Multiple hits to head from the same weapon

[Wanderer2142]

Forgive me if it has been demonstrated in the streams, I've been avoiding them to avoid spoilers.

Has it been confirmed yet whether you can damage a pilot multiple times with the same weapon? That is to say, if you win the lottery, will you insta-squish a pilot with an SRM 6 with 6 headshots, because each would count as an individual hit? Considering we haven't seen pilots with more than 6 HP as of yet. Since MGs are also implemented as 3x5 damage attacks, technically if you manage to score 3 headshots with the MG, a rookie pilot would be insta-gibbed with basically only scratching the paintjob on the head.

If there is a cap of essentially one damage per weapon, that would actually provide a reason to break an SRM 6 into 3x SRM2s to maximize potential headshot damage, for the same tonnage. Slightly more heat, but with the unification of SRM ammunition, you may have the tonnage to add another heatsink anyways.

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

I think with SRMs and MGs it should be possible, but I have never seen it happen as fas as i can remember. And I could be wrong about that. LRMs are strictly forbidden to hit the head more than once per launcher and salvo.

 

[nimdabew]

I haven't seen more than one injury from multiple weapons in the same attack. That being said, if you are going scalp hunting, multiple mechs with multiple LRM15's with multitarget seems to be the way to go. 4 Trebs with 2x15's with multi target is two different mechs each turn with 4 chances for a heat hit. Chances are good to get one other two head shots per turn and that's a whole mech salvaged once per turn if you can get reliable headshots. Odds are better with twin 15's and called shot from 4 different mechs. This may be how I get my first Atlas now that I think about it.

 

[Cyttorak001]

I don't see why you couldn't. I have seen only one time in 400+ hours of beta play that I damaged a 'Mech from two head hits in the same volley, but it wasn't from the same weapon. It was something like a ML and SRM hit in the same attack. So I think it's possible, it's just so unlikely that you may never see it in any one playthrough.

 

[Wanderer2142]

I don't see why you couldn't. I have seen only one time in 400+ hours of beta play that I damaged a 'Mech from two head hits in the same volley, but it wasn't from the same weapon. It was something like a ML and SRM hit in the same attack. So I think it's possible, it's just so unlikely that you may never see it in any one playthrough.

It is a reason why I labeled it as winning the lottery, if you manage to get more than one headshot in the same volley in an SRM 6.

Only way you would know is if you looked at the log, and noticed the SRM 6 hit the head multiple times, but the pilot only dropped 1 health. I mean, statistically speaking, if we're talking about a 5% chance for a headshot, that means basically out of a thousand samples, you should average 2 occurrences for 2 head hits in the same weapon. And using an SRM (2/4/6, it doesn't particularly matter) 1000 times over the course of a playthrough should not be a particularly hard task.

 

[HonorKnight]

I have seen only one time in 400+ hours of beta play that I damaged a 'Mech from two head hits in the same volley, but it wasn't from the same weapon. It was something like a ML and SRM hit in the same attack. So I think it's possible, it's just so unlikely that you may never see it in any one playthrough.

In the beta files, various ranks of tactics gave a series of 3 passive bonuses which progressively increased the chances of called shots hitting the target location, including the head, culminating in a 10 tactics ability which let called shots to the head go as high as 35% chance. This would make it trivial to get multiple headshots, especially with SRMs or machine guns. Of course, we didn't have any 10 tactics pilots in the backer beta to test this, but it was listed in the beta abilities files, and at least one rank of the "called shot bonus" has been confirmed in the latest stream at tactics rank 6:

 

[Gorski123]

I don't see why you couldn't. I have seen only one time in 400+ hours of beta play that I damaged a 'Mech from two head hits in the same volley, but it wasn't from the same weapon. It was something like a ML and SRM hit in the same attack. So I think it's possible, it's just so unlikely that you may never see it in any one playthrough.

Do you remember if the pilot took 2 damage or just the mech?

I haven't seen more than one injury from multiple weapons in the same attack. That being said, if you are going scalp hunting, multiple mechs with multiple LRM15's with multitarget seems to be the way to go. 4 Trebs with 2x15's with multi target is two different mechs each turn with 4 chances for a heat hit. Chances are good to get one other two head shots per turn and that's a whole mech salvaged once per turn if you can get reliable headshots. Odds are better with twin 15's and called shot from 4 different mechs. This may be how I get my first Atlas now that I think about it.

The LRMs use a cluster mechanic for hit location. You get a 1% chance to hit the head with the first missile of each launcher. The rest of the missiles can't hit the head.

 

[stjobe]

if you are going scalp hunting, multiple mechs with multiple LRM15's with multitarget seems to be the way to go

Another way to go is of course a 6-MG Firestarter. Should be a pretty easy customisation, and since the Firestarter is a light chances are quite good you'll get one before you get two Trebuchets.

 

[Gorski123]

So far, Cohh's called head shots have been at 2% instead of 1%. Called shots to the leg add less than called shots to the torso. I have been watching Cohh's videos on youtube and pausing, but I still do not have the math figured out.

