Admin Progress Report

I'd be okay with this change.

 

I should also specify that payment should be based on the total amount of enemy BV captured or destroyed. Surviving enemy BV would be deducted from your total mission reward. In this way, you will still get paid even if you don't actually kill or capture anything
In other words, players will still be rewarded for fighting an enemy that can't hope to defeat.

 

The issue I would see is that players could be sloppy. If you are paid salvage the same for a destroyed much as for a captured one there is no insentive to carefully place shots to capture it. The other question would be on the purchase of captured mechs. I know a number of us have been saving up counting on eventually capturing a couple of mechs we have always wanted. If we are being paid of flat bv captured or destroyed will those mechs still be available for purchase?

 

That is a good point; it would reduce the incentive for being careful about what you hit. Perhaps the best way to avoid this issue would be to specifically include only enemies listed in the "Graveyard" at the end of a mission.

For example:

It wouldn't be a perfect, but I think it would still discourage excessive force and would be by far the easiest solution to implement. The key point here is that all rewards would still be BV based rather than "cost-of-unit" based so you would still avoid previous pitfalls.

Calculating BV that escaped or survived would be easy to calculate:

The only hard part would be subtracting the BV of the units that were "utterly destroyed. That could be found out by just checking what their original BV was before combat though.

==========

Regarding salvage:

Salvage rewards would be handled completely separately from cash rewards, but would not be that different from how it was before:

• All salvage still goes directly to the "corp hangar"; players would still have to buy it for its fully repaired "used" cost.
• Mechs with CT destroyed are still slag and cannot be put back into service.

Actually, come to think of it... here's another way we could encourage players to watch their fire... assuming a pilot wants to capture and own the mech:

• Add a 20% "handling fee" for the current cost of a salvaged mech (before repairs)
  
• Pilot's pay the difference between current value and fully repaired used value of the mech.

In other words, the less damage, the less the pilot has to pay to own it and even if minimally damaged, the pilot still has to pay something... they won't get it for free.

 

I can't remember the last time my weekly to-do list was this short.

• fix MekHQ mission launcher (on hold)
• finish "hidden unit" rules -Master Rules -DONE!
• add standardized .muls -DONE!
• add new user created maps -DONE!

EDIT:
+Forces occupying Zones with “restricting terrain” (determined by GM) cannot be visually spotted unless an opposing force moves into the same Zone.

Forces in restricting terrain can still be revealed by Recon Report & Informant as per normal rules.​

 

Just waiting on repairs from Gamma. I will be gone for most of the weekend so we will start fresh on Monday or Tuesday.

 

Mission Pay and Salvage has been heavily simplified for the sake of my sanity. It now follows this formula:

I posted this recently:


New Salvage Rules:
Total amount you can salvage per truck has been relaxed to 100 tons per RTV. However, it can only transport long distance (across the overlord map) up to 75 tons. If you want to use a >75 ton unit, you will need to pilot it yourself or have it couriered to HQ for safekeeping.

Also, transport capacity and salvage capacity are now considered seperately; you can offload your transported cargo and then use your empty RTV to recover any sized vehicle.

You may salvage (up to 100 tons) or transport (up to 75 tons) any number of units as long as their combined total weight does not exceed designated maximum thresholds.

Any salvage that cannot be loaded must be abandoned or (under certain circumstances set by the GM) you may accept an additional "extraction" mission to remain in the location to gather more salvage.

The end result has MANY implications, but (generally speaking) it will push the reward focus away from just salvage and more of a combination of salvage + straight cash. Ultimately, this is a more realistic treatment of salvage I think: just because you manage to find enough salvage to field a small army, that doesn't mean you can carry it all... you might have to leave something behind. Another nice side effect to this is that it will help balance out salvage discrepancies between vehicles (low salvage) and mechs (high salvage) as well as still reward players even if they fail to recover any salvage at all.

 

Found a problem with the previous formula: it doesn't scale well if a mission has a different number of players other than 4 (this will be important for Prometheus).

Therefore I'm adjusting accordingly:

Salvage payment is still handled the same as before:

 

Fixed the stupid LOS settings. Works like it should now (was broken for Alpha's drop).

 

RTVs now more closely match established rules for transports. Here is a canon example:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleMech_Recovery_Vehicle

RTVs now come in two flavors just like the original BRV:

• Main difference of RTVs compared to BRVs = significantly better armor, but more expensive (much better for combat areas).
  
• RTV (Standard) : 50 ton vehicle w/ 65 ton load capacity, max speed = 97 kph (full load = 54 kph off road), armor = 3.5 tons, unarmed
• RTV (Heavy) : 70 ton vehicle w/100 ton load capacity, max speed = 65 kph (full load = 32 kph off road), armor = 6.5 tons, weapons = x3 MGs

With this I'm also simplifying the rules of transport vs salvage capacity. Although both are still calculated separately, if you have 100 tons of transport capacity, you also have 100 tons of salvage capacity. This begs the question "why would you ever want to take the standard RTV over the heavy one?" Good question... Drop Weights have also been updated:

(max limit is still 200 tons)


For the same Drop Weight, two standard RTVs give you +30% more capacity than a single heavy RTV. The drawback of course is that each standard RTV can only transport or salvage up to 65 tons (you can't chop a mech in half). Of course, taking the heavy RTV has its drawbacks as well; most importantly, if you take an MRV for better repairs, the remaining 150 tons limits you to a single heavy RTV.

