Post by Adam on Jul 14, 2008 15:13:33 GMT -5
Moving/Shooting: Reactor Points
Reactor points replace the current movement points and move/fire table (because nobody likes tables). Your reactor points are based on a set number defined by which reactor you have - a lower-end reactor might output 10-15 reactor points, which goes up to about 20 with daemonhearted mechs, I expect. I'm not sure about the numbers yet. This is increased via Reflexes upgrades - each Re upgrade gives you an extra reactor point, which'll make them even more expensive, but hey. It also may increase slightly on larger mechs. It decreases if your mech is overencumbered (see the weight limits thing).
You use reactor points to move as you would movement points. Then you fire. A light weapon costs 1 reactor point to fire, heavy 2 RP, siege cannon or ordnance-sized weapon (see the weight limits section) 3 RP, gigaweapon 4 RP. Again, these numbers may differ. Surge will probably cost an extra reactor point while it's on, which will make the rule very cheap cogs-wise. Using reactor points was something I was considering before, but the difference now is that because you're acting with one mech at a time, there's no remembering of numbers or anything like that from phase to phase - you don't need to somehow keep track of the amount of RPs used up by this mech, that mech and their six or seven buddies over there. This makes the system viable.
Also, you may well need to use reactor points to make CC attacks. You can charge for free (or very cheap) most likely, representing reserves of power kept to do just this, and when you charge you get more free RPs for attacks. Once in close combat though, you're relying on your reactor. For example if you've suffered damage (a new damage result could decrement your RPs perhaps?) or are encumbered, or something, and for whatever reason have five reactor points, you can only make 5 Attacks even if you have 6 normally. Giga or overweight CCWs cost two RPs per attack.
Speed has no effect on this whatsoever and Reflexes upgrades only give you one reactor point per upgrade (you don't get extra RPs equal to half your Reflexes). Speed only exists to define how far you can move in every movement/assault and will probably get a little cheaper. Reflexes will define how much you can turn. You can make a number of 45 degree turns up to half your Re for 1 RP each. You can go beyond that, up to your full Re, but after that each turn costs 2 RP. Beyond that, no dice. This is indicative of the new 'beyond the limits' approach I'm taking - there's plenty of this in the creation section.
Advantages of this system: No weapon spam. The move and fire table made no distinction, say at the 4-6 MP level, between one heavy weapon and the possible 12 you can fit onto a super-heavy (two of which would be paired, an' all). Paired ranged weapons will get more expensive to reflect their new bonus, that is, you get the 1.5x firepower without having to pay more RPs to use it (so those shoulder missiles, which incidentally will be rather heavy under the weight-based creation system, are starting to look really pricey right now...). Another advantage is that it doesn't gimp gigaweapons. If you have a high Speed and a half decent reactor you can move 7" or 8" and still fire that gigaweapon, although probably nothing (or very little) else - as opposed to inching forward 1" to avoid the 'Ooh, I get +2 to hit you' and opening up with all of your weaponry at once. Hence rewarding aggressive play (although people with tons of heavy weapons likely won't move a lot...). Finally, it's more realistic and means you don't have to look stuff up on a table.
Getting up, jump jets, Commando rising-from-cover, launching spider mines, etc will cost different amounts of reactor points. Getting up will be five or so, jump jets 7 or 8 (maybe more) and the same with the Commandos (so the rise-and-jump thing is less effective, unless you have a really powerful jazzed-up mech, in which case it'd look cool so we'll leave it be). Spider mines? One or two each.
Reactor points replace the current movement points and move/fire table (because nobody likes tables). Your reactor points are based on a set number defined by which reactor you have - a lower-end reactor might output 10-15 reactor points, which goes up to about 20 with daemonhearted mechs, I expect. I'm not sure about the numbers yet. This is increased via Reflexes upgrades - each Re upgrade gives you an extra reactor point, which'll make them even more expensive, but hey. It also may increase slightly on larger mechs. It decreases if your mech is overencumbered (see the weight limits thing).
You use reactor points to move as you would movement points. Then you fire. A light weapon costs 1 reactor point to fire, heavy 2 RP, siege cannon or ordnance-sized weapon (see the weight limits section) 3 RP, gigaweapon 4 RP. Again, these numbers may differ. Surge will probably cost an extra reactor point while it's on, which will make the rule very cheap cogs-wise. Using reactor points was something I was considering before, but the difference now is that because you're acting with one mech at a time, there's no remembering of numbers or anything like that from phase to phase - you don't need to somehow keep track of the amount of RPs used up by this mech, that mech and their six or seven buddies over there. This makes the system viable.
Also, you may well need to use reactor points to make CC attacks. You can charge for free (or very cheap) most likely, representing reserves of power kept to do just this, and when you charge you get more free RPs for attacks. Once in close combat though, you're relying on your reactor. For example if you've suffered damage (a new damage result could decrement your RPs perhaps?) or are encumbered, or something, and for whatever reason have five reactor points, you can only make 5 Attacks even if you have 6 normally. Giga or overweight CCWs cost two RPs per attack.
Speed has no effect on this whatsoever and Reflexes upgrades only give you one reactor point per upgrade (you don't get extra RPs equal to half your Reflexes). Speed only exists to define how far you can move in every movement/assault and will probably get a little cheaper. Reflexes will define how much you can turn. You can make a number of 45 degree turns up to half your Re for 1 RP each. You can go beyond that, up to your full Re, but after that each turn costs 2 RP. Beyond that, no dice. This is indicative of the new 'beyond the limits' approach I'm taking - there's plenty of this in the creation section.
Advantages of this system: No weapon spam. The move and fire table made no distinction, say at the 4-6 MP level, between one heavy weapon and the possible 12 you can fit onto a super-heavy (two of which would be paired, an' all). Paired ranged weapons will get more expensive to reflect their new bonus, that is, you get the 1.5x firepower without having to pay more RPs to use it (so those shoulder missiles, which incidentally will be rather heavy under the weight-based creation system, are starting to look really pricey right now...). Another advantage is that it doesn't gimp gigaweapons. If you have a high Speed and a half decent reactor you can move 7" or 8" and still fire that gigaweapon, although probably nothing (or very little) else - as opposed to inching forward 1" to avoid the 'Ooh, I get +2 to hit you' and opening up with all of your weaponry at once. Hence rewarding aggressive play (although people with tons of heavy weapons likely won't move a lot...). Finally, it's more realistic and means you don't have to look stuff up on a table.
Getting up, jump jets, Commando rising-from-cover, launching spider mines, etc will cost different amounts of reactor points. Getting up will be five or so, jump jets 7 or 8 (maybe more) and the same with the Commandos (so the rise-and-jump thing is less effective, unless you have a really powerful jazzed-up mech, in which case it'd look cool so we'll leave it be). Spider mines? One or two each.