Damage Reduction

[prestidigitator]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

I had a great idea. (At least I think it's great) It keeps the power fairly simple, but allows it to scale like other powers.

 

Make the power such that you have to pay per point of STUN and BODY you reduce. Lower percentage reduction is cheaper per point.

 

Let's make up a chart, so it's more obvious what I'm talking about:

 

% Cost

25% 1

50% 2

75% 3

 

So, let's say you pay 80 points for 50% damage reduction of up to 40 points of damage. The first 40 points of damage you take from any attack, you would ignore half of. Any damage over 40 points is not halved.

 

I haven't thought about appropriate pricing, the above is just pulled out of the air, but I think the general mechanic works the way people want - it costs more to reduce more damage, and, it's very simple, which I like.

At that point it just looks like some defense with a Limitation...and it's more expensive to boot. 40 rPD Armor costs only 60 points, and stops 100% of the first 40 damage. I like DR like it is.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Forgive me for jumping in on this so way late, but I was hunting for something I wanted to include. Uhm, we are back on DR, right?

 

But first let me nod to the posts that prompted me to reply:

 

You see SS' date=' now you're just deliberately pushing my buttons . I was frankly appalled when I noted that this is now canon.[/quote']

[the above was in reply to a comment about that goofy new 'desolid to a particular thing only as a defense]

 

-------------------------------------------

{well, there was another one from Sean Waters about the number of exceptions etc in the new book, but my clipboard is taking a break; at any rate, it was my second inspiration to reply to the thread}

 

You're not alone. While I am thrilled that HERO is back on the grow and is so well-supported (at least in places that aren't near me... ), I am really less than happy with 5E. It's chock full of cumbersome work arounds and justifications and a really shocking amount of encouragement for munchinkinism. The Harbinger of Bullets no longer stands out quite like he used to.....

 

 

 

But in spite of all that, I'm still very happy that it's still around, and that I once again have source material that, with a little declawing, fits nicely into our campaigns. Very happy guy, I am!

 

Getting back to Damage Reduction:

 

When I first got online, Derrick H pointed me to a HERO board at Sysabend (I think it was) and there was a long discussion of DR then as well. I remembered that one person posted an interesting breakdown, and I happened to save it to read again later. As luck would have it, I still have that thing, and I'd like to mirror his post here.

 

I don't recall the name of the original poster, but if anyone here knows who it is, give me a name and I will credit him properly. All I remember is that he posted under the name Dr. Nuncheon, and his email at the time was jeffjAT such and such. Here is his analysis:

 

 

Okay, apparently my clipboad is still goofing up....

 

If you don't mind, I'd like to get back to you on that. Suffice it to say that it was interesting, and eye-opening.

 

 

So, going straight to the end,

I've always allowed DR in my campaigns-- I even tend to reduce the price a little bit on 25% reduction, and have allowed 100% reduction.

 

But I've never had a problem with it, not even once.

 

And the reason for that is that I don't allow DR vs PD; DR vs ED, etc.

 

I allow DR vs Fire. DR vs Electricity. DR vs punches and kicks. DR vs bronze melee weapons (long story) etc.

 

Frankly, I find it a much simpler and more accurate way of creating that FlameLord who is immune or nearly immune to fire without the hazard of fumbling into a book of matches Affects Desolid.

 

(Of course, I handle Desolid a bit differently too, but frankly, I've typed enough for one night!)

[Sean Waters]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Howdy Duke Bushido: be interested to see that DR post if you can get your clipboard up and running

 

I think the reason core hero doesn't support DR v sfx may be that sfx come later and it is trying to present a basic mechanic. Also sfx frequency varies from campaign to campaign so costing can be a problem, at least if you are trying to create a single cost for all campaigns, and finally we have sfx interpretation: if you are immune to heat should you be immune to lasers, which work by heating up the target, even though they could legitinately be called 'light based sfx'?

