Experience bonus for headshots for all perks

[Hellrazer]

In order to level up as quickly as possible I have had to train myself to deliberately avoid headshots because the head is worth less damage points. This has led to a crouching & aiming low play style to get the full amount of experience per zed. Then when I am playing for the win I have to switch back to my standard FPS style of focusing on headshots. I don't think good aim should be penalized by getting less experience if you shot a zed in the head with an AK or hack of a specimen's head with a katana. I think the opposite should be true and more experience should be awarded. At the very least this needs to be balanced to that if you kill a specimen with a head shot you get at least the same amount of experience as a body shot (with the obvious expectation being the sharpshooter who should only get exp for hs).

I understand the switch form kill based exp to damage based exp to stop poaching. This was a good idea. It just needs a little tweak so as not to punish good shot/blade placement.

Thanks,
-Hellrazer

 

[Entangler]

The head is not worth less damage. If you fully deplete a specimen's health, you'll receive the full amount regardless of whether you hit the head or the body.

 

[Lucidius134]

You only lose damage if you let them bleed out.

 

[Hellrazer]

Are you sure about that?

For example if you are playing "Solo", "Normal" you can shoot a Husk in the Head and bring it down by only doing 200 damage. Where as if you shoot it in the body under the same conditions it takes 600 damage to fell it (& they don't walk about after being beheaded).

It would be helpful if the exp bars showed the actual numbers so we could more easily test things like this. The different amounts of damage to kill body vs head would make it appear that you would get less experience for headshots. The switch to a damage based system from a kill based system was to keep people from getting robbed of experience because somebody jumps in and does the last few points of damage. This would also lead me to believe that experience is awarded based on how much damage is actually done & and not a lump sum awarded for the kill shot. Also, not all specimens remain on their feet to receive further damage after deception (especially if done by a powerful weapon/perk).

-Hellrazer

 

[outofrealman]

are you sure about that?

yes.

 

[Lucidius134]

yes.

damage done to the specimen is multiplied if done to the head for most weapons.

That means that one 60 damage shot is probably doing 1.2x that if it's from an AR.

 

[Hellrazer]

Yeah, I get that there is a damage multiplier, but that is not the point.

Example:

level 4 Commando using AK47,"Normal", "Solo" vs Husk

63 damage per shot times a 1.2 hs multiplier gives 75.6 damage per shot

So I could shoot a Husk (200/75.6 = 2.6) three times in the head dealing 226.8 damage total


or

I could shoot it in the chest (600/63 = 9.5) ten times dealing out 630 damage total



Both ways he is dead, but one way I only do 226.8 damage and the other I do 630 damage...

 

[Undedd Jester]

I think he is right though, doesn't the act of decapping a speicmen reduce its overall HP but a certain percentage?

Or have I pulle dhtat out my arse?


That being said I never found levelling up a problem. I enjoyed every minute

 

[Hellrazer]

According to the kf-wiki most specimens have lower hp on their head then body (depending on difficulty, number of players & so fourth) & that least is true otherwise we would be dealing with more like a 3x hs multiplier to drop a husk with an AK in the hands of a L4 commando on Solo Normal.

 

[Entangler]

Decapitating a specimen doesn't remove extra health directly; rather, it inflicts an extra "hit" that deals the bonus damage amount. The damage from that bonus counts towards levelling just like a real hit, so there's no gap.

 

[Hellrazer]

Decapitating a specimen doesn't remove extra health directly; rather, it inflicts an extra "hit" that deals the bonus damage amount. The damage from that bonus counts towards leveling just like a real hit, so there's no gap.

That would imply that in my example you would be awarded 200 (head value) + 600 (body value) for a total of 800 damage exp? That seems unlikely.

ps- never said this game wasn't great & fun (I have a solo game on pause right this second... KF might be my favorite game ever... )

 

[scary ghost]

That would imply that in my example you would be awarded 200 (head value) + 600 (body value) for a total of 800 damage exp? That seems unlikely.

ps- never said this game wasn't great & fun (I have a solo game on pause right this second... KF might be my favorite game ever... )

The game only awards you damage up to the target specimen's health. Shooting a law rocket at a clot will not give you 1000+ damage towards you demo perk, you only get whatever max hp the clot has. So in short, aim for the head and you'll get full damage if your decapitating blow is a kill. If a headless specimen is left, then you can gun it down for extra damage before it bleeds out.

If you really want to know all the gritty details about decapitation, then read this post:
http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showpost.php?p=673763&postcount=63

And, the KF-Wiki is not the best place to get information. Like now, the wiki doesn't even mention you get a sizable damage bonus for decapitation which leads people to think head shots = less damage. Your best bet is to ask on the TWI forum or read one of the guides.

 

[nutterbutter]

In order to level up as quickly as possible I have had to train myself to deliberately avoid headshots

Avoiding headshots is easy. And quite silly.

 

[Hellrazer]

Avoiding headshots is easy. And quite silly.

Well I agree that avoiding headshots is crazy silly...

OK cool. Let me see if I understand you correctly. If for example:

A L4 Commando, Solo, Normal, AK47 vs Bloat

One shot to the head 63 x 1.2 = 75.6 damage will knock his head off (bloat head health = 25) & the Commando is awarded 525 (bloat body health) exp towards Commando Perk plus a little extra if you shot the decapitated body before it pops (or rather until it pops)?

