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Space Kablooey posted:i can imagine the "contract" for mission B is a pamphlet/tv ad that one of the Kai-Xi twins stumbled upon one day and told Jenna lol
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Aug 25, 2023 19:18
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Scintilla posted:He is Hauptmann Heinrich Stanier of the Fourth Skye Rangers! Well you don't hold a rank like that in the 4th Skye if you can't handle your poo poo. Breaking up by companies and launching attacks up and down the enemy line is their go-to tactic.
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Aug 25, 2023 20:06
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Scintilla posted:He is Hauptmann Heinrich Stanier of the Fourth Skye Rangers! Phew. Good news, everyone. Hauptmann is a Lyran captain, and it's the highest rank that regularly sees combat. Your liaison is almost certainly an actually capable officer and not just a loose doorknob.
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Aug 25, 2023 20:07
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Chatter has convinced me to go for D Just as a raid mission with limited repairs and supplies can go south way too easily. If a mech gets hit hard it's probably offline for a good while and if we run out of stuff, we're out.
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Aug 25, 2023 22:42
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My heart says B but my head says C...
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Aug 25, 2023 23:32
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CirclMastr posted:My heart says B but my head says C... I feel like a tournament with no rules would end up with OPFOR on par with our forces, or possibly greater. It's an honest fight for sure. We don't want that, that's not profitable. We want the most overmatch we can push in our favor. However, those tournaments are probably great for advertising if you score highly. We can probably do those once we have a Lance to spare and are flush with C-Bills, but need a little more name recognition to move up to some better clients.
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Aug 26, 2023 02:49
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The Illyrians run their bloodsports annually, so the contract could easily crop up again in the future. They will eventually be conquered by the Marian Hegemony, but since the Marians are based on ancient Rome they'll probably keep the tradition going.
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Aug 26, 2023 12:39
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Fine, I'll vote C then.
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Aug 26, 2023 13:39
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Boot Camp is currently leading by a couple of votes. I'll let the vote run until Thursday before calling it, so there's still time for things to change. As an aside, the colour schemes for both the Legions of Vega and House Decimis look pretty decent even with MegaMek's slightly derpy camo rendering. Left is Vega, right is Decimis.
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Aug 27, 2023 16:16
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Changing my vote from c to D
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Aug 27, 2023 18:19
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So, I've been playing around with Pilot Special Abilities in preparation for an update on skill purchasing, and, uh... I think I'll call this one The Duality of Zweihandering, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Punch an Annihilator in the Face So Hard My Left Arm Came Off.
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Aug 29, 2023 17:56
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Aug 29, 2023 18:35
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Scintilla posted:I think I'll call this one The Duality of Zweihandering, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Punch an Annihilator in the Face So Hard My Left Arm Came Off. And like that, I am now deathly afraid of whatever skill that is. I know that's probably an extremely rare case but. Why would you use an attack that has a chance to lob your arm off?
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Aug 29, 2023 18:37
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glwgameplayer posted:And like that, I am now deathly afraid of whatever skill that is. I know that's probably an extremely rare case but. Why would you use an attack that has a chance to lob your arm off? Looks like the punch did 10dmg instead of the normal 5. So judging by the name (Two-Hander) maybe the maneuver is basically this: https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SlightDefinitiveDuckling-mobile.mp4 Amechwarrior fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Aug 29, 2023 |
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Aug 29, 2023 19:07
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glwgameplayer posted:And like that, I am now deathly afraid of whatever skill that is. I know that's probably an extremely rare case but. Why would you use an attack that has a chance to lob your arm off? Zweihander Pilot's two-handed attack in front arc inflicts extra damage, but it risks falling if fails to impact and can damage the BattleMech arms if attack hits So lose the arm if you hit, fall over if you miss. Win/Win really.
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Aug 29, 2023 19:10
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Zweihander is a high risk, high reward skill that lets you make a two-handed melee attack that deals more damage than normal in exchange for potentially damaging your own arms. The skill functions differently depending on whether you're using a weapon or punching with both hands. If you're using it while punching with both hands, the two damage instances are combined and strike a single hit location, and you make a crit roll for both arms. This isn't ideal but it can be useful as a last-ditch attack. If you're using it with a weapon it's a bit safer. The damage is increased by 50% (rounded down) and you only roll a crit in the arm holding the weapon. Zweihander is finicky, but it can be decisive. A Hatchetman normally deals 9 damage with its axe, but Zweihander increases that to 13 damage. I'm using the old rules that use the punch table for melee weapons, so that Hatchetman - a 45-ton Medium mech - now has a 1/6 chance of decapitating nearly any enemy it gets into melee range with. Things get even scarier when it's an Axman or a Berserker with its Triple Strength Myomer active.
