FireNewt's Flamers First Casualty Report

[Jade_Rook]

So an ammo explosion will cause an automatic pilot injury no matter where the ammo were stored?
Good to know, then - until now I really thought that the injury would only come from Mech locations near the pilot's cockpit.
I'll refit my 'Mechs accordingly, then.

Yes, ammo explosion is a guaranteed injury, regardless of location. There are four things which cause a pilot injury: side torso loss, falling, head hit, and ammo explosion. There is a maximum of 1 injury per phase of an attack with a maximum of 3 injuries possible to be inflicted in a single attack (but extremely unlikely). There is the initial attack, a possible fall, then support weapon fire in a melee attack.

Normally ammo is in a side torso or center, so it doesn't cause an additional injury.

 

[Shark7]

So as is pointed out, legs for ammo can be a very bad thing. Ammo crit in leg = +2 pilot injury, loss of initiative, and a downed mech that is a sitting duck for attackers.

Speaking of the numbers, is there any chance at all to avoid fatality when mech has its head destroyed?

 

[stjobe]

Speaking of the numbers, is there any chance at all to avoid fatality when mech has its head destroyed?

Yes, 5% at Guts 9 and 10% at Guts 10. Add 5% if your MedBay has the Hospital upgrade.

The base chance to survive lethal damage (read: cockpit destroyed) is 140% - 5% per point of Guts. So you need at least 9 Guts to even have a chance.

CT destruction or other incapacitating damage (i.e. being reduced to zero hits) is easy to survive in comparison. The base chance to die is 90% minus 5% per point of guts, meaning a 10 Guts warrior has a better-than-even chance to survive a CT core; 60%. Again, add 5% if you have the Hospital upgrade.

 

[Shark7]

So it is possible, but not likely. Good to know.

That means if Dekker ever survives long enough to get to 9 guts, he might manage to survive the campaign. Unlikely though, I tend to lose Dekker within the first 6 missions without fail.

 

[Icewraith]

Strip 3 JJ (Jump Jets) off the Spider and put it all into armor and Dekker has a much better chance of survival. The Spider is so fast you could consider dropping all JJ.

Armor changes and equipment removal are instant, so you can do this at campaign/career start without incurring any mechbay time.

 

[Shark7]

Well, since Dekker tends to be a head-shot magnet for me.....

The last time I lost him, it was from a PPC hit to the head. 3rd Mission IIRC. After that, I just got to where I hired a new pilot and did Dekker a big favor by firing him from the start, as at least it lessened my repair bills. LOL

 

[Harmon Ward]

When you put ammo in the arm, load the arm up with inexpensive Arm Mods. On more than one occasion I have seen [ARM MOD CRIT] flash on the screen and said, to myself, "33,000 C-Bills of Insurance that was well spent!".

 

[MarkDey]

Does it actually work like that? I know that tabletop BT had you re-roll crits on empty slots, but I don’t think that HBS Battletech works the same way.

 

[Jade_Rook]

This game does not reroll crits. If a crit hits an empty location it does nothing. The game doesn't display anything, so you never know that a crit was rolled, but it is in the logs.

No need to worry about crit padding.

 

[Harmon Ward]

This game does not reroll crits. If a crit hits an empty location it does nothing. The game doesn't display anything, so you never know that a crit was rolled, but it is in the logs.

No need to worry about crit padding.

Thanks for that. I always use "0" ton Mods to fill up the arms so they may come in handy in a melee. If you play long enough, they tend to stack up in inventory so I thought they may be useful someday.