What does Umbra actually do?

StixNStonz

Had this discussion in-game, and then I went through balance.txt and googled the changelogs, but found nothing.

Does anyone know how much umbra actually blocks? I thought it was half but some people were saying 3/4.

locallyunscene

<!--quoteo(post=1703771:date=Mar 30 2009, 05:16 PM:name=StixNStonz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StixNStonz @ Mar 30 2009, 05:16 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1703771"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Had this discussion in-game, and then I went through balance.txt and googled the changelogs, but found nothing.

Does anyone know how much umbra actually blocks? I thought it was half but some people were saying 3/4.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's not 3/4. I want to say 2/3 but that seems too high.

spellman23

I could have sworn it was 1/2.

However, NSWiki claim 2/3
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/wiki/index.php/Umbra" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/wiki/index.php/Umbra</a>

But, the olde NS Manual claims 1/2
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/static/comm_manual/basic/alienClasses.htm" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/static/com...lienClasses.htm</a>

Maybe we should set up a server and shoot things with pistols.

ZiGGY

it was 1/2 a long time ago (i think <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />) and that'll always bias my thought on it.
I had a quick look in the balance.txt to see if there was an actual listed ratio but there isn't, the default duration and radius listed are correct though

JazzX

I think its still at 1/2, this is what I saw in the changelogs:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1--> Version| Ratio| %
====================
1.0    | 6/7  | 86
1.04   | 5/6  | 83
2.0    | 3/4  | 75
2.01   | 2/3  | 67
3.0b4a | 1/2  | 50<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
(And if iirc for a while in the early 3.0Beta Builds it only blocked 1/3, but that was a mistake and was corrected shortly after being found.)

StixNStonz

Hmm. I found both 3.2, 3.1, and 2.0 changelogs on the net, and none of them mentioned changes to Umbra? Maybe they were condensed versions? (I literally did a Search in each of the documents for 'umbra')

Faskalia

Just a small note:

Umbra only blocks bullets if the target is inside the umbra cloud.

So hiding behind an umbra cloud has 0 effect. You have to hide inside the cloud.

pSyk0mAn

Does someone know for sure how umbra affects sg hits?
It sometimes seems that it either blocks the full shot or nothing at all.
Does umbra recognize the shotgun pellets?

spellman23

<!--quoteo(post=1703868:date=Apr 1 2009, 10:35 AM:name=pSyk0mAn)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pSyk0mAn @ Apr 1 2009, 10:35 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1703868"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Does someone know for sure how umbra affects sg hits?
It sometimes seems that it either blocks the full shot or nothing at all.
Does umbra recognize the shotgun pellets?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

per pellet basis

puzl

For a player in an umbra cloud, every incoming bullet has a 50% chance of being blocked by the umbra cloud.

50% being the result of a call to the engine random number generator with range {0..1}

Incidentally, the Balance.txt line here is

#define kUmbraEffectiveness 1

StixNStonz

Yeah, I saw that line in Balance, but '1' sounded like a number used for something else. I have noticed that a lot of the Balance numbers seemed to be halved or doubled; how does that 1 indicate 50% bullets blocked?

ZiGGY

my guess would be a check between the RN & .5 to see which is higher, and if the RN is higher then it blocks the bullet. The value gives the upper value of the RN and so you get a ~(100-50/x)% chance to block depending on the value of effectiveness x

xtcmen

AFAK, it has always been 5/8.