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Aug 29, 2023 19:29
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Amechwarrior posted:Looks like the punch did 10dmg instead of the normal 5. So judging by the name (Two-Hander) maybe the maneuver is basically this: I pictured it more like this 
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Aug 29, 2023 19:36
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Scintilla posted:I think I'll call this one The Duality of Zweihandering, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Punch an Annihilator in the Face So Hard My Left Arm Came Off. Look at me, I'm the Annihilator now Annihilator of what? Everything
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Aug 29, 2023 19:58
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Scintilla posted:So, I've been playing around with Pilot Special Abilities in preparation for an update on skill purchasing, and, uh... This is one of the most Hunchback Pilot things I have ever seen 
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Aug 29, 2023 22:11
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Scintilla posted:So, I've been playing around with Pilot Special Abilities in preparation for an update on skill purchasing, and, uh... Great, now you can pick your arm up and use it as a weapon!
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Aug 29, 2023 23:11
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Okay, the contract vote is officially over. I'll write up an introductory update for the winner and hopefully have it posted in a few days. I've also been working on a breakdown of how XP spending and SPAs will work, which I hope to have up shortly. I may also have figured out how to finagle MegaMek's initiative rules to allow PTN-style OpFor Aces.
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Aug 31, 2023 17:05
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Scintilla posted:I may also have figured out how to finagle MegaMek's initiative rules to allow PTN-style OpFor Aces. What is that exactly?
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Sep 1, 2023 01:18
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Players always win initiative; because otherwise it requires movement interleaving which just doesn't work in a PbP format. A surprise ace or two being the exception because instead of alternating moves its just one at the end, after the players go
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Sep 1, 2023 01:29
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Amechwarrior posted:What is that exactly? From what I remember it basically means that they can get the drop on us by moving last. We move in to attack their lance, and one of them suddenly pops out of the woodwork and attack us. We can predict normal pilots movements easily enough, but well. "That Guy's An Ace"
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Sep 1, 2023 01:59
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It gives the GM an opportunity to field weaker OpForces. Always losing initiative is a huge challenge. A Locust is barely noticable in a fight between two lances of mostly Heavy 'Mechs. An Ace Locust is an unignorable threat in the same circumstances, because it can pick and choose when (or if) the players ever get to engage it.
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Sep 1, 2023 02:33
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Neat, thanks for the answers everyone. Nice way to ratchet up risk.
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Sep 1, 2023 02:51
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PoptartsNinja posted:It gives the GM an opportunity to field weaker OpForces. Always losing initiative is a huge challenge. Especially if that Locust happens to have a couple of Rocket Launchers strapped to it! (Although that's far later in the timeline)
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Sep 1, 2023 08:17
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Aces are also the only reliable way for me to pro-actively engage in melee combat. If I'm fielding a non-Ace Hatchetman / Axman / any other melee mech it'll never close the distance since players can simply run/jump away whenever it gets near them.
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Sep 1, 2023 14:16
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That's why I'm running 'desperation mechanics' in my current thread. If the players toy with an enemy 'Mech long enough it *will* become an Ace. 
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Sep 1, 2023 14:40
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PoptartsNinja posted:That's why I'm running 'desperation mechanics' in my current thread. It's a great mechanic, and it makes sense narratively. Pressure a foe enough and they'll fight with the courage of despair.
