Nerf IPC brute reduction

[Guest]

They don't need to be exceedingly fragile, but I don't think they should receive a 50% reduction to all brute damage. They already have various other bonuses and specialties, and making them elite melee combatants doesn't need to be added to those.

 

As much as it hurts me to admit that my glorious IPC masterrace does deserve a nerf, I have to sort of agree.

This wasnt a problem when there were one or two IPCs on shift, but IPC Nukeops/Security are pretty horrifying.

Still, I generally want punching robots to remain a reasonably stupid endeavour. if IPCs are so ridiculously expensive, they're bound to have some acceptable armor bolted to them. If acceptable (or applicable) I'd vote to lower the current 50% damage reduction to a soothing 25%, so that punching robots still remains a dumb idea, but you're able to decapitate/beat them into submission if you have the weapon for it

[Eliot Clef]

They don't need to be exceedingly fragile, but I don't think they should receive a 50% reduction to all brute damage. They already have various other bonuses and specialties, and making them elite melee combatants doesn't need to be added to those.

Saying they have other weaknesses has little to do with it. The only relevant weakness here is EMP (and lack of quick healing, to a degree). The fact that they can't get cloned has little to do with their ability to fight.

 

I disagree. The balance of combat in Space Station 13 is heavily influenced by the likelihood of being removed from the round plus the ease of being returned to the round. As was discussed in the Great Genetics Thread of 2015, SS13's lethality levels are balanced on the ease of being resurrected.

For an IPC, the consequences of losing a fight are much more serious than for anybody else in the game, and they're already seriously fragile from a couple of different directions. Explosive limbs? I'm unclear on how IPC limbs are a weakness but I keep seeing it mentioned, and instant death from EMP of any kind.

I also understand that IPCs are somewhat more vulnerable to laser weaponry, though I have to admit I've never seen it in action.

Their options if they get brought down are: Stay dead, become slaved beep boop. That's assuming anybody bothers to treat their corpse properly, a lot of people don't even know what to do with a dead IPC. I don't really have a problem with the brute damage resistance being re-examined in and of itself, but I do think the IPC weaknesses should be re-examined as a whole if that's going to happen.

[ZipZero]

Alright, I've taken a look at the code for this. Keep in mind that I am not experienced with this coding language, so my analysis may be incorrect.

In organ_external.dm:

if(status & ORGAN_ROBOT )

	var/brmod = 0.66
	var/bumod = 0.66

	if(istype(owner,/mob/living/carbon/human))
		var/mob/living/carbon/human/H = owner
		if(H.species && H.species.flags & IS_SYNTHETIC)
			brmod = H.species.brute_mod
			bumod = H.species.burn_mod

	brute *= brmod //~2/3 damage for ROBOLIMBS
	burn *= bumod //~2/3 damage for ROBOLIMBS

From what I can tell, this bit here means that brute and burn damage to prothetic limbs is reduced by one third. Unless, strangely, if the mob taking the damage is an IPC, in which case it uses different values.

In species.dm:

brute_mod = 0.5
burn_mod = 1

IPCs have a slightly greater resistance for brute damage, but don't have the burn resistance.

If you want to reduce the resistance they have, perhaps these values could be changed to match? Or even removing the bit that makes IPC limbs act differently than other mechanical limbs, because I do not understand why that's a thing.

[Guest]

They are different because the way they used to act ment that if you got it damaged a little bit, they would blow up.

[Frances]

Hm, so this is happening because of the low threshold on limb damage.

Oh, well. I suppose it's not something that can be easily fixed, then.