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Accuracy

Accuracy in SWG is displayed through a positive/negative counter that appears to the left of the Look At target's HAM or condition BAR. A positive number means that the player has a bonus chance to hit the target where as a negative number means that a player is under a penalty. Accuracy affects the chance of an attack to out right hit or miss a target. Attacks that pass an accuracy check will then be sent to the target's secondary defense ability checks to determine whether or not the attack will ultimately be successful at hitting it and causing damage.

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 character skill Weapon Accuracy modifier (ex. Rifle Accuracy).

• 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. (ex. Rifle Aiming, General Ranged Aiming)

• Attacker posture mod ("Player"); your posture determines how accurate you are. This includes prone, kneeling, standing, running. Players obtain a penalty to their chance to hit while running and bonuses to their chance to hit depending on the posture they are using with prone giving the highest bonus.

• 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. If the attacker is hitting with a ranged weapon then the target's ranged defense modifiers are used. If the attacker is hitting with melee weapons then the melee weapon modifiers are used.

• Target's posture mod ("Target"); your target's posture can make him or her harder for you to hit. This includes prone, kneeling, standing, running. Players obtain a bonus to their chance to not be hit while they are running. Players also receive bonuses and penalties to their chance to be hit depending on what posture they are in and what attack type the enemy is using against them. Kneeling and Prone postures give the defender a bonus against their chance to be hit by ranged attacks while Kneeling and Prone give them penalties against attackers who are engaging them in melee.

• Target's state effects ("State"); some states make your target easier to hit. Details below.

Note: there are some additional factors that the author didnt cover such as:

• 1. Target Movement Bonuses/penalties
  
• 2. Attacker Movement Bonuses/penalties
  
• 3. Target's Take Cover Bonus
  
• 4. Attacker's State Effects
  
• 5. Attacker Accuracy Buff Effects
  
• 6. Food / Item bonuses
  
• 7. Ability Bonuses
  

State Penalties / Bonuses

Note: The author didn't provide any numbers for the penalties/bonuses applied from various states. Some other sources did provide some information but it seems to be questionable.

Attacker's State Effects

• Blinded: -50 to chance to hit (unconfirmed)

Defender's State Effects

• Stunned: +50 to chance to be hit (unconfirmed)
• Intimidated: (Unknown)

Posture Penalties / Bonuses

Note: The author didn't provide any numbers for the penalties/bonuses applied from various states. Some other sources did provide some information but it seems to be questionable.

Attackers Posture Modifiers -

• Standing: +0 to chance to hit
• Kneeling: +15 to chance to hit
• Prone: +30 to chance to hit
• Running: -25 to chance to hit

Defenders Posture Modifiers

• Standing: -0 to chance to be hit
• Kneeling: -5 to chance to be hit by ranged. +5 to chance to be hit by melee.
• Prone: -25 to chance to be hit by ranged. +25 to chance to be hit by melee.
• Running: -25 to chance to be hit

Ability Bonuses

Bonus to Attacker:

• Squad Leader - Rally: +25 to chance to hit
• Squad Leader - Steady Aim: +50 to chance to hit (unconfirmed)
• Special Moves Bonus: chance to hit (values are found in prima guide)
• AIM: - adds chance to hit per use for the next ranged attack. Value that is added depends on the combined amount of General ranged Aiming plus one of Pistol Aiming, Carbine Aiming or Rifle Aiming modifier totals that the player has while equipping their weapon. (can be stacked up to 3 times)

Bonus to Defender:

• Alert: (unknown) - only works against riflemen using Surprise Shot special ability.
• Take Cover: -58 to chance to be hit by ranged
• Tumble to Standing: (unknown)
• Tumble to Kneeling: (unknown)
• Tumble to Prone: (unknown)

Item Bonuses

Bonuses To Attacker:

• Dead Eye Formula: up to 50% enhancement to chance to hit (varies based on crafting experimentation)

• Food
  • Crispic - (adds a % bonus to attacker's to-hit roll)
  • Citros Snow cake - (adds % a bonus to attacker's to-hit roll)
  • Gralinyn Juice - Increases (or adds) Creature To-Hit Bonus modifier

