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[Radio Controlled]

Yeaaah, I've really just been lurking this game, didn't know it was such a hassle to do a turn. Ah well, better luck next time!

[syvarris]

Agh, I didn't realize you'd posted in-thread!

Uh.  Give me mechanics.  Give me your files.  I want your system!  All of it!

...Can't really think of any fluff questions right now.  Everything I wanted to ask has pretty much already been answered.

[Devastator]

..my notes are in no way functional for anyone else, but I'll give you it in dribs and drabs.

Here's, for instance, the kaiju generation method, for the December attack:

Spoiler: Kaiju Generator (click to show/hide)

Strength 16, picks 5.

Power
Armour/Toughness
Toughness/Armour
Regeneration
Empty Slot

LR Attack LR Rapid-Fire
LR Attack MR, SE
LR Attack LR,
LR Attack Double

Area Attack  Str Aura
Area Attack  Flat, MR
Area Attack  Str, weak
Force Field

This is also the kaiju character sheet.  A kaiju is generated with a certain number of extra picks depending on its overall strength, which is it's hitpoints, speed, attack power, base armour toughness, etcetera.  These are done by flat-rolling a 1dX, once for each pick on the kaiju.

Going through what these mean from the top down.. Power is speed/attack power, and gives a +2 bonus to the kaiju's melee attacks and movement speed per pick that lands here.

Armour/Toughness and Toughness/Armour represent bonuses to the damage soak roll and bonus HP.  These were seperate to begin with, but technological advancement had them combine with each other.  One pick is worth +2 defense and +3 bonus HP.

Regeneration was the +1 HP/Turn rippling skin ability.

That Empty Slot is from a building upgrade.  It was currently empty, (and any bonus roll that picked that would be rerolled), but it could have taken a critical hit, or could have had an extra non-weapon ability added to that slot next month.

The next two categories are for weapons.  Most of these are classes of several possible weapons, not just one weapon.  The first LR just means long ranged attacks, as opposed to the area ones.

LR Attack LR Rapid-Fire is a couple weapons that have long range capabilities, suitable for taking out jets.  This category had one weapon, but it was formed because those jets kept showing up and it seemed likely for them to make anti-jet weapons more capable.  It had one gatling-type weapon, and a multi-target beam type effect like the dragonbreath weapon, with no damage over time, more range, and bonus accuracy.

LR MR, SE means 'medium ranged, special effect' weapons.  This included that retired acid weapon, and contained the dragonbreath weapon that was recently encountered.  There were a couple of other ones, but they were all ones that had extra effects other than pure damage, and long but not extreme range.

LR // LR contained that goddamn missile launcher, along with that sphere explosive weapon that was encountered elsewhere.  It had a third weapon with basically multi-hit warheads but pretty low damage which never showed itself.  Would have been very weak against armoured vehicles.

LR Double is a couple of double weapons, that got two attacks at less power.  Laser eyes, beam arms, the twin forceblades on that monkey, and a double upgraded varient of the high armour-piercing blades that were in an early battle.

Area attacks are all ones intended for mass casulties.  "Str Aura" is like the blizzard weapon that hit everything around the kaiju.  Str means its power would be strength-based, and weakend as the kaiju did.

Flat means 'flat damage', which meant no damage roll.  MR meant medium ranged, which many of your units could outrange, but there were a couple options here.. mostly stuff that did sizeable AoE damage, but not that much damage at one go.

Str based AoE conventional weapons were the last category on this kaiju.  The 'weak' indicator meant these weapons should do relatively low damage, although they could be long range, big AoE, etc.  There are only two options in this group, one of which is basically a flat 1-3 damage weapon that could hit everything on the battlefield, and one that did a bit more damage but was short ranged.  I think it came up with the giant snake.

The last one was the regenerating force-field thingy, that could take a damage per turn, healing every turn, without risking critical hits.

There were a couple of other categories.  The opposing force could change one of these around per month, moving something out or putting something in.  When I didn't fudge it and make extra changes.

