ajackson

Re: 6e Characteristics

You are comparing defenses' date=' which remain after each attack, with stun, which is lost every attack.[/quote']

No, I'm not, and I'm a bit unclear how you think that might be true. I'm assuming a specific mix of attacks and determining average survivability.

Which is better to make you make it through a significant battle, DEF or stun? Let's assume that in a significant battle, a hero is hit by 5 agent attacks vs. DEF and by 3 superpowered attacks versus DEF.

If he only has 20 stun, that's not going to be the case; one superpowered attack vs def will put him below zero and two will take him out.

So 1 DEF saves 5.5 stun in a typical significant battle.

It's actually likely to be more on the order of 2 stun, either because you get hit by attacks that don't go vs def, or because you go down too soon. I didn't say that stun was an amazing deal, but it's not atrocious.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

That could apply about almost any controversial change though. You never know what will "break the bank" so to speak.

The key thing is to recognize that a topic has become sensitive.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered

So' date=' basically, stealth in space isn't about hiding your ship from detection, but hiding it from identification.[/quote']

Well, yes and no. It's not that hard to determine distances (you need parallax detection, probably requiring two ships at a separation of some kilometers, but that's not that hard to accomplish), at which point it's no longer good enough to get yourself lost in the volume of all the objects floating around out there, you have to get lost in the volume of objects out there that are in the area of interest. If you only care about objects within, say, a tenth of an AU of you, unless you're in a region of particularly cluttered space, something the size of a ship will stand out. Overall, it's pretty practical to hide as long as you don't go anywhere near anything of interest and you don't do anything, but, well, this fact doesn't have a lot of military application.

Imagine your surprise when that 18th magnitude object your ship's scanners identified as the heat signature of a small asteroid with a 14-hour rotation period just opened fire on you.

First of all, 18th magnitude is actually pretty bright and would likely be tracked. Second, well, an 18th magnitude object, unless incredibly small, is still probably upwards of a million kilometers away, making it rather unlikely to be able to 'open fire'.

Re: Particle Beam

Couldn't you accelerate charged particles and neutralize them on the way out?

Yes, but that's a neutral atom beam, not a neutron beam.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

As I've said I intend too. It's not the idea of 6th edition that bugs me it some of the attitude that's been displayed over it.

A thing you might consider, however: a significant portion of the reason for the 'snark' you perceive is that incessant complaining about a change is also pretty irritating to those people who like the change. If you want this thread to be more polite I suggest not discussing figured characteristics at all, positive or negative.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

And Steve confirmed that Unified Power could be used on CHAR in direct response to my question' date=' so what conclusion would I have jumped to?[/quote']

The obvious conclusion is that, well, you can make a package deal containing stats. Which you can do without unified power, too.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

You'd still have to buy them up independently which requires an larger amount of points to spent to get the same character and a an additional step I don't currently need for every character as it stands.

It is highly unlikely that Unified Power will change those facts.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Though there maybe more to this Limitation that makes it function more like Fig chars that we won't see until the book is released.

Given that the limitation was originally described as the replacement for ECs, and that Steve has never mentioned it as a replacement for Figured Cha, I doubt it. The closest equivalent to figured Cha would be package deals, such as:

10: Str +5, PD +1, Rec +1, Stun +2

15: Con +5, ED +1, Rec +1, End +10, Stun +5 (assumes x1 Con, x0.5 END)

Re: Can't start a thread on the 6E Forum?

I understand that the decison to go to 6th edition was heavily influenced by the MMO.

Supposedly they were already discussing it (privately) before the MMO option came up, but the MMO certainly influenced the decision making process.

Re: EGO Attack

IOW' date=' it's balanced if you don't let people use all of its advantages.[/quote']

Yes (I wasn't actually disagreeing that ego attack is problematic). Incidentally, I don't actually see much genre evidence (at least in the supers genre) for ego attack normally having unlimited range -- what you usually see is either people using it at the same range as any other attack power, or using astral projection and their astral projection attacks from the same range as any other attack power. You do occasionally see it used at other ranges, but that doesn't seem to be a normal combat usage, suggesting that it's less effective used in that way (i.e. they have a multipower with and extended range/indirect ability).

Re: How much should strength cost?

Have to? Where does it state that?

Stats in a multipower automatically have no figured, and stats aren't normally permitted in ECs or VPPs.

Re: Particle Beam

Or maybe that should be NND?

Against anything with radiation shielding, it's just damage.

Re: 6e Characteristics

Hm. On the cost of Stun, let's make the assumption that, out of every 100 attacks in a typical game, you will be hit by a total of:

30: 21 stun vs PD (agents, misc damage such as knockback)

20: 21 stun vs ED (agents)

20: 42 stun vs PD

15: 42 stun vs ED

5: 21 stun vs Mental

5: 21 stun vs Power

5: 21 stun NND

At 0 defense, average damage per attack is 28.35; +1 PD gives -0.5, +1 ED gives -0.35. At 21 defense, average damage per attack is down to 10.5, +1 PD/ED is down to -0.2/0.15 per hit, and a typical character can withstand 2 hits. If we want to increase toughness by 50%, we can either reduce average damage to 7 (-3.5 damage, which by above logic can be done with +10 PD and +10 ED, and is probably about as high as a typical GM will let you buy your defenses in a 60 active game) or add 10 stun (or add resistance to specials, but that's more expensive). +10 stun is the cheapest option by quite a bit there.

