@Jerry:
I will group weapons that are likely being fired together (see the reason later in my explainations). I will however
not group any different weapons (i.e. Light Laser and an Autocannon/5) together.
My reasoning: Assuming I am (and most other players) getting used to the stats quickly, I normally won't need to check my stats-sheets to know how many dice are rolled for, say, a Medium Laser. But: I don't want to learn the stats for a Medium Laser fired single are totally different from a vehicle that does fire two of them at once. Because: I rather like to remeber "hey, its so and so many for a Medium Laser" and then just double the amount (up to a maximum of 10 due to FirePower cap) if a "group" of two is fired on the same target. It's so much easier to remember.
I am trying to make this rules conversion set KISS (keep it simple, stupid).
That's why I'd like to know from you, if the approach of making Autocannons modern tank main guns' equivalents is
good or
bad. I am for example also a FoF player, who utilizes M1 Abrams tanks. The stats would be easy to remember for me - and it would give me an idea of what a Mech can pull off in a fight without having to study a ton of stats first.
My next thought goes back to the idea of making MECHs gigantic. I only did so in the first place, because the regular damage charts (light, medium, heavy) require casualty rolls too often for a vehicle
that only has a crew of 1 Pilot. (almost all charts show a chance to destroy the target of ~50%)
But here comes a new problem. Gigantic vehicle's damage chart means I need to overpower Mechs' guns to even scratch paint of each other in a round of fire. Now they are totally overpowered, if they face "normal" vehicles like a medium hover tank.
So I'd like to go back to design level and say a Mech is a Light, Medium, Heavy or Gigantic vehicle, based upon its weight class. KISS - in TW, Mechs are vehicles in the same weight class, as they are per their rules in classic battletech.
This requires me to "group" weapons into "main gun(s)" and "secondary gun(s)" and "crew MG(s)". A Mech may therefore fire one main gun and one secondary gun in an activation. (if it has more main guns or secondary guns, you will have to choose. The rest of them cannot fire in this activation due to
that going to overheat the Mech - KISS principle stikes once again and it also brings in heat-management from classic BT, without doing the math every time I pull a trigger! Mechs with MGs always can fire these in addition as MGs do not produce much heat)
What needs the only special rules, is Close Combat between vehicles that can do more than ram each other. bi-pedal machines of war can kick, drop-kick, jump-kick and stomp around. We really need to find a way allowing large robots, mechs etc. to club each other with something or "wrestle" with their arms. Again keeping those rules as simple as possible has to be the goal of all efforts..
Let me introduce a quick example sheet for reference, using a 60t Rifleman Mech to show you, how I put my ideas into practice:
Look at the stats.
1. The Rifleman is a "heavy" Mech. It would have D12 armor values, but I reduced them to D10, because the Rifleman is described to be armored weak.
2. There are "Main Gun" and "Secondary Gun" lists. There also is one for MGs but as the Rifleman doesn't have any it simply states "none".
2.1 I split the Heavy Lasers into one being "main gun" and one being "secondary gun". This allows the Rifleman still to fire both (one "main" and one "secondary") at one target in one activation, but automaticly limits him to only fire the heavy lasers during that round (
heat build-up limitation).
2.2 I also split the Autocannon/5 for the same reason. The rifleman can fire both AC/5 onto one or at two different targets in one activation. Again if he does so, these are the only guns he can utilize that round due to automatic heat-build up limits.
2.3 He may also use a combo of one Heavy Laser and one Autocannon if he wants to (remember, one main and one secondary gun can be fired during an activation)
2.4 The Medium Lasers will always fire at the same target (they are next to each other mounted in the torso, left + right) - that's why I made both of them one "main gun". You may add an AC/5
or a Heavy Laser from secondary guns to the mix, the way I made the stats card
3. The Rifleman is an air defense mech. Its special rules are in the appropriate section of the card.
4. I made it "advanced conventional armor" AND "laser resistant" due to being a heavy mech. Medium would have only "advanced conventional armor", Light Mechs would have no advantages. Super-heavys will include "energy resistant". It might be controversial to make the mech "poorly armored" first only to add advanced armor plating, but while the Mech is weak (for a "heavy mech") it still remains a heavy mech!
5. Life saver to make the pilot survive longer in case of a second hit on a damaged part (which would mean casualty check).
Can you guys now see how much thought goes through my mind about this.
.
). Depending on the "Critical Hit" die (goes from D6 over D8 to D10) the results will cause instantly heavy damage or slowly build up penalties that will cost you TQ, FP or RT dice due to the vehicle getting harder to control or simply because it has taken too much of a beating.)
