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what i liked & what can be improved of AToW, new Feb21 edit
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AlayneLeung
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PostPosted: 04-Jan-2015 16:50    Post subject: what i liked & what can be improved of AToW, new Feb21 edit Reply to topic Reply with quote

my likes about AToW : easy to comprehend and well structured yet flexible rules

my improvement recommendations for AToW: technology tables should've been more clear with the types of tech by having first letter or a well corresponding letter of technology legality, usage, etc. be used instead of A, B, C, D, E, F letters; like for example R for "Restricted", U for "uncommon", etc. Also include rules for Phantom Combat advanced trait.

to read edited part, see my most recent reply.
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[Last edited by AlayneLeung on 22-Feb-2015 14:51; edited 3 times in total]
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PostPosted: 04-Jan-2015 21:06    Post subject: Re: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

AlayneLeung wrote:
my likes about AToW : easy to comprehend and well structured yet flexible rules


In comparison to 3rd ed, very much so. BUT, AToW very much falls into the GURPs trap.... a rule for EVERYTHING. I love the system but it seems like it bogs down to easy.

Though that be said, I do love the combat system even with its complexities. Melee attacks FEEL like a melee exchange of blocks and parries combined with counter attacks. It just takes a bit for people to get used too.

wrote:
my improvement recommendations for AToW: technology tables should've been more clear with the types of tech by having first letter or a well corresponding letter of technology legality, usage, etc. be used instead of A, B, C, D, E, F letters; like for example R for "Restricted", U for "uncommon", etc. Also include rules for Phantom Combat advanced trait.


Yes, they could have made legality more intuitive by using U, M, L, C, R, and HR, and why they didn't i don't know. However, tech rating makes sense as A thru F as does Availability (with X).

Phantom Combat? Are you referring to the ability Morgan and Patrick Kell and Yorinaga Kurita use in the books? If so, I could guess why its not included: 1. TPTB are trying to ignore it ever occured do to the shift in story telling, 2. TPTB want it to be a rare and supernatural occurrence that is likely to never happen again, 3. including it as an option will find every mechwarrior this side of the periphery using it (think, dark elves as good guys in DnD), or 4. they plan forgot about it.
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AlayneLeung
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PostPosted: 09-Jan-2015 17:28    Post subject: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

Yeah i was referring to the ability Morgan and Patrick Kell and Yoringa Kurita use in the books. how about spending a number of XP equal to unit's Total BV to achieve having Phantom Combat ability for said unit? Like if a unit has a BV of 700, then to achieve having the Phantom Combat ability for said unit, she/he has to spend 700XP exclusively for having said ability to use for said unit.

edited part now added today: and i do like the ability to use many negative quirks to create an unstoppable huge military of many drone units. Clan personnel would never use negative unit design quirks since they want to use state of the art units. When the Clans renew their invasion, they will enter into a trap set by the Inner Sphere peoples and Periphery peoples. Laughing
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Emmy
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PostPosted: 11-Jan-2015 06:23    Post subject: Re: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

AlayneLeung wrote:
When the Clans renew their invasion, they will enter into a trap set by the Inner Sphere peoples and Periphery peoples. Laughing


That would require the IS and Periphery groups to get along for more then five seconds
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Sleeping Dragon
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PostPosted: 11-Jan-2015 17:45    Post subject: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

Actually difficult to maintain and nonstandard parts are very clan-like.
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AlayneLeung
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PostPosted: 11-Jan-2015 18:20    Post subject: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

Sleeping Dragon, why would difficult to maintain parts be very Clan-like? i mean, after watching the BT animated TV series and reading the novels and short stories, difficult to maintain would seem anything but Clan-like, and the Clans do detest the Bandit Dark Caste. Confused
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PostPosted: 12-Jan-2015 08:29    Post subject: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

If i had anything they need to improve, is make it easier to put a character together or simplify the way to put together. D&D 5th edition and Pathfinder does better job explaining it.

Points by is by far easier in the ATOW Companion, but again i've had people said they don't want deal with system because it just too all over the place and character creation is too much.

I've gotten to play it few years ago in short-lived campaign, it was good once we got past the character creation part.

Quick Start version of the game maybe better deal for character creation.
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Sleeping Dragon
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PostPosted: 13-Jan-2015 15:39    Post subject: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

It used to be that way as long as the clans were unified and had great toumans of omnimechs, but as soon as you start to fraction them, relocating to Innner Sphere, mixing technologies and so on the parts stop being interchangeable and some are downright hand-made. Add to the thing that many clans have thrown themselves into experimentation with high-end technologies, which they jealously guard against the others, along with qualified techs.

