Rework monster shields
A fundamental problem of shields is that they are just extra HP however you want to look at it and I no longer have the copium available to conveniently continue ignoring that fact. Some weapons perform better, some worse. The weapons that perform worse can make it frustrating to fight a shielded enemy, especially when that enemy is high-tier. Those that perform better make shields a non-issue. At the end of the day, it's annoying.
Let's change that.
First of all, mass calculations get nuked in favor of a different combination of factors, mainly damage and shield density. Shields will have a density. Let's use a Pinky as a reference for standard. A pinky, with its height and radius bullshit math that I'll need to come up with, has 100% density. The standard damage absorption is 100, which means that any damage above that number will get nullified completely. Bigger enemies have lower density (same number of particles needing to cover a larger area), whereas lower-tier enemies have a higher density, although for balance purposes I will cap this at 100%.
Meanwhile, barons, mancubi, etc. would have a lower density. Let's say 30%. Any damage above 100 will get cut down by excess ^ 0.70
. Yes, it's meant to be that bullshit through using exponents.
Ok, Ace, that's nice and all, but I still have no idea what you are talking about, so just get to the fucking point.
Right, so, the goal of this is the following: small and weak enemies shrug off powerful shots (they will likely shatter the shield, though), forcing the player not to discard their weaker weapons. On the other hand, big enemies can't afford the luxury of being nigh-invulnerable on account of being xbox hueg, so you can use whatever firepower you have to fuck 'em up equally well.
One thing to consider here is how this would affect anti-shield ammo or weapons that are meant to suck hard, e.g. Fenris. I have not brainstormed everything and I only post this issue as a general reminder of what to aim for.
This may be overengineered, but good thing I have an entire month to really think about this carefully.