Basic Ammo Three-Shot Cyclops Kill | Semi*-Raw Footage | Elite Dangerous: Odyssey

Channel:

CMDR The Riz

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505

Published on January 17, 2023 2:51:36 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwKpGoLVy-I

Game:

Elite: Dangerous (2014)

Duration: 1:03

2,100 views

40

A few nights back I was experimenting with how many shots I can land on a Cyclops before its Panic Shield activates when I decided to test something I've been researching for a future Heart Skipping video. It certainly turned out better than I expected as I was dumbfounded when I pulled it off.

Now, typically I just upload raw videos without any post processing to this Playlist, but this one's an exception as I want to be as transparent as possible here given the nature of my claim in the title. I added the clip at the end showing my Modules Panel to show that Premium Ammo wasn't involved here; you can see that the second clip was taken only ~30 seconds after the kill from the ship time in the top-right corner of my HUD, the coordinate data / altitude in the HUD is nearly the same, the CZ Progress bar is the same, the ammo amount is the same, and the shield indicator only advanced 6%.

So what I believe to be actually happening here is an issue with Elite's Hit Registration system, one that I've dubbed "The Multi-Hit Bug," and it's something that I've been researching since I discovered that strange damage discrepancy in my first Two-Heart Skip video (link: https://youtu.be/VaJqXxXu-dM ). Due to the Plasma Chargers' large projectile hitbox / ludicrous projectile speed and the complex, overlapping geometry in certain sections of Thargoid Interceptors, Plasma Chargers can occasionally register an additional hit (or possibly more) per projectile. This likely occurs because the projectile hitbox intersects several different sections of the Interceptor at the moment the game detects the impact, and thus registers those intersections as separate hits. Our ships' HUDs will actually indicate a Multi-Hit strike on the holographic representation of the Interceptor, as shown below in a screenshot of the final killshot:

https://imgur.com/IH9Hbxo

The bottom left and top right hardpoints each activated a secondary hit on impact, resulting in an additional 140 MJ (17.5%) of damage to the Cyclops and securing the kill.

These Multi-Hits occur fairly often and are most noticeable when a full 4-shot volley activates a Cyclops' Panic Shield from full health, but they are largely unpredictable: even with a perfectly aimed shot, the bug may not occur, so there may be some other factors at play here (such as framerate or lag). In some testing I did, the areas that most often activated secondary hits an Interceptor are around the center cockpit, between the petals, and at the base of the articulating fins on the back.

I should add that this three-shot kill is a statistical anomaly for me, as I have come close but have not repeated the feat as of yet due to the unpredictable nature of this bug and the near-perfect conditions it requires. The Multi-Hit Bug definitely helps with Two- or Three-Heart skips when it happens, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try force it for a Three-Shot Kill just yet; as I mentioned earlier, new modules that increase the AX weapon limits on our ships are on the way, and if they stack and allow for more Guardian weapons I can see a semi-reliable two shot Cyclops kill with a Cutter being possible in the near future. I ran through the numbers behind such a kill in a forum post here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/galnet-azimuth-announces-experimental-weapons-stabiliser-12-jan-3309.613282/post-10058192

As this is a bug, I do feel an obligation to report it despite the low likelihood of a fix, similar to how Odyssey's Bullet Magnetism remains broken to this day despite my confirmed and acknowledged report. The Issue Report about this bug can be found here:
https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/57312

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