Piipu, on 24 October 2013 - 11:42 AM, said:
It would seem to me that OP has no idea about what he's talking about. AC/20 damage calculation is as follows: damage = 20. There's no formula. And neither are missile explosions computed as expanding spheres. They expand instantly to their maximum radius and apply damage to whatever is inside the sphere. There is no explosion velocity.
Then you would be wrong. Let me elaborate on your failure...
An AC20's (all ballistics) calculation does apply damage based on distance, not velocity. This is why, Piipu, when you fire at max range you hit for a % of what you would under your effective range. I use velocity as a comparative, not as a derivative.
Missiles, I hate to tell you, do in fact have an explosion velocity and radius calculation (expansion rate = explosion velocity there kiddo..which you just said is what is applied). If they didn't, then any light mech would be struck with the same concussive force if they were in motion vs. standing still. If you are suggesting a light mech in motion takes the same amount as one stationary, then you have never played MWO.
Think of it like this:
At any given moment, I have some constants - the size of a mech, the speed of a missile, and the amount (rads) an explosion will encompass. Ideally, I also know how long an explosion will last (there is a decay rate of explosive, but I doubt it's being used to apply negative modifiers) but we'll assume it's also a fixed point.
Now imagine if you will I have an explosive charge that has a very fast expansion time, but a relatively small diameter of effect. If I was to strike say...an atlas, than the physical size of the atlas ensures all of the radius of explosion is covered, but it also means the damaged areas will be confined to a much smaller area (remember: Explosions happen from a central point, release most of their energy from 0 to 50% of their lifespan, then begin to rapidly fade after that to being null at 100% lifespan). The total damage taken, raw number wise, we'll say is 10. Distribution wise, the impact site took the most damage, with outlying components getting a relatively small amount (by scale).
Now that same missile fired at a spider will have a different effect. When stationary (again, we'll assume LoS to keep it simple), that same missile hits a smaller surface area. Now, since the surface area is smaller, you'd think the total damage would be lower - when in fact it's higher. Why? Because the explosion velocities are fast, radius is slow. They're confined charges. The spider, with no other modifiers, takes that hit and the damage is distributed across an area. Problem is, the area is significantly smaller than say the Atlas. A sphere of effect that would have hit the ct/rt/arm would envelop pretty much all of the spider. Ah Ha! but Oni, that would mean there are *more* parts to hit, and thus the damage to each *component* is lower right!? Well... kinda. That would be true if the calculation was raw damage / number of components, but we all know it isn't. There is a curve in their calculations of splash (modified heavily since the SRM bug was first discovered). As such, even with a larger number of total components, the splash element doesn't really change the dynamic much. What does hurt the spider is the relatively small explosion radius. Remember how I said explosions aren't linear? That is, they do an energy dump up front, and dissipate quickly as they expand? Well our poor spider has the bulk of it's components covered in that high damage range of 0-50% (rate of expansion is fixed).
A smaller mech should take more punishment from a missile than a larger one...but they don't. Why? Transversal velocity I'm guessing. The idea here is that a moving body will not remain in a fixed point in space, and anything that happens during a slice of time must take into effect our movement through said space. Let's go back to the above:
Now my atlas is moving full speed at a whopping 52kph. Even though it is moving, it is not moving fast enough where its total components exit the impact radius in a timely fashion (ie: enough to not get as hurt by staying in the fire). We see no real difference in damage.
Our spider, by contrast, is moving at 140kph. The explosion, however, is not (at the point of origin). So, as my sphere beings to expand, the spider is moving - ever so rapidly - away from that point in space. Even with a relatively fast rate of expansion, the total affected area remains constant. The spider is able to move itself out of the main impact area and takes little (to no, depending on HSR) damage.
So there is always a trade off between explosion velocity and radius. Big missiles make big booms, but they also are slow to deliver all that energy outward. Small missiles make small booms, but are very efficient at delivering it quickly. You can't really have a large radius with a super fast expansion velocity, else it pretty much throws off the mechanics of other systems.
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So, with all that being said - there is a problem with how the explosions are being calculated. I highly suspect that forward momentum (which we did NOT take into account above to illustrate) of the missile is not added. That is, we're simply flipping a bit to say we've exploded and not taking into account that the missile was traveling forward at the time. That is why a smaller mech is able to outrun the actual missile -- it's not projecting the damage along the same trajectory, it's almost like popping in mid air based on the collision detection.
Edited by Oni Ralas, 24 October 2013 - 12:37 PM.
1
So... was my paraphrase accurate? You believe the explosion sphere used to calculate damage caused is being applied after collision detection of the missile, but that lights move so fast they exit that sphere before the server can register the damage? That even the low number of missiles that do hit a fast moving light do even less damage because of this phenomenon?
. I think it all boils down to a combination of two factors:
