Sarodinian
One Thousand Club
OK. And to continue analysis...
Ranges are immense. So are mechs, and if I recall correctly, the range on an ERPPC was 1000m. I'm probably going to keep the ranges as they are, because first of all, you're Exalted, and second, you're in Humongous Mecha. 1 km can become 100m in a -really- short time.
I want to leave the options for Melee open, but I have a bit of an equilibrium-style scene stuck in my head, (Sword swing, duck, return fire with EREPC, dodge, swing, etc). There will be equipment and of course, charms that will prevent melee oriented mechs from seeing a single sniper-mech and simply dropping dead, however, If said melee mech came up against a firing line of said sniper mechs, they'll be in trouble unless they can sneak in and break them up.
Abilities are up for discussion. I personally do take the Exalted view of the mech being an extension of the pilot, (hence using some abilities as bases for the mech's stats), but that can change. I was thinking of lumping Beam weapons under Occult, as they're dealing directly with Essence, and leaving Archery for ballistics and missiles, since they're firing physical projectiles, but that's a bit fuzzy at the moment.
Pretty much I'm trying to shoot for a nice middle-ground, with a slight leaning more towards Mechwarrior-style stuff.
As for longevity: yeah, subsystems are to be destroyed, and can and should be able to be done without totally destroying the mech. I'm thinking of offering a few different types of armor plating, each giving a uniform soak and hardness over the whole mech, and adding health levels to the armor based on how much tonnage you slap onto each area. As for areas, Mechwarrior has a very good number of them, 3 different plating areas on the torso alone, rear armor, head/cockpit, both arms, etc. etc. I hope it'd be possible to retain them, as I'm planning on having each mech be described with what hardpoint is where.
I'm mainly wondering about how many health levels per ton would be appropriate, but that's for when we actually do numbers crunchy.
Heat is a definite Yes, as I've stated before. Mechs'll get a heat bar, and a stated rate that they dissipate it at, modifiable by Heat Sinks.
I'm probably going to give weapons stats in this order.
Speed, which is how fast actually firing/swinging the weapon is.
Accuracy, how accurate it is.
Damage, Obvious.
Defense, Obvious.
Rate, also obvious.
Heat, which is how much heat the weapon generates upon firing.
Recycle, which is how many ticks it takes for the weapon to cycle and be ready to fire again, this may be different than its speed (IE, Speed 4 Recycle 8 refers to a weapon that takes awhile to reload, but you can squeeze the shot off real quickly)
Tonnage: How much the damn thing weighs.
Size: How large the damn weapon is. It'll be either "Small", "Medium", "Large", "Very Large", and "Damn"
Ammo/Ton: How much ammunition you get per ton you allocate to it. (IE: You get 16 shots per ton of ammo you choose to carry, the base tonnage always includes 1 ton of ammo.)
And of course, relevant tags and special abilities.
Good ideas on the abilites there, but I think I will rename Sail to Piloting just because it's useful for so many different vehicle types. And so Tabby's brain will hurt less.
Ride will probably go on the wayside, as I'll rule that that applies primarily to -living- mounts.
As for the superboosted Essence Regen, I've yet to decide an appropriate rate. Short term tap-outs of essence should be possible, but should return rather quickly. Now that I think about it, it does kind of sound like a second heat bar...which I'm not sure how to handle.
As for Heat dissipation, I'm going to be nasty there and pretty much state that if you let your heat get above a certain level, you as the pilot'll start to need to make Stamina+Resistance rolls to avoid passing out from it. If you're at say, 7000K, it'd be relatively easy, say difficulty 2, 8000K, difficulty 4, 10000k, difficulty 7. Another option offered in the Mechwarrior games is emergency coolant. Which I may avoid due to complexity issues, and charms can always duplicate it.
And Nice formula for that btw, may expand on that.
Essence costs are definately gonna be downplayed a bunch. Not sure exactly how, but they will.
Melee will be used, that's a given in the setting.
Advanced Movement systems're probably gonna be put under Sail (Oh wait, it's Piloting now ). As for ranges, it's up to you how ya fit the things out.
I'll figure something out with attunements.
