PVP Damage Changes
A small set of code changes on 12/18/2022 for the damcap
Here are two big changes to ground combat:
After last timeline's change to the armor stat, it seemed that PVP fights were taking too long. The combat code has always applied a modifier to damage based on whether the target was a mob or player, with players taking less damage. That adjustment has been removed, so mobs and players should take equal damage. The net effect is that players will take about 25% more damage per hit.
We're also eliminating damage caps. These have always limited the impact of improvements to weapon components quite a bit and remembering which damage adjustments kicked in before or after the cap made things a lot harder to reason about. Going forward, weapon improvements will have a larger and clearer impact on damage. In PVP combat or against mobs with high armor and resistance to weapon damage, these rarely kicked in, so there shouldn't actually be much impact there. The largest impact will be on NPCs without these protections, and we'll be tuning those as necessary if they end up being too easy.
After last timeline's change to the armor stat, it seemed that PVP fights were taking too long. The combat code has always applied a modifier to damage based on whether the target was a mob or player, with players taking less damage. That adjustment has been removed, so mobs and players should take equal damage. The net effect is that players will take about 25% more damage per hit.
We're also eliminating damage caps. These have always limited the impact of improvements to weapon components quite a bit and remembering which damage adjustments kicked in before or after the cap made things a lot harder to reason about. Going forward, weapon improvements will have a larger and clearer impact on damage. In PVP combat or against mobs with high armor and resistance to weapon damage, these rarely kicked in, so there shouldn't actually be much impact there. The largest impact will be on NPCs without these protections, and we'll be tuning those as necessary if they end up being too easy.
