"Damage Spread" questions

[Stormcrow]

I'm rather new to Bush, and have a few questions I couldn't find definitive answers to on the Wiki, and the IRC community is too involved with themselves to talk. I have a few questions (Actually a ton).

1) You have one defender with 5 total armor (forget stars, they are a ranking system) and 1 health. One attacker comes, doing 5 total armor damage and 1 total health damage. Does the defender die? That is to say, is armor damage and health damage from one unit (or mob) done with armor first and health only if they have no armor, or is armor damage and health damage at the same time? If at the same time, the health damage wouldn't be calculated.

2) If ten attackers targeting INN only attack, and you have ten defenders classed INN, how does the damage spread? That is, would each attacker be 1:1 on each defender in armor damage vs armor, health damage vs health? Or would it be more like a "pool" where armor damage vs armor and health damage vs health is calculated, then spread between the ten defenders?

3) What, exactly, does each weather pattern DO? I find that some kill seeds which are planted but waiting to be processed by your gardeners. Some seem to reduce the effectiveness of growing seeds to plants, but is there a consensus on what does what? While the wiki says "The weather is probably the single most important factor on Bushtarion," there seems to be NO information on how or why it is the "single most important factor." I find this odd, it reminds me of playing MUDs long ago where only the in crowd knew what was going on in the game, while documentation was being ignored, and it hurts new players.

Thanks,
~Stormcrow~

 

[DarkSider]

Damage is spread proportional depending on number of units. Armor damage is dealt first, and then only units with 0 armor left will die when the health damage is done.
So having more attackers and more defenders doesn't change much, it's still one side vs one side and those that bring more into the batle will take higher looses. Ie i send 5 mil gards and another sends 10 mil, if 7.5 mil gards are killed means each of us lost exactly half.


Weather affects the growth rate of your seeds (in snow and other kind of weather where it's not clear sky you get less production) and also the pecentage of seeds that turn into plants when you plant them.
It is advised to plant only in clear sky/sunny weather if you want to get the full income from those seeds

 

[Stormcrow]

Ok, but "Armor damage is dealt first, and then only units with 0 armor left will die when the health damage is done" doesn't answer what I was meaning. Will one unit do their armor damage AND -- if it strips the armor to 0 -- do their damage to health? Or will they just do the armor damage, and "wait" for another unit to do the health damage?

I'm sorry if I am unclear...just trying to understand the game better.

 

[Weeble]

Firstly, welcome to the game! Just to make you aware, there is a 'Helper' system in-game whereby you can ask questions on any in-game element and one of a number of game helpers will respond as quickly as possible. This can be accessed either by sending an account mail to !help or by clicking the 'Request Help' link in the Main Options section of your menu, assuming Help Links are enabled in your ID settings!

Secondly..
1) ...
Armour damage is done before health damage; hence why you can get armour stripping units followed by health damage dealers. If one unit does armour damage then health damage, providing that unit has stripped a hostile unit to 0 armour, it will then deal it's health damage.

2) ...
I'm not 100%, but I believe it's a pooling system similar in ways to the one you described.

3) ...
Different seasons are best for different plant types. Grass grows best in Spring, flowers in Summer and trees in both Autumn and Winter. Bush grows uniformly throughout the year. By 'grow' I mean 'produces a larger percentage of seeds'.

 

[Stormcrow]

3) ...
Different seasons are best for different plant types. Grass grows best in Spring, flowers in Summer and trees in both Autumn and Winter. Bush grows uniformly throughout the year. By 'grow' I mean 'produces a larger percentage of seeds'.

That much I know, but what do thunderstorms do? Reduce seed yields? Reduce plants grown from seeds? Snow storms? Kill seeds which you chose to plant, but haven't been "processed" by your gardeners yet? I just don't have a clear picture of what each type of weather does. If it's all meant to be trial and error that's OK, but I'd like to know that from the start!

And thanks to both of you for responding, it's nice to have some help. I'll try that help option some time too, Weeble.

Just to throw a shoe in the cogs, I'll add a;

4) Is armor damage done on a unit to unit basis, or spread between all the units? You do 10 armor damage, they have 5 units with 3 armor each (Not stars, actual numbers). Do you strip the armor of three units to 0 and one unit to 1, leaving one with full armor? Or do you do 15 armor total, divide by the units, leaving them with all their units at 1 armor?

