The Details of Saber Damage
So, what the heck is the damage system? It is commonly held that the mechanism is random.
Although I have not completely grok'd the damage system used in the base
game, Jedimod, and this mod, I have to say that this does not appear
to be true.
Rather, there are two mechanisms for determining the damage of a saber
hit. The fist mechanism is for
standard swings in any stance save strong/red. In this case a hit is a hit
is a hit. The damage is always the same. The second mechanism applies to
specials and to the normal strong/red swing. This method calculates damage
based on an optimal point in the animation and the relative speed of you
and your opponent -- think of it as being just the right distance from
your opponent at the right time to score a maximum hit. If you are not
quite at the right place at the right time, the damage is reduced on a
linear scale away from that optimum point and time. If the algorithm
produces a damage below the minimum (ie. you really miss!) you are awarded
the minimum damage. If the algorithm produces a damage larger than the
maximum (ie. you really hit!), you are awarded the maximum damage.
Note: there are some other small modifiers for special conditions, but
they don't change the damage more than +/- 5 points.
To illustrate, here is an example. Suppose you are flying over top of
your opponent executing the yellow flip attack. If you are positioned
right over top of your opponent exactly half way through the animation you
will score the maximum hit. Similarly, if you were as close as possible to
your opponent exactly one third of the way through a lunge, you would
score a maximum hit.
The following table shows the damage values for standard attacks save
the strong/red attack.
Saber Stance |
Damage |
Blue/Light |
30 |
Yellow/Medium |
60 |
Orange |
55 |
Purple |
30 |
This next table shows the strong/red standard swing and all of the
specials. The minimum damage, maximum damage and optimal timing are show.
The optimal time is normalized to a total animation time of 1.
Saber Stance and Move |
Min |
Max |
Time |
Red/Strong Standard |
2 |
120 |
.5 |
Red/Strong Special (DFA) |
2 |
180 |
.65 |
Red/Strong Back Attack (Back Sweep) |
2 |
30 |
.5 |
Yellow/Medium Special (Flip Attack) |
2 |
80 |
.5 |
Yellow/Medium Back Attack (Back Sweep) |
2 |
25 |
.5 |
Blue/Light Special (Lunge) |
2 |
30 |
.3 |
Blue/Light Back Attack (Back Stab) |
2 |
30 |
.5 |
Orange Special (Vertical Twirl) |
2 |
70 |
.5 |
Orange Back Attack (Back Sweep) |
2 |
25 |
.5 |
Purple Special (Crab Twirl) |
2 |
70 |
.5 |
Orange Back Attack (Back Sweep) |
2 |
25 |
.5 |