Carbineer Archive

Just to keep my Carbineer brethren and sistren up-to-date. This will be of particular interest to those of you with Laser Carbines:

For the past week, I have steeped myself in the way Armor Piercing and Armor Resistances work. I have done a great deal of testing, which can be found in various posts around the forums. My testing found that, at least in the PvE game, armor works exactly like it is described in the Armor Guide.

I logged in tonight to discover that it no longer works that way. In fact, it seems very, very broken.

Test #1

Corellian vynocks have no armor (AR0) and no energy resistance. When I shoot a vynock with my T21 (AP3), what SHOULD happen is that the Base Damage (i.e. the damage that shows up in the battlespam) will be multiplied by a Resistance and Armor Factor (RAF) according to the following formula:
RAF = [(1.25)^3]

Tonight, when I went out to work on my Corellian Scouting report, I noticed that I was doing much less damage than usual. Under ordinary circumstances, I can one-shot a vynock with Headshot 2 every single time. Tonight I was surprised to discover that Headshot 2 was NOT insta-killing these low-level critters.

http://www.erols.com/aburner/swg/vynock1.jpg

http://www.erols.com/aburner/swg/vynock2.jpg

Both of these screenshots are of me shooting a vynock with a T21 rifle using Headshot 2. In both cases you will note that the Floaty Damage is identical to the Base Damage shown in the Battlespam. Which means that the Armor Piercing Bonus was negated.


Test #2

A giant gubbur has no armor and 10% energy resistance. Shooting one of these with a T21 should provide an RAF of:
RAF = [(1.25)^3] * (0.90)

When I shot a few test subjects, I got the following results:

http://www.erols.com/aburner/swg/gubbur1.jpg

http://www.erols.com/aburner/swg/gubbur2.jpg

Curious, I ran some calculations:

Base      Floaty      RAF
--------------------------
983        791       0.805
742        596       0.803

These results are consistent with what the situation would be if there were no Armor Piercing bonus and if the gubbur had a resistance of 20% instead of 10%.

"Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice.

The fact that 20% is double the actual 10% resistance seemed too coincidental to me, so I ran some further tests.


Test #3

Razor cat cubs have no armor and are 5% resistant to energy. Shooting one under normal circumstances with a T21 should give me an RAF of:
RAF = [(1.25)^3] * (0.95).

Actual field test results show:

Base      Floaty      RAF
--------------------------
714        644       0.902

This is the RAF you'd get if the Armor Piercing Bonus were negated, and the Energy Resistance was 10% instead of 5%.

So vs. the gubburs, a 10% resistance turned into a 20% resistance. And vs. the razor cat cub, a 5% resistance turned into a 10% resistance. I think a trend is forming.


Test #4

Rogue bagerasets have no armor and 20% Energy Resistance. Under normal circumstances, shooting with my T21, my RAF would be [(1.25)^3] * (0.80)

However, since tonight doesn't appear to be normal, I predict that tonight I will actually get an RAF of (0.60). Test data below:

Base      Floaty      RAF
--------------------------
1383       843       0.609

As before, this is consistent with a circumstance where the Armor Piercing Bonus from my AP3 weapon is negated, and the creature has 40% Energy Resistance instead of 20%.

I shot a few more things, both with my T21 and my Laser Rifle. They all confirm the following:

If you are shooting a critter with a weapon with an Armor Piercing rating EQUAL TO OR HIGHER THAN the Armor rating of the critter, you will not get an Armor Piercing bonus AND the actual resistance of the critter will be double the listed value.

------------------------------------------

But what happens in the case where I'm shooting a critter with a weapon that has a lower AP rating than the AR of the critter?

With that question in mind, I went and found some violent krahbu. Violent krahbu have Light Armor, and have 15% Energy Resistance besides. My DLT20a rifle has no armor piercing ability. Under normal circumstances, the RAF for this situation would be:
RAF = [(0.50)^1] * (0.85)

Here are the actual results:

http://www.erols.com/aburner/swg/krahbu1.jpg

http://www.erols.com/aburner/swg/krahbu2.jpg

Base      Floaty      RAF
--------------------------
669        619       0.925
864        800       0.926

This is consistent with a situation where the armor penalty is negated and the critter had an Energy Resistance of 7.5%. Which is half of 15%.

Therefore:

If you are shooting a critter with a weapon with an Armor Piercing rating LOWER THAN the Armor rating of the critter, you will not suffer an Armor Piercing penalty AND the actual resistance of the critter will be half the listed value.

Well done, SOE. Give yourselves a great big round of applause.

Volsted Gridban
4/4/4/0 Ranger, Master Rifleman,
Surveyor of planetary resources. Purveyor of animal resources.
Author of Volsted's Weapon Analysis Guide, Volsted's Power Fishing Guide,
and Volsted's Animal Resource Guide
Draining MMORPG combat mechanics through the Mighty Sieve of Mathematics since 1999

Yes, it appears that armor rating got screwed up even more. It wasn't like this on the TC, so I assume they did some internal changes. Also, I have been reading about another 75% reduction in PVP and seeing people do 50 damage.

thanks for the break down of what's going on, I thought some of the numbers I saw when I got on really fast seemed wrong. How could they **edit** up our profession more, what's wrong with these people?

Thank you Volsted Gridban, for your concise and precise testing. I'll grab my EE3 before heading out.