Been a while since I was on here.
re: Combat Song, I like the idea of calling it Battle Hymn, or even Fight Scene Music. Dunno why, but Combat Song just seemed a little too simple.
One of the comments to this post on GHRPG.com is that there could be two separate sets of talents. Talents are a very limited commodity, and making many classic builds of character take new, extra talents will limit options familiar to players. I second the idea of having two types of talents.
I'll really miss Athletics and Concentration. They were signature GearHead, and there was always a sense of absolute glee when I would push a character to the limit long enough (walking, flying, fighting) to have the skill advance. I regularly spam the Search function while playing GearHead in order to bring down my MP, and run half a map to bring down my AP, precisely because I don't want to dilute my character's potential by putting points into these skills but would rather have them increase organically. Each time the skills level independently, it's like a big sort of victory.
I don't mind the merging of Martial Arts and weapons in any scale of combat. This build always required a Talent anyway. Will anything else change in this regard? I'm nervous about change, but I can accept it.
Flirtation: I never did use this skill much. Always relied on Conversation instead. Will there still be a Bishy talent to use with the Flirtation talent?
I should create a character to really explore Flirtation disproportionately from a reasonable Conversation talent.
I'm gonna miss EW.
You know what? I think I know what bothers me about this simplification and elimination.
The game Missionforce: Cyberstorm, by Dynamix, was pretty simple. Click to move, move so far then stop once you don't want to use more energy, aim guns, fire at enemy, fire at enemy, fire at enemy. End turn. If the to-hit % was lower than you like, you might choose not to fire your weapons, and may even retreat to try again later.
Beneath this, it was ridiculously complicated.
. Your accuracy had distinctly different falloff ranges per type of weapon, probably per atmosphere of planet
. Your base accuracy was determined by a pilot whose performance you may or may not have temporarily increased through drugs, which themselves diminish every turn.
. The targeting reticle on the bottom left of the screen denoted in pale, square outlines any obstacles between your enemy and your unit. These would be exacerbated if your vehicle crouched before firing.
. Terrain, type of armor, type of leg systems, type of power plant and the skill of the pilot all worked together to determine how efficiently any single unit could cross the terrain.
. Pilotting skill, also easy to improve via the same drugs, also counted against being hit; therefore, targetting an enemy who was an excellent pilot yielded a lower hit rate. This also diminished if your pilot was heavily poisoned (usually because of drugs!) or had low stability (either because of damage or drugs.) I never had a unit with high stability and low HP, so I don't know if HP damage to the pilot would qualify.
. Moving efficiency and firing energy each were also influenced by damage to your legs, leg movement systems, and reactor.
Hit resolution didn't end at targetting.
. Armor didn't work equally well against all weapons, and this wasn't just a rock-paper-scissors ordeal. Some armors specifically worked better in front than in back; "Assault" armor, as the game described it.
. Ballistics had different effects as compared to energy, particle, electron flux whip, plasma or Advanced Warfare equipment. Don't get me started on missiles. I still don't know how they worked.
. Hit locations could be very tight as in the case of a large-bore single shot cannon or laser, very distributed as in the case of splash damage, or very tight and repeated as in the case of a rapid-fire laser or ballistic weapon. Armor tended to be best against any weapon which fired bursts, since a burst was distributed across more armor.
. Armor staged down depending on how it was hit, protecting less and protecting fewer components.
. Your mech's facing related very directly to the likelihood that any individual component could be hit. See above and below.
. This also means that crouched mecha protected more vulnerable parts by sacrificing less vulnerable or important parts. These also tended to be parts with thicker armor, when that was relevant. (Some armors were very generalized, and others distributed damage better.)
Winning and losing was also complicated.
. Your unit could die by the pilot losing cohesion and melting away.
. Your unit could die by losing a leg. You only ever had two.
. Your unit could die by losing the reactor.
. Your unit could die if the pilot lost too many hit points, but stability (cohesion) was the bigger problem.
. Your unit could die over the course of a couple of turns if you lost life support. On some planets, death without life support was instantaneous; on some planets, the life support wasn't even relevant because it was verdant and healthy.
. Your unit could die by losing sufficient HP to the main chassis.
. Death by the loss of a single system was more likely if your enemy was using a weapon which dealt a single, thick blow as opposed to firing bursts or using a lot of splash damage. Some weapons which fired single shots, however, still distributed damage loosely.
Anything on the unit could be damaged. Weapons lose efficiency, accuracy and/or damage; movement systems lose efficiency (sometimes down to being unable to move at all, but still standing); life support could be damaged (see above); batteries could be damaged, leaving you every turn with only what your reactor could save or at least putting a damper on how much of your leftover energy was stored every round.
I'm not really doing this justice. What I'm trying to say is, the game was dead simple to play and a bitch to understand.
I like that about Cyberstorm. It wasn't needlessly complicated, but it rewarded knowledge and understanding. Very little in that game was truly random, and even what was random could be mitigated.
GearHead has a bit of that flavor. Recovery of stat points has much to do with numbers and die rolls which the player never even sees; skills are levelled under the hood without intervention by the player; and death may come through the head, the arm, or even the shield, because death happens.
Losing that complexity in favor of simpler mechanics just bothers me.
