42 replies to this topic

[Atheus]

Certain information in this game is a bit obscure. As time goes by, PGI has added in certain details, like how much damage each weapon does, and various tips in the loading screen (although many of those tips are somewhat misleading or incomplete).

Here are just a few questions to see how broadly some of these things are known.

Votes are private so don't be embarrassed. Just be honest.

Also, if there are any other bits of useful information you feel is often misunderstood, please post below!

edit: adjusted the language on PPC's at close range. (devs say the damage attenuation is linear from 90m down to 0, but player experimentation indicates it may be exponential)

edit 2: A clarification on the way damage transfers when attacking destroyed mech bits - unlike ammo explosions, when you attack a destroyed mech piece, the damage is initially applied to the front armor of the next piece before it gets applied to internal structure. Back armor is ignored in this process. The tricky part is when you destroy a leg, then keep shooting it - the damage will get cut in half before being applied to the respective side torso. Once the side torso is destroyed, shooting the leg will transfer damage to the center torso, however only 25% of it makes it to the CT since it's cut in half twice! Just make sure if you're trying to shoot out a mech's one remaining leg, you hit the correct leg, because in many cases shooting a dead leg is about as effective as shooting the ground!

edit 3: Furthermore, when destroying a side torso, any remaining armor on the front or back remains and continues to absorb damage, unless damage is transferred to the side torso from another destroyed part such as a leg or arm, in which case the remaining armor instantly vanishes, and said damage is transferred through to the center torso! (Thanks Thontor!)

edit 4: Touched up some of the questions phrasing to be a little more clear and informative.

edit 5: Apparently, when Thontor asked Bryan Eckman about the 50% damage reduction each time it passes to another mech part, Bryan's response seems to indicate he sees it as a bug.

edit 6: It turns out the wiki article on CASE contains inaccurate information regarding the order in which ammo is used from the various parts of your mech, so question 7 has been removed to prevent further misinformation.

Edited by Atheus, 23 April 2013 - 09:49 PM.

[MustrumRidcully]

I believe that someone (was it Left Lucy) recently endeavoured to find out how PPC damage drop off at close range worked, and it might not actually be as you describe it here.

[Onmyoudo]

I did not know the Endo Steel thing, but wanted "Sort of knew that but did not know details" for the Ammo Explosions. Just went with "I knew that" in the end.

Edit: Also, the head ammo thing is really good to know. I've always thought that was a massive liability.

Edited by Onmyoudo, 23 April 2013 - 02:08 AM.

[Atheus]

MustrumRidcully, on 23 April 2013 - 02:03 AM, said:

I believe that someone (was it Left Lucy) recently endeavoured to find out how PPC damage drop off at close range worked, and it might not actually be as you describe it here.

Ah, I guess it was just hearsay that I was going on. I'll loosen up the language a bit.

Edit: I just did a little quick and dirty testing, so these numbers aren't going to be 100% accurate, but it looked like about:

90m: 100%
60m: 50%
45m: 20%
30m: 10%

So yeah, at the very least it's not linear.

Edited by Atheus, 23 April 2013 - 02:37 AM.

[John MatriX82]

Knew all but that streaks could get an improvement with artemis.

[Relic1701]

The lock on for streaks using Artemis, if it does affect them, is marginal at best....

[KinLuu]

I knew all of these.

Now, where is my reward? Do I get an A?

[Atheus]

lol... it seems my ammo explosion question I tried to cram a bit too much stuff into too little space. For those who found that confusing the source for that info is http://mwowiki.org/w...quipment_(CASE)

The page is a little misleading itself, though, since it has a math error, and was not updated after the latest missile nerf which brought LRM's down to 0.7 damage per missile.

The way it works is you look at how many shots per ton there are for the ammo type, multiply by the damage per unit, then that's the total damage for that ammo.