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Sep 1, 2023 14:49
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XP, Leveling Stats and Special Pilot Abilities Over the course of the LP the members of the Sterling and Sable Mercenary Company have been steadily accruing XP. XP is a currency that can be used to improve a pilot’s gunnery and piloting, purchase Special Pilot Abilities (SPAs) and to buy Edge, a special resource that I will explain in more detail in its dedicated section below. At the time of posting, the company’s mechwarriors earn one point of XP for every mission they take part in, and another for every three enemies they destroy. Four XP are also awarded to the MVP after every mission. A small amount of XP is also randomly awarded at the end of each month to simulate the mechwarriors training in their downtime. Support staff can also earn XP, either by doing their jobs (Techs, Doctors) or at a flat rate of one XP every three weeks (Admin Staff). Gunnery and Piloting Gunnery and piloting are the primary stats in Battletech, and levelling them up is the simplest way to improve a mechwarrior’s performance. For this LP, the baseline of gunnery and piloting for company mechwarriors will be 4 gunnery and 5 piloting. Technically a totally green mechwarrior is supposed to start at 5/6, but I don’t want to saddle players with a pilot who can’t hit the broad side of a barn and spends half the mission struggling to stand up after failing a PSR and falling flat on their arse. I’ll occasionally include such pilots in the OpFor, though, so feel free to laugh as they flail about incompetently. I’ve spent some time thinking about how much XP levelling up should cost. The scale I’ve come up has the cost of improving gunnery and piloting begin at 10XP and double with every subsequent level: G/P 4 = 10XP G/P 3 = 20XP G/P 2 = 40XP G/P 1 = 80XP G/P 0 = 160XP This means it costs a total of 30XP to train a 4/5 pilot up to 3/4. This should be fairly simple to achieve; a three of our current mechwarriors are a third of the way there already. Training them to 2/3 will cost an extra 60XP. This is still doable, but it’ll take multiple contracts to accrue. Going to 1/2 would cost another 120XP. This is the point where it starts to become uneconomical – you can max out most of the SPA skill trees for the same amount of XP and gain more benefits from doing so. For the curious, taking a 4/5 pilot down to the maximum of 0/0 would cost a total of 510XP. By my reckoning, an elite company mechwarrior at the end of their career should be a 2/3 pilot with a completed SPA tree. I think this is a reasonable scale, but reserve the right to fiddle with it if it proves to be too unbalanced in one direction or another. Special Pilot Abilities Special Pilot Abilities, or SPAs, are special skills that give a mechwarrior unique advantages which can be purchased with XP. Some provide small bonuses, whereas others are game-breakingly good. In normal play you just buy whichever SPA you want from a master list, but to make things a bit simpler and to impart a feeling of progression I have separated out the more useful ones and compiled them into six individual skill trees. Each tree is laid out like so: Tier 1 SPA -> Choice of two Tier 2 SPAs -> Tier 3 SPA -> Mastery SPA After purchasing a Tier 1 SPA from a particular tree, the thread can then choose to purchase one or both of the Tier 2 SPAs. Only one Tier 2 SPA is needed to unlock Tier 3; the second one can be left unbought or purchased at a later date. The amount of XP required to purchase each skill depends on its tier, with higher tiers naturally requiring more XP. At the top of each tree is the Mastery SPA, capping off the progression. Mastery SPAs are very powerful and thus have the highest XP costs. Each mechwarrior may purchase a total of four regular SPAs and one Mastery SPA. Hopefully, this will allow characters to become powerful without them snowballing into invincible gods of war. To broaden the choices a little, purchasing a Mastery SPA will make all skills in the other trees up to Tier 2 available for purchase. You do not need to purchase a Tier 1 SPA first after this; if a character were to achieve the Mastery SPA in the Assault Tree, they could then purchase the Hopping Jack skill from Tier 2 of the Mobility Tree without having to purchase Evasive Action beforehand. Of course, if the thread wants a Tier 1 skill that’s fine too - purchasing it is still possible as long as the pilot has a spare SPA slot. Other than that, there are no restrictions on SPA purchasing. The thread can choose to purchase four Tier 1 SPAs from four different trees if it wants. One limitation not of my making is the fact that not all of the tabletop SPAs have been implemented in MegaMek yet. I would have loved to add the Fist Fire SPA to the Melee Tree and the Sharpshooter SPA to the Tactics Tree, but neither are in the latest build. To compensate I