This version mostly contains a whole heap of part/weapon balance changes and some reformatting of the mech parts. Each of the mech part tables (head/chassis/arms/legs) have been broken down into seperate rows spread out over two pages. This has allowed me to add more flavor text for each of the parts, and I have the option in the future to add images to these as well. While it's a hair less neat and searchable than before I can more easily add additional pages for the parts. For the same reason part Upgrades / Defects have been broken up into two pages as well.
Shots/Ammo has always been something of an abstraction to keep the gameplay fast, quick, but add the depth of ammo management and cost/benefit decision making to weapons. I've been slowly leaning more and more toward making it less of an issue- it's not fun to have your shotgun run out of ammo half-way through an encounter. Previous methods of dealing with this was pretty much only the Storage Tank part, which occupies a shoulder slot, or the occasional niche ammo-boosting part. I've decided to add a new chassis upgrade called Ammo Pouch which can moderately boost weapon shots at the cost of a Utility Action and a humble amount of credits. I'll see if I get any feedback on this and how much it improves enjoyment.
Ammo Pouch (0-2) 2cr TorsoMost of the part balancing with this update is adjusting parts that were overpriced compared to other similar price-range parts, or simplifying bonus effects. Most of these were fairly obvious in hindsight- the CO-01 head had one less wound, a weaker passive, and cost the same as the Bei-02 head. With the parts being broken up into two pages this has also given me the leeway to sprinkle in a few new ones. Enjoy.
One charge. Choose a Ballistic or Explosive weapon. Once ammo is expended, may spend a charge and use a Utility Action to restore half the base number of shots. Can be bought twice.
I also gave Heavy Power Armor (aka Mobile Infantry) a new special rule that should turn them into the horrible little bastards they were always intended to be. They can now fire their weapons at any point during their Movement Phase so long as they move in a straight line. Ergo, they can now jump forward, choose to fire weapons while out of cover, and then finish their movement back into cover. PTSD and lots of Ready Attack Manuevers are sure to follow.
Here's the new version.
0.9.92
Added a 'low charge' state to Chemical Lasers where after their shots they can fire a few more times at decreased AP
Clarified the Photon Beam Emitter effects on enemies slightly; does not disable passive benefits or buffs from Shoulder parts
Rewrote the Emerald Green Mine Dispenser rules some and the mines now count Head/Arms hits as Leg hits instead
Explosive Sticks are now marked as not damaging to the user. I think that was the intention. Probably.
Sparkler shotgun shells now also penalize Dodge Rating on a hit enemy, and are now denoted as 'AP decreased by 1' instead of the more archaic 'Wound--1'
Heavy Chemical Laser special ammo is now 2cr
Mobile Infantry have a new special rule; they may now fire weapons before/during/after their movement phase so long as they move in a straight line
Added WSR-2; new 7cr weapon that is between the Minor Sniper and Sniper Cannon in cost and performance
Fixed the CO-03 mech's Rocket Pod having an incorrect statline
Corrected a few more weapon and part stats on the Very-Quick Reference page that were outdated
Broke up the head parts into two tables spread over two pages
Mono-01 head reworked; now provides bonus Attack-Rating
Reworded the Mono-01 bonus slightly
Reworked the Mono-03 bonus; same overall effect but should be faster in application
NRB-03 head now has a flat 2+ armor rating
Grenade Launcher's HE ammo renamed to Frag
Broke up the chassis parts into two tables spread over two pages
Fixed the CO-02 chassis having 3+ armor on the non-chassis parts; was intended to be 5+, as mentioned in the 0.9.90 patch notes
Slightly reworked the AL-01 chassis bonus; now can mount any weapon on the additional shoulder slot
On second thought reworked the CO-02 chassis bonus also
Added NRB-03 arms and reworked the Destroyer; now 4cr more expensive and a little more impressive in performance
Added an upgrade option to the CO Combat Drone
Gave the CT-02 chassis the same benefit as the CT-01 chassis
Added the Type 59 Iron Stallion mech to the Appendix; slightly higher-end BEICO soldier mech
Broke the............... mech arms into two pages
Ditto for the leg parts. The others are okay as is, not bothering with the shoulders, upgrades, or weapons yet. Maybe once I have graphics for them and an editor.
