This has been brought up time and time again, but I think it's time to increase the damage cap. What distinguishes this post from others suggesting the same thing, however, is that I'll cover some reasons why KI might not have wanted to do this.
Disclaimer: While I am a programmer, I don't work for KI, so I don't know the exact implementation details of the game, so what lies below might be at best coincidentally right and at worst complete speculation.
1. Representation Problems Many computer programs use a fixed amount of memory to store integers, and this means that they can only represent those in a certain range. For example, 32 bits allow you to store roughly 4.2 billion different integers (about 0 to 4.2B if not signed, and -2.1B to 2.1B if signed). If calculations result in an integer not in that range, they result in one that is "wrapped around" (so 4.5 billion would wrap around to about 300 million), and this is called overflow or underflow. This is the reason it was possible to deal negative damage before the damage cap was implemented. The problem is that the current limit of 1 million makes no sense in terms of representation. Even if you did damage modifiers naively (e. g. for +35% multiplying the amount of damage by 135, then dividing it by 100), it would be safe to allow as much as 10 million damage without overflowing an unsigned 32-bit integer. With more careful programming, it would be possible to cap damage to, say, 1 billion. Another alternative is to use 64-bit integers, which can store roughly 18 quintillion unique values, more than enough for future expansion. This would need some care, however. The server and client code would need lots of changes, and the database would need to be modified to store 64-bit values. (Alternatively, damage values could be stored as 64-bit integers while keeping health at 32 bits, since no mob or player currently has over 2.1 billion health. I'm not sure about which method would be simpler.)
You could also use arbitrary-precision integers, but I feel that 64 bits should be enough and going past that would not be worth complicating the code and possibly worsening server performance. Another possibility is to use floating-point numbers (double gives a representation for every integer within ±2^53), but I'm not sure about this either.
2. Display problems Another issue is that large numbers are hard to read as-is. More precisely, it's difficult to discern the number of digits if there are many. Solution: add commas. (So 94284834 would be displayed as 94,284,834.) If the game was sanely programmed, this would be a purely client-side change (although using a different representation for amounts of damage would still necessitate server changes as well). Alternatively, the example above could be displayed as 94.28 M, and this would probably fit into the battle HUD should KI decide to create mobs with millions of HP.
(Continued from previous post. Apologies for double posting, since this part is too long to fit in the previous.)
So we know (mostly) how to increase the damage cap without wrecking the Spiral, but what's the point of doing so when no creature exceeds 100,000 HP?
Well, first it's now easy to hit the current cap. People are doing this with wand spells!
Why do people try to score over 600 million in the Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil when you can get all the score extends by 60 million points? The answer is that it's a different way to play the game – one that requires different / extra challenges than usual play.
Just as those who might never play Touhou games for score seriously, let alone reach a competitive level, watch scoreruns and become more attracted to the games, I foresee that being able to clock in those giant and borderline absurd hits might attract those that might have otherwise dismissed Wizard101 as a kid's game.
(Raising the damage cap will also help should a high score list be added within the game.)
Even if the ability to stack up many boosts to greatly augment damage was an accident, I urge KI to embrace this part of the game instead of actively hampering it.
I understand somewhat about your suggestions for computation of the numbers, but what is the point of trying to increase the damage cap? The highest health boss that I know has 99,999 health which is less than the 1 Million that is the current cap. I feel that just "capping" it off at the 1 Million easily bypasses having to implement any "fixes" which really solve a problem that is not a major issue at this point. Just my suggestion....
I understand somewhat about your suggestions for computation of the numbers, but what is the point of trying to increase the damage cap? The highest health boss that I know has 99,999 health which is less than the 1 Million that is the current cap. I feel that just "capping" it off at the 1 Million easily bypasses having to implement any "fixes" which really solve a problem that is not a major issue at this point. Just my suggestion....
I already answered it in the second post here.
Just think of it as a high score. A score whose maximum is currently too easy to achieve.
Just think of it as a high score. A score whose maximum is currently too easy to achieve.
Yes, you did. (The second part of your post had not loaded when I originally posted.) I still however do not believe that this fix is necessary even if it is a way to get a "high score." That's just my opinion though. Who knows maybe they will implement a higher damage cap in the future. In the meantime you can try and hit a million on the Rat or complete the Elixir Vitae achievement. Good luck!
