Head Shots / Knock Back

[Bromulus]

• So, in keeping with my Romero/TWD desires, would it be accurate to assume that increasing the DamageBonus.head value to very high numbers would get me at least in the realm of one shot one kills when aiming for the cranium?

Is the DamageBonus.head some sort of multiplier or is it the addition of exact "damage points"?

• Also, has anyone ever discovered a "knock back" mechanic hidden in the config files anywhere? This is to say a zombie hit with a shotgun is more likely to get knocked down and have to get back up again etc.?

[Valmar]

It is a multiplier, yes. So if you make it high enough you will make headshots deadly.

Personally I like pairing it with a body mulitplier to make bodyshots deal LESS damage and almost require headshots.

Example:
<property name="DamageBonus.head" value="15" />
<property name="DamageBonus.body" value="0.6" />

In the above example a shot to the head will deal 15x the amount of damage. A shot to the body however will only deal 60% of the total damage. Makes for an interesting dynamic. Especially with arrows where I lower the body bonus down to 0.3. Zombies are pin cushions, need to score the headshot to get the win. I actually built two mods around this concept. :)



I dont think the knockback is a part of the buff but rather the damage exceeds their knockdown threshold as assigned in the entityclasses.xml

Example:

<property name="KnockdownProneDamageThreshold" value="0.5"/>
<property name="KnockdownKneelDamageThreshold" value="0.4"/>

From what I understand this means that if the attack removes over 40% of their health they will kneel. If the attack removes over 50% of their health they will be knocked on their back.

Due to the way shotguns work its easier to achieve this, I suspect.

[Bromulus]

I hadn't come across DamageBonus.body in my travels to even know that was an option. Agreed, awesome and thanks again!

(Have you seen some of the kookiness in the vanilla like the .44 Magnum doing less head damage than the 9mm, etc, etc?)

BTW there is nothing that modifies a players chance to hit the head shot correct? That is just the actual mouse skill?

Originally posted by Valmar:

<property name="KnockdownProneDamageThreshold" value="0.5"/>
<property name="KnockdownKneelDamageThreshold" value="0.4"/>

Wait are you saying that KnockdownProneDamageThreshold is an actual separate param that I can apply to shotguns directly? Or are you saying the shotgunWound buff is feeding from something like this and it's not an actual property name? Or maybe you mean shotguns already have this built in.

[Valmar]

I assume the magnum does less head damage because it has a much higher base damage. Likely a balancing issue.

And no, the knockdown threshold is part of the entity itself in the entityclasses.xml. It is not something specific to the item.

[Bromulus]

Originally posted by Valmar:

I assume the magnum does less head damage because it has a much higher base damage. Likely a balancing issue.

I'm having trouble finding the difference between "base damage" in the 9mm and the .44

Originally posted by Valmar:

And no, the knockdown threshold is part of the entity itself in the entityclasses.xml. It is not something specific to the item.

I'm actually struggling with this conceptually, if I am understanding it correctly. So if a bladed weapon could quickly zap 50% of a zombies health it could get pushed down? Not thematically cool right? If so, there must be a way to get only blunt items to cause knock, or have the entity only consider blunt damage for knockdown. That's why I had high hopes about the shotgunWound buff... was thinking maybe it artificially caused knockdown somehow. A way to tie it to the item. Hmmmm...

[Valmar]

Damage from guns, other than the shotgun, derives from the parts. Typically the barrel.

Example:
Pistol
<item id="213" name="partsPistol_barrel">
<property name="Extends" value="partsMaster" />
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="partsPistolGroupDesc"/>
<property name="PartType" value="Barrel" />
<property name="Weight" value="10" />
<property class="Attributes">
<property name="EntityDamage" value="11.4, 19" />
<property name="BlockDamage" value="5,13" />
<property name="DegradationMax" value="700,4000" />
</property>
<property name="EconomicValue" value="412" />
</item>

vs

Magnum
<item id="219" name="parts44Magnum_frame">
<property name="Extends" value="partsMaster" />
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="parts44MagnumGroupDesc"/>
<property name="PartType" value="Barrel" />
<property name="Weight" value="20" />
<property class="Attributes">
<property name="EntityDamage" value="35.2,88" />
<property name="BlockDamage" value="10,24" />
<property name="DegradationMax" value="2000,10000" />
</property>
<property name="EconomicValue" value="1125" />
</item>



As for blade weapons causing knockdown... yes, I suppose it is possible... You'd need to have the skill and perk maxed out though, more than likely, and be using the highest quality machete you can find. I never tried it myself.