Readded that little cosmetic line at the top of each page that's been missing for way too long; book prettied up very slightly as a result, very happy with myself, 10/10
CO-01 arms reduced to 2cr from 3cr
CO-01 mechs now carry a Shotgun and their Machinegun has been replaced with a Burst Rifle, are actually threatening now :DDDDDDDDD
BEI-02 arms now also grant an additional missile launch each turn
CO-01 Combat Drones have lost their 2H Rifle; they now cost 2cr less
Alphabetically sorted the shoulder parts table
Broke the Upgrades/Defects into two pages
Added the Expired Muscles, Worn Joints, Damaged Gyros, Degraded, and Faulty Tube / Mag defects.
Added Ammo Pouch torso upgrade; restores 50% of base shots with a single weapon via a Utility action, one use. Can be purchased up to twice.
Knuckle Plates upgrade reduced to 2cr
Light/Medium Power Armor equipment now costs 50% (up from 25%) of their original cost to repair to full wounds
The CO-01 head now reduces movement accuracy penalties by 1; was overpriced compared to the Bei-02
Added Shahed Missiles to the missile weapon list; slower but more powerful Medium Missile analogue with counterplay
Fire and Forget Missiles can now be shot down by machineguns; added a rule to them for that interaction
Added Beta-Quad legs; dirt cheap quad legged option
Added Bazookas to the armory and reworked the NRB-03 Destroyer a little more
Clarified that all enemy targets must be declared during an Attack utility action before rolling to hit for all of them
Congrats on the job! Loving the look of a lot of these changes, and the CO-01 head rebalance has been a long time coming. Glad to see it now have a niche, and the CO-01 mechs being made a bit more viable overall. Cheap quad legs are very much appreciated for making budget tetrapods, and I love the Shahed missiles - as well as the expanded rules on F+F missiles. I haven't used them often, but the question of "can I shoot it down?" did come up.
ReplyDeleteThe change to the Mono-03 head is looking like a pretty hefty nerf in practice. Apologies if what follows is telling you how to suck eggs, but since you said Mono-03's change was the "same overally effect" I thought it best to nerd out.
Previously, the ability to have 3:1 movement:accuracy penalties created something of a sweet spot at Speed 8 - you would only take a -2 penalty to hit whether you moved 6, 7 or 8 spaces, and as such there was no reason not to move the full 8 for that +4 to DR. This is something that my speedster player (being a certified maths prodigy) very much noticed and took advantage of. Now, if you move 8 you'll be taking a -3 to hit instead of -2.
Just to clarify, I'm not complaining about the change - Mono-03 was arguably too good as it was, and my experience has been that speedsters still have a pretty tight grip on the top spot in terms of power in this system. I have considered a house rule of increasing the DR bonus that cover gives from +1 to +2 to try and balance this out, but haven't brought it in yet.
It is worth noting that my game may also not be the most representative in terms of balance, our cheapest mechs cost 56 credits apiece and they're due for upgrading to parity with the frontrunners at 65 credits. This game has been running for rather a long time now, and is about to go on a hiatus so I can plot out the final arc and implement the updates from this version.
Oh, and having tested out the new grenade launcher in play a few times (with my house rule of increasing the ammo to 6 shots), I can definitely say it's a winner. The player I describe as "my most milsim friend" made utterly beautiful use of it for indirect fire using smoke and frag rounds.
I did have a question, actually - was the plasma cutter's armour-melting mechanic inspired by the plasma lance from Jovian Chronicles?
Thanks for another great update, and I hope the new job is treating you well.
Thanks for the kind words and feedback, always appreciated.
DeleteGlad that the new parts look good to you. The Fire and Forget Missiles interaction was absolutely an afterthought that I only realized while working on the Shaheds. In hindsight I should have been able to anticipate a player asking if they can shoot them down. After further rumination it might be appropriate to give the Beico Lanje an increased chance to take out Shaheds, or something along those lines, due to the slower speed of attack also.
The Mono-03 head is absolutely a nerf, but that wasn't my primary motive while changing up the special rule. More thinking from a playability standpoint, I think the average player would be a lot more comfortable doing basic math of the fly compared to having to mess with fractions. I personally have no issue with doing that, and have done far worse with GURPS or homebrew systems that needed a calculator for damage calculations, but I think it's just better overall this way. On the fly someone just has to calculate their usual SPD-DR-AR bonuses and just apply basic math to the DR penalty. It was a little overpowered also, so win win.
