Big units and afflictions

[HJ]

I was wondering about whether there is a catch incorporated in the game that makes big units more likely to get afflictions? I was playing around with big blood summons, and it would seem that as soon as one of them gets even a scratch, the scratch turns into an arm being chopped off, or an eye being popped out. They all have rings of regeneration or have intrinsic regeneration, and they also have high protection and none of them is cursed. But something like 80% of the wounds, even though they usually take less than 10% of their hitpoints, seem to result in an affliction. Are afflictions tied to the hitpoint loss from the wound, or the attacker's die roll? Because it would, of course, take a very high die roll from your average soldier to do any damage to such units, yet even then the damage with regard to their maximum/total hitpoints is very low. This was also mentioned in one of the threads earlier with regard to giants and their vulnerable eyes.

Btw, what is the base chance to gain affliction from being hit in the first place?

ps. I'm not complaining, I'd just like to know, since it looks kind of odd to get that many afflictions if everything is the same. Maybe I was just unlucky, but then again, maybe there is something to it.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by HJ:
Btw, what is the base chance to gain affliction from being hit in the first place?

I believe that it is equal to the percentage hitpoint loss the wound caused.

[johan osterman]

If the afflictions work as they are supposed to the chance of getting one should be proportional to the percentage of hp loss caused by the hit. So a unit with 100hp taking damage 10, should stand the same chance of incurring an affliction as a normal 10hp unit taking 1p of damage.

[Arralen]

Originally posted by johan osterman:
So a unit with 100hp taking damage 10, should stand the same chance of incurring an affliction as a normal 10hp unit taking 1p of damage.

But I must agree with HJ, that seemingly units with lots of hitpoints get afflictions pretty easy and at very low damage-%tages.

On the other hand, maybe it's just because they live longer to accumulate more of them, while those hp 10 units don't get afflictions most times because they simly die from the hit ?

Someone to do a little testing?

A.

[ November 28, 2003, 07:54: Message edited by: Arralen ]

[PDF]

I'm not sure there is a catch, what you notice is rather tied to cumulative % chance and the fact that "small" units usually just die fast .

For example, a 100hp unit that fight once, get two 10 hp wounds, then fight again and take 3 hits, only has a (100%-10%)^5= 59% chance of *not* having got any affliction !
OTOH a 10 hp unit usually either is wounded once - and often get an affliction also - then die, so you just don't care..

Overall I agree that affliction is "overdone" IMHO, and units get too much of them and/or too grievous ones - a 10 hp hit on a 100 hp creature just *shouldn't* have a 10% chance of chopping a arm or an eye out, the system should be non-linear, for example
affliction % = (hp taken/total hp) SQUARED
(that'll give 1% chance for a 10% hp^loss, 4% for 20%, up to 81% for 90%)
The other problem is that afflictions never heal except under special circumstances, and that *hit big* effectiveness of big units (except for Arco ..).

[Teraswaerto]

Maybe it should be possible to cure afflictions a bit easier, but other than that they are just fine. Something to keep big units from being too powerful, and it adds a pinch of realism too. Getting struck with a sword or an axe would probably cause permanent damage (=affliction) even with todays medicine, let alone back in the times Dominions is set in.

[Pocus]

somehow it balances the big creatures against the smaller, so I'm unsure I would be willing to reduce the affliction chance. And anyway, a ring of regen will reduce affliction to a very small level (I dont remember the figure, but the reduction was enormous).

Also in doms2 everybody can get a remove affliction creature with a Faery Queen. Not super marvelous, but still you can keep her in your capitol on continuous healing, and direct all your injured there. I'm sure you will appreciate the service given...

[PvK]

I think Arralen had the answer. Given the damage and affliction system described, it would be more likely for huge beasts to get afflictions over their lifetime, particularly when fighting lesser opponents, because they tend to survive many more blows than weaker units, who tend to die more often from fewer injuries. Players no doubt also tend to check their big minions more frequently than they check all of their little minions, so they also may not notice all the limps and amputations going on amongst the cannon fodder who survive. When I play Ulm and try to keep my well-armored humans alive, I notice that many of the veterans end up with afflictions, if they had to do a lot of tough fighting.

PvK

[HJ]

Thanks for the replies. I just wanted to see if there is some "equalizer" algorythm tied to size and introduced by design so as to make big units more prone to the afflictions. If there isn't then I can accept that those were only the unlucky rolls.

[Taqwus]

One of the more brutal aspects is that large units also tend to be the ones targeted by the long-range, fairly common (lizard shamans, totem shields, others. Think twice before taking your pretender into an indy province controlled by lizardmen), unresistable, and permanent Curse spell which IIRC greatly increases the chance of afflictions per hit.

Then there are the attacks which have an unusually high, sometimes 100%, chance of causing afflictions -- the Black Bow of Botulf causes Feeblemind, Vision's Foe removes an eye, one of the scythe artifacts causes crippling... and whose owners are likely to have "fire/attack large monsters" or something like that.