This is being brought up in response to dash's post in the PS7 thread concerning cheats related to firing rates and damage. I'll start off by reproducing a segment of his post before I state my questions:

My example concerns both the delivery/degree of damage done by a single shell (specifically, an Area Effect) and whether or not it registers visually and aurally while being recorded as damage on the server. I have employed a tactic using an Area Effect shot to kill a nearby smoking opponent without actually aiming right at their tank. I didn't want to cause damage to my own tank with the AE explosion, so I aim so that the AE shell passes just over their brain jar - this actually does produce damage to their tank and has killed a smoking tank on several occasions. The AE shell continues on its merry way, having done its job of dispatching my opponent while leaving me none the worse for wear.

So my questions are thus: Is a near-miss by an AE shell (or any other shell) intended to produce damage, or is this a glitch? Also, is the near-miss damage from an AE shell less than or equal to the damage done during an explosion? And I cannot recall if there is a tank-impact sound produced as the AE near-miss causes its damage - could this be related to a case where someone gets waxed by a group of shots (no matter what type of shell) that includes both heard impacts (actual hits) and unheard impacts (near-misses)? In this case it could appear to the recently deceased that they were destroyed by someone firing shells that were more powerful than normal.

Last edited: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at 2:48:51 PM

I do know that near misses can cause damage with just regular shells as well. Go into Target Practice and shoot just around a stationary tank. It will begin to smoke and die from your misses. So yes, just missing your opponent can also kill them and render "invisible" damage. Also, AE explosions can kill tanks that are not within the visible burst radius. I've not tested Bounce rounds as they are harder to control.

My guess is that the tanks are actually cubes - a shot that passes through the cube inflicts damage. That's just a guess though.

I think -z- told me that the AE fly-by damage is called "splash effect". I discovered it when a tank was killed while it was in mid-air flight as an AE whizzed by.

Last edited: Thursday, November 18, 2004 at 2:55:09 PM

Thanks gents!

@George

Think Tanks is the game of choice at our shop and we have had some fun feeding games to a hi-speed video recorder. It may not be scientific but you can see lights firing 32 rounds without a break all the time when you freeze the screen and lay a digital grid over it. You can also see some vehicles rounds overtake others that were fired at the same time. We know how it's done but there doesn't seem to be any move by TT to put a halt to it. Some people want to win period so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.