July 15, 2012

Slowing Down a Little

Another small update this month. In fact this is the smallest update as of yet, and unless I've broken the game without realizing it, should be the last one for a while.

Get v1.32 at Mediafire 

Or via 4shared 

General Changes:
-After six months I think I'm finally done hunting down typos, images that go over the borders, and other similar issues.
Character Creation:
-Nothing!
Mecha Construction:
-A number of Ranges didn't make sense since the addition of the Range 0 rule. Additionally, a few Ranges didn't make sense on their own. Weapon Ranges in general were touched up a bit.
-Extending Punch costs an extra point of Energy.
-Radiant Fist is Reliable once more (why the heck did I take that out?) and both attack stats scale to Tension now.
-Heavy Machinegun no longer must Recharge but it now 'jams' after an Accuracy roll of 1 and it cannot be used until your next Turn.
-Linear Missile no longer suffers a Disadvantage to the Accuracy Test.
-Interference Barrage is now One-Shot but will inflict IFF Failure even on a miss.
Playing the Game:
-Nothing!
Running the Show:
-Debilitate will inflict IFF Failure in place of Chain Reaction now.

So now that I think there isn't much left to improve without any major alterations to the system, what I will be working on instead is the integration of the various major changes I've been discussing. I'm not sure when that beta will be ready but probably not next month. Nor the one after that, if you catch my drift.

Since it is going to be a very different version, it will probably be less like an update and more like a new edition, but the idea is that it will do everything (or nearly everything) the current game can while also being faster and simpler. Since I'm not throwing the current game by the wayside or anything, any really important and strictly better changes can be implemented to it, too, for anyone who doesn't like the future edition.

I will probably post chunks of it as it comes together here, so stay tuned.

22 comments:

  1. Hello!

    Got, a question about one rule:

    Condition (Expose): The Enemy’s Base Armor is 0 until
    an attack Damages them.

    Does it mean that if the weapon has Expose, debuff from Expose doesn't count on the first strike? That the enemy base armor is 0 from the next turn (second strike) not in the first hit?

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  2. When you Attack with Armor Breaker, you can inflict Expose after you've dealt Damage. Expose will not affect Armor Breaker's own Attack, only the first Attack that breaches Evasion against whoever is currently suffering from it.

    You can use it to set up your next Round's finisher, or a friendly's that goes after you. Whereas Immobilize works against many Attacks but making use of it yourself is pretty difficult.

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  3. Missiles are now odd because they have a minimum range of 1 instead of 2, but one of Dogfighter's benefits is still that Missiles work at range 0-1. It might also be nice to have at least one other Missile breed that's not One-Shot.

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  4. Whoops! I missed that bit on Dogfighter, thanks for the tip. As for more options for Missiles, that's definitely on my to-do list.

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  5. Excuse me... but what exactly makes Aide a good alternate to component? Can't Component do just about anything that Aide can do?

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  6. An Aide can actually use the stuff you give it, specially if you enhance it so it has its own turn to do things with. A Component is mostly a walking Genre Power that lets you bypass area restrictions, even if enhanced it can -only- use Cooperate.

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  7. So why exactly would anyone ever want to detatch the Component, especially given it takes an entire action to do so?

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  8. Yeah, that is especially confusing. Detaching the Component gives zero benefits as far as I can tell, and there's no reason to ever have it detached since you can start with it attached.

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  9. A separate question: How do Abilities that add excess Accuracy to Penetration work together? For example G-Buster and One Shot, One Kill.

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  10. The option is mostly there for flavor reasons, plus it would be helpful for a character that has a Component/Aide combo in one, but considering it doesn't add much except being confusing, I should probably toss it out and just add a line saying Components can separate if it comes down to that.

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  11. Oh and abilities that make it so you add the full rollover to your Penetration don't stack together.

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  12. Other things that have come up in the course of play: would it be possible for there to be a rule to allow overcosting areas, maybe something like parts in excess of the area limits costing double UP? Right now building units like Destiny Gundam that have a large number of arm-mounted weapons is very difficult. Sometimes it can be done using a wonky use of Transform to have the unit transform into itself, but that takes up Core space and doesn't allow for adding extra things into the Core, plus it's rather wasteful if you only want one or two extra things. Risking having a disproportionate amount of stuff lost if the area gets Maimed is already penalty enough.