 

Mind you these may be more intellectual problems than practical ones. Of course many of us are here because we just like talking

[Vorsch]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Howler had 75%dr vs sonics in 4ed, a -2lim if i remember correctly and it was in a EC ( but possibly not )

[Black Rose]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Just tossing in my feelings on DamRed, and maybe some other powers if you choose to look at it that way.

 

IMO, DamRed should be costed as follows: take the max BODY inflictable (or do the Max DC x 3 thing, either way), and declare that to be the most damage that can be done in the game. No matter what happens, this is the top of the scale. Now, place some sort of Limitation onto this number; not too sure as to the values, but I think you see what I'm talking about. I'm making a guess, but I figure the current numbers are good for a max of around 40-50 BODY, maybe even 60. Once you go much above (or below, for that matter) it starts to look wonky.

 

I think more than a few of the powers that give us some problems do so simply because they should have a value based on the power level of the campaign.

[The Souljourner]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

I haven't thought about appropriate pricing' date=' the above is just pulled out of the air[/quote']

 

At that point it just looks like some defense with a Limitation...and it's more expensive to boot. 40 rPD Armor costs only 60 points' date=' and stops [b']100%[/b] of the first 40 damage. I like DR like it is.

 

I'm sorry, did you read what you quoted?

 

I like DR as it is, but some people don't, because it doesn't scale with damage like other defensive powers, thus, I came up with a way to make it scale. As I said... please ignore the points cost, I didn't balance them at all.

 

Here's an attempt at balancing them:

 

25% 1/4

50% 1/2

75% 3/4

 

Thus, you can get 50% damage reduction against the first 40 points of damage for 20 points. Instead, you could spend 30 points and get 20 rPD Armor, which protects better when you take less damage, but equally well at 40 and above.

 

If you spent 30 points on 75% damage reduction up to 40 points, you'd take only 10 out of those 40 points of damage. You could spend 45 points on 30 rPD instead, and it would again work better at lower damage and the same at higher damage.

 

Thoughts?

 

-Nate

[Sean Waters]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

.....I think more than a few of the powers that give us some problems do so simply because they should have a value based on the power level of the campaign.

 

 

 

....I think you are right

 

Mind you, even if you can manage that and stay sane, you then have to worry about what happens to the cost of powers when the power level goes up. Too complicated for my small brain

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Howdy Duke Bushido: be interested to see that DR post if you can get your clipboard up and running

 

Working on it as hard as I can. But I've got two strikes against me: I'm techno-illiterate (I'm a gearhead by nature: cogs and chains: good. invisible atomic particles: bad juju!) and a firewall I installed (and removed) some time back has left my computer in a rather user-surly state.....

 

 

I think the reason core hero doesn't support DR v sfx may be that sfx come later and it is trying to present a basic mechanic.

 

I'm not sure I follow you here; I assume you don't mean litterally, as in x is in 1st ed, y is in 3rd ed, etc, but you have piqued my curiosity .

 

Also sfx frequency varies from campaign to campaign so costing can be a problem' date=' at least if you are trying to create a single cost for all campaigns,[/quote']

 

Nah; gave up on that with 2nd ed! Even then we were using Champions to emulate the other genres (we knew the system, and it worked really well for everything, so we converted existing campaigns. Even let us do one-shot 'cross-overs' when we wanted a break from our regular games). The first thing we learned was that value in one setting did not equate to value in another. Some glaring examples were life support constructs common to supers and unheard of in fantasy: immune to radiation; survive in a vacuum, that sort of thing.

 

I'm not saying it's 'right' or 'supposed to happen,' but for our group, pricing by setting is the norm, and it has removed a _lot_ of the stumbling blocks that I see other groups complain about. We're happy with it, and I'd recommend at least trying it to anyone who hasn't yet.

 

and finally we have sfx interpretation: if you are immune to heat should you be immune to lasers' date=' which work by heating up the target, even though they could legitinately be called 'light based sfx'?[/quote']

 

Ran into that one way back, and the answer was really pretty simple:

Comic Book Physics! Study the conception with the player, and ask him point-blank questions: So you're powers are heat-based, but look like lasers? Your powers are light-based, but look like lasers? Your powers are radiation-based, but look like lasers?