If a category was rolled twice, I could either pick two weapons from that category, pick one weapon but improve it, (make it double-shot, add more damage, range, etc), or its ability applied twice, (more armour or HP, force fields, regeneration, etc.)

That's probably enough for now.

[IronyOwl]

This is also interesting for me, thanks.

[Devastator]

Well, if you wanted numbers.. here's a combat round.

Spoiler: players shooting demo (click to show/hide)

Target is a kaiju similar to the giant snake.

15 Str.

+1 Toughness
+1 Force Field.

So.. 15+3 HP, 1/1 forcefield.

To throw Stirk a bone, lets deploy one of his exoskeleton nuclear-armed infantry, along with the brand new Jaeger with the Kaiju Dragonfire Cannon.

Jaeger/Dragonfire Cannon
Power [C], AP [E], DoT 1d6, AP [D]

ADD Exoskeleton Infantry with Nukes.
Power [A], AP [C].
Rocket Launchers
Power [F], AP [F].

Most stats for players are letter-grade based instead of raw numbers.

Jaeger shoots first.
First up, damage dealt is based on the raw Power score, which rolls one die according to a table..

- power = 0.  F power = 1.  E power = 1d3.  D power = 1d5.  C power = 1d7.  B power = 1d9.  A power = 1d11+1  S power = 1d15+2.

..but there's a staging roll first, mostly so that very low damage units have some chance of getting lucky with cumulative fire.  1d6, on a 1, use the next letter grade down.  On a 6, use the next letter grade up for power.

It's a 6, so the dragonfire cannon is pretty square, and will roll 1d9 for base damage.  It comes up with an 8, scoring a really square hit.

The kaiju then has to defend against an 8 strength hit.  It rolls 1dStrength, to soak up raw damage.  That's 15, so..

1d15 -> 1.

Welp, kaiju gonna take a blow.  It takes 7 damage, soaking only one..
..but Stirk's Jaeger has some armour piercing.  That's a wholly different roll.

Essentially, the kaiju now has to succeed a second time to see if the soaked damage manages to penetrate.  The difficulty of the roll is based on the unit's AP stat.  The dragonfire cannon has a E, so..

AP works by making the kaiju beat a series of target numbers.  For every failed roll, one point of blocked damage gets through anyway.  AP doesn't help much with the scoring of massive hits, but it makes getting some damage through much more reliable.  The Kaiju always rolls 1d Strength, although Strength+2 is used if the kaiju has extra armour.

if AP is F, there's 1 roll with a TN of 1.
For E, 1 roll with a TN of 1.
D, 1 roll with TN 2.
C, 2 rolls with TN 2.
B, 2 rolls with TN 3.
A, 3 rolls with TN 4.
S, 4 rolls with TN 6.

Start from the bottom and work your way up.  For the E, 1d15 gives.. 3, so still soaked.  Then the F, 1d15 gives.. 10, so the one point of damage is indeed soaked.  Do note that only damage blocked can be made to go through with AP.. a hit dealing a base damage of one can't do more than one damage, no matter how much AP the attacker has.

The Kaiju then takes 8 damage.  Forcefield is hit first, then bonus HP, then Strength is reduced.  That leaves the kaiju at 11/15 HP.  The Kaiju's new strength is now considered to be 11, not 15, although if it could regenerate, strength would be restored along with HP.  Damage was done, so normally I'd roll to see if a weapon or system was knocked out, but I'll omit that for this demonstration.

The nuclear armed infantry go next.  Staging roll.. is a 1, so it only rolls as if it was a B.  1d9.. 7, so 7 base damage.
Kaiju tries to soak that, 1d11 (new strength), gives.. 10.  So it tanks the radioactive fire.

..or does it?  that has significant AP, after all..
for C.. 1d11 -> 11.  1d11 -> 11.
for D.. 1d11 -> 2, that's one through.
for E.. 1d11 -> 8
for F.. 1d11 -> 8.

