Very nice win and congrats on Captain :)
Did you notice the +2 damage bonus per SoaG when you go SoaG in 0.9.8.5? I've played a lot of SoaG games but I never notice any difference in damage (e.g. former humans still take 2-3 hits with SoaG level 3, Cacodemons take on average 9 hits in my experience with a 2d5 pistol and SoaG 3 and I'm trying to work out how many they take with SoaG 0 and a 2d4), whereas I always notice the fire rate increase. Its probably the same for SoB, but I haven't played as many SoB games.
I've been thinking about this, in preparation for my AoMr attempt when I become a Captain too, and because I've been thinking of using pistols during my AoI challenge.
Something else I just calculated in my head:
4.5 dmg * 9 hits=40.5
4.5 is the approx. average of 2d5-1, (assume there are 2 results of 1 dmg out of 10)
If a Cacodemon has 40 hp, and 1 armor, this shows it takes on average 9 hits to kill with a
damage of 2d5-1. Which is the result I get with SoaG 3 when I'm playing. So I don't seem to get the +6 damage bonus. Another thing.. this is always in Aggressive mode. So I don't seem to get an Aggressive damage multiplier either. Also, bleeding damage takes effect as well, but by the looks of it, the short term effect of bleeding is minor, but even so, thats another plus to the damage and yet it still takes 9 hits.
2d5-1 (1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) ... 46/10 = 4.6
so actually
4.6 avg dmg * 9 hits=41.4
which is still close to the supposed value of a Cacodemon's hp and armor.
(I did some more thinking, and I don't know why there are 2 values of 1. When it should be (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) and an average of 5. But if the average was 5, it would take on average 8 hits to kill and not 9, and I would be killing Cacodemons in 7 hits sometimes, which has never happened, but 8-10 hits has.)
Just wondering if anyone else has similar experience or if its just me. I'm still probably going to use pistols for ammo conservation in my AoI challenge, and I know they're not meant to be easy or anything, just my observations of how pistols seem to work :)
I think the best test would be to kill the Cyberdemon using only a single 2d4 pistol. If I'm right I'm expecting it to take a bit more than 100 bullets, with an average damage of just under 2 per bullet. Thats roughly at least 40 (40,000 energy) turns of pure shooting and reloading with 2 levels of Finesse and 3 levels of SoaG. And attempted during AoI, that means someone would have to survive 40 turns plus turns for dodging against CD without medkits. Ouch..