Xeromaus
The Rogue Mod
This is gonna be a bit long. If you ever typed "TL
R" as a comment to a post you barely skimmed, nows the time to do that. Also I'm American, and I change the values in game to imperial measure since it's been what was drilled into me since birth. Deal with it or don't, Google can convert if you like.
I know DPS been done to death here and elsewhere, but I don't want to make new DPS calculations at all really, hear me out....
As near as we can figure out, The Division uses the following equation to ascertain your dps:
(per bullet base damage + headshot damage + critical damage + critical headshot damage) * magazine size
----------------------------------------------------------------------------divided by--------------------------------------------------------------------- = DPS
(magazine dump time + reload time)
[note: magazine dump time = the time it takes to empty your magazine while firing]
In older rpgs, this formula would have worked perfectly. As long as you were facing the enemy, and your skills were available, your damage output was consistent. By having your skills linked to a distance trigger, you could only use them when you were in effective range, were facing the enemy (for non-aoe skills that is) and a miss chance was calculated into the damage formula.
In The Division, this is REALLY broken. A chance to miss can't be factored in to an equation, as each player has differing levels of aim ability and twitch fire. A player with 300k DPS puts out an effective DPS of 0 if every shot lands in a wall, but the game can't tell him/her that. The code makes a lot of assumptions about what you can do, with the most grievous being this;
As far as the game is concerned, your Accuracy stat on each weapon determines EXACTLY what percentage of your shots will land on an enemy's head. It's a literal 1:1 to the game...34 accuracy means 34% of your shots hit faces....75 accuracy means 75% of your shots land on faces. Obviously, this can skew your DPS dramatically, up or down. ACCURACY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BULLET PLACEMENT WHATSOEVER, stability determines that, as bullets only travel in straight lines (the one thing the devs got right). Your shots will land where your sight is aimed each time you pull the trigger, or where it's currently aimed while holding the trigger. Players using the DPS stat to determine which mod to put on which gun will often just stack on the biggest accuracy boosts available and watch their numbers soar.
I know that's wrong, most of you know that's wrong, but to those that don't, it's inhibiting their ability to build their characters effectively and leaving them scratching their heads why their now "stronger" weapons are becoming more ineffective.
Meanwhile, even other stats that seem cut and dry aren't:
It's also likely to never be truly fixed in game, as they're content with a "best case scenario" average that makes players feel good.
So what can we do about this? Can we get real numbers at all?
Sure we can, but it's gonna involve doing some math yourself (*GASP!*) and accepting that any calculation of damage in this game will be an average or range only, and based purely on your ability to aim and understand the basic mechanics of combat in game.
For starters, toss out the notion of damage per second. You can't sustain damage in a cover shooter without being killed (really hurts your dps), and from second to second, RNG will swing your score up and down. Instead, lets focus on a "per magazine" damage range, letting us see what the weapon is truly capable of, while also showing what happens when all the RNG conspires against you.
For this range, we'll be throwing out reload time, as throwing spent mags at enemies seems to do nothing as far as damage is concerned. Actually, we'll be throwing out time altogether, as aging has no effect on enemy health or armor in the spans of time we deal with in firefights, and most players tend to pop up to shoot a bit, then duck down to avoid being an easy target, rarely pushing an entire mag at once.
It's really simple (though that's gonna seem like a lie very shortly) once you work out a few numbers.
Lets use a weapon with a base damage of 10000, a headshot damage of 134%, a critical damage of 45%, damage to elite bonus of 10%, and armor destruction bonus of 10%. Critical chance will be omitted from these calculations as a definite rate can not be determined thanks to RNG...just know that the closer you are to 50-60%, the better.
Damage to elites is calculated here if the target is applicable. If you have 10% damage to elites, then it's:
Now we get to the magazine itself. Lets say this magazine holds 30 bullets:
Now we have our range/average. Depending on your personal aim ability, type of target, and stability, and luck on criticals landing, you could do anywhere from 300,000 damage to 1,231,650 damage per magazine (assuming all shots hit the target), with your usual per mag damage being somewhere in the middle (near the average) thanks to misses, critical chance, and stability migration walking you off headshots. In a small mag (like bolt action snipers), you COULD land each shot as a critical hit, or none. How close to the average you hit depends solely on your ability to handle your weapon, a factor I have yet to find a equation to cover for everyone. You know what you do. Don't lie to yourself. This range will also change in PvP, as a hidden reduction exists for player to player damage, and individual players have different reductions to damage in their builds. You will probably NEVER hit the maximum, but in theory it's as high as your current weapon can reach. The minimum may at times be unobtainable as well (looking at you, shield carrying npcs), but it's your flat score per mag.
