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Let's see ...

According to the file "CombatGameConstants.json" "HitMechLocationFromTop" "Head" = 16%.
LRM's by default hit from the top as they are indirect fire weapons.

So let's do some basic math ...
Your typical LRM-5 (assuming all missiles hit) has an 80% chance, per volley, of causing a MechWarrior injury.
LRM-10 = 160%
LRM-15 = 240%
LRM-20 = 320%

Since almost all medium or heavier Mechs have LRMs, and your typical battle lasts say 15 rounds, and you are invariably outnumbered vs the AI (usually 2-to-1) this means that even
looking at a mere LRM-5 we can assume 80% x 15 rounds x 8 Mechs = 9,600%.

OBVIOUSLY (since some Holyer Then Thou type will point it out) you don't see 96 head hits in the typical battle ... but let's cut that by a factor of 10 to 9.6.
Since as the battle progresses there are less and less AI mechs on the field let's cut that in half ... to 4.8 ... and that correlates pretty well with the number of head hits per battle I'm seeing.

Let's not even consider LRM-10s, 15s, or 20s, or bad luck.

Obviously no problem at all here ... obviously.

Maybe I could interest someone in buying a simple spreadsheet program ... any takers?
 
LRMs get a single chance to hit the head. If the cluster isn't centered on the head, none of the missiles will hit the head. The head hit pop-up may be delayed, but it would still be considered to be centered on the head and there is a ~1% chance of that happening per launcher.

Here is the testing I did on it:

The first missile determines the center of the cluster. If it hits the head, then additional missiles can hit the head, but there is only 1 pilot wound. If the first missile hits anywhere other than the head, there is zero chance for other missiles in that cluster to hit the head. Each LRM rack has about a 1% chance of generating a head hit per volley. I tested this with 1,600 missiles fired across 16 volleys, half with standard hit tables and half with modified hit tables to guarantee head hits.

I tested this in the single player skirmish against target dummies, Atlai with 1,000 armor in every location but only 2 medium lasers.
I modified an LRM 5 to fire 100 missiles per volley to get clear clusters and set the damage to 1 per missile with no stability damage. I didn't want to knock them over, just testing armor damage.
I took 4 Kintaros firing only their single LRM 5 each round. I did two rounds with unmodified hit charts and had no head hits.

Results with unmodified hit charts:
View attachment 362595

After that I modified the forward hit charts to guarantee that I would get some head hits.
View attachment 362596

That gives a 40% chance for any attack to hit the head. I actually had to do 9 shots on this test because the 8th shot got the 4th head head and killed the pilot. With the mech down I couldn't check the armor. This also shows that only 1 head hit is generated per volley, regardless of how many missiles hit the head.

Results:
View attachment 362597

As you can see, the volleys that weren't centered on the head had zero head hits, even with the increased head hit chance.

EDIT: Did a quick SRM test with the modded hit tables before switching it back. Only fired 2 volleys, but with 40% head hits it was pretty clear that they are not using the clustering mechanic that LRMs are. SRMs roll location per missile with no modifications for clustering, meaning each missile, not each missile rack, has about a 1% head hit chance. I assume machine guns are the same since they fire multiple shots as well.

EDIT: Removing double post

Let's see ...

According to the file "CombatGameConstants.json" "HitMechLocationFromTop" "Head" = 16%.
LRM's by default hit from the top as they are indirect fire weapons.

So let's do some basic math ...
Your typical LRM-5 (assuming all missiles hit) has an 80% chance, per volley, of causing a MechWarrior injury.
LRM-10 = 160%
LRM-15 = 240%
LRM-20 = 320%

Since almost all medium or heavier Mechs have LRMs, and your typical battle lasts say 15 rounds, and you are invariably outnumbered vs the AI (usually 2-to-1) this means that even
looking at a mere LRM-5 we can assume 80% x 15 rounds x 8 Mechs = 9,600%.

OBVIOUSLY (since some Holyer Then Thou type will point it out) you don't see 96 head hits in the typical battle ... but let's cut that by a factor of 10 to 9.6.
Since as the battle progresses there are less and less AI mechs on the field let's cut that in half ... to 4.8 ... and that correlates pretty well with the number of head hits per battle I'm seeing.

