#Prototype Pattern Groups

1 messages · Page 26 of 1

viscid ingot
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I think I understand it. But this does crawl into territory where it gimps builds that intentionally stress. (Because Stress is a resource to these maniacs)

So that is something to watch out for.

Also I am assuming the NPCs also are included in the Structure and Stress rules change?

vagrant grotto
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Yup, that’s what the rule says

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And yeah, sometimes folks think stress is a bit too expendable a resource IMO

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I liked Maria’s take in that sometimes your damage gets halved if you’re not careful while overheating, I liked that it added an edge to just eating all your stress

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When I moved away from the overheating tables and decided to go with Stormtalus’s approach, this just made sense

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The nice thing about this rule though is that even though it leaves you vulnerable, it doesn’t cost you repairs beyond those for structure lost

viscid ingot
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Hmm, so this feels more fair to use in Campaigns as opposed to Oneshot Games.

vagrant grotto
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Tbf I’ve mostly only tested this in oneshots, but yes there’s merits to it in campaigns

viscid ingot
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That is an interesting take on Stressing, not many players would agree on this take. But those would be because they use Stress as an expendable resource for their builds without regard for the possibility that they might Reactor Meltdown.

vagrant grotto
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Yeah, I’m not really looking to entertain Stress abusers

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If your table would riot then don’t use it

viscid ingot
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The change to make all Reactor Stress into 1 Universal Stress is incredibly novel though.

vagrant grotto
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I can’t take full credit for it, I thank Stormtalus for the idea

viscid ingot
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But yeah this is a rule that all parties involved must agree to.

I'll use it in the future for my Front Mission Campaign.

vagrant grotto
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That and validation from Salvage Union where there’s only 1 heat bar

viscid ingot
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Yo Salvage Union.

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Peak.

vagrant grotto
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Salvage Union is good shit

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It’s partly why I changed Overcharge too

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Literally has Push, which is “reroll the d20 in exchange for mech heat”

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Gets riskier to do so as heat gets higher

viscid ingot
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Oh right, I forgot the alternate rule to Overcharge.

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The Overcharge Die isn't changed, only the effect right?

vagrant grotto
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Correct, and how you can reset it

viscid ingot
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Is there a difference?

vagrant grotto
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Yeah, it decrements 1 step with a rest, or completely with 1 repair

viscid ingot
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Ahhhh, ok so you can use your Repairs still with your 'Stress' just not in the normal way.

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That is VERY interesting actually.

vagrant grotto
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Yup, and less costly

viscid ingot
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Can you do that midcombat or is that only for Rests between combat scenes?

vagrant grotto
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During rests only

viscid ingot
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Ah ok, similar to Regaining Stress during Rests then.

vagrant grotto
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Yeah, but only costs 1 repair instead of 2/stress

viscid ingot
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I see I see. Gotcha, thanks for the clarification.

vagrant grotto
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Aid by Acatalepsy has potential for OCLooping, and there’s also an option for a player to force someone to reroll a save via Overcharge (I don’t like it diegetically, but it’s an option regardless)

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The thing that folks really enjoy about overcharge rerolls, though, is the fact that you can retry a high-impact roll (like one with Loading, Heat Self, Nuclear Cavalier’s damage on the first attack, etc)

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Superheavy users eat well

umbral sluice
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Superheavies have als- beat me to it haha

ashen crown
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That sounds like its own, squad kits adjacent project

vagrant grotto
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But the scope is up in the air

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I’m not adding these factions to PPG, lol, lmao

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… even if it would be an excellent chance to put my NPCs in cool team comps videogames

viscid ingot
granite saddle
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I did do that yeah, to great (?) success.
Can't take full credit, but I was the one to play and refine the 0 engi displacer swallowtail into a build so good I'd take it into a campaign.

granite saddle
ashen crown
muted blaze
umbral sluice
umbral sluice
umbral sluice
vagrant grotto
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“You can’t fire the HMG again, it’s already firing”

umbral sluice
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honestly? not a bad idea

vagrant grotto
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Like hard limiting “a system or mount can only be used 1/turn” just makes sense to me

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Yes I know technically skirmish and barrage don’t care about mounts, but maybe they should

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Like honestly, if folks wanted to save the Extra Action-ness of Overcharge, that’s what I’d go for first

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It still has the drawbacks of

  1. Heat to use
  2. Analysis paralysis
  3. “Eh, I’ll just shoot again” except shooting again is worse
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But hey, OC Loopers keep their toy, if that’s valuable to folks

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Maybe I’ll slap an addendum update to my blogpost

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If I adopted this “mount used” language I’d probably also apply it to stuff that “prepares” your mounts like Heavy Gunner, Prepare, Monitor Module, and Scylla

viscid ingot
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Might be a bit much for most players. Be wary about this kind of change. It seems small, but it might lead into a domino effect.

vagrant grotto
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I swear, anything that adds friction to the status quo may be “too much for most players”

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I’m not concerned about “most players”, I’m concerned about “most GMs”

viscid ingot
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Fair tbh

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Also most GMs. Let's be honest bruh, there's probably like 10 of us.

