Description

Borderlands 2 weapon damage and DPS calculation library

Goal of this library

This is a node.js library - the overall intention is to provide programmers with a set of easy to use and understandable modules that calculates accurate weapon damage and DPS. The modules will contain all necessary logic and nuances within Borderlands 2 such that the developer will not need to know about them; just enter the player configuration and weapon details and proper damage and DPS values will be calculated based on all stats and skills.

I have built a web UI for this library that is nearing completion, though not all features are implemented yet: https://borderlands2.maximumstandard.com

Why I built this library

I was disappointed with the available offerings for comparing loot - the calculators I was using would not allow me to compare multiple weapons at once, they did not include known logic about mechanics and items in the game that impacted damage, they did not include elemental weapon damage over time, they did not allow me to customize my player configuration (skill build, BAR, relics, etc.) once and re-use those across all weapons or allow for multiple player customizations (compare skill builds and non-weapon gear), they were not aware of the different target types (flesh, armor, shield) and how each element affects them, etc.

End goal of this library is to be able to enter multiple players of any class, with multiple item configurations, in multiple scenarios (fight for your life, turret deployed, etc.) and properly calculate damage and DPS values against each target type so the user knows quickly what weapon is best for each player in each scenario.

About Me

Software developer (imagine that) and amateur Borderlands 2 player. I spend most of my time working so Borderlands is low pressure escape for me. I've played through the game multiple times as Mechromancer, Axton, and Zer0. Yet to beat UVHM or do any raid bosses.

Take my opinions with a grain of salt, constructive feedback is always welcome.

How it works

Installing

Install node and yarn. Yarn isn't necessary if you want to use npm instead.

Use yarn install to install the app, see below for running the program...

Usage

Again, this is a library intended more for developers than gamers...but it can still be used as a standalone tool for calculating weapon damage, though I encourage you to use the web UI.

Check out playthrough_example.ts for an example of usage **TODO: ** Put together a programming example.

Run yarn tsc && node dist/playthrough_example.js to see the output:

┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬────────────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┬────────────┬───────────────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│                        name │            type │ singleShot │ critShot │ fleshShot │ armorShot │ shieldShot │          fleshDps │         armorDps │        shieldDps │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┼────────────┼───────────────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ Longitudinal Hybridfication │    Sniper Rifle │       1221 │     4908 │      1221 │      1221 │       2442 │    961.59 (69.94) │   961.59 (69.94) │ 1923.17 (139.87) │
│            Sledge's Shotgun │         Shotgun │       2295 │     4636 │      2295 │      1836 │       2295 │       4702.81 (0) │      3762.25 (0) │      4702.81 (0) │
│                  Filled Law │          Pistol │        983 │     2481 │       983 │       786 │        983 │       4854.15 (0) │      3883.32 (0) │      4854.15 (0) │
│     Miss Moxxi's Good touch │  Submachine Gun │        273 │      935 │       410 │       205 │        205 │ 3741.02 (1705.03) │ 1870.52 (852.52) │ 1870.52 (852.52) │
│          Wild Hammer Buster │   Assault Rifle │        934 │     2171 │       934 │       748 │        934 │       3930.15 (0) │      3144.12 (0) │      3930.15 (0) │
│          Expansive Spinigun │   Assault Rifle │        213 │      358 │       192 │       319 │        160 │  1830.13 (422.09) │ 3050.22 (703.49) │ 1525.12 (351.75) │
│              Surgical Sloth │    Sniper Rifle │        606 │     2437 │       546 │       909 │        455 │  1298.98 (317.18) │ 2164.96 (528.63) │ 1082.48 (264.31) │
│                 rock a boom │ Rocket Launcher │       9803 │          │      9803 │      9803 │       7843 │       3142.26 (0) │      3142.26 (0) │      2513.81 (0) │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴────────────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┴────────────┴───────────────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┘
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬────────────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┬────────────┬───────────────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│                        name │            type │ singleShot │ critShot │ fleshShot │ armorShot │ shieldShot │          fleshDps │         armorDps │        shieldDps │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┼────────────┼───────────────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ Longitudinal Hybridfication │    Sniper Rifle │       1221 │     4908 │      1221 │      1221 │       2442 │    730.62 (53.14) │   730.62 (53.14) │ 1461.24 (106.28) │
│            Sledge's Shotgun │         Shotgun │       2295 │     4636 │      2295 │      1836 │       2295 │       3415.37 (0) │       2732.3 (0) │      3415.37 (0) │
│                  Filled Law │          Pistol │        983 │     2481 │       983 │       786 │        983 │       3546.08 (0) │      2836.86 (0) │      3546.08 (0) │
│     Miss Moxxi's Good touch │  Submachine Gun │        273 │      935 │       410 │       205 │        205 │ 3141.13 (1431.62) │ 1570.57 (715.81) │ 1570.57 (715.81) │
│          Wild Hammer Buster │   Assault Rifle │       1088 │     2527 │      1088 │       870 │       1088 │          3997 (0) │       3197.6 (0) │         3997 (0) │
│          Expansive Spinigun │   Assault Rifle │        255 │      430 │       230 │       383 │        191 │        1999 (400) │ 3331.66 (666.67) │ 1665.83 (333.33) │
│              Surgical Sloth │    Sniper Rifle │        606 │     2437 │       546 │       909 │        455 │   961.83 (234.85) │ 1603.05 (391.42) │  801.53 (195.71) │
│                 rock a boom │ Rocket Launcher │       9803 │          │      9803 │      9803 │       7843 │       2303.37 (0) │      2303.37 (0) │       1842.7 (0) │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴────────────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┴────────────┴───────────────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┘

