My Test of Soft Point Ammo and High Velocity Ammo

Hello, everyone.

I have a test on SPA(GR-22, NC's AR) and HVA(AC-X11, NC's Carbine). I have post this in Chinese PS2 forums. If you can read Chinese, please check:
SPA, http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2175274596
HVA, http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2178376329

OK, now here is the English version. Sorry for my poor English. ^_^


Soft Point Ammo Tests

Damage Test
Test method: I shot the front of a flash from different distances, with different ammo. I took screenshots and check the HP change of flash.
A flash can be damaged by infantry small arms. I guess it has a small arms resist , but not immune.
For example, I shot flash 10times by GR22 in 0m, it lost 28pixels. And after 20shots, it lost 61pixels. So 61 - 28 = 33 pixels, means 143damage. I can calculate damage from other distance by comparing to 33pixels.
Yes, this is not precise. But I can have a comparison of normal ammo, SPA and HVA.

Blue, GR-22
Red, GR-22 with SPA
Green, AF-19, just a reference


GR-22 has the max damage in 15m, min damage over 75m. With SPA, the max damage distance has been extended to 20m. This makes more damage in the distance from 15m to 40m.
For the short range and long range, SPA has no damage decrease.


Projectile Velocity Test
Test method: I shot the target 300m away, and captured the video (30fps).
Play the video by every frame, count the frames from the muzzle flush disappeared to the bullet hit the target. So I can calculate the projectile velocity.

GR-22: 300m, 15frames/30fps, 600m/s
GR-22 with SPA: 300m, 16frames/30fps, about 562m/s

So, the SPA only has a small projectile velocity decrease. I don’t think there are many people shot each other over 300m. In my option, the speed decrease can be almost ignored in 200m.


My Conclusion for SPA
The numbers of my test are not precise. But here is the conclusion:
SPA is useful in middle range battle, it does more damage than normal ammo. And SPA has no damage decrease in other distances.
The negative of SPA, decrease of projectile velocity, is pretty small.



High Velocity Ammo Tests

Damage Test
Test method: same as SPA.

Blue, AC-X11
Red, AC-X11 with HVA


AC-X11 has the max damage in 15m, min damage over 85m. With HVA, the min damage distance has been extended to 95m. This makes more damage in the distance from 35m to 95m.
For the short range and middle range, HVA has no damage decrease.


Projectile Velocity Test
Test method: same as SPA. But this time I took 45fps videos.

AC-X11: 300m, average 27frames/45fps, 500m/s (actually it should be 480m/s).
AC-X11 with HVA: 300m, average 25.5frames/45fps, about 530m/s.

Also, the HVA only has a small increase in projectile velocity. This is not good for HVA. But as I said, there are not many people shot each other over 300m. The speed of normal ammo is fast enough.


Vertical Recoil Test
Test method: Play the videos from projectile velocity test, find the frame of biggest vertical recoil, compared to the frame before weapon fired by pixel.

AC-X11, average 18.25 pixels vertical recoil
AC-X11 with HVA, average 20.5 pixels vertical recoil

HVA increases vertical recoil by about 10%(I think this number is also not precise). So in my option, HVA has a bigger negative than SPA.


My Conclusion for HVA
HVA can do more damage in long range battle. And HVA has no damage decrease in other distances. It also increases the projectile velocity.
The negative of HVA is bigger than SPA, it makes more vertical recoil.


How far is the middle range and long range? In my test:
Middle range: 15m - 40m.
Long range:35m - 85m.
(Distance may have a little difference for other weapons.)

Aim a flash that's 40m away by the 1x iron sight.

You can also check the triangular field of view(sorry, I don’t know what it's actually called) in mini-map. The range is about 40m.

This is inline with what I thought when trying out the two. It turns out that Soft Point is the useful one and HVA gives a small advantage with a large disadvantage.

Thanks for this.

