Admin Progress Report

got distracted by work around the house. will finish the update tomorrow.

 

This makes me want my 35 ton 10/20/10 mech more...

 

Just remember we ruled that you can take MASC or a supercharger, but you can't take both.

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One of my goals is to better represent the various components of military forces in the battletech universe. For example: I forget the exact figures, but I think the number is something like less than 1% in the whole inner sphere are actually assault mechs (not surprisingly, the Lyrans top the list in that category). Of the different mech classes, lights and mediums are by far more common... and infantry and conventional forces still far outweigh the number of mech forces. Up until now, I haven't had time to work on the combined arms elements of the game, but as you can see that is about to change significantly.

 

Even then... the only time RCT's were in common use after the 1st Star League was the Clan Invasion/Fed Com civil war. Everything else besides that was Company level or less for planetary assault. RCT were stupid huge.

 

Which is why it only goes 20...

 

btw.. just to give you guys a better idea on what to expect, the newest build will mostly be on the cosmetic side of things: new art, new maps, some more choices in units, etc.

the meat and potatos of Megamek/MekHQ is still be worked on by the devs but there are some welcome changes coming in the near future. here is a current discussion on what to expect in that effort:
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,40946.0.html

Major changes:
MegaMek:
Map Editor Resizing (no longer will I have to sift through manually to convert maps to standard sizes!)

MekHQ:
New AtB Capabilities (even smarter bot options!)
Repair Bay Location Sort Dropdown (will now be able to sort mechs based on location; HQ, dropship, in the field, etc.)
New Unofficial Maintenance Option (not sure what this will do, but still cool)
Option to have assigned tech moved to the top of the list (will make repairs easier to manage)
Fluff names for units, now your dropship can have a name! Yay! (hooray!)

 

Sweeeeeeeeeet

 

on a completely unrelated note, googling "Kulandinglar" comes up with all dihm-related links... congratulations Dihm, you are internet famous.

 

Success!

 

i need to get back to studying, but this is what i finished today:

 

new build. find it in the usual spot.

Lots of new conventional forces; all in the under 40 tons category.

 

No build in dropbox, only builds in the archives. Either it hasn't finished uploading or you may need to try to upload it again.

 

it should be up now. took a hot minute to upload.

 

Recent events have brought a few items to my attention...

Rule Changes:

Astech: "Breakdown" (has received the biggest change)
While before it was just a flat damage amount based on % of a unit's weight, it now has three levels of outcomes (similar to some other Event results). Depending on the Level, there is now a chance for Breakdown to inflict critical damage on components (not just basic damage on internal structure). The base number of critical hits is determined by the standard Battletech Critical Hits Table. However (don't worry!), since this is not combat damage but rather "operational malfunctions", the maximum amount of criticals that can be inflicted has been significantly reduced (-1 modifier on all CH rolls for starters).

At Breakdown Lvl 1, critical hits are ignored completely; you receive only internal structural damage (same as old ruling). At Lvl 2, the maximum number of critical hits you can receive in each location is ONE. At Lvl 3, the maximum number of critical hits you can receive in each location is TWO. If you rolled a 12 on the Critical Hit Table, normally that would inflict 3 critical hits or destroy a limb. However, in the case of Breakdown Lvl 3, the worse you could have inflicted would be 2 critical hits (limbs are never blown off).

Also important to note: any damage inflicted by Breakdown may be repaired during Stage 3.

Astech: temporary quirks
Temporary quirks are a pain in the ass to keep track of because I have to remember to remove them later when the turn is over. This has caused all sorts of confusion since this rule was implemented. I am removing the +1 positive/negative quirk results on the Lance Events for this reason.

Astech: 1/2 ammo or +1 engine hit
This has been renamed "Jammed" and an explanation has now been given below (to conserve space on the table). This is not terribly scary enough to be included only for a -5 Astech roll. Since the quirks have been removed, this is now included on any Astech roll of -3 or worse. Also note, these effects apply AFTER repairs for this turn; this also means they are automatically removed at the end of the Turn as well (they do not need to be repaired to remove).

also... insert random "Jammed" references here.

