In designing MechaStellar VER11 we wanted to make a few Quality of Life improvements, both for readability, usability, and overall gameplay flow. Click here to see the MechaStellar VER11 roadmap.
We’ve used the extra space to increase font size and make profiles a little bigger and easier to read. We’ve included mech armories on the profile page so you can quickly swap out weapons for the intended machines, and even Elite pilots, quickly inserting Norris Packard into a Gouf Custom. Of the dozens of OYW war variants we’ve made those simplier to take a basic profile and swap a weapon to represent the variant.
The genesis of weapon triggers and the expansion of armor saves into weapon saves meant some reorganization was needed on the basic MechaStellar profile. During this time it also gave us some time to implement the updated Elite pilot system which provides passive benefits to a unit like improving the TNs to Hit, Defend or Morale.
These upgrades were in lieu of the previous VER pilot traits like Hot Blooded or Renowned Pilot or Headhunter which saved some considerable space. Rest assured these traits will continue to exist in some form or another, returning as other pilot upgrades or bonus objectives.
Speaking of Bonus Objectives, these were formerly optional rules in VER10 but now they’re integrated into the core rules and on the mech profile. Certain famous units will have built in bonus objectives like “Gundam Rising”, “Operation Meteor”, or “Gundam Fight, Ready, Go!”. These bonus objectives are a powerful way to earn VP besides just destroying your opponent. In a SRW style game, rather than drown yourself in objectives, instead you only choose one Bonus Objective to achieve each battle. The full list of bonus objectives can be found at the end of the MechaStellar core rules document beneath the Vs. Mode header.
While we continue to update Mech profiles to VER11, we’re also going to update the Co-op rules and mission packs. We’ve simplified the design math extensively so you’ll notice that almost all Mechs will be in 50pt increments. This makes it far easier to army build, and it means you’ll have a lot of flexibility in the co-op campaigns to bring whatever low cost 50pts mech you want.
Although VER11 has made a lot of things easier and simplified a lot of design math, unfortunately one area that has remained complicated has been weapons. While in the previous versions, weapons were independent of mech’s inherent characteristics like Frame, Performance or Combat Role (Sniper, Battler, Raid, etc.) which instead provided bonus Hits or Defense, because VER11 has switched to a “dice roll” only system those characteristics now affect a weapons dice.
That said, we’ve simplified and consolidated a number of the Combat Roles to make the rules for Gundam Build Fighters easy. We’ve also included at the end of each section for Gundam’s Federation vs Zeon an armory list with many weapons having an easy 50pt price tag to swap in or out, or to add a bonus weapon while still making army building easy. There are also simple instructions on how to remove and swap weapons with a simple formula to add dice based on the units Frame, Performance and Combat Role. If it looks daunting at first, we promise it’s quite easy after you do it once or twice.
MechaStellar 