Secondary Skills Revamp

For the most part, the secondary skills are working way better than they used to. However, I'm not 100% satisfied with their current implementation. Let's review:

Skills Spreadsheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nrgj25ux47adpby/JRPj3DwcDM

Admin Master Rules (see page 4):
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9ol0oi85vysjol9/axRH_lXxO3/GM-Admin Master Rules 1.1.doc

The following are up for review:

• Small Arms / Self Defense
• Anti-Mech
• Tech (Mech/Mechanic/Aero BA)
• Astech???
• Medtech???
• Negotiation / Charm
• Scrounge / Recon

Skills NOT included for review:

• Leadership and Tactics were not included because I believe they are working just fine as they are
• Administration/Logistics was not included because it seems to blur the lines between Tech and Negotiation
• Doctor will remain an NPC skill for now
• Strategy has no current function since we do not operate on a large enough scale for such a skill to matter.

 

Small Arms / Self-Defense

Current rules:

• intended for use in RP events outside the cockpit
• if a player does not have access to their mech/vehicle, they may use SA /SD to command a company of infantry (3 platoons / ~54-84 men); the player's skill dictates the proficiency of of the infantry (see Admin Master Rules, page 8: Dispossession)
• also affects combat in battle armor (not currently available)

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Anti-Mech

Current rules:

• same as SA / SD

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My thoughts:

Honestly, the skills are cheap enough that they work fairly well as intended. The biggest limitation right now is that there just needs to be more opportunities to use them. Their lack of use is offset by the fact that the skills are very cheap to level up. If Sardonic and Blue (or anyone) are willing to help me with making more RP events, I don't think these need to be changed.

 

Tech (all versions)

Current rules:

• all versions cost the same XP to level up except Mechanic which costs slightly less... since conventional vehicles are by far the simplest to repair, this should not be changed
• Techs gain +1XP for every 20 successfully completed repairs
• Techs gain +1XP for every repair roll that results in a 12
• Techs gain +1XP for every repair roll that results in a 2
  
• traditionally, Tech has been the skill that reward players the most if they grab it early as the rewards pay off in the long run the more you use it
• "Priority" skillcheck event - affects next mission selection (NOT CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED - NEEDS REVISION)
• "Quartermaster" skillcheck event - improves "Lost Unit Table" results (see Master Admin Rules, page 8: Dispossession) (POORLY ENFORCED)
• Improves quality of "repair facility" available (POORLY ENFORCED)

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My thoughts:

It is difficult to gauge whether or not the current XP rewards are unbalanced. While it is not unheard of for a single player with Tech to double his XP reward after a mission from repairs alone, the significant investment required to train Tech skills cannot be overlooked.

The only real issue I have for this skill is the +1XP for a roll of 2. From a real life context, if you only got 10% right on a test, I don't see how you would be learning the same amount as if you got 100% right. For this reason, I will be removing the "roll of 2" reward. The result means a slightly slower payoff (the chance of rolling 2 is only 2.8%), but Techs will still be raking in the XP in the long run.

Actually... the more I think about it, there is still a serious problem with Tech in its current form:

1. Tech is only as good as there are things to repair. If EVERYONE was a Tech, the amount of XP earned for each player would slow to a crawl. In essence, the Tech skill in its current form is very much vulnerable to the "Tragedy of the Commons" dilemma. However, this is not as much of an issue as my second point...
2. It is EXTREMELY difficult to evenly spread out repair jobs. Inevitably, this means that some Techs end up earning more XP than other Techs... even when you are careful. Granted, most lances only have one Tech, but it is enough of a glaring weakness in game balance that I think it needs to be addressed.

I would prefer to find other ways to reward players for using Tech besides using it as a means to farm XP. A few ideas I have:

• extra repair time from additional Techs will remain intact (this helps encourage the use of more than one Tech)
• directly tying Tech to one's ability to customize their mech; you could still help others design their mech for them, but the actual customization would be tied to a successful skill check. from a "realistic" perspective, this makes a lot of sense.
• greater emphasis on Tech used for reducing upgrade costs (upgrade costs might need to be reviewed as a result)
• implement a "hacking" mechanic (used with any Tech skill) for additional benefits that would reward the whole lance rather than one individual; rewards could be for cash, special intel, mission objectives, etc.
• reinforce original but underutilized benefits: "Priority", "Quartermaster", repair facility bonuses

The ultimate goal is to make Tech more beneficial to the whole lance. In its current form it still feels too "individual-XP-farming" heavy, but with the above changes, I think it would swing more in the direction of the other 3 major secondary support skills.