And again thanks for the help!

 

[Azzer]

1) Armour damage is done first, then health damage. So in your example, yes the defender would die. There was only 1 defender, so 100% of the firing power of the attacker focused entirely on that 1 defender. It did the armour damage, followed immediately by the health damage. Note that health damage can not be applied unless a unit has 0 armour (which does happen in your example). If there were 2 defending units of 2 health 5 armour each (a total of 10 armour 4 health), and 1 attacking unit that did 6 armour damage and 20 health damage... it would kill 1 defender unit, and leave the other unit on 2 health and 4 armour.

2) All units of the same type, at the same range, are "pooled" - ie the game multiplies "number of units of type X at range Y, times armour of that unit type = total armour", likewise for the health, and calculations are done from those totals. As for "damage spread" - it is calculated as a percentage of how many "viable targets" there are for any of the attackers target classes. ie if there are 20 gardeners and 80 harvesters, and the attacker has 100% target class of INN (or ALL I suppose for this example), then we calculate the total "Pool" of damage the attacker is capable of, and then take exactly 20% of that and apply it to the total "pool" of health/armour of the gardeners, and 80% of the attackers damage "pool" is applied it to the harvesters total combined health/armour. Any "overspill" or "overspend" is wasted - ie if the 20% attacking the gardeners results in "leftover unused damage" - tough, it's wasted.

3) Each "weather type" has a (hidden/secret) value associated to it that is used as a "multiplier" (or reduction), which affects the growth of plants (turning them from seeds, in to plants), and affects the number of seeds you can get. It does not affect the planting of plants (plants you are inserting in to your empty land). The weather should be fairly obvious of "good to bad" - from clear sunny skies, to slightly cloudy, very cloudy, raining lightly, raining heavily, heavy snow/thunderstorm, to gale force winds. The "night equivalents" are all one step worse than the daytime equivalents (eg night time clear starry night is worse than a daytime clear blue sky) - and of course there's the "low work rate" in effect at night too (need far far more harvesetsr and gardeners to do the same "workload" as the daytime shift.... hard to see all those seeds at night, needs more pairs of eyes!). Oh and there's the seasonal effects on how many seeds you can harvest too.

If all of this has helped you understand it more, than as a new players who's just newly had it explained to, you'd be in the perfect position to be able to "regurgitate" that information if you will in a form that would help other new players - and I'd welcome feedback on wording and locations for information for the official manual pages in the wiki. If anything's still unclear, ask away, I'm sure others can help if not me

 

[Stormcrow]

Thanks Azzer, rarely in 20 years of gaming have I seen a developer chime in, in a helpful way, or so quickly.

The things I can say about new players regarding weather are...plentiful. I read far too much into weather. I never really saw it as a linear progression as you just explained it -- i.e. from good to bad to worse. I saw it as each type of weather affecting different things, such as, "Tornadoes don't hurt grass much, right? But they knock down trees. Rain is good for grass, shallow roots and all, right? Could harm the flowers though. Clouds are all around bad, plants need sun, right?"

Overall I just think the Wiki is geared more towards people who are already players, rather than people who actually need -- or want -- some help being integrated into the game. It provides technical information which I have absorbed, but much of the basics are left out. As an example, I can get more information about a specific development route than I can about the weather, and more information about F-117's than a development route. It's geared so much towards the people who already play a lot, that other people are left out. I don't want to be "twinked," I just want some basics to go off of. Look at the MMORPGs of the day, the help is in the start, not the end like it is here. I'd be glad to help with some wiki pages once I understand the game more fully.

Thanks,
~Stormcrow~

 

[timtadams]

Hey while were at discussing game mechanics, just a question that i have:

Do NLD/NLT units affect armour and health of units hit when targeted by LETs?

For example, could hippy vans armour strip for apaches?

Id assume yes, but they are different types of damage in one respect, but same armour/health....

 

[lavadog]

Yes tim, an NLD/NLT unit can strip for lets.

 

[Alcibiades]

Hey while were at discussing game mechanics, just a question that i have:

Do NLD/NLT units affect armour and health of units hit when targeted by LETs?

For example, could hippy vans armour strip for apaches?

Id assume yes, but they are different types of damage in one respect, but same armour/health....

Hooligans ftw!