13 replies to this topic

[Mcgral18]

In MWO, there are many game mechanics that simply aren't explained very well. Things that spring to mind are the Crit System and Double Heat Sinks (which are either 0.2 or 0.14).

I hope this thread could be used to help explain the game a bit better, and answer questions for those who have them.


Starting with the Crit System; every weapon in the game has a 42% chance to score a Critical Hit:

• 25% chance for 1 crit
  
• 14% chance for 2 crits
  
• 3% chance for 3 crits

Critical Hits can only happen once armour is removed and damage is dealt to Internal Structure.


Weapons that deal all their damage in one clump, or in a Frontloaded fashion (FLD: Front Loaded Damage) will deal full Critical Damage as soon as they deal damage to the Internal Structure (IS).

As an example, an AC20 can hit 14 points of armour, deal 6 damage to the IS, and roll for a crit. If it rolls, it will deal a full 20 Critical Damage.


What does Critical Damage do? It will damage and potentially destroy items inside the component damaged. In the case of the AC20, a single crit will destroy any item, because most items have 10 HP, while the AC20 will deal 20 Critical Damage.

For the majority of cases, Crit Damage is directly related to the damage dealt to the given component. This is true for every weapon system...
however exceptions include FLD weapons (isACs, PPCs, Gauss, SRMs) which still deal full crit damage (directly proportional to their full damage rating) as long as they breach armour and damage IS, even if they don't deal full real damage.

The second exception are the so called "Crit Weapons", the LBx series of AutoCannons and the Machine Guns. The LBx get 2 Critical Damage per pellet, and the MGs get 9x Crit Damage per bullet. These will not instantly destroy items, as the LBx need 5 pellets to destroy most items, and the MGs need to fire for a couple seconds to pump out enough damage, while the FLD weapons have a solid chance of destroying the weapon in a single crit.

Crit Weapons also get a bonus chance to crit, 67% for the LBx and Flamers, and 52% for MGs, split between the 3 crit pools.

Critical Damage also has another effect; 15% of Critical Damage will transfer back into the IS. So, that AC20 that dealt 1 crit? 20*.15=3
That means the AC20 deals 3 extra real damage, as well as 20 Crit damage. If he rolls the lucky 3% 3 crit, he can deal up to 29 damage, but very rare.
Likewise with the previous example, if he hits 14 armour and rolls a crit, he will deal 9 damage as opposed to just 6, because of the FLD advantage in crits.


For the Clan faction, Targeting Computers also increase the crit chance of many weapons (essentially, not MGs, Flamers and LBx series).
The TC1 adds:

• +4.32% to 1 crit, 29.32% total
  
• +2.42% to 2 crits, 29.42% total
  
• +0.52% to 3 crits, 3.52% total

Or, +~7.25% to crit, bringing most weapons to 49.25%.




One thing I discovered, is that the Crit System allows for Dual Gauss to one shot a fully armoured cockpit, even though 30 damage is less than the 33HP of a fully armoured cockpit.

That's because Gauss #1 brings the armour to 3 points, the Gauss #2 can penetrate and roll a Critical hit. Each Crit on a Gauss will deal 2.25 extra damage (15*.15), so the 2 crits will deal a total of 34.5 damage, greater than 33.

Normally, that's a low 17% crits, which with a TCMk7, can bring it to 22% to one shot a mech.
Still low, but it's a game mechanic not many know about.

It can be tested in the Testing Grounds, take any Clan heavy (stripped of armour) and mount Dual Gauss+TC7, and you'll run around fast enough. Forest Colony has 5 fully armoured heads (not the Commando, Jenner or Cicada) and takes ~2 minutes to do a lap. Due to RNG, it might take a few laps, but try 4 and see how many 1 shots you get.



Now, you can protect against Critical Hits, although since it's RNG, there's only so much you can do. Here's a chart of a stock Yen Lo Wang listing crit chances:


You'll notice actuators and engines (including XLs) can tank Critical Slots, which lets you protect an item, reducing the 100% of the SHS in the ST, to something lower (like the 83% of the AC20).

Best done with Gauss Rifles, weapons and ammo, it might let you stay in the fight longer, or avoid exploding.
Heatsinks work well for this, being 3 slots large, but as they only have 10HP, they won't last long.

There are two items with less than 10 HP, the Gauss Rifle at 5 HP, and the ECM suite at 3 HP. It's always good to put Gauss Ammo next to the Rifle itself, as the ammo is not explosive, but the weapon is, with a 90% chance to blow dealing 20 damage. Half tons of Gauss ammo are wonderful for Crit padding, as they still have the 10 HP, but can be spread out further.


