Why is there fall damage?

[Dirty Wizard]

You're the size of an ant. Falling hurts less the smaller you are, because your terminal velocity is slower and wind resistance is much higher. If humans were ant sized we'd be able to jump from the equivalent of a 10th floor window and limp away from it with minor injuries.

Why not use this as a game mechanic and make the game world more vertical? If you don't die from falls it could actually be MORE punishing since you could end up somewhere pitch dark, or hard to navigate out of. This could be a real opportunity to make Smalland stand apart from other games in the survival genre.

[Valhalla Awaits]

Your not an armored beetle or ant with an exoskeleton. Your a fragile little pixie/fairy type critter. It's not outside of reason.

[Dirty Wizard]

It's got nothing to do with carapace or toughness, it's completely about surface area and gravity.

You can drop a squishy caterpillar or maggot from like 3m high and it will be unhurt. The smaller you are, the less gravity can hurt you. That's physics. It makes no sense for our pixie character to be damaged by falling.

Instead of ignoring this, the devs should use ig and think of ways to incorporate lack of fall damage into the game to make it fun and unique

[Orv Williams]

Realism check:
Insects + Winter = lol =)

[Lfod]

Honestly I wouldn't want the map to be more vertical, I'll take the fall damage over that. I'm already not a big fan of the map layout, I wouldn't want to encourage them to add more. If anything take out some of the clutter.

[Dirty Wizard]

Originally posted by Lfod:

Honestly I wouldn't want the map to be more vertical, I'll take the fall damage over that. I'm already not a big fan of the map layout, I wouldn't want to encourage them to add more. If anything take out some of the clutter.

So, you want a game about magical insect sized pixie people to be exactly the same as every single other Early Access survival game?

[Keel]

Just let me swim and i can deal with the grapple/gliding to get around

[Dirty Wizard]

At the size of an ant, instead of swimming, you'd stick to the surface of the water unless you broke the surface tension somehow. Then you'd be sucked in and it would be impossible to get out without a large object to help you. Water would behave and look more like a viscous gel than a liquid.

Instead of swimming mechanics the devs should allow us to slide across the surface of the water, but a fall from a height would break surface tension and cause drowning.

[dr_fish]

I like the way you think.

[gar1948]

I agree. Damage taken in falls should at least be minimized. I also agree about the water problem. Ants can walk on water. Why not us wee folk?

[Mannygaming72]

Originally posted by gar1948:

I agree. Damage taken in falls should at least be minimized. I also agree about the water problem. Ants can walk on water. Why not us wee folk?

Well the simple answer is..... We don't have 6 Legs with special fibrous hairs on the ends of them spread out over a reasonably wide area so as not to break the surface tension of the water.

[dr_fish]

But our armor could!

[forcecomdr]

Not to mention making water have all those dif properties would probably be a nightmare to code.
It would be cool though, you can walk across it, but running, falling or getting hit on it makes you sink and die.

As far as falling. I'm ok with there being fall damage, it forces you to be careful while running around in trees.
I do think it should be toned down a little though, it seems very punitive for a game that wants you to explore vertically.

[OGPG]

Gives a reason to have cool Wings to glide and float with.

[DTGaming_Youtube]

Originally posted by Dirty Wizard:

It's got nothing to do with carapace or toughness, it's completely about surface area and gravity.

You can drop a squishy caterpillar or maggot from like 3m high and it will be unhurt. The smaller you are, the less gravity can hurt you. That's physics. It makes no sense for our pixie character to be damaged by falling.

Instead of ignoring this, the devs should use ig and think of ways to incorporate lack of fall damage into the game to make it fun and unique

That's not the case. Cause look at Tarantulas for a moment. If they drop from say 3 feet high, they risk of rupturing their abdomens. Same with some other insects. Fall damage is in the game for a reason cause you can't just be invincible completely and I see nothing wrong with it. It just makes you be extra careful.

[Humpenstilzchen]

But fall damage makes people scared to fall off somewhere which increases the immersion.

Maybe your character is as small as an ant but the person that controls this character isn´t. Rules of logic have to apply in order to create immersion thus we have fall damage.

I like it. It forces you to pay attention to your surroundings and where you step. And there are armors who basically negate the issue with falldamage so everyone can have it his way. Win Win