I kinda figured when I was messing with giving the player negative damage values in the Bushido mod that this wasn't worth mentioning -- then I learned that there are now things in the core game that give negative damage values (the Rocky Encrust), so I figure at this point it's time to call it a bug. If you're gonna have negative damage in the core game, it should display correctly on the character sheet.
Actually, why would negative damage be displayed? I mean, it's not like negative resistances can bring it above 0, so it's easier for people to see what kind of damage they are supposed to be dealing the way it is now.
Because negative basic damages apply a penalty to melee power even if you're not actually dealing that kind of damage.
I see... I do have to say I haven't thought about it that way, but then again I'm trying not to start calculating everything while I'm playing something. In that case, I agree with you. But, only when it comes to crushing damage, seeing as the game should default to crushing damage if all of your basic damage types are at 0 or less, and if at least one type of basic damage has a positive value the game ought to use that type then.
Yeah, it is more of an oversight. I guess nobody considered the possibility of all basic damage types being decreased to values below zero, but modders here are crazy.
This happens with unmodded games. The Rocky Crust encrust will do it. I don't think its supposed to be able to actually reduce damage below zero, but it does (this may be a bug in and of itself), and furthermore it IS supposed to reduce piercing and slashing damage, and that fact is itself incorrectly displayed. It also displays incorrectly in the encrusting menu (as, again, with Rocky Crust, which doesn't tell you that it reduces slashing and piercing damage.). That needs to be fixed as well.