 

Granted, I'd have no problem with any of those constructs. But have him think about it very closely, and remind him that you'll let him build his one DR (or possibly even 2, depending) against any _one_ sfx. So if LaserMan decides he can soak damage from 'heat-based attacks' then FireBlaster and SolarKing have a new dangerous adversary. But he can't soak Lasers, because in 'Comic Book Physics' lasers do damage based on the _whole_ of their composition, and not just one aspect of it. If LaserMan builds his DR against Lasers, then he can soak from RayMaster and LaserEyed Louie, but Firebomb's EB is still going to give full effect.

 

Feh---

I guess that's just a really long-winded way of saying that we've found DR works extremely well when used against a tightly-defined group of SFX. It doesn't become an issue until you allow categories of attack.

 

All right, now let's see if I can paste my stuff down this time:

 

Nope, still no luck pasting....

 

Well, I guess it's long-hand, then.

 

Oh, I did find a couple of other things I'd saved from Dr. Nuncheon, and have discovered that his name is (I believe) Jeff Johnston, so all credit for this work is his. (Somebody let me know if you are sure I've miscredited this):

 

100% damage reduction

 

[note from Duke: please be aware that I have altered the format of the chart to ensure that it lines up as intended. My appologies to Mr. Johnston]

 

If your avg DC is--------with this defense-------you take this avg damage

 

DC 5 (18s/5b)------------25% rDR (15 pts)-----------12 Stun/2 Body

-------------------------10 rPD (15 pts)--------------6 Stun/0 Body

 

-------------------------50% rDR (30 pts)------------8 Stun /1 Body

-------------------------20 rPD (30 pts)--------------0 Stun/0Body

 

-------------------------75% rDR (60 pts)-------------4 Stun / 0 Body

-------------------------40 rPD (60 pts)-------------- 0 Stun / 0 Body

 

-------------------------100% rDR (120 pts)-----------0 Stun / 0 Body

-------------------------80 rPD (120 pts)--------------0 Stun / 0 Body

 

 

DC 10 (35s/ 10b)--------25% rDR (15 pts)-------------25 Stun / 6 Body

------------------------10 rPD (15 pts)---------------23 Stun / 0 Body

 

-------------------------50% rDR (30 pts)-------------16 Stun / 4 Body

-------------------------20 rPD (30 pts)-------------- 13 Stun / 0 Body

 

------------------------75% rDR (60 pts)--------------8 Stun / 2 Body

------------------------40 rPD (60 pts)----------------0 Stun / 0 Body

 

------------------------100% rDR (120 pts)-------------0 Stun/ 0 Body

------------------------80 rPD (120 pts)----------------0 Stun / 0 Body

 

 

DC 20 (70s /20b)--------25% rDR (15 pts)---------------51 Stun / 13 B

-------------------------10 rPD (15 pts)----------------60 Stun / 10 B

 

-------------------------50% rDR (30 pts)--------------34 Stun / 9 B

-------------------------20 rPD (30 pts)----------------50 Stun / 0 B

 

-------------------------75% rDR (60 pts) --------------17 Stun / 4 B

-------------------------40 rPD (60 pts)-----------------30 Stun / 0 B

 

-------------------------100% rDR (120 pts)-------------0 Stun /0 B

-------------------------80 rPD (120 pts)----------------0 Stun / 0 B

 

 

 

*All attacks assumed to be EBs; the target has average stats, PD/ED 2. Killing Attacks may change things.

 

It's clear from the above that DR doesn't even start to outperform the equivalent amount of armor until you pass 20 DCs, and DR in general is inferior to an equivalent amount of armor on average. OTOH, it is the times that they _don't_ get an average roll that DR really saves your butt. DR is also better vs AP, Pen, and the like.

 

None of this matters at the average superhero 10-12 DC range, where the max damage is 72, and 120 points will buy you enough armor to shrug that off with some left to spare-- 80 points!

