User:LumiReaver/Suggestions

I'd appreciate some input.

Ideas I'm playing around with

Shoving Zombies

You're clearing a safe house, and you're out of ammo. What do you do? You push the zombie right out the door.

• Zombie must be at twelve HP or less
• Survivor ends up outside too
• Costs two AP for the shove
• 40% chance of taking damage equivalent to zombies hand attack
• 60% in ransacked buildings

Note to self: People said something about zombies shoving too, I should think about that

Suggested

Crossbows

Link

Talk:

I'm not so good with the damage per AP stuff, but I'm working on that now, the numbers are tentative. --LumiReaver

The average damage per AP is calculated with the formula (damage*(accuracy/100%))/firing-time. With standard ammo and max accuracy this would be (7 * (60%/100%)) / 1AP = 4,2 dmg/AP. If you want to take reloading into account, you substitute firing-time with (firing-time)+(reload-time/clip-size), which in this case is 2, so the average damage per AP with max skills and reloading taken into account is 2,1. With explosive bolts the respective values are 7,2 and 3,6. For comparison, the values for pistols are 3,25 and 2,7857... and for a shotgun these are 6,5 and 3,25. If you need more help with the math, I'd be happy to help. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 11:54, 10 October 2007 (BST)

(Damn, I messed up the edit buttons <_<) I don't see too much of a problem with the numbers so far. Explosive bolts are maybe a bit too powerful if you're bringing several loaded crossbows, but then encumbrance might become an issue before you can take full advantage of them, and search rates would put a damper on attempts to stock too much explosive ammo. I think most players reload one or two weapons, so this pretty balanced, but I'm not sure... Wait, does that mean To Kill 50HP Enemy: 24 Attacks (24 Bolts, 48 AP) is true, with skills, and reloading taken into account? That's terrible for some reason. --LumiReaver 13:33, 10 October 2007 (BST)

No, that's a total of 24AP to kill it, 12 attacks and 12 reloads. 14AP with explosive bolts, 7 attacks and 7 reloads. Actually, you could drop one reload and thus one AP from both, because you don't need the last reload because the target's already dead.

The encumberment would definitely be the limiting factor with crossbows. I calculated some damage/weight ratios (I don't think these are used anywhere on the wiki). A loaded pistol can cause 19,5 damage on average and it weighs 4%, so it's weight efficency is 4,875. Pistol clips have an efficency of 9,75. Loaded shotguns are pretty low, at 2,1666... and shotgun shells are 3,25. A crossbow loaded with standard ammunition would have a weight efficency of 0,7. With explosive ammunition it has an efficency of 1,2. That's pretty low. The bolts themselves would have efficencies of 4,55 (standard) and 7,2 (explosive). Both are above the shotgun shell and below the pistol clip. The crossbow would probably be used a couple of times in a fight, but that would be it. It wouldn't be efficent to carry lots of loaded crossbows, nor to load them while in combat. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 17:12, 10 October 2007 (BST)

I'm not sure then, does it seem like a good idea to press on with this, are the numbers okay? I'm satisfied with the gun itself, and it'd be ideal to killing blows thanks to the XP bonus. That's probably reason enough to carry it despite it's flaws. Thanks for the math help, by the way. --LumiReaver 17:27, 10 October 2007 (BST)

The standard bolt seems a bit under-powered, but otherwise it seems okay. How does flak jacket affect the damage? Currently it reduces 20% from damage, but that's 1,4 points of damage from the standard bolt and 2,4 from the explosive one, so they would have to be rounded to either direction. Or have completely custom rules for the damage reduction. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 18:17, 10 October 2007 (BST)

I'd round them to the nearest whole number, having 1, and 2 point damage reductions mirrors the pistol/shotgun reductions. Otherwise, a point of damage could be added to the standard bolt which would make it 20% equal to 1,6. Rounded up, both would have 2 points of damage reduced. Damage per AP would change to 4,8 against non-flak'd opponents. It almost seems like a pistol nerf, but that's without reloading. Under normal use, it's only 2,4. When you take reloading into account, it's only slightly worse than a pistol. Adding a point of damage also subtracts one extra point against flak-jacketed opponents so another point wouldn't make a difference to them. (And in that respect, I really don't like the extra point of damage because it makes the weapon seem like a newbie killer) --LumiReaver 19:05, 10 October 2007 (BST)

Get rid of the uber skill set, just have one skill for crossbows. BoboTalkClown 14:50, 12 October 2007 (BST)

If it had only one skill, its maximum accuracy would be only 30%, which would make it truly and utterly useless. On the other hand, using crossbows isn't really much different than shotguns or pistols, so it could probably use the Basic Firearms skill and then have a Crossbow Training skill below that. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 19:32, 12 October 2007 (BST)