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High-Damage Critical

**Update (Jan. 28th, 2024)!**

Notable updates include:

Three new versions:
Version 1: Increases Outer Explosion damage to 12.5; increases radius to 50 m. (This is now the currently active version on Steam.)
Version 3: Increases Outer Explosion damage to 50; increases radius to 75 m
Version 4: Increases Outer Explosion damage to 10,000; increases radius to 100 m

- Added AoE explosion damage falloff curve to mod to improve damage falloff consistency
- Removed Inner Explosion (as it served little purpose and complicated calculations for player and myself)
- Slightly increased speed of explosion damage (from 120 m/sec to 150 m/sec)

In addition, Version 2 (the original version) has been updated to include the adjusted damage falloff curve. (This version has been moved to NexusMods.)

Enjoy!

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Summary:

Increases critical explosion damage.

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Reason for Mod, and Overview:

Some people were asking for a higher-damage version of critical explosions after the mod I made, “Enhanced Critical” ( https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940640271 / https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/848 ), increased the damage of the primary/outer explosion from 5 area-of-effect (AoE) to 8 some time ago. (It no longer increases damage as of Jan. 27th, 2024.) After thinking about it for a bit – and after reading some reasonings that people had – I agreed with them, and created this.

This mod increases the damage of the outer critical explosion; reduces the damage of the inner explosion to 0; and increases the radius of the outer explosion, depending on the version. (In case you were not previously aware, there is a second, much more highly-damaging explosion that exists - one I never knew about until I made this mod, initially!)

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Statistics:

This is how the vanilla game’s critical explosion damage originally operates:

Inner Explosion:
Explosion Damage: 100 dmg AoE
Explosion Radius: 10 m
Explosion Speed: 10 m/sec

Outer Explosion:
Explosion Damage: 5 dmg AoE
Explosion Radius: 45 m
Explosion Speed: 45 m/sec

This is how the modded versions operate:

Inner Explosion:
Explosion Damage: 0

Outer Explosion:
Explosion Damage: [Depends on version of mod]
Explosion Radius: [Depends on version of mod]
Explosion Speed: 150 m/sec

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On Damage Calculations:

MW5 calculates AoE damage (occurs only from critical explosions, tanks (the ones that shoot at you), and pipes/containers) based on a damage falloff curve, which determines how much damage an object takes based on its distance from the centre of an explosion. The closer to the centre of the explosion, the more damage is taken.

As a result, explosions at the centre of a critical explosion would normally result in damage from the Inner Explosion – which would be at its maximum (in vanilla) – in addition to the Outer Explosion’s damage. As the Inner Explosion’s radius was so small, and the explosion’s velocity was so slow, that it was highly situational, I removed it in order to improve damage consistency. This also makes calculating how much damage might get taken in real-time (while playing) easier to determine, as there is only one calculation to worry about. (There is only one damage source; one explosion radius; and one explosion speed.)

Significant damage can still be taken depending on how close to the centre one is by the time the explosion reaches the player (based on the “Explosion Speed” parameter), but higher-damage versions may be more appealing for those looking for even more damage to be taken near the edge of the Outer Explosion’s radius!

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Conclusion/In Closing:

As evidenced, explosion damage is much faster than vanilla; meaning that players will have less time to escape. Thus, this version is less forgiving (and more realistic), while still giving players an extra, small chance to mitigate damage.

This should make things more threatening when getting involved in close-quarters combat with other ‘Mechs, so users should be much more fearful of how powerful the explosion of a nuclear reactor of the 31st millennium can be. (Higher damage versions will be much more damaging; including a version that is outright fatal!)

I hope you enjoy. :) (Don’t die! ...Or do... For “science”!)

- Masters

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Note:

For those wishing to have improved smoothness/falloff to AoE damage, make sure to load after/above any mods that affect AoE damage curves. Otherwise, the mod can be loaded as is. (A load order manager mod can be found here for those that would like assistance: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/174 .)

Also Note:

Sadly, this mod will conflict with the full version (Version 1) of my mod “Enhanced Critical” due to having to alter the parameter/asset that governs the radius in which ‘Mechs will try to avoid damage from critical explosions. Without modifying this in Enhanced Critical, the collision-based VFX would not be able to operate correctly. (This is seemingly an issue with MW5 and how it handles collision, unfortunately.)

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**A word of warning!!**:

Be careful with your ‘Mechs if you can help it while using this mod – especially so for higher-damage versions!

After some testing, I have noticed that the A.I. sometimes tends to stop moving after they have killed an enemy, or will ignore critical explosions once a meltdown has started. This behaviour did not appear to be present before the March 2023 update to the A.I., and, as such, ‘Mechs have a tendency to stay within or not avoid the blast radius of critical explosions. (This is current as of the updated Jan. 28th, 2024 versions.)

Unfortunately, I cannot help this problem. It is quite frustrating, as this can make using this mod a more of a liability than a feature for play that involves using A.I. ‘Mechs.

Until the A.I. is improved (if this aspect is ever improved), be very careful, or reserve this for full-multiplayer-lance-only play.

- Masters

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Other mods by me!:
Alternate Flamer Visuals: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948400310
Better Cantina Rewards: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3120764649
Dimmer Loot Beam: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940186998
Enhanced Critical: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940640271
Enhanced ‘Mech Traits: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2983473695
High-Damage Critical: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2953761510
Improved Airstrike: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940220051
Increased Enemy Difficulty: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2953775337
Increased Treefall Animation Rate ("The 'Timber' Mod!"): https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940172839
Increased Warzone Rewards: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948334069
Increased Warzone Rewards (Light): https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2949647321
Party Critical: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2955735109
Projectile-based Machine Guns: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2871120748
Re-balanced and Expanded Jump Jets: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2953691075
Re-balanced and Expanded ‘Mechs: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3085013956
Re-balanced and Expanded Weapons (My main mod): https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2869025156

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I now have a Ko-fi!

Contribute here if you’d like to: https://ko-fi.com/altamasters1011 :)