93 replies to this topic

[Thirdstar]

Alpine on the testing ground is a very depressing map.

I'm pretty sure I blew up the Atlas once with an ammo explosion. Will have to test.

Also twice now I've hit a target from behind with a weapon and had the damage register on the front armor. Testing Ground only bug?

TESTING! This is fun.

Edited by Thirdstar, 05 March 2013 - 09:08 PM.

[ShadowDrake05]

Slashmckill, on 05 March 2013 - 06:22 PM, said:

I've also found that the hit-box of the phracts cockpit is actually smaller than the atlas'. Gotta hit the glass dead center on the front rectangular cockpit window otherwise it's all ct. That and also the cockpit hit-box of the awesome is anyplace that shows glass.

Yeah all of the head hitbox stuff makes me seriously consider dropping the head armor out of my setups. Most mechs have miniscule head hitboxes in this game. In MPBT 3025 (a game I feel did a lot right even though it didn't last long - also as a precursor I have absolutely 0 TT experience so take this for what it's worth). If I were looking anywhere to save a little bit of weight to squeeze one more component on, removing head armor seems like a safer bet than leg armor a lot of the time depending on the mech.

Catapults excluded because they have massive head hitboxes... always max it out there I'd imagine.

Edit: To add - how many times have you died where head armor was stripped off? For me the number is near zero (Raven, CTF primarily)

Edited by ShadowDrake05, 05 March 2013 - 09:12 PM.

[JediPanther]

You can use to jj's to land a jenner on a jenner, stop dead and get stuck. You can't walk or jj off it nor target it but you can target and destroy other mechs if they're in range. Also the radar loss bug still lives with a vengeance disappearing six of ten times I entered testing grounds. I was hoping they finally killed the loss of radar and map after the start up sequence.

[Khobai]

Something I learned in testing ground:
It takes approximately 48 AC/20 shots to kill an Atlas by repeatedly shooting it in the leg. That's 960 damage. So obviously damage transfer doesn't work right. It should only take 368 damage to kill a stock Atlas by shooting it in the leg. So only about 40% of the damage transfers properly while the rest of the damage completely vanishes.

Edited by Khobai, 05 March 2013 - 11:34 PM.

[Corvus Antaka]

Khobai, on 05 March 2013 - 11:33 PM, said:

Something I learned in testing ground:

It takes 48 AC/20 shots to kill an Atlas by repeatedly shooting it in the leg.

That's 960 damage. So obviously damage transfer doesn't work right. It should take 368 damage to kill an Atlas by shooting it in the leg. So only about 40% of the damage transfers properly while the rest of the damage completely vanishes.

This is a wierd leg armour bug I too have noticed. It happens ingame as well, a destroyed leg in effect becomes a massive shield that will take unbelievable amounts of damage once it is blown out and damage appears to transfer to the CT instead of the other leg.

[Khobai]

Quote

This is a wierd leg armour bug I too have noticed. It happens ingame as well, a destroyed leg in effect becomes a massive shield that will take unbelievable amounts of damage once it is blown out and damage appears to transfer to the CT instead of the other leg.

That is the correct transfer order. It should transfer from the leg to the side torso to the center torso. But 60% of the damage is simply not being transferred...

[MiG77]

Khobai, on 05 March 2013 - 11:36 PM, said:

That is the correct transfer order. It should transfer from the leg to the side torso to the center torso. But 60% of the damage is simply not being transferred...

IIRC that is not bug. They stated in closed beta that damage transfer is not 100% in any component (IE it should not be even in case of side torso to CT)

[Lynx7725]

I've learnt:

Takes about 3 or 4 ER PPC shots to the head to kill anything. In some cases, notably the Cataphract, aiming for the head is a waste of time.

Takes about 7 ER PPC shots at 600+m to de-ear a Catapult. Not as simple as it seems.

At 660m, trying to pick out the cockpit of a Catapult is quite difficult. If you are experienced, you'll aim slightly above the lip and drill the Catapult. But I'm now very suspicious of anyone who can consistently headshot cross-map on Forest.

Centurions are fairly easy to headshot because of the way it's head stick out. Well done PGI, right arm easy target, head easy target? Sigh... my poor Centie.

Awesomes can take a beating if you don't concentrate fire. So concentrate fire.

Edited by Lynx7725, 05 March 2013 - 11:58 PM.

[5th Fedcom Rat]

Yeah I'm thinking the Cataphract once again needs a slightly larger head hit box - doesn't make much sense that one of the most exposed glass cockpits in the game is actually the hardest to take out. Such a tweak would take a bit of the "pop" out of the poptart sniper build which is a good thing.

[Mr 144]

5th Fedcom Rat, on 06 March 2013 - 01:06 AM, said:

Yeah I'm thinking the Cataphract once again needs a slightly larger head hit box - doesn't make much sense that one of the most exposed glass cockpits in the game is actually the hardest to take out. Such a tweak would take a bit of the "pop" out of the poptart sniper build which is a good thing.

There's other ways of addressing that then making a brawling chassis more fragile...for example, adjusting the 'pop' portion and not the tart itself

[Lynx7725]

So there I was in the Testing Grounds, Caustic, trying to work my BattleCat build out. And this happened:



Eh.. what happened? 4 SRM6 hits, even with Artemis, shouldn't be able to de-torso both sides of an Atlas, AND kill it from behind. Damage shouldn't be that high.

