5 replies to this topic

[DrNick]

Maybe I am just a horrible shot (OK, I AM a horrible shot), but it seems to me that I do next to no damage when sniping with long range weapons like an ERPPC or Gauss rifle when the target is a long distance away, say greater than about 1000 meters out but within the posted max range of these weapons .

I've even had the occasion to fire away at a stationary target at these long distances (and it looked as though sparks flew on impacting the target so I thought I was hitting it), and my damage was abysmal at the end of the game.

Is there a known drop off of damage at long range, or am I even worse than I thought at aiming?

[Davoke]

Past a weapon's max range, there is a damage dropoff.
As for what you're saying, it's due to the HSR not yet implemented on ballistics.
I have this happen every now and then as well. This patch is adding HSR in(as i understand) which will make this happen much less.

[J-Pax7]

Each weapon has an optimal range (for example 810m for erppc) once you jump that range damage starts to drop off steadily until the maximum range of the weapon (1620 in the case of the erppc) So a ERPPC firing at 1215m would cause 50% damage for example. I'm pretty sure thats how it works at least.

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

You have weapon's range listed in lower right corner of the screen, where you assign the weapon groups. Energy weapons do damage up to twice the listed range, and ballistic up to 3 times (eg LL and AC10 both have optimal range of 450m, LL can damage enemy up to 900m and AC10 up to 1350m). Above that optimal range weapon's damage drops linearly to 0 at max range. Missiles do full damage in their listed range, but nothing above. LRMs have minimum range of 180m and belowe that they don't do anything. PPC (but not ERPPC!) has min range of 90m, and does less damage below that (it is said that dropoff is linear, but test have shown that it is somewhat different).
Hope that helps

Edit: despite having some form of projectile PPCs and ERPPCs are energy weapons - so their max range is 2x optimal.
MG has optimal range of 90m and max range of 200m.

Edited by Krzysztof z Bagien, 15 April 2013 - 03:03 PM.

[Koniving]

DrNick, on 15 April 2013 - 02:41 PM, said:

Maybe I am just a horrible shot (OK, I AM a horrible shot), but it seems to me that I do next to no damage when sniping with long range weapons like an ERPPC or Gauss rifle when the target is a long distance away, say greater than about 1000 meters out but within the posted max range of these weapons .
I've even had the occasion to fire away at a stationary target at these long distances (and it looked as though sparks flew on impacting the target so I thought I was hitting it), and my damage was abysmal at the end of the game.
Is there a known drop off of damage at long range, or am I even worse than I thought at aiming?

Your "range" is on the bottom right. Gauss does full damage at 660, and it drops off from there. Ballistics do damage out to 3 times their range which drops off steadily. Energy to include PPCs do damage out to two times their range.

[TarkaTarquol]

If you look at your Weapon Group display on your HUD, you'll actually notice they change colour time-to-time. This is telling you whether or not you're in the weapon's effective range. If it's Green, the weapon will deal full damage if it hits. If it's Yellow, it will still do damage but not the full amount. If it's black, it will do no damage at all, even if it shows as a 'hit.' A quick glance can easily tell you if you're gonna do full or reduced damage.