Astech: "Salvager Savant"
Salvager Savant is mostly intended as a safetyline for players if their mech gets destroyed. As a result, it rarely has any impact if this does not happen. Therefore, it is getting a buff by doubling the lance's salvage limit for the turn (this will be HUGE when logistic rules are in place -TBA).

Negotiation: "Connected"
Connected was a bit poorly worded before and did not clearly state how it affected repairs or what the dropship transport did. This is now more clearly stated. Also, Connected now simply applies a +1 to the Astech Lance Event roll ("Grease the Wheels") rather than specifically buffing repairs. The end result is a less focused buff, but it offers more flexibility depending on the Lance's current situation (flexibility being a defining trait for Negotiation).

"Dropship Transport" has been removed in favor of "Informant". Dropship Transport will now be available only under special conditions decided by the GM.

Informant gives players one piece of useful intel handpicked by the GM. Consider this the "mystery box". It is somewhat similar to Recon Report, except it can reveal any single Zone on the entire map and you are always guaranteed to find something. Sometimes it might be something really good, sometimes maybe not so great, but it would be wise to use this if the other options available for Connected do not offer anything helpful.

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New Rules:

Astech: "Requisition"
This replaces the positive quirk result for Astech. I've been working on better defining logistical rules (TBA) and this result works with that. Essentially, any lance not deployed to an Outpost or HQ is considered "in the field" and does not have full access to their "motorpool" of reserve units. Requisition allows for the Lance to request these reserve units from anywhere on the overworld map. This request may only be done once per Turn and any units that are not being used are returned back to the motorpool.

In other words, if you are deployed away from an Outpost or HQ, Requisition is the "free" method of switching to reserve mechs that are not immediately available to you. There is also another "not free" way, but I will explain that later.

Astech: Armor Repairs ONLY
Again, since quirk results have been removed, this dreaded rule is back and reserved for those unfortunate enough to get a -5 on Astech rolls. The good news is that BV scales well with this; if your mechs are shot to hell, the damage will reduce your BV which in turn will reduce your enemy's BV. It still won't be a cake walk, but it won't be a death sentence either.

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GM NOTE: As always, everything here is subject to change before implementation. The above rules will not take effect until Turn 4 (next turn). However, players may "opt in" to use them this turn if they request it (for testing purposes).

 

Possible amendment for Breakdown: (toned down and heavily simplified for ease of implementation)

• total number of locations reduced to 1 (instead of six) and determined by hit location dice roll (2d6).
• damage to location's internal structure = 10% of unit's mass (up to 1 hit point remaining)
• Lvl 1 = x1 automatic critical hit
• Lvl 2 = x2 automatic critical hits
• Lvl 3 = x3 automatic critical hits (limbs are not blown off)
• cockpit/hip/shoulder hits are rerolled, second hit to gyros and third hit to engines are also rerolled (to prevent unit from being unusable)
• any damage sustained this way can still be removed during repair stage prior to mission.

The idea here was to reduce the "highs and lows" of what could result from random rolls in the previous example. The result means that everyone is guaranteed to be affected to some extent by Breakdown, but the difference from one player to the next should be more reduced than before. This should help reduce the feeling of one or two players being "singled out" by particularly bad dice rolls.

 

other stuff...



Stage 3: Repairs (for Tech repairs)

 

Proposed changes to mission payment scale:

Up until now, cash payment has been entirely salvage based; the amount of salvage you pull in is directly proportional to the amount of money you get. This however, poses some problems.

Compare and contrast:
x1 Elite Atlas 7-D pilot = ~3600 BV (9,626,000 C-bills)
x2 Regular Atlas 7-D pilots = ~3600BV (19,252,000 C-bills)

As you can see, both offer roughly the same challenge in difficulty (one could even argue that the elite pilot would be slightly tougher), however destroying the two regular Atlas pilots would offer DOUBLE the salvage!

This is a gross miscalculation on my part. It was easier to miss when we all had roughly average skillsets. However, as more of us have reached elite status, encounters with "regular" troops has painted a very obvious picture for me. This also explains the huge spike in salvage rewards as of late.

To fix this, I propose a new and very simple system: BV-based mission payment.

For those interested, here is the complete Formula:

The end result is that this will greatly help balance out some of the discrepancies some of you have been seeing in mission rewards.