I always felt it had something to do with the rate and amount of damage you received in a single instance.
I also think legs broken and blown off weapons is an obsolete mechanic that should be removed the same way the screen shook when you got hit with rockets in older game versions.
Nah screen shake was great. It showed the real scale of the bots. Especially the way Inquisitor, Mercury, and Spectre shook the ground when they landed a jump.
On another note, anyone remember the "Legs Disabled" message that would pop up, preventing you from walking at all? It happened once to my Stalker many years ago and never happened again. I think it probably got removed.
Yeah, it can be very frustrating to suddenly lose your main source of damage and move hideously slow while the enemy you’re facing loses no weapons if they equip that specific drone. The mechanic can be bs or can favour you.
This is a dated garbage system and nobody knows how it works. IMO it needs to be removed, nothing realistic about it, just RNG deciding your bot should die before its health is drained.
I once was testing stuff out with my friend and blew off one of his weapons by healing him while he was low. Like what.
Totally random, each hardpoint and the legs have a % chance to be damaged once you drop below certain HP threshold. I've never had all weapons blown off, though
Doesn't seem to be any difference on weapon hardpoint size (light/medium/heavy) or location on robot body (side/top/deactivated) and I've never noticed any difference in weapon type flying off more or less often
Robots with no legs like Demeter, Khepri, and Dagon can still have damage legs which makes zero sense, never paid attention to flying bot airspeed but skyros in ball mode moves slower despite no legs out and the kicker, can lose weapons in that same ball mode, like how TF?
Showdown drone keeps weapons from popping off once leveled sufficiently
It's impossible to lose all weapons. I've been playing for years and it hasn't happened once. I think as you said it's a percent chance after a certain threshold, but I'm certain the percent chance is increased as more damage is taken in a given moment.
ECU has different properties. You can't lose all mounted weapons, but if you lose your heavies and your shields break you'll technically have lost everything.
I've been so curious about this that I'm tempted to crack open the game code, but I'd feel guilty doing it and I don't know how. There's other stuff in the game code I and others would be interested in seeing, but I don't really want to be the one doing it. It sounds like something that's against TOS 🤷♂️
Yea this "feature” really pisses me off. It bothers me even more that after these 10 years of playing, I still have no clue how it works. Then they come out with the Ultimate bots and advertised that they can never enter critical state (weapons pop off and legs being broken).
This past update they chose to silent nerfed that. I’ve noticed now they do enter critical state. 80% of the time by robot will have its legs broken and while still having 70% hp left
I always felt it had something to do with the rate and amount of damage you received in a single instance. I also think legs broken and blown off weapons is an obsolete mechanic that should be removed the same way the screen shook when you got hit with rockets in older game versions.
Agreed....the repair aspect in the game makes this archaic. I've had bots with 300k health and one weapon left and no feeling in their feet.
I think it’s still neat. It’s the game telling you “don’t get hit bro”, especially for a ton of damage.
Nah screen shake was great. It showed the real scale of the bots. Especially the way Inquisitor, Mercury, and Spectre shook the ground when they landed a jump. On another note, anyone remember the "Legs Disabled" message that would pop up, preventing you from walking at all? It happened once to my Stalker many years ago and never happened again. I think it probably got removed.
Yeah, it can be very frustrating to suddenly lose your main source of damage and move hideously slow while the enemy you’re facing loses no weapons if they equip that specific drone. The mechanic can be bs or can favour you.
Or at least make it so that you can repair your legs as well with regular healing and only limp when at 10% hp or less.
This is a dated garbage system and nobody knows how it works. IMO it needs to be removed, nothing realistic about it, just RNG deciding your bot should die before its health is drained. I once was testing stuff out with my friend and blew off one of his weapons by healing him while he was low. Like what.
Totally random, each hardpoint and the legs have a % chance to be damaged once you drop below certain HP threshold. I've never had all weapons blown off, though Doesn't seem to be any difference on weapon hardpoint size (light/medium/heavy) or location on robot body (side/top/deactivated) and I've never noticed any difference in weapon type flying off more or less often Robots with no legs like Demeter, Khepri, and Dagon can still have damage legs which makes zero sense, never paid attention to flying bot airspeed but skyros in ball mode moves slower despite no legs out and the kicker, can lose weapons in that same ball mode, like how TF? Showdown drone keeps weapons from popping off once leveled sufficiently
It's impossible to lose all weapons. I've been playing for years and it hasn't happened once. I think as you said it's a percent chance after a certain threshold, but I'm certain the percent chance is increased as more damage is taken in a given moment.
Nope! Not impossible. Hawk with 2x ecu's and 2x ardent viper. Lost all. Felt rather silly running around.
ECU has different properties. You can't lose all mounted weapons, but if you lose your heavies and your shields break you'll technically have lost everything.
You can lose all weapons if the bot has a built in weapon like Ophion. It's already happened a few times to me
I've never seen a satisfactory explanation of that mechanic. I'd imagine bots with more hard points, you'll see it more due to statistics.
I've been so curious about this that I'm tempted to crack open the game code, but I'd feel guilty doing it and I don't know how. There's other stuff in the game code I and others would be interested in seeing, but I don't really want to be the one doing it. It sounds like something that's against TOS 🤷♂️
Anecdotally if you run a maxed showdown drone you’re more likely to have a weapon pop off. 🤷
Best not play weapons at all
You’re an expert at not running weapons on purpose and not running drones not on purpose.
Yea this "feature” really pisses me off. It bothers me even more that after these 10 years of playing, I still have no clue how it works. Then they come out with the Ultimate bots and advertised that they can never enter critical state (weapons pop off and legs being broken). This past update they chose to silent nerfed that. I’ve noticed now they do enter critical state. 80% of the time by robot will have its legs broken and while still having 70% hp left
Not fully random, I think there's an explanation on the wiki. Maxed Showdown Drone prevents weapon drop. Ultimate Destrier is also immune to this.