 

[Gorski123]

Another way to go is of course a 6-MG Firestarter. Should be a pretty easy customisation, and since the Firestarter is a light chances are quite good you'll get one before you get two Trebuchets.

Firestarter FTW!!!! I am more likely to go ammo hunting than head hunting though.

 

[stjobe]

Firestarter FTW!!!! I am more likely to go ammo hunting than head hunting though.

Ammo doesn't explode as easily as in TT; it takes two crits and the bins must be more than 50% full or they don't go boom at all.

 

[Amechwarrior]

I think I've seen a enemy lose both side torsos and only take 1 pilot hit pop up. There may be a limit to how many injuries a pilot can take per salvo. I know you can pop a torso and get a knockdown for 2 injuries. But anything else needs a closer look.

 

[Cyttorak001]

Do you remember if the pilot took 2 damage or just the mech?



The LRMs use a cluster mechanic for hit location. You get a 1% chance to hit the head with the first missile of each launcher. The rest of the missiles can't hit the head.

I don't remember if the pilot took 2 damage, because there was no way to check his health. I couldn't see his pips. I have no reason to believe he took less than 2 damage though.

Re: clustering mechanics. I have some doubts about that, given what I've seen in gameplay. I've seen head hits that came in the middle of the volley. The only way that could happen with the mechanic you describe is if the 1st missile hit was pre-rolled, then the devs randomized the missile animations. That seems like a lot of extra work just to hide a game mechanic, and I don't see why they would do it.

 

[HonorKnight]

I just did some testing with a lance of high-tactics Kintaros unloading all their SRMs on head called shots on a knocked-down Atlas (11% head hit chance due to the 7-tactics called shot skill, with 18 SRMs, so a pretty good odds every turn of getting 2 head shots), but even when 2 head hits occurred from the same Kintaro in the same turn, only one pilot injury occurred maximum for each of my attacking 'Mechs.

 

[Wanderer2142]

So we have the control results. Now to see what happens if you swap out all of the SRM6s with SRM2s?

 

[Cyttorak001]

I just did some testing with a lance of high-tactics Kintaros unloading all their SRMs on head called shots on a knocked-down Atlas (11% head hit chance due to the 7-tactics called shot skill, with 18 SRMs, so a pretty good odds every turn of getting 2 head shots), but even when 2 head hits occurred from the same Kintaro in the same turn, only one pilot injury occurred maximum for each of my attacking 'Mechs.

Helpful, but once again, beta.

 

[Bersercker]

I haven't seen more than one injury from multiple weapons in the same attack. That being said, if you are going scalp hunting, multiple mechs with multiple LRM15's with multitarget seems to be the way to go. 4 Trebs with 2x15's with multi target is two different mechs each turn with 4 chances for a heat hit. Chances are good to get one other two head shots per turn and that's a whole mech salvaged once per turn if you can get reliable headshots. Odds are better with twin 15's and called shot from 4 different mechs. This may be how I get my first Atlas now that I think about it.

I've had the same idea but then i watched cohn's stream and it seemed to me that he was swimming in mech parts while using the usual loadouts, so not sure if there is much reason to make a specialized "maximum salvage" loadout.

The LRMs use a cluster mechanic for hit location. You get a 1% chance to hit the head with the first missile of each launcher. The rest of the missiles can't hit the head.

Ah, makes sense i guess. Would have been pretty OP otherwise, even in multiplayer. Still, knockdowns should be pretty common with multiple lrm boats, and they cause injuries too.

What about MG's though? Doesn't seem like they should injure pilot at all, unless they've gone through the armor or something.

 

[P."Windfall"Bowman]

Personally I would go with high gunnery pilots with Breaching Shot and high tactics making use of PPCs ++ through called shots by the Precision Strike morale ability...

But I guess you gotta have to earn that first!

 

[HonorKnight]

What about MG's though? Doesn't seem like they should injure pilot at all, unless they've gone through the armor or something.

Any head hit injures the pilot (max in the beta of 1 for each of your attacking mechs each turn), even a measly 3 damage from a single machine gun bullet, or lower than that if they had cover or brace. So with machine guns' 5 shots and SRM6's 6 shots, each shot gets an independent chance of hitting the head an inflicting an injury, which can be enhanced by called shots and more so by the high-tactics buff to called shots. Combine that with injuries from knockdowns and injuries from side torso destruction, and there's a definite potential for intentional pilot kills.

 

[HonorKnight]

Personally I would go with high gunnery pilots with Breaching Shot and high tactics making use of PPCs ++ through called shots by the Precision Strike morale ability...

But I guess you gotta have to earn that first!

Yeah, as you field bigger weapons and start facing enemies with higher guts, there's definitely something to be said for going for outright cockpit destruction instead of taking out the pilot with little injuries here and there; although with anything less than an AC/20 it will still take at least 2 direct heat hits to destroy it. In the beta, called shots to the head could get as high as 13% on a side shot from an 8-tactics pilot. Who knows how high a 10-tactics pilot's called shot head accuracy could get?