dezgra, on 15 June 2015 - 09:20 AM, said:
I always thought CASE was like a " Blow out panel". A system with blow out panels redirect the explosive energy out into a safe area, I have witnessed two explosions at work, one was in a system that was old and not equipt with blow out panels. It resulted in total destruction of operation center and collateral damage to adjacent building and machine centers. The other was upgraded with blow out panels and only the affected system was damaged. It was able to be repaired and put back in service. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that most modern battle tanks use similar tech, at least for crew safety.
That's essentially what CASE is. When an ammo explosion destroys a location with CASE installed, if there's any excess damage, instead of continuing to transfer inwards, the damage blows off the rear armor (if the location has a separate set of rear armor- otherwise it blows all the armor off) and then dissipates into the air.
Real world things aside, the idea of CASE is that the ammunition explosion doesn't go any further than the CASE-equipped component. There are a couple things that twist this value, but the original point of CASE in CBT is to 1) prevent having to replace the entirety of the 'mech when a 100-point plus ammo explosion goes off and 2) allow a 'mech with a standard engine to continue to operate after an ammo explosion, albeit minus at least an arm.
Clans getting free CASE in all locations is just another part of the 'look at how powerful these guys are' things that happened when the Clans were introduced to the BTech universe- originally, CASE is balanced value to cost. It's not a tax on standard engines or a tax on ammo weapons, it's a 'just in case' tool meant to save 'mechs, kind of like an AMS.
The effect of ammo explosions has been somewhat attenuated in CBT at some point post-2000, though: Originally, if one ammo bin in a location is critically hit,
all ammo in that location explodes for full damage. Current rules, though, are that only the bin that was hit explodes.
Now, this damage transfer was not originally internal-only in CBT. It follows standard damage transfer rules, meaning that excess damage is applied to the armor of the next location in (from a limb- arm
or leg- to that side torso, and from a side torso or head to the center torso). While this can attenuate the damage somewhat, 100 or so damage - the typical amount of damage dealt by a single untapped ammo bin- is enough to destroy pretty much any 'mech, no matter that it has to eat through the armor first. These days, the damage being internal only guarantees that even a half-empty ammo bin is fatal.
MWO messes with this
a lot. To begin with, ammo bins have hit points and so take multiple critical hits from anything but a PPC, AC/10, AC/20, or Gauss to break. Second of all, ammo bins have a low (<25%? Not certain) chance of exploding when broken, instead of
always exploding when broken. Thirdly, when damage in MWO is transferred to the next location, it's cut in half. This considerably reduces the risk inherent in carrying ammo despite ammo bins being about 50% larger in terms of shots and thus dealing staggering 150+ damage hits to the 'mech.
(Edit- except for SRMs, which for some reason keep the same 100 missiles per tonne count. I don't understand why this is, but it is.) Doubled structure pushes this back even further. At the same time, though, damage dealing is better, faster, and more focused, meaning you'll pretty much never have an ammo explosion whose damage transfers to an undamaged location.
The result of this is that while ammo explosions in MWO are roughly equally deadly as in CBT, they're
vastly less likely to happen, which makes CASE a noticeably less valuable piece of equipment. That said, it's absolutely not worthless either.
Point being, stop looking at CASE in terms of real world mechanics: we're driving GIANT STOMPITY ROBUTTS that somehow don't have weapon ranges that noticeably exceed those of modern-day tanks. If you have the tech to make lasers and fusion engines and jump drives, you have the tech to make cannons better than the autocannons we're using, no question.
Screw the money, I have rules.
The point is that CASE is balanced in terms of what it costs and what it is- it's a half tonne and one critical hit slot for a little extra security, which won't always matter but when it does it can go a long way.
Edited by Quickdraw Crobat, 15 June 2015 - 11:43 AM.
0
