[abandoned] Hitpoints and Constitution

[qoute] Note that constitution has been removed from the game, this topic is thus pointless.[/quote]

When I started modding, one of the more aggravating areas was how hitpoints and constitution interacted.

Let's say that a unit has this in his unittype:

In fact, the UnitStat_Hitpoints is dynamic, AFTER it has been determined in a milestone tag. In other words, you can give a unit 12 UnitStat_Hitpoints in the milestone tag, but after that, the number will change.

The true value of dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints is in fact

(milestone UnitStat_Hitpoints + (( UnitStat_Constitution * level * 0,3) + 3) ) * troopcount           (this is true in 0.77 beta, will update if it changes)

so the above unit would at level 1, if it is not a group, have

12 + (( 9 * 1 * 0.3) + 3) * 1 = 17.7

The dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints always gets rounded up, so 17,7 = 18 and 17,1 = 18.

Why is this important? Because you have to understand that the UnitStat_Hitpoints you see in-game, after the original milestone, is in fact a very different value than the one you assigned in the original milestone. And this impacts what you do in modifiers.

Consider the following modifier:

At first glance, it would seem that this would multiply your milestone UnitStat_Hitpoints by 0.8, ie reduce it by 20%. But you will be surprised to find that it is NOT 12*0.8, it is in fact 17,7*0.8. As you can tell, it is not affecting your milestone UnitStat_Hitpoints, but your dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints.

The result of this is that we can use such modifiers to modify your UnitStat_Hitpoints, even if your unittype has no UnitStat_Hitpoints to start with.

Let's take another unittype as an example:

This guy has zero milestone UnitStat_Hitpoints, is level 1 and is alone. His dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints:

0 + (( 9 * 1 * 0.3) + 3) * 1 = 5,7 ~~ 6

But, what happens if we use this modifier on him?

As I said, such modifiers impact the dynamic value of hitpoints. So even though he had zero milestone UnitStat_Hitpoints, this modifier will in fact reduce his dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints to 5,7*0.8.

This is very important to understand when you refer to UnitStat_Hitpoints, that outside of the milestone tag, you are always referring to the dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints. If you set up a spell to return a value equal to one third of your UnitStat_Hitpoints, it will be one third of the dynamic value, NOT the milestone value.

Example:

This modifier calculates the maximum hitpoints from a unit, divides it by 3, and deals that amount in damage to the unit.

So what's the difference between giving a unit UnitStat_Hitpoints and giving it UnitStat_Constitution in the milestone? They both get added up to the dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints, right? Wrong.

The milestone UnitStat_Hitpoints does not scale with level one bit. But UnitStat_Constitution does, and as a result so does the dynamic UnitStat_Hitpoints.

Here's a chart to give you an overview of how constitution works on its own: http://i.snag.gy/ZDIOc.jpg  (this is true in 0.77 beta, will update if it changes)

The formula for just constitution bonus is ( UnitStat_Constitution * level * 0.3 ) + 3   (this is true in 0.77 beta, will update if it changes)