umbral sluice
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players will complain when you take away any of their toys :p

viscid ingot
vagrant grotto
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There are times when I feel like a lot of player (as opposed to GM) feedback got incorporated into Lancer’s design, and now I either cope with it or tear it out best I can

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And yeah you can give the GM spicier toys, sure, but that leans towards using Level Design to solve a Game Design problem

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Sometimes that can work, but other times it’s kludgy

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Like, I’m not gonna deploy the Seeking Deterrent NPC in every combat (or every other combat)

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I’m not gonna deploy the Teleportation Deterrent NPC in every combat either

granite saddle
vagrant grotto
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And I as a GM am not gonna warp all my fights in response to the Smartgun Tokugawa, at least not in the way you’re thinking

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And like yeah one might say “all you need is a light touch, the occasional deployment to deter abuse” but that doesn’t solve the baseline problem when I don’t use it. And folks can be greedy when it comes to their strats: “I’m gonna gamble on the GM not using this combo this mission”

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And if I decide to arbitrarily throw rock mid mission in response to seeing my players throw scissors, they will have every right to call foul lol

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Sorry, ranting

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Point being

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If there’s something I can tweak at the game design level to address GM pains system-wide, thus providing allowance for more varied combat situations, I will tweak it

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I can (and should!) use it in tandem with some Level design options, but I cannot (and should not!) purely lean on Level design to solve all issues

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There’s some nuance, lol

muted blaze
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I think, unsure because I haven't played it. Lancer tactics basically only has barrages for Sheavies, and you can just skirmish multiple times a turn with locked to 1/weapon

vagrant grotto
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Yeah Lancer Tactics made some adjustments to account for barrage being fucking complicated

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Honestly, if Skirmish worked like Activate I’m sure that so many players would breathe a sigh of relief

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Tap one mount for first skirmish, do whatever then tap another for second. Untap all mounts end of turn during cleanup. (Also could play nice with UNCLE’s rules)

For superheavy, you have to skirmish twice to tap both mounts (the heavy and the braced mount)

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I’m honestly seriously wondering why the dupe action rule was added now

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Like what triggered this

granite saddle
vagrant grotto
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And sure makes sense

granite saddle
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all good then

vagrant grotto
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But yeah I’m hitting a point here where I’m realizing that there doesn’t seem to be an especially clear reason the dupe action rule was created other than preventing folks from shooting the HMG twice (disregarding extra actions for the moment)

muted blaze
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Eh... Double boost, some systems

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I'm honestly a fan of duplicate action restriction

vagrant grotto
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Right right, systems and weapons are the big ones

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Double boost though? Is that really a thing Tom was wringing his hands over?

muted blaze
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Boost I think is another big contender... Ram and grapple... Not too bad if you could double up... And the rest are tech actions which aren't duplicate it feels

vagrant grotto
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Ram and Grapple have about 5 different ways to accomplish them for free, I don’t think that’s much of a concern

muted blaze
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Yeah

vagrant grotto
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Full tech already lets you double up on lock on and bolster and invade, so it’s apparent those aren’t a concern either

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(And scan of course)

muted blaze
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But lock on move lock on... Not allowed

vagrant grotto
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Like Boost is the one I’d be hesitant about, but like, it’s boost. What are you doing that requires both your quicks to boost

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If the answer is “set up Blinkspace tunneler” aight that’s a known Blinkspace tunneler issue

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But objectives don’t boost with you, you can’t boost while grappling unless you’re a Blackbeard

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Like half the time when I run into the situation of “man I can’t double boost” it’s not in some whacky combo setup, it’s the situation where literally nothing else is in range and my only other recourse is Prepare

vagrant grotto
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Also also: on the player side of things, Accelerate, Prospector, and Pankrati exist, lol

umbral sluice
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which is like, eh?

vagrant grotto
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Exactly

umbral sluice
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i dont think it would be an issue

granite saddle
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I'd say most double boost situations are a level design problem in fact.

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If you feel like you need to double boost and you didn't bring it upon yourself deliberately (or it was inflicted on you), ie playing a Barb, going into a map corner for no reason etc. , the map is simply too big

vagrant grotto
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I feel like I’m stumbling onto like, actual system refinements in these discussions lol

vagrant grotto
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Like, sometimes when I make an optional rule, it just feels like a bandaid or an odd protrusion instead of something elegant

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But “you can only use a mount 1/turn”… that’s in line with existing rules for the Activate action, and it opens up opportunity for removing the duplicate action rule (something I’ve always found difficult for folks to track)

ashen crown
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If I can be honest idk if techs should even ignore the Dupe Action Restriction when full teching. As like. A tangential thing

tame wharf
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@vagrant grotto whats the addon you use for All The Status's like Assasins mark and stuff?

vagrant grotto
steel apex
vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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With invade for example, I feel they could all be bespoke tech actions that fall under the “invade category”

tame wharf
vagrant grotto
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Okay you mean as if Invade wasn’t an action, Fragment Signal was an action

ashen crown
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Stuff like “Double Lock On”, “Double FABI”, etc is the stuff I’m thinking “is this healthy for the system?”

