prefix: I'm posting these here because I could do with feedback on them. I'm going to copy the whole Rules document into here (minus background, which we already have), so you can see what's coming, and comment.
INTRODUCTION
As a player of Giant Robots With Guns, you represent a company who’ve raised enough money to create a Mecha to join a Lightweight tournament. As you work your way through these matches, making money and deals, you’ll be able to work your way up these tournaments – potentially even all the way to the top, for a chance at winning the heralded Manny Cup.
During a Tournament, your Mecha will take part in a single battle a week (generally a Sunday), clashing against another player’s Mecha, with the aim of forcing them to retreat before you do. The rest of the week can be spent talking with other companies, brokering deals and issuing challenges. Periodically, Tournaments will be announced, where you can fight for Prizes and recognition. Alternately, shy away from these big fights, and spend your time fighting Friendlies against other players.
It should be noted that the rules herein are only set in stone for standard Tournaments run by myself – Tournaments run by other people may use variants – changing the maths in Combat or the amount of time between fights, or how challenges should be handled. Unless they state otherwise, they will use the rules as written, so Tournament Information should be checked when signing up.
MECHAS, ROBOTS AND POWER ARMOUR
You’ll notice we’re inconsistent with the term we use to describe these things – Robots, Mechas and Power Armour are entirely separate things. However, system-wise all three of them work (the cost of micro technology means that smaller doesn’t mean cheaper). As a general rule we use the term “Mecha” and refer to parts as their Mecha style, simply to be consistent. It should be noted that all types are Piloted in some way – in the case of Robots it’s assumed that the pilot is controlling it remotely. In the case of Robots, we also assume a humanoid build, although this is of course, up to you.
PARTS
You begin the game with money – 700B, with which to build a starting Mecha (although you do not need to spend it all). This Mecha will be powerful enough to enter a Lightweight tournament. (Alternately, if you let your interest be known, you may find another player willing to Purchase your company – giving you extra B in exchange for a share of future winnings).
Mechas are built from 4 Essential Parts and 6 Non-Essential Parts. Following is a list of parts, and examples of what each part could (or tends to) represent – if you would prefer a part to represent something else, simply mention it during character generation.
The equipment itself should be listed on an attached Sheet, along with the Mecha sheet, or available online.
ESSENTIAL PARTS
COCKPIT
Mechas: The Nerve-Centre of your Mecha, and the location of your pilot
Robots: The location of the equipment that connects the pilot to the machine, generally the head
Power Armour: The Helmet, containing the pilot’s head
CHASSIS
Mechas: The Frame of the Mecha, the Chassis is the ‘body’ of the Mecha
Robots: The parts of the Robot that holds everything else together, generally torso and arms
Power Armour: The armour that covers the torso and arms of the pilot
BASE
Mechas and Robots: The main propulsion system of the Mecha, generally based at the bottom, normally a pair of legs, although treads, wheels, jets or four legs aren’t unknown
Power Armour: The armour that protects the legs, occasionally modified to produce jet-legs or similar.
ENGINE
The power-source of the Mecha, its location, shape and size vary as much between individual Mechas as it does between Mechas, Armours and Robots.
NON-ESSENTIAL PARTS
Each Mecha, Armour or Robot has 6 Non-Essential Part slots, and several different options on what to do with them. You may have any combination of parts – using no parts, different parts of multiple copies of the same part.
WEAPON: This represents either an additional Weapon your Mecha wields (rifles, rocket packs, chain-axes etc), or added bonuses to them (damage enhancers, extra energy cells, etc)
ARMOUR: This represents extra protection for your Mecha, in the form of extra layers (or simply thicker, or denser) armour, or some form of energy shield
GENERATOR: This represents additional power-sources for your Mecha, or improvements to the current ones.
LASERS: These represent Aiming enhancements – laser-pinpoints or targets for homing rockets or scopes, or simply highly accurate weapons.
OVERLAP: These represent either part of your Mecha being built inside other parts (a completely internalised cockpit, damage deflecting shields etc).
SPECIAL: There are also 9 parts which each have and a special and unusual effect.
MEKAM COMPANIES
There are currently 7 Companies who produce Mecha parts, each one offer a different style of Mecha, which (thanks to the wonders of USB technology) may be mixed and matched at will. It is not unusual for two Mekam Companies to compete against each other, and all companies will reward skilled Mechas for their loyalty through Sponsorship.
CASTLE
BUILDING MECHS TO LAST THE AGES
Castle specialise in high HP Mecha parts, building parts that are notably hard to damage, unfortunately this is often to the detriment of everything else.
DAWN
FOR WHEN SPEED IS ESSENTIAL
Dawn specialise in building incredibly fast Mechas, based on the strategy that if you can hit something first, and quickly, it shouldn’t get chance to strike back. Unfortunately this is reflected in the fragility of their parts.
GOLIATH
SURVIVE ANYTHING
Goliath specialise in relatively tough, evasive Mechas, while they lack the resilience of Caste Mechas, they make up for this in the decreased chance of being hit, this has left them with Mechas will little in the way of firepower, however.
HAWK
HUNT LIKE A PREDATOR
Hawk specialise in causing as much damage to the opponent’s Mechas as possible, masters of the one-hit-kill, they struggle in protracted fights due to their weight and poor defence.
