When is AC damage absorption going to be fixed?

[loca]

Originally posted by Miir
As you increase in levels, mob AC increases.
Damage absorption is a set integer that is based on AC alone.

For argument sake, I'll use a very simplistic calculation. I will not figure in crits, +dmg rings/nanos and attack rating damage bonus. They do help the faster damage weapons slightly more than slower weapons but not enough to overcome the innate flaws with AOs AC damage absorption equation.



Player A is wielding a weapon that does 1-100 damage every 3 seconds.
Player B is wielding a weapon that does 1-165 damage every 5 seconds.
Player C is wielding a weapon that does 1-300 damage every 10 seconds.


Against a mob with zero AC, these weapons deal virtually identical damage over time. A maximum 2000 damage per minute(DPM).



Against a mob with 500AC (50 points damage absorption)

Player A max DPM drops to 1000
Player B max DPM drops to 1380
Player C max DPM drops to 1500


Against a mob with 750AC (75 points damage absorption)

Player A max DPM drops to 500
Player B max DPM drops to 1080
Player C max DPM drops to 1350


Against a mob with 1000AC (100 points damage absorption)

Player A max DPM drops to 20 (minimum damage every hit)
Player B max DPM drops to 780
Player C max DPM drops to 1200


The player with the slow, high-damage is still effective, while the player with the quick, low-damage weapon is useless. This becomes painfully obvious post level 100.


This is why 95% of enforcers are using beams and hammer. No other weapons are as effective at higher levels.
This is why nobody uses pistols.
This is why Vektor Shotguns are the weapon of choice for every ranged profession.



If AC damage absorption was changed to a percentage of damage dealt (ie: 1000AC absorbs 10% of damage inflicted), every weapon would maintain their relative effectiveness regardless of level.

and what about damage shields?=)

[cold]

How about a system where 50% is absorbed if weapon and armor are of the same QL ? Weapon twice as high means full damage, armor twice as high 25% damage and so on... Do I make sense ?

[Darkbane]

Of course, even just significantly increasing the minimum damage of the faster weapons would help quite a bit. Particularly as QL increases. I'm currently wielding hand axes (will be moving to rider execs soon), and the have a damage range of (of the top of my head) 5-68, if this was instead more like 25-68, then faster weapons would be more on a par with slower weapons (not entirely, but...). As to damage shields, they should simply do damage about once every 6 seconds or so to anyone who is hitting the shield wearer, regardless of how often they are hitting, or reflect back a percentage of damage received rather than a fixed amount (to some minimum that also increases with QL).

All these would help put more variety back into the game.

[_________Basher Tarr]

reality, that if the armor protection factor was QL based, that would lead to 1 thing:

QL50 Nail Armor Pants would be equal to QL50 Flowers Tech Armor Pants

That would be not only silly, but also a mighty blow in the gut to the peeps that spent so much cash/time getting their "good" armor pieces (Obtru, Omni-Pol Elite, Flowers Tech, Nano Armor, etc), because equal level Low Tech or Nail or Kevlar armor would be equal to them

[__________WGMelchior]

No, it has to be based on the actual AC numbers. Otherwise buffs wouldn't do a thing.

Maybe if you divide AC by 5 or something, and compare it to the skill of the attacker?

5000AC would be 'equal' to 1000 attack skill.

Might not be perfect, but you might get the point.