Firebug myths and facts?

[hipnox]

Hello,

Even though i play Firebug a lot (and have the perk at lvl6) there are still a few things i don't really know about the perk. Mostly this is due to misinformation and contradiction between the wiki, the forum and in-game conversations.

Here's some facts about the FB that i'm not entirely sure about:

#1: Do Crisped specimens take more damage?

#2: Do crisped Speciments move slower?

#3: Does the crawler take less/no damage from the mac/husk cannon fire?

#4: Does a single puff from the flamethrower or a single round from the mac cause a scrake or a FP to rage?

#5: Can the flame dance animation stop a scrake or a fleshpound in mid rage?

#6: Does the flame dance animation play only once, and only during the crisping?

#7: Can a fully charged husk cannon bodyshot stun a 6-man HoE scrake?

#8: Does the flamethrower and the husk cannon benefit from headshot bonus damage?

 

[Double_Deagle]

Hello,

Even though i play Firebug a lot (and have the perk at lvl6) there are still a few things i don't really know about the perk. Mostly this is due to misinformation and contradiction between the wiki, the forum and in-game conversations.

Here's some facts about the FB that i'm not entirely sure about:

#1: Do Crisped specimens take more damage? No

#2: Do crisped Speciments move slower? Yes

#3: Does the crawler take less/no damage from the mac/husk cannon fire? Crawlers are supposed to take damage from fire, but sometimes (annoyingly often), it bugs and they don't

#4: Does a single puff from the flamethrower or a single round from the mac cause a scrake or a FP to rage? Not on 6 man games

#5: Can the flame dance animation stop a scrake or a fleshpound in mid rage? Yes to scrake, not sure about FP

#6: Does the flame dance animation play only once, and only during the crisping? Yes

#7: Can a fully charged husk cannon bodyshot stun a 6-man HoE scrake? Yes

#8: Does the flamethrower and the husk cannon benefit from headshot bonus damage? Husk cannon does, the flamethrower does not

Hope that helps.

 

[Undedd Jester]

Double Deagle nailed it, although I'll tidy up 2 questions



#4: No

Spoiler!

A single pip of a flamethrower or MAC-10 to a Fleshpound will not deal enough damage fast enough because its a small DoT, and thus the FP will not rage on almost any difficulty.

For the Scrake it has to reduce their health below 50% on Hard and below, and 75% on Suicidal and HoE. 1 pip cannot do enough damage to achieve this.

#5: FP is immune to the scramble effect (Or if it isn't then it take a bleeding long time for it to happen)

 

[ChairmanMurder[Forge]]

Eh, might as well elaborate more, and ask some questions of my own.

#2: Do crisped Speciments move slower?

Further question:
Do they move slower after their crisping? I know they move aimlessly and erratically during their panic dance, but I don't notice much of a speed change once they've burned. Anyone have numbers?

#4: Does a single puff from the flamethrower or a single round from the mac cause a scrake or a FP to rage?

Well, it could. Scrake rage is based on remaining health (50% left on Hard and below, 75% on Suicidal and HoE). If a Scrake has 51% or 76%, and then you squirted him, yes, he'll rage. On a full HP Scrake, no.

Fleshpound rage (where it relates to damage, anyway), is governed by damage over time. If too much damage is done in too short a time, he'll rage. By itself, I don't think the flame puff plus the burning will rage him.

EDIT: Whups, Jester already said the exact same thing. D'oh.

#5: Can the flame dance animation stop a scrake or a fleshpound in mid rage?

To date, I haven't seen a FP halt his rage to panic dance. I think it can prevent him from beginning his rage, but once he's going it's crunch time.

#6: Does the flame dance animation play only once, and only during the crisping?

Deagle said yes, only once, but I swear I've tapped Scrakes with the Mac10 several times, and he'll panic dance multiple times. Hmm. I'll have to double check though.

#7: Can a fully charged husk cannon bodyshot stun a 6-man HoE scrake?

After Scary did some testing, he determined that you needed to do roughly667 damage in a single hit to make a Scrake go full-retard. With a full charge, the Husk gun does... I think 750 impact damage, which is more than enough for a stun.

 

[hipnox]

Do they move slower after their crisping? I know they move aimlessly and erratically during their panic dance, but I don't notice much of a speed change once they've burned. Anyone have numbers?

Yeah, i know about the flame dance. i was just wondering if the moved slowly while crisped.

Deagle said yes, only once, but I swear I've tapped Scrakes with the Mac10 several times, and he'll panic dance multiple times. Hmm. I'll have to double check though.

I think i saw the dance happen more than once on the same specimen. i'll have to try and see. From what i recall, FPs and SCs will dance again if set on fire after the previous fire ended.

 

[Double_Deagle]

Hmm, I need to level up my reading... they can indeed do the flame dance more than once. I read too fast and only saw the "does it happen during crisping" part.

And yeah, they move more slowly after their crisped. If I recall correctly, it's a 20% speed reduction.

 

[ChairmanMurder[Forge]]

Not to doubt you or anything, but do you have any code or discussion threads to corroborate that? Or if you could drag Scary into here, I'll take his word too, haha.

