Admin Progress Report

what is a LAM?

 

very awesome to watch... but their inclusion in BT was solely born as a cheap marketing stunt back before the internet made that kind of crap impossible. everytime someone (Tzeentch) mentions them I roll my eyes so hard I fear they are going to roll out of my head.

people (Tzeentch) need to let that shit die.

also, this is not the place to bring that up. i am asking nicely.

 

in an effort to make all these tables, rolls, etc. get posted faster, I did some more Google Forms magic to come up with these:


These are way faster to fill out than typing everything by hand.

 

Master Rules 3.9.7 update

Lance Events Update
I am relaxing Lance Events ever so slightly. It used to be you only received a positive bonus if you got a +1 or higher. This left the rewards and penalties with a gap in the middle that produced no effect. Now it is slightly more "fair" in that if you hit your target roll number (+0) result, you get the first bonus of your corresponding Lance skill: New Orders, Efficient, Recon Report, or Connected. The end result is a more gradual change between bonuses and penalties for Lance skills.

Leadership Skill Update
All other lance skills only have a maximum of 3 penalties. Leadership had an additional penalty called "Divided" for a total of four. Unfortunately, Divided mostly only accomplished in frustrating players and artificially dragging out missions as players waited for the other half of their lance to deploy. Therefore, this penalty has been removed to bring Leadership more in line with the other skills. It is possible Divided might be merged somewhat with the Ambush penalty under Scrounge, but for now it will simply be removed.

 

Negative Quirk Update!

Here are the previous rules regarding removal of Negative Quirks on units:


In theory, these rules work well enough. However, I have been unsatisfied with their implimentation. Our current campaign has made utilizing these rules an impossiblility (no consistent dropship support nor factories on planet). It was never intended for negative quirks to be such semi-permanent fixtures on your mechs. Also, the "1 month+ travel time" bit was a pain in the ass to keep track of.

Negative Quirks are not necessarily critical design flaws that require a "return to factory" stamp, but could also simply be malfunctions that need proper maintenance to resolve. A real world example of this would be sending your car to the local mechanic rather than all the way back to the factory.

Here is our new (relaxed) rules regarding removal of Negative Quirks:

• Requires Maintenance Level Facility (most planets have at least one of these) & requires 20% cost of mech's current value.
• Mech must remain in zone with Maintenance Facility and out of combat effectively for 1 Turn to complete repairs.
• Requires a successful Astech/Tech skill check (w/ +4 modifier).

 

Event Table Update!

Added lance skillcheck success rates to Event Tables for more transparent recording and viewing:

 

Introducing NPC Unit Sub-class Quirks!

Certain units and weapons have a long history of being underpowered in Battletech. Through the use of class-based quirks, I hope to make combined arms combat even more attractive. Here is what I have so far:

ALL Foot Infantry

• gain the following quirk: Weapon Specialization (any) - helps their horribly limited range and related accuracy

SpecOps Infantry

• maximum size = 10 men = 1 Team
• minimum skill level = 3/3
• gains Damage Divisor of 3 - reduces damage received to 1/3 (rounding up to 1 point)
• gains Sneak, DEST + Camo + IR + ECM

*Note: all stealth suites increase BV.

ALL Dedicated Artillery Units (can only carry artillery and anti-infantry weapons)

• gain the following quirks: Oblique Attacker, Sniper, Weapon Specialization (artillery) - helps to somewhat counteract the horrible +8 to-hit penalty for artillery fire

Non-infantry Artillery

• gain the following weapon quirk: Accurate - makes them a more expensive, but more accurate alternative to infantry-based artillery

Weapon Carriers (AC / LRM / PPC)

• gain the following quirk: Anti-Aircraft Targeting - intended as mobile dedicated anti-air support, but has added utility of being able to attack ground targets
• LRM Carriers gain the Improved Sensors quirk

 

That's awesome.

 

UPDATE!

ALL Foot Infantry - improved their horribly limited range and by giving a general boost to accuracy

• gain ability: Weapon Specialization (any)

ALL Field Gunners and Artillery Platoons - given Camo to improve their survival rate (can only fire when stationary)

• gain Sneak, Camo

SpecOps Infantry - infantry with a healthy dose of "Badass Motherfucker"; intended for missions that require capture/sabotage/espionage

• maximum size = 10 men = 1 Team
• minimum skill level = 3/3
• gains Damage Divisor of 3 - reduces damage received to 1/3 (rounding up to 1 point)
• gains Sneak, DEST + Camo + IR + ECM

*Note: all stealth suites increase BV.