 

And if you really minmax armor, it gets worse: at a ratio of 1:3 Resistant to non-Resistant defenses, 120 pts gets you 35 pts of armor and 68 points of regular defense-- that lets you ignore up to 35 Body and 103 Stun from each attack! Based on all this, I'd say that 120 pts is a pretty balanced cost for the utility you get from 100% damage reduction.

 

 

And I agree with him. Not only do I agree with him, but considering the cost/effectiveness of any level of DR vs traditional defenses, I have to look at DR as more of a conception thing than a valid defense. As presented, it is simply outperformed by traditional defenses at any level acceptable in my campaigns. Granted, your own campaigns will differ from ours, so YMMV. As it is, my own campaigns have very little DR, and even then it's merely in support of character conception. Right now, we have one player with 75% DR from electrical attacks and one with 25% DR from fire attacks. Niether of them are Resistant (if you're keeping track) and frankly, it has yet to be unbalancing in the slightest. It even allowed the electricity projector to heroically wade through an onslaught of electrical attacks from a villain in order to rescue a group of stranded civillians. The role-playing and heroics of that scene alone were worth allowing it.

 

I also have a villain with 100% damage reduction from sonic attacks Only when Desolid (he converts to sound). This prevents him from being struck by Sonic attacks with Affects Desolid, but allows other ADO attacks to work as normal. And so far, it's really done nothing more than teach the players that defining their sfx is important.

 

Now in the Fantasy campaign, there are lots of beasties-- particularly demonic types-- with DR vs particular sfx. And again, as long as it is vs an sfx and not a category of attack, it just doesn't cause a problem.

 

The biggest thing that allowing DR has done for our campaigns has been an increase in the tightness of concepts and more concern for the details of the characters. The way we do it-- by sfx instead of category-- has actually lowered the utility of DR even below what the chart would suggest. But nothing else works quite as elegantly to pin a concept, and on that one occasion when it allows the hero to hold the spotlight for a minute or two, it's well worth allowing.

 

 

Okay, that's a lot of typing.

 

Think I'm done for a while.

 

 

Mind you these may be more intellectual problems than practical ones. Of course many of us are here because we just like talking

 

Yeah, and I like to read it, at least for spells. Have to kind of leap in, read for a few days, and leap back out before all the options and differences weigh you down. I left the Sysabend board that Derrick had pointed me to because sometimes the staggering number of opinions on something would leave my head all swimmy...... That, and I've found that sometimes getting caught up in the technicals can reduce the over-all enjoyment of the simulation.

 

So I've learned to take it in spells, digest it, then come back for more!

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

If the info is in a text file, you can just attach it to a post; if it isn't a text file, ZIP it first and then attach it. Either way, we'd be able to see it.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

I'm sorry' date=' did you [i']read[/i] what you quoted?

 

I like DR as it is, but some people don't, because it doesn't scale with damage like other defensive powers, thus, I came up with a way to make it scale. As I said... please ignore the points cost, I didn't balance them at all.

 

Here's an attempt at balancing them:

 

25% 1/4

50% 1/2

75% 3/4

 

Thus, you can get 50% damage reduction against the first 40 points of damage for 20 points. Instead, you could spend 30 points and get 20 rPD Armor, which protects better when you take less damage, but equally well at 40 and above.

 

If you spent 30 points on 75% damage reduction up to 40 points, you'd take only 10 out of those 40 points of damage. You could spend 45 points on 30 rPD instead, and it would again work better at lower damage and the same at higher damage.

 

Thoughts?

As I said, this just sounds like a Limitation on a defense, such as maybe

Armor 40 rPD; Only Prevents Half Damage (-1/2);

If this is the mechanic used, I don't see any reason for DR to be its own Power. That it is its own Power is a benefit to the system IMO. DR is one of the least unbalanced Powers there is (see Duke Bushido's quote above).

[The Souljourner]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Yeah, let me go back to what I said originally about liking DR. Given that by it's very nature it's never absolute (unless you allow 100% DR... ), it's actually not all that great. If there's one thing you learn in RPGs, it's that the death of a thousand paper cuts still kills you. Taking Damage - x is almost always going to be preferable to damage * x%, because at least Damage - x is zero for many values of Damage... whereas it never is for the latter case (except when you round down).