Optimal range is the biggest factor in what sort of damage you really do though. The shooting range in the b.o.o. will show you just how much your damage drops off and how fast over range. Use it often. Don't stick with a weapon for a long shot (or shots) that tells you it's damage is huge if it's range isn't. Switch to one that can handle the distance.
I know this was a tough read to stick with, thanks for making it here! And please excuse any typos or other mistakes I've made..I've read it over three times now looking for them and did my best to correct what I saw.
R" as a comment to a post you barely skimmed, nows the time to do that. Also I'm American, and I change the values in game to imperial measure since it's been what was drilled into me since birth. Deal with it or don't, Google can convert if you like.I know DPS been done to death here and elsewhere, but I don't want to make new DPS calculations at all really, hear me out....
As near as we can figure out, The Division uses the following equation to ascertain your dps:
(per bullet base damage + headshot damage + critical damage + critical headshot damage) * magazine size
----------------------------------------------------------------------------divided by--------------------------------------------------------------------- = DPS
(magazine dump time + reload time)
[note: magazine dump time = the time it takes to empty your magazine while firing]
In older rpgs, this formula would have worked perfectly. As long as you were facing the enemy, and your skills were available, your damage output was consistent. By having your skills linked to a distance trigger, you could only use them when you were in effective range, were facing the enemy (for non-aoe skills that is) and a miss chance was calculated into the damage formula.
In The Division, this is REALLY broken. A chance to miss can't be factored in to an equation, as each player has differing levels of aim ability and twitch fire. A player with 300k DPS puts out an effective DPS of 0 if every shot lands in a wall, but the game can't tell him/her that. The code makes a lot of assumptions about what you can do, with the most grievous being this;
As far as the game is concerned, your Accuracy stat on each weapon determines EXACTLY what percentage of your shots will land on an enemy's head. It's a literal 1:1 to the game...34 accuracy means 34% of your shots hit faces....75 accuracy means 75% of your shots land on faces. Obviously, this can skew your DPS dramatically, up or down. ACCURACY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BULLET PLACEMENT WHATSOEVER, stability determines that, as bullets only travel in straight lines (the one thing the devs got right). Your shots will land where your sight is aimed each time you pull the trigger, or where it's currently aimed while holding the trigger. Players using the DPS stat to determine which mod to put on which gun will often just stack on the biggest accuracy boosts available and watch their numbers soar.
I know that's wrong, most of you know that's wrong, but to those that don't, it's inhibiting their ability to build their characters effectively and leaving them scratching their heads why their now "stronger" weapons are becoming more ineffective.
Meanwhile, even other stats that seem cut and dry aren't:
- Critical chance should be seen as just that, a chance to hit critically. To the game, it's an exact value. 60% critical chance means that 3 out of 5 shots WILL be critical hits. We (should) know that this is wrong in effective use within the confines of an RNG based game.
- Per bullet base damage is only factored in as if you only fire from optimal range or lower. The games most popular weapon class has an effective range of "let's hug", though in real time use, most enemies are "let's not" distance away.
- Optimal range is just horribly calculated. My game shows my sub machinegun having an optimal range of 68 feet, while my assault rifle shows an optimal range of 63 feet. In real time use, my AR has an optimal range around 100 feet, and my SMG has an optimal range of around no feet. My AR's damage drop off past optimal range is very gradual, while my SMG drops off rapidly. Other weapons experience similar disparity in range and drop off.
- Increasing your rate of fire doesn't mean "more lethal faster", it means "bullets come out faster". This can mean enemies die quickly, or that you put bullets into the ceiling more rapidly. Low stability weapon? Higher ROF means more jumping around, aka missing your target, especially on headshots.
It's also likely to never be truly fixed in game, as they're content with a "best case scenario" average that makes players feel good.
So what can we do about this? Can we get real numbers at all?
Sure we can, but it's gonna involve doing some math yourself (*GASP!*) and accepting that any calculation of damage in this game will be an average or range only, and based purely on your ability to aim and understand the basic mechanics of combat in game.
