So, I final little update before I totally leave for new year's hiatus.
Scale: Each component has a scale. I don't now quite what end the scale is based at yet, but the scale is a representation of the size of the individual frame chunk (and thus the module that it can load. Our mostly likely starting point (because it makes everything nice powers of 2 and allows very fine control) we can start with a block size of 1.5 inches, consider this to be scale 0. That in mind, consider the following progression,
Scale 0: 1.5"
Scale 1: 3"
Scale 2: 6"
Scale 3: 1'
Scale 4: 2'
Scale 5: 4'
Scale 6: 8'
Scale 7: 16'
Scale 8: 32'
Scale 9: 64'
Scale 10: 128'
A jaeger, using Piecewise's original diagram, is built on scale level of 8. This means that each component is, roughly, 32 feet tall, 32 feet wide, and 32 feet deep. (Yes, Jaegers are not built in minecraft blocks, just bear with me.) The total height of the original diagram was 6, which gives a total eight of 192, the actual G.D. was 260 feet tall, so we're ~2 height units off, but she was a leggy girl, and we can sort of use the imaginoscope to say that the interior volume of the blocks remains constant, and the blocks we're using are a bit thinner and a bit taller than the reference scale. We're in the right ballpark of scale.
Now, the reason for using this absurd system of scale is so that we can represent other things. Many things. All the things. Consider a cat. Google tells me that, on average, a cat is roughly 9 inches tall and 12-18 inches from tip of nose to dock of tail. Thus we can represent a cat using a scale level of 1. It'll have a head, roughly three body sockets (front shoulders, core, potentially another core, and then hips), and four legs that are 2 units each. Now, the tail can then be represented as one or more units of scale 0, to represent its additional fineness of structure.
You might be thinking at this point that I've gone a little off the deep end here, but the point of this system is that I can unify damage across everything from cats, to infantry, to fighter jets, to jaegers, to super kaiju on a scale never before seen. I can just make a module called 'claw' and depending on the size of the module it could be a rat claw (s0), a cat claw (s1), a wolverine claw (s2), a cheetah claw (s3) [Not the best example since they have stubby claws], a tiger claw (s4), and because there's really nothing on earth that has claws that's a scale level larger than a tiger, we'll jump straight up to kaiju claws (s8). Conversion is simple. All we need is a reference scale. The reference scale is the one we use to conceptualize how a module should behave on a scale that we can comprehend. For that purpose, we're going to use S3 as our reference scale. Why? Because the same layout that makes the basic mech serves equally well to make a person at that scale, which makes it a lot easier to ballpark hp, damage, and all those other wonderful things. To convert, we can multiply most of the key attributes (like damage dealt, hp, armor,etc) by one of two factors. If we're scaling up (making a Kaiju claw) we multiply the attributes by (2(Snew-Sref))3, if we're scaling down, we use 1/(2(Sref-Snew))3. We're using the cube here because our transform is three dimensional, and that creates some rather incredible alterations.
Let's consider a s3 biological body segment that has 50 hp, and a claw module with a damage of 15-35. These numbers are complete ass-pulls, but they'll serve for the example. A cat size body segment (s1) would convert to having an HP of ~78dHp, and so, across all segments, the cat would have a total HP of of about 6.25 (or 625 dHp), and its claws would deal 23-55 dHp of damage. Thus, attacking with all claws, a cat could deal approximately 0.92-2.2 damage (92-220 dHp) per turn of damage. This is a good set of numbers. A cat can conceivably deal damage to a human. Fifty cats could conceivably kill a human. However, a human (if they hit) could easily cripple cat with even a basic punch or kick.
Now, let's look at the kaiju scale version (s8). The Kaiju body segment would have an hp of 1.6384 MHp (1638.4 kHp), and a single swipe of its claws would deal 491.520-1146.880 kHp of damage. That's building destroying damage scale. That's the kind of scale that laughs at the antics of mortals, at the sight which mankind is subject to the same feeling of panic which is aroused by natural cataclysms, those devastating upheavals of the Earth, against which wisdom and strength alike are of no avail. That is the scale of destruction that generates the terror experienced wherever the established order of things is upset, when security ceases to exist, when all that was previously protected by the laws of man and nature is suddenly placed at the mercy of brutal, unreasoning force.*
*VNV: Chosen
Ahem.
Anyway. Scale also plays into how easy something is to hit. A man with a pistol is going to have a devil of a time shooting a specific part of a cat, and a difficult time shooting a cat in general, but it really shouldn't be possible for him to do that much missing if he's within a reasonable range of the 200' tall kaiju. Of course, super-large creatures, like Kaiju, get map area attacks that deal damage to all units that are substantially smaller and occupy a designated tile (or tiles). They don't have to turn people to fine red mist one at a time, or go through the hassle of trying to hit a specific person. They just rend the area and bury their foes beneath the rubble.
Essentially, the system of scale is designed so that a full battle can be run simultaneously. Infantry, tanks, planes, jaegers, improbable japanese airships, all fighting eldrazi spawn, hydralisks, shoggoths, eldritch shamblers, and enormous kaiju. It would work for a bunch of different systems, so I'm fiddling with the idea of modular stats.
Other Things: Well, I had more planned to write, but I'm pretty much out of time. Basically, complexity is another bound for mechs, and is basically a representation of how many modules can be controlled by the ai/pilot/brain, and can be extended by secondary ai clusters, proto-brains, extra pilots (either in sequence of in drift), and the like. Basically, it was an add-on with scale that discourages building systems via linking up large numbers of redundant small modules instead of just going with a single larger module. Power-flow is a bit more nuanced.
Bah, I might write more later. Suffice to say, system won't be up for a while but it will be cool when it is.
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Topic: Roller's Block (RTD Brainstorming Thread) (HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY) (Derm is 5k) (Read 744130 times)