15 replies to this topic

[Virgil Greyson]

Is there a way to see what the damage falloff is for weapons? For example my AC/20 has an 'optimal' range of 365 in my Hunchback 4G, how do I figure out at what range the weapon is no longer worth using a shell for.

[Ace Selin]

For ballistics beyond double optimal range, don't bother.

[oldradagast]

Double listed range is maximum range for non-missile weapons.

Damage fall off for all weapons except missiles is linear past the listed ideal range.

Missiles are strange; they either do full damage or simply explode at the listed range.

Note that the above may not include flamers (which are useless) and machine guns (no idea if they stop at listed range or also have damage fall off past that.)

Edited by oldradagast, 04 April 2015 - 04:36 AM.

[Egomane]

I will not consider quirks in my answer, as those can vary from mech to mech. I'll instead answer based on the base value of the AC/20.

If you fire the weapon within the optimal range of 270 meters, it will deal its full 20 points of damage wherever it hits.

Beyond 270 meters, up to 540 meters, the damage will fall of in a linear way. So at 337.5 meters you'll deal 15 points, at 405 meters you will deal 10 damage, at 472.5 meters you will have 5 points left and at 540 meters you no longer deal any damage.

I'm sure you can calculate all other damage values inbetween based in those examples.

The same goes for all other energy and ballistic weapons. For missles, optimal and maximal range are the same. They will deal no damage beyond their listed flight range.

[Ano]

If you take a look at the weaponlab on Smurfy, it gives you a nice visual representation of damage falloff. Provided you know what total damage you're talking about it can help

[Satan n stuff]

oldradagast, on 04 April 2015 - 04:36 AM, said:

Double listed range is maximum range for non-missile weapons.

Damage fall off for all weapons except missiles is linear past the listed ideal range.

Missiles are strange; they either do full damage or simply explode at the listed range.

Note that the above may not include flamers (which are useless) and machine guns (no idea if they stop at listed range or also have damage fall off past that.)

Machine guns have damage falloff, flamers don't, one more reason flamers are useless.

[Bloodwitch]

ac IS LB 10-X and gauss have 2x max range. gauss for example will do 15 points of damage up to 660 meter, 7,5 points of damage @ 1320 and 0 damage @ 1980.


*AC2 to LBX

Edited by Teru Kojima, 04 April 2015 - 07:56 AM.

[mark v92]

also, gauss and lb10x are the only weapons with tripple range falloff.

all other balistics and energy are double the range. missiles explode on their range.

ac20 range on your hunchback is 365. this means on 365m it will do the full 20 dmg and on 730m it will do 0 dmg.

I mostly start using it when it does about half damage. which in your case is around 550m


Use this: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab

Edited by mark v92, 04 April 2015 - 08:01 AM.

[percolated1]

I think it's worth pointing out that it's only ever worth shooting something with an AC/20 beyond 270m if you have a dead line on a cherry red torso or a shut down mech with something important-looking smoking away. Otherwise, better to conserve that precious ammo. AC/20s just don't snipe well: the rounds go too slow and can easily be dodged or spread at range.

[Virgil Greyson]

mark v92, on 04 April 2015 - 07:54 AM, said:

also, gauss and lb10x are the only weapons with tripple range falloff.

all other balistics and energy are double the range. missiles explode on their range.

ac20 range on your hunchback is 365. this means on 365m it will do the full 20 dmg and on 730m it will do 0 dmg.

I mostly start using it when it does about half damage. which in your case is around 550m


Use this: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab

Thanks, I have been tinkering around in there, did not know smurfy had the weapons lab functionality.

[WANTED]

I will shoot 1-2 rounds at long range just to shake the enemy mech. They usually freak out when hit by an AC 20 even if it did 5-0 damage.

[TercieI]

Teru Kojima, on 04 April 2015 - 07:53 AM, said:

ac IS LB 10-X and gauss have 2x max range. gauss for example will do 15 points of damage up to 660 meter, 7,5 points of damage @ 1320 and 0 damage @ 1980.

*AC2 to LBX

Gauss is 3x actually. It's still quite effective to about 1000M

[mark v92]

Virgil Greyson, on 04 April 2015 - 08:17 AM, said:

Thanks, I have been tinkering around in there, did not know smurfy had the weapons lab functionality.

YW, this is pretty much the only place i build my mech. it also has a nice quirk summery and heatscale page.
just keep in mind when your building a mech in smurfy it doesnt show the mech quirks on the weapons you put on the mech.

pretty handy to make an smurfy account so you can save your loadouts there. (when logged in press save & share loadout -> click away the popup with the share links -> press add to mechlab)

another nice website: http://metamechs.com/
here you can check what the top builds and mechs are atm (with a link to smurfy build). Go to the tier list page.

tier 1 mechs are the best mechs atm
tier 2 good mechs
tier 3 are mechs that can be good but are not always
tier 4 etc

this is mostly for the more hardcore playerbase. But it cant hurt to take a look tho.
if your just starting just pick the mechs your like and experiment

[Bloodwitch]

Terciel1976, on 04 April 2015 - 08:32 AM, said:

Gauss is 3x actually. It's still quite effective to about 1000M

depends from where to count.

AC20
<----------><---------->
optimal maximal

LB 10-X
<----------><----------><---------->
optimal maximal maximal

So neither right nor wrong, i prefer 2x maxrange over "normal" direct firing weapons.

[TercieI]

Teru Kojima, on 04 April 2015 - 10:06 AM, said:

depends from where to count.

AC20
<----------><---------->
optimal maximal

LB 10-X
<----------><----------><---------->
optimal maximal maximal

So neither right nor wrong, i prefer 2x maxrange over "normal" direct firing weapons.

Huh? I see that I misread your earlier post, but this is an objective thing: Every gun has a max range either equal to, twice or three times its optimal range. SRMs are equal, AC/20 is twice and Gauss is three times. Not sure what I'm missing in your comments.

[Koniving]

Virgil Greyson, on 04 April 2015 - 01:45 AM, said:

Is there a way to see what the damage falloff is for weapons? For example my AC/20 has an 'optimal' range of 365 in my Hunchback 4G, how do I figure out at what range the weapon is no longer worth using a shell for.

You have a number of answers.

At 270 meters for normal AC/20s, you get 20 damage. At 540 meters (2x 270) you do exactly 0 damage. The drop-off of damage is linear, so at 405 meters (1.5x 270) you deal 10 damage. At 337.5 meters (1.25x 270) you deal 15 damage and finally at 472.5 meters (1.75x 270) you will deal 5 damage.

For the Hunchback, hover your mouse over the mech's icon in the mechlab (the mechlab with the list of mechs not the individual mech's mechlab) and you will find the quirks.

For the 4G HBK you get a bonus to range for the AC/20 of 12.5%. Since the AC/20 is also a ballistic weapon it combines with the ballistic range increase of 12.5%, for a total of +25%.

270 + 25% = 337.5 is your new range for 20 damage. (Where normal AC/20s deal 15 damage at that range).
You can then use 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x and 2x to find the ranges for 15 damage, 10 damage, 5 damage and 0 damage respectively.

I will do the first one for you.
1.25x337.5 = 421.875 meters will net you 15 damage with an Inner Sphere AC/20 round fired from a Hunchback 4G.

For comparison... The CN9-AH (Centurion)'s AC/20 will do 15 damage at the HBK-4G's 20 damage range. It also travels 5% slower and reloads 5% slower; but that is still 20% faster than most AC/20s.