SirLANsalot, on 25 September 2013 - 02:12 PM, said:
This post has been a long time coming.
This isn't the first time it's been posted. Some of us have stated this to them since closed beta, when the unjam was manual and difficult.
The increasing jam rate is actually canon and tabletop. Although jams were also permanent as a MAJOR balancing factor.
As far as fluff, there are various kinds of ACs and UACs. Some single shot -- but these were ultra rare. (Example, the Cauldron Born is one of the few single-shot does 20 damage style UAC/20 carrying mechs. The Hunchback IIC's twin UAC/20s fired 6 shots to deal 20 damage (per gun), and the firing rate simply doubled to do another 20.)
The regular Hunchback's AC/20 is demonstrated in video (by Microprose) as having a 5-shot AC/20. Although official art usually depicts 4 barrels -- a 4-shot AC/20 would be a Chemjet Gun AC/20, though.
Other assorted book-based examples include the 12 shot Deathgiver 120mm AC/20s (King Crab), the 15 shot Deathgiver 100mm AC/20 (Atlas), the Whirlwind triple-shot AC/5, and so many more.
Some ACs, like the one of those found on the MW:LL mod, are fully automatic but low caliber. (The AC/5 I'm specifically mentioning fired 5 shots of "1" damage each at a constant, non-stop rate which totaled 5 damage every 2 seconds or 1 shot every 0.4 seconds).
There's essentially 3 types.
- The one mentioned above; fully automatic but they are low caliber, low damage per shot, and are measured by a unit of time.
- (Example: If an AC/2 deals 2 damage every 0.52 seconds, then a 2 shot fully automatic AC/2 would deal 2 shots with each shot being 1 damage every 0.26 seconds. Second example: If an AC/20 requires 4 seconds to fire again, then a 100 shot AC/20 does 20 damage in 100 shots spread out over 4 seconds with no cooldown). You could and should in theory be able to stop firing at any moment in time.
- Despite a constant rate of fire, this is actually the slowest firing of the multi-shot versions. The higher the caliber, the longer the wait between shots (to an almost AC/2-like wait for weak versions of AC/20 multi-shot versions).
- Actual ammunition is calculated by how many shots per ton of single shot ammo (6 for an AC/20) as the units of time you'd get to fire (4 seconds), times how many shots per unit of time. So if it's 100 shots per 4 seconds, you'd get 6 units of time, or 600 shots per ton.
- The kind we 'hear' in MW3, Burst Fire. This is actually the most common sorts in the books. The weapon is rated by how much damage it does per trigger squeeze or burst. The autocannon is loaded by magazines called "cassettes" in lore. When the cassette is loaded and the trigger squeezed, the weapon fires every shot in that cassette until it's dry.
- An example is the Whirlwind AC/5 which has a 3 shot cassette. The Chemjet Gun is described in a specific book as a 4 shot AC/20 (although we commonly refer to it as a 3 shot as I once believed it was until I read it myself). The Crusher Super Heavy Autocannon/20 burst-fire variant fires a rapid burst of 10 shots per load.
- After a burst, the 'cooldown' time is a mixture of ejecting and loading the new cassette as well as giving the barrels time to cool.
- This fires faster than the MG versions, but with significantly longer waits in between bursts.
- Shot count is measured in trigger squeezes. Example if a single shot AC/20 has 6 shots per ton, then you will always be entitled to 6 trigger pulls or bursts per ton.
- And then there are the single shot versions. These are the highest caliber feasibly possible for each classification of autocannon.
- In terms of lore these are the RAREST form of autocannons and not that different from Rifles.
- The recoil from the AC/10 and AC/20 weapons were such that smaller mechs could not equip them without losing the limb associated with it. As such an AC/20 Jager would either lose its arm or fall on its back trying to use a single shot AC/20; favoring instead smaller caliber multi-shot styles such as the Crusher. Only mechs such as the Cauldron Born could mount single shot does 20 damage-style UAC/20s as the recoil was so strong the Atlas test caused it to lose its balance unless the mech was stationary and braced before use.
- In terms of mechanics, aside from violent recoil jerks for larger singleshot ACs, they work as shown in MWO.
Interestingly enough, of the UAC fluff to be found in books and on Sarna, only the UAC/5 is specifically mentioned to be of a smaller caliber (as in for my interpretation, UAC/2, 10, and 20 can have single shot versions but the UAC/5 does not). Just food for thought.
What makes a rotary AC different when there's already MG style regular ACs? Rotary cannons can fire them 6 times faster though at much faster heat build up and incredible risk for jams.
(Edit: Correction on the rotary cannon details.)
Edited by Koniving, 27 September 2013 - 12:18 PM.
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