A thought exercise, using sloppy code talk...
Say I have an item, lets call it fudgeStick.
It has a base_set block damage of say 10.
Now lets say it has a damagemodifier of base_add -1 tag metal.
a) First question, could we not say, damagemodifier base_subtract 1 vs metal and get the same result?
b) Is there any merit to using base_add negative over base_subtract positive?
c) Hitting anything other than a metal item would cause 10 damage to the thing hit, yes?
d) Hitting a metal thing would only cause 9 damage to the thing hit, yes?
Pushing on, lets say I have carefully added some new tags to some blocks.
Say I added 'likesFudge' tag to all tables.
Now we can create an item modifier, lets call it fudgeLikesTables.
Lets give it a damagemodifier of base_add 20 tag likesFudge
Add fudgeLikesTables to fudgeStick,
e) hitting a none table, none metal item causes 10 damage,
f) a none table, metal item, 9 damage,
g) a table, wood, 30
h) a table, metal, 29
Yes?
Now lets make an item called biggerFudgeStick,
which does 20 blockdamage, same damagemodifier metal -1
we would get,
i) none table wood 20, none table metal 19, table wood 40, table metal 39.
Right now for the tricky part.
Lets say that we want to only do 20 damage to blocks tagged with likesFudge.
We intend to do this with the item modifier fudgeLikesTables.
j) Would this process as desired;
item modifier fudgeLikesTables,
base_set block damage 20
The desired result it that it does not matter if we add fudgeLikesTables to fudgeStick or biggerFudgeStick,
hitting a metal table with either stick will cause exactly 20 damage.
Its a question about ooo I think. When is the block damage calculated when using item modifiers?
If it is the last thing calculated, then a base_set block damage in the item modifier would be the one we see at the end.
If it is calculated earlier, then erm it would not.
I ask you because, you do reply, and I expect you have some idea of what I am asking, plus you probably know the answer, assuming that you have encountered this sort of idea during your work on DF?