 

Weather Conditions Update!

• Wind - Highest default setting has been reduced to "Strong Gale". "Storm" level wind is now reserved for extremely hostile environments.
• The Weather Dominator has been removed! (since only light conditions have a significant effect on missions, the re-roll limit has been reduced from 3 to 1)

 

Lance Events: "Exposed" Update!

• I wanted to give slightly more urgency to Level 1 and slightly less to Level 3.
• # of Turns per Level has changed slightly from [30/20/10] to [28/20/12].
• If the above still doesn't feel right, I may relax it a bit more by doing 28/21/14 (will wait on this until more testing can be done).

 

Clarified Astech's "Efficient" ability to make more sense (thanks to Skwi for catching that one)

Expanded rules on Logistical Support to better clarify the difference between "salvage limit" vs. "load limit" and included rules on salvaging owned units.

 

Revised "Ranks" spreadsheet with correct info.

GM-Admin Master Rules 3.9.4:
Revised RTV destruction rule for "Logistical Support". It now explicitly states that spare units transported by a RTV that is destroyed during a mission are not lost, but are automatically sent back to a friendly HQ at the end of the Turn. However, enemy salvage is still considered permanently lost.

Removed any outdated documents from campaign tools folder on Dropbox. Everything should be fully up to date now.

 

GM-Admin Master Rules 3.9.5:

Revised "NPC Tactics Table" on page 11 of Master Rules

• changed to more accurate name of "NPC Skills & Abilities" Table
• included provision for NPC artillery units: "NOTE – formula for NPC Artillery units: (Gunnery skill modifier – 2) = Artilley skill modifier"
• changed "NPC skill level" label to "NPC skill MODIFIERS"; a green pilot with (5/6) represents their modifier penalties to hit, NOT their skill level.

 

Finally got a straight answer on how Infantry stealth gear works. Currently, the vast majority of infantry are completely screwed if they aren't in a building or fortified position. Sneak suites such as Camo and IR cloakers should help give infantry a bit more of a fighting chance in open combat. Thankfully, these also factor into BV so it shouldn't break anything.


NOTE: Camo To-Hit and IR To-Hit modifiers are cumulative, but the latter effects only non-infantry units. A mech attacking mechanized infantry with Camo + IR cloak will have a +4/+3/+3 to-hit penalty for short/medium/long ranges respectively.

Frankly, seeing how infantry are hopelessly outpaced by most other units, it seems dumb to me that there would be infantry without at least basic Camo protection.

 

update on Outpost Ignis Map:

The buildings-as-walls was causing too many issues with pathfinding for the AI (Trenches were also removed for same reason). Also, AI does not seem smart enough to attack the buildings that contain infantry (they try to enter the building instead). For these reasons, I've greatly toned down the reinforced wall defenses of the outpost (and all future outposts). Most walls will now be limited to earthen mounds that surround the base. Defenders no longer get "free attacks" by camping in reinforced walls. To make up for this, I've increased and improve the locations of fortified positions surrounding the outpost. These will greatly improve the chances for infantry, vehicles, and turrets to avoid damage. Partial cover has also been made much easier to reach for mechs. The end result is a more AI-friendly map that still gives significant advantages to the defender without overly exploiting building defense bonuses.

 

Schmexy

 

minor update to Master Rules (3.9.6) :

"Nowhere to Run" Tier for Astech used to say:

It has now been updated to clarify that ammo reloads are still available during the repair phase:

NOTE: the effects of "Jammed" are applied AFTER the repair phase (and ammo reloads) and remains in effect until end of Turn (as per usual)

 

After Delta's recent drop, I'm realizing that alternative forms of Gunnery skills (such as for tank, aerospace, battlearmor, etc.) are woefully under utilized. While I can justify separate piloting skills for different units (a tank handles completely differently from a mech), I can't justify how a tank gun would be altogether different from a mech gun. At the very least, if you are a mechwarrior pilot, you should have a passing understanding of how to fire a tank gun.

I'm working on a solution for this. My guess is that if you are already trained in one gunnery skill, you also have a similar gunnery with other similar units. This breaks down fairly simply into three categories:

Ground Based

• Mechs
• Conventional Vehicles (includes Naval and VTOLs because "reasons")

Aerospace

• Aerospace fighters
• Dropships
• Conventional Aircraft (planes)

Battle Armor

• Battlesuits
• Protomechs

So basically, if you are a Mechwarrior, you can also use tank guns but with a +1 modifier to your normal gunnery since that is not your primary training. This should also make crosstraining in vehicles more viable as now you mostly just have to worry about your piloting skill. Infantry, of course, will still have the benefit of additional bonuses if you choose them over vehicles, but at least now vehicles are a bit more attractive when needing to fight outside your mech.