For example:
Say you have an unused ton of LRM ammo in your leg and it explodes. LRM ammo has 180 missiles per ton, and does 0.7 damage per missile.
180 x 0.7 damage = 126 damage.

That damage will be applied directly to the internal structure of the leg. Let's say your leg has 30 internal structure total (catapults have 30 internal structure on the leg). That eats up 30 of the 126 damage, leaving 96 damage. The remaining 96 damage gets cut in half (to 48), then applied to the next body part, in the case the side torso. The catapult also has 30 internal structure on the side torso, so after the side torso is destroyed, 18 points of damage remain to be distributed. 50% is cut off again as it travels to the center torso, making 9 damage to the center torso. Fortunately a catapult has 42 internal structure on the center torso, so you'll survive minus a leg, side torso and arm, with 33 internal structure points left on your center torso (and armor undisturbed).

Edited by Atheus, 23 April 2013 - 02:56 AM.

[aniviron]

MustrumRidcully, on 23 April 2013 - 02:03 AM, said:

I believe that someone (was it Left Lucy) recently endeavoured to find out how PPC damage drop off at close range worked, and it might not actually be as you describe it here.

A dev came into that thread and explicitly stated it is a linear dropoff, and any variance was due to testing grounds being worthless.

[MustrumRidcully]

KinLuu, on 23 April 2013 - 02:51 AM, said:

I knew all of these.

Now, where is my reward? Do I get an A?

I believe the first prize is a washing machine.
Just sign here for the 750 € transport fee. -> __________________

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 23 April 2013 - 02:53 AM.

[Atheus]

aniviron, on 23 April 2013 - 02:52 AM, said:

A dev came into that thread and explicitly stated it is a linear dropoff, and any variance was due to testing grounds being worthless.

Smokes... worthless indeed based on my results from a few minutes ago. They were only 10% effective at 30m in testing grounds!

[WolvesX]

Great thread, good work bro!

[Belorion]

Some of your questions are misleading, wrong or opinion and not fact.

[Atheus]

Belorion, on 23 April 2013 - 03:43 AM, said:

Some of your questions are misleading, wrong or opinion and not fact.

such as?

[PurpleNinja]

Just read the game files.

[Atheus]

Relic1701, on 23 April 2013 - 02:41 AM, said:

The lock on for streaks using Artemis, if it does affect them, is marginal at best....

This is the danger of talking about things you have no information on. I verified this back when Artemis first became available, but I also re-tested this today just to be certain. Sure enough, Artemis makes your streaks lock on twice as fast (it takes about 1 full second to lock on normally). Please don't try to correct people if you have no idea what you're talking about yourself.

[Son of Horus]

I always knew to put ammo in my head, but could never remember why...then something went BANG in my head and now I remember.

Edited by Son of Horus, 23 April 2013 - 12:03 PM.

[Budor]

This is good info and Thomas D. Should add all off it to the post he used to do on "less known" mechanics. This beta sure lacks any source for new players to read up upon such stuff.

He seems to not have any time to post/update us lately.

http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

Edited by Budor, 23 April 2013 - 12:10 PM.

[SMDMadCow]

Atheus, on 23 April 2013 - 03:56 AM, said:

such as?

The current trial Dragon is community created, not a TT design.

It would be more correct to say "the basic variants of our mechs were taken from the TT" as their effectiveness is solely based on opinion.

Edited by SMDMadCow, 23 April 2013 - 12:39 PM.

[Scrawny Cowboy]

Atheus, on 23 April 2013 - 11:57 AM, said:

This is the danger of talking about things you have no information on. I verified this back when Artemis first became available, but I also re-tested this today just to be certain. Sure enough, Artemis makes your streaks lock on twice as fast (it takes about 1 full second to lock on normally). Please don't try to correct people if you have no idea what you're talking about yourself.

I think the rock I have been living under just got a lil bigger. : l

Edited by B3RZ3RK3R, 23 April 2013 - 12:26 PM.