Talk:Projectiles

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Potential corrections and things to look into

Hello, I have some ideas on things to potentially change on this page.

"The damage of the projectiles that are fired from the Demoman's weapons (after five seconds, in the case of stickybombs), the Flare Gun, the Detonator, the Manmelter and the Huntsman are not affected by distance; however, the Crusader's Crossbow has an inverted damage falloff (which means damage and healing increase by distance)." I think a few things should be changed for clarity.

I believe the damage of the projectiles from the Flying Guillotine, The Sandman, The Wrap Assassin, and The Scorch Shot are also unaffected by distance. The Fortified Compound is also unaffected but since it's a reskin of The Huntsman I don't know if that's something that should be clarified. The Crusader's Crossbow is also unaffected by damage falloff, and it does not have an inverted damage falloff. Instead, its base damage scales with distance. Meanwhile, The Loose Cannon's damage is affected by distance.

All of this is evidenced by each weapon's damage information on their respective pages.

It might be worth adding another column to the projectiles table at the bottom of the page that indicates if the projectile's damage is affected by distance. For example, the Grenade Launcher and Flare Gun would be marked Yes, the Rocket Launcher and Pomson 6000 marked No, and Mad Milk and Jarate marked n/a. Footnotes can be added for specific details (like The Crusader's Crossbow's base damage quirk).

On another note, I think the flames from the Pyro's flamethrowers' are considered projectiles, but they're so different compared to all other projectiles in the game that I believe they deserve their own page. Maybe some key information could be added to the Flames section and the redirect to Fire should be expanded on? Some info on the flames can be found in this Reddit thread.

Honestly I think information on how distance affects damage (both hitscan and projectile) might merit its own page too. I know the distance modifier is mentioned on the page for Damage, but since more detail could be added on the modifier, plus the damage page talks about more than just the modifier, that section could be linked to a larger page talking about it.

What do you guys think? Hiffan (talk) 01:01, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

I can add a new row for the damage fall off stuff, but the Crossbow is technically not using inverted damage falloff, it functions practically identically save for critical hits so it won't really have a special note. The Fire projectiles are covered on this page and I'm not sure what extra you would mention here. Only the actual projectile info should be covered here, and as far as I can tell the Reddit thread doesn't mention anything really new or anything we should note anywhere on the Wiki. As for the falloff mechanic, I'm not sure it warrants its own page, but it depends on how much info you want to add there.
| s | GrampaSwood (talk) (contribs) 11:14, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

If it isn't too much of a hassle to make the row, thanks. Are you saying that since the crossbow functions as if it did have a ramp it doesn't warrant a note? I understand that the flames stuff does go beyond the details as a projectile and more about other aspects. The details about their damage like the age of the flames and player temperature aren't on the fire page. Is that not worth noting? I thought it'd help to better understand how they work. As for more detail added to the distance/falloff, I was thinking about how the chart on the section for it in the damage page doesn't give info on the different ramps different weapons have, and how it doesn't mention all of the projectiles that aren't affected by it (similar to how it's written here). I don't know if/how much overlap in information is okay across different pages (eg. should the falloff info I suggested be on the projectiles page only, or would including it in the distance modifier section on the damage page be okay?), and I don't know if I'm trying to go into too much detail on these things, sorry.

Hiffan (talk) 22:56, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm not sure a note is necessary, as the only difference between reverse damage fall-off and the Crossbow would be that its base damage increases rather than modifying the base damage, so it only affects critical hits. It's best to mention this only on the weapon's page itself as a technical specification. As for the fire stuff, that's covered in Flame Thrower because it relates to the damage of the Flame Thrower rather than anything inherent to the fire particle itself, although if you feel it's relevant you can mention it. Avoid terms like "player temperature" though as that's just a term they use in the Reddit thread rather than something actually used anywhere else. I would substitute it with something like "The amount of particles hitting a player and the lifespan of those particles".

The graph is to show the basics of the mechanic and not the specifics of everything. If you wanted to make a list of weapons that deviate from the standard ramp-up/fall-off, you can list them here and I'll try to turn it into a table.
| s | GrampaSwood (talk) (contribs) 23:11, 16 February 2024 (UTC)