8 replies to this topic

[LanceHavenbay]

Firing during combat and all of a sudden, your AC20 goes grey with 22 shots still available. I take it this is a jam. What is the process for unjamming it? I see nothing telling me why the weapon is unavailable. And no component was destroyed. Full body is still operational.

[r4plez]

Re-assigning group key works for jammed uac5. Maybe this can be done also to ac20

[Tetatae Squawkins]

I was not aware that normal ACs could jam.

[Vlad Ward]

The AC20 does not jam.

If it goes red/grey with ammo left, you probably took a shot to your un-armored right torso and the weapon was destroyed.

I'd say critical hit, because it is a critical hit, but as soon as non-Battletech people read the words "Critical Hit" they instantly think zomg x6 damage multiplier based on luck and the whole thread just goes to hell in a handbasket.

Edited by Vlad Ward, 04 November 2012 - 11:04 AM.

[Valder]

UAC5's are the only thing that jam... and when one jams all the groups (1-6) for that weapon flash. There's something else going on there. I've only seen weapons being Green, Yellow, Black, and Red...

[Arcadian Xero]

AC20's do not jam. What you are experiencing is damage done to your AC20 and it being destroyed through a critical hit.

AC20's are notoriously susceptible to this.

[Ascendent]

An item can be critically hit and destroyed without losing armor or components. When jammed the group numbers 1-6 in the row corresponding to the jammed weapon blink. UAC5 currently is the only weapon that can jam. AC20 does not jam. In you case it must have been critically hit. This happens more often in the case of AC20 than other weapons. Explanation follows.

My understanding is that each hit to a given component has a small chance to critically hit items stored in that component. Different weapons have varying amount of critical hit chance. If a critical hit to the component is successful in destroying an item, the item destroyed is determined at random. Each critical slot has an equal chance of being damaged. So in the case of an AC20 in the torso which has 12 slots, 10 slots are taken by the AC20. If you "pad" the AC20 with 2 single heatsinks, a successful critial hit will have a 10/12 chance to destroy the AC20 and only a 2/12 chance to destroy a heat sink. If you use an XL engine that takes 3 slots in side torso it will have a 3/12 chance to kill you instantly. Without the "padding" ie using up the additional slots the AC20 will be virtually guaranteed to be destroyed as there is nothing else in that component.

Additional points:
If ammo is critically hit it explodes causing internal damage equal to the potential damage of the remaining amount of ammo. This can cause a chain reaction if more than one ton of ammo is in that component. This damage will also spread to adjacent components unless a C.A.S.E. is equiped. The exception is Gauss ammo which does not explode (but the Gauss rifle itself does).

[Redshift2k5]

you can help alleviate crits to items by 'crit padding'; fill the other slots in that section with other items (such as heatsinks). If a crit is rolled and there is only one item in that section, that item will be critted (empty slots are re-rolled). If you have 3 items (one weapon and 2 heatsinks for example) then each item has a 33% chance to be the victim of a crit.

[Ricama]

Unfortunatly there's not much you can do to crit pad an ac-20 since it takes up 10 slots on it's own.