I just want some hard numbers because that could be a huge help for a kiting team. A 20% speed reduction is pretty damned big, especially on the harder difficulities. It could be the difference between the FP catching up to the 25HP berserker and not.

 

[niel85]

i also do have a question:
does the speed reduction also count for sc and fp rage mode? or does their rage "override" the being-crispy-effect?

 

[scary ghost]

2) Specimens move 20% slower when on fire, except for an enraged fleshpound and patriarch. The speed reduction only happens when they crisp up, which is also when they do the panic dance. More on that below. In an nutshell though, the flow goes like this:

TakeFireDamage -> ZombieCrispup -> SetBurningBehavior

KFMonster.SetBurningBehavior()

simulated function SetBurningBehavior() {
    if( Role == Role_Authority ) {
        Intelligence = BRAINS_Retarded; // burning dumbasses!
[B][COLOR=DarkOrange]        GroundSpeed = OriginalGroundSpeed * 0.8;
        AirSpeed *= 0.8;
        WaterSpeed *= 0.8;[/COLOR][/B]
        // Make them less accurate while they are burning
        if( Controller != none ) {
           MonsterController(Controller).Accuracy = -5;  // More chance of missing. (he's burning now, after all) :-D
        }
    }
[B][COLOR=DarkOrange]    // Set the forward movement anim to a random burning anim
    MovementAnims[0] = BurningWalkFAnims[Rand(3)];
    WalkAnims[0]     = BurningWalkFAnims[Rand(3)];[/COLOR][/B]

    // Set the rest of the movement anims to the headless anim (not sure if these ever even get played) - Ramm
    MovementAnims[1] = BurningWalkAnims[0];
    WalkAnims[1]     = BurningWalkAnims[0];
    MovementAnims[2] = BurningWalkAnims[1];
    WalkAnims[2]     = BurningWalkAnims[1];
    MovementAnims[3] = BurningWalkAnims[2];
    WalkAnims[3]     = BurningWalkAnims[2];

}

5) You can stop a scrake mid rage, but not a fleshpound.

ZombieFleshPound.SetBurningBehavior()

simulated function SetBurningBehavior(){
    if( bFrustrated || bChargingPlayer ) {
        return;
    }

    super.SetBurningBehavior();
}

ZombieScrake.SetBurningBehavior()

simulated function SetBurningBehavior() {
    // If we're burning stop charging
    if( Role == Role_Authority && IsInState('RunningState') ) {
        super.SetBurningBehavior();
        GotoState('');
    }

    super.SetBurningBehavior();
}

6) Flame dance is triggered once per burn duration and lasts for the remainder of the burn. That is, specimens burn for 10 seconds, and flame dance starts after X seconds and continues until the burn timer has reached 0. You can make them dance again by reigniting them. Flame dance is time based, not damage based. Hosing down a scrake, for example, will not make him panic any faster. Patriarch does not do the flame dance but will crisp up.

KFMonster.TakeFireDamage

function TakeFireDamage(int Damage,pawn Instigator) {
    local Vector DummyHitLoc,DummyMomentum;

    TakeDamage(Damage, BurnInstigator, DummyHitLoc, DummyMomentum, FireDamageClass);

    if ( BurnDown > 0 ) {
        // Decrement the number of FireDamage calls left before our Zombie is extinguished :)
        BurnDown --;
    }

    // Melt em' :)
[B][COLOR=DarkOrange]    if ( BurnDown < CrispUpThreshhold ) {
        ZombieCrispUp();
    }
[/COLOR] [/B]
    if ( BurnDown == 0 ) {
        bBurnified = false;
        GroundSpeed = default.GroundSpeed;
    }
}

BurnDown stores how many times the monster takes fire damage. It starts at 10 and is decremented by 1 every second, until it reaches 0, giving burn time a total of 10 seconds. CrispUpThreshhold stores when the specimen crisps, panics, and loses speed.

BurnDown < 10
Stalker
Crawler

BurnDown < 9
Clot

BurnDown < 8
Gorefast

BurnDown < 7
Siren

BurnDown < 5
Husk
Bloat
Scrake
FleshPound

BurnDown < 1
Patriarch

 

[ChairmanMurder[Forge]]

Hmm. Well, now I'm more interested in Firebug now, now that I have hard numbers on what exactly burning the specimens does.

Funny how knowing game code makes a perk suddenly more interesting.

 

[Aze]

Ok, so when the specimen starts panicking and get that nice crispy BBQ-brown colour on them (which both happen at the same time, right?) they also get slowed down, correct?
The question i have then is: How long does the slowdown last? Does it last even after they have panicked or ONLY during the actual panic dance?
If they only slow down while the panic is active, and do not remain slow after that... it's kind of a moot bonus imo.

And afaik, isn't there a bug on Stalkers that make them run FASTER when they panic?

EDIT: Oh, and the "Crawler never dies from the Mac10 burn" thing, which was existing in Stalkers as well for a while, can that be related to this panic time or something? Maybe they panic too early? If it's set to 9 (like Clot) will they burn to death properly? (Just a question/experiment for anyone that might wanna try that programming)
NOTE: This bug is only active online, not on solo (at least that's how it is for me)