Regional Damage

Author: Captain Ramen | Comments? Questions? Drop 'em off at our forum.


This tutorial shows how to do regional damage in JK / MotS. It was surprisingly easy to do, but only because the damage can only be applied in vertical 'layers,' with a front and back section for each layer. JK / MotS actors don't collide in the legs, and determining where the arms are with vectors is damn near impossible.

You'll need a solid understanding of cog and how to set up variables. This cog only contains 2 messages, damaged and killed. You'll have to put in skill and any other messages you might want in yourself.

For human actors you'll only need two layers, chest and head. I suppose you could add a third layer for the groin, but that's up to you. This tutorial won't cover that.

Step 0: Download the Sample Actor Cog

This step is pretty easy. Click here to get it. Open it up. Take note of the following variables: HeadDist, HeadFactor, BackheadFactor, ChestFactor, and BackFactor. You'll have to fill those in.

Step 1: Measure Your Actor

I'm assuming that your actor model is already complete. Insert your actor's template into a level. Figure out how far the bottom of the head region is from the thing's center. Insert this value into the HeadDist variable. I personally use 0.0036, but you might want to do something different.

Step 2: Damage Factors

Here's where you decide how much damage each area should receive before killing him off. Use the deafult values or play around until you get what you want.

I have four variables here because there are two layers ( <= HeadDist and > HeadDist ), and a front and back to each layer. I figured that most JK / MotS actors wear helmets, so face shots and back of the head shots should recieve different amounts of damage.

Step 3: Other Variables

The only other variable you need to set us what powerup the actor drops when he dies - powerup. Right now it's +dstrifle.

You might want to do other things with this cog, like change the model depending on where the actor gets shot, create special templates depending on where the actor gets shot, play a key, etc. It's all dependent on your imagination.

Step 4: You're Done

That's all there is to it. You might want to add a skill message. JK and MotS have different stuff here, which is why I left it blank. Plus, DFA doesn't concern itself with skill. =)

When testing it, I recommend that you turn 'autoaim' off. You won't be able to get headshots with it on.