ashen crown
vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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Though most of the use cases for Doubling Up on the same tech are for support actions rather than strictly using the same invade twice so it’s fine if that’s stronger, it was just something that crossed my mind

vagrant grotto
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But you should already know I’m leaning towards “how do I remove the duplicate action limitation in an elegant way”

steel apex
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I guess you could do that, but I'm not quite sure what the major upside to it is outside of the currently existing framework beyond "this would let you do one invade, move, and then do another invade rather than having to Full Tech"

ashen crown
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Yeah it was just something that I was curious about bringing up and examining- I honestly do not feel strongly on it

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Heck after talking about it double teching is probably one of the more warranted action dupes that are allowed

vagrant grotto
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Yeah

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But yeah I’m still waiting to hear back from #homebrew-design what spurred the No Duplicate Action rule into being

Right now all I’ve got is the hunch it was over Skirmishing twice with a heavy specifically? I don’t know if moving between the mounts’ attacks was something Tom wanted to curtail too, or if he wanted to curtail effects that key off Skirmish or something

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I want to understand why Tom built the fence so I can gauge whether I’m willing to fuck with it

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Post-hoc realizations could be useful too, but I’m more interested in the initial cause

steel apex
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I think a lot of it probably was a mix of not wanting heavy weapon skirmish spam, not wanting stacking boost spam, and not wanting to have to evaluate every quick action system in the game to operate under freely double-tappable principles (triple tap counting overcharge)

vagrant grotto
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“You can only activate this system 1/turn” but for mounts

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I’ve noted upthread that Boost spam could be a concern, though I’m not sure how impactful it would be unless Blinkspace Tunneler is in play

steel apex
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treating everything as a card you tap once and then have to untap could maybe work but I think it would require a lot of refiguring because not every mech has equal numbers of mounts to play with and nobody starts with any other invade option except the single one and so tbh I think you'd end up carving out just as many exceptions to things, especially in a framework where overcharge isn't letting you get extra actions

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also "no duplicate actions" in terms of "why is this here?" is also a question that can be answered on the NPC side of things

vagrant grotto
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Yeah I don’t know, part of these thoughts came from “what if I kept core book overcharge but it adhered to the duplicate action rule” and spiraled from there

steel apex
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that is to say, that it's (imo) pretty valuable to top-down state that NPCs can't double tap stuff just as a general rule

vagrant grotto
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Then that solves a lot of the trouble

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Maybe an exception would need carved for quick techs, but there’s already one carved out for them in vanilla so

steel apex
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I think broadly, and I apologize if this has been addressed upchannel, I'm just not quite sure what this is actually meant to address, because it kind of just feels like "no duplicate actions" but with more steps

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I think that "extra action overcharge but still can't dupe actions" on its own is probably a fine enough change to mess with

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it's basically a pocket asura

vagrant grotto
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Busy for dinner but will get back

ashen crown
# steel apex that is to say, that it's (imo) pretty valuable to top-down state that NPCs can'...

The thing is player and NPC design is already asymmetrical as is- especially on the tech side where the lack of Full Tech means NPCs don’t have access to that kinda dupe action workaround as is- to where I think you could just bespokely state “NPCs can’t repeat actions in one turn” and have that be the end of it. Or simply extend the “no double tapping mounts or systems” rule to traits too.

ashen crown
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And the “no dupe overcharge” thing isn’t really the idea, but rather “1 mount attack per turn”, which means regardless of how many actions you have and whether or not you can dupe them, you can’t attack with a mount more than 1/turn ever being implemented, regardless of if it’s via overcharge or anything else.

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I think with that idea you absolutely could Barrage-Skirmish in the same turn and that’d be intentional. They’d just all have to be unique weapons however.

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That’s how I’m reading it at least

vagrant grotto
# steel apex I think broadly, and I apologize if this has been addressed upchannel, I'm just ...

So it does a few things:

  1. it changes what gets tracked. Instead of checking off an abstract action, you can track it right on your character sheet. I have players who would benefit from that
  2. It allows for putting movement between the “skirmishes” and “quick techs”
  3. It starts opening design space for Vanilla Overcharge and Initiative to yes allow an extra action but no not allow “I Shoot My HMG Again”. Which you do note about a take on Overcharge that obeys duplicate action restrictions
velvet cairn
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Something that slipped my mind till now.

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Is it legal to, with a Kensei who started a turn with their sword sheathed-

Declare a barrage.

Striking first with charged profile, then with uncharged profile

Or is the Kinetic saber supposed to be treated as just 1 weapon, regardless of which mode you fired it, and hence invalid for a barrage with only itself.

ashen crown
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Think of it like attacking with, say, Retort Loop

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If you fire it at a higher level profile, it’s not suddenly a different weapon, so you can’t attack with it again

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Different weapon profiles don’t count as different weapons

static kernel
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playing around with a funky prototype ultra idea:

Ultra [k] Prototype Cataphract [k]
Replace Ram Cannon with Thunder Lance
Replace PD Shield with SSC Total Suite
Full Throttle
Overclocked
Evasive
Argus Armour
Hyperdense Blade

basically a straight killer that is also steadily heating itself to death.

muted blaze
vagrant grotto
vagrant grotto
velvet cairn
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Minor grammatical error:

Should be

Use with the "No Split Moves" with optional rule.

