Roland, on 08 January 2014 - 11:03 AM, said:
EVERY AUTOCANNON IN BATTLETECH FIRES A SINGLE SHELL.
None of the fluff matters. None of that is actually in the rules set.
Each Autocannon does all of its damage in a single shot. It doesn't matter what you actually imagine is taking place while rolling the dice and doing the calculations.. because from the perspective of the rules and balance, it is doing it as a single shot. There is no burst, there is no spread. One "hit".
Actually, that ACs in battletech more-often-than-not fire in multi-shell bursts is in the BattleTech gameplay rules - specifically, it's on page 100 of
Tactical Operations.
- "Multiple Targets: Rather than firing at a single target, any type of autocannon can be 'walked' across two targets close to one another. An LB-X autocannon firing a cluster shot and Ultra and Rotary autocannons firing at multiple targets are a special case."
- "Determine the to-hit number for both targets and make separate to-hit rolls against each target, using the higher (more difficult) of the to-hit numbers and adding a +1 modifier for firing at multiple targets with a single shot... if the to-hit roll succeeds, the target is struck by a single hit that inflicts damage equal to half the normal damage done by the weapon (rounded down)."
The ability to walk AC fire as described applies to all standard ACs, slug-firing LB-X ACs, all Light ACs (only available in LAC/2 and LAC/5 models, and not generally available until 3068), and Hypervelocity ACs (only available in HVAC/2, HVAC/5, and HVAC/10 models, and not available until 3059); the "basic gameplay rules" (found in
Total Warfare) simply assume that all of the individual shells within a burst land in the same general location (e.g. if one shell in a three-shell burst hits the targeted 'Mech's thigh while the remaining two hit the targeted 'Mech's shin, all three shells have "hit the leg").
(The same arguably applies to the lasers as well (which don't have their own version of the Multiple Targets rule) - all of the damage being applied to one location operates on the assumption that the MechWarrior is simply able to keep most of the beam (or pulses, in the case of Pulse Lasers) in more-or-less the same general area; a Large Laser burning a scar along a targeted 'Mech's arm from a target's shoulder joint to the wrist joint is said to have "hit the arm" with the full beam, even though the end point may be several meters from the initial impact point.)
As noted previously, cluster-firing LB-X ACs, as well as Ultra ACs & Rotary ACs, follow special subsets of the Multiple Targets rule:
- "For an LB-X autocannon firing a cluster shot, make a single to-hit roll against the highest to-hit number plus 1... if some of the damage missed the [first] target, use that 'missed' Damage Value as the new number to roll on the Cluster Hit Table to determine what damage struck the second target."
- "For Ultra and Rotary autocannons, make a single to-hit roll against the highest to-hit number plus 1... if only one shot hit, it will strike one of the targets - determined at random - with a single shot that does full damage... If two, four or six shots hit, one, two or three shots will strike each target at full damage... if three or five shots hit, one or two shots will strike each target; randomly determine where the other shot lands."
The statements regarding UACs and RACs seem to imply that
they may fire a single shell per unit of ammunition (e.g. one individual shell per unit in the "ammo per ton" counter) & that a single unit of LB-X cluster ammo corresponds to a single individual cluster shell (which, of course, contains a number of individual submunitions), but every other AC situation goes by the statement given in the novel
The Sword and the Dagger (e.g. each unit in the "ammo per ton" counter represents a cassette/magazine containing multiple (usually 3-10, but sometimes as many as 100) individual shells).
"Ardan ran a hurried check on his Victor's main armament. The right arm Pontiac 100 autocannon had the best chance of scoring a crippling hit on the Thunderbolt, but he was afraid that his swim in the mud might have fouled its feed mechanism. The autocannon was a devastating weapon. It fired high-speed, rapid-fire streams of explosive, armor-piercing shells from cassettes or carousels fed into the gun one at a time by a complex and occasionally balky autoloader mechanism. Each cassette held 100 shells, and by a widespread but commonly accepted looseness of terminology, each cassette was itself considered to be one round. One cassette round was already loaded. Nineteen more were stored in the autoloader chamber high up in his Victor's right torso. He would have to use that single round carefully, because if the loader jammed, he would not get another chance." (The Sword and the Dagger, ch. 13; source)
Edited by Strum Wealh, 08 January 2014 - 03:42 PM.
10
) ...so surpressing snipers on their effective range is what an ac2 can easily do (screenshake, destroy a snipers aiming)
