... Happerry, we already have a way to reduce the cost. The MiP can give us either 1 free Ore or 1 free Oil. And we can change it with a strategy action.
...Oh, I see where I made the mistake. I thought we were already getting an oil from it so needed another ore from somewhere else to get the price down enough to knock it down another level, but that's just from getting TC capability.
Meanwhile, our Pulse Pistol is more than capable of knocking people out of the fight, with great accuracy and a lot of charges.
It's a pistol. It's short to medium range. Our rifles are medium to long range. Having a pistol does not mean we can not also use a rifle.
Over-complicated for a mecha. Coming down to it, it is a mecha with a neural interface control system. The Skell Design is more for a base model that will allow us to design and deploy heavy weapons with ease, as well as satisfying the tank-class of units with something they can't match easily.
Over-sized it is not. It's meant to be a tank-level option. In vehicle mode, it does fall close to that size.
At the moment, it's meant to fill the whole "HEAVY Hitter" we are missing in our starting loadout. As well, the rolling system does tend to reward trendsetting to a degree.
Yes, it's a mecha with a mind link thingy. I'm not sure why you felt that had to be repeated, because I never said it was something else. It's still an over-complicated giant thingy because we're trying to invent a '30 to 40 feet tall' mecha, make it transform, let it still transform even if it's had a limb blown off, use advance metals for it when we're still at basic assembly line construction methods, claim 'Fuel cost is negligible outside of combat', and other things beyond. The only reason I don't consider it completely impossible is because some work has been done on mind machine linkage already, but even so, this is going to be a high difficulty project when we already have a base tank chassi we can work from to get an armored combat vehicle with far less effort and risk.
This is beyond, even, how you expect a 30 to 40 foot tall mecha to transform into a cycle that's just generic vehicle size instead of being the over-sized target that, you know, it actually is.
I'm not really sure what you mean about trend setting, because the roll system might not be a generic 2d6 or 2d4 but the only unusual thing in it is the 2d10 dice, not how rolls work. We don't get any special advantage for being the first or only side to do something, and if you mean 'build on what we already have', that's how all arms races works and that's not a reward for trend setting, it's a reward for not being bugshit crazy.
Even if all those other things weren't true, it's still a blatant copy paste of another franchise's stuff, which... I mean, come on. This is an arms race, not a copy paste race.
It is important to note what the other side likely has, with Sujia having their armored transports. Likewise with terrain, an earthmover won't prove easy to move through mountains, and pointless above the abyss. The Skell is an idea that allows us a lot of flexibility now and into the future, and even just the work on the neural interface cockpit is usable and easy to do, even if the Skell itself falls through. And if both approach any level of usability, that design can be turned into an excavator design with ease, solving most of it's own ore cost.
We have quite a bit of flexibility with the extra ore/oil, so we need something that can take advantage of that boon. The Skell will prove as such now and into the future.
Where can we see what the other side has without cheating by looking in their threads? or are you trying to guess from posted lore? Because if you're going from posted lore 'they have vehicles' is an essentially meaningless point. Everyone has vehicles, we have vehicles, and it can be generally assumed that 'put armor and a weapon on it' is not a rare stroke of thought.
Beyond that issue, an Earthmover is going to be no more difficult then a giant mecha to move through the mountain, because they can literally dig their own paths if needed while a 30/40-foot tall mecha is going to have a lot less viable paths then a normal vehicle and is going to be at risk of being knocked over a lot more easily then something with a lower center of gravity. Nor do I consider giant mecha easier to put across a bridge then a normal vehicle sized... well, vehicle. Either both will be able to get there or neither will, and again, when it comes to the risk of falling off/over the mecha is the top heavy design here.
Nor is the Skell the only option for what to do with resources, and I've already made my opinion of the Skell clear usefulness wise, so...
It's also still a blatent copy paste. You couldn't even be bothered to think up your own mecha design.
Let me go over my thought processes.
UPS is effectively creating a way to greatly reduce the number of electronics needed to control something like a jet. That same thought process is what goes into the Skell. Normally, programming all that movement would be difficult, but using BCS makes it easy. It also boosts our understanding of the BCS, and will help out with contacting other races and allying ourselves with them, likely receiving bonuses.
The Skell design is a base, meant to be used for a number of things, from combat to support. Moreover, it's weapons loadout are universal. Setting up a piece of artillery would be simple with the basics of what makes a Skell. We can literrally use them for anything so long design the gear. A railgun, easy. Mining Laser, easy and turned to offensive purposes. Missiles, easy, a proper team can fire a bunch fairly quickly with the right support. AA, easy. Though all described would take up the back weapon slot, it offers an ease of deployment not found in conventional vehicles. Bad terrain can't stop them.
It should also be noted that a mecha would be difficult regardless, hence why it is split into two designs. But Below Average still offers everything in the design, which leads to experience in that field. Anything above that would icing.
Alriight, first off, a Mind Machine Interface is generally useful
everywhere. By the same token, just because it's useful doesn't mean we have to make a giant robot for it. It's an entirely different subject, and will remain so despite your attempts to make them seem like requirements to one another.