So not quite unscathed, one damage goes through, droppping the kaiju to 10 strength, with a chance to knock something out.

..They also have conventional rocket launchers, although those are much weaker.  Staging roll.. 2, so no change.  F power is 1 damage, which is always soaked (1d10 will always be at least one), so AP matters..

for F.. 1d10 -> 3.
And the conventional weapons -tink-, for no damage.

The fire-based damage over time effect will occur in the next round, not the current one.  It's basically a free attack with 1d6 power and an AP rating of D, lasting for the next turn.

[syvarris]

...Could've sworn I posted.

Well.  That explains why -/F and F/- were so similar.  F damage has to get a grade up, then the Kaiju needs to roll about minimum for soaking damage.  F AP also needs to get a grade up, then have the Kaiju roll minimum to get the damage through.  It also surprises me that damage and AP are almost totally unrelated... and that damage upgrades in a very linear fashion.  It strikes me that AP seems superior to damage, because scoring even 1 damage makes it easier to score more hits.  Did we mostly deal damage through AP?  I recall you saying we virtually never did more than a couple points of damage at most.

...It's also amusing that AP becomes worthless against a Kaiju with extra armor, which is the opposite of what I'd expect.


I'm very interested in how R&D works.  For mad scientists and orgs both.  It seemed to me like there was a development cost for every grade gained, possibly multiplied by the stat?  Payload was easier than damage, IIRC.   And then every month you'd get some amount of points.

Oh!  I really want to know what the heck was up with exotic materials!

[Devastator]

AP did most of the damage, but power did a few heavy hits, and when it did heavy damage, it mattered.  Plus you can have both.. if you had like a F//C weapon, it would basically never do more than one damage, where a E or D power would have a much better chance of getting one or two free damage, and then adding a couple more points through AP on top of that.

AP isn't worthless against extra armour.  It made the kaiju roll d(strength+2), not d(strength)+2 for the armour roll.

I'll go into R&D later, but here's the general idea..

Every project had a total research cost, measured in months.  The project was then adjusted according to several modifiers.. such as if an organization had a Mad Science Machine, which added a flat 2/3 multiplier to the time it took.  There was also a 'big project' adjustment, where if the project took 4 or more months, it only took 3/4 the usual time.  Already completed projects didn't add to the time necessary.. the project only took the amount of time required by the improvements.

In general, letter grades cost a certain number of months, for each letter grade, for each size category.  The bigger the item was, the less time it took to develop a certain letter grade.  Special abilities usually cost 2, 4, or 6 months depending on how valuable I decided each one was.  You could also have special abilities such as (ammo short) which added negative months.

Mad Scientist projects progressed by 1d6+(mad science machines) months each iteration.  1s gave zero, not one.  They also had an extra stat called 'corruption' on their projects which determined how likely they were to escape.  Ones and sixes added 3 points, 2-4 added 1, and 5s added zero.

Exotic Materials added +2 letter grades to any project, independant of time taken.  IE, you'd develop a C power weapon, and it'd end up as an A power weapon with exotic materials.  Expensive, but it could have been useful.

[Stirk]

AP did most of the damage, but power did a few heavy hits, and when it did heavy damage, it mattered.  Plus you can have both.. if you had like a F//C weapon, it would basically never do more than one damage, where a E or D power would have a much better chance of getting one or two free damage, and then adding a couple more points through AP on top of that.

AP isn't worthless against extra armour.  It made the kaiju roll d(strength+2), not d(strength)+2 for the armour roll.

I'll go into R&D later, but here's the general idea..

Every project had a total research cost, measured in months.  The project was then adjusted according to several modifiers.. such as if an organization had a Mad Science Machine, which added a flat 2/3 multiplier to the time it took.  There was also a 'big project' adjustment, where if the project took 4 or more months, it only took 3/4 the usual time.  Already completed projects didn't add to the time necessary.. the project only took the amount of time required by the improvements.

