| abstract
| - This article lists the critical hit effect tables in Fallout 2. The associated messages are in combat.msg, but it is not known where the critical effects are stored or how they are chosen, so they are being determined experimentally. Presumably these are the same in FO1 for critter types that exist in both. An aimed shot to the body/torso is identical to an unaimed shot. The chance for a critical at each location appears to be base critical chance plus the to-hit penalty, plus about 5%. It isn't known if luck affects the critical hit table rolls. This data was compiled using a character with 10 Luck and a 10% critical chance, on normal combat difficulty, and with a weapon that causes a fixed amount of damage with no ammo modifiers (like the Red Ryder LE BB gun). Some care must be taken when collectirng these statistics, as criticals with the same message and damage may have different effects. For example, if one knocks a critter down and the other doesn't, if the critter is hit while on the ground, the two will be indistinguishable. Critical hit effects are listed in order of increasing severity. At least 200 at each location should be recorded, for some degree of statistical significance. More would improve accuracy, but the process is time-consuming.
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