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Durability: Inflicting Pain Through Self-Damage

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Flashlight237

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So there is an actual research paper containing a study on 40 people on how much pressure it takes to hurt someone, both for hurting oneself and hurting others: https://journals.lww.com/pain/Fullt...ng_pain__differential_pain_thresholds.25.aspx

According to the study, the mean pressure value needed to cause pain from outside sources (be it objects or opponents) is 521.49 kPa. For intentionally harming oneself, the threshold for pain is 729.57 kPa. Doing the math, this means you would need 1.399010528 times (1.4x if you really want to simplify things that much) as much pressure to cause pain to yourself as it takes to get hurt from outside sources.

Why am I bringing up pressure? VS Debaters use pressure in a weird way, and we at the wiki are no exception. Basically we think of pressure (force over area) as energy over a certain value. Like, for example, 1 MPa is 1 joule per cubic centimeter. Don't ask why; it's just the way it is. Anything remotely considered an attack uses pressure, hence why we have PSI ratings for punches in boxing.

As for why I'm saying this... Well, first of all, don't get it twisted. This has nothing to do with any sensitive real-world topics. Characters have performed self-harm as an actual combat tactic, most notably Captain Ginyu when he intentionally damaged his own ribcage with a punch in order to make switching bodies with Goku a genuine detriment to Goku. We have lord knows how many other characters with them damaging or otherwise causing pain to themselves as durability justifications, but the Ginyu example is the most well-known example.

While the Durability page understandably excludes self-harm due to the implications behind such, a lot of pages' durability sections don't. However, I think bringing up how this affects one's durability along with linking the paper directly in the Durability article for citation purposes should give people a decent idea on how self-harm in a combat setting affects durability. That and, well, it took an age for me to find the paper in the first place; why shouldn't we allow people to see the paper as a readily-available reference. Now, I see a potential that this would get a little out of hand if we just rolled with it without any advisory statements. There is an obvious difference between hurting oneself as a durability feat and one-shotting as an AP feat. What I mean is while the 7.5x multiplier is arbitrarily devised by us at the wiki, the 1.4x causing pain to oneself multiplier has actual research backing it up, meaning we should be less worried about the latter than the former. However, caveats should still be applied.

I think the easiest way to go about it is through a couple notes. Aside from obvious real-world concerns, I'm thinking something like this.

  • While characters have harmed themselves, the means of them doing so may vary, so it is advised to personally assess the situation at hand before applying it to durability.
  • The 1.4x multiplier for causing pain to oneself is strictly used for vs debating purposes and thus shall not apply when deriving durability from self-harm.
Something like that. Personally, I recommend reading the linked research paper prior to making any assumptions. Otherwise, the writing might come off as wonky. So yeah, feel free to discuss.
 
I do not personally buy the multiplier, but I can get the rationale in deriving it (when we have somehow bought 7.5 X one-shotting multiplier with caveat and judgment call) - just... I really fear circular scaling happens.
 
I do not personally buy the multiplier, but I can get the rationale in deriving it (when we have somehow bought 7.5 X one-shotting multiplier with caveat and judgment call) - just... I really fear circular scaling happens.
Yeah, I am admittedly on the fence about it as well. The one-shot multiplier already has circle-scaling issues as is.
 
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The 1.4x multiplier for causing pain to oneself is strictly used for vs debating purposes and thus shall not apply when deriving durability from self-harm.

Can I ask which VS Debating purposes you had in mind? How exactly would the multiplier work and be applied?
 
Basically we think of pressure (force over area) as energy over a certain value. Like, for example, 1 MPa is 1 joule per cubic centimeter. Don't ask why; it's just the way it is.
Nah, we don't. I have seen that done, but we have rejected that practice for the most part.

As for why I'm saying this... Well, first of all, don't get it twisted. This has nothing to do with any sensitive real-world topics. Characters have performed self-harm as an actual combat tactic, most notably Captain Ginyu when he intentionally damaged his own ribcage with a punch in order to make switching bodies with Goku a genuine detriment to Goku. We have lord knows how many other characters with them damaging or otherwise causing pain to themselves as durability justifications, but the Ginyu example is the most well-known example.

While the Durability page understandably excludes self-harm due to the implications behind such, a lot of pages' durability sections don't. However, I think bringing up how this affects one's durability along with linking the paper directly in the Durability article for citation purposes should give people a decent idea on how self-harm in a combat setting affects durability. That and, well, it took an age for me to find the paper in the first place; why shouldn't we allow people to see the paper as a readily-available reference. Now, I see a potential that this would get a little out of hand if we just rolled with it without any advisory statements. There is an obvious difference between hurting oneself as a durability feat and one-shotting as an AP feat. What I mean is while the 7.5x multiplier is arbitrarily devised by us at the wiki, the 1.4x causing pain to oneself multiplier has actual research backing it up, meaning we should be less worried about the latter than the former. However, caveats should still be applied.

