Critical Hits

[Kanhef]

Not a definitive answer yet, but against humans there's a triple-damage, armor-bypassing critical that knocks the target down and may knock them unconscious. With burst weapons that usually means death. For example, if only half the bullets hit, a minigun will do around 500 damage. A point-blank 10mm SMG would do about 250.

 

[ocelot]

Aha, triple, eh. That would mean, then, that it's not possible to do 400hp of damage with a single blast of any weapon. I thought earlier that it would be possible with a really lucky Rocket Launcher critical, but if unaimed shots never do 4x damage, that aint happening.

 

[ints]

When you get a critical hit it rolls a d100 on a table from 1-100, with results that depend on creature type and hit location (the tables for brahmin can be found in the Fallout Bible). Better Criticals adds 20 to the roll, improving criticals overall and more importantly unlocking instant kills above 100. It's one of the best perks.

Just to be clear, with Better Criticals is it a roll of d100 on a table of 21-120? http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Aimed_Shot

 

[wjelo]

I examined this very topic altogether with some Fallout wiki articles like:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Aimed_Shot
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Critical_hit
etc
and some guides as well. This made me wonder about all that Aimed Shots vs Fast Shot Trait issue again.
As far as FO1 is concerned, in the beginning having the trait allows to shoot twice per round with 8/9 Action Points, whilst a character without it is able to do it only once. Later on, with Bonus Rate of Fire you also can shoot TPR twice as much. This pretty much means to me that to make it up, Aimed Shots would have to double the damage (on average). Is it so? Surprisingly I could not find any statistics of the possible multipliers for non-aimed shots.

Oh, what is more, when aiming, you have to click twice as much to shoot. ;D j/k

 

[OnGame900]

I've always assumed there isn't, and therefore never tested it, but is there any benefit to making an aimed shot and then aiming for the torso? If there's no benefit, why is the option there? to trick us? To waste an action point? (related: could it be modded so that it DOES create a slight advantage? Might be nice for adding a bit more dynamic to combat.)

Meanwhile, rats definitely have an easy instant kill critical. "You crush the rat's skull like a wet paper bag." This implies that every critter has a somewhat unique critical table. (also, head/eye shots to mutated mole rats is THE best way to get experience at the Gecko part of the game. It IS almost a glitch.)

It always seemed to me like better critical results were unlocked as I leveled up. This can easily be explained by gaining skill points, thus better aimed shots, and by gaining the bonus crit damage as levels increase, but there might be an element of level checks as well. Something to consider.

 

[Per]

Meanwhile, rats definitely have an easy instant kill critical. "You crush the rat's skull like a wet paper bag." This implies that every critter has a somewhat unique critical table.

They have. Rocketbots have instant kill crits for "head" shots but not "eye" shots, for instance.

 

[wjelo]

I've always assumed there isn't, and therefore never tested it, but is there any benefit to making an aimed shot and then aiming for the torso? If there's no benefit, why is the option there? to trick us? To waste an action point? (related: could it be modded so that it DOES create a slight advantage? Might be nice for adding a bit more dynamic to combat.)

http://falloutmods.wikia.com/wiki/Critical_hit_tables

The uncalled tables are (almost) identical to the torso ones, and so are not listed here.

They probably overlooked it just like many other things in original Fallout games.

More on the critical hit chance: http://fonlinedocs.netii.net/fo2calg.pdf
I don't fully understand it, but that's not surprising since I'm a maths dummy and it isn't explained thoroughly enough for ignorants.