Performance would be a very good thing for those contracts where there's a possibility of media presence.
And Hellstriders, ok fine. I'm assuming Infernals are capable of respiring essence normally in Creation. We'll see how it turns out.
Heavier mechs will be slow. Much slower than the lighter ones. Not gonna make any hard or fast rule on stopped/moving deals for weaponry.
You -are- aware of just how little damage machineguns actually do right? I mean it's not zero, but still...
And ACs -do- have recycle times.
Why yes, I'm definately jacking the MW method of mech classification, thank you. And as for shoehorning oversized weapons onto undersized mechs, good luck. Between tonnage and hardpoint size, could be difficult, but some are still possible. (I got a Puma with 2 ERPPCs in mw4. Didnt fit much else and heat was terrible, but it was awesome.)
Damage calculations're likely to be done per-salvo. ACs fire one shot/salvo, Machineguns're bursty, etc. etc.
And 4 EREPCs at once are likely to force a difficulty 7 stam+resistance roll and a shutdown mech.
And why yes, I'm jacking MW4's hardpoint system.
Custom Designs are you!
And "BOINGO BOINGO WHOOPSY KNICKERS."
And good idea with the static boosts there.
Dex Nerf...eh, if you can think of something, I'll listen.
Unless you get a Royal warstrider, which are still rare, mechs aren't going to be truly sentient. Sure, you'll get sensor feedback from appropriate magic fluff (I may just go with the bound-gods idea after all), but sentience is something truly special.
As for base and core skills, I dont want to make new ones, but a lot are so catch-all that it might be necessary. We'll have to determine that later.
We can argue skills all damn day if we wanted, and would prefer if actual mechanical fluff were doable in real-time (I put my contact info up for a reason dammit! >_< )
And those special thingies could easily be replicated with just your normal run of the mill specialties.
Now stuff's getting head-bendingly complex and yes. ACKWALLOFTEXT!!!
And lastly: I don't own the Alchemicals book either, so I'm hesitant to use that approach.
That should be everything I think...
TL
R, "BOINGO BOINGO WHOOPSY KNICKERS".
Ranges are immense. So are mechs, and if I recall correctly, the range on an ERPPC was 1000m. I'm probably going to keep the ranges as they are, because first of all, you're Exalted, and second, you're in Humongous Mecha. 1 km can become 100m in a -really- short time.
I want to leave the options for Melee open, but I have a bit of an equilibrium-style scene stuck in my head, (Sword swing, duck, return fire with EREPC, dodge, swing, etc). There will be equipment and of course, charms that will prevent melee oriented mechs from seeing a single sniper-mech and simply dropping dead, however, If said melee mech came up against a firing line of said sniper mechs, they'll be in trouble unless they can sneak in and break them up.
Abilities are up for discussion. I personally do take the Exalted view of the mech being an extension of the pilot, (hence using some abilities as bases for the mech's stats), but that can change. I was thinking of lumping Beam weapons under Occult, as they're dealing directly with Essence, and leaving Archery for ballistics and missiles, since they're firing physical projectiles, but that's a bit fuzzy at the moment.
Pretty much I'm trying to shoot for a nice middle-ground, with a slight leaning more towards Mechwarrior-style stuff.
As for longevity: yeah, subsystems are to be destroyed, and can and should be able to be done without totally destroying the mech. I'm thinking of offering a few different types of armor plating, each giving a uniform soak and hardness over the whole mech, and adding health levels to the armor based on how much tonnage you slap onto each area. As for areas, Mechwarrior has a very good number of them, 3 different plating areas on the torso alone, rear armor, head/cockpit, both arms, etc. etc. I hope it'd be possible to retain them, as I'm planning on having each mech be described with what hardpoint is where.
I'm mainly wondering about how many health levels per ton would be appropriate, but that's for when we actually do numbers crunchy.
Heat is a definite Yes, as I've stated before. Mechs'll get a heat bar, and a stated rate that they dissipate it at, modifiable by Heat Sinks.
I'm probably going to give weapons stats in this order.
Speed, which is how fast actually firing/swinging the weapon is.
Accuracy, how accurate it is.
