Accumulative damage

[fritigern 9]

Apologies in advance if this has been suggested in the past. I spent a few minutes searching through other weapon-damage related topics but never found anything quite like my idea, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

As it stands right now, most sidearms are basically useless when it comes to killing other players with any kind of reliability, barring headshots of course. They simply don't do enough damage, and the damage required to kill another play is, quite frankly, ludicrous. I don't have the exact figures sitting in front of me, but from personal experience, using the lowest damage pistol (the makarov holds this title still, I believe), it can take more than 8-9 bullets to kill a man. Arma2 has implemented a really strange way of calculating damage, and while I understand you are giving a player the benefit of the doubt in letting them survive a few bullets, or letting them survive fluke hits at range from smaller bullets, the flaw becomes glaring when you can walk up to someone on the ground and empty a magazine into their back, only for them to survive and then kill you as you reload.

Just as there is a chance that anyone can survive a gunshot, there is also a chance that you can die from even the smallest bullet if it hits the proper vital organ, either immediately or within minutes/hours/days later, and until we introduce needle nose pliers and surgery (bandages cure everything!), we have to make weapons a bit more realistic if we are to maintain our commitment to brutal realism.

My suggestion then is we introduce an accumulative damage system, to help better simulate the devastating effects of close range, consecutive gunshots. There could be a multiplication effect added to the damage of every bullet that hits a target within a certain time span (perhaps from a half second to a full 3-5 seconds after taking damage), that will increase the likely hood of a person being killed when being repeatedly shot. It seems to me like this might be a more practical way of keeping things realistic, without having to introduce new hitbox mechanics for the heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, etc. or a random "critical" effect. This means taking one or two stray bullets at range will have roughly the same effect as before, but when caught flat footed, a quick burst of 4-5 bullets from even a makarov would be deadly, as one would expect in a real life situation.

Edited August 26, 2012 by Arken

[oddy21@hotmail.com 1]

I'm surprised that more people haven't commented on this post, and I think this would be an awesome way to fix the damage system for player vs player combat, without making certain weapons too powerful. Kudos to you, you sir now have my beans.

[mycoal10 1]

This is a fantastic idea!

[fritigern 9]

Thank you.

[MasterBlaster (DayZ) 21]

I really like your idea. I hope something like this is going to be implemented.

[kebman 213]

Makes sense! Great post!

[fritigern 9]

Appreciate the beans. Unfortunately, I don't think my idea has gotten much attention, which is a shame since I think it's a rather clever way of making every weapon in the game effective (by rewarding player accuracy and skill), without also making every bullet unfairly devastating. If you're in a situation when you're being hit by 5-6 bullets in the span of 3 seconds, then you have made a major tactical error and should be punished accordingly. And, it's not like this would make early game banditry anymore annoying or lethal, since the lower damage weapons still have poor accuracy at anything other than point blank range.

Oh well. Here's hoping someone of influence eyeballed my suggestion.

[EndlessNight 103]

Love it!

[Bratalise 26]

Smart that defiantly the fix if they ever get around to it.

[DemonGroover 8836]

Nice idea

Like you it irks me how you can fully unload a clip into someone and they can one shot you with their Enfield (or could before the nerf)

Out of curiosity is there a mechanic in Arma 2 that gives more damage to different parts of the body? I know a headshot is pretty much instant death. Are the bleedout rates different?

[fritigern 9]

As I understand it, the bleed out time is the same, and the only hitzones that matter are headshots. I could be wrong, though, I'm not very familiar with that aspect of the game.