 

more thoughts on why changes are needed for Tech:

Traditionally, I found it was best to use advanced Techs for harder repairs (ex. engine repair) and novice Techs for easier repairs (ex. armor repair or ammo reloads). The glaring issue with this is that you can do FAR more easier jobs than hard jobs for the same amount of time. This usually resulted in a very unfair split of XP. You guys haven't had the headache of completing repairs to our entire unit, but it is incredibly time consuming to attempt to keep the XP spread even. I strongly believe that removing the XP reward altogether will greatly simplify the repair process. Furthermore, combined with the above suggestions, I believe Tech will actually be more beneficial than it was before... just without the single player bias.

 

Starting Skills Revamp:

I'm considering allowing all players to choose an additional Secondary skill at level 2 during character creation (this will be retroactively applied to all current characters as well). The reason for this is to add additional variety and nuance to player builds and also allow for more flexibility in Lance configurations beyond the everyone picking one specialty. This should also help reduce (without entirely removing) the penalty of lances being down one member.

Want to be the ultimate warrior who leads from the front (Leadership), fears nothing(Anti-Mech), and can easily fight their way out of any dangerous situation (Tactics)? Sure... why not?

Perhaps you would rather be a casanova (Negotiation/Charm) greasemonkey (Tech) who delights in rebuilding junk he finds from the scrapyard (Scrounge)? Enjoy your carefree life with zeal now.

Players will still need to carefully choose where they put additional XP, but at least now characters can start a bit more well rounded than the "all-or-nothing" approach from before.

 

Each lance member with tech adds an additional 240 "minutes" of repair time (using minute here very loosely). Two Techs in your Lance doubles your total repair time, but having this extra time seems to only matter when damage is significant enough to warrant using it. Obviously this can vary quite a bit depending on the mission results and lance involved. This might appear useful on paper, but in practice, about half the time there is no real deadline for getting repairs done before the next drop; we've had very few campaigns where the timetable forced us to make drops in quick succession for attrition to take an affect. The Weingarten mission was only one drop for each lance... so it didn't even matter if we had 4 Techs per lance or no Techs at all... repairs were done after the end of hostilities anyway. So to summarize... yeah... having multiple Techs seems to rarely have a significant positive impact. And again, even if they did, it only compounds the problem of unequal XP rewards from repair jobs.

Honestly, if I could better control the XP reward like with Leadership.. where it evenly rewards to all lance members for general "training" activity, it would not be an issue. Unfortunately, the XP is rewarded differently with Tech and would be a huge pain in the ass to track manually. Not just that, but I don't know how to justify a blanket award of XP with Tech. Leadership makes sense because it is the "training" skill and it applies evenly to everyone involved.

The underlying point I'm trying to make is that the current rules for tech seems to create too many variables. It makes comparing and balancing the skill compared to others almost impossible. I know people are going to think I'm crazy, but I honestly don't see this as a nerf. I see it as turning Tech into something more interesting than just the "XP farm" skill. In fact, I honestly believe Tech will be MORE important with the changes, because it will have a greater impact on everyone, not just the people who have it.

Another way to put it: if you are the only Tech in a Lance, the skill is essentially capable of doubling your XP reward for each mission to the exclusion of everyone else. Even crazier... it actually rewards you more when your Lance takes more damage. Nothing about that sounds right.

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised this issue snuck by me for so long. I think it has just taken me this long to scrutinize our current ruleset to come to any defined conclusions.

 

We could go to not having warrior mechanics. It is pretty radical of a change, but it did always surpise me a bit that we had expert techs who were expert mechwarriors. Especially one savant for each lance. Yes, there ere some mechwarriors in the lore who tinkered with their own mechs, but not 25% of them.

Random sleepy thoughts

 

Brainstorm: I think I found a way to justify giving Techs a XP reward...

creation of a new design

So basically, every time a Tech rolls for an upgrade, if they succeed, they earn +1 XP (maybe a cap on this?). Farming it would be greatly limited by the fact that only 1 upgrade could be applied per mech between contracts. Each upgrade also requires money. The only problem I see with this is that it would shift all upgrades to whoever has the highest Tech skill. The only way I see controlling that is by limiting the number of jobs a single character can do... but then you run the risk of creating a bidding war.

On second thought, not sure if that solves the XP problem or creates whole new ones.

 

hmm.. 25%... you make a great point there. This plays into my discussion about the Astech and Medtech skills. it might be far easier to regulate by simply putting the Tech skills in the same category as Doctor and limit our characters to Astech and Medtech... which up to this point have been completely ignored.

will have to think more on this.

perhaps Astech could define your character's ability to even comprehend how to customize their mech. similar to how your level of understanding of a car's mechanics would limit your understanding of what could be reasonably improved... even if you lack the full knowledge to do it yourself.

another example could be the difference between a repairman and an inventor. one can only fix (to a limited extent) while the other can also create.