Damage, Obvious.
Defense, Obvious.
Rate, also obvious.
Heat, which is how much heat the weapon generates upon firing.
Recycle, which is how many ticks it takes for the weapon to cycle and be ready to fire again, this may be different than its speed (IE, Speed 4 Recycle 8 refers to a weapon that takes awhile to reload, but you can squeeze the shot off real quickly)
Tonnage: How much the damn thing weighs.
Size: How large the damn weapon is. It'll be either "Small", "Medium", "Large", "Very Large", and "Damn"
Ammo/Ton: How much ammunition you get per ton you allocate to it. (IE: You get 16 shots per ton of ammo you choose to carry, the base tonnage always includes 1 ton of ammo.)
And of course, relevant tags and special abilities.
Good ideas on the abilites there, but I think I will rename Sail to Piloting just because it's useful for so many different vehicle types. And so Tabby's brain will hurt less.
Ride will probably go on the wayside, as I'll rule that that applies primarily to -living- mounts.As for the superboosted Essence Regen, I've yet to decide an appropriate rate. Short term tap-outs of essence should be possible, but should return rather quickly. Now that I think about it, it does kind of sound like a second heat bar...which I'm not sure how to handle.
As for Heat dissipation, I'm going to be nasty there and pretty much state that if you let your heat get above a certain level, you as the pilot'll start to need to make Stamina+Resistance rolls to avoid passing out from it. If you're at say, 7000K, it'd be relatively easy, say difficulty 2, 8000K, difficulty 4, 10000k, difficulty 7. Another option offered in the Mechwarrior games is emergency coolant. Which I may avoid due to complexity issues, and charms can always duplicate it.
And Nice formula for that btw, may expand on that.
Essence costs are definately gonna be downplayed a bunch. Not sure exactly how, but they will.
Melee will be used, that's a given in the setting.
Advanced Movement systems're probably gonna be put under Sail (Oh wait, it's Piloting now
). As for ranges, it's up to you how ya fit the things out.I'll figure something out with attunements.
Performance would be a very good thing for those contracts where there's a possibility of media presence.
And Hellstriders, ok fine. I'm assuming Infernals are capable of respiring essence normally in Creation. We'll see how it turns out.
Heavier mechs will be slow. Much slower than the lighter ones. Not gonna make any hard or fast rule on stopped/moving deals for weaponry.
You -are- aware of just how little damage machineguns actually do right? I mean it's not zero, but still...
And ACs -do- have recycle times.
Why yes, I'm definately jacking the MW method of mech classification, thank you. And as for shoehorning oversized weapons onto undersized mechs, good luck. Between tonnage and hardpoint size, could be difficult, but some are still possible. (I got a Puma with 2 ERPPCs in mw4. Didnt fit much else and heat was terrible, but it was awesome.)
Damage calculations're likely to be done per-salvo. ACs fire one shot/salvo, Machineguns're bursty, etc. etc.
And 4 EREPCs at once are likely to force a difficulty 7 stam+resistance roll and a shutdown mech.
And why yes, I'm jacking MW4's hardpoint system.
Custom Designs are you!
And "BOINGO BOINGO WHOOPSY KNICKERS."
And good idea with the static boosts there.
Dex Nerf...eh, if you can think of something, I'll listen.
Unless you get a Royal warstrider, which are still rare, mechs aren't going to be truly sentient. Sure, you'll get sensor feedback from appropriate magic fluff (I may just go with the bound-gods idea after all), but sentience is something truly special.
As for base and core skills, I dont want to make new ones, but a lot are so catch-all that it might be necessary. We'll have to determine that later.
We can argue skills all damn day if we wanted, and would prefer if actual mechanical fluff were doable in real-time (I put my contact info up for a reason dammit! >_<
)And those special thingies could easily be replicated with just your normal run of the mill specialties.
Now stuff's getting head-bendingly complex and yes. ACKWALLOFTEXT!!!
And lastly: I don't own the Alchemicals book either, so I'm hesitant to use that approach.
That should be everything I think...
TL
R, "BOINGO BOINGO WHOOPSY KNICKERS".