I think the easiest way to go about it is through a couple notes. Aside from obvious real-world concerns, I'm thinking something like this.


Something like that. Personally, I recommend reading the linked research paper prior to making any assumptions. Otherwise, the writing might come off as wonky. So yeah, feel free to discuss.
Problem is that characters frequently feel pain from stuff far below their durability. Since you bring up Dragon Ball, think of the infamous Krillin throwing a rock at Goku. Contrary to causing harm to oneself, I'm not even sure if causing pain should always considered a feat. In that regard, I guess I can agree on the "personally assess the situation at hand". Not sure where to put that though or if a rule that just says "x is case-by-case" is needed.

Additionally durability can mean anything within a range of value. Some characters have a durability value due to barely surviving some attacks. Others have it for being entirely unharmed and unbothered by them. That would make a difference regarding the 1.4x thing.

And, I mean, really, extrapolating one data point like that is questionable anyway. So I don't think we should use that as a multiplier in any way.
 
Nah, we don't.
We literally use shear and compressive strength, which are actual pressure values, for destruction values (the OBD even specified to do so, and that's our OG source for a good chunk of our values). If we don't as you're claiming, why does the table of destruction values even exist then when it is entirely based on lab-tested pressure values?
Problem is that characters frequently feel pain from stuff far below their durability.
We have the same thing happening in the real world too, ranging from hammer injuries and knives, to door pinching and rat bites (rat teeth aren't exactly the stabbiest things out there).
Additionally durability can mean anything within a range of value. Some characters have a durability value due to barely surviving some attacks. Others have it for being entirely unharmed and unbothered by them. That would make a difference regarding the 1.4x thing.
That was part of the reason why I wrote the "assess the situation at hand" caveat. You'll never know what nailed what. In the linked study's case, the cut-off point is when pain starts to be felt, so I see no way that would apply to someone who barely survived something of X attack potency.
And, I mean, really, extrapolating one data point like that is questionable anyway. So I don't think we should use that as a multiplier in any way.
Still better than making up a number out of the blue like the 7.5x one-shot multiplier.
 
We literally use shear and compressive strength, which are actual pressure values, for destruction values (the OBD even specified to do so, and that's our OG source for a good chunk of our values). If we don't as you're claiming, why does the table of destruction values even exist then when it is entirely based on lab-tested pressure values?
I think he's talking about piercing damage shenanigans based on this. Which ended up inflating the actual piercing power of bullets by a bunch.
 
We literally use shear and compressive strength, which are actual pressure values, for destruction values (the OBD even specified to do so, and that's our OG source for a good chunk of our values). If we don't as you're claiming, why does the table of destruction values even exist then when it is entirely based on lab-tested pressure values?
Yeah, but we don't just say pressure equals so and so many joules. The idea is that this pressure is applied over an area and, when shattering the object, through the object. Area * distance through the object = Volume. Hence you get a pressure * volume kind of deal, which at least works out to energy in units. However, the "volume" is a key component in evaluating that. We would rate a 20 PSI attack that shatters a small object as a lesser energy value than one that shatters a much larger object. That's just how the math work out.

Hence you can't use the pressure value of an attack as measuring stick for it's power in our system. Nor can you use the ability to withstand pressure as a measure of durability. We only use energy for AP and Durability measurement.

So, you can use a pressure constant to calculate a destruction value, use the destruction value in conjunction with a destroyed volume to get AP and use that AP to scale to durability. But you can't just equalize pressure to durability without the steps in between.

We have the same thing happening in the real world too, ranging from hammer injuries and knives, to door pinching and rat bites (rat teeth aren't exactly the stabbiest things out there).
Yeah, although in fiction it becomes a good deal more ridiculous, as the relative difference between a pinch and, say, a supernova is a lot larger.

That was part of the reason why I wrote the "assess the situation at hand" caveat. You'll never know what nailed what. In the linked study's case, the cut-off point is when pain starts to be felt, so I see no way that would apply to someone who barely survived something of X attack potency.
Then that should be somewhat more explicit IMO. The uncertainty in which value to apply it on will make it hard to use. Also a good idea to mention that showings supersede it, I guess.

Still better than making up a number out of the blue like the 7.5x one-shot multiplier.
I'm not a big fan of that either, but people really wanted some guideline.
 
What did DontTalk think that we should do here in summary?
 
What did DontTalk think that we should do here in summary?
DT disagreed with this proposal because for one, you don't have to be strong enough to damage someone for your attacks to make them feel pain, and for another, durability ratings can come from anything from no-selling AP of that degree to barely surviving it.
 
What did DontTalk think that we should do here in summary?
DT disagreed with this proposal because for one, you don't have to be strong enough to damage someone for your attacks to make them feel pain, and for another, durability ratings can come from anything from no-selling AP of that degree to barely surviving it.
Okay. Thank you for the summary. 🙏

That makes sense to me. Should we close this thread then?
@Damage3245 @KLOL506 @Jasonsith @Flashlight237
 
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