Melee damage and resources

[Raven Catcher]

Sorry for the wall of text but I just wanted to make sure I was fully describing the situation. This isn't a bug, why it's not posted in the bugs section, I'm just not seeing that much of an increase in the amount of materials harvested as the wiki states. To recap what the wiki says about increasing melee damage to thus improve resource collection:
"It can also increase the amount of materials harvested from a spawned resource, and improve the chances of receiving any rare materials."
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Melee_Damage

I've done some tests (see below) and with increased melee damage the amount of resources per hit is definitely increased, but the amount of materials per spawned resource is not increased as the wiki states. Just to be clear, the amount of resources per hit is not in question, it's whether a particular resource will yield more materials before it is depleted as the wiki states.

In my research I've learn that there is, or at least was back around patch 182.0
( http://ark.gamepedia.com/182.0 ), a server command line which clamped the resource harvesting:
clampresourceharvestdamage=true/false.
The exact definition of this command line states:
"Some servers "clamp" resource harvesting, meaning that each source has a max amount of resources it can yield, regardless of how much your melee damage allows you to harvest with each hit."
http://www.ark-survival.net/en/2015/08/14/server-command-line-arguments/
​
Therefore I figured the resources must be clamped on my server which is why I wasn't seeing any increase in materials gathers per spawned resource. Below is a little test I did to try and see if the server settings mattered. Each Doedicurus is harvesting the same resource nodes (solid gold rock) and I did the test 5 times which is why you see 5 numbers. Each number represents the amount of stone collected before the resource node expired. There are 3 different scenarios where the server command line for clamping resources is either set to true, false, or the line is removed altogether to see if the devs have done away with the resource clamping since v182.
- clampresourceharvestdamage=True
- clampresourceharvestdamage=False
- server command line removed

Server setting: clampresourceharvestdamage=true
Doedicurus (lvl 48) @ 216.1% Melee damage = 270, 281, 290, 291, 285 (average= 283)
Doedicurus (lvl 233) @ 365.3% Melee damage = 292, 314, 300, 276, 299 (average= 296)

Server setting: clampresourceharvestdamage=false
Doedicurus (lvl 48) @ 216.1% Melee damage = 298, 314, 304, 287, 321 (average= 305)
Doedicurus (lvl 233) @ 365.3% Melee damage = 311, 314, 298, 285, 310 (average= 304)

Server setting: clampresourceharvestdamage command line is removed altogether
Doedicurus (lvl 48) @ 216.1% Melee damage = 309, 312, 296, 334, 303 (average= 311)
Doedicurus (lvl 233) @ 365.3% Melee damage = 317, 291, 300, 299, 369, 368 (average= 329)

Conclusion:
This is just a quick 5 round test with each server setting different so perhaps more rounds are needed for accuracy, but with the server set to clampresourceharvestdamage=true or if the command line removed altogether then we do see the higher melee damage pulling ahead slightly in more resources per node. The 365.3% Doed was able to deplete the resource nodes in 3 hits, where the 216.1% melee damage Doed did it in 6 hits. However, given the amount of points you have to pump into melee damage (this test I increased it 149% more then the 216.1% Doed) in order to see this slight increase, it feels like it's not really worth it when other stats like weight capacity, health, or movement speed might be a better choice.

Does anyone have a suggestion that I might try or perhaps there's another server setting I'm over looking, in order to see a better return when pumping up melee damage?

[Vern]

I didnt read the entire post
Overkill is the attack that depletes ste node

Resourses gain=%of nodes max hp lost, froman attack

Resources gain on overkill attack=%of nodes [(max hp)x5] lost from overkill attack

[Raven Catcher]

Not sure what you mean by overkill or overdamage because there are no options within the Server Command Line arguments or GameUserSettings INI configurations for that.

[Blaze]

How is 354 the average of (292, 314, 300, 276, 299) in the 233 Doedicurus?

I guess I can't get it since I failed math :p

[Paroxyde]

He means that each ressources have hp, if you overkill it (deal more damage than its hp) you get extra ressources following his formula.

[♥ (2)]

well yes this is the case, you wont really get more, you will just brake a resource node faster

[Anubis]

Originally posted by Blaze:

How is 354 the average of (292, 314, 300, 276, 299) in the 233 Doedicurus?

I guess I can't get it since I failed math :p

Its not, its 296.2 to be axact, he must have done a mistake...

[Raven Catcher]

Haha, thanks for pointing that out about my poor math. I'll change the original post.

Well after adjusting my horrible math, that makes the default setting of all servers even worse then I had originally thought, as far as increasing melee damage. So, if I'm understanding you correctly, the only way to get more resources out of a node and by not increasing the gather rates is to alter the server settings for increasing the HP of all resources? That wouldn't benefit people who take the time to increase the melee damage of their dinos because everyone would benefit the same. It would just mean the high melee damage dinos are getting the resources faster and this is no different then how it is now.

[Qarayetti]

At only +150% melee between the two test doeds, you're still at the mercy of RNG and your sample size if far too small. You're not going to see a dramatic increase. At that level maybe a percentage point or two increase over a large sample.

For your next test you should add TamedDinoDamageMultiplier=10 or something along the lines of:

PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed_Add[8]=10
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed_Affinity[8]=10
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[8]=10

That should be plenty to at least give you an idea of how the harvest bonus works.

[Raven Catcher]

Originally posted by Rader2146:

For your next test you should add TamedDinoDamageMultiplier=10 or something along the lines of:

PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed_Add[8]=10
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed_Affinity[8]=10
PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[8]=10

That's a good suggestion and I'll try that out.
2 questions:
1. The wiki ( http://ark.gamepedia.com/Server_Configuration ) doesn't give any info on what the extra _Add & _Affinity lines do but I assume I would add all 3 lines suggested to get the full affect?
2. Wonder if these command lines would only affect a dino when it levels so all my current tamed dinos would not feel the effects until they level up?

[Qarayetti]

1.) The description is on the wiki, but it's like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles.

no type given: Multiplier applied for each tamed level-up point
_Add: Multiplier immediately added for tamed dino
_Affinity: Multiplier applied dependant on affinity

You dont need all 3. Only PerLevelStatsMultiplier_DinoTamed[8] is really needed to pump up the per level gain. The other are just additional multiplers. I copy/pasted the lines from my game.ini and just grabbed all 3 for no real reason.

2.) Any config changes are applied to all dino's, and all previous level up's are affected.