Precision Strikes effects - what do they do?

[Anelyn]

As title says, what are the exact effects (values if possible too and how long they last) of the various status effects you inflict using precision strikes.

Am asking because I managed to headshot a frog several times in this playthrough and it got dazzed and stunned (it said in text box that effects were applied) yet the frog acted normaly during it's turn (without being delayed / pushed back in the initiative bar) moving & attacking.

[imminence]

Here is a link:

http://wasteland.gamepedia.com/Status_effects#List_of_status_effects

I agree: These effects seem only to be of a certain effectiveness, when our rangers are hit.

I made similar experiences like the one you described:

* Shot a melee fighter into his arms; nevertheless he almost onehitted my sniper
* Shot a robot into head, status "processor fried" or the like; robot was not impressed and continued fighting like he did before

I could fill a book, but I guess, everyone knows, what I mean.

So, what do we have: Another bug or just something not worth to bother?

[Vardis]

Psychotic is what makes them start attacking everything. I've seen NPCs get delayed with stunned, although perhaps it just wasn't enough to make a difference in your case. Or maybe it's buggy. Hard to say.

[wendigo211]

The precision strikes have a strong, medium and weak effects. The effects on a single body part don't stack you only get the strongest one. However, you can have effects on multiple body parts.

• The head shots give you extra damage and I believe the weak effect (dazed, fried circuit) decreases their AP a bit (I've noticed melee enemies with head and leg shots don't move as far as enemies with just leg shots), while the strong effect (psychotic, BSOD) makes them wander around and they may attack their team mates. The medium effect is a stronger version of the weak effect.
  
• The torso shots decrease armor: scratched armor decreases armor by 1, damaged armor decreases armor by 2 and ruined armor decreases armor by 4.
  
• The weak and medium arm shots decrease enemy accuracy. It's not all that noticeable, because enemies get level 10 weapon skills pretty early and they don't use precision strikes, If you're in cover they'll miss you more often, but that's about it. The strong effect destroys an opponent's weapon. The weapon explosion can damage nearby units. (Note: I have destroyed a Slicer-Dicer's weapon and it had no effect, so this may not work on enemies with multiple attacks)
  
• The weak and medium leg shots decrease an enemy's movement speed, the strong effect knocks them down. This effect is pretty good against melee enemies.

Hopefully one of the devs can chime in with specific information like percentages and effect probabilities.

[Revolucas]

Precision strikes are awesome. You can stagger badgers and they can't move at all! Or if you have the stunning strike on your melee character and stun/staggered an enemy most enemies with low combat speed won't be able to move.

[Optimate]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Hopefully one of the devs can chime in with specific information like percentages and effect probabilities.

Would be interesting to know a bit more without getting bogged down in statistics. One thing I'm not clear on is if, say, you've got a 65% chance of pulling off a headshot or a 95% chance of just a hit does failing the 65% dice roll still give you a chance of a 'regular' hit, maybe not at the original 95% to reflect the greater chance of missing entirely when aiming away from the cenre of mass?

If not then perhaps precision strikes may be a bit of a waste of time as there appears to two dice rolls going on, one to see if you pull off the strike then another to see if that produces any real effect so far as the combat effectiveness of the unit goes. Like the OP I've pulled off precision strikes that appeared to have zero effect although I've also headshotted a robot that proceeded to veer around then crash into a wall in an amusing fashion when its turn came around.

[Vardis]

If you have a 65% chance of a headshot, you have a 35% chance to miss entirely.

[Optimate]

Originally posted by Vardis:

If you have a 65% chance of a headshot, you have a 35% chance to miss entirely.

If so then that makes a) little sense, as if you were aiming for, say, the arm of someone facing square on to you and miss then at least one of the quadrants your off target bullet might have strayed into should contain other bits of your target. And b) pretty much makes precision strikes something you'd only try for fun where you're bound to win anyway as, when you're in a crunch situation, you'll be better off going for a higher chance of doing general damage rather than a lower chance of a precision strike that, judging by people's experience, has a pretty good chance of doing only HP damage anyway without any special effect that would be helpful to you.

[Darkeus]

Originally posted by Optimate:

Originally posted by Vardis:

If you have a 65% chance of a headshot, you have a 35% chance to miss entirely.

If so then that makes a) little sense, as if you were aiming for, say, the arm of someone facing square on to you and miss then at least one of the quadrants your off target bullet might have strayed into should contain other bits of your target. And b) pretty much makes precision strikes something you'd only try for fun where you're bound to win anyway as, when you're in a crunch situation, you'll be better off going for a higher chance of doing general damage rather than a lower chance of a precision strike that, judging by people's experience, has a pretty good chance of doing only HP damage anyway without any special effect that would be helpful to you.

Why doesn't that make sense. It is a risk/reward thing. And I find, in my experience, that the status effects work just fine and are helpful. I just don't see where you are coming from I guess.

[Vardis]

I use precision strikes all the time, especially with my brawler, to damage enemy armor. But then I've got a char with 10 leadership, so after +20% to hit, the non-headshot precision strikes are still 100% to hit.

I also use headshots occasionally when I have one char left before an enemy attacks, and I think the extra damage might be enough to finish them off.

