hits >> rarely)

It would definitely help if rimworld modelled interior *bone* armor.  So before the arrow can smash your brain it has to first smash your skull.  Likewise an arrow has to destroy your sternum first.  And like with any armor there's a chance it would "slip through" -- an arrow to the eye, a knife between the ribs, and oops, you're dead.

This was planned at one point but I guess it was scrapped:

Also please bear in mind there's more we're already planning to do. For example, I've asked Ison to rework how damage interacts with body parts with a new design. The effects will be subtle on the outside but one of them will be that internal damage is mitigated depending on its type (e.g. if you get a bruise on your internal organs it'll be weaker than the bruise on the surface, etc). This and many other things are planned.

[Spocklw]

I'm much more concerned that in this armor system we currently have, even partially mitigated damage (converted to blunt) can easily kill your pawns. I have seen multiple times situation like that guy in excellent marine armor got hit in the chest with charge blaster and the round got mitigated, but he had bruise on the torso and crush on some internal organ like heart, quite often sending it to the "red", sometimes even destoying it...