As for using the Skell as a base, we already have a base vehicle in the form of the STAR. It's literally a tank without weapons right now, and it's going to be 100% easier to put a weapon on it then make an overly complicated giant robot that includes some really ambitious design goals. By the same token, there's nothing special about giant mecha that let's us put weapons on it other vehicles can't have. A railgun fits just as well on a tank if not better, because a tank is a lot more stable to shoot it from. A mining laser? Again, easily fit on a vehicle, especially a vehicle that's not stupid tall so needs giant tunnels to crawl through to actually use said laser for mining. Missiles? Again, easily to put on a truck or a tank or literally just
fire them out of the tank barrel. AA? Again, as easy on a tank as on any other platform, and the tank's going to provide a at least as stable firing platform then a 35~ ish tall rip off.
And using vehicles for all of those would be a lot easier, because we already have a vehicle to work with instead of needing to use two separate designs to get something that works at all before we put any weapons on it, and that's assuming we roll well and don't have to waste more actions on the Skell.
Neither is 'because it is hard' an acceptable reason, by itself, for doing something. The Skell needing to be broken up into multiple actions is more a reason not to do it then to do it.
That, and we really do need a heavy hitter. The Skell would make taking on emplacements fairly simple, as it's not something a regular gun can deal with.
You're either using 'guns' to mean 'small arms fire' which is always going to be of super questionable use verses vehicle scale stuff, or you're somehow assuming the Skell is not going to be a 30-40 foot tall target for whatever anti-vehicle weapons the emplacement has. Which it will be.
Either way, again, we already have a base tank design, and it's going to be a hell of a lot simpler to actually put a gun on it for a heavy hitter then to do the Skell, hope we roll well enough we don't need more rolls to make it actually work, and then we're going to have to use even more rolls to actually make weapons for it. Or, you know, we could do just one design action to put a proper big gun on the STAR.
I know which looks more effective to me...
7 is Poor Performance.. Can't expect it to stand up to the competition, but it's functional. ... We have no competition in that area, and it's meant to be a prototype in the first place. Buggy Mess wuld give us a buggy mess. But it still kinda works. And gives us a viable prototype. We can just sort it out when designing a weapons loadout, or use a revision to fix the issues.
I think the difficulty at the highest is 60% of it working, 40% that it fails. That is on a -4 modifier.
8 or 9 (15%): Below Average. You might find this kind of quality in a Red Apple or Giant Tiger store. Maybe even Walmart, on a bad day. Honestly, it's not bad but you could do better.
10 to 12 (28%): Average. Pretty much what you asked for.
13 or 14 (15%): Above Average. It's better than what you were looking for, but not by much.
It helps that average is actually 6 numbers out of 20. Another 6 for any result above that. Though the actually result on a -4 is 50/50, a coin flip. We do have MIP however, and the universal sockets. As such, -2 is more likely. 12/20
This is based on a single die though. The mix of two die actually would change the numbers slightly. So I think the average numbers would be a bit higher.
We can actually check the odds fairly easily by using AnyDice and looking up the probabilities.
Which I did to get a breakdown of the probabilities of 2d10-4, as per your guessed difficulty level (there's no effing way we're getting only Very Difficult when we do our first mecha and also try to cram in stuff like shapeshifting into it, at most we'll have -3 and a -4 is a lot more likely if it's not a -5). As we can see, this means the average roll becomes a 7 and the probability table shifts to center on it. Those are not good probabilities. Note that the stated probabilities in the posted roll table in core are without modifiers... modifying things. The second you slap a -4 onto stuff that table does not give accurate probabilities any more.
Point is, we have 4 designs and 4 revisions left. The Skell is meant to be the tank, and meant to last for a long time to come. So a chance to grab something that the competetion simply isn't going to have an answer to. Note I also have an idea for a shield module for them, which would effectively remove traditional missiles/RPGs from being threats. The Skell's size lends itself to being a good base to carry them.
...I am unsure why you think people would be unable to respond to the giant walking target you want to design, but, um, no, they will be able to have an answer to the Skell, whether it be their own robo or tanks or just air strikes, and no, we aren't going to be able to just ignore normal missiles/RPGS with a single design, that's not how arms races work, they're just going to design shield piercing rockets if it comes down to it.
And having 8 actions left is not a reason we should waste half of them on something when we have a huge amount other stuff to do.
Anyway you did make a good point on the resource thing, so shifting my vote off the smelter for now.
Base Light Skell: (1) TricMagic
Do the Base Light Skell Project on it's own: (1) TricMagic(IF RNGsus)
Split the Base Light Skell Project into two Designs, the Skell-Frame Engineering Team, and the NTS UP Team: (1) TricMagic
Electric Smelter: (0)
Historical Rifle Study Program: (1) Happerry
STAR-Earthmover: (1) Happerry
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Topic: Absolutely Absurd Abductee Arms Race: SDRB Thread (Turn 4 Revision Phase) (Read 7328 times)