Let's not even consider LRM-10s, 15s, or 20s, or bad luck.

Obviously no problem at all here ... obviously.
I don't know what uses the "From Top" hit table. In the beta LRMs, even fired indirectly, didn't use that table. I haven't checked if that has changed in the release version.
 
No. You get one per weapon. MG's don't get 5 chances for a headshot. They get one. See the dev post above.



Uh. You can get as many pilot injuries as you can get various injury types. So a head shot, side torso removal, ammo explosion, and knockdown would be 4 injuries and kill most pilots.

As a side note, stick ammo in your feet, not side torsos :D

This is so wrong.

Ok, so multi fire weapons work in 2 ways:
1. LRM's use a clustering system: Wherever the first missile hits, excluding head shots, the other missiles are weighted to hit that spot or adjacent spots more. Head hits only have a chance to happen on the first missile that hits in the salvo.
2. SRM's/LRM's don't cluster. Each shot fires individually. So yes, MG's have 5 chances to hit the head.

Beyond that are the Pilot Injury mechanics, which are separate. So while the MG could hit the head 5 times, you can only have one Pilot Injury from damage per round of fire. You can receive a second injury from falling down. So at most, you get 2 injuries in one round of fire. Of course, another mech can then fire starting another round of fire. So before you/the enemy gets their turn you could receive multiple rounds of fire, all with 1-2 pilot injuries allowed (though of course only one knockdown injury each turn, as the mech has to stand back up.)

So if you are going for pilot kills, you want to stagger your side torso kills to separate activations.
 
Sigh. I didn't have one pilot injury or head hit in the last contract... And it had LRM Carriers in the opfor. I know it can be frustrating but this can be done.
 
Sigh. I didn't have one pilot injury or head hit in the last contract... And it had LRM Carriers in the opfor. I know it can be frustrating but this can be done.

Ok, as I pointed out to someone else in another headshot thread, if 50 people are getting multiple head hits per contract and you did a contract and didn't take any, you are the exception, not the norm.
 
Ok, as I pointed out to someone else in another headshot thread, if 50 people are getting multiple head hits per contract and you did a contract and didn't take any, you are the exception, not the norm.
Why do you think 50 people is a good sample size to make quantitative conclusions from on a game forum?
 
in game.PNG








This is by no means to minimize anyone's personal feelings of frustration. But perhaps the community can help with sharing strategy to avoid it rather.




...
 
So let's do some basic math ...
Your typical LRM-5 (assuming all missiles hit) has an 80% chance, per volley, of causing a MechWarrior injury.
LRM-10 = 160%
LRM-15 = 240%
LRM-20 = 320%


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really can`t stand to that! As you say, i should have killed dozens of Mechs with HD-Shots!
But i got 2 or 3 in around 50 Missions with multiple Mechtargets.

I really dont manage to get a Mech HD-Shoted when i really wanted to. How do you made that? I always shoot with LRMS/SRMS on heavy Targets to get all three Parts. But it normally never works.
 
So let's do some basic math ...
Your typical LRM-5 (assuming all missiles hit) has an 80% chance, per volley, of causing a MechWarrior injury.
LRM-10 = 160%
LRM-15 = 240%
LRM-20 = 320%


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really can`t stand to that! As you say, i should have killed dozens of Mechs with HD-Shots!
But i got 2 or 3 in around 50 Missions with multiple Mechtargets.

I really dont manage to get a Mech HD-Shoted when i really wanted to. How do you made that? I always shoot with LRMS/SRMS on heavy Targets to get all three Parts. But it normally never works.

Your math is entirely wrong. Only the first missile that hits the mech in an LRM volley has a chance to hit the head. Did you read NONE of the posts before yours?

The only weapons that work like the math you posted are SRM and MG. Which has a max of 6 shots.
 
Your math is entirely wrong. Only the first missile that hits the mech in an LRM volley has a chance to hit the head. Did you read NONE of the posts before yours?