TALON
THE BIGGEST GUNS FOR THE LOWEST PRICES
Talon specialise in low-priced Mechas, while they often undercut their opposition, they do this by providing mildly inferior parts. However their tendency towards offensive Mechas means they can still pack more punch than the weaker Mechas of other companies.
TANK
HELPING YOU PROTECT YOURSELF
Tank specialise in Highly Defensive, Resistant parts. Sacrificing Offence to a degree not seen in other companies, Tank Mechas can shrug off even the most powerful attacks, but struggle to make much of a dint on their opponents.
WRAITH
STRONG, CONSITENT, RELIABLE
Wraith don’t specialise. The Jack-of-All Trades, they offer equal resistance to all energy types and balanced stats. While they have no major strengths, they also have no major weaknesses.
MECHA STATS
Mechas have 13 main stats – Damage, Resilience, Attack, Defence, HP, Withdraw, Output, Weight, Speed, Sponsor, Range, Cost and Size.
DAMAGE: Damage is split between the three types and this represents how much raw power a Mechas attacks have.
Damage is found by adding the Damage from all Essential parts and any valid Non-Essential parts.
RESILIENCE: Resilience is also split between three types, it represents how tough the Mecha is, and how much damage it can take before becoming injured.
Resilience is found by adding the Resilience from all Essential parts and any valid Non-Essential parts.
ATTACK: Attack represents how well the Mecha can aim and it’s likelihood of hitting a target.
Attack is found by adding the Attack from the Chassis and Cockpit parts and any valid Non-Essential parts.
DEFENCE: Defence represents how hard the Mecha is to hit, due to being highly evasive, or simply hard to see
Defence is found by adding the Defence from the Chassis and Cockpit parts and any valid Non-Essential parts.
HP: Hit Points represent how much Damage your Mecha can take before it’s a smouldering pile of rubble. While losing All your HP will knock you from the tournament, all HP loss is repaired between battles.
HP is found by adding the HP from all Essential Parts.
WITHDRAW: Withdraw is the level of Damage your Mecha takes before it leaves the field of battle. The more damage it takes, the more likely it is the opponent will flee first, but also increases the chance of losing parts of your Mecha.
Withdraw is chosen by the company. Those playing Safe choose a number that is less than the HP of their weakest part, others tend to lean towards half their total HP.
OUTPUT: Output is the amount of Energy your Mecha produces.
Output is found by adding the Output of your Engine to that of any Generators you may have.
WEIGHT: Weight is how much your Mecha weights. It should be stressed that this is not a Real number – a Mecha and a Armour with Weight 15 do not weight the same amount
Weight is found by adding the Weight of all parts except Generators and Engines.
SPEED: Speed is how fast your Mecha moves. Your Mecha will get 1 attack per round for every 10 Speed they have. A Mecha must have a minimum of Speed 1. Speed Negates RANGE on a 10 per range step basis.
Speed is found by reducing Output by Weight.
SPONSOR: This represents a sponsorship from one of the Mekam companies which produces Mecha parts.
To become eligible for this, your Mecha must be made from at least 50% parts from that company, and you must win a match. If someone is already sponsored by this company, the match you win must be against them.
RANGE: Range represents how far your Mecha is effective from. There are 5 ranges – Close, Short, Medium, Long and Extreme. All Mechas start at Medium, for each step higher, all parts have their price increased by 1/8. For each step lower the price is deceased by 1/8. Each step difference between Mechas grants the Mecha with the better range 1 extra attack.
COST: Cost is the total cost of all parts currently attached to your Mecha (after Range is applied). Tournaments will have different Maximum and Minimum costs.
SIZE: Size represents how large your Mecha is. There are 3 sizes: SMALL (01-15 foot), MEDIUM (16-40 foot) and LARGE (41+). For each size smaller than your opponent your Mecha is, reduce your Attack by ¼ and increase your defence by ¼
LITE MECHAS
One variety of Mecha mentioned are ‘Lite Mechas’, these are cheap, affordable Mechas, often used for civilian activities – Pit work, or basic repetitive tasks (that are handled through basic AI. They tend to be either under 4 feet or shoddily made.
Lite Mechas are very rarely seen in the Arenas – they’re generally seen as proof of poor organisation skills (not leaving enough money to buy a Proper part), or poor skill (needing to replace parts and not being able to afford Proper ones).
Occasionally ‘Lite’ Tournaments are run; these only allow the use of Mechas build from Lite parts, supplemented by additional (often oversized and highly destructive) parts in To-The-Death matches. These are often fan favourites and tend to be used to pick up people’s spirits.
DAMAGE TYPES
There are 3 different types of Damage in Giant Robot With Guns – Energy (E) Kinetic (K) and Explosive (X), each part that has a Damage or a Resilience stat will have different stats for each of these, representing types of Damage the Mecha is better with than others.
Energy Damage represents energy weapons – from Laser-Rifles to Rail Guns to Flamethrowers. Hawk and Talon are the leading experts in Energy Weapons, while Goliath and Castle are especially vulnerable to them.
Kinetic Damage represents physical weapons – from standard bullets to shuriken to chainsaws. Dawn and Goliath are the leading experts in Kinetic Weapons, while Talon and Tank are especially vulnerable to them.
Explosive Damage represents explosions – from missiles to tactical-nukes to grenades. Castle and Tank are the leading experts in Explosive Weapons, while Hawk and Dawn are especially vulnerable to them.