 

-Nate

[Sean Waters]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

.....Okay, that's a lot of typing.

 

Think I'm done for a while......

 

The good Dr Nuncheon chose an interesting progression: 5/10/20 DCs. In fact, 25% and 50% Dam Reduction become 'points efficient' at around 12 DC of damage, and given their advantages against NND/AP and the damping effect on extreme damage results they are probably points efficient well before that, so I don't really agree with his conclusions. 75 DR becomes efficient at around 17 to 18 DCs.

 

The trouble with comparing DamRed and defences is that, to my mind, they are not the same thing at all. Defences stop damage getting to you, DamRed multiplies your Stun/Body/Con against certain types of attack. Over time they may have a similar effect on your survival but the comparison is no more realistic that (say) comparing defence and DCV. +60 points on defence for 20/20 armour gets you +12 DCV levels which makes you unhittable: which is better? Depends on whether the opponent has area effect attacks....

 

Like your take on comic book sfx interpretation, and you make a number of other interesting points (I don't have time to address the whole long post, but anyone wh can write that much in a coherent fashion deserves rep as far as I'm concerned.

[The Souljourner]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Yeah, "they're different" is exactly right. One of the main considerations about DR vs. armor is how often you encounter lower strength attacks. If you tend to get shot at by bank robbers with 2d6 RKA autofire rifles a lot, 20 armor is looks a lot sweeter, simply because of how many times it'll reduce the damage to zero.

 

The other thing about damage reduction versus armor is that armor is a hell of a lot better at keeping you from taking BODY damage. 20 DCs of damage is still only 20 BODY on average, which your armor 20 totally prevents. 50% DR has you still taking 10. If you just look at the BODY, you have to get up to 40 DCs before DR catches up with 20 armor. And 40DCs is a hell of a lot.

 

So, yeah, Damage Reduction is pretty efficient against STUN... but far less efficient against BODY (simply because you don't get up to massive quantities for a long time).

 

-Nate

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

If the info is in a text file' date=' you can just attach it to a post; if it isn't a text file, ZIP it first and then attach it. Either way, we'd be able to see it. [/quote']

Hey, thanks, Doc! I'll keep that in mind if such a need arrises again. Still can't figure out why the clipboard works everywhere but this board). Though I'm going to have to stick with resaving in txt, as I have not a clue as to what ZIP is or how to do it... (still techno-illiterate, but pretty happy with myself1 ).

 

 

 

The good Dr Nuncheon chose an interesting progression: 5/10/20 DCs. In fact' date=' 25% and 50% Dam Reduction become 'points efficient' at around 12 DC of damage, and given their advantages against NND/AP and the damping effect on extreme damage results they are probably points efficient well before that, so I don't really agree with his conclusions. 75 DR becomes efficient at around 17 to 18 DCs.[/quote']

Very true; I'd figured that out myself when playing around with some numbers after first reading his post. But as I wasn't trying to take credit for his stuff, I included only his work and not my own. I had intended to post some notes afterward, but got rushed toward the end of the post; it slipped my mind. Thanks for chipping in

 

It's not relevant to the conversation, but just for the record I'd like to state that while you are completely correct, it's not relevant to our table, as we play very little supers (though we do some, for R&R breaks when the other campaigns get 'heavy.'), and even when we do, it's fairly low-level; it's rare to find anything above 10 DCs in our supers campaign outside of a couple of brick villains.

