Destruction

Destruction  
Scope  
Destructible props 39 kinds: fences, walls, bollards, road signs, lamp posts, telephone poles, bushes and saplings
Building pieces 63 wall, roof, floor, balcony and stair pieces are set up to break into debris
Street objects 23 meshes (signs, poles, benches, bins, a traffic cone) have no break-apart piece in the data
Demolition  
Brought down by Explosives (by size), vehicles (by type) and some player-built structures
Health Not yet known for world props
Internal name DA_NormalBuilding_MeshToPrefabLookup, DA_AnonymousBuilding_MeshToPrefabLookup, DA_Demolition_*

The world of Wardogs can be damaged. Fences, walls, signs and other props can be brought down by explosions and vehicles, and a broken prop can leave a remnant behind. This article explains which kinds of object can break, which hits can break them, and what the game data says about the numbers. Where the data does not settle a question, the article says so.

Overview

Destruction covers three kinds of object:

  • Building pieces. The walls, roofs, floors, balconies, stairs and apartment corridor pieces of residential buildings. Each has a break-apart piece set up in the data, so the building can come apart into debris.
  • Demolition props. The fences, walls, bollards, signs, poles, bushes and trees that can be demolished by a set of named damage sources. Each prop has a rule set that decides what can bring it down.
  • Street objects. Road signs, telephone poles, lamp posts, benches, bins and a traffic cone. The data lists them for destruction, but none has a break-apart piece, so the data does not show how they break.

Player-built structures such as walls, doors and bunkers are a separate system with their own health. They are covered on the Buildables page.

How it works

A prop breaks when a hit comes from a source its rule set allows. The sources fall into three kinds:

  • Explosions, by size. Small explosions are grenades, the 40 mm grenade, C4 charges, claymores and improvised explosive devices. Medium explosions are rockets. Large explosions are anti-tank mines, landmines, explosions from destroyed vehicles, 30 mm cannon shells and 120 mm rockets. A rule that allows all explosions accepts all three sizes.
  • Vehicles, by type. Helicopters and airplanes, tracked vehicles such as tanks and the M113 APC SV, and wheeled vehicles such as the Humvee, Kodiak, Ural, Bobcat and Dune Buggy. Some rules count only the larger wheeled vehicles.
  • Other sources. Molotov fire counts only for bushes and saplings. Player-built structures count for some props. The data holds the rule for this, but not its details.

The table groups the props by what can bring them down.

Props What can bring them down
Chain-link and barbed-wire fences, metal sheets, small metal fences, metal structures, bollards, road signs and the newer wooden fence (type 02) Any explosion, any vehicle, and player-built structures
Bushes and saplings Any explosion, any vehicle, player-built structures, and Molotovs
Wooden fences (type 01), the Season 2 metal fence, lamp posts, telephone poles and telephone cable Any explosion, and helicopters, airplanes, tracked vehicles and the larger wheeled vehicles. The wooden fences also count player-built structures
Brick walls, concrete fences and the large metal road sign Large explosions and tracked vehicles
Concrete barriers, concrete fences, metal fences, ornamental fences and metal fence supports Medium and large explosions, and tracked vehicles

Small explosions never break the last two rows, and helicopters and airplanes never break them either. That is why the brick and concrete walls need a large explosion or a tank.

When a prop breaks, it can leave a remnant: a set of pieces that stays on the ground. The data has 19 remnant sets. Road signs and the metal signage are the only props that also spawn a separate remnant actor.

Season 2 added one new metal fence, which the larger explosions and larger vehicles break. It also changed the rules for the wooden fences, the bushes and the saplings. See the Season 2 Patch Notes for the full list.

Numbers

Rule Value
Minimum distance from a small explosion 300
Minimum distance from a medium explosion 400
Minimum distance from a large explosion 500
Minimum distance from a Molotov 300
Demolition props 39
Force threshold, building pieces 1,200
Force threshold, decorative pieces 400
Remnant sets 19

The minimum distances are attached to each explosion rule in the data. The data does not give their unit or confirm what they do, so they are shown as the raw values.

A collision that can break a building piece or a decorative piece has to pass a force threshold: 1,200 for building pieces and 400 for decorative pieces. Damage from a type the data flags for destruction ignores these thresholds and breaks the piece whatever the force. The data gives the thresholds no unit, so they are shown as raw values.

Two curves in the data scale building destruction with an angle and with a distance. Their output is not stated, so the value they produce is not yet known:

  • The angle curve starts at 0.7, falls to 0.2 at 90, and reaches 0 at 100. The angle unit is not stated.
  • The distance curve is 1.0 up to 2,000, falls to 0.5 at 50,000 and to 0.1 at 75,000. The distance unit is not stated.

Health of world props, how many hits each takes, and how long a building piece takes to fall are not in the data. They are not yet known.

Wreck explosions

When a vehicle or a fixed gun is destroyed, it plays an explosion picked for its type. The game files name 14 explosion sequences. The table shows which one each kind of wreck uses. Exact timing and look are on the VFX page.

Destroyed Explosion
Helicopters: Z-20 Lakota and the second helicopter in the data (its name is not on the wiki yet) Helicopter
Havoc Havoc
MH-6 and its AH-6 variants Little Bird
Fixed-wing airplane and the PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzer Tank
Kodiak, the Humvee machine gun variant and the Wolf 110 Kodiak
Dune Buggy Dune Buggy
Ural and the Ural Defender Ural
Talon 9K SAM, Vanguard CIWS, L81 Mortar and Loudspeaker Each has its own
155 mm shells, Standard and Expensive 155 mm shell
Improvised Explosive Device Improvised Explosive Device
Forward operating base Destroyed base

Vehicles not in this table, such as the T-72B3, use one general explosion recipe from the game files instead of a named sequence. This is read from the data; how it looks in play was not checked.

Tips that follow from the numbers

  • Grenades and charges can break the light props, such as the chain-link and metal fences and the lamp posts and telephone poles. They cannot break brick walls, concrete fences or concrete barriers. For those, use a large explosion or a tank.
  • Helicopters and airplanes can break the light fences, bushes, lamp posts and poles, but not the brick walls, concrete fences, concrete barriers or metal fences in the last two rows.
  • Bushes and saplings react to the widest range of sources, including Molotovs. Keep this in mind when you plan cover around them.

See also

Sources