20 Damage or More...

I purchased some new Battletech books lately. Mostly to see how outdated I am in the rules. Its hard for me to play in the newer timeline as their are just some many weapons and options now. I remember the first time I had to face off Clan Tech, that was scary battle. This new Dark Age and Jihad Age tech is worrisome. My tactics basically follow two simple rules. I plan my Mechs and weapon load outs around these rules. With all these new weapons I’m not sure what to use.

When I plan an attack with a Mech I have two rules,

1) Make sure a maximum of one unit can return fire

2) Make sure you can deal at least 20 damage in the attack.

The first rule basically a rule to keep my incoming damage down. If I can’t meet those rules I don’t maneuver to take a shot. I do even thing I can to make sure it as difficult to shoot at my Mech as possible. Now its not perfect, and you can’t control a battlefield all the time. If two Mechs lay into your Mech then your going start losing systems in that round. Best to avoid that.

The second rule is very important. Knocking down an opponent is not a huge chance. But when they fall they take more damage, and the pilot might take damage. Best yet of the knock down is that they need to spend the movement to stand back up. A target that needs to standing back, is like giving your more speed to maneuver. So be it that they fail and fall again.

In order to deal 20 damage I make sure I have a few weapons on my Mechs to do this. For example in Clan Tech, My ‘Go To’ weapons are...

4x Medium Pulse Lasers

or

Ultra AC 20

or

2x Streak SRM-6s

or

Ultra AC 10

In that order of importance. Why?

First all these combos will do 20 or more damage. The other reason, I know that they will deal that damage with a pretty good success rate. Take one of the best weapons that the Clan can field the ER Medium Laser. If you fire three of them at a target and needed a 7 or better on 2d6, you only have a 20% of dealing 20 damage. If you take the number of 4 so that you just need 3 to hit, then you can bring it up to 31%. Not Bad... but there is better combos...

	7 or better to hit	9 or better to hit
3x ER Medium Lasers	19.92%	2.15%
4x ER Medium Lasers	30.99%	2.32%

Take a look at my choice of weapons...

	7 or better to hit	9 or better to hit
4x Medium Pulse Lasers	80.50%	30.99%
Ultra AC 20	58.40%	27.80%
2 Streaks 6	34.11%	7.73%
Ultra AC 10	24.35%	11.59%

Pulse Lasers are the devil. Personal they shouldn't been added to the game. Spilt milk, so since they are, might as well use them. The Ultra AC 10 is there for one reason, because it is not the best performer, I just love AC 10s. Its just my kind of weapon. If I can I like to mix pulse lasers with a Ultra AC 10 on the same Mech. Over all with my ‘Go To’ weapons you can see much better odds to deal a knock down blow. Most of all much better odds at harder shoots of 9 or better.

That brings me back the the new weapons. With Streak LRMs, Plasma Cannons, Heavy PPCs, Improved Lasers, and Gauss Rifles that deal 40 damage, etc. All these new weapons confuse me. I don’t know what should be my ‘Go To’ weapons anymore. Battletech used to be so easy to crunch the numbers, now... I need to write a program to do it for me.

Cut of the Stone of Jordan

If you haven’t seen it, Blizzard made an announcement about Diablo 3, in that they are adding an auction house. Diablo Fans has a great write up on it here.

When it comes to Blizzard, I tend not to want to post right away. When they make a mistake, in time they seem to rectify it. So I learned not be rash and hasty. I should be patient and watch how the auction house will unfold. But in this case it couldn’t wait.

To me the auction house that Blizzard is looking to set up is the start of the next trend in gaming. Moving us one step closer to Full Timer Gamer as a profession. I have a fear that one day people will be playing games 80 to 100 hours a week not for fun, but to pay real life rent. And the sad thing is that game companies won’t build games for fun. Instead they will tune the game for a bigger cut of the labor that full time gamers can potentially make.

Let’s look at the Diablo 3 Auction house ...

1) You can sell items for real money.
Not points, not tokens, directly to real money. So do I pay taxes on this income, like other real life auction houses?

2) Blizzard will take a cut of the sale. And the seller needs to pay up, first...

A nominal fixed transaction fee will be deducted from the seller for each item listed in the auction house. This fee consists of a fixed charge to list the item, which is assessed whether or not the item is successfully sold, and an additional fixed charge that is assessed only if the item is sold. Because the listing portion of the fee is charged even if the item doesn’t sell, it will be in the seller’s interest to list items he or she believes other players will be interested in, and to do so at a competitive price. Specific details related to the transaction fee for the currency-based auction house will vary by region and will be announced at a later date.

The worry is the phrase “which is assessed whether or not the item is sold” -- in other words, “place your bets” -- but the house always wins. I believe we have a name for this type of business.

3) Intended to auction off unused super rare items, not general use or custom items. This was obviously not designed by an economist.  One can’t impose scarcity on an infinite good such as item data. This is why Eve Online has two full time economist in their ranks.

Looking at this 3 main features of the Auction house I see two main problems. First, this will not work as they stated. There is just no way it will work legally. I can see this playing out as gambling, and that might cause some governments to take notice. Let alone how Blizzard is setting themselves up for pyramid schemes and other exploits. This is one reason Microsoft uses points on their xbox live: the laws for each of the various currencies around the world. I’m sure legal at Blizzard has its collective head exploding right about now.

Second is my Game Design worry. If you’re making money off very rare drops, why design a fun game? People are making you money with their time, so you put them to work. Why make loot tables that drop what people want?  Instead, drop what doesn’t work for the character, as you will make more money. They will sell what is useless for them and buy what they need, and you take a cut at every turn. It’s not hard to tweak a table or two to make you a few extra million.

This poor design. Sorry Blizzard, I have to say it. This seems like more of a executive add in at the last second than a game design decision. You set yourself up to exchange fun for profits. That is not a game I want to play.

Yes Computer, I am Happy to Fly!

I saw this new Security Check Point on Engaget. Before I even read the article one game came right to mind Paranoia RPG. If you haven’t played Paranoia... play it! Its the only game were I found backstabbing and being paranoid, enjoyable. Its a fun game, with a lot to teach you about establishments.

One of the main concepts in the Paranoia game is your Security clearances Color. Your Character’s Color is a world of hurt and source of power as a Player. The world of hurt is that their is always a Color that can boss you around. Here from Wikipedia about Paranoia Security Clearances...

“The full order of clearances from lowest to highest is Infrared (visually represented by Black), Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Ultraviolet (visually represented by White). Within the game, infrared-clearance citizens live dull lives of mindless drudgery and are heavily medicated, and those with Ultraviolet clearance are almost completely unrestricted … Higher level citizens, especially those of Blue and above, can demote and or even summarily execute lower level citizens. Security clearance is not related to competence or even authority, though there is often a correlation; clearance is instead a measure of … trust in a citizen.”

For example Your a Yellow Character and a higher clearance person, lets say an Ultraviolet person, orders you to follow them and they walk into a Ultraviolet room. You have two choices at this point. One walk into the room. Doing so you break the law as you are a lower clearance than the room requires, and this often leads to your death. Or you don’t follow the person’s orders. Breaking the law for not following a higher clearances orders, and well die at the hands of the Ultraviolet. You can see the world is basically out to get you.

Lucky for the Player you have 5 more clones to draw from if you die...

But back to the real life Security Check Point... how is this not Paranoia. I'm so not sitting next to a Yellow when I fly. Wait, I am a Yellow, doh, I better get my clones ready next time I fly.

Testing it out

Well its a test, so don't get your hopes up too much.

A link to the Test Sandbox