have added a few homebrew SPAs whose effects I can simulate using my GM powers. Anyway, here are the trees: Guts Tree Toughness +1 (5XP) -> Some Like It Hot / Hot Dog (10XP) -> Pain Resistance (20XP) -> Charmed Life (40XP) Toughness +1: Grants a +1 bonus to consciousness rolls. Some Like It Hot: The pilot does not suffer the initial +1 accuracy penalty when overheating. Hot Dog: Reduces overheat roll target numbers (Ammunition Explosions, Auto-Shutdown, etc) by 1. Pain Resistance: Grants a +1 bonus to consciousness rolls and reduces the number of pilot hits from ammunition explosions from 2 to 1. Guts Tree Mastery Skill – Charmed Life: Homebrew SPA. The pilot enters each mission with a single free point of Edge. This stacks with any pre-existing Edge the mechwarrior might have, but does not persist if it is not used during the mission. The Guts Tree is all about making a pilot tougher and better able to handle heat. This tree is a bit more practical than the others since it focuses on mechwarrior survival. Just having Toughness +1 makes the first consciousness roll an automatic success, and the bonus stacks with the one given later by Pain Resistance. I’ve made the skills in this tree slightly cheaper than the others since they’re quite useful, but not to the point of being game-breaking. The exception is Charmed Life which gives the player a free re-roll to avoid several negative gameplay outcomes; see the section on Edge below for more details. Tactics Tree Multi-Tasker (10XP) -> Oblique Attacker / Rangemaster (20XP) -> Human TRO (30XP) -> Master Gunner (B, E or M) (40XP) Multi-Tasker: When splitting fire between multiple targets, secondary targeting penalties are reduced by 1. Oblique Attacker: Pilot can fire indirectly without a spotter and the penalty for indirect fire is reduced by 1. Rangemaster: Range modifiers for long and short range are switched. Human TRO: Pilot gains a +1 bonus on all critical rolls made against battlemechs. Tactics Tree Mastery Skill – Master Gunner: Mechwarrior chooses to specialise in either Ballistic, Energy or Missile weapons, gaining a flat -1 accuracy bonus when shooting weapons of that type. The Tactics Tree contains skills that increase a mechwarrior’s utility. Multi-Tasker is great for when you’re engaging multiple enemies and your mech doesn’t have the ‘Multi-Trac’ quirk. Oblique Attacker is useful for missile boats and artillery weapons, while Rangemaster makes sniping from long range incredibly easy in exchange for greater difficulty dealing with close-range threats. Human TRO is a great skill since it can turn a missed crit into an engine / gyro / ammo explosion. Master Gunner is another great skill since it applies to all weapons of a given type while not suffering from the downsides of the Assault Tree’s Gunnery Specialisation SPA. Assault Tree Rapid Autocannons (10XP) -> Cluster Hitter / Gunnery Specialisation (20XP) -> Blood Stalker (30XP) -> Weapon Specialisation (40XP) Rapid Autocannons: Homebrew SPA. The pilot can fire an additional shot with standard and light autocannons. However, the shot will have a +1 accuracy penalty, and the weapon will jam on a roll of 2. If the gun does jam, it will remain unusable for the duration of combat. Cluster Hitter: Pilot gains a +1 bonus when rolling on the cluster table. Gunnery Specialisation: Pilot gains a permanent specialisation in either Energy, Missile or Ballistic weaponry, gaining a -1 accuracy bonus when firing a weapon of that type. However, they also take a +1 penalty when firing a weapon of the two types they did not pick. Blood Stalker: Once per battle, the pilot can select an enemy unit to headhunt. The pilot will gain a -1 accuracy bonus when engaging this enemy, but takes a +2 accuracy penalty against all other units. This effect lasts until the targeted unit is destroyed or retreats. Assault Tree Mastery Skill – Weapon Specialisation: The pilot chooses a single weapons system to specialise in, gaining a -2 accuracy bonus when firing it. I may homebrew this one a little to broaden the applicability a bit, eg. a Large Laser specialisation also applies to ER Large Lasers, etc. The Assault Tree is for when you want to go in guns blazing. Rapid Autocannons lets mechwarriors take advantage of some optional rules that make autocannons a bit more viable. Making them explode on a roll of 4 or below seemed a bit harsh, so I just went with the unofficial rule that turns them into Ultra-ACs with an accuracy penalty. Cluster Hitter is a simple yet effective ability that makes missiles and cluster munitions a bit deadlier, while Gunnery Specialisation is a mixed blessing that can nonetheless be quite powerful since it applies to all weapons of a given type. Blood Stalker is an assassination-style ability that can be activated at any time (or not at all), making it useful for missions where a specific target needs to be eliminated. Weapon Specialisation speaks for itself, it turns