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Old Dog's Autocannon Rules
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Raven!
Clan Snow Raven
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PostPosted: 17-Dec-2010 22:40    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

Does anyone still have a copy of Old Dog's autocannon rules? The ones which allowed for some damn fine impressive shooting Very Happy

I remember these being a crap load of fun, but they are on a very badly damaged hard drive and so I think are lost to time. I just recently got a new friend hooked on 3025 play, and we're playing an alternate time line where the Clans just kind of fade into a series of Periphery states that are highly militaristic.

But I want to change up the rules a bit as the basic rules are kind of boring, so I thought I would introduce the following:

1. LRM/SRM Ammo Types
2. OD's Autocannon Rules
3. MRM/RL as Tech 1
4. The 7.5 ton EW suite as Tech 1 for CC fans out there
5. Binary Lasers (from TechManual)
6. Power Dial Lasers which allow for ER and Standard fire brackets with radical heat level changes

I thought this would make for a few fun changes that change up the rules without being devastatingly unbalanced as the Clan Invasion was! Sad
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JadeDragon
Draconis Combine
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PostPosted: 18-Dec-2010 08:09    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

I know I do not have anything on this HD, but after Christmas I might have some time to go through some of my old data and see what this dragon might have stored away amongst his gems.
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Vagabond
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PostPosted: 18-Dec-2010 23:46    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

no luck here.
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Raven!
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PostPosted: 19-Dec-2010 01:33    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

Well hopefully something good will come up Very Happy
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Vagabond
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PostPosted: 19-Dec-2010 07:24    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

i remember Vampire's alternate armor system.

as well as my alternate missile system.

but not OD's AC variant.
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Raven!
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PostPosted: 19-Dec-2010 11:24    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

I'll take both! Smile I really want to change things up a bit, but without going insane with new technology etc. Just tech that makes sense (i.e. Rocket Launchers, especially since we have the Taurian Concordat introducing them).
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PostPosted: 21-Dec-2010 05:42    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

The missile variant played as thus:

replace all LRMs and SRMs with these two items...

Long Range Missile Pack: heat 2/missile, damage 5/missile, range (6)7/14/21/28, weight 2 tons, critical 1, ammo n/a. Each LRM Pack comes loaded with 5 missiles.
Short Range Missile Pack: heat 3/missile, damage 10/missile, range (0)3/6/9/12, weight 2 tons, critical 1, ammo n/a. Each SRM Pack comes loaded with 4 missiles.
Multi-Missile Pack: heat as per missile, damage as per missile, range as per missile, weight 3 tons, critical 3, ammo n/a. Each MML Pack comes loaded with 5 missiles of either Short Range or Long Range warheads.

Missile packs are multi-warhead one-shot missile launchers that fire self-guiding munition packages designed to carry multiple warheads. Rules to use are the same as LRMs and SRMs except that each pack may fire between 1 and 5 (4 for SRMs) missiles at a single target. The player declares how many shots will be fired when they declare that the launcher is part of their attack that turn. Then roll one attack roll per launcher: a hit indicates all of the launched missiles successfully hit, while a miss indicates that they all missed. Thus a missile attack is an all or nothing proposition. Roll for damage location as per the standard rules for SRMs (a roll for each missile) and apply damage as per normal rules with the damage value listed above.

The rules were designed before the updated AMS rules so i'm not quite sure how it should work against them. Easiest method is a flat -2 to-hit, but modifying the AMS single missiles rule to work isn't to hard. Roll a 1d6: 1-3 destroy a missile (roll again if needed), 4-6 fail to hit (all remaining missiles hit). Apply a -1 mod to the roll for every 2 missiles over 2 (round up) and apply a +1 mod for every roll after the 1st. If the AMS shots down a missile, the operator MUST roll again until they either shot down every missile or fail to shot down another. Once an AMS fails to destroy a missile (either on the first roll or a follow up roll) the remaining missiles hit the target machine. So an LRM pack firing all 5 missiles would give a -2 mod for number of missiles so that the first roll would destroy a missile at 1-5, 2nd at 1-4, 3rd at 1-3, 4th at 1-2, and 5th only on a 1. Likewise, an SRM pack firing all 4 missiles would give a -1 mod for number of missiles so that the first roll would destroy a missile at 1-4, 2nd at 1-3, 3rd at 1-2, 4th only on a 1. The AMS should use 1 ammo and generate 1 heat per roll (succeed or fail).

This makes missiles feel more like the big bad hunter killers of other fictional works. Units with missiles should be converted to carry more missile packs as well as more heat sinks to counter the increased heat of the packs.


Vampire's Damage Variant are here...

rt000pui.eresmas.net/Battletech/Rules_revision/VampDmgSys.html

enjoy. BTW, if you use both variant... i'd treat missiles as ballistic weapons for Armor Penetration multiplier as well as update the rules for Totalwar.
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Raven!
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PostPosted: 21-Dec-2010 19:08    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

Right on. I remember thinking that Vampire's armor rules had a lot of promise. Though I remember version 1 or 2 I think, as there are some big changes here.
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Vampire
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PostPosted: 22-Nov-2011 06:13    Post subject: Old Dog's Autocannon Rules Reply to topic Reply with quote

Right on. I remember thinking that Vampire's armor rules had a lot of promise. Though I remember version 1 or 2 I think, as there are some big changes here


Hello

Is nice to know somebody remembers me and liked the stuff that I did, but eventually they never got past the playtesting stage. It is just simpler and more playable to just cross out armor boxes.

In the end it was better to just consider the damage system an abstraction for games purposes.Armor points just reflect the statistical probablity that in the long term, any shot will find a weak spot and get through. 20 points of armor can be penetrated by a single burst from a heavy AC20 or take 10 hits from a Machine gun,


But a Mech with zero armor in a location doesn't mean all the armor has been melted or vaporized. Just riddled with holes that can be easily patched. Holes are tiny and are easily plugged without the need to carry hundreds of tons of armor plating in the logistic train. In fact most mechs could probably repair battle damage with the few square yards of armor plate they carry on them

With that, you forget about the unwieldy and time consuming accounting of armor plates. Simply after the battle all damage is erased as armor is repaired, of course if you fail the repair roll you will have a few points less than the original armor. These are the unavoidable scars and patches so typical of field repairs of Battlemechs in a campaign. Ideally, those weak points can be repaired when the Mech undergoes a full refurbishment, but is not unusual , rather the norm, in the Succession Wars for few mechs to be in pristine condition. Most carry old wounds.

BTW, eventually I went away from making alternate rules, and instead work with the basic rules mechanisms and improve on their failings.


Battletech is a great game, only things that needed fixing were

1) construction rules for non humanoid Mechs, hinted at in Max Tech but not fully developed.

2) Better and more varied autocannons and machineguns

3) New types of Missiles and with a streamlined rules.

I have been playing with home rules for years on pen and paper, until now I got some time on my hands and I put my image retouching skills to make new game tables with photoshop and control sheets. i just finished the games tables and did the Locust. Unfortunately they are from the Spanish version of the game, but I could post them so you could do it yourself. Is all done with MS Paint actually, just cut , copy and paste.
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