In short L4 Commando, Solo, Normal, AK headshot vs Bloat nets 525 exp (+bonus exp if more shots are scored after the head comes off)?

Thanks for clearing this up. It really helps.

 

[poosh]

1. As Level 4 you should advance to Hard difficulty. There are more specimens with more health = more damage points you get to level up.
2. Headshot multiplier for most weapons (including all commando weapons) is x1.1, not 1.2.
3. If your headshot kills zed, you receive full it's health to perk damage points.
4. Stalkers are much bigger problem to level up commando, not damage points.

 

[C_Gibby]

Remember grinding DOES NOT equal actual skill. The best way to level up is by actually playing the game through the difficulty levels and not only your perk levels up, but so do you as a player. Just don't think about your level, think about the immediate game.

 

[Aze]

Well I agree that avoiding headshots is crazy silly...

OK cool. Let me see if I understand you correctly. If for example:

A L4 Commando, Solo, Normal, AK47 vs Bloat

One shot to the head 63 x 1.2 = 75.6 damage will knock his head off (bloat head health = 25) & the Commando is awarded 525 (bloat body health) exp towards Commando Perk plus a little extra if you shot the decapitated body before it pops (or rather until it pops)?

In short L4 Commando, Solo, Normal, AK headshot vs Bloat nets 525 exp (+bonus exp if more shots are scored after the head comes off)?

Thanks for clearing this up. It really helps.

Almost got it right:
* Bloat has (Solo normal) 25 head health, 525 body health (body health is also known as total health)
* Theoretically, you shoot its head off and it doesn't die. Let's say you did 300 damage in total with that (head damage + decap bonus). The bloat now has 225 health left.
A) If you now shoot the headless Bloat until it dies, you can max get another 225 damage done. The total you would get from that specimen is still just 525 (its total health)
B) If you now don't shoot the headless (but still "living") Bloat and some time goes by and it drops dead, you have done 300 damage only.
* Theoretically, you shoot its head off and it dies instantly. No matter how much damage you did there (the total of head damage + decap bonus), you still only got 525 damage done, as that was the total max health of the Bloat
* Theoretically, you shoot a rocket into a bloat and it explodes into tiny pieces. Let's say the rocket can deal up to 1000 damage or so). You still only get 525 damage done towards that respective perk.


In short:
1) The ONLY way to not receive full damage done available from a specimen, is if you decapitate it + it doesn't die + you let it bleed out (aka letting it die by itself, wandering around headless)
2) Body health means the same thing as total health
3) Shooting the head also damages the body health
4) You can not get more damage done from a specimen than its body health.

 

[Rainydaykid]

1. As Level 4 you should advance to Hard difficulty. There are more specimens with more health = more damage points you get to level up.
2. Headshot multiplier for most weapons (including all commando weapons) is x1.1, not 1.2.
3. If your headshot kills zed, you receive full it's health to perk damage points.
4. Stalkers are much bigger problem to level up commando, not damage points.

Well, lvl 4 is high enough for suicidal, actually. I neglected FB a lot, but have gotten into it lately. As soon as I hit lvl 4, I went to suicidal. Hard was too easy.

 

[Hellrazer]

For the record I don't spend my time playing Solo, Commando, Normal. I usually play co-op in the Normal-Suicidal range & I Solo on Hell on Earth. That was just an example for easy math.

I don't really care what the exact headshot damage multiplier is (1.1 vs 1.2) that is not the point.

I never suggested that you could hit a clot with a rocket and expect to get 1520 exp for killing a clot with a rocket or anything...

I'm still a little fuzzy on the whole concept of Head health & body or maybe total health. The bloat is a good example of a zed that generally keeps walking after you lop off their head but other Zeds like the Husk for example pretty much instantly drop after their head comes off, so there would not be enough time to pick up the left over damage on the body if you only did enough damage to knock the head off...

All of say you know exactly what is going on, but so far their have been at least 2 different answers to my question of how much experience is gained by decapitating a zed with a non-sharpshoter weapon (besides my own original & possibly misguided interpretation).

Another suggestion thread called for an exact number to be reported in the experience gauge. An exact number updated in real-time would put an end to this discussion & we could all just check for ourselves.

So far Scary Ghost seems to have the most firm grasp on headshot mechanics & if he is right then Aze is wrong.

...

 

[outofrealman]

Hard is easy mainly because you decap zeds with one 9mm shot (as I remembered) and most weapons, even unperked. So if you have enough experience, you can play hard as 0lv. Because 9mm kills most zeds and you out run everything.

If you sucks, you die on normal as a 6lv. So it has really no point to say X lv should play Y difficulty.


And btw for leveling, you probably not playing suicidal or HoE (because these two are mainly for challenges). So perked weapon should kill your target with the decap shot (probably except bloat, and you hardly ever see headless scrakes and pounds) but anyway, aim for the head is the fastest way to level up. You rather decap 2 bloats and then start killing those crawlers and clots instead of gun down one single bloat with half your clip.

As for scrakes and pounds, aim for body, because you want 100% of your bullets hitting instead of risking to miss quite a lot of bullets for the 10% bonus of hitting the head with most weapons.