VR health values in VOOM

[Porcupine]

Another previous mistake is my explanation for why hyper Fei-Yen side dash RW can fire a fourth time at close distance. It does not go by bug distance; it is more likely to happen according to real distance. Actually, it goes by neither and is a separate phenomena.

There is a limit to the number of projectiles that can be on the field. This limit applies separately for each VR and each weapon. The limiting value is specific to each VR and each weapon. The limit is shared by all different attacks using that weapon even if the graphics are different, for example Temjin forward dash RW and regular RW.

A projectile stops counting toward the field limit as soon as it hits the enemy, a barrier, or the edge of the map. On some stages the edge is considerably beyond the play area. Explosions at the end of projectiles continue to count towards the limit until they dissipate. Cosmetic graphics drawn when a projectile impacts do not count.

If any attack would exceed the on field limit, the VR will dry fire. The animation proceeds as normal but no projectiles appear, nor can they retroactively appear later when previous projectiles are consumed. If an attack fires multiple projectiles simultaneously that would exceed the limit, all projectiles for that firing will vanish. Partial firings are only granted for sequentially shooting attacks.

A few attacks, especially those that are spreads, can fire more times than typically seen. If enough projectiles are absorbed in time, they will fire extra times. The duration of the attack will not be extended as the extra firings had already been there; the shooting sound still occurs and ammo is used even when no projectiles come out.

Field Limits and potentially affected Attacks

Fei-Yen CW, 2+ hearts
Fei-Yen RW, 10 shots, hyper side dash RW is actually a 4x3 spread
Viper RW, 10 shots, side dash RW is actually a 6x3 spread, jump RW is actually a 5x3 spread
Viper LW, 7 shots, forward and side dash LW are actually 8 shots, back dash LW can shoot 8x7 blobs
Bal-Bas-Bow RW, 12 shots, side dash RW is a 4x3 spread
Bal-Bas-Bow LW, 10 mines
Dorkas RW, 11 shots, side dash RW is actually a 4x3 spread
Raiden RW, 10 shots, side dash RW fires 8 shots
Raiden LW, 2 bombs
Belgdor RW, 8 shots, all dash RW fire 5 shots quickly
Temjin CW, 1 cutter
Temjin RW, 4 shots
Apharmd CW, 2 cutters, jump CW is a double cutter
Apharmd RW, 13+ shots

Dorkas jump RW is a glitchy 3x3x3 spread that uses a correspondingly huge amount of ammo. He has plenty anyway. The spread is rapid-fired for 3 consecutive frames. VRs can only take damage once every several frames so the extra is wasted and this is effectively a single spread. This tries to repeat 3 times at a normal rate, however the latter clusters can never appear due to the projectile limit.

Aside from Bal mines this phenomena isn't that important, just tweaking the damage of spread attacks. Rapid fire standing RW that traverses a large stage unimpeded may also surpass the projectile limit. This will cause some shots to dry fire without interrupting the machinegun state and will not force the recovery animation to occur.