whichever weapon it applies to into a Pulse Laser. Melee Tree Zweihander (10XP) -> Dodge / Rock Solid (20XP) -> Melee Specialist (30XP) -> Melee Mastery (40XP) Zweihander: The pilot can perform a two-handed melee attack, dealing increased damage. However, doing so forces a critical roll on one or both arms, potentially damaging them. (You don’t actually need a melee weapon for this – you can also do it when punching with both hands, dealing a single attack that inflicts the combined damage of both punches on a single hit location, eg. a Hunchback would deal one 10 damage blow instead of two 5 damage blows). Dodge: Enables the pilot to make a dodge manoeuvre instead of a physical attack, inflicting a +2 accuracy penalty against enemy physical attacks during the melee phase. Rock Solid: Homebrew SPA. Mechs piloted by this unit are treated as though they have the ‘Stable’ quirk, granting them a -2 bonus against melee knockdowns. Melee Specialist: The pilot gains a -1 bonus to hit in melee and deals 1 extra point of damage with melee attacks. Melee Tree Mastery Skill – Melee Master: The pilot’s physical attacks deal damage twice. (Yes, this means a mech can potentially punch an enemy four consecutive times in one turn). The Melee Tree helps mechwarriors with a burning desire to rip and tear. Zweihander allows a mech to deal incredible damage with punches and melee weapons, but having to roll arm crits afterwards make it a bit risky. Dodge can be pretty useful if the pilot is in a mech that isn’t suited for close combat but is in danger of being hacked to death by a nearby Hatchetman. Rock Solid is a homebrew SPA that makes it harder for a foe to kick your legs out from under you. Melee Specialist is just an incredibly powerful skill overall, especially since the bonus stacks with the Battle Fists quirk. Melee Master is in the running for the most broken SPA in the game simply because it lets you kick twice in one turn. Mobility Tree Evasive Action (10XP) -> Hopping Jack / Manoeuvring Ace (20XP) -> Swamp Beast (30XP) -> Forest Ranger (40XP) Evasive Action: Homebrew SPA. By forfeiting the right to fire during the shooting phase, the pilot gains the ability to move evasively, inflicting an additional +1 penalty against incoming weapons fire and physical attacks. The unit must use its Running MP, have undamaged hips, and will gain an extra +2 heat at the end of the round. Hopping Jack: Pilot suffers a +2 penalty when firing after jumping instead of +3. Manoeuvring Ace: Enables the unit to move laterally like a Quad battlemech. If the mech is already a Quad, it can move laterally for 1 less MP. In both cases, the unit also gains a -1 bonus against skidding, sideslipping and going out of control. Swamp Beast: Moving through Mud or Swamp hexes costs 1 less MP. In addition, ending movement in such a hex after using Running MP imparts a +1 penalty to incoming weapons fire. Mobility Tree Mastery Skill – Forest Ranger: Woods cost 1 less MP to move through, and stopping in a wooded hex after using only Walking MP inflicts a +1 penalty to incoming weapons fire. In addition, piloting checks while in jungle terrain have a -1 bonus. The Mobility Tree gives mechwarriors greater options when it comes to movement. Evasive Action lets a pilot take advantage of the optional evasive movement rules. This can be especially useful for fragile, damaged, or overheating mechs that need to change position and/or get the hell out of dodge rather than fire their weapons. Hopping Jack is a nice and simple ability that makes it easier to hit things after jumping. Manoeuvring Ace is a bit more circumstantial, but lateral movement can occasionally save MP and the bonus against skidding can be extremely useful when fighting in cities and other places with lots of pavement. Swamp Beast is a bit situational since you generally want to avoid Mud and Swamp hexes if you can, but it’s useful if you have no choice. Forest Ranger makes it so that you can ignore the extra MP cost when moving through Light Woods while also granting a few other circumstantial bonuses. Scout Tree Piloting Ace (10XP) -> Blind Fighter / Weathered (20XP) -> Eagle’s Eyes (30XP) -> Sniper (40XP) Piloting Ace: Homebrew SPA. The pilot ignores the penalties of the ‘Unbalanced’, ‘Minimal Arms’, ‘Cramped Cockpit’, and ‘Hard to Pilot’ design quirks. Blind Fighter: Pilot does not suffer the initial +1 penalty to hit due to darkness. Weathered: Pilot does not suffer the initial +1 penalty to hit due to adverse weather conditions. Eagle’s Eyes: The pilot’s mech gains the benefits of an Active Probe, and if it already has one, its range is extended. This skill also automatically reveals all conventional minefields on the map. Scout Tree Mastery Skill – Sniper: All range penalties are halved. The Scout Tree contains a mixture of skills that mainly focus on removing various piloting / accuracy penalties while also improving sensors. Piloting Ace is a