[Bromulus]

Originally posted by Valmar:

Damage from guns, other than the shotgun, derives from the parts. Typically the barrel.

Example:
Pistol
<item id="213" name="partsPistol_barrel">
<property name="Extends" value="partsMaster" />
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="partsPistolGroupDesc"/>
<property name="PartType" value="Barrel" />
<property name="Weight" value="10" />
<property class="Attributes">
<property name="EntityDamage" value="11.4, 19" />
<property name="BlockDamage" value="5,13" />
<property name="DegradationMax" value="700,4000" />
</property>
<property name="EconomicValue" value="412" />
</item>

vs

Magnum
<item id="219" name="parts44Magnum_frame">
<property name="Extends" value="partsMaster" />
<property name="DescriptionKey" value="parts44MagnumGroupDesc"/>
<property name="PartType" value="Barrel" />
<property name="Weight" value="20" />
<property class="Attributes">
<property name="EntityDamage" value="35.2,88" />
<property name="BlockDamage" value="10,24" />
<property name="DegradationMax" value="2000,10000" />
</property>
<property name="EconomicValue" value="1125" />
</item>

Oh wow, it's in the individual "parts". This is the most non-intuitive thing I've stumbled upon thus far (everything else quite common sensical up to this point). Will have to wrap my head around this a bit.

Originally posted by Valmar:

As for blade weapons causing knockdown... yes, I suppose it is possible... You'd need to have the skill and perk maxed out though, more than likely, and be using the highest quality machete you can find. I never tried it myself.

Well unfortunately the same logic would apply to arrows and bolts. I assume the higher material versions do a great deal of damage, but they shouldn't be knocking a zombie (or a survivor) down in my mythos. Piercing/Cutting damage should be void of knockback, while it should be tastefully applied to shotguns and certian blunt weapons to a degree.

Perhaps I've identified a tiny void to dream/focus on.

So what do you think that shotgun wound buff is? Just cosmetics or something?

[Bromulus]

Originally posted by Valmar:

Personally I like pairing it with a body mulitplier to make bodyshots deal LESS damage and almost require headshots.

Thinking... doesn't this have the unfortunate side effect of making hunting/killing animals rather difficult.

Additionally, this makes corpse cleanup more time consuming, unless a "dead" (should I say deactivated?) zombie recieves damage in a different way? Or is there perhaps a bonus or buff we could increase when a zombie is deactivated to offset?

[Valmar]

Dead zombies (lol, dead zombies, as opposed to living ones?) do not have the same mechanics attached ot them. Headshots mean nothing when it comes to cleaning up bodies. You deal the same amount of damage regardless, far as my experience goes anyway.

Animals can be more tricky this way, yes. Depends on your aim. :)

I just gave mine slightly less health to compensate.

[Unbearable]

So what out of the wave of melee weapons does the most to the zeds then if arrows are just pincushioning them?. I am grinding iron bat and then the sledge myself so would be cool to know..always figured blunt was the best road to take to make a zed cry.

[Valmar]

Originally posted by Unbearable:

So what out of the wave of melee weapons does the most to the zeds then if arrows are just pincushioning them?. I am grinding iron bat and then the sledge myself so would be cool to know..always figured blunt was the best road to take to make a zed cry.

Dont misunderstand. My pincushion comment was directly related to how I personally modified them with the forementioned headshot and body multiplier code. Not how it is in the base-game. They are not pincushions in vanilla. I was talking in the context of what the player could modify themselves in the game files.

[Bromulus]

Originally posted by Unbearable:

So what out of the wave of melee weapons does the most to the zeds then if arrows are just pincushioning them?. I am grinding iron bat and then the sledge myself so would be cool to know..always figured blunt was the best road to take to make a zed cry.

Yes please note OP description, clearly talking MODs here, and specifically ones that follow the Zombie Commandments.

Noted on all Valmar, thanks mate. Been modding for almost 48 hours now, hopefully coming up for air (pizza?) soon.

[Valmar]

I've moved the topic to the modding section. Seems to fit in better here rather than the general section.

Also, for your own sanity, I do hope you're use Notepad++ for your xml modding and not plain ol windows notepad! :)

[Bromulus]

Agreed and indeed.

BTW...

Originally posted by Bromulus:

So what do you think that shotgun wound buff is? Just cosmetics or something?

Breaks legs. Nice.

[rav]

hello,
if i host a multiplayer game for me and my friends and change this settings, will it apply to our game or do my friends have to make the same changes?

[Bromulus]

If you make the changes to the "\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days to Die Dedicated Server" folder and host the game then it's settings/tweaks will override their locals.