You can shatter zombies' torso armour by hitting them real hard.

[I-am-Erk]

Summary

Features "Shatter a zombie's torso armour with a good hard hit."

Purpose of change

Soldier zombies are wearing a version of ESAPI armour that is unreasonably better than player armour in several ways. One such way is that you can shoot them in the torso again and again and the armour never degrades.

Describe the solution

Adds a chance to hit a zombie right on the armour plate.

If you do so hard enough for any damage to get through the armour, there is a chance you've shattered enough plates to be able to get other shots through. The armour for that area is dramatically reduced.

Ranged vs melee attacks have a different set of options here, because to my limited understanding, it is somewhat more likely that a melee attack slips between plates rather than smashing a ton of them. Melee attacks can still shatter plates, they're just a bit less likely. However, all my understanding of body armour plates is from conversations I've mostly tried to tune out in discord, so some military gear nerd can offer other formulae here without any objection from me.

I don't see any easy way to distinguish an arrow from a bullet here. I'd prefer the arrow to use the melee attack model, but unless I go adjust the code to distinguish bullets even further, I think this will work okay simply by ramping up stab protection if an arrow hits straight on a plate - you have to hit that plate straight on with enough force to get through it, which is gonna be hard unless your arrows are something really impressive, and then shattering the plates seems fair.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Considered adding a further "very shattered" effect, if the zombie already has "shattered" and you hit it on the armour again; this second effect would make it much easier to shoot through the armour. If playtests suggest it's worth it, we can do that.

Also considered adding a version of this for helmets, but I just wasn't in the mood right now. Who knows, maybe later.

Testing

A big gun can shatter that armour.

A .22 calibre pistol normally can't hurt a soldier zombie, unless..

Additional context

Fun stuff to add on a whim. This mechanic could, and probably should, be applied to other monsters. It adds a neat type of attrition we could use more of.

The effect is somewhat subtle as it stands. It could stand to be easier to pull off.

[andrewhr]

Related, but outside scope here, is to somehow link this effect with loot tables, so this ensures you spawn broken ceramic plates instead of the pristine ones.

[I-am-Erk]

As a general rule I think it shouldn't be possible for soldier z to drop totally intact esapi vests regardless

[Kantonine]

This would be Amazing! and i feel that this could be carried over to other zombie types, such as swat, paramilitary, marine, and even maybe cunning/armored ferals, where you can eventually destroy it

[Maleclypse]

Erm, Erk. I do have to mention that this is content and not a feature since it’s using the existing weak point system. ;) This is a fun effect though. Thanks for making it.

I’ll merge this as soon as the last test finishes.

[321nick]

As a general rule I think it shouldn't be possible for soldier z to drop totally intact esapi vests regardless

if you kill them without shattering the plate, why should the plate be shattered when they die? if you damage them enough in all the other exposed parts of the body without touching the plate itself, theres no reason why they should spawn damaged. if the plate was always shattered, which would be consistent with them never dropping an intact plate, why have mechanics for "shattering" the plate, thats on the moving non-dead zombie, at all? ideally, itd be consistent; soldier zombies that would always drop shattered plates on death spawn with their body armor already shattered, and soldier zombies that might drop an intact plate spawn with an intact plate that needs to be shattered with a high damage hit.

[I-am-Erk]

Something already killed that zombie soldier once. Realistically it's unlikely any of them are wearing perfectly intact armour. It's also pretty great armour, it's ok for it to spawn in less than mint condition as a somewhat trivial zombie drop.