That's the Crit System in a nutshell...I've probably missed a few things, but feel free to add to that, or ask a question about it.
Heat system in the next post.

Edited by Mcgral18, 01 July 2015 - 04:54 PM.

[Mcgral18]

The heat system in MWO is fairly basic at a glance.

SHS add 1 to heat capacity, and 0.1 to heat dissipation, DHS add 2 to heat capacity and 0.2 to heat dissipation...but that's not entirely true.

Each mech has a base of 30 heat capacity, and 0 heat dissipation. There's a mandatory 10 minimum heatsink rule, so for SHS that's 40 heat and 1.0 Heat per second dissipation.


For Double Heatsinks...it doesn't exactly work that way...

If you have a 250 or greater rated engine, it starts working that way, with 30+20 heat capacity, and 2.0 H/s dissipation...but any heatsinks added after that are only +1.4 heat capacity and 0.14 H/s dissipation.

In fact, any heatsinks that do not come with the engine are the 1.4 versions. The 10 that come with a 250+ engine are referred to as TrueDubs, being that they are the proper Double, 2.0.
The Double Heatsinks you add yourself, the 1.4/0.14 variety, are considered to be PoorDubs, as they perform worse than TrueDubs, yet both are called DHS.

If you have an engine smaller than 250, you will not get 10 TrueDubs, and must still mount the 10 mininum heatsink requirement by mounting additional PoorDubs.
These mechs have less heat capacity and less heat dissipation their their 250+ engine counterparts.
0.6 less heat capacity and 0.06 H/s disspation per missing TrueDub.

For each rating of 25 under 250, you lose a TrueDub. So,

• 225-245=9
  
• 200-220=8
  
• 175-195=7
  
• etc...

In the case of the 175-195 engine gap (Locust, Cute Fox, Myth Lynx, Urbanmech) they need 12 heatsinks to match the 10 heatsinks of mechs with a 250+ engine, like the Firestarter.


Although, due to pilot efficiencies like Coolrun, then completing the Elite efficiencies to double all basic efficiencies, mechs in the end get a 20% boost to heat capacity and 15% boost to heat dissipation.


That means a mech with 10 TrueDubs actually has 2.3 heat dissipation, or 0.23 H/s per heatsink; 15% better than the regular heatsink.

It also means mechs with 17 heatsinks technically have 17 TrueDubs, as the buffed TrueDubs make up for the gimped PoorDubs until that point. At 18, you drop to just below 0.2 H/s per heatsink.


It doesn't really make a difference, as more heatsinks will always make you cool faster, but I'm not a fan of small mechs being worse off for heat than bigger mechs, on top of having less armour, weapons and the like.

It's also rather long winded to explain. Essentially, always bring a 250 engine if you can. The heatsinks that come with it are better than the ones you put on manually.



Now, I have a question for someone who knows...how does Radar Deprivation affect Adv Target Decay?

I was under the impression that RD simply cancels the stock 2 second lock duration, while ATD increases stock lock by 1.5 seconds, for 3.5 seconds total.

By deduction, my theory is that RD brings ATD from 3.5s down to 1.5s.
Has anyone done testing, or found out how it actually works? Does it cancel out the module entirely, making it worthless?

[Davegt27]

I had a long post but I probably make myself look like a real idiot

Maybe I will see you TS some time so I can rally ask questions

[Mcgral18]

Davegt27, on 24 June 2015 - 02:24 PM, said:

I had a long post but I probably make myself look like a real idiot

Maybe I will see you TS some time so I can rally ask questions

That's what this thread is for; questions.


Ask them here, so you don't feel silly when someone corrects you elsewhere.


Not sure I'll be on TS any time soon.

[Mcgral18]

For those who doubt the insta-cockpitting from Dual Gauss (or other 30 PP FLD sources)







RNG decides if you die

[Mcgral18]

I'd never really thought of it before...but it does make sense. Fall damage can cause Critical hits, as can any damage in the game, such as Airstrikes or Artillery.

[Takashi Uchida]

How do crits apply to engines? Or do they?

Is there any advantage in using a machine gun to attack an armor-stripped torso that has no weapons/ammo/JJs/etc? What about on an arm that has no weapons or ammo?

[Rogue Jedi]

Takashi Uchida, on 01 July 2015 - 05:49 PM, said:

How do crits apply to engines? Or do they?