Screenshot_2026-02-21-19-59-26-82_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg
vagrant grotto
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Thank you

frosty karma
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Hi, I'm currenty considering removing the "no repeat action" and "overcharge overhaul" rule for my table + changing skirmish/barrage rule as follow:

Skirmish
When you SKIRMISH, choose 1 mount or 1 non-SUPERHEAVY core-integrated weapon to attack with, if the mount has 2 weapons, the second attack doesn't deal bonus damage. 

Barrage
When you BARRAGE, SKIRMISH twice or make 1 attack with a SUPERHEAVY weapon.```

Is there some oversight that i miss or something I should be wary about?
(I saw this was a discussed topic here, hope this isn't too oot)
granite saddle
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as long as you do the proper fix to skirmisher 2

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also only works if you implement the 1/turn weapons but I figured that was implied

vagrant grotto
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Something I thought about for No Repeat Actions is that granted actions like from Talents may be issues when duplicated

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If you wanna go for it anyway then have at it

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The duplicate action stuff probably won’t make it into PPG but it was fascinating to think about

frosty karma
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aye, much appreciated for the *quick respond to you 2 🙌

ashen crown
# vagrant grotto Something I thought about for No Repeat Actions is that granted actions like fro...
  • Using Supersonic multiple times seems pointless yet fine I guess?
  • Hacker gives you tech actions so it’s no different than an invasion suite
  • Covering Fire could be rough but you’re halving your damage and could always just be attacked by the target to end the effect I suppose
  • I see no issues with Jackhammer
  • Bentham/Focault still requires the Lock On trigger and consumption so that’s still effectively 1/round
  • Home In The Void being used twice comes at a cost
  • Create Entrance is still 1/round even at rank 3 so no entrance spam
  • If you wanna spam Memetic Spark be my guest but there’s a reason it’s on average worse than a normal attack despite auto-hitting. Transmuting Spark only triggers off of one of those anyway.
vagrant grotto
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There’s also the question of frame trait-granted quick actions (if any; Kobold has one)

ashen crown
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There’s Calendula and Minotaur I guess

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But it’s the same logic as Bentham/Focault

vagrant grotto
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Oh I mean for red box stuff

I assume that if it’s actually tagged “quick action” it’s keying off the Activate action

ashen crown
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Oh I forgor Sculptor of Fate doesn’t require a quick action

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And Execrate is explicitly 1/round

vagrant grotto
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Ah, slag spray is 1/round

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Reroute power on kidd is also 1/round

viscid ingot
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Faster Template: Must go Faster

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Even Faster

ashen crown
# vagrant grotto Reroute power on kidd is also 1/round

I’m 70% sure all the Quicks granted by frames are some form of 1/round because even without Dupe Action overcharge was always breathing down their necks… come to think of it you already can use heavy Gunner 2/turn in core rules. I should ask about that that doesn’t sound right

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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But yeah 1 benefit of The Looming Specter of Overcharge for these rules is that all quick actions have envisioned a world without dupe action restriction in their design

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This was the quote I got, and yeah I just reread and missed that Heavy Gunner has that text

vagrant grotto
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That’s what I figured, nice

ashen crown
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So yeah so long as you changed the text behind skirmish, barrage, and activate (and also attacks in general cause reactions) you literally do not have to make any other changes to removing dupe action restriction

vagrant grotto
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Well, some Skirmisher 2 cases exist

ashen crown
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How so? It was brought up earlier but I didn’t really get it

vagrant grotto
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Lockbreaker means you could Skirmish 2 times with different mounts and trigger the Step each time

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Basically stuff that keys off Skirmish without a 1/round or turn limit

ashen crown
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… how did I only now notice Skirm 2 wasn’t 1/round?

vagrant grotto
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Like Kai is right that there’s gonna be some red ink spilled in unexpected places (I would be a fool to think otherwise)

ashen crown
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Scratch that, when on earth did I hallucinate that it was?

vagrant grotto
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Talents exclusively exist to frustrate my hacks lol

ashen crown
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When I was running builds with Skirm 2 I was always taking note of “oh I used Skirm 2 on my skirmish so it’s unavailable for my Overwatch” and for some reason that just passed under everyone’s radars lmao

muted blaze
vagrant grotto
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So true bestie

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Thinking about the 1/turn Flourish tag in PF2e and how there’s a feat/action called Skirmishing Strike that locks you into a Skirmish + Step but doesn’t augment skirmish itself so you can’t use it with Reactive Strike

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PF2E has a lot of “wrapper actions” like that

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Anyway

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Apropos of nothing: I should add a “get out of dodge” modification to Fortify

muted blaze
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Would you make invade options 1/turn too?

vagrant grotto
muted blaze
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So I could, BCL, move BCL

vagrant grotto
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If anything id make individual quick action systems like Tracking Bug follow Activate’s rules

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Yeah

ashen crown
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You could always just make Barrage not count as a Skirmish

vagrant grotto
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Basically if the action being used comes directly from a system, it’s 1/turn

ashen crown
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Since Skirmisher specifically refers to Skirmishing, among a series of other effects

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… wait

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What I just said was stupid

vagrant grotto
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Besides Superheavies

muted blaze
# vagrant grotto Probably not?

