How so? It would be a separate generator, to ensure the basic suit stays the same (to ensure we get mass production bonus).
I was saying that the idea of having suit integrated generators was shot down. It's an idea that scales in usefulness the more globally it's adopted- we haven't adopted it, and don't seem like we're going to, so making a few specific weapons use it is just gonna make those particular weapons weird and annoying.
It might work with a Battlesuit, because they can already shock stuff, but having a larger generator for heavy weapons seems like a poor idea. If it's required for them, then you
have to know if you're gonna use the gun when you buy the BS.
I considered using 1 'basic suit' with low armor, and then let the buyer either get extra armor (to get battlesuit-like suit) or the rockets for maneuvering and exoskeleton upgrade, but that didn't seem realistic from an in-game perspective (I think armor needs to be somewhat integrated into a suit, instead of just duck taped on ad-hoc, except for outer layers maybe. And taking it all apart to upgrade the exoskeleton seems silly, and having another variant with dex-based exoskeleton seems more practical).
Might as well check if more armor/exoskeleton is an option. Sure, it probably won't work, but if it does, it's a much better option than having three different variants.
Then again, you're at least a third of the hivemind that decides what tinker stuff works, so you'd know better than I.
Not sure if I entirely agree (a 'kill weapon' only kills on a good hit, a glancing shot might mean that the armor saves the suit's life). I think I get what you are saying though: make the armor juuuust strong enough to shrug of low tier weapons, resist mid tier, and hope the mobility gained will save it from high-tier.
My point is that with the kill weapons, they've got a 1/3 chance to kill you in one hit, and usually have multiple shots. A PSL is semiauto, so it could unload five shards into you before you can retaliate. Or worse, Volley fire at you. In that case, moving quickly is better than tanking the shots.
The medium guns
have to sandpaper through you with several shots- you're guaranteed to suvive the first two rounds at least, and with little effect to you, so you can return fire even if being hit.
Note that there are situations where mobility doesn't matter as much, such as cramped environments (tight urban environments, a battlesuit's primary habitat) or on defending a fixed position (oversimplifying, yes, but you get the idea). And note that I try to consider not just situations for players, but sod or allied forces as well. So I do think giving the option of mobility is a bit better than making it mandatory, to prevent giving stuff where it won't be used/needed (because I'm cheap, both from tokens/player perspective, as well as in-game Hep/resources perspective). Also note that mobility is expensive, and for reasons above I wanna keep this around 20 tokens.
I think you may have missed the bit where I emphasized this as a
supplement to a battlesuit. Not a BS variant, a new critter that cover's a BS's holes.
It's meant to be something that can carry a fraction of BS's power indoors, where a BS just can't go, and has mobility so that it isn't useless when outside with the big boys. If it comes against a anti-BS enemy, then it should
run away.
It's something that's between a milnoplated MK.III (much less armor, more vulnerable body parts, less lift power, possibly more expensive because MP is expensive) and a full BS (More expensive, less mobilty outside, can't fit inside, but
much, much heavier armor). It's probably only good if it costs around 16 tokens.
The idea in and of itself is good, and occurred to me way back when I was thinking of designs for tanks (before that was 'shot down' by pw). I had considered making the vehicle smaller by only allowing for braincases. However, I don't think you'll ever get a suit like this with the power and equipment of a battlesuit in a package that's small enough to comfortably go through doors while keeping cost reasonable (might be wrong about that). And there have been plenty situations where being able to get out of the battlesuit was handy: when Gilgamesh was damaged on the planetoid, for Flint to join the boarding (though a robo could have gotten his braincase put in a body for that), roleplaying reasons. And it would confine the player to the suit for the most part, like with an AoW. Still, for our sod forces it would make a lot of sense (though in that case it'd be more like another flavor of sod than a sod with a suit). I'm just not sure it'd be a good idea from a game perspective. It'd be a pretty big change to the suit philosophy: can't loan it out, if damaged you're screwed, hard to supply to allied forces (it'd have to come with it's own sod).
Again, I think you misinterpreted me a bit. It shouldn't have anywhere near the raw power of a battlesuit. It's just something slightly cheaper, that can be used indoors. It loses a lot more raw durability for the relative cost, but it's mostly extra redundant durability that it's losing.
As far as cost, and not being minaturized, that's the purpose of it being braincase only. A BS has a cockpit with keyboards and monitors, so that's easily six inches or more of wiggle room, plus it contains a person's head and part of their limbs. Reduce all that to a one foot sphere, and you end up with something a lot shorter and thinner. Take off 60% of the armor, plus all that area you're saving in volume, and you should end up with something cheaper than a BS, that also fits through doors. It'd probably look something like
this, but we're not trying to look glamourous, we're trying to kill things.
Getting out of a BS is more of an emergency feature, and it's an advantage a BS has over being in a body. But, honestly, this thing is way tougher than a milnoplated MK.III or robobody. Is not being able to hop out of your body when a 60mm takes your leg off really a disadvantage, or is it an advantage that you're not
dead? Same argument for the "if damaged, you're screwed"- at least you're alive, thanks to armor. Also, it has a jetpack, so entirely crippling it is kinda difficult.
Yes, you're trapped in the body. But half the purpose is that it can fit where normal infantry can fit, so you're just trapped in a somewhat ugly, extremely tough robobody. And you can switch back relatively painlessly.
Sure you can loan it. Switching bodies is quick and easy when you're a robot- Remember how Mesk popped Stacy's brain out like a Pez? It could even be done mid-combat, assuming you have a competent fleshtech
(yay for being more useful)Lastly, if it turns out to be horrible for player forces, as you said, it's a good heavy sod variant.
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette: OOC and NEW PLAYER INFO (Read 2525985 times)