Rocket Gibbing - out of curiosity

[Enjay]

From my earliest days of Dooming, I noticed that it was easier to get enemies to gib by hitting a wall (or something) near the enemy with the rocket rather than hitting the enemy directly. For some years now, I have assumed the following, but I really just want to know if this is the correct explanation.

The splash damage from the rocket is higher than the impact damage from the rocket.

If a rocket hits a gibbable enemy directly, the impact will probably be enough to kill the enemy concenred, but may not be high enough to trigger an extreme death. (Effectively, none of the splash damage affects the enemy because it has already been killed??)

If a rocket hits something nearby, the larger radius damage is enough to kill the enemy and is more likely to trigger an extreme death.


That seems a likely explanation to me but it's just my own hypothesis. So, is that really what is going on?

[Grimm]

Sounds perfectly right to me. I've noticed this myself. The impact of the rocket probably kills the enemy first, thus the incredibly more damaging splash damage does nothing. If you want to do a little experimentation with this, try changing the values on A_Explode for the rocket to what you'd think would be more sensible values. (Like, 20 damage, or whatever.)

It's similar to why the SuperShotgun will never gib anything. (Wish I could change that )

[Unknown_Assassin]

It's similar to why the SuperShotgun will never gib anything. (Wish I could change that )

You can do that by increasing the damage of the supershotgun.

[DBThanatos]

Or maybe recreate the SSG and the puff for that weapon have "+extremedeath". You'll have an always gibbing SSG. But I guess you want a SSG that gibs only when the monster is in low health and you kill it with this gun, if that's the case, then you'll need to change everymonster and give a "GibHealth" as you wish. In quake 2 i believe it is around 40.

And about the main question, I noticed this too. If I understand the explosion damage correctly, it deals the exact amount specified at the center of the explosion sphere. So, in theory, if you set the rocket to "damage 0", you'll get a rocket that always gibs the zombies when it hits them directly.

[Grimm]

..yes I'm aware I COULD make the SSG more powerful, or have it always gib, or lower everything's gib health, but those would all be ridiculous. I could also make a custom Death state for damagetype "SSG". But the answer to the question, kids, is "The supershotgun never gibs things because each pellet hits the enemy individually. Thus the max any one shot will do is 8 damage, or whatever." If I set the gib health at like, -7, ther'd still be no way to tell if that thrshold was crossed because an enemy got hit full-on with an SSG, or if one tiny pellet winged a weakened monster.

[Cutmanmike]

If you do do the damagetype ssg thing it will look silly if you gib something from a distance away (because it should only happen up close right)?

[Grimm]

Right. There is in fact, however, a way you could get around that. But you'll have to wait to see. I can't let all my tricks out of the hat, now

[TheDarkArchon]

The splash damage from the rocket is higher than the impact damage from the rocket.

More often than not, but not always

If a rocket hits a gibbable enemy directly, the impact will probably be enough to kill the enemy concenred, but may not be high enough to trigger an extreme death. (Effectively, none of the splash damage affects the enemy because it has already been killed??)

Normally only in the case of imps: 6 times out of 8, a direct hit should gib a shotgun guy and 7 times out of 8 should gib a zombieman but only 3 times out of 8 should direct damage gib an imp and only 2 out of 8 for a chaingunner.

If a rocket hits something nearby, the larger radius damage is enough to kill the enemy and is more likely to trigger an extreme death.

Yes, but imps have to be within 8 units of the center for this to happen. This should never happen to a chaingunner.

All this assumes the enemies in question are at full health when the rocket goes off. There's also the scenario when the direct damage doesn't kill a foe but the splash does. In this case, you're more likely to get a gib.

[Matt]

Isn't it, like, 128 damage at the center of a rocket blast, versus 20d8 (thus average 90) for the impact?

[TheDarkArchon]

Isn't it, like, 128 damage at the center of a rocket blast, versus 20d8 (thus average 90) for the impact?

Yup

[Nerdking13]

Right. There is in fact, however, a way you could get around that. But you'll have to wait to see. I can't let all my tricks out of the hat, now

Why? the answer is so obvious!! Can I tell them? Pllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaase???!!

[Wills]

Obvious troll is obvious.