Battlemech Weapons to Hero

[shadowcat1313]

Heres some rough ideas for converting battletech weapons to hero

 

havent done anything with dealing with heat on these yet

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

Whoops... I am getting really good at missends

[ghost-angel]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I've been making notes to start this kind of conversion for a home campaign .. I was thinking of altering the END rules for heat issues, utilizing END Reserves and such .. but no real details worked out yet.

 

As for these weapons..

 

on the LRM-5, what's the indirect for? Not sure about that.

 

Other than that they look workable... But I really can't give accurate information until I know what the armor level of the mechs is that you have in mind, otherwise the damages look kind of arbitrary.

 

But, I haven't worked up any kind of stats yet, so who am I to complain

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I can not download that file . Got it on PDF of Word ???

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I posted the same file in text form on the Star Hero fandom site, and forgot to post the text file.

 

the damage figures are arbitrary, there converted from data I found in an old issue of Battletechnology and the old Starhero Playtest draft.

 

which gives the following chart

Small Laser: 10mgw

Medium Laser: 30mgw

Large Laser: 70mgw

 

the SRM is a 60mm warhead

the LRM is a 200mm warhead

 

the missile warhead data came from one of the tech readouts, and the old mech blueprint set

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

the LRM racks can be fired indirectly if you have a spotter

thats covered in several versions of the rules

 

the SRM warhead is a 6kg AP warhead

the LRM warhead is a 120kg HE warhead

 

these both assume standard SRM and LRM launchers

[ghost-angel]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

ok, that's something to go from.. I see how the idirect works now..

 

they look pretty good in that case.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

as far as the warhead damage, I got the weight figures from my copy of Striker.. the old traveller minatures rules set, then used the chart from the starhero playtest to figure damage, Striker gives a 6kg weight for the 6cm warhead, and 120kg for the 200mm warhead. thats assuming standard warheads and no guidance

for Streak Warheads, I would call them a homing warhead and add 1kg to the weight, but not for damage

 

now for NARC pods, that would be a bit different

 

 

its not even remotely perfect, but it does give a sense of scale, and I can point folks to where I am getting the data from

 

I would just pull it out of a hat like a rabbit, but the cat keeps chasing the rabbit back in

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I don't agree with the weights for the warheads. How come the SRM does twice as much damage as the LRM if it packs so much less explosive?

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I did a straight conversion by weight, not by Battletech damage

although the SRM is going to do more damage with a direct hit than the frag damage from the HE warheads on the LRMs

along with the fact the SRM is an AP warhead

 

but again, thats why I posted this stuff... to get ideas

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I don't agree with the weights for the warheads. How come the SRM does twice as much damage as the LRM if it packs so much less explosive?

 

In whichever edition of Battletech I've got, SRMs did 2 points per hit, while LRMs did 1 point per hit. I think the difference is that an LRM devotes more of its space to propellant, thus a longer range, while an SRM devotes more of its space to explosive, thus a shorter range but a harder hit.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

Yeah ... having pulled out some of my old Battletech stuff ... the LRMs did less damage, I think the idea being they sacraficed damage for the range. Most meachs that had LRMs were considered Artillery Mechs and used against PBI anyway (at least, as I remember it .. been 10 years since I've played .. maybe that's just how we used LRMs).

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

ok, heres another idea, what about revising the weapon stats to match something resembling BT by using standard effect?

that would just leave figuring out how to buy armor

 

we could go 3 pts of def per ton of armor? or is that too much?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

Standardizing effects sounds like a good idea.. don't know if +3DEF for ton of armor is too much or to little though.

 

Assuming 1 Ton of armor provides +3 DEF:

7 tons of armor completely blocks a Small Laser at that level. Assuming we stick to a SmL doing 6 1/2D6, standard effect is 19Bdy

 

The problem with standard effect and armor is that smaller mechs that only mount smaller weapons will never do damage to larger mechs that carry large amounts of armor.

 

rolling for damage means that 7 Tons of armor provides 21 DEF by itself, a small laser still has a chance of getting some damage through, but not often. Against mechs carrying 10 Tons of armor a SmL means nearly nothing to them even using normal damage.

 

Looks like it might be a good level, but i'd recommend against Standard Effect. If Standard Effect were used then it'd have to be lowered to 1 Ton = +2 Def just so smaller mechs have some kind of chance.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I tried a revised version of the weapons using standard damage to try and come close to BT

heres what I came up with

[Zeropoint]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

A couple of notes here:

 

Regarding the armor, if you're being true to the original game, it's all ablative armor. That way, any weapon has the potential to bring down any mech, if you can shoot it enough.

 

Second, if you regard the computer games as a source, the missiles can be fired indirectly without a spotter by locking onto the target, then firing the missles up or to the side. Being homing missles, they would then arc around to the target. I liked using this technique to take out stationary targets from behind cover. I've also heard that you can sometimes get missles to overshoot a target and strike it from behind like this.

 

Zeropoint

[ghost-angel]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

There's a problem with Ablative..

 

under standard rules it aquires an activation roll, which means the armor may fail entirely at some point - which may work, but I've never liked that idea. Under the optional rules for ablative the defenses only reduce when Bdy gets through them which leaves us in the same place as before.

 

as for the computer game .. I've never played it so I don't know anything about it.

[Zeropoint]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

Actually, now that you mention it, Battletech armor might be best represented as extra BODY for the unit in question, giving them no actual Armor at all!

 

Zeropoint

[ghost-angel]

Re: Battlemech Weapons to Hero

 

I was actually going simply sidestep the whole issue by not simulating Bettletech Armor as it played in B-tech, but make sure armor levels and weapon levels came across and then used Hero's system for determining damage.

 

I was also considering using Hit Locations and each Ton of armor has to specify the location(s) it covers, but then the DEF value for each Ton would have to be increased if we keep with the damage values listed in files Shadowcat1313 posted. at +7 DEF/Ton you would need a minimum of 2 Tons in any given location, though I would say that the 2 DEF provided by the vehicle itself counts in all locations.

 

I'll have to go crunch numbers and post results.