Reppu's reply as a Gamemaster seems pretty official, but after looking many places elsewhere, I have never ever seen that as the description of what it actually does, from any other official source. I think this is a good thing, that Reppu said this, but due to it only ever seeming to have come from him, I think it is STILL possible that Reppu has shared his UNDERSTANDING of CASE, rather than necessarily precisely how it works. A clairification, specifically asking if Reppu's answer is fully correct, or if something else is the case with CASE is definitely needed.
I do know that typically, in testing, which I and others have done alot of, the incoming damage that "triggered" the ammo explosion was still there and needing to be accounted for. In for example, the case of a side torso with CASE and ammo being open (no external armor) and taking a lot of damage from missile and massed direct weapon fire, I have seen what seems to be the effect of an ammo explosion go off, but no sign that any damage transferred inward to a center torso, either to external armor or internal structure. That is a still blank, not even yellow external armor and internal structure.
In these cases, you would think that when you had 3 tons of SRM ammo there (my centurion A), that even 1 ton going off (as Reppu described) would be 200 damage... that should far and away vaporize the remaining internal structure of the side torso, then transfer 50% damage to the CENTER torso internal structure. If case still allows damage transfer OUT of the side torso and into the Center torso, then essentially what is being said is it does nothing. Look at it and tell me I'm wrong. Do the math. 1 ton of SRM (what Reppu said will still be done as damage), will be 200 damage. That will vaporize any remaining side torso internal structure. Even if somehow that side torso had like around 50+ internal structure, like on an Atlas... around 150 damage still then will be done, transferring inwards to the CENTER torso but reduced by 50%... that's 75 damage to a center torso internal structure. I've never heard of an internal structure that high. Even on an ATLAS, 75 damage transferring inwards from a side torso to the CENTER torso internal structure, will vaporize it completely. So having CASE, if Reppu is correct, does nothing beneficial in any case... because even if it meant only 1 ton of ammo's worth of damage from that location was done/transferred, that is always enough to destroy the mech, precisely what the CASE is supposed to stop damage transfer from doing. This means CASE is precisely as effective as the Command Console. Sure it does something with damage transfer, but not what it is supposed to. It's like the COLD WAR, when russia and the US each boasted that they had enough warheads to destroy the other 2500 times over, no 4000 times over, no enough to kill every one 6000 times over... etc. If case just cuts it down to the damage of only 1000 times over level of warheads, it's just pointless... dead is dead, non functional is non functional.
My own testing showed quite well to my and my friends satisfaction that of course, CASE was useless for XL because it doesn't prevent transfer INTO the area it's mounted, so it wouldn't for example stop ammo explosions in an arm from hitting a side torso and destroying the three XL engine locations there. But CASE still worked as far as I could see for the appropriate Standard Engine situations, because it served to prevent in each case I was able to test, from any additional transfer inward. Admittedly, we were testing with Gauss Rifles, which critically explode far more often than ammunition actually (90%).
Whether Reppu is telling us it has changed, or is merely misinformed, having learned what he thinks he knows about it through word of mouth when playing the game, this needs a developer post and true clairification.
Edited by Mad Porthos, 14 March 2014 - 12:41 PM.