Wraith show no particular preference to any form of Damage, and balance themselves equally between them, with a minor preference towards Kinetic.
PILOTS
The one thing all Mechas, Robots and Armours have in common is that ultimately there is someone controlling them. This person is your Pilot. (should you so desire, you may own multiple pilots, although there is little point in this until you start fighting in multiple or varied arenas).
Pilots gain Experience by causing damage on other Mechas, learning from their time spent fighting. For every 100 points of damage they do, you may choose for your Pilot to learn a skill.
However, a pilot will demand money equal 10 times their number of skills for every battle they take part in – incredibly talented Pilots can cost a company more than their Mecha does. Pilots may be sold to other players.
Skills are split into 4 types, should you wish for a pilot to lean a skill, the Type is randomly selected, you may then chose a skill from the list. If you choose the same skill twice, its effects stack, but each rank after the first costs 10 more than the previous rank in upkeep.
It should be remembered that Tournament price limits Include pilots.
PILOT SKILLS
ENVIROMENTAL SKILLS: Environmental skills all add 30 to Attack, depending on the location of the fight taking place
VOID VETERAN: +30 if in Space
GLADIATOR: +30 if in The Fightatorium
AQUALUNG: +30 if in Atlantic Ocean
SUN-KISSED: +30 if in Amazon Desert
NEO-MOUNTIE: +30 if in Greenland
URBAN WARRIOR: +30 if in Tokyo
BONUS SKILLS: Bonus skills add points to Mecha Stats and are always in effect
CRACK SHOT : +20 Attack
ENERGY AFFINITY: +20 E Damage
ROCKETJOCKEY: +20 X Damage
OVERWATCH: +20 K Damage
DRIVEN: +20 Resistance
REFLEXES: +20 Defence
SPEEDFREAK: +10 Speed
SPECIALIST SKILLS: Specialist skills all add bonuses, depending on the type of Mecha being used.
CASTLE: +30 to Health if over 50% Castle
DAWN: +30 to Health if over 50% Dawn
GOLIATH: +30 to Health if over 50% Goliath
HAWK: +30 to Health if over 50% Hawk
TALON: +30 to Health if over 50% Talon
TANK: +30 to Health if over 50% Tank
WRAITH: +30 to Health if over 50% Wraith
SNIPER: +30 Damage in Long or Extreme Mechas
BRAWLER: +30 Damage in Close or Short Mechas
SMALL-FRY: +30 Resistance in Small Mechas
BIG-DADDY: +30 Resistance in Large Mechas
ELITE SKILLS: Elite Skills add special bonuses or advantages to Mechas.
TWITCHER: 10% Chance to fire twice
VETERAN: +10% Chance of Special Parts working
MECHANIC: 10% Chance of healing 1-10 HP
ESCAPE POD: 10% Chance Pilot survives a destroyed cockpit
PROUD: +5 to all Stats if Pilot lost previous battle
CHALLENGES
It is possible to Challenge other players. A Challenge must be issued on the website by the halfway point between battles (assumed to be Midnight Wednesday). Challenges may not be refused and mean that the two Mechas involved (the Challenger and the target of the Challenge) will battle each other in the next tournament battle.
Naturally, some types of battle (Leagues, for example) do not allow Challenges. You may not challenge someone who is in a Tournament if you are not, and may not challenge someone who is not in a tournament if you are, but two people who are not in tournaments may challenge each other.
COMBAT
Combat is something you may not see much of at present I’m running combat, and should that change, it’ll just be because it’s become automated. However, it’s useful to know how it works for when you’re building your Mecha.
First, we compare Range and Speed. We’ll assume our two fighting Mechas are Medium (both Range and Size), and bump straight to Speed. Mechas get an action for every 10 Speed they have - a Mecha with 27 speed would get 3 actions a turn. We’ll assume our other Mecha has a speed of 19
Speed is split into sets of 10, so our first Mecha (A) has 10, 10 and 7, while our second (B) has 10 and 9.
Each battle is split into rounds, which are split into 10 turns, numbered 10 to 1, Mechas go on a turn equal to their speeds, if they have 2 speeds the same, one is bumped down one.
With the above Mechas, A would act on turns 10, 9 and 7, while B would act on turns 10 and 9. Because A is faster, it fires before B does when they both act on the same round.
Using the above combat, we would next take A’s attack (40) and compare it to B’s defence (30). If they were both equal, the difficulty would be 50, but we alter the difficulty by 5 for every 10 points different – reducing it by 5 in this case – A Hits on a 55 or less.
The die is rolled, and it comes up a 30 – that’s a hit! Mecha A is using their Energy weapons (declared pre-fight), so we compare their Energy Damage (90) against B’s energy Resilience (20). We compare them as with Attacking and can work out that A causes 85 points of Damage on B.
As B’s Withdraw is 50, this is enough Damage for it to flee the battle. A is declared the winner.
Post Battle, a part of B’s equipment is randomly selected and compared to the damage taken. B’s Engine is selected, and with HP of 40 it’s destroyed. If B had any Parts with HP of 30 (85 Damage – 40 HP), another random selection would be made.
REPAIR AND UPGRADES
After the battle, you may have lost important parts of Mechas, or made a large amount of money and want to know what to do with it.
