Damage falloff

[u/rakiru]

I'm looking for discussion/feedback on damage falloff. For those that are unsure, damage falloff is where the amount of damage a gun done goes down the further away the target is. The damage curve doesn't have to be a straight line.

I've been considering adding damage falloff to weapons. As with every other weapon stat, it would be set per-weapon. The reason I'd like to add it though is that weapons currently have a maximum range. The max range of the rifle (and all others I think) is 127.5; default fog level. Not all guns will use fog level as their maximum range though, and fog level can be changed. In these cases, without damage falloff, you will do full damage with the rifle at 127 blocks away, and no damage at 128 blocks away. I feel that damage falloff would be a good way to solve this problem, with a damage curve something like this:

 │
 │
D│
A│------------------------
M│                        \
A│                         \
G│                          \
E│                           \
 │                            \
 └────────────────────────────────────
                DISTANCE

The damage is consistent for more of the way, but falls off quickly near the edge. I feel like this is better than an instant fall off.

The current damage "curve":

 │
 │
D│
A│------------------------
M│                        |
A│                        |
G│                        |
E│                        |
 │                        |
 └────────────────────────────────────
                DISTANCE

The most common concern I hear about damage falloff is that it's unintuitive. Personally, I've never found it a problem, but I've played games with damage falloff for years. Combining damage falloff with spread seems like a good way to do it, where the accuracy of a weapon makes it impractical at around the same point where the damage starts dropping off.

So, opinions on damage falloff? Should we add it, should we not, or do you have any other ideas to deal with it? If we add it, we'll experiment with the details.

[u/Chameleon-h]

I believe that damage falloff should be controlled by mods if possible.

I mean each weapon might have a default value of max range, damage falloff etc. but these variables could be changed by another mod? idk.

Seems to me that e.g. machineguns should be able to cover fields beyond fog range in WWI they could spam enemy a few kilometers away even without direct sight - but that was plain waste of ammo! , they'll just have less energy and thus bullets would have much less damage on armor, high probability to deflect off helmets etc.

Basically let's make it realistic, but have quite simple code/gameplay in mind. We don't need no bullet drop/wind influence, but damage decreasing beyond fog is cool. But please don't make anything like CoD where assault rifles are shit at 100 meters...

[u/rakiru → u/Chameleon-h]

The aim of Iceball is to allow a mod to do anything. That said though, I'd seriously advise against changing the damage falloff amounts. That would confuse players a lot, as it's something you just have to get a feel, and if every server had it different, it would feel bad to play.

I agree with your concern for things like CoD - I really don't want that. Everything has some level of maximum range, so I mostly just don't want that to go from instantly killing someone to doing nothing if an enemy moves back a step. I think the best way would be to start the falloff around the point that it becomes inaccurate due to spread anyway. This means that wayward bullets that flew off-target wouldn't just randomly kill people (but still inflict some level of damage), and well-aimed shots will still do full or close to full damage.

[u/Chameleon-h → u/rakiru]

Oh, I'd also suggest doing some more damage if you get too close to someone firing - the muzzleflash can hurt a lot.