Gone is the situation of of awkwardly needing to hit one tech attack and only 1 but there's a chance to miss so you can just quick tech twice if you miss rather than awkwardly full tech and miss the first

ashen crown
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Yeah for some reason I was instinctually factoring in “oh yeah dupe action restriction”

vagrant grotto
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Yeah

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I don’t know if I’ll ever incorporate this into my regular games but it’s interesting to think about

muted blaze
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Valks actionless hack

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Remove actions, just say "yeah I wanna shoot em" and roll dice ig... The FIST method of playing

flat urchin
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the "oops! all protocols" action economy

muted blaze
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"everything is a controller or a power at a cost"

vagrant grotto
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Anyway

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Anyone run v1.18 Knight yet

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With the microstuns

opaque crescent
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I would but I think every single one of my PPG playtests has had a knight in it so far

sudden cosmos
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The next night I have penned in is gonna drop in like... A year from now.

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I could probably get one in sooner

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Next week is my howler test. I could do something with a knight the week after.

vagrant grotto
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No pressure folks

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Just curious for feedback

ashen crown
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I haven’t used a Knight yet but I guarantee the next combat I run will have a Knight in it

velvet cairn
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Should be an interesting test of the transport sitrep

image.png
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Burning Guilt: Ultra Brisk Anomaly Pyro
Heat Haze: Commander Mirage
Fuel for the Fire: Elite Prototype Berserker
Wood for the Furnace: Industrial Berserker
Fireman 1/2: Napalm(s)
Refulgent Purifier: Veteran Zealot
Emberflame: Formation Hive
Bookburner: Horror MBT

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Not sure if 3 modifications to transport is too many.

image.png
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PCs escort 1 objective from the start, and have to pick up another halfway through the map

vagrant grotto
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I'm doing something potentially ill-advised

image.png
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I'm starting to fuck around with Affinity Publisher 2 and making the feature boxes I've been wanting to make for years

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I'm not gonna update PPG to use this, to be clear (I have abused the space available in the text boxes far too much) but I'm thinking I'll get something together for personal use

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once it's in a good spot I'll maybe release it as a standalone product

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but yeah I've figured out how to make the little Protocol corner thing and how to do the dog-ears and how to resize the stuff so it's not dumb to put together

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so the stuff doesn't warp or stretch or flatten or what have you

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already made a color swatch using the palette data I previously collected

light pawn
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Wanna pop in and say that the PPG enemies are awesome. Added them to my repertoire a while ago but finally got to use them today - My players are veterans and familiar with most NPCs. They had to fight Aunic Ofanim today and the PPG enemies were an excellent curveball

vagrant grotto
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Glad that they’re a hit!

viscid ingot
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Veteran Players: "I know the NPCs like the back of my hand!"

PPG appears.

Veteran Players: "What the hell is that?"

sudden cosmos
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drops an anomaly boombox on the table

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My players:

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(I've not done this yet but soon maybe)

light pawn
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The narrative leading up to that point was pretty spooky too

vagrant grotto
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NO FEAR
Ultra ??? Deploys
ONE FEAR

muted blaze
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Wouldn't it just be "???" Appears

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"it has 5 structure"

vagrant grotto
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I reveal the Ultra part at least

opaque crescent
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is that as intended or GM discretion?

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if that's intended then i ran "oops all anomalies" a bit wrong

vagrant grotto
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GM discretion

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I reveal it because of “wouldn’t it suck if you CPR’d a grunt”

opaque crescent
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that's fair, though the multiple activations would give it away as not a grunt on VTT at least

vagrant grotto
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Yeah

opaque crescent
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or ig foundry, idk how witchdice is

vagrant grotto
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Structure is generally revealed too

opaque crescent
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tru

vagrant grotto
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But that’s not RAW

ashen crown
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That’s enough discord for today

viscid ingot
placid glacier
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welp- guess I'm doing another skirmish oneshot tonight lol- time for more testing lmao

vagrant grotto
viscid ingot
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Weird. It always felt like being able to see extra Structures and Stress was RAW.

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So for it to actually not be RAW feels wrong ya know?

flat urchin
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suddenly realizing i can use an anomaly for IGF's ??? encounter solomag

tame wharf
#

@vagrant grotto ping

#

(this is the reminder for the status mod)

vagrant grotto
#

Setting a reminder for myself in an hour or two

vagrant grotto
#

for everyone else, I updated it today with Feral Howl and Viral Bite

tame wharf
opaque crescent
#

worked for me 👍

#

check your compendiums

#

it adds this

image.png
tame wharf
#

ah okay

#

i was looking in the status bar hud thing

#

found em

ashen crown
#

What it do?

