Splash damage, how does it work?

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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Has anyone done a comprehensive exploration of how splash damage work? I have some basic idea but to this day I dont fully understand it

I know that there is a damage cap which is like a multiplier that caps the damage that can be dealt in an area but there are a few things which are still fuzzy to me:

  • whether the damage cap is based on base or current stats
  • whether overkill damage is spread out or not
  • how does it interact with multipliers

if anyone has a guide or any ideas please elaborate

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here’s the basics:

splash cap is included under upgrades which list “all actions dmg” so the cap will always be the same % larger than the base dmg.

multipliers are applied after the cap is calculated (so iron flails at 20 dmg, 40 dmg cap can still do up to 60 dmg to skirms at base stats)

the unit that is targeted by the attack takes full base dmg, the splash cap does not affect the initial targeted unit and is never applied to other nearby units.

the splash dmg is spread out among nearby units within the radius but i have no specifics as to how that is determined, since some units take more dmg than others.

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thats kinda nuts

So here is sort of the big question to be, wat happens when there is a big mass of mixed skirms an musk and the iron flail hits.

Does the dmg cap x multiplier interaction occur for each unit individually?, so say a skirm that would be receiving 1 splash damage gets turned into 1.5 while the musk just receives 1 dmg?

and also does armour still apply with splash( I would think it does but idk)

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yes multipliers happen for each unit type separately. Armour applies after the dmg is calculated so an iron flail vs muskets can deal 40 dmg total after splash, reduced by 20% armour to 32 dmg max.

(notice how its 60 for skirms and 32 to muskets, a huge difference in performance)

Artillery behaves the same way, but with a much bigger total dmg and of course the usual 3x vs infantry. A falconet, in theory, can deal 600 dmg to infantry per volley. This is limited though, because the first unit hit soaks the initial 300 dmg from the non-splash hit, so unless the first target is like a magadai or a mansabdar sepoy, a few tanky mercs, then you’ll never get the full value.

I am unsure how italys like splashy absorby mechanic works or interacts with splash cap so don’t ask me about that :upside_down_face:

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