Help a noobie understand critical hits

[Colonel__Klink]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Why are you sure about that?

Because physics lol. A 55 grain projectile 1/5th of an inch in diameter (that's what .223 refers to. "caliber" is a measurement of how wide the bore is in inches.) is not the same as a 4 lb, 4 inch wide cutting edge smashing into the rib cage. Some projectiles like the 5.56 have great kenetic energy but low momentum energy when compared (that's sort of the crushing blunt trauma effect you get from things like slings throwing heavy projectiles stopped by soft armor. )

This isn't media fantasy land where someone with an anti gun agenda is overstating the effectiveness of the ar-15 / M16 (I don't bother with the nonesense lie that they are two "very different rifles", in the USMC I was trained to fire my m16 semi auto only anyway, Save for a different trigger put in a differently cut lower receiver they are the same rifle.) It's a projectile that works but it doesn't obliterate the target. It's not as lousy in performance as pistol cartridges but you still see plenty of documentation of requiring several hits to down a target if something vital has not been hit. There's a reason why in the USMC we are trained to shoot multiple shots instead of fire and assess.

But that's another discussion altogether than gameplay mechanics.

Originally Posted by whswhs

I was wondering that myself. The kinetic energy of a 5.56mm rifle round is in the neighborhood of 1800 joules. A human fist blow has a lot less energy than that; I've seen various estimates, but if you set aside blows from heavyweight boxing champions, it looks as if the order of magnitude is about 1/10 as much. I'd expect an axe to have less kinetic energy than a bullet.

We see a lot of kinetic energy measurements. It's one way to understand energy. Another way is momentum energy. Momentum energy can help you understand from different perspectives, like how slings could and DID kill people wearing gambeson and mail even though the armor stopped the projectile easily. Compared to even low power handguns a sling provides very little kinetic energy, but they kill quite easily with lead projectiles even without hitting the face or head. It's kind of fascinating.