    It would also be nice if there was a proper Full Armor option, something similar to Component but associating the add-on parts with individual areas instead of adding a new one. It would help cover super robots like Great Exkaiser or Great Might Gaine as well.

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  13. Double costs sound like a decent workaround, if a tad expensive to implement.

    The Full Armor upgrade is a good idea. It could be represented better as an enhancement for area slots, though, at a rate of 30 extra space in all areas per 1 UP spent - to a maximum of 150 space at 5 UP.

    That said, I will most likely do away with area restrictions in the future, to be frank, they don't add that much to the game save for complicating it.

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    Replies
    1. A thought on how to handle Full Armor in the same style as Component and Aide:

      Full Armor
      Areas: None
      Cost: The cost of the total set of purchases plus 3 UP.
      Description: You equip your machine with an outer shell that protects its systems from harm and provides additional equipment.
      Effect: Choose a set of Upgrades and designate them as Full Armor, ignoring all Area allocation restrictions. This Full Armor must be equipped to your unit when deployed unless it is combined with a Component, adding 3 UP to the cost of the Component. The first time your unit is Maimed with Full Armor attached, the attacker cannot select what Area is Maimed, instead the Full Armor is Maimed and automatically detaches from your unit.
      Enhancements: None

      If implemented this way, the Security Escort feature of Base Units should specify that it does not function for Aides that are also Full Armor.

      Delete
  14. Other questions concerning Aides and remote weapons: they currently have this weird thing where because their base stats are derived from yours, you end up with very oddly tanky escort Aides coming from a tanky mech when they should be dodgy instead, or funnels that can't dodge but can take a lot of damage. Shouldn't it be that you can pick what frame type a Remote or Aide uses for its base stats?

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  15. Also about Aides, why is it you can't give them redundant upgrades? Anti-Gravity's a particular one where if you can fly, it means none of your Components or Aides can.

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  16. At least two types of funnels with their own stats, separate from the base units, are on the way - for the time being I would recommend you do just that and choose any of the chassis types available for their Evasion and Armor.

    You make a good observation about redundant Upgrades I never noticed until you brought it up. I will probably make it so you can share some of your Upgrades with them, such as Anti-Gravity, because making people buy it twice just for a flying companion is kind of a dick move.

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  17. One more thing: there needs to be some way to prevent Maiming the Arms from being such a cheap tactic. As it stands you would never Maim anything but the Arms because it's usually where virtually all the weapons are. While this is genre-accurate, it also tends to lead to death spirals since units with their Arms maimed might not be able to meaningfully counterattack at all. Something more viable might be "When a unit's Area is Maimed, the pilot can choose to either keep one Upgrade in the Area functioning or raise their Tension by 1. If the Area only has a single Upgrade attached, the pilot must choose the Tension boost."

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  18. I agree. I'm probably going to make it so -you- choose what is sacrificed when you lose an area. Otherwise most duels are a race to see who maims whose key area first.

    It also kind of blows from a GM perspective when you never get to show the main feature of your baddies because they blow it up first.

    As a temporary measure, that ruling sounds like it would work fine. I don't want to make Tension increases too common because it makes keeping track of the general Tension harder, though.

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  19. What are your thoughts on the version of Full Armor posted as a reply a little above? I'd considered an Enhancement to grant some boost to the attached Threshold layer, something to the effect of the Enhancement letting you heal the attached Threshold layer to full at the cost of an Action and immediately losing the benefits of the armor.

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    Replies
    1. So to give an example, if someone playing Great Exkaiser is near Maiming, they can choose to give up the benefits of the Dragon Jet, with the unit being broken upon detaching, to leave behind a fully restored King Exkaiser, or they can instead choose to keep fighting until it breaks, keeping its benefits a little longer but with no healing. This makes the decision to manually eject or not a meaningful choice.

      If Maiming is switched to defender's choice, then this should become the default effect of Full Armor, the Enhancement allowing the decision to eject at the beginning of your turn without an Action. This fits with the other Sub Unit Enhancements being about action economy.

      Delete
  20. Looking for a rules clarification: can someone be in a Duel with more than one person at a time? That is, if someone is in a Duel, what happens if someone else tries to Engage?

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