The only weapons that work like the math you posted are SRM and MG. Which has a max of 6 shots.


It wasnt my Math... it was on Top of Side 2! ;)
I didnt know how to Quote ^^


I never had the "luck" to get a HD-Shot when i needed it!
 
It wasnt my Math... it was on Top of Side 2! ;)
I didnt know how to Quote ^^


I never had the "luck" to get a HD-Shot when i needed it!
When you finally do get a head shot on an enemy mech, especially if on a big baddie, it is pretty glorious...
 
When you finally do get a head shot on an enemy mech, especially if on a big baddie, it is pretty glorious...

For sure... but i dont likely get HD-Shots. And when i get a HD-Shot, the Shot will be on a Commando or Locust/Spider and not on the Griffin/Jaeger! ;)
But i try hard... :D
 
Let's see ...

According to the file "CombatGameConstants.json" "HitMechLocationFromTop" "Head" = 16%.
LRM's by default hit from the top as they are indirect fire weapons.

So let's do some basic math ...
Your typical LRM-5 (assuming all missiles hit) has an 80% chance, per volley, of causing a MechWarrior injury.
LRM-10 = 160%
LRM-15 = 240%
LRM-20 = 320%

Since almost all medium or heavier Mechs have LRMs, and your typical battle lasts say 15 rounds, and you are invariably outnumbered vs the AI (usually 2-to-1) this means that even
looking at a mere LRM-5 we can assume 80% x 15 rounds x 8 Mechs = 9,600%.

OBVIOUSLY (since some Holyer Then Thou type will point it out) you don't see 96 head hits in the typical battle ... but let's cut that by a factor of 10 to 9.6.
Since as the battle progresses there are less and less AI mechs on the field let's cut that in half ... to 4.8 ... and that correlates pretty well with the number of head hits per battle I'm seeing.

Let's not even consider LRM-10s, 15s, or 20s, or bad luck.

Obviously no problem at all here ... obviously.

Maybe I could interest someone in buying a simple spreadsheet program ... any takers?
That is math illiteracy.
It is not
One has a chance of 16% to hit, therefore 10 have 160% chance to hit.
Each has an individual chance of 16%, therefore the chance for ten is same as throwing one six with 10 dices.

Edit:
To explain:
In math terms a chance of 16% is roughly the same as the question 'How high are my chance of rolling at least one 6 with x rolls of 6 sided die'.
16% because 1/6 of 100 is 16,667, therefore the chance for any side of 6 sided die is 16,7%, at least once because we just heard that you can only land one hit on the head of a mech that damages the pilot. X is equal to the number of tubes we have.
This question is then turned into:
"How high are my chance of rolling no 6 with x die", i.e. 5/6 to the power of x.
Therefore the chance for a 20 tube LRM would be:
1 minus (5/6 to the power of 20) = 97,4%
1 minus (5/6 to the power of 15) = 93,5 %
1 minus (5/6 to the power of 10) = 83,9%
1 minus (5/6 to the power of 5) = 59,8%
Note:
Always assuming firing from above.
In the old editions of Battletech indirect fire used whatever table approriate to the direct it was firing from.
Usually we only have a 2,7% chance (if Battletech still uses the tabletop rules), which would mean
LRM 20: 44%
LRM 15: 34%
LRM 10: 25%
LRM 5: 14%
 
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This is so wrong.

Ok, so multi fire weapons work in 2 ways:
1. LRM's use a clustering system: Wherever the first missile hits, excluding head shots, the other missiles are weighted to hit that spot or adjacent spots more. Head hits only have a chance to happen on the first missile that hits in the salvo.
2. SRM's/LRM's don't cluster. Each shot fires individually. So yes, MG's have 5 chances to hit the head.

Beyond that are the Pilot Injury mechanics, which are separate. So while the MG could hit the head 5 times, you can only have one Pilot Injury from damage per round of fire. You can receive a second injury from falling down. So at most, you get 2 injuries in one round of fire. Of course, another mech can then fire starting another round of fire. So before you/the enemy gets their turn you could receive multiple rounds of fire, all with 1-2 pilot injuries allowed (though of course only one knockdown injury each turn, as the mech has to stand back up.)

