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[MustrumRidcully]

A Brief Overview of the Current Crit system
The current critical hit system is best explained probably here:
http://mwomercs.com/...-a-brief-guide/
But to recap:

Spoiler

The key elements: When all armour on a hit location (e.g. left arm, center torso, head and so on) is gone, each time the hit location takes damage (this can be a MG bullet, a AC/10 shell, a SRM missile, or a beam "tick", its structural hit points are reduced, and there is a chance that a "critical hit" occurs. There is a 25% chance of causing 1 critical hit, a 14% chance of causing 2 critical hits, and a 3% chance of causing 3 critical hits (for a total of a 42% chance of any sort of critical hit).
A critical hit means that the damage that was applied to the structural hit points is also applied to one randomly determined component (e.g. a Medium Laser, a Double Heat Sink, a 1 of ammo, an ECM, a Jump Jet). The randomization is weighted by the number of crit slots the component occupies, compared to the total number of occupied crit slots. "Dynamic Structure" or empty slots and similar things don't count here, only "real" items. So if you have only one item in a hit location, only that item can get critted.

If a component'***** points are depleted, it's destroyed. (Gauss Rifles and ammo explodes at this point, Heat Sinks cease sinking heat, and so on).

Consequences of the Current Crit System
Low Damage weapons are bad for critical hits. While you can generate a lot of crits with each time you deal damage, you only deal little damage, and the damage will be randomly spread across all components in that location.
Even High Damage weapons are not necessarily good for critical hits. A Large Laser might deal 9 points of damage, but it deals them in several, smaller ticks over its beam duration - not the complete damage of that Laser will crit, only each individual tick.

As a consequence, the best weaon to crit with are AC/10, PPC, Gauss Rifle and AC/20. These are the only weapons that deal 10 points of damage in one crit, completely destroying most components. AC/5 and Ultra AC/5 are good if the enemy is using low hit point components like the Gauss Rifle or the ECM. All other weapons suffer from their damage spreading around. This can likely lead for the first 00 % of the time spend shooting at internals to destroy no component at all, but the last 20 % destroying all of them rapidly. A high damage weapon would have an advantage here - it would already take out components in the first 80 %, lowering the effectiveness of crits.

As a consequence, also high crit weapons are very suspectible to crits. An AC/20 for example will always occupy at least 83 % of a location, so it's extremely likely to be critted. This gives people that rely on "boating" smaller weapons an advantage, they are less likely to lose something significant.

On a game performance side, the system probably creates additional server load. Not just each hit location needs to have its hit points accounted for, also each individual item. Every single weapon attack must check for a crit, so a rapidly firing weapon like the MG or the AC/2, but also lasers, are probably a lot more resource intensive here. (This was a concern of the Devs in the Closed Beta, but they seem to be happy now.)

A few things I dislike:
1) The system works in absolutes. Either a component is working just fine, or it's a killer.
2) Low damage weapons are weak for crits.
3) But large weapons are extremely suspectible to crits.
Some may consider 2 and 3 balancing each other, but I tend ot think balances of the extreme are bad for games.
4) THe system is very randomized, and you don't actually have any control over the outcome here. That means skill is pretty much irrelevant in regards to crits, the might happen to your favour, they might not happen, the ymight work against you, you can't do anything about it. Any meaningful choice you could have made happened in the mech lab, not during the fight.

Alternate Critical Hit System
Normal Items have 4 states. Undamaged, Damaged, Crippled, Destroyed.
Fragile Items have 4 states. Undamaged, Destroyed. These items are for now Gauss Rifle, Ammo Bins, ECM.
A critical hit occurs when you lose 10 %, 20 %, 30 %, 40 %, 50 %, 60 %, 70 %, 80 % or 90 % of your internal structure. .
10%, 40 %, 70 %: A crit at this percentage goes to the "first" non-destroyed component.
20 %, 50 %, 80 %: A crit at this percentage goes to the "second" non-destroyed component.
30 % 60 %, 90 %: A crit at this percentage goes to the "third" non-destroyed component.
First, Second and Third is determined by this predictable algorithm
o By Crit Slot Number (highest first)
o If Tied, First a Weapon, then ECM, then BAP, then Command Console, then Heat Sink ,then Ammo Bin
o If Tied, Position inside the mech lab
If you have less than 3 items in a location, the 20 %, 50 % and 80 % triggers do not occur.

If an item is hit, it states changes to the next state (Undamaged to Damaged, Damaged to Crippled, Crippled to Destroyed).
Damaged Weapon: Is disabled for 3 seconds, afterwards its cooldown is increased by 50 %
Crippled Weapon: Is disabled for 8 seconds, afterwards its cooldown is increased by 100 %.
Destroyed Weapon: Ceases working
Damaged Heat Sink: Dissipates 50 % less heat.
Crippled Heat Sink: Dissipates 75 % less heat
Destroyed Heat Sink: Ceases working

Advantages of this system
The states might be similar to hit points, but they really only require 4 enumeration variables - no need to track fractional damage or anything like that. Since weapons already can jam and have a cooldown modifier (from Mech Efficiences), there isn't much change here. (And Heat Sinks also have their efficiency modifiers).

The different weapon states add a new tactical element. When a weapon is temporarily disabled, you have to consider whether you want to retreat, and how you deal with your weapon's reduced capabilities.

For inflicting criticals, you don't ahve to worry whether your weapon deals low amounts of damage or high amounts of damage, what matters is that you manage to hit a weakened location repeatedly.

And finally your mech's reaction to critical hits is predictable.