The following information was found via a passing analysis of the 2238 source code. It is meant solely to inform, and not to suggest or demand changes nor to make any claims about game balance. If anyone finds any other juicy tidbits feel free to contribute to the thread.
ALL ABOUT CRITICALS
- Every damage multiplier on the critical table is actually bit-shifted 1 to the right, meaning it is divided by 2. I'm assuming this is because since the critical table is a huge array of integers, you can't have non whole numbers in the table (or they would just drop the decimal). So if you see values like 6, 7 and 8 in the critical table, in reality they are actually 3, 3.5 and 4 respectively.
- The Player crit table is not used by FOnline at all. The Player table was meant for you as the PC in the single player Fallout 2; this is probably because the textbox messages you received in the single player game for being critically hit were vastly different than everyone else. For you and other players the Men and Women critical tables are used.
- According to the Men and Women crit tables, critical bypasses largely only occur on critical rolls of 91 or more. Realistically this means that bypasses against players in a practical PvP setting are extremely rare if not impossible given their likely armor/traits/perks.
- Finesse has a "hidden bonus" of reducing the enemy's crit chance modifier on his armor by 25%, which stacks with the 50% from Right Between the Eyes in the case of helmets.
- Interestingly, everyone receives another "hidden" bonus chance to crit based on the results of their to-hit roll; a random number between 1 and 100 is subtracted from your to-hit value (your total hit chance after the formula on the wiki, clamped between 5 and 95). The difference between the random roll result and your to-hit is integer-divided by 10 then added to your critical chance. This means that a character with 1% chance to crit normally would in practice have anywhere between a 1% and 10% chance to cause a critical hit.
Example: You have 95% chance to hit. You shoot and your to-hit roll result is 50. The margin (95 - 50 = 45) is divided by 10 and the remainder removed, making 4. 4 is added to your total critical chance for that particular shot.
ALL ABOUT BURSTS
Bursts, with the exception of shotgun bursts, generally fire 3 volleys: center, left and right. This is to simulate a "cone" effect at range. There is an initial volley of rounds/6 which travels down the center, a left volley of (rounds+1)/3 that travels slightly off-center to the left, and a right volley of rounds/3 that travels slightly off-center to the right. The remaining bullets in the burst will go down the center in a second volley (rounds - rounds/6 - (rounds+1)/3 - rounds/3). The initial, left and right volleys are integer-divided and thus rounded down. However, the initial volley will always contain 1 bullet at minimum. This is more or less the vanilla burst behavior of FO1/FO2, adapted for FOnline.
The initial volley is necessary because without it you'll literally shoot under the legs of someone who's one hex away from you. Now, let's say you're aiming at someone far away but a critter is blocking the path (at range). The blocker will absorb the second center volley (total rounds - rounds/6 - (rounds+1)/3 - rounds/3) and the guy you're aiming at will take the initial volley (rounds/6).
At a range of one hex, the blocker would take both the center, left and right lines (rounds - rounds/6) and the guy you're aiming at would eat the initial volley (rounds/6). If you're bursting a target at one hex, it's reasonable to assume that all three volleys and therefore all bullets will connect with your target.
So, what does this mean in a practical fight? It means that even if your gun bursts 40 bullets, the expectation is that roughly 1/3 of the fired rounds will connect with the intended target at range, assuming no misses.
Example: The Avenger Minigun fires 40 rounds.
Initial Volley: 40/6 = 6.6667, rounded down => 6 rounds
Left Volley: 41/3 = 13.6667, rounded down => 13 rounds
Right Volley: 40/3 = 13.3333, rounded down => 13 rounds
Second Center Volley: 40 - 6 - 13 - 13 = 8 rounds
The Avenger Minigun bursts 6 + 8 = 14 rounds at a ranged target.
Topic: "Hidden" Mechanics Thread (Read 8123 times)