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Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

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Sat, 2010-07-31 06:57

Slith

Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

I've been sitting on these rules for awhile, kinda forgot about them mostly. Anyways, figured I'd share them with you guys. The intention with these rules was to make combat and weapons a little bit more interesting. Some of the big changes include: - Altering the range modifier from a universal 0\-10\-20\-30 to specific numbers depending on what sight system you use. - Including the caliber of weapons [I'm iffy on this one, but I ended up doing it mostly because I felt it added some more character to them.] - New gear [Aforementioned sight systems, and an enhanced imaging upgrade for the sights] - Completely revamped weapon stats The biggest changes to the weapons were done to the Sniper Rifle and Machinegun. The Sniper Rifle itself isn't in there [I should probably add some stats for it...] but a Designated Marksman Rifle and Anti-material rifle are present. The Anti-material rifle is extremely powerful, completely puncturing through battle-armor exoskeletons. [That's why it's anti-material] The DMR is more like your typical sniper rifle, though with reduced range. The Machinegun functions more or less like an assault rifle on mild steroids - a little bit more range, a little bit more penetration, a lot a bit more ammo. I'd like to know what people think of the rules. Does everything still mesh up well? Are the weapons too powerful, too weak? Are the rules too convoluted? [If so, suggestions for streamlining them, please] Does it all make sense, or does it seem very arbitrary? Even better is if someone could playtest an encounter or something with these rules, see how they work in-game. http://www.firewall-darkcast.com/wiki/alternative-combat-rules-and-weapo...

Sun, 2010-08-01 10:19

Slith

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

I guess I should mention why I'm trying to "fix what ain't broke". First of all, the weapons in EP are very similar to each other. There's almost zero benefit to a pistol over an SMG, an SMG over a machinegun, and a machinegun over a sniper rifle. In fact, before the errata, there was almost no reason to use anything except sniper rifles. What I've attempted to do, is give the player a reason to use a specific weapon for a specific mission. You wouldn't want to go charging around inside a building with a 20mm rifle and a long-range scope, for example. Which was a problem that I found with the sniper rifle. Because not only could you do that, you could do that and be better in CQB than someone who brought a more appropriate SMG or assault rifle. [Albeit, the errata fixed this issue partly by removing full auto and burst fire from the sniper] Likewise machineguns were pretty much completely superfluous to assault rifles due to their extremely small magazine sizes in the standard rules. The AR had better armor penetration and the benefit of the semi-auto fire mode while having nearly the same magazine capacity. You couldn't even reliably suppress an enemy with the machinegun for much longer than the AR could. So the general purpose I've put behind the weapons more closely matches their real world use. Pistols are backup weapons, SMG's and shotguns are for close quarters, assault rifles and machineguns are standard military weapons, DMR's are accurate support fire, and 20mm anti-material rifles are for killing synths, battle armor, and IFV's.

Mon, 2010-08-02 22:30

Slith

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

Doing some more work on this, does anyone have an idea of the average armor people tend to put on their characters? I'm not talking amounts listed in the NPC file, etc. Rather actual characters that have been made by people. Edit: I'm also interested in knowing what the maximum armor a character can have before encountering encumbering penalties is. Near as I've been able to tell, a synthmorph can reach 48/40 handily with full synth combat armor and carrying stuff like a helmet, etc.

Mon, 2010-08-02 22:37

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

Slith wrote:
Doing some more work on this, does anyone have an idea of the average armor people tend to put on their characters? I'm not talking amounts listed in the NPC file, etc. Rather actual characters that have been made by people. Edit: I'm also interested in knowing what the maximum armor a character can have before encountering encumbering penalties is. Near as I've been able to tell, a synthmorph can reach 48/40 handily with full synth combat armor and carrying stuff like a helmet, etc.

On the max armour, technically there is no upper limit. A person can buy however many extra arms they wish and simply carry about that many shields. However yes, I believe that 50ish/40 is the highest you can get without shield stacks. On how much armour my guys tend to have, it varies. If its a BioMorph I am looking at about 15/15, while a Synth will be closer to 30/30. But that is when they are fully equipped, something that we play Stations as not really allowing all the time (Security looks at you funny when you are better equipped for combat than they are)

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Mon, 2010-08-02 22:58

Slith

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

Well, I'm thinking of doing up some alternative armor rules to go with these alternative weapon rules. So far I've got a baseline of 15 kinetic for full combat armor that would be worn by typical soldiers, with a character durability of 40. [Most combat morphs seem to fall between 35 and 50 durability] With the stats I've got on the assault rifle, that would give 5 hit kills* on average, or 2-3 hits with burst fire, or 1-2 hits with full auto. *not really kills, just incapacitation

Tue, 2010-08-03 02:17

Zoombie

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

I really like your sights idea, though I'd like to point out that the stats given for guns - at least, in my mind - were just "baseline" guns that the GM could modify to fit various makes and models. A DA-4000 Assault Rifle could exchange ammo capacity for stopping power, increasing its damage and AP, while an M-e462 could have a larger clip, but fire at a slower...speed or...something, and...the stats are different. I love the sights, and I love your guns as additions to the baseline set of weapons. Also, not sure about the pen over distance...may or may not use it, depending on how much combat is in my game.

