Revision: Weapon Use Ratings

[Rayhawk]

Pesgores started a thread about a month ago about the Use ratings for custom weapons being screwed up. I've been thinking about it since then and, especially after taking into consideration the Use difficulty examples from chapter 4, decided that he's completely right. A multiplicative function for Use ratings is just the wrong way of doing things; it raises difficulty to supernatural level way too fast. I'm thinking of switching to an additive function instead, so that it's exactly as difficult to hit a size X target with a size X gun as it is to hit a minifig target with a minifig gun. Like so:

Close Combat Weapons / Shields

• old Use: 2 x Size
  new Use: 1 + Size

Ranged Weapons

• old Use: 3 x Size
  new Use: 2 + Size

Explosives are a little different because I want to make them miss by farther distances to offset the increases in blast radius. Effectively, every 1d10 added to the explosive damage means you can miss by an additional two inches and still do the same damage.

Explosives / Rockets

• old Use: 3 x or 4 x Size
  new Use: 3 x Size

Thoughts?

(Lastly, as long as I'm reviewing the Weapons table in chapter 7 anyway, I notice that shields have the same cost and stats as melee weapons, which is obviously wrong since they have fewer useful function. I'm going to correct the Cost to 1 x Size rather than 2 x Size, to better match the costs of minifig shields vs. melee weapons.)

[Dr. X]

Hmm.. that seems good, better than it was. The mutiplying of old was just... ick.

This isn't a huge change for me though because I have seperate stats for every structure weapon, and seperate ones for explosives too. (I use the Mk1, Mk2, etc. of old, but modified damage and UR)

[feuer_faust]

Hmm, simple change. I will have to test it out!

[Atomsk]

I like this revision. Right now I design vehicles with nothing but 2" guns, and they look kind of wierd. I'm all for big guns, and this is good incentive to use them.

[Blitzen]

This is a really good rule change. I actually avoided big weapons because of the cost, but now, I think I might use them in BrikWars.

[Tiny Tank Rannon]

This will make my mech mashes much more fun.

[zossima]

I like the idea of consistency between the bonus for target size and the penalty for weapon size, but what would happen if the bonus for target size was changed instead of the penalty for weapon size? Just a thought.

[Rayhawk]

This is a really good rule change. I actually avoided big weapons because of the cost, but now, I think I might use them in BrikWars.

I think that was my original intention, to keep players from overloading on the heavy stuff, but then later I added the size limits for how many weapons you could put on a creation, and that took care of it just as well.

[youaredoome0]

This is awesome.
By the way, what was the rule for explosion radius? I just used whatever the size was, since the LEGO world is scaled about 1:72, so a 1" blast radius for a 'nade gives about 12' "real size" diameter.

[Rayhawk]

All right, the good news is that I've uploaded the revised weapon stats. They can be found here. The bad news is that the PDF file is now obsolete and will need some kind of errata sheet.

This is awesome.
By the way, what was the rule for explosion radius? I just used whatever the size was, since the LEGO world is scaled about 1:72, so a 1" blast radius for a 'nade gives about 12' "real size" diameter.

(Is cursing allowed on these forums? I forget.) Aw shit!

The rules for minifig-sized 1d10 explosives are in Chapter 3, where the explosion radius is correctly listed at 2". But it looks like there's no info in chapter 7 about the radius for larger explosions, so I'll have to go back in and edit it again. Good thing I already had the file open anyway.

The rule for explosive radius is that they do full damage for the first two inches, minus one die of damage for every two inches after that, until you run out of dice.

[Tiny Tank Rannon]

I think this is great

only a 5 use rating for all my mechs size 3 guns, maybe they'll actually hit eachother now!

[Blitzen]

(Is cursing allowed on these forums? I forget.) Aw shit!

You've never expressly forbade it, but cursing seems to be avoided. Nevertheless, you can change the rules on a whim, so it doesn't really apply to you.

[Foggy]

Hmmm. I suppose the idea is easier to compute.

Before this I compensated larger use ratings for being "designed to hit larger things", so the size of the target was added to the Skill roll.

With this the compensation rule gets thrown out (who needs more rules anyway) and the price stays the same. I like this. So far, at least. >.>

Maybe the explosives have 3 + Size like the rest?

[Rayhawk]

All right, I've gone ahead and added a "Heavy Explosives" subsection to Chapter 7.3.

Explosion example to be added later when I'm back in the same city as my Lego supply; I want to show what a nice big explosion does to a castle wall with defenders on top.

[Dr. X]

For blast radius, I use XyX studs. For example an Mk1 missile has a radius of 5x5 studs, Mk2 is 7x7, Mk3 is 10x10, Mk4 is 12x12, and so on.

Also, I never bother with size limits and power sources. The entire structure only needs one power source, (even ridiculous ones are accepted, such as mouse powered battle blimps) and everything on it WORKs. To quote IVhorseman:

"if the weapon fits on, then damn it will work"