homebrew SPA that makes many light / bug mechs much easier to pilot. Blind Fighter and Weathered are both essentially the same ability, just applied to night fighting and bad weather respectively. Eagle’s Eyes won’t be too useful at this point in the timeline, but it will become very important in the future once ECM / Stealth Armour / other shenanigans start to crop up. This tree is a bit niche, which is partly why I’ve added the insanely good Sniper ability as its Mastery Skill. Even if the other skills aren’t always useful, that one definitely will be. Enemy Only SPAs There are some SPAs which are reserved for the OpFor. These are as follows: Tactical Genius: Semi-Homebrew SPA. In normal play, this ability allows a pilot to re-roll their Initiative once per turn. In this LP, it denotes an enemy Ace. Enemy Aces can move during the players’ movement phase, making them difficult to predict. Natural Aptitude (Gunnery) / Natural Aptitude (Piloting): For all gunnery and piloting checks, roll twice and take the best outcome. These are both incredibly broken skills that will probably be limited to enemy elites. Clan EI Implants: Special implants that allow a Clan mechwarrior to link their consciousness to their battlemech, removing the need for a neurohelmet and providing a stack of combat bonuses when activated. Only the most fanatical Crusader Clanners use these since they cause irreversible brain damage that kills the mechwarrior within five years. VDNI / Manei Domini Implants: These are Word of Blake implants, so I can’t see a path to the players ever acquiring them. On a related note, while the OpFor is limited to the same number of SPAs as player pilots, they will not necessarily follow the skill trees absolutely. I reserve the right to give them whichever crazy combination of SPAs I think might make combat interesting. Other SPA Notes There are some other SPAs that deserve a mention. Small Pilot: Negates the penalties for the ‘Cramped Cockpit’ design quirk. I plan on keeping this an innate ability that cannot be bought. I mean… what’re you going to do, hack off the pilot’s arms and legs to make them smaller? The Word of Blake actually did this. It also will not count towards the pilot’s SPA limit. When the time comes for players to make their own characters I will probably include it in a list of possible starting SPAs. Clan Pilot Training: All the pilot’s melee attacks receive a +1 accuracy penalty. When the Clans show up, most of their mechwarriors will have this ‘skill’, although its prevalence will gradually decrease after the invasion era. Like Small Pilot, it will not count towards the pilot’s SPA limit. In the event that the company takes a Clanner as a bondsman, the thread can pay 10XP to have it removed. Various Technician / Support Staff SPAs: Technicians and support staff can also acquire SPAs, such as Samuel Kost’s ‘Mr Fix-It’ ability. Since these have more influence on the back-end of MekHQ I plan on assigning these myself. Edge Edge is a special resource that can be bought with XP, and acts as protection against failed rolls. By spending Edge, a player can re-roll head hits, Through-Armour Criticals, pilot KO’s, ammunition explosions and MASC / Supercharger failures. It is possible to select which of these will trigger a re-roll; in this LP Edge will only activate on head hits. I’ve set the cost of Edge at 15XP per point, with each pilot being limited to three points maximum. The only exception are pilots with the Charmed Life SPA, who can go up to four thanks to their single point of temporary Edge. I may increase this limit or lower the cost of Edge once Gauss Rifles and Clan ER PPCs start showing up. It should be noted that Edge does not offer perfect protection – if a player is unlucky the re-roll may wind up hitting the head again. Cluster weapons in particular tend to chew through Edge like candy because of the sheer number of hits they inflict. You wanted protection against a Gauss headcap? Sorry, three LB 20-X pellets hit you in the head and burned through it all and now you’re defenceless. There’s not much I can do about this – Edge triggers automatically, so the best you can do is hope it does so when you need it most. Thread XP / Character Progression Votes I’ve been thinking about how to implement thread voting on XP distribution, and at the moment I’m leaning towards make them part of the State of the Company updates at the end of each contract. Pilots probably won’t earn enough XP to justify a vote after every mission, and holding it after the end of a contract will make it easier for me to balance the OpFors for the next set of contracts. On the other hand, some contracts are probably going to drag on for longer than the three missions the first contract lasted. For particularly long contracts I might compromise by holding ad-hoc votes at the halfway point. -- Since we never had an XP vote during the last State of the Company update, let’s hold