For starters, toss out the notion of damage per second. You can't sustain damage in a cover shooter without being killed (really hurts your dps), and from second to second, RNG will swing your score up and down. Instead, lets focus on a "per magazine" damage range, letting us see what the weapon is truly capable of, while also showing what happens when all the RNG conspires against you.
For this range, we'll be throwing out reload time, as throwing spent mags at enemies seems to do nothing as far as damage is concerned. Actually, we'll be throwing out time altogether, as aging has no effect on enemy health or armor in the spans of time we deal with in firefights, and most players tend to pop up to shoot a bit, then duck down to avoid being an easy target, rarely pushing an entire mag at once.
It's really simple (though that's gonna seem like a lie very shortly) once you work out a few numbers.
Lets use a weapon with a base damage of 10000, a headshot damage of 134%, a critical damage of 45%, damage to elite bonus of 10%, and armor destruction bonus of 10%. Critical chance will be omitted from these calculations as a definite rate can not be determined thanks to RNG...just know that the closer you are to 50-60%, the better.
Damage to elites is calculated here if the target is applicable. If you have 10% damage to elites, then it's:
- [(base damage per bullet) * (damage to elites %)] + (base damage per bullet), or (10000 * .10) + 10000 = 11000 damage per bullet to elites.
- [(base damage per bullet) * (armor destruction value %)] + (base damage per bullet), or (10000 * .10) + 10000 = 11000. Note that a segment of armor is equal to the enemy's base health.
- [(11000 elite base damage per bullet) * (10% armor destruction value)] + (11000 elite base damage) = 12100 damage per bullet to armored elites.
- To calculate further into headshot/critical damage/headshot critical damage while fighting armored elites, we use the new value gained here as our base damage per bullet, until the elite is drained of armor, at which point we use the value of elite damage per bullet only.
- [(base damage per bullet) * (headshot damage %)] + (base damage per bullet) = (headshot damage)
- Same formula; [(base damage per bullet) * (critical damage %)] + (base damage per bullet) = (critical damage per bullet)
- [(headshot damage value per bullet) * (critical damage %)] + (headshot damage value per bullet) = (headshot critical damage)
- 134% boost to 10000 base damage = 23400 (100% is effectively base damage + base damage, then do your multiplying with the remaining 34%, or .34, and add it to the doubled base damage value)
- 45% boost to 23400 = 33930 (23400 * .45 = 10530, 10530 + 23400 = 33930)
- 134% boost to 12100 base damage = 28314
- 45% boost to 28314 = 41055.3 (lose the decimal, we don't need to be THAT complicated, so 41055)
Now we get to the magazine itself. Lets say this magazine holds 30 bullets:
- (magazine size) * (armored elite critical headshot damage) = maximum damage per magazine under optimal range, landing all shots, or 30 * 41055 = 1,231,650
- (magazine size) * (base damage per bullet) = minimum damage per magazine under optimal range, landing all shots, or 10000 * 30 = 300,000
- Weapon damage range per magazine, under optimal range, landing all shots= 300,000 - 1,231,650
- Average weapon damage per mag: around 700,000 - 800,000
Now we have our range/average. Depending on your personal aim ability, type of target, and stability, and luck on criticals landing, you could do anywhere from 300,000 damage to 1,231,650 damage per magazine (assuming all shots hit the target), with your usual per mag damage being somewhere in the middle (near the average) thanks to misses, critical chance, and stability migration walking you off headshots. In a small mag (like bolt action snipers), you COULD land each shot as a critical hit, or none. How close to the average you hit depends solely on your ability to handle your weapon, a factor I have yet to find a equation to cover for everyone. You know what you do. Don't lie to yourself. This range will also change in PvP, as a hidden reduction exists for player to player damage, and individual players have different reductions to damage in their builds. You will probably NEVER hit the maximum, but in theory it's as high as your current weapon can reach. The minimum may at times be unobtainable as well (looking at you, shield carrying npcs), but it's your flat score per mag.
Optimal range is the biggest factor in what sort of damage you really do though. The shooting range in the b.o.o. will show you just how much your damage drops off and how fast over range. Use it often. Don't stick with a weapon for a long shot (or shots) that tells you it's damage is huge if it's range isn't. Switch to one that can handle the distance.
I know this was a tough read to stick with, thanks for making it here! And please excuse any typos or other mistakes I've made..I've read it over three times now looking for them and did my best to correct what I saw.