That definitely sounds like an unusual late-stage campaign, though the number of campaigns I've gotten feedback on is limited. My golden child for pleasure reading and ChromeStrike feedback, the Giant In the Playground game ran by BladeofObliviom, only seemed to get up to like 35 or 40 CR before that fell apart. 56+ is definitely something new to me. Kind of makes me want to compile that list of like fifty homebrew pilots and their mechs. Maybe in the future.
Good to hear that the new Grenade Launcher is appreciated, I was pretty happy with that new stat block. One of the tenants of game-design that stuck with me was making large balance changes instead of small ones multiple times. In this vein, I'm highly considering making weapon Magazines a standard mechanic, with the Ammo Pouch upgrade costing only 1 CR per stack/magazine (up to two), and recharging 100% of the shots of a weapon via an Entire Turn Maneuver or two consecutive Utility Maneuvers. This would greatly bolster low-shot weapons and make it feel more like giant mechanical infantry, IMO, which could be a great thing.
Plasma Cutter isn't based on Jovian Chronicles, I just wanted an Energy-Sword analogue to add more weapon types. ChromeStrike is a little too low-tech for full-on energy blades, but it lets people maybe get that fix in and homebrew around them. The only mecha systems I've looked at closely are Battletech and Lunar Reckoning 69. I like to go with my gut and try to keep the mechanics (if nothing else) original.
I've also finally taken the plunge and outlined the new Power Armor chapter, and started rough drafting the writing for that. It'll be the major addition of the next patch. More on that later.
And my new work is great, thanks. Free all-I-can-eat-buffet for lunch every day and wonderful coworkers. Minimal physical exertion also. 10/10
Simpler maths is defnitely better. I know my player is a little disappointed to have lost the Speed 8 Sweet Spot but I think overall it's better this way. It feels like it puts the incentive for gambling on missing out on DR at the correct end of the scale.
DeleteWe are 30 sessions into our campaign, with each session usually being a single massive combat encounter with some RP around it (less than I would like, but it was the format I knew I would end up in when running this - perhaps I was a little inflexible in equating it mentally to "one job = one Armored Core mission"). We've had 24 of those big fights, plus a few sessions of weirder things (including a holiday-slash-side-hustle-as-state-executioners in Bhutan gone awry when my players ended up entangled in an attempted coup, and a meetup with Yakuza bosses that was gatecrashed by CO). We're currently on a short hiatus while I plan out the final arc of the campaign, and take a short break to avoid burnout. Things are very much off the deep end of mech value, but I am happy with the effort it took them to get here. They've earned it, and they still have upgrades they want to pick up. Even on the utter monster that is Kojin - two Battle Cannons, two Autocannons, zero chill.
The magazine idea sounds very interesting. I would definitely say that the Ammo Pouch upgrade as it exists is overpriced (2cr is too much, especially when that's adding to repair bills). Giant mechanical infantry is good in my books, especially for my grenade launcher-toting player who very much leans into that angle. To lean into that further, perhaps granting a single instance of it for free to every mech could work? With additional spares being purchaseable. I'm thinking that with the stock GL and Rocket Launcher stock clip sizes in mind, though - this might make the Shredder and Assault Shotgun a little too generous on the ammo front.
That's fair, on the Plasma Cutter! I guess that makes for an amusing case of convergent evolution, then - they work remarkably similarly in both games, with high damage, limited uses, and a mechanic for stripping armour off on a hit. I've very much enjoyed having the Plasma Cutter as an option, as an avid Gundam nut - though all of the new melee weapons have been seeing regular use in my game. Much to my players' distress.
I look forward to seeing that chapter in the next update! My grenade launcher player leans hard into the power armour angle for personal scale combat (though more highly mobile, Titanfall-style light PA). Even if there's nothing in there specifically for him, I'll very much enjoy taking a look through.
Good coworkers can go a long way. Having had to move half a ton of exercise books in about an hour, the other day, I envy the lack of exertion.
On the plasma cutter, we probably just ended up going down the same thought process. I started with the basic melee weapons (swords/pipes, shotfists, pile drivers, combat shields, upgrades, etc). Not a huge fan of having a copy of existing weapons that are just slightly more damaging and more expensive- that feels boring. The explosive halberd was next, intended to have more damaging hits with limited attacks. By that point I'd exhausted pretty much every stat-block I could think of for CCW weapons. Then remembered I could have something that strips armor, which was unique enough to satisfy my requirements.
DeleteBam, game design.