Armor Formula, Base Detection

[Soandso]

1.  I'm wondering what happens when something is hit by weak shots that should do no damage, either aircraft or alien wearing armor.

2.  Is there a way to build a base that can't be found, such as by not building radar?

[anonymissimus]

2.  Is there a way to build a base that can't be found, such as by not building radar?

So far it seems that my bases have been detected by launching or landing ships. I never had a base attack onto a base without any hangar yet. Not sure about defenses, the documentation says they reveal the base location, but that doesn't mean much as we know. However, a base without an interceptor doesn't need defenses, since they are never strong enough to take down UFOs alone.
EDIT
Building radar seems fine. I always have radar in bases (I mean, that's what you build it for in the first place, don't you.).

[Soandso]

I just got attacked on a base with an empty dropship hangar.  I might have landed something once ever if that.  The tip about remote radar says that the active scanning gives it away.  So I thought that might also be the case for bases.

[anonymissimus]

I once discovered an alien base by moving only an interceptor into scanning range. It was my only ship there one and no other (alien) ships were near. So assuming base detection is symmetrical, your bases can be detected by UFOs just flying by, but very unlikely, and landing ships while aliens ships are in range is the event which is by far most likely to reveal the base.

[DarkRain]

IIRC the only 100% fail-proof way to make sure your base isn't attacked is not building a command centre, of course without a CC the base is pretty much useless...

Regarding armour: in battlescape armour can completely stop weak enough attacks preventing any damage, don't know about air battles, but I doubt you'll find many weak attacks from UFOs

[Soandso]

What is happening with head shots then?  Is that multiplying a small damage to make a one hit kill?  Many weapons seem useless due to low damage, especially the auto pistol.  Right now I'm using assault rifle, shotgun, flamer, rocket, sniper rifle on the ground; Stilletos with only missiles and 2 targeting computers in the air.

[Noordung]

pistols are good in start when aliens dont have armours. later you will have to research laser/plasma/beam pistols. still useful for some fast RF and for medics or granadeers. also one shot from pistol wont trigger alien RF.

[DarkRain]

Head shots? I know nothing about any head shots.

[Soandso]

I killed a Taman in one hit aimed at the head with assault rifle.

I counted the damage from a plasma rifle hit on nanocomposite.  It did exactly 50 damage, which means it bypassed the armor entirely.

Code: [Select]

int G_ApplyProtection (const Edict* target, const byte dmgWeight, int damage)
{
  const int naturalProtection = target->chr.teamDef->resistance[dmgWeight];
  if (target->getArmour()) {
    const objDef_t* armourDef = target->getArmour()->def();
    const short armourProtection = armourDef->protection[dmgWeight];
    const short totalProtection = armourProtection + naturalProtection;
    damage = std::min(std::max(0, damage - armourProtection), std::max(1, damage - totalProtection));
  } else {
    damage = std::max(1, damage - naturalProtection);
  }
  return damage;
}
I just found the code.  According to this it should be basically 50 - 40 = 10 for plasma rifle hit.  So I'm confused about why every hit would not be 10.

[DarkRain]

Re: Head shots: While you can technically aim to the head it won't do any extra damage, but there are other possible explanations: difficulty level silently multiplies the damage dealt, in crash sites there's a low chance for an alien to spawn heavily injured (with 5% - 50% HP)...

About plasma rifle: It has a base damage of 80 with a variance of 10 (ie it can do 70 - 90 damage), nano armour has 30 protection against plasma_medium (the damage weight of the rifle) so 50 damage is perfectly fine with the specs, I don't know where you got your "50 - 40 = 10" calculation from...

[Soandso]

Maybe 50 was the pistol...  I don't research that tech anymore.  Nano is 40 in the display.  I play on normal with campaign.ufo adjustments, so the damage should be 1:1?

[DarkRain]

Maybe 50 was the pistol...  I don't research that tech anymore.  Nano is 40 in the display.

Yes pistol is 50 (+-10). The display on the armours is just a 'rating' (arbitrarily given by whoever scripted that particular armour), in fact weapons have different damage 'weights' within the same damage type, for example: plasma_light (pistol), plasma_medium (rifle), plasma_heavy (blaster) and armour gives different protection for the 'weights'.

I play on normal with campaign.ufo adjustments, so the damage should be 1:1?

Not exactly, but close enough IIRC