Equipment can be bought and sold between battles, equipment sells at half it’s original price, damaged equipment can only exchanged for Credit with the Mekam Company who made it (full price, in credit for damaged or undamaged equipment, if you’ve gotten a sponsorship), any Essential Equipment that is destroyed Must be replaced before the next battle, or your Mecha will not function, and will automatically lose (combat will still be run, and damage taken however).
If you cannot afford to purchase a part, it may be worth looking into selling your Company. Posting an advertisement on the website explaining how much you need, and another company may offer you the money, in exchange for you becoming a Subsidy. (If no-one else will, the New Power Corporation are almost always willing).
SUBSIDIES
It’s possibly to buy-out other players companies, by offering to supplement their funds in exchange for a ten percent of their future winnings. This can be done to help someone to enter a tournament they couldn’t afford to otherwise, or to replace parts they can’t afford to.
Once this is done, you may freely attempt to Bribe this company (through another Lump Sum of B, a hiatus on repayments or the lending of a Pilot), to target people of their choice in their tournaments (targeting a company who’re a subsidy of a rival of yours, reducing the amount of income they make, for example). A company may buy themselves back for an amount equal to what was originally paid.
METAPLOT
There’s a Metaplot to Giant Robots with Guns that runs separately from the Tournament play. While some of the Metaplot will be purely background information, there will be times when you’ll be able to take part in Missions that can alter how the world plays out.
There’ll be 3 types of Metaplot mission:
RP-STYPE: Generally involving several Mechas, and played out over an evening through MSN Messenger (until further notice), these are chances to roleplay your pilots and Mechas. These missions will generally be more detailed than the others, and offer the most choice in final result. These missions will generally grant Pilot XP, plus any money offered for the mission.
SKIRMISH: A single or short couple of battles, these missions work similar to tournament battles, but may include odd situations (races, 2-on-1 battles, time-limits or things to protect), which wouldn’t be practical for general play. They generally grant money.
WAR: There’s potential for War in the Giant Robots world. War involves 1-on-1 (or 2-on-1) battles, with no breaks for repair, until only one side has Mechas remaining. These results generally have long-term repercussion.
ARENAS
There are currently 6 active Arenas for Giant Robots With Guns.
SPACE
A popular choice amongst the richer audiences (mainly as only they can afford to travel to it), one of Giant Robots With Gun’s most unique areas is built in the cold, dark womb of space itself, truly 3 dimensional combat is sure to follow, as Mecha attack each other from all sides, embracing Zero-G Combat.
THE FIGHTATORIUM
Giant Robots With Guns original stadium, and still a strong fan-favourite. Built on the edge of Mekam City, many new combatants are fooled by the simple appearance of the arena – little more than a large, blast-marked, square mile of concrete. But they quickly learn what makes this arena special – fire-pits, hidden cannons and electric fences have all been known to burst from the floor beneath unassuming Mechas.
ATLANTIC OCEAN
Known for it’s vast cave network and hilly terrain, the Atlantic Ocean arena is built into a vast under-sea dome, while a poor arena for live viewing (much of the combat takes place underground, and the arena’s been evacuated more than once after a rogue shell pierced the hull), it’s well known for a level of suspense rarely seen anywhere else.
AMAZON DESERT
A Straight-forward Arena, Pilots in the Amazon Desert must battle the heat as much as their opponents, pushing them towards overkill. A popular live arena, after the Mekam Tourist Complex was developed the Amazon always promises to be a loud and enthusiastic match
GREENLAND
As Mecha energy cores actually produce Cold Air, a Greenland Arena was the only logical next step – a favourite amongst Environmentalists, Arena Battles in Greenland actually Stop Global Warning (scientists suggest that they are in fact the only thing stopping the world from flooding), A battle on three fronts, clever pilots are known to attack from underwater – breaking through the ice directly beneath their enemies!
TOKYO
Once Giant Robots With Gun’s success was assured, HorizonTV made what has been heralded as “The Greatest Purchase Ever” by buying the entire of Toyko city.
“If you’re going to fight with giants” they were quoted as saying “It’s got to be on the streets of Tokyo." While battles are not on, teams of engineers work to rebuild the city, assuring that this complex, urban battleground never loses its charm.
OK, more stuff may occur to me later, but for now I'm just giving some general feedback and impressions.
Mechas, Robots and Power Armour
Not quite sure about function here. It's actually more than flavour because the overly cautious could just go Robots all the way without pilots so their pilots could never risk being killed. Is it really all that important to have these differences even in the game? I'd argue that they must all have physical pilots or remote pilots but not either. Or that there is some form of advantage to having a physical pilot to a remote pilot (perhaps a Speed penalty?).
Resilience
Hmm, a new stat? Looking at the current stats - damn! We have no soak!? Yeah, no quarrels about including it, though I question whether things are getting overly complicated with three categories of Resilience (E/K/X). If this is going to be the case, each player is going to need enough space on their mech (and credits — what does the B stand for anyway?) to balance three types of Resilience. Will each part have Resilience ratings for all three types? At them moment, there's already far more add-ons than can be fit onto a mech giving enough choice as it is. Are we going to need to start sacrificing slots to add Resilience-boosting parts, too? If this is the case, it might be worth upping the slots to 8 — unless this is something you'd rather reserve for Medium & Heavy Weight mechas.