UPDATE:
it would be easy to expand Astech and Medtech to multiple levels of proficiency as well. I think three would be most appropriate. The different levels could correspond to the different levels of upgrades that you can comprehend implementing. the skill could be balanced by being much cheaper than the traditional Tech skills. a customized mech should be a major milestone for a newer player, but not an impossible one.

related side note: I'm considering moving CASE down to basic equipment upgrade package. not only does it fit with the other items in this package, but it might help save some newer players from complete annihilation in early game. also, i forgot CASE was far easier to install in canon than current mechanics allow (sorry sardonic).

 

Medtech, patch up lance members who hae injuries/fatigue prior to battle (even in temporary)? First responders, trying to save captives? Used for enhanced interrogation?

Astech, add minutes to lance tech? understanding of mech functions for customizing? Have to have a certain level for each quirk added? Allow recognition of enemies easier? Sabatoge?

 

Due to limitations of MekHQ and our current working ruleset, Astech cannot actually perform any repairs themselves; they just assist Techs in repairs. However, thanks to recent changes in MekHQ, we can manually edit/remove damage from mechs. Ironically, this method of repair is actually much easier than the normal way of making repairs. In "reality" it would make sense that even an Astech could perform basic repairs and maintenance on machines. In Battletech lore, it was extremely rare for a mechwarrior to rebuild their mech from the ground up. It was especially unheard of for them to do it while in the field. However, it was not uncommon to see pilots tack on extra armor plating or some support weapons here and there as required. Hell... that's how a lot of Agromechs got pressed into combat.

Example:

Let's assume there are three levels to Astech: Novice, Intermediate, Expert

6 levels to put it on par with other Secondary Skills.

Astech repairs would be applied before Tech repairs (makes sense they would get first crack at making repairs before the experts gave up time on it)

Level 0 Trained:

• competent with loading equipment
• cannot do repairs

Level 1 Ultra-Green:

• can perform basic welding jobs
• only repair standard armor (replace 15 armor points)

Level 2 Green

• skilled with welding jobs and has rudimentary engineering skills.
• only repair standard armor (replace 30 armor points)
• can submit up to Class C upgrade requests (see Upgrades spreadsheet for more details)

Level 3 Regular:

• moderate understanding of mechanical and electrical engineering
• may only repair standard equipment with one critical slot ; uncheck 3 critical hits
• repair standard or ferro-fibrous armor (replace 45 armor points)
• can submit up to Class D upgrade requests

Level 4 Veteran

• strong understanding of mechanical and electrical engineering
• may repair standard equipment with up to two critical slots or any ballistic weapon; uncheck 4 critical hits
• repair standard or ferro-fibrous armor (replace 60 armor points)
• can submit up to Class E upgrade requests

Level 5 Elite:

• same level of expertise as a Tech student
• may repair any standard equipment with up to three critical slots or any ballistic or missile weapon; uncheck 5 critical hits
• repair any armor (replace 75 armor points)
• can submit up to Class F upgrade requests

Level 6 Ultra-Elite:

• same level of expertise as a newly graduated Tech
• may repair any standard equipment; uncheck 6 critical hits
• repair any armor (replace 90 armor points)
• can submit up to Class F upgrade requests

The level in Astech could also directly effect the time required to hack a terminal during a combat mission (inside or outside of a mech).

On repair time: yes and no? I think an Astech should be able to help in repairs as mentioned above, but their skillset should be limited to certain jobs. The MekHQ repair mechanic is overly complicated and would be difficult to implement it properly. I think my above solution would be an easier fix.

Allowing for modifiers on the Tinker Table is a possibility; make Tinkering success harder, but allow Astech to offset this. Alternatively (or in addition to the previous solution), Astech could allow you to modify your random 1d20 roll to alter your final result by +1 or -1 (ex. the Tinker reward for 9 is not as beneficial to your mech as a result of 10, so you do a Astech skillcheck; success allows you to add +1 to your final result). In terms of RP, this would essentially allow your skill as an Astech to have some control (but not total control) over what improvements the Tech can make to your mech.

Interestingly, the second idea is very similar to a dynamic Mission Generator that I haven't introduced yet.

 

Also very interesting:

The above Astech rules would allow advanced players to offer "pimp my ride" services. Since upgrade options would be limited to Astechs (Tinker would be limited to Intermediate and Expert Astechs), if another player wants to upgrade their mech without spending the necessary XP on Astech, they could pay for the services from others.

I think we just found a new meta-game within the campaign for you mechanic guys out there.

 

I think we can keep that intact.

 

My question is, how would the people with current high levels in Tech transfer over? A straight one-to-one, or a refund of XP and re spend? If we did the second, it could cause a sudden shift in elite pilots, or if it's the one-to-one, we'd suddenly have a bunch of expert Astechs. Just thoughts.

 

Magnus, would there be any benefits to calculating eneryones total xp, to see if the techs are significantly outpacing the rest?