The values in parentheses are the elemental damage over time

Testing

I have very minimal tests right now, but they are built with jest.

Run yarn test to run the jest tests

Damage/DPS Calculation

Gun Time

DPS calculation is based on a concept I'm calling Gun Time. Gun Time is the duration of emptying an entire magazine at full fire rate plus reload time.

Gun Time DPS

The amount of damage that can be inflicted for a weapon's Gun Time divided out over that time is the DPS.

Damage Over Time

DPS includes elemental damage over time (DOT) where the damage duration can extend beyond the window of emptying the full clip and reloading - this reiterates the Gun Time DPS statement that the DPS is based on the amount of damage you can inflict for the duration of "gun time", not just during that time.

Arguments against Gun Time DPS

Theoretical DPS

As DOTs extend outside the duration of "gun time" and do stack to apply simultaneous damage (corrosive DOT is 8 seconds), emptying multiple subsequent magazines will theoretically achieve a higher DPS value than the aforementioned Gun Time value. This leads into one self-argument I've had with myself...

...and that is this library doesn't calculate a sustained DPS metric like one MAY experience during boss fights. My opinion is that "sustained DPS" is not an effective value for comparing loot in Borderlands as fights are very sparatic and short lived outside of the rare boss battle; RPGs with long lived boss battles and repetitive skill rotations benefit from this type of metric, but not Borderlands. Additionally, taking into account skills, slag and other factors in fights, sustained DPS is (probably) not even a concept that high skilled players even think about - it is more valuable and impactful when deciding skill builds and what weapons to use in what scenarios than theoretical damage. This is an assumption, I'm a amateur Borderlands 2 player

Reload Time

Another argument I've had with myself is that "reload time" detracts from a true DPS value as reload times are used for repositioning, hiding under cover, regenerating shield, collecting ammo/health, etc. I agree with this to an extent, and this library could be easily updated to add "include reload times" as a DPS calculation parameter, but we all love fast reload times - if you out level the area you are clearing or have good sustain, then reload time is a very important metric when comparing loot in scenarios where moving and killing as fast as possible is desired.

FAQs

How do you calculate skills that are event based?

For skills like "turret deployed", or "after swapping weapon", or "after reloading", etc. my plan is to bake these into "scenarios" as "effects" and then damage/DPS will be presented so you can compare a weapon's damage/DPS for each scenario. Currently "effects" have been added to the library and are part of the Context class - this currently only affects skills that require a certain "effect" to be active for the skill to be applied. There is still a lot of work to be done on this.