Talk:Protectron's Gaze

Question
So actually this gun is better than collonel auttumn's laser pistol? and in the official guide it says it fires two shots instead of one so no spread (still one energy cell used though) (RG)
 * Gaze does more in one blast, so stronger in VATS (when all beams hit). But it fires kinda slow in real-time, and as you know Colonel Autumn's Laser Pistol fires as fast as the gatling laser. Still, here's the thing: You can't get autumn's laser without flooding the map with enclave units. --AshRandom 23:06, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

VATS behavior, criticals weird
I don't think Protectron's Gaze is all that good in VATS. Even at close range, when all the beams hit, it can do depressingly low damage that is fairly consistent with its in-game damage rating (perhaps a bit below that actually). Outside of VATS, the weapon can be devastatingly powerful.

I don't know what the per-beam damage on this weapon is, but it seems to calculate critical chances on a per-beam basis outside of VATS, so you are almost always getting criticals if you have a high base percentage, and it also seems to add the listed critical damage bonus (+24) on a per-beam basis. You can observe this by successfully executing a sneak critical with Protectron's Gaze; the resulting damage is incredible (5 simultaneous criticals, I guess), especially when the weapon's wielder is fully leveled with Bloody Mess and Better Criticals. For example, on normal difficulty mode, I was able to disable a sentry robot's head in one shot and take off more than half his life.76.123.119.26 15:27, 17 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Confirmed, when outside of VATS the Protectron´s Gaze seems to deal its critical damage per beam instead of per burst like in VATS. Tested against Mirelurks with critical chance set to 100% on highest difficulty for testing purposes, a VATS headshot will remove about 20% of health while a non VATS head shot usually means an instant kill. Golan2781 15:41, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Oooo real-time multi-crit... Guess that explains it. [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 16:00, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * It still strikes me as being an odd way of calculating damage, especially as it results in such a huge difference between VATS and non-VATS. I reckon though that the combat shotgun should behave similarly as it features both a burst attack and constant crit bonus - did anybody experience a similar effect with that weapon? Golan2781 16:13, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I haven't tested the combat shotgun extensively, though I used it early in my character's career and got results that seemed normal as compared to other non-shotgun firearms. It certainly wasn't adding its critical damage bonus of +25 to every pellet (there are a lot of them!), and yes, I did execute a few sneak criticals with the weapon.  So far as I can tell, the damage done per pellet was x/y, where x is your current damage based on gun condition, small firearms skill, and bonuses (Bloody Mess, Psycho, Yao Guai Meat, etc) and y is the total number of pellets fired.  Critical damage seemed to be assessed similarly.  In other words, if you hit someone with a combat shotgun from far enough away so that some of the pellets miss, the damage is reduced proportionately with the number of pellets that miss.  Similarly, if that same shot becomes a critical, all the pellets are upgraded to criticals, and the damage bonus is based on the listed critical bonus divided by the total number of pellets fired (with the maximum being 25 before taking bonuses and Better Criticals into account).  The game engine seems to be designed to handle shotgun blasts in an intelligent fashion, but the Protectron's Gaze appears to be a bit of a kludge that is either poorly designed or beyond the current engine's scope.  As it is, Protectron's Gaze works like five guns firing at once outside of VATS.  Why it works more sensibly inside VATS is anyone's guess.
 * Most likely it's just a programmer's oversight. [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 20:09, 21 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Regarding the effect of this on the Combat Shotgun... I can actually one-hit kill a Sentry Bot with a single sneak attack critical outside of V.A.T.S., with a Combat Shotgun that was not even fully repaired. With V.A.T.S., The Sentry Bot survives with more than half of its health. For fun I decided to check out The Terrible Shotgun against a Super Mutant Behemoth. I killed it with only two(!) sneak attack criticals. Thus, I'd say that the critical damage bonus during a sneak attack critical outside of V.A.T.S. actually applies to all of the pellets. OverLord of Chaos 19:00, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I do believe that the shotgun super-crit was fixed in the latest patch at least I haven't been able to replicate it even with sneak crits) but when I tested the Gaze it still behaved like 5 guns firing at the same time. Maybe this can be fixed in the Unofficial patch or left as a funny/OP exploit.


 * What do you mean 'fixed?' It's not a bug or exploit, it's just how scatter-shot weapons work. It's not overpowering either because you can only acheive massive amounts of dmg with a point blank sneak attack + Better Criticals and you only get one per battle b/c they are not silenced, and thus they surrounding enemies are alerted to your presence. And on harder difficulties it can't one hit kill a behemoth.

Is there any way to get the protectron's gaze and ant's Sting? HuangLee 01:43, September 9, 2009 (UTC)

dancing rad roaches
frequently when i shoot rad roaches with this thing, there legs fly off and start bouncing around on there ends, almost as if there dancing! once a leg stared going up a wall! does anyone know the cause? dose this even happen to anyone else?(xbox) --87.177.26.34 16:07, October 8, 2009 (UTC)

protectrons graze and ants sting?
is there a way to get both with out console commands?