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Post by caltino on May 22, 2015 20:30:03 GMT -5
Here's the idea:
At the beginning of the heat phase, a mech may choose Vent action. It will not roll on the critical heat table, and it will shut down on the next turn.
Reason for the idea:
There are times when you want to make a big attempt with a Mech to accomplish an objective. While rolling on the heat table is exciting to see if you get away with overloading your mech, it may be a strategically prudent choice to shut down and avoid damage, opening up the mech to attack next turn. It provides a simple option that may provide interesting choices and may give an opening to the opponent causing him to change plans.
What do you think? Any significant implications that may break something that I am not seeing?
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Post by WaffleM on May 24, 2015 20:41:33 GMT -5
There doesn't seem to be enough risk to running to hot. Perhaps Mech that follows your rule has it's Tp reduced temporarily to 2 until it becomes active again? Makes it a bit of a sitting duck as it can't move or react to incoming fire.
In fact maybe any Mech that rolls an eleven on the Critical Heat Table also has a Tp dropped to 2...
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Post by Dagger on May 24, 2015 20:57:42 GMT -5
Here's the idea: At the beginning of the heat phase, a mech may choose Vent action. It will not roll on the critical heat table, and it will shut down on the next turn. Reason for the idea: There are times when you want to make a big attempt with a Mech to accomplish an objective. While rolling on the heat table is exciting to see if you get away with overloading your mech, it may be a strategically prudent choice to shut down and avoid damage, opening up the mech to attack next turn. It provides a simple option that may provide interesting choices and may give an opening to the opponent causing him to change plans. What do you think? Any significant implications that may break something that I am not seeing? That's an interesting idea for a tactical decision... but being shut down is one of the results on the Critical Heat Table. I do like the idea of having the option to preemptively shut down in an effort to minimize damage though. What if you get to subtract 2 from the heat roll if you opt to shut down before the roll? That -2 might keep you out of the 14+ instant death range. |
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Post by caltino on May 25, 2015 22:54:17 GMT -5
What is the max heat a Mech can have? If rush + 4 heavy weapons, it can get up to 10, right? Anything else?
So with a full attack, depending on the move, the mech may have 8-10 heat. They regularly vent 4, so you have 4-6 remaining. Let's say 5 to make it easier to talk.
That means if you roll an 8+, you will end up with 12+, resulting in damage. That's 30% chance. If you count the 11 result (a roll of 7) shutting you down, there's a 40% chance that you may get damaged or shut down anyway. If you think not being able to fire is almost as bad, then 50% chance, you'll get a result that will be as bad or worse than shutting down voluntarily now and avoiding the damage chances.
If I look around and think that I can take out most of the threats and am willing to live with the survivor attacking me, I may decide to shutdown and let them try to get through my defense (tp). There's no guarantee they'll hit and cause damage with my regular TP.
It's just an option. I think it's good that it's not an automatic "I gotta shut down" decision- decisions that should obviously be made are boring. It's simple enough not to complicate things too much, kind of thematic ("we can try warp speed 9 cap'n, but it won't hold together much..."), and doesn't really complicate things.
But as I said earlier, I don't have enough experience yet to see the implications of it, so I may be missing something. This is why I opened it up to everyone's comments; you will have better insight to it than me.
Regarding the other thoughts- the -2 to TP is inconsistent with the regular shutdown result in the table, where you don't suffer a -2 TP, unless I missed it. I think the game's simplicity is an attraction so no need to put in exceptions, I think.
With respect to shutting down to merely reduce the roll, I am not sure a -2 would make it worthwhile, probabilities wise. It would also be kind of strange- you decide to shutdown voluntarily to reduce the risk, roll, get a result that says you scan next turn or stand fast, which doesn't apply any more. To keep it simple, if you shut down, that's all taken care of.
The overall motivation for the houserule, besides a simple option that may make for an interesting decision, is to help make Mechs a bit more unique. Since they are the stars of the show, the more unique features they have, the more interesting they'll be. As far away as possible from being just a bigger tank with multiple weapons. The heat element is unique to them, so this may help.
I wish there were more interesting actions unique to Mechs that generated heat. Maybe you power up some of those nifty add-ons only when you need them, because they generate heat (kind of like weapons), maybe a lot of heat. So you decide when you really need the improved targeting or whatever, and sacrifice something else at the time because heat will get too much, or suffer the heat and deal with it. But right now, they take up weapon slots, so even when selected, they won't generate additional heat beyond what you would get with a 4 weapon attack.
Maybe equipment should go on specialized slots rather than weapon slots, because they already have their own cost in BP, and the opportunity cost in giving up a weapon may be too much. As it is now, even if they were free in BP cost, I may still not take them because I don't want to lose that weapon. But that's another topic.
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