Interesting link I found on advice for designing mechs. Not wholly relevant to the campaign, but good advice for anyone interested playing megamek. I will link it here because it pretty much mirrors my own opinion and advice: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~lacasse/mech_design.html (disregard the bit about TSM and Targeting Computers... you will not be getting any for the campaign)
The only boo boo he made was at the bottom. Clan weapons are rarely more heat efficient, the mechs themselves are. Stick those weapons on an IS mech, and you can overheat very quickly. I think (??) the damage values are usually the same too. They just weigh less and shoot further. Not relevant to campaign, but important to remember for general guidelines.
I admit I skimmed on his explanation of Clan tech because it didn't really apply for our campaign. In terms of damage values, Haki is more or less half right. Values for missiles and ballistics are relatively the same (although Clan stuff is much more efficient/accurate), but there is a HUGE difference in damage output between Clan and IS energy weapons. The Clan ER PPC is absolutely terrifying to face down (same damage as a Gauss Rifle). The Clan ER Large Laser does as much damage as an IS PPC. In fact, I think pretty much all the Clan energy weapons hit harder than their IS counterparts.
Actually, clan weapons almost always produce the same heat as their IS counterparts. At the same time, they also tend to weigh less, do more damage, have a greater range, or some combination of those three. The heat concerns stem from the fact that because the weapons are lighter, you can pack more of them on.
Harder and farther for the energy weapons, and lighter to boot. They are NOT that much hotter. ER larger laser - clan 10 damage 12 heat, IS 8 damage 10 heat... clan ER ppc 15 damage and heat, IS er ppc 10 damage 15 heat. The reason IS mechs over heat with clan weapons is that due to their larger size you cannot fit as many IS double heat sinks in a chassis as you can clan doubles. The benefit due to huge weight loss of ballistics and missles cannot be understated. When you can get TWICE the missle load for the same weight your damage potential goes up tremendously. 12 ton gauss rifle oh gimme gimme gimme.
That is why i said half right. Explaining all the nuances is way too much effort for my timetable Instead, I will post this: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Weapons_and_Equipment_Lists
I don't like doing this, but I have speak a little in my defense. I did NOT say that the weapons produced more heat, I said the mechs themselves made better use of them than an IS mech can.
Good point. I think we all have the general right idea here. Just getting our "wires crossed" a bit so to speak.
Tech Point Economy Introduction: WORK IN PROGRESS Number crunching is bogging things down. I'm hoping to streamline economy and customization mechanics: Players start with 8 Tech Points (TP) 1 Tech Point awarded per 3 months of active duty (in-game time) Tech Points can be traded between lancemates Possibly earn extra Tech Points with successful Tech, Admin, or Scrounge rolls (will not stack). ================================== Cbill / TP Conversion: 500,000 Cbills = 1 TP Purchase Options: Purchasing Cost of Mech / 500,000 = TP Cost (remainder converted to Cbills; round to nearest 100,000) Selling Options: Selling Cost of Mech / 500,000 = TP Refund (remainder converted to Cbills; round to nearest 100,000) ================================== Tech Package Options: Class C (Maintenance): costs 2 TP* -Armor (add/remove Standard or Ferro-Fibrous) -Basic Equipment (add/remove ONLY equipment w/ < 2 critical slots; Jumpjets, ammo, small lasers, etc.)** Class D (Maintenance): costs 4 TP* -Advanced Equipment (add/remove ALL non-Class E/F equipment) -Heat Sinks (add/remove Standard or Double Heat Sinks) Class E (Factory): costs 6 TP* -Engine (add/remove XL engine, change type or engine rating) -Structural (add/remove ANY equipment, including Endo Steel, MASC, CASE etc.) Class F (Factory): costs 8 TP* -Experimental (optional placeholder... don't expect to be using this) -Tinker ("Perhaps I can increase the output by removing the regulator and...") *x2 Tech Point cost for Clan tech **Basic Equipment excludes CASE; see "Structural"
Not if you want a mech to refit That same TP pool is used to get your starting mech (8 TP = 4 million C-bills). Starting with a smaller/cheaper mech will give you early access to some refits though... but again, only between campaigns / major events.
I think I give give an example here. Say I just bought my first mech - a FRB-2E Firebee for 2,536,830 CBills. The Tech Points round to the nearest 100,000 (down in this case) so that makes it 2.5 mil CBills, or 5 Tech Points. I've got 3 TP left over to do mods with. Since they go in factors of 2 I can really only do a Class C refit and have 1 TP left over. With that Class C refit, I can either move around the equipment I've got or make changes to weapons/armor/ammo/JJs smaller than 2 crit spots. Anything bigger than that would require at least a Class D refit which is 4 TP. Let's say I just want to move around my loadout, I could move one SRM2 from the LT to the LA to help with side arc coverage, then remove the CT SRM2 and add a ton of armor. No matter how much you move or change out, as long as no single item moved/swapped is bigger than 1 crit spot it still only costs 2 TP. Also, cbill costs for new equipment are included in that TP. If you want to trade 2 srm2s and a ton of ammo for 3 MLs, that's perfectly legal and there is no additional CBill cost for the lasers themselves. Does that make sense?
Double check the wording. It says LESS THAN 2 crits... so basically one slot items like small lasers, ammo, jumpjets, etc (CASE doesn't count since it is structural). The rest of what you said is accurate though. On a side note, there may be room for further tweaking. For example: Rather than ALL armor customization costing 2 TP you could split it up into armor "point adjustments" costing 1 TP and switching from standard to ferro-fibrous (or the reverse) costing 2 TP. Also, I think it would be appropriate for a character with a successful Tech skill check to lower the TP cost by one or two points (depending on a number of factors).
The main point of it is rather than forcing players to write up an extensive request on what they want changed and how much it will cost in time and credits, they now have a simplified upgrade menu with clear cut costs. "I will take the number 6, please." Much easier Work time for said upgrades hasn't really been addressed, but I figure if we only do upgrades between "major events" then it shouldn't matter. Alternatively, we could reserve more extensive upgrades (such as structural and engine changes) for periods when we have more downtime.
So are we going to be able to do a refit before we start the campaign? Just making sure, the example Skwi gave sounded like we would. For me that would effect how much of the 8 TP I would use on the starting mech. If we have to wait no use not to use the entire 8 but if we get to customize some thing might be worth it to take cheaper mech that had better loadout.
For the RW campaign, I'm still thinking about how much customization I want to allow but in general for new campaigns yes. You could get a more expensive stock mech or a cheaper mech with room to customize a bit.
There are a couple I wouldn't do anything to at all. Just trying to figure out if there was one that was close that I could massage to be where I wanted it.