 

 

 

The trouble with comparing DamRed and defences is that' date=' to my mind, they are not the same thing at all. Defences stop damage getting to you, DamRed multiplies your Stun/Body/Con against certain types of attack. Over time they may have a similar effect on your survival but the comparison is no more realistic that (say) comparing defence and DCV. +60 points on defence for 20/20 armour gets you +12 DCV levels which makes you unhittable: which is better? Depends on whether the opponent has area effect attacks....[/quote']

 

All very valid; I thought I was more clear that the analysis I was then hunting (and have since posted) was simply a breakdown of DR as a defense, and comparing to 'traditional' defenses. If I left another impression, that's my own fault; appologies all around. The greatest impact that this information had on me personally as GM was to really allay my fears about allowing DR into my campaigns, as it sort of 'laid down on paper' what I should have known, but did not realize, and that is exactly what you have said: DR is not 'damage proof' (except for 100%, which I do allow on rare occasion with the SFX limitations I described earlier), where as Armor often is, particularly in lower-level campaigns, such as my own.

 

My main intention in posting it was to perhaps do the same for someone else (it was worth it when I stumbled across it, and in a big way!) and of course to spur more discussion and analysis, such as is going on now.

 

Like your take on comic book sfx interpretation' date='[/quote']

Thank you; I much appreciate that.

 

and you make a number of other interesting points (I don't have time to address the whole long post' date=' but anyone wh can write that much in a coherent fashion deserves rep as far as I'm concerned.[/quote']

And thanks for that as well. I figure it has to be good, as I've only seen it used in a favorable fashion. But I'm new here, and really would appreciate it if someone could give me a small heads-up as to just exactly what it means....

 

And yeah, I can type a lot. Since I was last active on any HERO-related site, I had a serious work accident that crushed my spine. Left me with a lot of time to up my typing skills. Jogging was certainly out......

 

Sorry if it rambled

 

 

Duke

[Sean Waters]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

And thanks for that as well. I figure it has to be good, as I've only seen it used in a favorable fashion. But I'm new here, and really would appreciate it if someone could give me a small heads-up as to just exactly what it means....

 

And yeah, I can type a lot. Since I was last active on any HERO-related site, I had a serious work accident that crushed my spine. Left me with a lot of time to up my typing skills. Jogging was certainly out......

 

Sorry if it rambled

 

Rep is a way of showing your appreciation of a post. See that little 'scales' icon in the top right of the posts - click on that and you can send a little message to the poster and add to their Reputation - the little green dots in the top right. The higher your rep the more your recommendation is worth to them.

 

You can see the comments made about your post if you click 'User CP' top left of the screen.

 

It's just a bit of fun really, but serves a useful purpose, both as information on where you are making your points felt and as a kinda reward for good points or whatever elese you appreciate in the post.

 

Enjoy!

 

Ouch on the spine thing. That sounds like no fun at all. As for rambling, feel free, but I find you often keep your audiences' attantion better if you post several smaller posts. If only I could take my own advice on occasion....

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Hey' date=' thanks, Doc! I'll keep that in mind if such a need arrises again. Still can't figure out why the clipboard works everywhere but this board). Though I'm going to have to stick with resaving in txt, as I have not a clue as to what ZIP is or how to do it.[/quote']

No problem, Duke, I'm happy to help. And incidentally, "Zip" is a commonly-used compression technique. Not only does it pack files to make them smaller, but it can also pack lots of files together into a single file (the "zipped" file) to make sure that all the pieces of a program stay together. You have to "unzip" (decompress) a file before you can use it. [And yes, you other tech-heads, I know that's not strictly the case, but for most uses and users, it is -- so back off! ] Many software companies uses ZIP files in this way, and the first part of the install process is the installer software unpacking the ZIP file into its pieces so it can install them in the proper places. There are a number of "zip" utilities around, many of them free, that will zip, unzip, and otherwise let you work with / manage zip files.

 

When posting a file to the boards here, compression isn't usually the issue, because most such files aren't that large to begin with. There are only certain file types that are allowed as attachments, and if the file you want to post isn't one of those types, the forum software won't let you post it. If you "zip" the file first, though, the "zipped" form of the file acts as a kind of wrapper around the 'not permitted' file type, and will let you attach it anyway, since Zip files are one of the permitted file types. If you ever have need of such a thing (a ZIP utility) either let me know via a Private Message, or post a request in the Non-Gaming Discussion forum and someone will help you out, probably before you can blink.

