New Ideas - Printable Version +- Forums (https://www.silent-death.mx/forum) +-- Forum: Silent-Death (https://www.silent-death.mx/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Night Brood 2.0 (https://www.silent-death.mx/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=18) +--- Thread: New Ideas (/showthread.php?tid=1369) |
New Ideas - Smurf - 08-12-2019 Now blessed with more bugs I will over the next few months paint and playtest. After a discussion with a friend who hated the DV+Pilot rule which has now gone, it has made me think about how to deal with the high cost of the bugs and having to pay for x pts on top for 'crew'. Skimming through Drydock II I noticed the Datasphere had been given crew of 10 and through damage get worse. Whirr clank, thinks, etc. Bugs have a 'crew' and the number of crew equals their pilot and gunnery skills. Ergo, killing or destroying weapons downgrades their effectiveness. Remember playtest remit was to get the bugs to swarm. I had floated that the 'Regen' rating could be used to add buffs to other bugs in forms of pluses to hit. What if we say the bug ships in range of the regen rating gives the Bugs bonuses not just to hit but also improves their pilot and gunnery ratings. A 4 group of bugs with a standard rating of 4, would lift their gunnery rating up to 7, the original bug from the help from its buddies and also gets a +3 to hit. Drawback: If the bugs has been screened and or is in Ink it cannot help other bugs and other bugs cannot help it. Note: The pilot does not fire a weapon and therefore the minimum skill will always be 2 for a weapon. Regen can be used x times = to its rating. Either DC x hits up to y times, or grow back ammo x times, grow back weapons, J pods, and drones etc in any mix that is not greater than the Regen Rating... Now to get to work on painting up some bugs. RE: New Ideas - Smurf - 08-13-2019 Another got me thinking. Bugs target aggression. So if a ship does not fire, lock on or anything but move then the bugs will ignore it. Problem, if all terran ships don't fire and sneak in close. The Bugs will attack the ship with the largest crew... terrans make bugs think fuzzy. RE: New Ideas - Smurf - 08-13-2019 And another idea to set the bugs apart: Mood of fleet: Frenzy, add plus 1 to hit but has to attack the closest foe Guile: add plus 1 to DV Fleet, add plus 1 to Drive Fortitude, add plus 1 to DR To issue orders there must be a Pilot of 10 to issue them. This can be done with the above mentioned boosts. If there is no Pilot of 10 then the swarm behave as they were last instructed. RE: New Ideas - Karpav1 - 08-15-2019 All terrific ideas Smurf. I had a looksie at our previous rules discussion in the Playtest Check Station thread as a refresher. Now that it's been given some time to age, looking back on it seems a bit clunky to read -probably due to the way I wrote it: rules writing isn't my specialty. It's a simple rule & easy to teach, I just would like to see it written out in an easy for a beginner format. That's the whole goal of the bugs revision- easy to understand & easy to implement without much recordkeeping or hassle. I'm thinking the core metal express dice system in elegance. I say this, but see how soon I deviate... There are many ways to reinvent bugs, but if swarming of grubs is one of their design goals- they should drop in points value to the cheap attrition fighter levels on an individual basis. In other words, they can be bought as a pack (of 2-4 what is typically on their display sheet) at a higher points value, but per ship, the price is low... example: four thistles cost about the cost of four crewed attrition fighters but are bought as a swarm of 4. With that accomplished, you can:
Further details on the rules presented above:
All in all, while I enjoy brainstorming thematic rules, they belong in a sort of Expert's Field Manual for slow-paced enthusiasts. If the hatchlings are too strong in current form, why can't a simple points adjustment handle it, or why can't they just remain a more powerful denizen of our fictional world? It's only an issue in a competitive setting, which Silent Death isn't currently that type of game. How many among us are fine with them being narratively a bit stronger and used in those types of narratively driven campaigns? I don't trouble to ask myself if the Dragon in our D&D campaign is balanced to the party per se. Sure that's the goal, but rarely does it mean anything- party composition & the types of players at your table throws it out the window. TL;DR- I'm opposed to implementing my own fanciful ideas. RE: New Ideas - Smurf - 08-16-2019 I was using the Regen counter as the range and activation. Regen 4 can: DC 4 boxes 4 times, fix a weapon, grown a ammo or jump pod extra. Anything but fix criticals. Regen can be damaged and therefore reduced. Using this 'Regen' indicator the bug can help buff 4 separate bugs within 4 hexes. Each buff add+1 to hit and moves their Gunner Skill up one. The Regen number means it can only be buffed x times too. Yes thes means a Monarch can be buffed 8 times for 2D8+D10+ 8 attacks... truly frightening or practically ignoring SR and ranges. If a bug has 3 'crew' it has a Pilot and Gunnery of 3, each buff adds +1 to this. Hence the swarm can buff each other to maybe a Pilot/Gunner of 7 with 3 or 4 buffs. The cost of the ships can remain the same (for now) but there are no crew costs I like the idea of the mood of the fleet and also if the terrans do not shoot the bugs go for the biggest (crewed) thing... it's a trap. This means the bugs can be in for a surprise with ML and Torp locks ons but that is really close to the bugs with all their buffs. Another idea has popped into my head is that Bugs with their quick regen may like to ram. RE: New Ideas - Smurf - 08-18-2019 I had a good chat with a mate who I spar with in Silent Death and he said 'meh' on the buffs because one was better than the other and one was really arse. Mood of fleet: Frenzy, add plus 1 to hit but has to attack the closest foe Guile: add plus 1 to DV (but cannot use Regen this turn) Fleet, add plus 1+D4 to Drive Fortitude, add plus 1 to DR, toying with the idea that it give a single point defence based on the Pilot rating. The question came up about robbing the bugs of first turn shooting because the terrans go quiet. The response was if they are that good, you don't want a bunch of ratty bugs within the fleet. Due to painting schedule and time we are looking to run a game in October and I will be also play testing that MLs have SR10, hopefully giving the bugs some chance from 5 packs, not so much against 10 packs. |