tame wharf
#

they were where recaste pointed them out to be

vagrant grotto
tame wharf
opaque crescent
#

token action hud can block automatic population if customisation is enabled iirc

#

right click a token to see the other status menu

tame wharf
#

I just see the default ones

opaque crescent
#

other workaround, right click the compendium and import all

#

this slaps a copy of the compendium content in your items tab

tame wharf
#

oh yup there they all are now

#

i need a way to sort/search these

vagrant grotto
#

I recommend Quick Status Select or Quick Insert

#

Manifest URL for Quick Status Select: https://github.com/tw-blob/qss/releases/download/2.1.0/module.json

tame wharf
#

thats the module.json file

vagrant grotto
#

correct

#

copy the link in Install Module

opaque crescent
#

that's what manifest url's are

tame wharf
#

says its not compatable with current foundry table

#

i assume ignore that

vagrant grotto
#

it's compatible

#

ah okay maybe that's the v13 one

#

one sec

opaque crescent
#

you posted the wrong version, i think

#

2.0.1 is the latest v12

vagrant grotto
#

mb, wrong version

tame wharf
#

1000 years solo jungle leauge of legends

vagrant grotto
#

I've already done my time

tame wharf
#

fair

#

cheers though this works

frosty karma
#

do you consider adding a smol aided condition?

vagrant grotto
#

uhh maybe

#

I'll consider it

umbral sluice
vagrant grotto
#

worst case, you can always roll your own

#

like literally you can overwrite that mod by unlocking it and adding more stuff to it

opaque crescent
#

better to import them and add to them in the items tab if you're adding to them at all

#

if there's another version installed over it, the custom added items in the compendium would be removed

ashen crown
vagrant grotto
#

if you need COMPELLED DUEL it has it

#

I think I've also got Kai's rebakes covered in there

opaque crescent
#

a few of the rebake markers, yeah

tame wharf
#

i cant believe valk didnt spend time getting every possible unique effect in every homebrew in lancer smh my head my head

vagrant grotto
#

are you offering me to pay me to do it lol

tame wharf
#

if i have the disposable income again maybe lmao

vagrant grotto
#

I'm not gonna do it but if I did I would require compensation lol

tame wharf
#

damn, fair

viscid ingot
#

I honest to god wish there was a module that allows sorting of the quick status select menu.

sudden cosmos
#

tbh the hard part is getting silly icons for all the assorted status effects

#

for me at least

#

but also I ain't doin' any of that funky macro timing status tracking stuff.

#

I just need a glossy png that I can slam onto a weird icon which gets shoved in the status compendium and that's that

viscid ingot
#

I mean, you could go with different colored versions of the already existing status icons?

#

It's what I have been doing.

sudden cosmos
#

I'd like to figure out how to have status/condi macros apply to sprite effects someday so I can have prone tip sprites over and play metal pipe dot wav but I'm lazy and use foundry like a cro-magnon

opaque crescent
#

Lancerqol lets you assign macros to have sounds and effects on effect applying and removing

vagrant grotto
#

Al helped me set up mine iirc

#

I don’t remember how I did it

opaque crescent
#

It comes prepacked with a few examples, but I can help out if needed/wanted

muted blaze
#

If you have a macro called [CONDITION].apply and .remove lancerQOL will run that macro when that condition is applied or removed

umbral sluice
#

I use Al's one and its great, I assume you could copy that with PPG conditions and it would work fine

muted blaze
#

LancerQOL works with custom conditions

drifting parcel
#

Hello, I just wanted to say this is an absolute banger of a book and has really spiced up my tables without breaking the balance of the tables. The npcs just slot in perfectly and the templates have added a lot of flavour to encounters

#

Heaven knows no greater demon than a Brigand Berserker

vagrant grotto
drifting parcel
#

The bookbox was honestly just the thing I needed for a music based boss and for a faction of theatre kids

ruby torrent
#

Just wanted to say i took a mortal draw ultra Kensei for a spin last night and it was a huge hit with the players, looking forward to trying out the rest of the ppg roster!

vagrant grotto
ruby torrent
#

Mortal draw was a lot of fun, it really got their attention on the first swing and after that the party was completely focused on making sure he never got one off again

#

From a gm side they frankly ruined my day, but even with that it still felt really fun in play because they ruined my day as a product of investing all their effort in countering this guy and so he remained a very active looming threat even if he didn't really get a lot of damage off in practice

#

(I also honestly knew this was a risk going in, putting an ultra kensei as the centerpiece in a "your only objective is to kill this guy" sitrep, which i understand does not exactly play to its strengths)

#

The cone felt fair, it was a lot of damage in a wide area but it was telegraphed fairly and had a lot of opportunities to interrupt the combo

#

Terrain damage didn't come up in practice just cause of where the guy ended up so I can't say a ton about that, I definitely see the vision and i like it but i can't offer much more than whiteroom "looks neat"

vagrant grotto
#

Got it, wanted to check in case it was a hassle to track, or worth the trouble

ruby torrent
#

ah ok, yeah from that front I did ignore it blowing away a bunch of irrelevant terrain on the far side of the map cause it didn't feel worth the time to deal with, if it had been actively chewing through cover the pcs relied on i definitely would have tried to track it

#

If that's helpful at all

vagrant grotto
#

That’s valid, thank you! Ultimately glad you enjoyed it GM side

drifting parcel
#

Yeah the only thing I can with running Kensi is that if my players see one on the board it gets targeted fast. Maybe allow them to come in with the sheath active at a heat cost?