Range
At present I really don't see how the Range stat even comes into it. Sure, you've explained equal ranges, but how are they factored in when you have differences. What happens when someone has a good Long-Range and the other a better Close-Range? How does one govern whether they are going to fight at Long-Range or Close-Range? At the moment this needs a lot of clarification, but I'm leaning towards thinking that it might be an overcomplicated addition to the rules and, therefore, redundant for a combat system that is ultimately automated and outside of player control. Better to leave these abstracted and therefore not included.
Pilots and Pilot Skills
I'll reserve comment on Pilots until I see how the discussion develops on the forum. This is essentially utterly new territory and I've been offering a lot of suggestions and Greg's had some good ideas, too, which I think might be worth considering before setting these Pilot rules in "stone" for the 2nd Beta Edition.
Subsidies
Nice idea, has potential, but I feel it needs a bit more clarification as to the pros and cons of doing so and how that actually works. Also, the potential for conflicts. For instance, is it possible for a parent company and one of its subsidies to enter the same tournament, or is this likely to be something that is done between tournaments with the aim of eventually buying your independence in order to take part? If they're allowed to enter the same tournament, what happens should they face off against each other?
Metaplot
Lots and lots of comment here!
Metaplot gives some nice potential for things to do in between tournaments, during the friendlies and show-fights while companies prepare for the tournaments and try to raise enough to qualify. However, I would consider more formal ways of running this without meaning that some people would miss out. For instance, running real-time RPG style missions is a bit of an exclusive endeavour (MSN!? Really? Not IRC?)
Ultimately, this isn't really an RPG game, it's a mech management simulator. Missions and story are a nice idea, but the stories should be built around combat (think computer games, not tabletop-style RPGs - in other words, RPG sections are generalised and as automated to simplicity). The missions can be time-sensitive, but should ideally be available for all in very much the same way as everything else. You're creating a game which has deadlines, but no real-time component. It would be unfair to those who might not wish to or be able to attend real-time games to see pilots suddenly getting lots of boosts.
Missions are better handled along these lines:
Invasion of the Glorf example mission
A corporate headquarter on some moon of an outer planet is under attack from aliens in power-armour. A call has gone out to all available mechas to partake in the fight and defend the facility there will be monetary rewards will be available to allow for repairs, although only minimal opportunity to upgrade. Everyone who wishes to take part does so, combats are dealt with automatically as normal, but with added story (essentially mini-tournaments with some plot tacked on to dove-tail the combat rounds) as follows:
Round 1 - Landing. Each mecha must fight to get to the facility. Inside they have parts and repairs can be carried out and destroyed parts replaced where necessary, but no upgrades allowed. Withdraw ratings can be changed at any time before the beginning of a round.
Round 2 - Fend off the second wave and protect the scientists. As per round 1, repairs but no upgrades.
Round 3 - The characters learn that there are limited (but possibly unique) upgrades available on the other side of the moon, but the place is overrun with aliens so they must be fought off before getting there. The place is deserted so everyone gets a flat-fee with which to carry out repairs (benefits those who don't lose parts) and can "purchase" (or just be awarded) upgrades when they get there (all upgrades — although "unique" — are available to everyone who can afford them).
Round 4 - Evacuate! Head back to the main base and evacuate all personnel, escorting the escape ships to safety. A series of combats (with no repairs) until either all mechas have fled battle, lost an essential part that puts them out of the battle, or until all surviving mechas have defeated three alien mechs in a row. Reward money, repairs, upgrades as per standard and a Pilot XP boost on top of whatever has already been gained.
To me, this is a mission that everyone can take part it, has a loose RPG-style storyline, isn't realtime so doesn't leave anyone out (especially important if you start getting interest from people in other time-zones) and alters the basic game mechanics enough to be interesting and a variation to the regular tournaments as well as promising the possibility of special upgrades that can be seen as a "badge of honour". Although be careful about giving out "unique" parts that can be destroyed - better things like Shimmers, etc.
If people want to go off and play some real-time RPGs with their pilots, etc, fine, but it shouldn't give a perceivably unfair advantage for those favoured few (and believe me, when the ideal is having this thing a much larger affair there's no way you'll be able to run an RPG style session with a couple dozen people!). Likewise, I would leave the "getting into character" for the forums. Let people roleplay as much or as little as they want, but keep the playing field even. Rewarding the "special few" who can make a real-time session potentially breeds resentment.
Naturally, metaplot implies story arcs so at some later date a full-scale invasion to liberate the moon from the aliens could be the setting of a War.
Skirmishes, to me, seem to be just another word for Friendlies, Show Fights and other special events put on to fill the time and improve skills/mechs in between tournaments. No probs there.
War just seems tot be a glorified mission. There's not really three types here, but two.
Missions, as detailed above, are storylines with special rules attached to each round in unique arenas, with potentially unique rewards that still otherwise function as a series of combats as per the basic game. "Wars" are Missions with special rules to allow for a "until you drop" style of combat, maybe staged over a number of Missions. If you'd prefer limited numbers for certain Missions then there should be a number of Missions available allowing for everyone to participate in a Mission (but with the potential for different rewards based on the difficulty of the Mission). You may come up with a Mission that only concerns select companies. In which case you should devise a general Mission for everyone else. Everyone should have the opportunity to take Missions, although you may opt out, but in the full knowledge that you miss out.