In general, letter grades cost a certain number of months, for each letter grade, for each size category.  The bigger the item was, the less time it took to develop a certain letter grade.  Special abilities usually cost 2, 4, or 6 months depending on how valuable I decided each one was.  You could also have special abilities such as (ammo short) which added negative months.

Mad Scientist projects progressed by 1d6+(mad science machines) months each iteration.  1s gave zero, not one.  They also had an extra stat called 'corruption' on their projects which determined how likely they were to escape.  Ones and sixes added 3 points, 2-4 added 1, and 5s added zero.

Exotic Materials added +2 letter grades to any project, independant of time taken.  IE, you'd develop a C power weapon, and it'd end up as an A power weapon with exotic materials.  Expensive, but it could have been useful.

How hard would the nukes hit with exotic materials?

[Devastator]

That would be S+1, which is 1d20+4 base damage.

[Devastator]

Okay.. next mechanic to cover is kaiju shooting.

Spoiler: Kaiju Shots. (click to show/hide)

There were two differences between kaiju shots and player shots.

Some weapons rolled damage like human weapons.  Other weapons had flat damage amounts, or amounts that varied due to the kaiju's strength stat.

The complicated part was how human units calculated HP and soaked damage.  In general, the table went like this..

- Durability, = 1 HP.  Technicals and transport helicopters.
F Durability, = 2 HP.  Artillery pieces, Combat Jets, unimproved MRLSs.
E Durability, = 3 HP.  Obsolete Tanks.
D Durability, = 5 HP.  Infantry Platoons, Modern Tanks.
C Durability, = 7 HP.  Coke Knights new forcefield on a tank, or an Infantry Platoon with the force-field generator.
B Durability, = 10 HP.
A Durability, = 14 HP.

Every unit had a slim chance of soaking one damage on durability, even without any armour.  A unit would roll 1dHP vs the incoming attack power, and if it exceeded the attack, one less damage was taken.  This was considered a reduction in damage taken and ignored Kaiju armour-piercing.

After that was armour.  Armour saves were rolled similarly to the kaiju's rolls against AP.  1d Damage was rolled against..

- Armour, = no rolls.  Technicals, Artillery Pieces, Infantry Platoons
F Armour, = 1 of 1.  Combat Jets, MRLSes.
E Armour, = 1 of 1.  Obsolete Tanks
D Armour, = 1 of 2.  Modern Tanks
C Armour, = 2 of 2.  Coke Knight's forcefield on a tank, or their Armoured MRLS project.  Dr. Unpleasant's Giant Kangaroo.
B Armour, = 2 of 3.
A Armour, = 3 of 4.
S Armour, = 4 of 6.

The roll for armour protection was 1d(Damage+1) against the armour saves, working up from the bottom.  Kaiju AP ignored X points of damage reduction through this method.  There were several other methods that were experimented with during the game, so this part was very much in flux.

Stomping.. well, stomping involves Speed and Range, so I'll go into Stomps after covering those.

[syvarris]

I don't follow the armor mechanic.  What does "1 of 1", or "2 of 3" mean?  One roll with target number 1, two rolls with target number 3?  Was damage only blocked if the Kaiju rolled equal or below the target number?  That's the only logical explanation I can think of, but it's vauge.

How much damage did Kaiju weapons do?  I'd love to see their arsenal.

Also, I still want to see more about how research works.  Like, enough so that I could roll research turns myself.  :v

[Devastator]

I don't follow the armor mechanic.  What does "1 of 1", or "2 of 3" mean?  One roll with target number 1, two rolls with target number 3?  Was damage only blocked if the Kaiju rolled equal or below the target number?

Yup.

How much damage did Kaiju weapons do?

The ones that rolled dice generally had B or greater power.  The ones that did fixed strength based damage usually did strength, or strength/2 damage.  Some of the auras did less, the longer range aura did only 1d5, for instance.  That one was survived several times.