ruby torrent
#

timing was never a problem, for me at least, with all the extra activations, it was just that my pcs immediately identified heat cap and positioning as a weakness, focused down the ultra kensei's mirage buddy, and spent the rest of the sitrep dumping frag sigs on him so he had to constantly burn turns stabilizing or risk stress and never got an attack off without impair

#

which was exactly playing into the kensei's weaknesses, so its not anything i'd call a fault of the npc, they saw a boss's weak spot and dismantled it

ruby torrent
vagrant grotto
mental burrow
#

I'm honestly a bit intimidated by them lol
They seem too cruel to use on players

ashen crown
#

Jury Rigged is a downside trait tho

vagrant grotto
#

I think that AlmightyZote meant Brigands in general, like their optionals

ashen crown
#

Ah okay

vagrant grotto
#

Concept: changing the Vulture's Dandelion Phosphorus Cannon into a shortish-range rocket launcher

#

keep the same effects

umbral sluice
vagrant grotto
#

yup

#

I've got a lot of weapons in Lines, Cones, and Bursts (sometimes several at once) but not a lot of Blasts

#

Vulture wants to be a midliner more than a frontliner anyway

umbral sluice
#

it definitely sounds a lot better for screwing with LOS of enemies while avoiding allies than the dandelion

#

like range 8? 10? idk

vagrant grotto
#

8 tops

#

matches Sensors

umbral sluice
#

I feel like it should be blast 2 but idk if thats too strong

#

its a very nice area of denial

vagrant grotto
#

blast 2 is 19 spaces on Hex, Cone 5 is 15 spaces

#

I think Blast 2 is fine

#

differentiates it from Ace a little bit more

ashen crown
#

It’s still loading ultimately

vagrant grotto
#

yup, that's not changing

umbral sluice
#

the actual sizes of Blasts always surprise me

ashen crown
#

Plus last time I ran a vulture it did get caught in its own smoke. That wasn’t a bad or good thing it was just sorta a thing

vagrant grotto
#

I can sorta vibe with mini-daisy-cutter but I think I may be feeling this rocket launcher style more

#

I like it more for lingering areas

ashen crown
#

Vibes wise I’m liking it more

#

Wasn’t personally sure why Vulture had a Mini Daisy Cutter in the first place anyhow

vagrant grotto
#

felt right at the time

drifting parcel
vagrant grotto
#

I’m okay with minor pure downside traits, to be clear, but I also have been taking a hard look at Jury Rigged lately

drifting parcel
drifting parcel
vagrant grotto
tame wharf
#

@vagrant grotto what still needs testing? Do you have that big checklist on hand?

vagrant grotto
vagrant grotto
drifting parcel
#

Yeah hit me with it too

vagrant grotto
#

PPG optionals to test

Anchor

  • [x]
    Boombox
  • [ ] Base kit
  • [ ] Multiples
  • [ ] Elite
  • [ ] Ultra
  • [ ] All optionals
    Capacitor
  • [x]
    Ghost
  • [ ] String Theory Marionette
  • [ ] Wavefunction Collapse
  • [ ] Coherent Entanglement (ultra)
    Hatchet
  • [ ] Return to Sender (more)
  • [ ] Hurricane of steel (ultra)
    Howler
  • [ ] Base kit
  • [ ] Multiples
  • [ ] Elite
  • [ ] Ultra
  • [ ] All optionals
    Kensei
  • [x]
    Knight
  • [x]
    Mesmerist
  • [x]
    Napalm
  • [x]
    Occultist
  • [ ] Lead Astray
    Prism
  • [x]
    Torrent
  • [ ] Provisional “Prone without save on collision”
  • [ ] Crashing Tsunami (more)
    Vulture
  • [ ] Provisional Range 8 Blast 2 Dandelion
  • [ ] Aggressive refabrication (ultra)
    Zealot
  • [x]

Anomaly

  • [ ] Anything but lemme know if issues sticks out like a sore thumb

Brigand

  • [ ] Surgekiller
  • [ ] Shredding Claws

Formation

  • [ ] Anything at all

Prototype

  • [ ] Anything but lemme know if issues sticks out like a sore thumb
#

I’ll take feedback on anything, tbf, but these are the current holes

drifting parcel
#

Honestly Anomaly is my all time favourite template because it does have narrative interactions

#

I use those freaks for story time

vagrant grotto
#

I wanted to find some decent designs for attacking every part of the character sheet with Anomalies

#

Glad you’re enjoying them for that reason haha

drifting parcel
#

Yeah it's really helped elevate my arcane KTB girlies

#

A whole house of moments Anomaly list

#

Oh also with I forgot the name off my top my head but the brigade license revoker

#

I actually had my player call up HA Customer Services

#

Every failed roll was moving a space forward in the queue

ashen crown
tame wharf
ashen crown
#

My guess there is “anything on Boombox and Howler at all please”

#

My problem with Boombox is that I could justify any faction using it, which makes it hard to narrow down which factions should use it

viscid ingot
#

Its fun for the whole family.