Field Gunners - made more accurate than Heavy Weapon Teams, but deal less damage

• gain abilities: Weapon Specialization
• Artillery Platoons gain ability: Oblique Attacker

Non-infantry Artillery - intended as a more expensive, but more accurate alternative to infantry-based artillery

• gain weapon quirk: Accurate

Weapon Carriers (AC / LRM / PPC) - intended as mobile dedicated anti-air support, but with added utility of being able to attack ground targets; complete glass cannons

• gain quirk: Anti-Aircraft Targeting
• LRM Carriers gain quirk: Improved Sensors

ALL Ground-based Conventional Vehicles - boosted offensive power at the cost of brawling ability to offset their natural fragility . Since tanks are an obviously more stable platform than mechs for long range fire, Sniper seemed like the natural choice. Remember that Sniper only helps them at medium range or farther. This reinforces the effective strategy of defeating tanks by overwhelming them at short range.

• gain ability: Sniper
• gain quirk: Poor Targeting (short)

 

CONVENTIONAL UNIT ROLE WARFARE

Consider the following to be key words to describe their individual roles

Standard Infantry

• Foot = cheap and effective in confined areas with cover, best used alongside APCs or IFVs to allow for fast redeployment
• Jump = similar to foot, but better equipped for mountain and city fighting
• Motorized = cheap and fast; ideal for urban fighting; does not need support from APCs or IFVs

Specialized Infantry

• Heavy Weapon Teams = cheapest defensive unit available; effective in cover; has similar weaknesses to other Foot Infantry, but with much better weapon range; cannot fire and move same turn
• Field Gunners = similar to HWTs, but has faster Motorized movement; also effective in areas WITHOUT cover thanks to Camo equipment
• Field Gunners (Artillery) = exactly like normal Field Gunners but fire indirectly; cheapest artillery unit, but less accurate than heavier units
• Mechanized = ideal for mobile warfare in the open supporting Mechs or Tanks; loses all defensive bonuses that standard infantry have

Standard Vehicles

• APCs = cheap transport for Foot and Jump Infantry
• IFVs = well armed (but more expensive) APCs that can fight alongside infantry
• LAVs = lightly armored vehicles that are a faster and cheaper alternatives to tanks; typically cannot transport infantry
• Tanks = primary combat vehicles; can be light or heavier, but typically slower, well armed and armored; cannot transport infantry

Specialized Vehicles

• Artillery / SPGs = more accurate, better armored and faster than infantry-based artillery; like all artillery, can't move and fire in the same turn
• Carriers = slow and powerful like a tank, but have very thin armor; ideal for heavy mobile support; quintessential glass cannons
• Transports = non-combatants important for logistical concerns; can sometimes transport infantry, but not ideal for combat scenarios
• Mobile HQs = grants a +1 initiative bonus to all units controlled by the player

 

ALL Ground-based Turret-less Conventional Vehicles - traditionally, one of the few advantages to turret-less tank destroyers (beside their lower cost) was their low profile. Battletech generally does not acknowledge this fact. To make turret-less tanks a more attractive choice, the following quirk will now be added:

• gain quirk: Narrow Profile

Hetzers and their ilk just got a little scarier.

 

Custom Mechs, Avatars, Camos and Unit Icons created for those who requested changes.

They will be viewable with the next build.

 

i have reviewed the campaign. i expect we will be ready to begin drops after christmas... unless people give me reason to start earlier

 

In other news, there has been approximately FIFTEEN small updates to the current build of MekHQ we are using. I plan to get us up to date before we start drops at the end of the year.

changes listed here:
http://megamek.info/taxonomy/term/6

 

UPDATE:

ran into a potentially serious problem. can anyone check to see if MekHQ 0.3.21 is working for them?:
http://megamek.info/forums/index.php?topic=2282.msg14978#msg14978

download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mek...ekHQ-0.3.21/mekhq-0.3.21-windows.zip/download