MechaStellar VER9 Design Goals

Today’s post we’ll explore some of the design goals that went into MechaStellar VER9.

VER 9 Core Rules Updates

The big impetus for the VER9 Update was the major change to how Super Titans would play. Previously they were limited by the Power stat which dictated what weapons they could power and use for the Round. While a fun system, it added a lot of additional bookkeeping and often made it difficult to run several Super Robots together, unless they were very simple and never had to juggle power consumption.

To that end we started experimenting with converting Super Titan’s over to a slot based system, instead of a power based system for their weapons, where once complete they would play the same as a Mobile Suit.

Along the way we got some playtest feedback asking for another type of unit, something in-between the current Mobile Suit and Super Titan types of Mecha. After some good discussion we found a way forward by creating a third type, the existing Super Titan stats (High HP, Low Evade) would be kept as “Super Heavy” which would include things like Giant Robo, Big O and the Jaegers from Pacific Rim, as well as any Kaiju. Meanwhile, Super Titans would become an in-between Type having more Evade than a Super Heavy and more HP than a MS.

In Summary

• MS – Lowest HP, Highest Evade
• Super Heavy – Highest HP, Lowest Evade
• Super Titan – Good overall HP & Evade

With that settled we also wanted to keep experimenting with the Power stat. It’s a staple in the Super Robot shows to increase the power to either the weapon or perhaps a specific body part like the arms, the legs, or the jets. I initially had the idea while watching an episode of Great Mazinger (I personally like to rewatch a show while prototyping new units to add to the roster) where Tetsuya cranked up the dial on the Breast Burner.

In some more grandiose shows like Getter Robo, GaoGaiGar, and Gurren Lagann the power can push towards the infinte and allow for insane feats like flying past the stratosphere, picking up a huge enemy, or hammering through a moon. We wanted the power stat to cover both of these concepts.

We also wanted it to be simple and easy to remember. A lot of our first drafts were scrapped and we eventually settled on a point for point upgrade system, spend 1 Power for +1 PEN, or +100 DMG, or +8″ Range. You could also spend it to gain +5″ Move on Full Throttle, or to throw a unit, even one larger than yourself.

Units like Getter Robo and others would have a unique trait that would allow them to gain more Power through the course of gameplay and to exceed conventional limits.

While working on the Super Heavy and Kaiju’s we also thought it would be fun to make their version of Power a bit different. Since these units often play by themselves we wanted those abilities to make you feel like a King of the Hill type of monster. Havoc, in lieu of Power, would increase your collateral damage, letting you have additional targets while you attack or making your crash through ability stronger when you burst through buildings and trample opponents. Likewise, it would also allow you to throw enemies, and as we found in playtesting it would be quite fun to make that a free action when the target you are throwing is much smaller than your gargantuan Kaiju.

From a Design perspective Power and Kaiju were nice when we want to build a unit with a higher points cost, but doesn’t necessarily have anything too unique to its name to give a trait to. When we work on other Kaiju in the future it will be really helpful to just have a flat out powerful unit without too many bells and whistles. And on the flip side not every unit will have this stat, such as many of the mechasaurus Kaiju from Getter Robo. Kikaiju from Mazinger, despite the name, are currently being treated as Super Titans due to their bestial like movements, but that may change in the future.

Speaking of Kaiju, the “Throw Terrain” shooting attack was added to the Core Rules to give these units something to do since many Kaiju (and several other units) don’t have shooting weapons. While not the strongest attack, it is quite useful when dealing with a horde of enemies surrounding you.

Lastly we revised the text around Engagement ranges again since we get a lot of questions about that. To keep things simple we set up two engagement ranges, one for small figures (<4″) and one for large figures (>6″). If you and your opponent are using figures in-between that size decide which range you will use before that match.

Since a lot of the most common figures are 4-6″ we wanted to let you have the option to select the range that felt right for your size. 3″ for us feels right for 4″ or 4.5″ models, but I can definitely see wanting a longer range engagement for say an HG Kit or a Gundam Universe figure.

Universal Skills

The Universal Skills section had two new additions. The first was Improvise which was retooled to be a reroll that still can be combined with Defense afterwards. We also let it reroll Melee ATK this time, to take into account situations where your 500pt Super Robot completely whiffs a melee attack.

The second skill is Seize the Day. This one has been in testing since VER7 it’s been very difficult trying to find a balance between too powerful, and too expensive of a Momentum cost. What we’ve found since we’ve released the SRW module and the Gundam Fight rules is that for 2v2 and 3v3 games it’s not uncommon for one side to get stacked with an excess amount of Momentum. In these cases, having a very expensive bonus activation skill works out perfectly and can turn the tide in your favor.

