Weapon Accuracy

As you might guess, modifiers like Carbine Accuracy increase your chances of hitting an opponent with an attack. How is this to-hit chance determined? How do your opponent's defense modifiers, posture, and secondary defenses affect your chance to hit him or her?

Please note that discussion only focuses on your initial chance to hit your target. Even if you manage a successful attack, your opponent still has a chance to avoid damage through his/her secondary defenses (Dodge, Counterattack, and Block). Unfortunately, no equations for these defenses are currently known.

Variables
Your weapon accuracy depends on 8 variables (values that affect the outcome of an equation):
 * Weapon accuracy mod ("Accuracy"); i.e. the numerical value of your Carbine Accuracy mod.
 * Individual weapon accuracy ("Weapon"); i.e. your weapon's accuracy value at your current range from your target. More on determing this value below.
 * Aiming mod ("Aiming"); the sum of your General Ranged Aiming and weapon-specific Aiming mods. Only applies if you use Aim prior to your attack.
 * Player posture mod ("Player"); your posture determines how accurate you are. Details below.
 * Ability accuracy mod ("Ability"); each special ability has an inherent modifier on your accuracy. These exact modifiers are unknown, but generally believed to be positive (adding to your to-hit chance).
 * Target's primary defense ("Defense"); i.e. the numerical value of your target's Ranged Defense or Melee Defense mods, depending on if your weapon is ranged or melee.
 * Target's posture mod ("Target"); your target's posture can make him or her harder for you to hit.
 * Target's state effects ("State"); some states make your target easier to hit. Details below.

Accuracy equation
The percent chance of a given attack hitting your target, "ToHit," is calculated as follow:

Calculating weapon accuracy mod
The complex nature of weapon accuracies in Star Wars Galaxies makes it difficult to calculate your weapon's accuracy at a given range. But we'll try, anyway.

Weapon accuracies have three main components:
 * Point-blank range specifies the minimum range of your weapon.
 * Ideal range specifies the "sweetspot" range for your weapon; this range is specific to each type of weapon (i.e. all DH17 Carbines have the same ideal range). You will always fire with maximum accuracy at your ideal range.
 * Maximum range specifies the furthest you can be from your target and still be able to fire. For ranged weapons, this is usually 64m.

Each range value also has a modifier associated with it. This modifier gives the Accuracy mod we need in the above equation whenever your character is firing from exactly that range. Unfortunately, we are rarely so precise, and so we need a way to determine what our real accuracy value is. This requires two steps.

First, imagine your current range from your target as a slider that moves back and forth on a line, where the line has markers for your point-blank, ideal, and maximum ranges. Here is such a slider for an imaginary weapon:



Now, determine where on this slider your current range lies. Let's imagine our target is 33m away; thus, we are between our minimum and ideal ranges. Were our target 58m away, we would be between ideal and maximum ranges. In both cases, we refer to the lower range value (minimum range in the first example) as the "small range", and the higher range value (ideal range in the first example) as "big range." To determine our final accuracy, we must interpolate between the small range and big range based on where our current range lies on the above slider. To do so, use the following equation, where "Current" is your current range from the target, and "BigRange," "SmallRange," "BigMod," and "SmallMod" all refer to the distance and modifier values at your small and big ranges.



As a quick example, let's go back to the above imaginary weapon, with our target at 35m. Our calcualation comes out thus:



So our weapon accuracy at 35m is +40.

Posture mods
Your posture and your target's posture both have an affect upon your weapon accuracy. Here are some specific values.

Your Player mod for each posture are as follow:
 * Standing: +0
 * Crouching: +16
 * Prone: +50
 * Running: -50

Your opponent's Target mod for each posture are as follow:
 * Standing: +0
 * Crouching: -16 against ranged attacks; +16 against melee attacks
 * Prone: -25 against ranged attacks; +25 against melee attacks

Plug these values into the original equation in their appropriate places.

State mods
Unfortunately, specific modifiers for each state are unknown at this time :(.

Analysis
As is evident from the accuracy equation, your chance to hit a target is a direct competition between your weapon accuracy and your opponent's defenses. With every point increase in your accuracy skill (or the accuracy of your weapon), you gain a 0.5% increase in your chance to hit any given target. However, every point your target has in Ranged or Melee Defense decreases your chance to hit by 0.5%. Thus, it is important to maximize your accuracy mods while taking on opponents with a defense lower than your accuracy. Attacking such an opponent will guarantee at least a 66% chance to hit with your attacks, provided you are both standing.

How big an effect does your range have upon your final accuracy? It depends greatly on your weapon's ideal range modifier. A high ideal mod can be an enormous boost to your chance to hit; similarly, a negative (or low positive) mod can seriously hurt your chances. In general, you always want to be exactly at your ideal range from your target.

Unfortunately, few combat situations allow us to always maintain our ideal range. Is it better to be closer or further than your ideal range from your target? That also depends on your specific ideal range. If your ideal range is lower than 32m, it's better to be further away; if your range is greater than 32m, it's best to be closer to your target. Why is that?

Following is an image demonstrating our imaginary weapon's relative chance to hit at various ranges. Darker areas represent higher chances to hit; thus, the black area is the ideal range for the weapon:



What on earth does this image mean? Look at the difference between the gradient from Min to Ideal and from Ideal to Max. The latter gradient transitions from black (high chance) to white (low chance) much more quickly than the first. Thus, the same change in distance results in a much greater loss in accuracy when you're past this ideal range than if you're in front of it. Put another way, if at 45m your accuracy is +60, your accuracy at 35m might be +50 and your accuracy at 55m might be +30. This is all assuming your point-blank and maximum range modifiers are close to equal, which is the case for nearly all weapons in Galaxies.

Conclusion
While it's a ton of work to calculate your chance to hit a target at a given range, there are a few details you should remember to maximize your efficiency in combat:


 * 1) Stick as close to your ideal range as possible.
 * 2) Running automatically reduces your chance to hit by 25%. Stay stationary as long as you can.
 * 3) Get a weapon with as high an ideal range modifier as possible.