Charge Lance Headshot vs. Tough = Decapitation - What am I missing?

Started by angus_burger, April 16, 2020, 07:56:31 PM

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angus_burger

As the title says. I have a colonist with tough (mitigates 50% of incoming damage), and they were hit in the head with a charge lance...instantly destroying their head (25 HP).

How is that possible? The charge lance's damage should have been 15 at most; how did it end up doing 25 damage? Even assuming there is some number roll added/subtracted from damage, that rifle would have had to do 50 damage to end up killing my colonist. So what the fuck happened? What am I missing?

Bozobub

Thanks, belgord!

angus_burger

Interesting...do you have any source for that? You're saying even being hit in the head by the weakest bullet in the game has a chance to kill? That doesn't sound right to me, would like some evidence.

Bozobub

Nope, sorry, can't be arsed, far too lazy.  Believe me or not, your choice.  You probably should ponder the concept, however, of "critical hit".

Note:  I know of TWO people IRL that died to a (not very hard-thrown or large) rock and a BB, in order.  A Charge Lance (an intentionally deadly ranged weapon) to the head is perfectly reasonable to imagine as possibly fatal, even to a tough guy.  What about a shot right in the eye?  Or directly in the ear or to the soft spot on their temple? C'mon, now -.-' .

To paraphrase the old saying about wizards:  "No matter how tough, brawny, or skilled a fighter is, a bullet to the eye will seriously cramp their style."
Thanks, belgord!

angus_burger

Uhh ok. I'm gonna wait and hope someone comes in with some actual evidence or explanation of the game mechanic; sorry but "just believe me" doesn't do it for me.

I've never seen evidence in rimworld of a "critical hit"; the entire point of this post is asking the community if such a thing exists; if damage to the head has some inherent multiplier, or there's a % chance of instant death, then I want to understand that mechanic. Pondering a concept is meaningless if there's no context for how it applies to the game!

For the same reason, I couldn't care less about realism. I'm asking about a mechanic in the game that I want to understand, not an argument for why it happened.

carbon

Three ideas:

1) Did it destroy the head or the neck? It's possible the neck has less HP.

2) Was it a masterwork or legendary charge lance? The two highest qualities provide a damage boost, so they might have the extra damage needed to get the job done.

3) Was the head in question already damaged? Either by a recent hit or via scar tissue.

----

If you are sure it's none of those, I would post about it in the bug forums with as much detail as you can muster. There might be something weird about tough that needs looked at.

Lexa

Bozo is wrong. Since 1.1 Tough does not migate damage if the hit damages interior parts too, something i can only assume to be a bug. So the charge lance in your scencario actually did 30 damage to the head and then 15 damage to the brain. Which results in decapication.

angus_burger

Ahh, that would make sense Lexa, thank you for the info! I'd be fine if it said something like "Brain 0/10 Head 10/25", but the fact that the head and ONLY the head was 0/30 confused me. I guess I'll put a bug report together next time it happens; probably easy enough to test with any tough character.

erdrik

Quote from: Lexa on April 20, 2020, 07:13:34 AM
... Since 1.1 Tough does not migate damage if the hit damages interior parts too, something i can only assume to be a bug. ...

Why would the Tough trait make brains tougher? It is described as providing "...thick skin, dense flesh, and durable bones..." That does not include organs, and certainly not the brain.

RimJimMcGee

Quote from: erdrik on April 22, 2020, 01:42:39 PM
Why would the Tough trait make brains tougher? It is described as providing "...thick skin, dense flesh, and durable bones..." That does not include organs, and certainly not the brain.

But it should still, presumably, mitigate surface damage even if the shot damages organs. In the example above, unless I've misunderstood, the problem isn't that the damage to the brain wasn't reduced by Tough, but rather that the damage to the head/skull - that is, skin, flesh, bones - wasn't reduced by the trait either.