Skirmishes are every other kind of fight that you might get involved with in between Tournaments or Missions. These are likely arranged by promoters or even the companies themselves. Maybe even small competitions in order to gain sponsorship from a non-Mekam company, such as a popular carbonated drink.
On the subject of the normal game, it might be worth considering different tournament styles, too, or making the tournament rules a little more advanced. In other words, allowing for elimination tournaments (most likely over more than one fight), etc.
Arenas
Generally, I like the idea of Arenas. While at the moment we're playtesting the basic mechanics, ultimately I think it's important to have as much opportunity for flavour and variety as possible. Different tournaments with their own particular feel and prizes. Arenas have a lot of possibility, but at the moment what they're lacking isn't description, but relevance to game mechanics. Some have hazards, but as of yet I see no way in which these hazards interact with the players, etc.
For instance, fighting in Space is all well and good and certainly cool, but what does zero-G actually mean in terms of combat mechanics? What bonuses, penalties or hazards might one expect? Are there stat boosts to be gained here? Perhaps all Speed is halved unless you have rocket boosters or something?
Likewise, somewhere like the Fightatorium with traps, etc, needs to have some form of game impact that players can be aware of or prepare for. It suggests that my mech can be randomly attacked by "the arena" (i.e. fall into a fire pit, get thrown into an electric fence by the opponent, etc). Now that I'm not in space, I don't need the rocket boosters to counteract the zero-G, but I might have some form of hazard alarm, which gives me some form of positive modifier against being struck by that pesky hidden cannon so that I can concentrate on fighting my opponent. Of course, if I don't have such a device on me, I can instead replace it with something that will help me take my opponent out of the match a hell of a lot sooner, but at the risk of being taken out of the match by the hazard alone!
(Note: don't forget to have a "neutral" arena in which only the mechas count!)
Arenas can be fun, but for the purposes of review and feedback, if you already have these kinds of things planned, make them somewhat more transparent. I think these should probably be transparent anyway, since it allows players to properly prepare their mechs for the fight ahead (including changing pilots).
Anyway, that's loads of comments for you to mull over and I need to go to bed at some point.
Right
Armour/Robots etc. - no advantage, no change - pilots are hardwired into the Robot, so would die from Neural Feedback if the cockpit/head was destroyed, basically it's just fluff.
B: At present B stands for Billion, it was a placeholder in lieu of a currency and one I've decided (for the moment, anyway) to stick with - I figure there shouldn't be a currency where these things can be bought with under 1000, so generalizing it to a massive number feels right.
Resilience: Resilience is included in general equipment - anything with Damage has Resilience. Most items have resilience to/can cause damage with 2 of the 3 types of
energy, depending on how much Damage/Defence they had to start with, generally dropping by 10 for each (Mk.1 Castle Chassis has Resilience
X30/K20/E10 for example). It adds an extra layer of strategy to the game - instead of just making your mech as hard as possible, you need to consider who you're fighting and customise acordingly.
Range: It's no so much the Mecha's only range, as much as the point at which it becomes effective - it's assumed that the mecha with the lower range will keep advancing until it can attack (hence speed counteracting it). I mostly agree however (especially with the cost thing) - it's likely to be cut before the game begins..
Pilots: Yeah, this needs a rethink. Probably best discussed on the main forum (as it already is)
Missions: Okay. I say MSN instead of IRC for the simple fact I have one, and may not have the other (I'm not sure atm), I'm aware that this doesn't work for everyone, which is why I mentioned the (until further notice) part. War was originally seen as being much larger than the other two - while some missions would involve 5/6 six Mechas (especially the RP ones), War would include everyone who was wanting to fight. I take your point on the RP-style missions.
Arenas: At present, Areanas are currently purely for fluff. I was planning on having differing effects, but iirc, I thought about "pilots die
if the cockpit breaks in space" then "but surely that'd happen anywhere" made a note of it and moved on… I agree, Arenas should have some form
of in-game affect.
I'm not so sure about the items though - as you've said before, there's only a handfull of slots available, I'm not sure if adding another item is going to help much.
re: arenas
I was mostly just shooting out ideas for possible ways in which Arenas could affect the game and what that would mean for the players.
On the subject of slots, could the number of slots available be the difference between Light, Medium, Heavy Weight? I can't remember if I mentioned this elsewhere or above (and am clearly too lazy to read what I wrote in the wee hours of the morning). So Light Weight is 6 slots, Medium Weight is, say, 8 slots and Heavy Weight is 10 slots. Just a thought.
I was planning on just using Cost as a weight guide, to be honest.
Adding varying slots means extra stats, and working through numbers again, if we're going to go down that route, I'd have each Essential piece have Slots that come off it - some have more than others.
But that'd be complicated.
Also: Other thoughts/notes/replies
Subsidies: (knew I’d forgotten something).
Right, I’ve no issue with companies fighting their subsidies in tournaments – HorizonTV’s Giant Robots isn’t meant to be about politics, but Giant Robots Fighting.
The other side is when a company is expected to throw a match to their boss. This I also don’t have an issue with – the subsidy cost will be greater than the prize-money, so subsidising to win matches is a poor plan.
(Another option would be to get a subsidy to sacrifice it’s Mecha to weaken a stronger opponent. But I heartily endorse underhand tactics like this).
