Headshot Magnet

[Jiamil]

So... I read that some people haven't had a loss due to one-shot-Headshots in hundreds of hours. I currently get a headshot which is killing the pilot right away in every second mission. Very frustrating, so, is there a mod that at least prevents random pilot kills due to the RNG being biased against me (seemingly)?

[pete]

Nope - buy cockpit protection equipment - problem solved.

Can't help you with the confirmation bias

[Jiamil]

Is the cockpit protection also helping with weapons taking out the head with 1 shot completely?

[Hark]

This doesn't answer your question directly, but it might be useful info for someone out there - in BEX the longest I've gone without taking a 1-tap headshot is well over 800 hours of no-frills 5-skull $ farming and ComStar hunting.

In BEX I always use pilots that have +1 HP and also always use the CockPit Mod++. These two factors go a long way towards saving pilots, especially on ironman against tough enemies. It will save the meat. The only mech I won't use a Cockpit Mod on in BEX is the mech I have the main character use, since they're immortal (they get a Rangefinder++).

Which reminds me....... OP, use your main character as your lance vanguard. They cannot technically die, so always have them be your tank. Rotate as necessary later in fights, but try to always open with that character, SWAT style.

[wesnef]

Originally posted by pete:

Nope - buy cockpit protection equipment - problem solved.

Well, it won't help you with "the whole head got blowed off!" issues. :D

[pete]

Originally posted by wesnef:

Originally posted by pete:

Nope - buy cockpit protection equipment - problem solved.

Well, it won't help you with "the whole head got blowed off!" issues. :D

True - but an AC20 to the head - well - its an AC20 to the head

[Wantoomany]

Originally posted by Jiamil:

Is the cockpit protection also helping with weapons taking out the head with 1 shot completely?

There are very few NPC controlled weapons, in the vanilla game, that can take out a head with a single shot. Staying out of range of an AC20 and focus firing on mechs with big guns is just good tactical sense.

[Big mean bunny]

There will be one because all the anti heroes in the campaign have a mechwarrior trait that stops head shots. But if you modded that and then ran round in a marauder head sniping that would be supremely unsporting. One shot vanilla weapons are AC10/20 and Gauss but if you have been hit once by any other the list expands dramatically. Up armouring cockpits is a great idea taking even a single point off is amplifying a weak spot.

[Scribonius]

Originally posted by pete:

Can't help you with the confirmation bias

Well I don't know about confirmation bias, but I have been headshot in 16 of my last 20 missions while getting 3 on them... I know that I'm just having horrid luck this campaign but at some point it becomes absurd. I literally stoped using a mech because it was being headshot every mission I ran it, feels cursed at this point.

[danko9696]

Originally posted by Scribonius:

Well I don't know about confirmation bias, but I have been headshot in 16 of my last 20 missions while getting 3 on them... I know that I'm just having horrid luck this campaign but at some point it becomes absurd. I literally stoped using a mech because it was being headshot every mission I ran it, feels cursed at this point.

It can be confirmation bias, it can be bad luck and also it can be the playstyle or a combination of these. If you take a lot of hits (tanking a lot) then chances are you'll take head damage as well quite often over full missions. That's to be expected.

In contrast if you take a more defensive approach, attacking from long range most of the time (with no tank) and avoiding combat by blocking LoS until you have the advantage, that should result in less hits taken and a lot head injuries as well.

[Scribonius]

Originally posted by danko9696:

It can be confirmation bias, it can be bad luck and also it can be the playstyle or a combination of these. If you take a lot of hits (tanking a lot) then chances are you'll take head damage as well quite often over full missions. That's to be expected.

I do take a lot of hits, so I'm not too surprised that I would be headshot occasionally. The thing that irritates me is that I also make tons of hits, but in contrast I don't get many headshots. I currently have a mech run 55 LRMs, have had it fire maybe 1000 rounds so far, and have had 0 headshots. It has taken maybe 20ish shots and has already been headshot. At some point you have to wonder how bad your luck can actually be.

[Lord-Knight Fandragon]

Originally posted by Scribonius:

I do take a lot of hits, so I'm not too surprised that I would be headshot occasionally. The thing that irritates me is that I also make tons of hits, but in contrast I don't get many headshots. I currently have a mech run 55 LRMs, have had it fire maybe 1000 rounds so far, and have had 0 headshots. It has taken maybe 20ish shots and has already been headshot. At some point you have to wonder how bad your luck can actually be.

LOL, when it comes to RNG, mine might be in the top 100 worst, or maybe even top 50. I could write a novel on all the times RNG alone has screwed me over in games. Not neccesarily this one, but games with RNG in general.....

