Armour penetration vs destruction

[Emily_F]

Can someone explain to me like I am five the mechanics behind armour penetration and destruction, and the difference between thermal and kinetic damage please?  I've been playing this game seemingly forever and yet I still don't really know what the difference really is between these two weapon systems and it isn't explained anywhere in game (so far as I can tell).  It might be worth having an entry or two in the UFOpedia on what these terms are, how they affect the gameplay, and on which enemies different features work best if there is a difference. At the moment, I think lasers are better than accelerated other mag size, but I can't explain why.  

[Skitso]

As far as I know, penetration means the amount of damage that's delivered to the target's health pool no matter of the armour.

So laser eats the armour much faster while accelerated rifle makes more direct damage. So I think the tougher the enemy, thevmore you benefit from lasers. (Subsequent hits are deadlier as armour is more destroyed)

@Emily_F

Edited June 1 by Skitso

[Emily_F]

OK so let's consider a worked example: 

Say a sectoid has HP 60 and Armour 30.  

A hit with a laser rifle has HP kinetic damage 40, armour penetration 0, destruction 8.

A hit with accelerated rifle has HP thermal damage 40, penetration 5, destruction 2.

To work out the final damage (assuming the shot is taken from the same spot and has an equal chance to hit):

1. what difference does kinetic vs thermal damage do (are there different stats per alien?)
2. in which order are the destruction and penetration calculations done?  i.e. the penetration damage is done first, then the remaining damage accounting for the armour, then the destruction.  In which case the accelerated rifle does more damage on the first hit, but lasers do less on the first hit, but then deal increasing damage on subsequent hits. 
3. Is there any other modifier that affects damage like where you hit them?

[Skitso]

This is how I think it goes: (might be wrong)

With laser:

After 1st hit HP: 50 Armor: 22

After 2nd hit HP: 32 Armor: 14

After 3rd hit HP: 6 Armor: 6

 

With accelerated:

After 1st hit HP: 45 Armor: 28

After 2nd hit HP: 28 Armor: 26

After 3rd hit HP: 9 Armor: 24

 

Not sure about thermal vs kinetic though

Every shot inflicts 0.5 - 2.0 x damage which models hit location.

[Chris]

The in-game tooltips do explain all this if you hover over the stats in the tooltips, at least. But in summary:

1) Thermal has a damage bonus against terrain. Aliens take equal damage from each.

2) Destruction is applied after the damage calculation is performed, so it only affects future hits.

3) There’s damage randomisation of between 50-200% damage on it hit, which simulates hitting more or less vulnerable areas of the target.

Skitsos maths on the hit damage looks correct at first glance.