Design Goals – Shields VER9.2

In this post we’ll discuss the change to Shields, Beam Sabers, Heat Hawks and Beam Rifles from the previous November draft. From our last post we talked a lot about trying to improve survivability for units without Shields as well as an improvement to Shields as well by changing their default ability from being strong against Machine Guns to being stronger against a variety of weapon types.

Unfortunately we made quite an oversight.

MechaStellar was originally a Gundam only game for over 5 years before we started adding in Super Robots and other real robot series. As you may have noticed many of the core rules are intended to emulate the lethality of Mobile Suit Gundam. Similarly, all of our unit balance begins with keeping the MS-06 Zaku II balanced against the RGM-79 GM and all other units progress from there.

That recent change to Shields was as follows:

• A Small Shield provides +1 Block to Shooting or Melee, and gives a bonus Block vs DMG up to 200 (Machine guns, some missiles, etc.)
  • This was the old profile for the regular Shield
• A Shield provides +1 Block to Shooting or Melee and gives a bonus Block vs DMG up to 300 (Heat Rays, Missile Pods, Grenades).
  • -1 Evade penalty compared to a small shield.
• A Great Shield provides +2 Blocks to Shooting or Melee and gives a bonus Block vs DMG up to 500 (Beam Cannons & Artillery Cannons and Melee weapons).
  • -1 Evade penalty compared to a Shield.

Any ideas what the major issue is here?

Well for one, our GM now gains zero benefit for using a regular Shield against a Zaku II. When that draft was written, the Heat Hawk was DMG 400 as was the Beam Rifle. So our humble GM who launches in waves against the Zakus and Gelgoogs of the Principality is actually at a disadvantage for using anything besides a Small Shield.

And so we wind up with situations like this.

So to fix this quickly we rebalanced all the melee weapons to have Beam Sabers, Heat Hawks and the majority of standard weapons be DMG 300, while Giant Hammers / Maces and the Blindside weapons (Iron Nail, Killer Stinger, etc.) remain at DMG 400. We also rebalanced beam rifles and beam carbines / heat rays to both be DMG 300 while having a different spread of attacks. As a bonus this puts Beam Rifles up to 4 Shots which should be a nice boost to Gundam players.

Here’s what it looks like with the changes.

Original

• Shield- Bonus Block vs PEN 0
• Effective against Machine Guns, Shotgun, Missile Pods, Micromissiles & Fire Support Missiles (PEN 0 until recently), Needle Missiles, Flamethrowers, [CC] Weapons

Previous Draft on Shields

• Shield – Bonus Block vs DMG up to 300.
• Effective against (Beam) Machine Guns, Beam Pistols, Bits / Funnels, Shot Guns, Missile Pods, Micromissiles, Needle Missiles, Fire Support Missiles, Grenades, Beam Boomerang, Heat Whip, Flame Throwers, [CC] Weapons
• Not helpful against Zaku IIs Heat Hawks or Gelgoog Beam Rifles compared to a Small Shield

Current Implementation on Shields (Beam Rifle, Saber and Heat Hawk down to DMG 300)

SMALL SHIELDS [S1] – DMG up to 200 includes

• Machine Gun, Shotgun
• Beam Machine Gun, Beam Pistol, Incoms / Bits / Funnels
• Micro Missiles, Needle Missiles, Fire Support Missiles
• Beam Boomerang, Heat Whip, Flamethrower

SHIELDS [S2] – DMG up to 300 includes

• As above plus
• Handguns, Rifles
• Beam Rifles, Heat Rays
• Missile Pod, Grenades
• Rocket Punch, Tomahawk Boomerang, Rocket Drill
• Beam Sabers, Heat Hawks, Blades, Scythes, Spears

Great Shields [S3] – DMG up to 500 includes

As above plus

• Railgun / Antiship Rifle, Artillery Cannon
• Beam Cannons
• Missile Salvo
• Iron Nail, Giant Hammer / Mace

Alright now we’re back in business. Time to send wave after wave of GMs at your enemy once more.