Playing Adv. Squad Leader in a Coop/PVE dynamic campaign with my dad. First shot from my Panzer IV, breaks the gun. I spend like 5 rounds trying to fix the gun, fix it, first shot, broke again. I took control of the 88mm FLAK gun, first shot, broke it. I then commenced to spend the rest of the game with between 20-30 Firepower on a table that caps out at 36 Firepower, doing basically 0 dmg and not having any effect on the enemy. BAsically I spent an entire game and amounted to break my own ♥♥♥♥ like 3x on the first shot. It was pretty infuriating.

Or the time playing the board game Wizkids Clix Mechwarrior AoD. I rolled like 3 consecutive critical misses and in that same time, my dad rolled like 2 Critical hits on me all within the same 3 turn time frame.

Or the time I absolutely hammered my brother's biggest mech down to like 2 points from dead, but ofc, my dice wouldnt allow me to finish it off. He simply fell back and repaired it all the way back up to full health.

Or another time, I brought the big fat Ares Mechs out and over heated my Zeus Ares. I did like 7 damage out of 23 points of health in ammo explosion failures. Meanwhile, up to that point, my opponent hadnt even scratched me.

Another time, I brought cover ignoring streak missiles and lined up behind a blocking terrain piece. My opponent obliged me and walked right into range, so for like 3 turns, I was sitting there firing away with my 3 mechs. Miss after miss after miss after miss.....then he finally came around the terrain and mopped the floor wiht my units.

THen there was another wonderful time. I took like 3 turns to set up this big ass fire formation, I had like 19 Attack Value and it was directed at like 22 Defense. Keep in mind, the game is played on 3d6, sooooo, its 3d6+Your total Attack value. Soooooo, 19 into a 22, what is that? 3 point difference? Yeah, you LITERALLY cant miss unless you critically miss. You'll never guess what I rolled.....

Another time, still wizkids MEchwarrior. I got done mopping the floor with my dad's force. Like, decimated all 3 of this mechs, and he was down to basically a group of infantry. His only hope was a critical hit against my fully healthy Atlas assault mech. He needed a critical hit to succeed.....that is double 6s on the same color die out of the 3d6. Well...he got it and I lost.....

Yeah.....thats just that game. I could go on with World of Tanks nad World of Warships, but I think you get the idea, Dice ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate me.

[revenantsknight]

Originally posted by Scribonius:

I do take a lot of hits, so I'm not too surprised that I would be headshot occasionally. The thing that irritates me is that I also make tons of hits, but in contrast I don't get many headshots. I currently have a mech run 55 LRMs, have had it fire maybe 1000 rounds so far, and have had 0 headshots. It has taken maybe 20ish shots and has already been headshot. At some point you have to wonder how bad your luck can actually be.

It's not your luck. LRMs have a large, not well documented penalty to headshots - IIRC if the first missile doesn't roll a headshot, none of the others in the salvo can. If a lot of your outgoing fire are LRMs, that would explain much of why you get fewer headshots than the OpFor. This is true for some/all of the other salvo weapons; forgot if there's an exception lurking in the mix somewhere. Also, if a lot of your hits come when you have DR (cover, Bulwark, etc.) you'll of course survive to take more hits, while if you catch your targets in the open they'll tend to pop easier (and die before they catch random plinks to the head.)

Headshots aren't really worth considering until your pilots get Tactics 9 (Called Shot Mastery) and it takes a Tactics 9 pilot in a Marauder set up for the job to make headcapping truly reliable. Some other 'Mechs like the Annihilator can also put up decent chances, though they have a greater chance to accidentally core the target than a MAD.

[Scribonius]

Originally posted by revenantsknight:

It's not your luck. LRMs have a large, not well documented penalty to headshots - IIRC if the first missile doesn't roll a headshot, none of the others in the salvo can.

Well then I feel even worse about the mission I ran 3 time and got by LRM head shots 3 times... that aside this makes sense, thank you for telling me. Most of my fire is not missiles though, I just got some decent missile mechs going recently, so that wouldn't be why I'm not getting headshots. I probably am just getting really baad luck, since I also can't get my aimed shots to hit what I aim at more often then not.

[Lord-Knight Fandragon]

10 Tactics Pilot+Marauder, throw in some ER weaponry for even more range and accuracy. Add more + TTS to your mechs and it can start to feel like cheating.

My Marauder with 4 of my KR ERLL(No I didnt magically jack all the stats up on these), gets headshots like mad. Last game I played, I head shot 3/8 of the enemy mechs out of like 5 attempts. One game, I literally did 4/4. Marauders are OP. 38% Called Shot headhit modifier anyone?

[roy2x]

Insta kill headshots are rare. Only happened to me twice in all my gametime iirc and one was from a melee hit. Headshots from smaller weapons like srms and medium lasers though I get that every few or so missions and I can accept that. Statistically speaking with the volume of fire you are getting from the enemies one of those shots are going to hit the cockpit.