Greetings all,
I don't think any of the ballistic ammo we carry in the Mech's is acting like a true HEAT warhead. Most likely simple High Explosive to damage the surface armour.
Normal HEAT warheads detonate on contact and produce a molten hypervelocity jet that burns a small hole through the target material. (It's designed to do more internal damage than surface damage, and normally only leaves a blast scorch pattern on the armour surface) And depending on the type of warhead can burn through up to 4 feet or more of armour[IRL], so in this timeline the Mech would not suffer much armour damage but be susceptible to serious internal damage.
So back to what happens when a mech is struck by a kinetic explosive round that has more impact energy than the Mech has acceleration/inertia. (AC20 and possibly the LBX10 at close range)
If the round hits on the sides of the Mech then absolutely it should have it's facing direction changed. And if it's a light and possibly a Medium it should be knocked down from the shear energy of the impact. (if it's traveling on the ground) But that brings in a whole different aspect to the designers, did the target see the firing Mech and "brace for impact" (from Lore), very hard if not imposable to build into the game. A surprise shot from the side or back should indeed push the target mech around and have a chance to destabilize/stumble or knock down the target.
[And I'm not even going to discuss the fact that I should be able to "kick the legs out from under a mech" with that same impact.]
The discussion around "cockpit shake" when hit with large AC type rounds either in the air or on the ground shouldn't make as much difference, there will "Always" be shake. The targeting computer, the Gyro, Sensors and the Pilot will all suffer from impact effects. No it won't be any fun, but getting struck by any large fast moving explosive projectile should be an indication for you to rethink what your currently doing or not doing.
Additionally on the discussion of "Impact force" of just the projectile hitting a Mech. Given the weight of the projectile and the speed and not counting the additional "Explosive impact" after the fact.
A single 285Kg AC20 HE round traveling at 1000f/s (900 in game now) would strike the target with 314Tons of energy. (again NO HE effect yet) SO, there would be lots of "push" applied to any target body and well over the weight of the largest mech we have in game. Now add in the detonation energy and we have enough to stagger even the largest Mech, if not even knock down some of the lighter frames.
[Again "stumbling" or falling to one knee to recover from impact would be "something to see" of a Mech, but as has been stated by Thomas requires some "game magic".]
[And yes I want that big "Klang" sound back when you get hit]
9erRed
Edited by 9erRed, 22 September 2013 - 01:02 PM.