I think that most people would agree that explosives are now regularly used only for trolling/assassinating in NCR and that the Demolition Expert profession is mostly used as a grenade supplier for sneakers (and it’s been like this since the 3rd era).
I’ve been playing as demolition expert since the beginning of the 1st era and from my point of view explosives are one of those categories to which wasn’t much attention payed (except for its trolling use). The way I see it, the explosives/traps have lot of unused potential.
Purpose of this thread is to uncover some of the explosives’ potential. First I will try to sum up current situation, then I will try to uncover some problems which arise from it and offer few possible solutions.
Current situation:1) Dynamite is the only explosive in whole game.
2) It’s damage is cca 30-350 (Dmg = base dmg + traps skill + demoexpertperk)
3) With 231 or 235 traps skill the activated explosives are completely invisible for everyone (Distance = 10 + opponent’s perception*3 – Traps/5).
4) If the explosive cannot be seen, there is no way it could be picked up (even your own).
5) NPCs have almost divine ability to detect someone placing an explosive, if the traps skill of a bomber is high enough they just leave it lying on the ground (the trap is invisible for them), though they still kill the bomber.
6) You cannot defuse an explosive set by someone whose skill is equal or higher than yours – you cannot defuse your own explosives (I might be wrong in this point, it might be luck dependant [all my demolition chars have luck 1])
7) Timer is set up in ingame minutes (realworld seconds*3)
Problems/Possible solutions:1) I think the problem is obvious.
Solution: Bringing back the good old C4 or introducing the new types of traps could bring (I will discuss more details bellow)
2) I see nothing wrong at this point, except the fact, that the demolition expert gives only 10 dmg bonus.
Solution: It might be worth considering changing it to 10%dmg.
3) I think there is nothing wrong with the formula here. The problem is the fact that explosive IS invisible if the outcome of formula is lower than 0.
Solution: a) There should be a minimal range from which the explosives can be seen (like it is with sneak). It should definitely at least be visible when standing right on it or being one hex from it. Implementing the minimal 3hex(sneak-like) distance could also be interesting, because a running character still wouldn’t see the explosive before he got into explosion range, but the walking character would. So it could less encourage the always-run syndrome we have now.
b) The formula could be altered to include opponent’s traps skill so that it could be countered by having high Traps skill (not only perception).
For example: Distance = 10 + opponent’sPerception*3 + opponent’sTraps/5 – Traps/5
So if you had 300traps, and your opponent had 200Traps and 10PE he would see it from 20hexes.
4) It is not very logical, to not be able to pick up something you know is there. (But I guess the steal skill faces the same problem of knowing something but not being able to do anything about it)
Solution:a) Solution 3a would solve also this
b) The invisible explosives should be “pick up-able” by pressing G when standing on their hex.
5) NPCs cannot pick-up/defuse invisible explosives which ends up with many dead civilians (this may not be considered a problem by most people
)
Solution:a) Again Solution 3a should solve this (since the explosives would be “pick up-able”)
b) Something like 4b but for NPCs
6) Obvious problem again.
Solution: Altering a bomb-defusing formula, so if you had the same Traps skill as the bomber, you would have chance at least 1:1 to defuse it successfully.
7) This might be considered only a cosmetic problem, since you can simply multiply the time set by 3, but because it seems that the smallest time unit in fonline is ingame minute and there are no ingame seconds the explosive always randomly goes off 0-3 seconds later then it is supposed to.
Sollution: Make the explosive’s timer setable in real-world seconds. (This looks like an engine flaw to me, so it is probably unsolvable)
Ad 1) More types of explosives/traps:Bringing back C4 (remote detonated plastic explosive):It is probably impossible to bring the C4 back the way it was before it was removed, because of certain issues.
Possible problems:A) You can detonate C4 from completely anywhere.
B) You can undermine any location and then blow it up (you can do it with now dynamite too but few times less effective)
C) With current town control, which requires you to camp a certain area, it would be easy to undermine that small area, and then blow it up every time some gang comes to claim the town.
Solutions:A) C4 could be detonated only when being on the same map (or maybe even when being in certain range)
B) 3a and 3b anti-invisibility solutions would solve this, or simply placing a limit on the number of active C4s on 1 or 2 per character – when you try to activate one more, the first one will detonate or deactivate itself.
C) Basicly the same as the B.
Mine:Detonates when stepped on, or when running next to it. (Maybe giving it the knockdown perk)
Possible problems:A) If the damage done by shouldn’t be calculated the same way as it is with the dynamite, it might be considered overpowered
B,C) Same as C4 above, with the exception you cannot blow it all at once
Solutions:A) Making the mine do 10times(or even less) less damage then dynamite (not kidding)
B,C) Same again….
Bear Trap:Does very low damage, but has a chance to cripple a leg. The crippling chance could be calculated the same way as the aimshots to legs, it would give demolition experts a reason to take higher luck than 1.
Possible problems:Same as the previous B, C) (Solutions the same)
PS: I surely haven’t considered everything and I have no illusions, that this thread will change anything, since demolition experts are and probably always be a minority (so changing anything in traps has very low priority).
PS2: I am sorry if this thread is a bit chaotic.