 

And thanks for that as well. I figure it has to be good' date=' as I've only seen it used in a favorable fashion. But I'm new here, and really would appreciate it if someone could give me a small heads-up as to just exactly what it means.... [/quote']

To enlarge a bit on what Sean said about rep:

 

Your "rep power" -- how many rep points you give to someone when you do as Sean described and click on the "scales" icon -- will remain at zero until you have a minimum of 50 posts in the gaming forums. (That is, all the forums except the Non-Gaming Discussion forum.) Once you have that 50 minimum, your "rep power" will be 1 (the minimum) + 1 for every full year you've been registered + 1 per every 1,000 posts + 1 for every 100 points of rep you've received. Until you've made the minimum 50 posts, if you "rep" someone, it won't change their rep score, because you'll have a "rep power" of zero. Don't let that stop you, though...you can still leave a comment and they can still see it, and I know people appreciate positive comments given to them if they've helped you out, even if it doesn't add to their rep score.

 

When giving rep, you can only give out 5 rep comments in a 24-hour period. Also, once you rep someone, you've got to leave rep comments for at least 20 other people before you can rep that person again.

 

The higher your rep, the more greed dots you have in the upper right of your post (as Sean noted). At first it's one greed dot per 100 rep you've received; once you've reached 11 dots, some of them start turning a different color of green. Once 6 dots have turned that different color, that's it...it never changes again, no matter how much rep you get.

 

The main reason you've seen it mentioned only in a positive context is that the software supports giving positive and negative rep, but negative rep got turned off a long time ago because some people were abusing it -- being spiteful -- by giving negative rep to people just because they didn't like them, not because a particular post was offensive in some way. So when you "rep" someone, you can only give them positive rep...sort of a "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

 

Rep is supposed to help other posters know who's the most respected, who tends to have the most well-thought-out, helpful, or insightful posts, and so forth -- because those people will have the highest reps. Of course, since there's no limits on what you can rep someone for, people also get rep for being funny or otherwise "popular". That's why, though it can be a guideline as to who "knows what they're talking about", a high rep score should be taken with a grain of salt and not get someone the automatic "right" to have their word taken as gospel from on-high. That's why Sean called it a "bit of fun", because there's no hard-and-fast rules governing giving it.

 

Semi-last-note: Back in the days of negative rep, if your rep score went below zero, you got red boxes instead of green, and the further below zero you were, the more red boxes you have. If you see someone with red boxes in the upper right of their post these days, it's because they asked a moderator to hand-set their rep to a below-zero value as a joke. The only one I can think of off hand that had done that was CourtFool, but he's currently "in the green" because there was a "rep the llama" campaign a while back to give him enough rep to wipe out the red boxes and bring him into the green. So far as I know, he hasn't asked a moderator to "reset" him back into the red.

 

Last note: You, my friend, are on my list to get repped later on tonight or sometime tomorrow (depending on just when my "24 hours" from my last repping spree is up), for this post, with which I agree most heartily!

 

Keep up the good work, and welcome to the forums!

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Sean and Dr. A--

 

thanks for the explanations; I don't want to stay off-topic, as I understand that there is a whole special place for that, and I'm sure there are plenty of folks wanting to get back to the discussion. But thanks again, guys. As soon as I am able (fifty posts or so, you say?), 'rep' to both of you for generous assistance to a newbie!

 

 

Duke

[prestidigitator]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

More than you've ever wanted to know about, "Rep," by Geeks-R-Us.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Damage Reduction

 

Sean and Dr. A--

 

thanks for the explanations; I don't want to stay off-topic, as I understand that there is a whole special place for that, and I'm sure there are plenty of folks wanting to get back to the discussion. But thanks again, guys. As soon as I am able (fifty posts or so, you say?), 'rep' to both of you for generous assistance to a newbie!

Yeah, as soon as I made that big, long, post I realized it was seriously off-topic and vowed not to continue de-railing this thread. So this is the last off-topic post I'll make here. And yes, it's 50 posts.

 

More than you've ever wanted to know about' date=' "Rep," by Geeks-R-Us. [/quote'] Guilty as charged!