Is there any advantage in using a machine gun to attack an armor-stripped torso that has no weapons/ammo/JJs/etc? What about on an arm that has no weapons or ammo?

at current you cannot damage an engine except by destroying a torso containing said engine, for the IS Standard engine destroying the center torso is the only way to destroy the engine, for IS XL engines destroying any torso will destroy the engine, for a Clan XL destroying 1 side torso will remove some heatsinks from the engine, destroying the CT or both side torsos will destroy the engine.

if a component does not have armor attacking it with Machine Guns does far more damage than attacking armor with Machine Guns, several of my favorite Mechs are fast and mount both Lasers and Machine Guns, the Lasers to strip armor then the 3+ Machine Guns will usualy remove the component in a few seconds.

Machine Guns, LBX Auto Cannons and Flamers all have increased damage against structure so become much more effectave after removing all the armor from a component

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 02 July 2015 - 12:43 PM.

[Mcgral18]

Takashi Uchida, on 01 July 2015 - 05:49 PM, said:

How do crits apply to engines? Or do they?

Is there any advantage in using a machine gun to attack an armor-stripped torso that has no weapons/ammo/JJs/etc? What about on an arm that has no weapons or ammo?

Mechanically, engines crits are no different than any other crits. Engines have 15 HP, but nothing special happens when they get destroyed.


Like any other item, they'll soak crits (crit pad) and of course will deal 15% extra damage to the structure.

As for empty components...I'm not exactly sure. I've heard they still deal the 15% bonus damage with crits (and arms do have the actuators...but mainly wasted damage). If it's an IS mech with a XL engine, yes, shoot the empty, open torso. If there's a weapon attached to the arm, yes, shoot the torso. If both are empty (like a Yen Lo Wang with STD) he's only using it as a shield, and wants you to shoot it. In that case, it just pads your damage. Fine if you can get away with it, but it might get you killed (as he'll still be fully armed).

Avoid shooting arms that are destroyed (or the stump) because for each damaged component you hit, damage is reduced significantly. 60% reduction (AC20 will only deal 8 damage) for one component, and 80% damage reduction (4 damage) for going through 2 destroyed sections (arm, ST, CT or Leg-ST-CT).


Machine guns aren't significantly better at critting than any other item, they've just got a 52% chance to crit. They do have the 9x crit damage multiplier, but again that's only 0.72 crit damage (and 0.108 extra real damage, 15%) per crit.

Not bad, but because that 0.72 damage is split between any crit item and doesn't deal large amounts at once, they won't necessarily destroy an item quickly.



With machine guns, you also have to know they work like lasers. The particle effects and projectiles are just graphics, functionally they are lasers (with a -1 duration...odd).
So, pretty much use them whenever in range alongside your MLs. They work the same way, so there's good synergy, just half the range.

But, take care not to stare too long; lets the other guy target whatever he wants.

Edited by Mcgral18, 02 July 2015 - 07:55 AM.

[Domenoth]

Mcgral18, on 02 July 2015 - 07:53 AM, said:

Mechanically, engines crits are no different than any other crits. Engines have 15 HP, but nothing special happens when they get destroyed.

I wonder if this might not be true. I've had just my CT exposed and received a bitching Betty notification that one of my [double] heat sinks has been destroyed. I think destroyed engine blocks can take internal heat sinks with them.

[Void Angel]

Mcgral18, on 26 June 2015 - 02:56 PM, said:

For those who doubt the insta-cockpitting from Dual Gauss (or other 30 PP FLD sources)

RNG decides if you die

It's because of the extra damage from critical hits - if you roll enough crits, the whole structure goes, despite having 33 hp (lights often have less.)

[Mcgral18]

Domenoth, on 02 July 2015 - 11:38 AM, said:

I wonder if this might not be true. I've had just my CT exposed and received a bitching Betty notification that one of my [double] heat sinks has been destroyed. I think destroyed engine blocks can take internal heat sinks with them.

Someone else has stated that each heatsink simply adds another slot (or 2 or 3) that can be crit; thus a Banshee with a 400XL and 6 heatsinks has 30 CT slots, as opposed to 12.

Makes sense, but no confirmation on this.

Void Angel, on 02 July 2015 - 12:02 PM, said:

It's because of the extra damage from critical hits - if you roll enough crits, the whole structure goes, despite having 33 hp (lights often have less.)

Yep, 2.25 extra damage per crit on a Gauss.

If you remove a single point of armour, 42-54% chance to instantly die.

Edited by Mcgral18, 02 July 2015 - 12:14 PM.

[Void Angel]

[IraqiWalker]

Domenoth, on 02 July 2015 - 11:38 AM, said:

I wonder if this might not be true. I've had just my CT exposed and received a bitching Betty notification that one of my [double] heat sinks has been destroyed. I think destroyed engine blocks can take internal heat sinks with them.

The extra Heatsinks inserted into the engine by you are probably vulnerable to crits.