So if you are going for pilot kills, you want to stagger your side torso kills to separate activations.

Wanna bet?

Head Hit: Pilot Injured is stupid
 
This is so wrong.

Ok, so multi fire weapons work in 2 ways:
1. LRM's use a clustering system: Wherever the first missile hits, excluding head shots, the other missiles are weighted to hit that spot or adjacent spots more. Head hits only have a chance to happen on the first missile that hits in the salvo.
2. SRM's/LRM's don't cluster. Each shot fires individually. So yes, MG's have 5 chances to hit the head.

Beyond that are the Pilot Injury mechanics, which are separate. So while the MG could hit the head 5 times, you can only have one Pilot Injury from damage per round of fire. You can receive a second injury from falling down. So at most, you get 2 injuries in one round of fire. Of course, another mech can then fire starting another round of fire. So before you/the enemy gets their turn you could receive multiple rounds of fire, all with 1-2 pilot injuries allowed (though of course only one knockdown injury each turn, as the mech has to stand back up.)

So if you are going for pilot kills, you want to stagger your side torso kills to separate activations.

1+2 seems to fit my data.

There are more Injurie types though
AmmoExplosion
Artillery
CenterTorsoDestruction
Cockpit Destroyed
HEAD HIT
Knocked Down

I do know with 99% certainty that side torso = head hit, checked the log right after one as i was curios why there are never side torso injuries. I would guess you could stack ammo+head+knockdown. Artillery looks like an exploding ammo crate effect in the story mission.
 
There should be a requirement to post on this thread: a checkbox, do you confirm that you have read and understand Jade_Rook’s LRM head-hitting test results? If not, i don’t care what else your personal anecdotal experience has led you to believe, or even what dev you want to quote (such a this dev post which started out being accurate but ended in a misstatement in the last sentence; you can only get one injury, except for knockdowns which can be a second injury - not what adarael mistakenly said which was only one hit to the head - per turn per attacker). Jade_Rook provided meaningful rigorous testing of precisely how head hits from LRMs do and do not work. Among other things, he proved 100% with documented counterexamples that Adaraels’s post was wrong about the ability for a single LRM salvo to hit the head multiple times, and he also proved to an extremely high degree of confidence that if the first missile thst hits a target hits anything but the head, none of the following missiles from that launcher can hit the head this turn.
 
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There should be a requirement to post on this thread: a checkbox, do you confirm that you have read and understand Jade_Rook’s LRM head-hitting test results? If not, i don’t care what else your personal anecdotal experience has led you to believe, or even what dev you want to quote (such a this dev post which started out being accurate but ended in a misstatement in the last sentence - you can only get one injury, not only one hit to the head), Jade_Rook provided meaningful rigorous testing of precisely how head hits from LRMs do and do not work. Among other things, he proved 100% with documented counterexamples that Adaraels’s post was wrong about the ability for a single LRM salvo to hit the head multiple times, and he also proved to an extremely high degree of confidence that if the first missile thst hits a target hits anything but the head, none of the following missiles from that launcher can hit the head this turn.

Do you have a link?

Also I agree one head per unit from weapons fire is the max. Now you can do fall damage as well, but that is a different issue. Right now I'm try to figure out if you can do 3 in a turn. Head hit, side torso destruction and a fall.
 
Do you have a link?

Also I agree one head per unit from weapons fire is the max. Now you can do fall damage as well, but that is a different issue. Right now I'm try to figure out if you can do 3 in a turn. Head hit, side torso destruction and a fall.

Jade Rook has posted his data in this thread, just 17 posts before yours. Its the one where Jade Rook quotes himself.
 
Jade Rook has posted his data in this thread, just 17 posts before yours. Its the one where Jade Rook quotes himself.

nice, havent done testing to his standard but yeah 1 hit per unit in a turn no matter how many weapons that unit fires is solid. You can also get knock down head hit as well. Everyone one else is using gambler's fallacy.