See the fluff for Night Gyr (experimental heat sinks etc.), Orion IIC (two different types of lasers incompatible with the chassis), whole circus around protomechs. It's not all sunshine anymore for clan techs.
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AlayneLeung
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PostPosted: 16-Jan-2015 17:31    Post subject: what i liked & what can be improved about A Time of War Reply to topic Reply with quote

i actually like the character creation system; i think it works perfectly except that there could be more skills and more traits and the vehicle trait rules could be improved as i've described above. while character creations consume time, these consumptions of time can be lessened by using HMWarrior after Rick Raisley sells copies of it.

about the vehicle trait, i would've liked a way to purchase other units such as LAMs, airships, JumpShips, monitors, WarShips, space stations, and others.

and about the wealth trait, i'm curious as to what happens when a player gets more than Wealth 10 or less than Wealth 1.
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AlayneLeung
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PostPosted: 14-Feb-2015 15:44    Post subject: food & water rules could be improved in AToW, edited Feb 21 Reply to topic Reply with quote

i'd like in AToW for there to be a requirement that the higher the thresholds BOD (body), higher the STR (muscular strength), and higher the RFL (reflexes), the more food & water he/she has to eat & drink to maintain these thresholds; because if say a character has 50,000 muscular STR points such as a super strong Clanner born in a gene tank, then she/he must have more food to eat and more water to drink so her/his muscles don't deteroriate and she/he must have a bigger and more supportive bed to sleep on and a bigger bedroom, bigger bathroom.

Feb 20 edit: also more food & water eaten & drank, the more time it takes to eat & drink that much more food & water.

Feb 21 edit: Vehicle Trait Points would be better configured as cost of them equals: 1 plus 10%*(Owns Vehicle plus Design Vehicle Trait Points plus 1 more trait point if using mixedtech if character is of Inner Sphere/Periphery), and minus 2 trait points only if vehicle is a drone (to account for penalties of +1 Piloting/Driving & +1 Gunnery), then multiplied by vehicle's BV. Current rules for owns vehicle trait and vehicle trait is out of balance when compared to wealth trait.
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PostPosted: 19-Sep-2015 21:15    Post subject: Re: food & water rules could be improved in AToW Reply to topic Reply with quote

wrote:
my likes about AToW : easy to comprehend and well structured yet flexible rules


agreed

wrote:
my improvement recommendations for AToW: technology tables should've been more clear with the types of tech by having first letter or a well corresponding letter of technology legality, usage, etc. be used instead of A, B, C, D, E, F letters; like for example R for "Restricted", U for "uncommon", etc. Also include rules for Phantom Combat advanced trait.


agreed

wrote:
In comparison to 3rd ed, very much so. BUT, AToW very much falls into the GURPs trap.... a rule for EVERYTHING. I love the system but it seems like it bogs down to easy.


agreed about a rule for everything, AToW is role playing

wrote:
Though that be said, I do love the combat system even with its complexities. Melee attacks FEEL like a melee exchange of blocks and parries combined with counter attacks. It just takes a bit for people to get used too.


agreed

wrote:
Yeah i was referring to the ability Morgan and Patrick Kell and Yoringa Kurita use in the books. how about spending a number of XP equal to unit's Total BV to achieve having Phantom Combat ability for said unit? Like if a unit has a BV of 600, then to achieve having the Phantom Combat ability for said unit, she/he has to spend 600XP exclusively for having said ability to use for said unit.


agreed, and i recommend that character has to spend at least 6 minutes per ton of unit as another requirement for Phantom Combat ability to affect said unit (fractional accounting applies, and i'm not sure about this "6 minutes per ton" rule of mine given how that a 2.5Mton spacecraft can require huge amount of time spent)

wrote:
i'd like in AToW for there to be a requirement that the higher the thresholds BOD (body), higher the STR (muscular strength), and higher the RFL (reflexes), the more food & water he/she has to eat & drink to maintain these thresholds; because if say a character has 50,000 muscular STR points such as a super strong Clanner born in a gene tank, then she/he must have more food to eat and more water to drink so her/his muscles don't deteroriate and she/he must have a bigger and more supportive bed to sleep on and a bigger bedroom, bigger bathroom.


agreed, and bigger bedrooms & bigger bathrooms must be more massive than smaller bedrooms/bathrooms

wrote:
also more food & water eaten & drank, the more time it takes to eat & drink that much more food & water.


"more food & water eaten & drank"? lol, i think you meant "more food eaten & more water drank", but agreed

wrote:
Vehicle Trait Points would be better configured as cost of them equals: 1 plus 10%*(Owns Vehicle plus Design Vehicle Trait Points plus 1 more trait point if using mixedtech if character is of Inner Sphere/Periphery), and minus 2 trait points only if vehicle is a drone (to account for penalties of +1 Piloting/Driving & +1 Gunnery), then multiplied by vehicle's BV. Current rules for owns vehicle trait and vehicle trait is out of balance when compared to wealth trait.


agreed for the most part, and i'm guessing you meant "plus 1 more trait point if using mixedtech if character is human and is of Inner Sphere/Periphery descent" except i oppose "minus 2 trait points if vehicle is a drone", i mean, you're saving a life or lives by using a drone, and i don't believe in increasing vehicle trait if vehicle is a drone due to how drone can negate hostile ECM(s) can prevent drone(s) from receiving orders given how that drones could have some regulated artificial intelligence programming
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