[MiG77]

Lynx7725, on 06 March 2013 - 03:33 AM, said:

So there I was in the Testing Grounds, Caustic, trying to work my BattleCat build out. And this happened:



Eh.. what happened? 4 SRM6 hits, even with Artemis, shouldn't be able to de-torso both sides of an Atlas, AND kill it from behind. Damage shouldn't be that high.

Ammo explosion.

[Red Klown X]

smell tear and whinne against Splash cat .

[armyof1]

Lynx7725, on 05 March 2013 - 11:56 PM, said:

I've learnt:

Takes about 3 or 4 ER PPC shots to the head to kill anything. In some cases, notably the Cataphract, aiming for the head is a waste of time.

Takes about 7 ER PPC shots at 600+m to de-ear a Catapult. Not as simple as it seems.

Yeah I also found the Cataphract has a ridiculously small area for the headshot, probably the smallest of all mechs which really makes little sense.

I also tried how much damage the ear on a Cat can take and it's about 70 damage before it falls off. Really tells you something about how wrong it is whenever someone talks about just shoot its' ears off since it's about 140 damage in total to remove both ears. Always go for the CT/cockpit instead.

Edited by armyof1, 06 March 2013 - 04:50 AM.

[icey]

ShadowDrake05, on 05 March 2013 - 09:11 PM, said:

Yeah all of the head hitbox stuff makes me seriously consider dropping the head armor out of my setups. Most mechs have miniscule head hitboxes in this game. In MPBT 3025 (a game I feel did a lot right even though it didn't last long - also as a precursor I have absolutely 0 TT experience so take this for what it's worth). If I were looking anywhere to save a little bit of weight to squeeze one more component on, removing head armor seems like a safer bet than leg armor a lot of the time depending on the mech.

Catapults excluded because they have massive head hitboxes... always max it out there I'd imagine.

Edit: To add - how many times have you died where head armor was stripped off? For me the number is near zero (Raven, CTF primarily)

its all fun and games until you shut down in front of a guy with a bunch of big lasers

anything light i tend to go for a leg if you overheat, but if youre bigger ill go for the cockpit. shaving points off the armour there is the difference between dying on the first shot or maybe living long enough to restart and forcing me to finish the job off with laser spam.

[Thirdstar]

It's amazing having PPCs and Ballistics shoot without the 'firing delay' on live.

God, I gotta remember not to get used to that kind of responsiveness.

[Fiona Marshe]

Lynx7725, on 06 March 2013 - 03:33 AM, said:

So there I was in the Testing Grounds, Caustic, trying to work my BattleCat build out. And this happened:

Eh.. what happened? 4 SRM6 hits, even with Artemis, shouldn't be able to de-torso both sides of an Atlas, AND kill it from behind. Damage shouldn't be that high.

LRM20 ammo explosion in left torso; AC20 ammo explosion in right torso. Very impressive and lucky.

[SgtMagor]

yup yup, I think the Devs said there is still work to be done on training ground, but I agree the Dog targets, seem to take massive amounts of damage whatever your aiming at, ct torso or side, but if you hit the mech on the opposite side with a med laser or a streak 2 the mech will suddenly blow up. also, my elite Atlas is working like a stock trial mech. did enjoy running around the maps a bit, now you don't have to try to explain to peeps when your on a drop, why you haven't moved your mech, because you were configuring the firing groups, they think your an afk mech. So, the training grounds is a kewl addition, now if they would add some AI targets that would be even better.

[Thirdstar]

SgtMagor, on 06 March 2013 - 04:53 AM, said:

So, the training grounds is a kewl addition, now if they would add some AI targets that would be even better.

Moving targets would be nice, yes.

[Lynx7725]

armyof1, on 06 March 2013 - 04:12 AM, said:

Yeah I also found the Cataphract has a ridiculously small area for the headshot, probably the smallest of all mechs which really makes little sense. I also tried how much damage the ear on a Cat can take and it's about 80 damage before it falls off. Really tells you something about how wrong it is whenever someone talks about just shoot its' ears off since it's about 160 damage in total to remove both ears. Always go for the CT/cockpit instead.

Did a run with a Commando with a Med Pulse. The 'Phract's head location is basically that pane of glass exactly in the center of the "cosmetic" head area. Basically it's a "don't bother" shot. This makes 'Phracts extremely sturdy and under the right build quite a Zombie/ Frankenstein Mech. Hard to kill quickly.

The consolation about the Cat ears is that it's inevitably going to take some damage since it's such a big target. Aiming for it is still worthwhile, but if you are good enough to do headshots on the Cat, may as well do that.

The main thing I learnt from the Testing Ground today is that although my builds are good enough to last an online game, my ammo load is typically not enough to frontally assault more than 4 mechs. I typically would run out of ammo by the third or fourth target. This emphasize on the need to concentrate fire, because otherwise there's not enough ordnance lying around to kill all 8 enemies.

The other thing is this: don't fight enemies frontally. The amount of damage an Atlas or Awesome or even a Cataphract/ Catapult can soak up is enormous. Getting behind them to take pot shots at their more vulnerable rears, or practicing head shots till you can do it good is the faster way to take down an enemy mech.

Fiona Marshe, on 06 March 2013 - 04:43 AM, said:

LRM20 ammo explosion in left torso; AC20 ammo explosion in right torso. Very impressive and lucky.

Amazing how the Atlas CT stuck upright after 1200 points of internal damage from the ammo explosions, then went *ping* and broke apart.

I did a retest in another Testing Ground run, and this time it was less clean; the arm caught some of the SRMs, and it took four salvos to bring the Atlas down from the rear at the same distance.