16 replies to this topic

[Felio]

The wiki says critical hits can only hit sections with no remaining armor, but I have gotten the "critical damage" warning or lost equipment/ammo loads of times when I have loads of armor to all sections, sometimes on my first hit of the match.

Edited by Felio, 28 May 2013 - 09:41 PM.

[aniviron]

Every hundred matches or so I get a critical damage message when my armor is deep red but not gone (a bug, I assume) but it sounds like something other than what you are experiencing. Can you provide a screenshot or video of this? The only way to damage criticals is when the armor is gone or through overheating, the wiki is correct (though it does exclude overriding shutdowns).

[Lyoto Machida]

aniviron, on 28 May 2013 - 09:59 PM, said:

Every hundred matches or so I get a critical damage message when my armor is deep red but not gone (a bug, I assume) but it sounds like something other than what you are experiencing. Can you provide a screenshot or video of this? The only way to damage criticals is when the armor is gone or through overheating, the wiki is correct (though it does exclude overriding shutdowns).

As a game mechanic, it doesn't really make sense. I mean...10 points of armor in a 60 point section will stop a ML from hitting internals every time? Must be bad luck to constantly home in on that small bit of remaining armor every single time...

[Modo44]

It is the other way around. The N points represent what you have to get through for any internal component to show. That is why you only get a chance to do critical damage, not an auto-crit every time armor is "gone".

[Gralzeim]

I can echo that though, once and awhile I'll get knocked by something like an AC/20 or Gauss round, to a location where I have plenty of armor to absorb that 15-20 damage, yet I'll get the "Critical Damage" warning go off (alarm and flashing light and HUD alert), and even more occasionally I'll hear something like "Heat sink destroyed" or "Gauss Rifle destroyed".

To be honest, when I say "occasionally", I mean like twice that I can remember (one time I lost a heat sink, HUD heatsink status desplay verified the loss), and the other time I lost my arm's Gauss Rifle (which did not explode, thankfully). Still had a bit of armor left in both cases, so I'm guessing there's a slight glitch in calculations.

Or perhaps it's the mech status display that has occasional inaccuracies (as in, It says I have orange or red armor on that section after the hit, but in reality there's no armor there).

It's hard to reproduce, though.

Edited by Gralzeim, 29 May 2013 - 08:07 AM.

[Mechteric]

The critical damage warning I think doesn't indicate that you received a critical hit, but rather that your mech has taken a lot of damage. I'm not sure how its calculated to show up though, whether its if one of your torsos or legs has lost all external armor, or if your mech's "health percentage" has dropped below a certain point, I don't know.

[Blalok]

I think Capper is correct - it's warning you of critical (important-to-note) damage to your mech, not a critical hit which (TT players correct me here) is automatic destruction of whatever component (actuator, weapon, ammo, etc) is within the already-stripped appendage. After stripping the armor off, you have a certain chance of scoring a critical hit with every landed shot. Some weapons, like the MG & LBX, get a higher chance of scoring a crit, while other weapons, such as the gauss rifle, have an increased vulnerability to critical hits.

[zraven7]

What mech are you running?

[Aym]

Critical damage is less than some percentage of armor remaining on the section. Yes it's confusing.

[DEMAX51]

The "critical damage" warning is displayed when your exterior armor reaches the "red zone," not when you've actually received a critical hit.

OP, if you're saying that you're losing internal components even when you've got armor remaining, it could be one of these things:

-You got hit by something like 6PPCs all at once, instantly taking off all your armor AND doing damage to internals.

-If you're overriding an overheat shutdown, it will damage your internal structure even if you have armor remaining.

-If it's a torso component, keep in mind that you have front and rear armor. If your rear armor is removed the internals can get destroyed even if you have full front armor remaining.

-It could be a bug, in which case take a screen cap if you can, or at least send a ticket to support with as much info as possible.

Edited by DEMAX51, 29 May 2013 - 12:10 PM.

[Koniving]

CapperDeluxe, on 29 May 2013 - 08:26 AM, said:

The critical damage warning I think doesn't indicate that you received a critical hit, but rather that your mech has taken a lot of damage. I'm not sure how its calculated to show up though, whether its if one of your torsos or legs has lost all external armor, or if your mech's "health percentage" has dropped below a certain point, I don't know.

This is true. For the most part, you can check for yourself by looking at your personal health percentage in the upper left. The warning tends to come at varying points between 60 and 80% overall health. It is difficult to tell if it's set to a particular percentage or not, however your personal armor in an area doesn't seem to matter. It sometimes shows at red armor, but not always. I've had it appear at wide-spread yellowish orange armor levels.

It will also alert you instantly regardless of percentage if internal structure in any area receives damage beyond the yellow point. These come in separate warnings such as "Head, critically damaged", "Center torso, critical," as shown here.

Edited by Koniving, 29 May 2013 - 12:19 PM.

[Felio]

Koniving, on 29 May 2013 - 12:17 PM, said:

as shown here.

On the subject of that video... why is he doing that? It doesn't seem to generate any less heat per shot than firing them simultaneously.

[Koniving]

Felio, on 30 May 2013 - 07:14 PM, said:

On the subject of that video... why is he doing that? It doesn't seem to generate any less heat per shot than firing them simultaneously.

That'd be me. There isn't a benefit. Someone requested that I find out if there's any benefits to using macros with energy weapons. None can be found other than setting firing patterns. 9 flamers generate almost zero heat with a macro, but in the end it does the damage of one flamer. Check that out here.

[Felio]

Koniving, on 30 May 2013 - 07:33 PM, said:

That'd be me. There isn't a benefit. Someone requested that I find out if there's any benefits to using macros with energy weapons. None can be found other than setting firing patterns. 9 flamers generate almost zero heat with a macro, but in the end it does the damage of one flamer. Check that out here.

I did check out Part 1 out of curiosity, thanks.

[Koniving]

Awesome. Most usually don't.

[Dalziel Hasek Davion]

Felio, on 30 May 2013 - 07:14 PM, said:

On the subject of that video... why is he doing that? It doesn't seem to generate any less heat per shot than firing them simultaneously.

Chain fire is useful, particularly on hot maps, because the increase in heat is more gradual and you may be better able to judge when to stop firing, as opposed to firing alphas where you dump the heat into the system in one big block. It can also help with accuracy, I have found. If the first shot of the chain goes wild, you can see where it goes in relation to the moving enemy - and steer the second and subsequent shots, not only on target, but also on vulnerable segments of the enemy. I know it's a bit unfashionable at the moment, but bringing continual damage to an enemy, rather than one big hit, also has a psychological effect.

Koniving's experiments in macros, heat and damage are fantastic player service (doff of the cap, sir), but are exploring the fun curiosities at the fringes of the game engine/parameters - rather than direct utility per se.

[Ironclaw1]

Ok, just to restye the obvious (in Dmaxes post). You can cause internal damage, even critical damage, without ever losing a point of armor if you power up in excess of 100% heat after a shutdown. The heat rolls damage against your critical systems.
(Try this on the training map).

If your overheating and power up/override. That may be the issue for you.

IC

Edited by Ironclaw1, 31 May 2013 - 06:39 AM.