Desperate Measures, the expansion for MechCommander 1, introduced LB-X versions of Autocannons. Exactly how they work is a bit nebulous, but combining the in-game information, the official strategy guide, and player-created guides, it seems that each shot either connects or doesn’t (there aren’t separate hit chance calculations), and then if the shot does hit, damage is spread across areas adjacent to the hit — apparently even including to the firing mech if the target is close enough to it.
Combining this information with weapon stats, the expected outcome is a variant of ACs that does more raw DPS, but with less “punch” or penetration because the damage gets distributed across more areas of an enemy mech and so will tend to hit armor instead of managing to deal internal structure damage. That seems like a reasonable-enough tradeoff especially given that they have more generous ammo reserves than the non LB-X versions.
In reality, their DPS is actually atrocious, and I don’t know why.
Continue reading “Something seems horribly, horribly wrong with LB-X Autocannon damage in MechCommander”