Change barrels to damage toughness first

Is there any reason why barrel’s damage goes straight to the health?

The main reason I started this discussion is because I don’t like the incosistency in regards to the burning ground behavior. When burning ground is created by enemies, it first damages toughness and then health. However, burning ground created by barrels damages health directly. There are situations you can’t really tell how burning ground was created and you might decide to run throught to reach you team mates because your toughness is full. But then, to your surprise, it actually damages health instead possibly resulting in your death when on low health.

Also it’s not exactly uncommon for your team mates to blow barrel next to you every now and then. Which might contribute to let’s say more tense relations in the party.

Is there any reason for barrels to be so punishing? If not, I would suggest to change damage from barrels to take toughness into the account.

agreed

Agreed! @FatsharkStrawHat the OP has a good point

I’m sure people will tell you all about how barrels are stationary and ridiculously easy to spot so it’s your own fault if you lose health to them.

It’s what happens in barrel knockback discussions.

And since someone at Fatshark seems to have a thing for barrels, I doubt they’re ever going away or getting nerfed in any significant manner.

And those people would be right (although incredibly high enemy density can really make it difficult to spot barrels).
But this does not take away from what OP is suggesting.
It is still annoying and strange, that barrels immediately damage hp.

I’m fine with it but I do wish fire barrels were visually distinguishable from other fire sources since they directly damage HP. Actually flamer fire pools do too, when you explode them, don’t they? It’s annoying to have multiple visually identical floor fire effects that work mechanically different.

I don’t think it’s an issue that they directly damage HP though. If they only damaged toughness then you might aswell not give them any damage. It’s one more variable to pay attention to, which in these kind of games adds to the fun

Yeah right, lets create purple fire since we already have orange, gold and green fire.

Damaging toughness first still means taking damage. I don’t want barrels to be harmless to players.

Do you even understand the point of a feedback thread?

It’s so if you don’t like something you can register your displeasure.

Additionally, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that barrels take from toughness before health. It feels like an oversight or bug, because…

For example, if you step into a flamer’s ground flames, it ticks for toughness damage. If you step into the fire of an incendiary barrel, it ticks health damage. There’s pretty much no reason for it to do that?

I’ve made a very similar feedback thread about how barrel launching you off the map usually feels pretty bad and those are most of the replies I’ve received.

Basically, if you’re able to dodge it, then it should oneshot you if you fail the dodge. Losing health instead of getting launched off a cliff is already lucky on the player’s part.

Just because it killed you it doesn’t mean it’s a bad mechanic or unfair in any way. And just because it feels bad because you messed up and didn’t pay attention to that barrel doesn’t mean it should be removed. It usually feels bad to mess up and die but that’s what makes avoiding failure more fun.

It’s not by accident that the penance for barrel kills is called “Situational Awareness”

The issue now is not just the barrels, its that dreg/scab flamers unleash more terror than poxbomber.

explosion throws you miles away and yeets your HP.

Yeah, so barrels are fine doing damage through health

I agree fully yeah

Hey, I know you’re a murderer, but I just want to interject. I don’t think ogryns should get launched very far from barrels exploding near them. It just doesn’t make sense.

Counterpoint: Ogryns have a big HP pool so you can propel yourself with barrels for fun more without taking significant damage, I love getting sick air

I don’t know why everyone’s having random conversations about off-topic things.

The point of the thread is barrels doing health damage is inconsistent. I don’t know why they do damage like that, maybe flamers did health damage on release 2 years ago, or it’s a bug from that long ago, but it’s wrong whatever is going on.

I mean, thats all well and good but it doesn’t make a lot of sense… the bigger you are the less you should be moved imo… its true of the mobs and should be true for the players… and big man is big… man.

It’s not a bug and has always worked differently from flamers! It should definitely be visually (more) distinct though

I don’t care what it is, barrels should take from toughness before HP.

There’s no argument to be made against this, it’s just how the game should work for a multitude of reasons. It’s not JUST because oh like a teammate shot a barrel near me one time, it’s more for consistency than anything else.

I have made an argument against it. It’s a static environmental hazard that’s fully avoidable by paying attention, so I think it’s fine if it’s a bit more dangerous than regular enemies.
There are other things and attacks in the game that deal damage through toughness and they all share the “easily avoidable by paying attention” attribute.