• Weapon Power-Ups
  • Point Blank Attack Mod – reduced the penalty of point blank fight, higher attack rating at point blank range
  • Max Range Attack Mod – reduced the penalty of out-of-ideal range, higher attack rating at long range
  • Ideal Range Attack Mod – increased attack rating at ideal range
  • Ideal Range – increased the range of Ideal Range attribute, capped at 64 meter. (weapon cannot attack farther than 64 meters)

• Skill Buff Stims (+10 to profession accuracy skill modifier)
  • Carpri Radialis Aligner: Carbine Accuracy
  • Enhance View Cone: Pistol Accuracy
  • Ligament Extention Formula: Two-Handed Melee Accuracy
  • Perception Focus Augmentation: Unarmed Accuracy
  • Pinpoint Visions Amplification: Rifle Accuracy
  • Tricep Stretching Chemical: One-Handed Weapon Accuracy

Bonuses for Defender:

• Food:
  • Air Cake - (adds a % penalty to attacker's to-hit roll)
  • Pikatta Pie (adds a % penalty to attacker's to-hit roll)
  • Deneelian Fizz Pudding (adds a % penalty to attacker's to-hit roll)
  • Vegeparsine - Adds to defender's Melee Defense
  • Elshandruu Pica Thundercloud - Adds to defender's Ranged Defense

Skill Modifier Bonuses

Attacker Modifiers

• Creature To-Hit Bonus - (Adds to currently equipped ranged weapon's accuracy mod)
  
• Two-handed Melee Accuracy
  
• Unarmed Accuracy
  
• Polearm Accuracy
  
• One-handed Weapon Accuracy
  
• Carbine Accuracy
  
• Pistol Accuracy
  
• Rifle Accuracy
  
• Carbine Accuracy While Moving - (Adds bonus only if a player is currently running)
• Pistol Accuracy While Moving - Adds bonus only if a player is currently running)
• Pistol Accuracy While Standing - (Adds bonus only if a player is currently standing still)
• Rifle Accuracy While Moving - (Adds bonus only if a player is currently running)

• General Ranged Aiming: Stacks with Pistol Aiming, Carbine Aiming and Rifle Aiming modifiers when using pistols, carbines and rifles. Also works with heavy weapons.
  
• Pistol Aiming: Stacks with General Ranged Aiming Mod when using the AIM ability with a pistol weapon.
  
• Carbine Aiming: Stacks with General Ranged Aiming Mod when using the AIM ability with a carbine weapon.
  
• Rifle Aiming: Stacks with General Ranged Aiming Mod when using the AIM ability with a rifle weapon.
  

• Flamethrower Accuracy
  
• Heavy Acid Beam Accuracy
  
• Heavy Acid Rifle Accuracy
  
• Heavy Lightning Beam Accuracy
  
• Heavy Particle Beam Accuracy
  
• Heavy Rocket Launcher Accuracy
  
• Thrown Weapon Accuracy
  

• Double-Bladed Lightsaber Accuracy
  
• One-handed Lightsaber Accuracy
  
• Two-handed Lightsaber Accuracy
  

• Force Intimidate Accuracy - (Checks against Force Defense modifiers only)
  
• Force Knockdown Accuracy - (Checks against Force Defense modifiers only)
  
• Force Lightning Accuracy - (Checks against Force Defense modifiers only)
  
• Force Throw Accuracy - (Checks against Force Defense modifiers only)
  
• Force Weaken Accuracy - (Checks against Force Defense modifiers only)
  
• Mind Blast Accuracy - (Checks against Force Defense modifiers only)
  

Defender Modifiers

• Force Defense: Defends against force based attacks only
  
• Ranged Defense: Caps at 125. Only clothing attachments, skill buff stims, food bonuses and squad leader bonuses will go above the cap.
  
• Melee Defense: Caps at 125. Only clothing attachments, skill buff stims, food bonuses and squad leader bonuses will go above the cap.
  
• Group Melee Defense: Stacks above cap with individual Melee Defenses
  
• Group Ranged Defense: Stacks above cap with individual Ranged Defenses
  
• Alertness: Severely Affects accuracy rate of riflemen using Surprise Shot. This mod only activates when a player has successfully entered the Alert state by using /alert
  

Accuracy equation

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

Accuracy Formula

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:

Range Modifier Scale

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.

Range Modifier Scale

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

Range Modifier Scale

So our weapon accuracy at 35m is +40.

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:

Range Modifier Scale

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.

Source References