Goonhub
08-12-2021, 12:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-12-2021, 12:18 PM by Mordent. Edited 1 time in total.)
"mult" is our way of dealing with the ticks sometimes being a little slower than expected. IIRC we "assume" that a life tick is every 4 seconds and that mult (by default) is 2. No, I don't know why we don't have mult be 1 by default, probably to do with the life tick previously being 2 seconds or something.
An effect can use mult to scale its effect. For example, if something heals 1 BRUTE damage per tick, we can use mult to make it heal an amount based on the actual time that has passed. If this particular tick took 50% as long again as usual, mult would be 3 (default of 2, plus 50%), so it would heal 50% more than normal in this given tick.
probmult is mostly for things that can't really have the effect scaled by a multiplier (or not in a way that is particularly well balanced), to increase the chance of it happening based on how long the tick actually was. I can't remember if probmult accounts for the default of 2 or not, but basically it means that if a tick takes 50% as long as normal to happen, the things that could occur in that tick have a 50% greater chance of applying (so turns a 10% chance into a 15% chance if the tick was 50% longer than normal).
This means that in general the effect over a long period roughly balances out. This doesn't hold true for cases where it would increase the probability to over 100%, so is best used for things that have a relatively low percentage chance of happening in order to properly scale.
EDIT: "probmult" doesn't change the all-or-nothing aspect, but means that it triggers roughly the same amount over a longer time frame regardless of the lag. Using "mult", removing the prob part and reducing the amount to scale by the current probability would "fix" the thing you're talking about. I would argue that that's not desirable in all cases. Many chems already do work this way, though.
An effect can use mult to scale its effect. For example, if something heals 1 BRUTE damage per tick, we can use mult to make it heal an amount based on the actual time that has passed. If this particular tick took 50% as long again as usual, mult would be 3 (default of 2, plus 50%), so it would heal 50% more than normal in this given tick.
probmult is mostly for things that can't really have the effect scaled by a multiplier (or not in a way that is particularly well balanced), to increase the chance of it happening based on how long the tick actually was. I can't remember if probmult accounts for the default of 2 or not, but basically it means that if a tick takes 50% as long as normal to happen, the things that could occur in that tick have a 50% greater chance of applying (so turns a 10% chance into a 15% chance if the tick was 50% longer than normal).
This means that in general the effect over a long period roughly balances out. This doesn't hold true for cases where it would increase the probability to over 100%, so is best used for things that have a relatively low percentage chance of happening in order to properly scale.
EDIT: "probmult" doesn't change the all-or-nothing aspect, but means that it triggers roughly the same amount over a longer time frame regardless of the lag. Using "mult", removing the prob part and reducing the amount to scale by the current probability would "fix" the thing you're talking about. I would argue that that's not desirable in all cases. Many chems already do work this way, though.