These are very interesting results. Previous tests have displeyed that SVA lowers your weapon damage over range by one tier, which made SVA pretty terrible outside of 15m radius. If it is no longer true - it might be somewhat useful for CQC weapons.

Was it ever true? The devs basicly said what this test shows earlier and this pretty much confirms what they were saying.

Yes, I tested these last week. ^_^

nice post

one thing you have not mentioned is the fact that the higher muzzle velocity of the hva comes with less bulletdrop over distance, thus making it less difficult to engage over longer distance.
so imo it does exactly what it has to do. give a noticeable advantage in long range engagements.

especialy with the ac-x11 hva is a beast. its made for this kind of gun. pair this with a long range scope (the one with the 3 recticules for range compensation comes to mind), single fire or 2 shot bursts and you can go toe to toe with snipers over 120+ meters with a good chance to come out victorious
i love it

The bullet drop is not much of an issue (or a non issue if you're VS). The most important aspect of high velocity ammo is that you need to lead moving targets less when you have that equipped.

As I have reported over the last half a year, it's not quite so easy as this. The one major flaw with your tests is hit detection. Since high rate of fire and projectile velocity results in higher probability of hits registering with the prediction code, SPA is a draw back. A moving target is a different story with these ammo types, since SPA is slower and HPA is faster. Honestly default ammo is better then SPA, while HPA ammo can result in improvements when coupled with a compensator or silencer attachment.

You need to retest on infantry. There is supposed to be a damage reduction that is not shown on your charts. Vehicle and infantry use different damage values before resistance kicks in.

SPA undoubtedly holds the greater advantage seeing as the most likely and intense engagements will be medium and close range and the lack of vertical recoil makes it good for suppressing stationary targets at longer ranges too.

Personally I think it would be nice if HVA had some kind of advantageous damage property to it, maybe a bonus against shields or certed armour?

SPA have no dmg reduction.. or am i reading your last words wrong here?.. only negative effect is slower bullet speed.. witch will **** you when trying to hit at long range for sure.. but there is no flat dmg reduction as posted by devs..

" To clarify soft point ammo, it doesn't reduce your min damage. The only negative is a reduction in bullet speed. The positive is extended range before it takes one more bullet to kill (also slightly more damage at medium range, but the one less bullet to kill is the main feature). How far it extends that range is going to change based on the weapon. - joshua "
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/thoughts-of-the-new-cyclone-smg.88773/

always thought that there was a damage drop off with SPA at longer ranges

Nice post thanks. It seems that I will be using SPA now because the velocity change is much smaller then I thought it to be.

I have a request. Could you possibly work out a way to see what the damage reduction is while using a suppressor?

the only issue i have with the ammunitions is that a have a bit different definitions about medium and long ranges.

That would be nice to know

Good post dude, we need more stats like this much like the stats for BF3 on Symthic.com which cover all weapon stats with all the different attachments.
Would be good to know the stats of all the vehicle weapons and with/without upgrades to armour etc.

Some basic tests on suppressor dmg
Weapon ACX11
Target: a flash (Handy idea, thanks for that)
Point Blank: Suppressor vs No suppressor: No difference in damage.
40m distance: Suppressor does less damage than without one
Max effective range due to the data sheets (85m): Suppressor vs No suppressor: No difference in damage.
So it seems to be similar to the ammo classes, there is a difference in the mid field, but none on max nor min dmg.

Forgot to add: Great post OP, really useful informations.

I still love the High velocity on my AC-X11 , But since they have gone crazy with that stupid flinch mechanic, im not duing so well with it anymore . I used to love that little gun... Hopefully the flinch mechanics that come tomorrow will fix that

Normal ammo is very nice for all situations. But in middle range, SPA can do more damage and it's only a little slower. So I think this is not a big problem for close combat in buildings.

My test is based on an assumption, that the flash has a percentage bullet resistance. If someone can retest it on infantry, I will give him or her a big Thank You. For me, it is just too much work and I will use flash as a substitute.

I can use the same method to test the suppressor when I have time, perhaps this weekend.