Rapid luci question

[Taiyo.uk]

I understand that rapid luci is releasing primary fire some time before before the bleep to launch large luci balls quickly, but the "charge" for each ball depends on the time that primary fire is held down for.

Sooo.... In terms of dps, what's the difference between rapid balls charged with 3 ammo points and slow balls charged to the full ten (trigger released just before you irradiate yourself)? That is to say, firing rapid balls at a wall gets me killed just as quickly as firing slow full-charge balls.

Surely this isn't a bug since rapid luci doesn't deal more damage per unit time than normal luci?

Or have I missed the point completely?

Sorry if this has already been answered - I've searched the forum but couldn't find an explanation of this.

[SLAVE|Mietz]

http://www.tremulous.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1514&highlight=rapid+lucifer

[DarkRogue]

See the rapid luci issue is a bit uncertain at the moment.

On one side of the fence you have people who believe the sole problem is the fact there is a script that you can bind a key to. Completely ignoring the fact the ability is completely learnible manually.

On the other side of the fence is what you're asking about, damage per second. On most unedited servers a luci will do after .5-1 second of charge 100-150 damage. Over HALF of the full charges 250 dmg.

Now when you consider that a full charge takes 3-4 seconds when you consider a half second to one second charge is like 1/4 if that of a full charge yet does over 1/2 the damage you come to realize the damage curve is seriously screwed up. Rapid firing should do alot of LIGHT damage (hence why the devs made the secondary fire) however the damage is rather heavy when you consider you need only 2 shots to drop an adv goon/goon, anything less takes ONE shot (dretch or basilisk can just be near the splash and die). Tyrants naturally can take alot of the shots BUT in a tight corridor with more than one rapid luci'er...the tyrants dead.

Now, yes Lucifer cannon is humans ultimate weapon, it's the BFG of trem. However for the full bfg effect you're expected to charge fully. Devs could NOT have meant for people to rapid fire PRIMARY FIRE when they included a rapid fire SECONDARY FIRE. It's pure simple logic which dictates rapid primary fire is a bug at least on this scale.

[Norfenstein]

On most unedited servers a luci will do after .5-1 second of charge 100-150 damage. Over HALF of the full charges 250 dmg.

Now when you consider that a full charge takes 3-4 seconds when you consider a half second to one second charge is like 1/4 if that of a full charge yet does over 1/2 the damage you come to realize the damage curve is seriously screwed up.

Bullshit. Look at the code:

tremulous.h:

Code: [Select]

#define LCANNON_DAMAGE              HDM(265)
#define LCANNON_CHARGE_TIME         2000
#define LCANNON_TOTAL_CHARGE        255
#define LCANNON_MIN_CHARGE          50
g_weapon.c:

Code: [Select]

void LCChargeFire( gentity_t *ent, qboolean secondary )
{
...
m = fire_luciferCannon( ent, muzzle, forward, ent->client->ps.stats[ STAT_MISC ], LCANNON_RADIUS );
...
}
g_missile.c:

Code: [Select]

gentity_t *fire_luciferCannon( gentity_t *self, vec3_t start, vec3_t dir, int damage, int radius )
{
  ...
  int localDamage = (int)( ceil( ( (float)damage /
                                   (float)LCANNON_TOTAL_CHARGE ) * (float)LCANNON_DAMAGE ) );
  ...
}
g_active.c:

Code: [Select]


/*
==================
ClientTimerActions

Actions that happen once a second
==================
*/
void ClientTimerActions( gentity_t *ent, int msec )
{
    ...

    //client is charging up an lcannon
    if( client->ps.weapon == WP_LUCIFER_CANNON )
    {
      ...

      if( client->ps.stats[ STAT_MISC ] < LCANNON_TOTAL_CHARGE && ucmd->buttons & BUTTON_ATTACK )
        client->ps.stats[ STAT_MISC ] += ( 100.0f / LCANNON_CHARGE_TIME ) * LCANNON_TOTAL_CHARGE;
      ...
    }
    ...
}

A full charge takes 2 seconds to deal 265 damage and a minimum charge takes 1/5 of that and does 1/5 damage. The damage rises with charge time linearly. There is no "curve". Maybe this has been changed by R1ch for AKKA where you normally play, but for other servers it has not. And even if it were, they're not official changes.

Rapid firing should do alot of LIGHT damage (hence why the devs made the secondary fire) however the damage is rather heavy when you consider you need only 2 shots to drop an adv goon/goon, anything less takes ONE shot (dretch or basilisk can just be near the splash and die). Tyrants naturally can take alot of the shots BUT in a tight corridor with more than one rapid luci'er...the tyrants dead.

This is opinion; it does not describe a bug.

Devs could NOT have meant for people to rapid fire PRIMARY FIRE when they included a rapid fire SECONDARY FIRE. It's pure simple logic which dictates rapid primary fire is a bug at least on this scale.

This "pure simple logic" falls apart with the reality that the devs did not put that much consideration into the secondary attack. The main intended difference is that it fires without charging and uses less ammo, not that one mode can spam better or worse than the other.

It's fine if you think the lcannon needs changed (I would agree that it's a good idea) but what you're describing is not how it currently works and there is no bug with the damage.