[wendigo211]

Yeah, counting mods and leadership my AR and sniper rifle users have a 165% chance to hit (175% in cover or crouching). My AR user has a 100% chance to land a head shot burst if the enemy isn't in cover. If they are in cover, he has to settle for the Tormentor bonus.

[SlicerDicer]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Yeah, counting mods and leadership my AR and sniper rifle users have a 165% chance to hit (175% in cover or crouching). My AR user has a 100% chance to land a head shot burst if the enemy isn't in cover. If they are in cover, he has to settle for the Tormentor bonus.

because of this i wish the individual precision strikes could be hotkeyed since i use them almost every shot :)

[Dorok]

In those contexts head shot isn't anymore a tactical option. That gameplay design element always end like that adding nothing to tactical depth just open some OP holes. Whiners of such mechanism never realize the problem.

I quoted in DC some perks to cancel the covering, that's also wrong design approach lowering tactical depth by providing a tool to cancel a major element of the game. But in fact that point is like insignificant with aiming base of 160%.

[Optimate]

Originally posted by Darkeus:

Why doesn't that make sense. It is a risk/reward thing. And I find, in my experience, that the status effects work just fine and are helpful. I just don't see where you are coming from I guess.

Like I said, it makes no sense as an emulation of the real world, where you're carefully aimed shot may miss the exact target but still do damage elsewhere. But as it's a game then fine, ignore the real world and view it as a game mechanic. In which case it still doesn't work well as you have a greater risk (of missing) but, it seems, no guarantee of any particular effect. Although reading some of the other posts it seems you can stack the stats such that you have a > 100% chance of hitting a target, which is a novel concept. By and large I think I prefer the X-COM combat approach as there's less fiddling around and the I go/They go method can provide some really brutal outcomes if you make a mess of it. WL2 is much easier, apart from the odd discobot and puppy I don't think I've lost any ranger - apart from the odd suicide charge against the turrets in Prison just to see how far the could get.

[Revolucas]

Originally posted by Dorok:

In those contexts head shot isn't anymore a tactical option. That gameplay design element always end like that adding nothing to tactical depth just open some OP holes. Whiners of such mechanism never realize the problem.

I quoted in DC some perks to cancel the covering, that's also wrong design approach lowering tactical depth by providing a tool to cancel a major element of the game. But in fact that point is like insignificant with aiming base of 160%.

Precision Shots are tactical. This opened up a lot of possiblities. Melee moving in too fast on your sniper? Shoot his legs and move your sniper into a better position. Gunner flanked your squadmate but he don't have CI to react before him next turn, shoot his arms and hope he misses. Animals too fast? Then stagger all of them so that they won't reach you. Want to do more damage with your Hand Guns then do body shots.

If you think these are OP, they aren't. The problem is they dumbed down difficulty in AZ way too much to the point where you can solo AZ without much of a problem on SJ with just about any build.

Originally posted by Optimate:

Originally posted by Darkeus:

Why doesn't that make sense. It is a risk/reward thing. And I find, in my experience, that the status effects work just fine and are helpful. I just don't see where you are coming from I guess.

Like I said, it makes no sense as an emulation of the real world, where you're carefully aimed shot may miss the exact target but still do damage elsewhere. But as it's a game then fine, ignore the real world and view it as a game mechanic. In which case it still doesn't work well as you have a greater risk (of missing) but, it seems, no guarantee of any particular effect. Although reading some of the other posts it seems you can stack the stats such that you have a > 100% chance of hitting a target, which is a novel concept. By and large I think I prefer the X-COM combat approach as there's less fiddling around and the I go/They go method can provide some really brutal outcomes if you make a mess of it. WL2 is much easier, apart from the odd discobot and puppy I don't think I've lost any ranger - apart from the odd suicide charge against the turrets in Prison just to see how far the could get.

I think you misunderstand what the percent means. It's an accuracy penalty to perform the skill. So why do you think that if you miss you should have a chance to hit other parts? If you miss a normal shot it is a flat out miss.

[Darkeus]

Originally posted by Optimate:

Originally posted by Darkeus:

Why doesn't that make sense. It is a risk/reward thing. And I find, in my experience, that the status effects work just fine and are helpful. I just don't see where you are coming from I guess.

Like I said, it makes no sense as an emulation of the real world, where you're carefully aimed shot may miss the exact target but still do damage elsewhere. But as it's a game then fine, ignore the real world and view it as a game mechanic. In which case it still doesn't work well as you have a greater risk (of missing) but, it seems, no guarantee of any particular effect. Although reading some of the other posts it seems you can stack the stats such that you have a > 100% chance of hitting a target, which is a novel concept. By and large I think I prefer the X-COM combat approach as there's less fiddling around and the I go/They go method can provide some really brutal outcomes if you make a mess of it. WL2 is much easier, apart from the odd discobot and puppy I don't think I've lost any ranger - apart from the odd suicide charge against the turrets in Prison just to see how far the could get.

Stop right there.

It is a game. It is not a simulation game. I am not looking for the real world.

Why does it not make sense in a video game aspect. And you seem not to understand that as well. Why should I have a chance to hit every attack in a video game? That just hurts the balance of the game as I have a chance to do damage every turn and much less chance to actually miss. It is hit or miss and balanced around hit or miss.

I just still don't see where you are coming from.