Tue, 2010-08-03 23:27

Slith

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

It's just a "if you're really serious about being realistic" sort of thing. You'd probably have to modify how you write down the ranges for each weapon to something like: Range: 0-100\300\500\800 Sight Modifier: 0\+10\-10\-30 Penetration: -8\-6\-4\0 Or perhaps: Range [Penetration]: 0-100 [-8] \ 300 [-6] \ 500 [-4] \ 800 [0] Sight Modifier: 0\+10\-10\-30 So that it's easier to read on your character sheet. But the extra complication is why I have it as an optional rule. Edit: decided to remove the penetration over distance rule. Keeps the page smaller, and seems a bit too rules heavy.

Wed, 2010-08-04 00:53

Slith

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

Changed the names of the weapons to be more generic, which better fits them being baseline equipment. Added TITAN AI equipment Thinking of adding some rules for weapon customization. Sketchup: Each weapon has something like 5 slots or perhaps only 3, any one upgrade takes up a slot. This keeps players from just dumping every upgrade on a weapon willy nilly. Now they'll have to actually think about what they're putting on their gun, and whether or not it's appropriate. I'm thinking of applying this same concept to armor. Also thinking of adding new rules for energy weapons

Wed, 2010-08-11 21:44

Slith

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

some new additions/rule replacements: Called Shots A successful called shot reduces the target's armor by half [rounded down], instead of completely nullifying it. Exception: Melee attacks completely bypass armor with a successful called shot. Suppression Suppressed targets suffer a -20 on all actions; Two free attacks against up to three targets not behind cover or not immediately moving behind cover and within 3 meters of each other. Firing Modes Semi-Automatic (SA): Two separate attacks may be made with one complex action but both suffer a -10 penalty to hit; Expends 1 round per attack Burst-Fire (BF): +10 bonus to hit; Two separate attacks may be made with one complex action but both suffer a -10 penalty to hit; -20 Suppression modifier against up to one target; Expends 3 rounds per attack Full Automatic (FA): +10 bonus to hit; Suppresses all targets in a cone with a diameter of 30 meters; Expends 20 rounds per attack

Mon, 2010-08-30 18:47

#10

BadNews

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

Hi, I'm currently doing a Handout for EP Weapons (more complete than the one allready posted on this forum, actually -no offense meaned). Browsing through the pages of EP, I found numerous inconsistancies (Base Blast Radius, anyone?), plus I' m a huge fan of the Borderland FPS and his "Zillion gun generator". Soas soon as I have finish the Layout of my handout, I'll play with your stuff and I'll keep you informed. Tchuss.

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Mon, 2010-08-30 23:16

#11

Rhyx

Re: Alternative Combat Rules and Weapon Stats

Slith, So far I really like what you've done, and it does exactly as advertised: Keeps the weapons from being same old same old. I'm a big fan of Shadowrun/Cyberpunk which are widely known as the hardware store catalog of weapon modification. However there is one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb:

Quote:
Called Shots A successful called shot reduces the target's armor by half [rounded down], instead of completely nullifying it. Exception: Melee attacks completely bypass armor with a successful called shot.

As I see it it would all depend on the type of protection and headgear the morph would have wouldn't it? I just don't see why a Sylph morph walking around without a helmet would get the benefits of half of his torso armor? At least for head shots I would personally go for none if the head is bare, half if the helmet is open faced and full armor if the helmet is full faced. For hitting any other armor weak spots (neck guard, articulations, vector trust vents) I would agree with the half armor. Also you might want to take a look at armor optimization as a cool alternative. Give the armor a special bonus (like maybe * 2 or * 1.5) for specialized damage but no armor value against all others. Like a vest made to withstand rail weaponry or a plasma proof tiles on a breastplate, or shock absorbent material against melee weapons and blows, and reactive armor against explosive warheads. That way the players (and enemies) could benefit from knowing what will be used against him and it would encourage players to switch weapons up a little.

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