However, I don’t see it happening that often – generally the only time you’ll have the money to spare to Subsidise a company will be when you’re raking in Vast amounts per battle, and they’re in a small enough league that their parts cost small change.
Friendlies: Something else I didn’t mention, so should confirm. You will not get prize money for Friendlies from me. You may chose to wager an amount, and will still get sponsorship and damage money (as it’s still televised).
Unique Equipment: I’ve been thinking about this. Most likely what it’d be would be parts with slightly higher stats – there might be Mk.1 Chassis that costs 20B more than the standard issue one (and has the improved stats that go with it), parts with different strengths or similar. They’ll generally come with a more concrete description and individual rules on whether it can be repaired.It’s possible to use Dampeners to negate all damage too – it means you don’t get any extra money from the fight (just sponsorship), but also that you don’t need to pay for repairs afterwards – it’s purely to see who’s the stronger.
Examples would be things like:
// DawnBreaker When Pre-Emptive Force landed on Callista, fast and agile Mechas were essential to navigate the jungle. Initially equipped with Tank Mk.2 Rocket-Packs, they quickly found these heavy, unwieldy weapons slowed them down, and contacted Dawn to make an alternative.
Off Mercury the cannon loses much of it’s power, due to it’s heavy power needs, and may only be fired once per battle. The Omega Cannon counts as a Mk.3 Rifle
When an Everlast Generator should be destroyed, there’s a 50% chance it won’t be. They count as Mk.2 Generators.
I was also thinking things like Improved Shimmer (has a higher percentage of working), etc. Or other kinds of specials that are above risk of destruction (like Shimmers) but do something that isn't otherwise available. Having mega-weapons that last only as long as they don't get destroyed works, also. Something like the Omega Cannon is one of those mass destruction weapons that can really tip the balance for someone's climb to the top of the ranks, so people would be keen to take out the "powerplay weapon" and return things to "normal". These are viewed as "boosts while they last".
So, yeah, the stuff you listed plus… Naturally, I think these are best gained through the kind of Mission formats I suggested.
Shimmers CAN be destroyed. Nick lost one in the second round.
Really? OK, my bad.
I disagree with the idea that you would fight just to see who's toughest. Frankly, that's not how sports works — and, IMHO, it's not what I'd want to take part in. If it doesn't give me anything, I don't care. Even in something like professional boxing when a show fight (essentially a friendly) is put on the boxers still get paid (although it might not be as much as for a tournament). These are special events in which promoters get massive advertising deals, make loads of money, put on a good show and have rewards to give the competitors. In some cases, a single show fight (if it's one of those "fight of the century" type deals) might be worth more than winning a tournament (but without the prestige of having a title). I don't envision people just randomly staging their own fights (because, also, at the moment the set up doesn't properly support something like that), unless you want to introduce a mechanic to deal with a company raising advertisers in which they can host their own show-fight (in which case, yes, technically the money comes from the players but also yourself as NPCs). However, this adds a whole new subsystem for micro-managing a promo event which might be a bit ahead of where you want to be right now.
Far better, IMHO, always have something being officially run.
e.g.
Oh aye, I wouldn't enter those either. But they're an option, for those who would.
I do plan on having tournaments going on all the time, potentially several (differeng weights), this would simply be options for players who didn't want to join one, or to test-run other Mecha builds, for entry into later campaigns. With Missions that generally overlap, the big problem with the current one-tournament-and-nothing-else-going-on tournament, is there's players who want to join but there's no point until January. Especially as I'm going to drop back a 1-battle-a-week system, so they'll potentially last even longer. (and while I'm running them, what difference is a single extra fight, with no damage to work out?)
Once this tournament finishes, it'll be The Manny Cup, and another for new players (or old ones who didn't make enough to be able to compete), the New will most likely run in the same way as the current one, Manny as a knockout tournament.
And yeah, that sort of equipment would be gained through missions, in the style you suggested (or thereabouts).
Hi Phil. I had a suggestion to make.
*Ahem* Unless we actually have a cap on how much we are able to spend on a mech (And one that is quite close to what we are spending now, which seems unlikely) I don't think we are going to favour making a new mech over updating our current. Especially since we scraped making our first mech with 450 credits.
A suggestion I wanted to make was to give us 450 credits again for the sole purpose of building a second mech. I think people would be more willing to throw money on greatly improved parts for that, rather than marginally better parts for our main mechs. Plus it gets the whole 'different mechs for different opponents' ball in the air quicker.
I understand that it would be giving more money to players, but I think it's something to consider. With 500 credits you could probably buy 2 of the 4 main parts needed for the mech and not even have any equipment. But 500 credits on a basic mech would give us one as good as the main mechs.
Money's revamped for 2nd Ed. anyway - adding Resilence and rebalancing everything means a standard Mech's actually worth around 1,200 in the new version.
But that's neither here nor there.
There will be caps on mech spending, which varies from League to League. (I'm going to be using the Lightweight/Heavyweight to diferentiate, I think*), as a general rule, Lighter Tournaments will be more common, so having Mechas at several different levels becomes more usefull than just one. Although the heavier the weight, the more prize money available (if just because you're causing more damage)
*It took me like 5 attempts to spell that right. Stupid Hangover.