one now. Below is a list of pilots with enough XP to purchase an upgrade: Yukiko Ishimura: 11XP. Can afford to upgrade Piloting to 4, or purchase any Tier 1 SPA. Louis Belkof: 10XP. Can afford to upgrade Piloting to 4, or purchase any Tier 1 SPA. Alexander Hanh: 10XP. Can afford to upgrade Piloting to 4, or purchase any Tier 1 SPA. Anna Heimer: 8XP. Can afford to purchase Toughness +1 from the Guts Tree. Archibald Grumman: 7XP. Can afford to purchase Toughness +1 from the Guts Tree. Charles Wentworth: 6XP. Can afford to purchase Toughness +1 from the Guts Tree. You may choose whether to level up, purchase an SPA, or not spend anything and save the XP for the future. Scintilla fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Sep 2, 2023 |
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Sep 1, 2023 20:22
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I imagine for certain mechs the Some Like it Hot SPA will really shine because of the way it will allow you to manipulate the heat curve even further. e- the mobility tree top to bottom looks really, really good
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Sep 1, 2023 20:34
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Captain Foo posted:e- the mobility tree top to bottom looks really, really good Yeah, I'm worried it might be too good. I'll sleep on it for now. If the consensus is that it's too busted I'll try and tone it down a bit.
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Sep 1, 2023 20:47
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Scintilla posted:I may homebrew this one a little to broaden the applicability a bit, eg. a Large Laser specialisation also applies to ER Large Lasers, etc. The comparison to a Pulse Laser isn't quite accurate - those weapons have built-in drawbacks to counter their greater accuracy. A Large Pulse Laser is only marginally longer ranged (maximum of 10 hexes) than a standard medium laser (max range of 9 hexes), has 150% of the heat of a standard Large Laser, and weighs 2 tons more. With those drawbacks, the accuracy bonus still makes it a potent weapon worth carrying. A Large Laser carried by a pilot with Weapon Specialist (Large Laser)? Is identical in every way to a large laser carried by anybody else, and will outperform an ER Large Laser in the hands of an equal-skill pilot without the specialization under most circumstances due to the hit bonus and lower heat. I'd argue that it is in the running for most powerful (if you can get the proper weapon) SPA "capstone" you have here. Particularly because you're probably not going to have any kind of rules to prevent optimal use - you'll likely have no objection, for example, to putting the guy with WS: Medium Laser in a Jenner or Swayback because you want the players to get what they paid for.
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Sep 1, 2023 21:11
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Forest Ranger should probably be the mobility capstone skill. It's incredibly powerful. It turns all light woods into heavy woods (for the occupant only) and turns all heavy woods into jungles. It's one of the most powerful SPAs and is one of the ones I frequently ban (or limit to 1/company) in RL games.
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Sep 1, 2023 21:31
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Can you put the Lance & 'Mechs assigned to the pilots that have XP to spend? I know what they're driving will change over time, but I want an idea of where they are in the company.
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Sep 1, 2023 22:10
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Gnoman posted:, to putting the guy with WS: Medium Laser in a Jenner or Swayback because you want the players to get what they paid for. Stacking a swayback pilot with one of the "heat" skills, energy gunnery and ML specialization sounds hilarious and we should do it, even though it is suboptimal.
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Sep 1, 2023 22:57
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i have no vote right now, but i'm hoping at some point we get someone with all of the Tactics tree except for Oblique Attacker and then splash in either Cluster Hitter or Gunnery Specialization and just spam critseeker ballistic/missile all day
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Sep 2, 2023 02:14
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I vote that it's too early to spend XP. Gotta improve gunnery first.
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Sep 2, 2023 02:22
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Yeah, at 4/5 you just want base skill, way cheaper and more meaningful. Gets a little more murky once you're in a vehicle for life, like getting lrm20 spec as an archer pilot
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Sep 2, 2023 03:14
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