[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Koningkrush

I suppose that is another way of looking at it that I hadn't thought of (and easier). You could completely go without caps, and assume high amounts of damage don't necessarily mean more destroyed tissue, but more important destroyed tissue.

Another problem though is that shouldn't a bullet that does more than 1xHP in damage (which means it went through your body) guarantee a vitals hit? I really can't think of a part of your torso where there is absolutely nothing important.

In terms of you dying instantly (as opposed to dying eventuality) almost all of is "not important"


Now you have stuff that will impair function pretty much immediately. E.g a punctured lung or bleed into you trachea will mess with your overall breathing quickly.

A hole in you heart will likely instantly mess with your circulatory system.

A hole in a major blood vessel will also quickly effect what it leads to (and the immediate effects fo thet will depend on what it is), and then the whole thing as you "lose pressure" in the system (think of it like central heating)


You have system shock which is is a bit of a nebulous concept, and has lots of variables (but basically isn't cleanly and linearly expressed by just wound size) but inter links with circulation so much it's hard to actually separate them.

You have things in your torso that will leak very unpleasant stuff into you and that will cause complications later, but that is long term. Also leaking into you can mean pooling in your abdominal cavity or pooling underneath you as it leaks out the new holes in you body, as well as getting into tissues you don't want it in.

You have mechanical damage that is breaking things that are used to do ongoing stuff. That can have immediate effects. For example if you break enough ribs you might get a "flail chest" that will inhibit breathing. Holes in the diaphragm will also do this.

Some organs have lots of blood vessels in them and so will bleed worse than other bits.

But think about it like this, while you torso has little in it that you can live without long term, it has quite a lot in it that it can live without short term.

Think about what keeps you alive second by second, then minute by minute, then hour by hour, then day by day.


Then we have stuff like structural muscle (the stuff that keeps us upright and helps walking, balance etc), that can get holes in it with little immediate danger, and negative effects are degradation of ability to function as a whole, rather than an immediate overwhelming loss of function.

We have for want of a better term packing and cushioning material, fats, connective tissue and the like.

Limbs are more mechanical in nature and have less spare space in them (you break a joint, or tear a big enough chunk of extensor muscle out, you can't flex that joint) Of course they have blood vessels too.

You get stories of people getting shot through the love handles with rifles and they walk around with it. (and well some of us have larger love handles than others ;-0 )




Remember there is only one cause of death and that's the brain dying of oxygen starvation

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

But then, somehow, a faster bullet always hits somewhere more important.

Yep that's another point.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Vitals don't include every part of your body that you'll regret having damaged.

Yep