Trooper rockets question

[jordos]

Hey all, I was wondering if anyone knew if the long-range rockets the troopers use actually do more damage than the short range machinegun? Or is the difference purely graphical?

Also, WTF is house of WOR? :)

[MrFlibble]

I remember reading in some FAQ that the rockets do less damage, but I'm not sure if it is true. Personally I got the impression that trooper rockets are quite good at blowing up Trikes and Quads. The regular Trooper(s) stats that can be modified via Nyerguds' editor only refer to the bullet weapon. The rockets are handled elsewhere. I think Segra might help answering this question.

As for WOR, I think no one knows for sure what it means.

[Nyerguds]

I still say it's the House of Wicked Old Rabban :P

[MrFlibble]

A difference between the Trooper's rocket and bullet weapons we can be certain is that the rockets have splash damage, while the bullets don't. Splash damage allows the rockets to destroy spice and concrete, and deal some damage to units and structures that surround their immediate target (friendly units can also receive damage this way). However, I have no idea if splash damage is different from non-splash damage in the way it affects various targets (different unit types, structures, etc.).

[jordos]

Looking at Segra's IDA database I found this after a switch jump based on weapon type, in the ScriptunitAttack function. (just before this it does the distance check for troopers but all that happens there is that the weapon type is set to 16h (minirockets) if greater than 200h

MiniRocket:             ; case 0x16
mov     ax, [bp+weaponDamage]
mov     cl, 2
sar     ax, cl          ; Shift Arithmetic Right

loc_26ECD:              ; Integer Subtraction
sub     [bp+weaponDamage], ax

I don't know what that bitshift does in effect but that substraction seems to suggest the rockets do less damage. After this it jumps to the rocket weapon type where lots of other things happen though, so I'll have to wait for someone with proper asm skills to be sure. :)

Unrelated question: I can't seem to place any walls with duneedit, I'm fairly sure this was posted somewhere in this, or in the dune editing forum but I'm having problems finding it. An explanation of the various unit commands (ambush etc) would be helpful too!

[MrFlibble]

Unrelated question: I can't seem to place any walls with duneedit, I'm fairly sure this was posted somewhere in this, or in the dune editing forum but I'm having problems finding it. An explanation of the various unit commands (ambush etc) would be helpful too!

I have answered this in Dune Editing: http://forum.dune2k.com/index.php?topic=19200.msg348650#msg348650

[Jongware]

MiniRocket:             ; case 0x16
mov     ax, [bp+weaponDamage]
mov     cl, 2
sar     ax, cl          ; Shift Arithmetic Right

loc_26ECD:              ; Integer Subtraction
sub     [bp+weaponDamage], ax

I don't know what that bitshift does in effect but that substraction seems to suggest the rockets do less damage.

That's correct. The weapon damage is shifted right twice, dividing by 4 (bitwise; 0b001101 -- 13 goes to 0b0011 -- 3). Then this new value is subtracted from the original value:

weaponDamage -= (weaponDamage >> 2)

resulting in a damage value of 0.75 times the original. Well, that and some rounding down.

[MrFlibble]

Thanks for clarifying this :)

[drackbolt]

Interesting... I was not aware of the splash damage effect for small rockets.  I may have to consider that for my Sardaukar.  :)

Anyone know the splash distance, and/or any effect dropoff?

[MrFlibble]

I think splash damage just destroys spice and concrete, I'm not sure if it affects nearby units or structures.

[drackbolt]

Poo.  :(

Can anyone confirm for sure?  Is there any sign of damage to other nearby units?

[MrFlibble]

I checked it out, trooper rockets do not deal any damage to units or structures in the cells adjacent to the point of impact, only destroy concrete or spice in the cell where the target is.

[MestreLion]

If splash damage only affects spice and concrete, and its 0.75 original damage to unit, that means the rocket is WORSE than bullets? Ive always placed infantry *behind* quads and tanks due to their superior range, and also thinking that this way they would deal MORE damage. The explosion is really misleading then...

[Nyerguds]

well you could fix that by replacing the sub command by an add command :P