Post by 76addragonreborn on Jan 24, 2007 6:56:27 GMT -6
yossarian said:
Not that I don't love zooka fights in the open, cause' they are the definition of hilarious (only time jumping works in DoD), but just so everyone is clear, RPG's are 100% useless against infantry in real life.A grenade works by detonating and accelerating 1000s of metal bits (shrapnel for the technically inclined) in a spherical pattern. Thus they are good when you get close enough.
RPG's use their warhead to focus the energy generated by the explosion into a metal cone (usually copper) which compresses it to an incredibly high pressure loading. The result is a stream of copper (about 1cm in diameter) that is forced directly forwards at Mach 25 ish. While remaining solid the jet of copper is under so much pressure it behaves like a fluid, so when it strikes steel/other metal it is able to follow the crystal grain boundaries and slice through it like a hot knife through butter.
Hence RPG's are shot at tanks or other hardened positions. Against infantry the blast radius is so small, and the warhead detonates on contact, that you either need a hard object in front of them (which is blown backwards filling them with shrapnel) or you need to hit them directly. Ironically this is reflected well in DoD since most shots into the ground will actually contain the blast very effectively with 90% or more of the energy being expended into the copper jet, and the rest diffusing into the ground as the casing reflects off the dirt/cobble stones.
As proven by the NVA against the Americans the only effective way to use an RPG against infantry is to fire one into a hard object that produces the shrapnel required to cut up exposed infantry. In their particular case they used tree bursts to great effect.
If the environments were more destructible in DoD then would could use RPG's ala the Canadian technique of mouse holing, where the RPG is used to create new passageways between buildings and avoid sniper fire. This also allows you to properly "wall" the camping whore around the corner. A satisfying idea of being able to fill your enemies with flying wood and concrete.
So in a vain attempt to bring this post back on topic, DoD acidentally does a magnificnet job of reflecting RPG's in game, since the ceiling shot would kill you 100% of the time with the shrapnel generated, while the oblique ground shot has a low probability of killing you. The body shot is good for 150 damage and only fails somewhat that your model doesn't just disappear in a pink cloud.
So keep the Grenades and RPG's exactly as is, and leave people to fear the apartments in avalanche et al.
well written