Put yourself in my shoes MJ. If you could make your pain go away for good and all by hurting everyone else, would you do it?
O.K., John, put yourselves in our shoes: if someone was trying to get away from his severe pain by giving it to you, would you distance yourself from that person as far as you could, or accept the pain?
Ya know, I agreed with this, but I couldn't really understand why until just now. Turning this around, would I be willing to endure more psychosis to make your depression go away? My personal hell would be a psychotic episode that never ended. Would I be willing to do that? Honestly, I'm not certain I know the answer to that question. I just developed a huge new respect for you Mr. Young.
(Doing Therapy)
I know you read the above, even if you didn't reply to it. Ya know, a large part of the problem is that I get frustrated easily when I get confused. I used to do that when I was a kid. This game is easily the most confusing thing I have ever dealt with. I'm glad for it though. I think I'm learning new stuff just as my character is.
Oh yeah, and ya know what? The damage categories make so much more sense. I was thinking that the 9mm carbine would be useless against the animal I'm facing in game. However, at close range, it's every bit as good as an AK-47. MJ, you said "Um, the ranges sort of do that?" when I asked about powers of the 9mm bullet through the handgun VS the rifle. That clarified it so much. You would need 15 different damage categories to do this the way I think it should be done, but "Um, the ranges sort of do that?" clicked something. The extra power is in the range. That just made oodles of sense when you said it. I just thought you would want to know that.
(Doing Therapy)
Two
There are some anomalies, a 45 would be shorter range than a 9mm, do the same damage, but in real life, a 45 is a lot more powerful than a 9mm at short range. I'd give a sit-mod to the 45 for short range, but that's just me.
My understanding of this is like an oil drilling rig going through really dense concrete. Every now and then we hit a snag. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DEALING WITH ME MJ!!!!!! Hey, scholars, does not the Bible say that "Even cold cups of water given will be rewarded"? Just something to think about.
JOHN!!! NO MORE!!!!!!!!! I DON'T CARE!!!!!
(Doing Therapy)
There are some anomalies, a 45 would be shorter range than a 9mm, do the same damage, but in real life, a 45 is a lot more powerful than a 9mm at short range. I'd give a sit-mod to the 45 for short range, but that's just me.
It seems to me to be a lot simpler than that.
What you're suggesting is that the .45 hits harder at closer ranges but the 9mm has a longer range. But you've got five range categories, four of them independently-set. That means you can say that the 9mm is point blank (+20) to four feet, and the .45 point blank to ten feet, and you've got a lot more impact in the over-four-to-ten-foot range. You can then have the short range (+/-0) end sooner for the 9mm, but give it a much longer medium range (-10) that extends beyond that of the .45, and take its long range (-25) well beyond the other.
What that gives you is that the .45 will hit more often and do more damage in the range that becomes its point blank but the 9mm's short and again where its short is the 9mm's medium, but the 9mm will be better when it is still at medium and the .45 goes long and again where the .45's long range ends (extreme range, putting it at -25 plus a penalty based on percent of additional distance along with a damage category penalty) and the 9mm is still on long range--and by the time the 9mm hits the penalties of extreme range, the .45's penalties have already gone pretty high.
No, it's not perfect, because inside four feet both guns have the same potential, and again at any distance that they are in the same range category they'll be functionally the same. But at some point we know that the .45 goes from being better to being worse, so there must be a point at which they are "the same"; and a lot of these nuances are overridden by the dice anyway--a high successful roll on the 9mm at short range is going to outdo a low successful roll with the .45 at point blank, and since even at point blank you might have just winged the guy that's as it should be.
--M. J. Young
MJ, I'm so sorry for all of the trouble I caused over this. Really. Apology accepted?
(Doing Therapy)
I feel like you're waiting for me to say yes, and I have no reason to say otherwise--but that I am really unclear as to what it is for which you are apologizing.
Count it nothing.
--M. J. Young