MechaStellar: Frame Stats In-Depth

While some previous posts have touched on stats and mechanics let’s devote this post to a more in-depth look with the latest and greatest.  It’s been another year in development and lots of fun playtesting so we’ve been sharpening our mechanics in the meantime.  Alright time for some stats.

As you recall from this post Frame Level controls the following:  Hull Points (HP), Equipment Slots (EQ), Output (Action Points), Armor Save (ARM Sv), and Sensors.  Let’s explore those.

Hull Points (HP)

As you may have guessed once you hit zero HP you turn into a beautiful explosion.  Hull Points are 200 HP per level, so most Level 1 (HP 200) and Level 2 suits (HP 400) will go down pretty quickly even from a single attack.  To give you a frame of reference here are some weapon damages.

Machine Gun: DMG 100.  Sidewinder Cannon: DMG 300.  Blaster: DMG 300.  Beam Rifle: DMG 400.  Giant Bazooka: DMG 500.

As you can see many weapon can destroy a suit in a single shot, that’s intentional.  Shows like Gundam and Macross are quite notable for showing overwhelming fire power destroying an enemy mobile suit, often in a quick burst of action.  Mechastallar aims to recreate that feel for Mobile Suits, whereas Titans are meant to be walking behemoths with barebones Evade.  We’ll cover Titan stats in a later post.

Equipment (EQ)

Aside from being used to equip more weapons can also be used to augment and improve your mech.  For example, reinforced Exoskeleton can be used for HP+100, Reinforced Armor can be used for +1 ARM Sv but it also comes with +1 WT which equates to -1 Move and Evade.  EQ is where you make your mech standout, but remember those slots go quite fast.  Let’s take a look at the Zaku II as an example.

Zaku II – Level 1 Frame, Level 2 Performance.  EQ Slots 5

EQ:  Machine Gun (2 Handed – 2 Slots), Hands-free Shield, Superheated Tomahawk, Reinforced Exoskeleton (HP+100).  There are our 5 slots.  Now we can always take a bonus piece of equipment for +2 WT, which our Zaku will use for a Panzer Faust rocket propelled grenade giving him some penetrating power to punch through enemy Armor.

Output (Action Points)

Output shows what your Mech is cable on any given turn.  High frame suits, representing a very powerful Mech are able to accomplish quite a bit on their turn.  This is the give and take between one very powerful unit and multiple weaker grunts that is a basic paradigm in any wargame.  For our example we’ll use a Level 4 Frame representing the Original RX78-2 Gundam, for one of his equipment slots we’ll choose powerful generator giving him +1 AP.

Gundam RX78-2 – Level 4 Frame.  Output: 9AP (8+1 AP)

Weapons:  Beam Rifle (3AP)  DMG 400 PEN 3.  Hyper Bazooka (2AP) DMG 500 PEN 2

Looking at the Gundam it can fire it’s beam rifle 3 times, or it’s Hyper Bazooka 4 times, depending on what you choose to equip him with prior to launching.  Both weapons are quite effective, the Beam Rifle will punch through most armor, while the Bazooka is excellent at destroying weaker grunt suits.

Armor Save (ARM Sv)

Coming up next we have Armor Save. This is your chance to make a saving throw to avoid turning into a beautiful explosion.  Anytime you have failed to evade an attack by either superior performance or pilot skill you need to make an Armor Save prior to taking damage.  If you pass your Armor save you take zero damage, if you fail then you take all of it and for low level suits that primarly means destruction.  To make an Arm Sv roll a d8, if you roll or exceed your Arm Sv you pass.  i.e. 7+ = Roll a 7 or better.

Armor Saves increase with Frame level, the formula is (8 – Frame LVL).  The humble Zaku II has an Arm Sv of 7+, while a LVL 4 Frame has an Arm Sv of 4+.  At Frame Level 4 you may select a special type of Indomitable, Assault or Heavy Arms making high level units more powerful.  For our Gundam Type we chose the special type of “Indomitable” which gives him +400 HP and +1 better ARM Sv.  At the end of the day we have this.

Zaku II – HP 200, Arm Sv 7+  Gundam – HP 1200, Arm Sv 3+

A weapons penetration makes your ARM Sv worse.  The Zaku starts with a 7+ a beam rifle would make his Arm Sv a 10+ and the Bazooka would make it 9+.  Either way the Zaku is out of luck since he only rolls a d8.  The Zaku’s shield gives him a d10 to use for Arm Sv but only for melee.

The invincible Gundam starts with a 3+ Armor Save, quite good on a d8.  He also has a Shield which lets him roll a d10 vs a d8, unless of course he’s shot in the back with a Blindside attack.  Now if a Gundam is hit by a Beam rifle the save goes from 3+ to 6+, if hit by a bazooka his save goes from 3+ to 5+.  Still quite manageable on a d8 (d10 from the front).  With 1200 Hit Points, even if it fails a Save it has enough hit points to weather 3 piercing shots of virtually any weapon.

We’ll talk point cost later, but for right now a Gundam is worth about 7x Zaku IIs, and if you get the chance to try it on table top the match is pretty close for both sides.  Just keep Gundam out of range of their superheated tomahawks.

Sensors

Sensors is a fun mechanic on the war game side.  Instead of restricting players to 1/2 the battlefield each we let you deploy pieces anywhere you want with one restriction, Sensors.  Sensors creates a bubble that your foe cannot deploy inside of. The idea is that if you popped up on sensors already, the enemy would have shot you already and the opening turn is meant to be when combat first initiates.

So if you have Sensors of let’s say 12″ your foe cannot deploy within 12″ of you in line of sight.  They may be closer as long as there is a building in the way.  This is very important for ambushing units, such as amphibious suits near water or super high movement suits that can deploy after the first turn and harass the enemy on an unguarded flank.

Lastly Sensors is used with indirect fire, whether it be solid shell cannons from a Guntank or a Missile Barrage from a titan, as long as the enemy is within Sensors range you can indirect fire without penalty.  Outside of sensors range all those attacks have a 50% miss chance.