Overall, while I doubt you'll see that many characters with 50+ stun, stun in the 30-40 range will be worth the cost for many characters.

Re: 6e Characteristics

I'm inclined to agree that the primaries should now cost 1 point each. PRE' date=' INT and DEX will now add to skill rolls and have a secondary ability (PRE attacks; PER rolls; Combat order). It would seem reasonable to price skill levels at 3 points since they lack the second ability.[/quote']

I'm hoping for 4 point skill levels, actually. Take the current 8/5/3/2 cost levels and change them to 5/4/3/2 (10 point levels can remain at 10; I've seen them abused plenty).

Re: EGO Attack

On PCs, ego attack is generally balanced if you ignore its special range. If you actually let people use ego attack through walls, or from low orbit with telescopic vision, it's broken (other powers can do similar things, but at least you have to buy special power advantages to make it possible, and it's pretty obvious what you're doing).

Re: 6e Characteristics

One thing I see' date=' characteristics are now much more expensive (effectively).[/quote']

Depends on the characteristic, and on whether cost has changed (I'm expecting all the primaries to be x1). Int and Pre are unchanged, so no more or less expensive than they used to be. Str is more expensive, but was pretty much too good before. Ditto for Dex, and at x1 it's still better than 5 point Dex levels (because it adds Initiative). Con at x1 is a reduction, but again, probably too good before (does it really make sense to have Con 33 energy projectors?). Bod at x1 would be an improvement. Ego at x1 would be better for non-mentalists. Pre and Int are unchanged from 5e.

Re: Particle Beam

Okay, an electron beam weapon (charged particle beam) is only useful in atmosphere, and I've typically called it a penetrating RKA where LS(radiation) blocks the penetrating effect. A linked NND does body also works. A neutral ion beam is only useful in space and in its most obvious application is just an NND does body vs LS(Radiation), possibly with some more complex effects so it kills you over a period of hours to days rather than instantly, and generally area effect. If the beam is focused to a tight beam (hard to do without magitech) it functions basically the same way as the electron beam weapon.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered

Superconductors would have non-zero losses due to environmental effects, though the time scale would be very long. In any case, the real issue is that, if you put energy into a device, it has to come out somewhere. This is often in the form of waste heat, but might not be if the device has some other discernible output (for example, most of the energy put into a radar comes out as radio waves).

Re: 6e Characteristics

Does not compute. Can you give me an example' date=' I don't understand what you're saying.[/quote']

Fundamentally, to hit a human being with an attack, you need to be able to control where your attack goes within a couple of inches, and you need to be able to do so faster than your opponent can get out of the way. The first is typically trivial, the second is very difficult. Dex is mostly about the first of those things.

Re: 6e Characteristics

Reaction time ≠ accuracy.

Sure, but OCV != Accuracy. It's perfectly possible to hit 100% at any reasonable combat range with perfectly mundane levels of accuracy -- as long as you have the reaction time to apply your accuracy.

Re: 6e Characteristics

If reaction time has a bearing on accuracy, then precise control of

one's own movements - whether it's called grace, coordination, or some

other name - practically DEFINES accuracy.

Um...if we're talking combat accuracy then no, it doesn't. Not even close. Something that can move at 0.1m/s with submicron precision (typical of various industrial equipment) has no meaningful combat accuracy. Something that is fast and precise, but you have to queue your commands two seconds before they go off, also has very poor combat accuracy.

I agree that it's nonsensical that Dex, stripped of CV, determines initiative (assuming it does in 6e), but as long as you have adequate precision (and the standard for adequate are pretty darn generous) CV is primarily an issue of speed and reaction time.

Re: Space Warfare III – 'Warships' in Space?

The problem with the drone concept in my mind is that it is fairly easy to ruin the communication spectrum.

In space, not really.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered

The current state-of-the-art solar cell arrays on the International Space Station are about 14.5% efficient. This means (in Earth orbit) every square meter of solar cell produces abotu 198 watts of electricity' date=' and 1167 watts of waste heat.[/quote']

Somewhat less, actually; solar cells aren't black, so it might be producing something like 1000W of waste heat and 167W of reflected light.

Re: How to Build: Resistance to broken bones...

Or just raise Body.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered

So no amount of insulation / heat recycling could let you have heated interiors but still mask your heat signature?

Depends how much you want to mask it. There's no way you can over the long term reduce your heat signature below the biological heat output of your crew (on the order of 100W per person) but that's mostly irrelevant in real applications -- for non-accelerating vehicles, reflected signature generally exceeds heat signature anyway.