Likewise, if you are playing say Amuro in the Gundam vs a massive horde of Zaku’s and Dom’s, you will likely be flush with Momentum by Round 3 and looking for a way to spend it.

With a universal skill that allows for a bonus turn we had to update Decimator. While the old Commander Trait worked out fine in some circumstances, it worked very poorly when you were outnumbered but your opponent only brought 12 units for instance.

We’ve since updated it to make you very effective at destroying grunt units, and to be one of three options for lowering enemy Momentum. It also has some fun interactions with destroying units on the enemy turn so it combo’s well with Shooting Counterattack Skill, the Overwatch Command, and Melee in general.

Last but not least “Target Lock” was added to the Core Rules to give a benefit to units with higher than normal Sensors ranges. It’s a mild bonus, but the +1 ARM PEN will come in handy for a number of different units.

Mecha Unit Profiles

In the past Tier 2 Units (Performance 5+) would provide a bonus to the Power stat for Super Titans. Now that Power is very different and also has a different points cost that would no longer work. To keep things simple Super Robot’s now mirror Mobile Suits gaining a bonus to movement at Frame 5+. Super Heavy / Kaiju instead gain a large HP bonus.

Speaking of HP bonuses, we tweaked the bonus for very large units (Size 3+) of which they are few currently in the roster, but considerably more in the prototyping stage including Daitarn 3, Ideon, and Gunbuster to name a few. The HP Bonus and EQ Bonus has been increased to compensate for the Evade penalty these units have.

Similarly, we opted to have units with the “Slow and Laborious” trait have the option to increase their size by 1 if they so choose, just to represent the size stat is not solely based on height but also weight (or weighty-ness depending on how unusual the mecha’s official specs are).

The Megadeus from Big O and the Jaegers from Pacific Rim both took this option, while Zeruel from NGE did not, simply because we want to keep the Angel’s at a lower HP than most Kaiju. Likewise they also received a new “Weak point” trait that makes them more susceptible to high PEN weapons like a Progressive Knife.

Lastly, the units from G Gundam were converted to Super Robots to reflect how Imagawa’s machines (and pilots) are often larger than life. The Power stat is useful for improving your attacks and in Shining Gundam’s case, the bonus power is helpful for a longer Full Throttle charge before using Shining Finger.

Weapons

The big one here is Shields & Indirect Fire.

Indirect Fire was adjusted to cut down on mental math, removing the accuracy penalty to instead give the target the benefit of Cover. Tying into that, Remote Weapons had their wording revised that if you do decide to fire them as a free action it gives Blindside (ignores Shield & Cover) AND Indirect Fire, rather than an either or.

Currently Shields and Great Shields provide a bonus +1 Block or +2 Blocks against PEN 0 weapons. The intent behind this mechanic was always to let these shields be a bit better against weapons with high rate of fire such as machine guns, gatling guns, fire support missiles, etc. The only downside is that it does not have any effect against a beam machinegun.

While the current unit roster has only a few units using the beam machine gun profile (Hy-Gogg and Z’Gok E for instance) they become a lot more common with our drafts for Char’s Counter Attack, specifically the Geara Doga.

We’ve had a couple different iterations of alternate shield rules keyed off of # of shots but finally settled on one that’s easy to remember and doesn’t have any confusion when it comes to base shots vs total shots including rapid fire.

We thought about including this in VER 8 but since we had overhauled throwing weapons (and machine guns) a few times, we wanted to wait to see how the weapons worked for a few months before modifying shields.

New Shield rule will be +1 Block vs DMG<300 Weapons

With this Shields become more effective against the following weapons:

Beam Machine Guns, Beam Boomerang, and Heat Whip, It does however, no longer provide a bonus block vs [CC] weapons.

On a similar note the Focus action and traits for Practiced Professional / Seasoned Veteran and Headhunter now key off DMG<300 weapons, instead of PEN 0 Weapons. This way people with those traits still get a bonus shot when using a beam machine gun.

Lastly for weapons we’ve updated our design guidelines on weapons. Previously 3 Slots was the hard cap on all weapons (with the exception of Death Rays) now that Super Titans and Kaiju are on a Slot system instead of a Power requirement system, we raised the number of slots usably by the unit. Generally Frame 1-2 units are capped at 3 slots weapons, with Frame 3+ at 5 slot weapons.

That covers all the main highlights of the VER9 update, thank you all for reading.