I'm not so sure on using money as the factor that differentiates what makes someone fit into one of the weight classes. Far more, I would look at not how much a company has spent on that mech, but the weight (duh!) and the stats. Therefore, a weight of less than x and damage/HP/etc of no more than x would class you in Lightweight class. Weight between x and y, et al, puts in you in Middleweight class. Finally, weight (et al) over x puts you in the Heavyweight (with potentially no upper limit unless there becomes a need for a Megaweight or something).
This way, a company could potentially spend lots of money to make a really spiffy mech with lots of shinies that was still weight and stat-legal for Lightweight - it also allows money to be spent and development within the Lightweight class without finding that you've accidentally overspent and find yourself at the bottom of the Middleweight league instead of reigning over the Lightweight league.
Problem is, as Chris mentiones below - at the moment the amount of money spent seriously does affect the power-level of your Mecha (the whole reason this ruling is being introduced is the undeniable fact that the winners are building much more potent Mechas and pulling further ahead and with the weight differences… I'm pretty sure you could get a Mk.5 Dawn Mech into the Light catergory, while Tank and Castle would struggle even with basic equipment, unless we make the Weight terms so wide-ranging that it's practically
arbitrary anyway.
Plus it should be remembered that Weight doesn't refer to a specific number - otherwise a Small Powered-Suit could end up waying more than a 50 foot tall Mecha. It's more… Power Consumption, than actual weight.
Also, surely it's more likely that someone would make a mistake when trying to balance 3 or 4 stats (Weight, Damage and HP, for example) than just the one (Cost), and be much harder to alter (as dropping one stat will most likely reduce several more).
Plus, the tournament weights will be announced a few weeks before the tournament actually begins, giving plenty of time for alteration and checking.
And (I forgot to add), it will mean new players start on an even footing, for their first battle, at least, without needing to run Newbie-Only matches.
True, but I do like the idea of there being a "proving grounds" in which a new player can fight to "qualify" for ranking and therefore require them to win a few fights before they start tackling veteran players.
Whether you want to apply this to every new mech in any class or only brand new players is up to you (it means experienced companies can just suddenly enter a brand new Heavyweight if they've had enough cash to build one from scratch without needing to qualify it).
Hmm. Could be. I suppose it does also simplify things for the player, I suppose, since if a player wants more than one mech they know that they need x amount of "surplus" cash to build a brand new mech with.
And, after all, this is why we're playtesting, right? Let's see how it works and adapt, adopt and improve.
Just wondering. Will 2nd ed be integrated into this one? Or will we be restarting?
One thought I also had was to have a time release on when new parts can come out as well as a profit level. It just seems as though as soon as a battle is won, everybody is buying a new part, rather than we spend time at a certain level and challenge each other while potentially being the same, just different stats that define us. I mean if someone has a Dawn V1 engine and someone has a Dawn V.2 then it seems like the person who is richer will win this rather than people who have chosen a certain company. I know that more money means victory in itself, but it seems like it would be more fun if we all reached ceilings as to how good our mechs would be before a new line of parts came out.
At Ben's Sunday game, I think James mentioned companies at the bottom of the list producing parts so they can increase their gain, rather than just when they have money to make them. I mean, don't the companies have the potential to take loans or get bought out the same as we do?
Or would it be wise to have a limited amount of parts out on the shelf? Like when a new partis released, there is only 1 or 2 available to purchase. Or maybe when a part is 'released' you have to order one which will be ready after the next battle.
Yeah, there is a certain degree of The Rich Growing Richer prevailent in this.
Chances are good, in 2nd Edition, parts will be released automatically every so often, as well as extras for the Mekam companies who are making a lot of money, there may also be Sponsored events, where you can only enter if you've got a mecha that contains at least a couple of the right company's parts.
Along with this, there'll be stricted guidelines on the amount your Mechas can cost to enter the battles - a Definate Maximum and Minimum cost, this will make upgrading less common (and mostly be switching the extra parts - rifles etc) and keep the power level much more balanced.
I was thinking about this.
The trick is getting the right balance between everyone producing stuff, and flooding the market.
What I'm thinking at present, is to space the money upgrades out more (from an item every 500, to an item every 1000), along with releases every 2 weeks of 1 item from everyone (as battles will be every week instead of every 4 days, this wont seem so far apart), and/or the idea that you can only buy (not including repairs, but including upgrades) one item a battle per Mecha (most people only seem to buy 1 or 2 anyway), though this may be too few.
Another option, would be to flesh out the Company side - give people the option of buying Guards or Security or Tank Squadrons, or spies or black ops or whatever, which can be used to directly affect other teams players - Spies to steal equipment or blueprints (For those delightfull special items), potentially in the long run having the potential to war over planets. As this'd divert money away from mechas and into other places.
This would also require a couple of other stats though, to make it worth it - something to make it worth fighting for territory.
If combat is going to be every 1 week I certainly think that releasing stuff every 2 weeks is a good idea. At least then we can fight two opponents at a similar ceiling to upgrades.
Not sure personally about the company side. That's well beyond my thoughts for now ^^;
On the plus side. Having only 1 item buyable per mecha will encourage people to stock up on items that they may need which will help with the whole switching before combat stuff.
I like this plan because it does allow me to do the sort of stuff I'd expect to be doing anyway.
Chances are it'll be 3rd ed. - the rules themselves aren't an issue (mainly as they're rediculously streamlined and simple, but I want to make sure 2nd Ed. rules work first.
So it'd be… Around April or May, I should think.