#

:]

vagrant grotto
#

Yes those please

#

Updated

#

Imma add some sitreps to that too

#

It’s time to make a proper pinned post

tame wharf
vagrant grotto
#

@tame wharf

#

alright, time for some Darktide

south onyx
muted blaze
minor crest
#

Might have a couple combats of data on the Howler if Tuesday's session happens. Also on your modular sitreps as well

vagrant grotto
#

Hell yeah looking forward to hearing the results!

ashen crown
#

Hey Valk, your Sitreps tend to say “partial victory or defeat (depending on PC score)” somewhat frequently. When you say “depending on,” do you mean “you the GM fill in the blanks” or is there a specific amount you have in mind?

vagrant grotto
#

like it's covered under Partial Victory in every case

ashen crown
#

I keep missing things when trying to read I swear I’m double checking before I ask these questions T-T

#

(Btw Valk your sitreps seem really good for Attrition Missions and the Mission I’m about to run is going to be super attrition heavy so they’re gonna see a lotta use!)

#

(It’ll also be a mission where time is sorta of the essence, so if the PCs only partially succeed and decide to extract early there will be distinct rewards there, at the cost of their precious opposition being not quite done yet)

#

(Or other stuff- context dependent)

ashen crown
#

Hm. I doubt it’s ever come up but I was curious to ask- has there ever been feedback on the Mesmerist’s evasion + e-def being “too low for a dodge tank”? I’m personally curious about the process that led to the numbers being what they are now since they’re good and decently high, but they don’t reach the same heights similarly evasive NPCs reach, which I find interesting

#

Not saying they should be changed I’m just curious

vagrant grotto
#

I don’t want them to be Hornet-tier evasion tbf

ashen crown
#

Makes perfect sense, I wouldn’t want them there either. Hornet tier evasion is their own thing. I did find it notable they didn’t have scout tier evasion tho (maybe not even specter tier but I don’t recall that scaling off the top of my head) but that’s just me

#

Again this is more just my own curiosity, seems like the evasion it does have works like a charm

vagrant grotto
#

I could see an argument for 11/13/15

#

“Is this more or less nimble than an operator”

ashen crown
#

It definitely goes into the fray heavily and is, well, a dodge tank, so I was just expecting a little more despite it already having Mirror Image

vagrant grotto
#

Its edef should always be higher than its evasion imo

ashen crown
#

Would this be something to keep an eye on or is the current number set in stone?

vagrant grotto
#

Run more Mesmerists and lemme know the miss rates

#

Or more like, lifespans

ashen crown
#

Imma run a lotta Mesmerists soon >:)

vagrant grotto
#

Please do so and report back

#

I welcome feedback on generic NPC survivability

ashen crown
#

And the my striker + artillery is a Pegasus Alt (functionally not too different from a regular Pegasus) and a Brawler Zheng, so I’ll be seeing a lot of both dumb and smart weapons being thrown at it

vagrant grotto
#

knight got an hp bump and mild evasion scaling recently

ashen crown
#

I will be fielding a lot of PPG defenders tbh

vagrant grotto
#

lol Pegasus would fuck up a Mesmerist

ashen crown
#

Only if he spares actions on Eye of Horus

vagrant grotto
#

Pegasus peels defenses like an onion

#

Omnigun is always useful

ashen crown
#

Like I plan on fielding Ghosts, Knights, and Mesmerists with regularity this arc

ashen crown
#

Instead it gets the ability to rotate out mounts, so basically he can choose a gradient of Autoguns to have equipped at the cost of almost all his SP

#

Stellar Codex Unicorn- is pretty cool

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
#

It’s a really good coincidence my players picked this mission otherwise this never would’ve happened lmao

vagrant grotto
#

Oh, @ashen crown by the way I’m revising my metric

#

For defenders, if you can track Actions To Kill, that would be best

#

I.E. Every action that gets used against a defender

#

Measured in quick actions

ashen crown
#

I’ll be sure to note that down!

#

Do you count Free Actions?

vagrant grotto
#

Free actions don’t count much here in this case

ashen crown
#

Gotcha

vagrant grotto
#

You can mention it though

#

Esp for Autogun stuff

ashen crown
#

It’ll probably come up lol

vagrant grotto
#

Defenders want to eat opponent’s damage and action economy more than other enemies

#

I don’t know if you’ll track this for EVERYONE but like, it’ll be helpful for figuring out action distribution

#

Simply knowing round count + # of players will establish how many actions were in the pool to begin with

ashen crown
#

Ghosts I probably won’t track it for because, well… I mean the Actions to Kill for them is low but also not the point. Knights and Mesmerists I’ll note however

vagrant grotto
#

If paradox state eats a quick, that’s valid and should credit to the ghost

ashen crown
#

Good point- I just didn’t really consider that equal to “actions to kill”

vagrant grotto
#

Actions actively denied or harried are essential to track for non-DPS yeah, they’re just harder to do so than damage

ashen crown
#

I’m also actively searching for and finding excuses to slot Torrents into this module roster, so that’ll be fun :D

vagrant grotto
#

Lemme know if you try the provisional change

ashen crown
#

What’s the provisional change? I must’ve missed it

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
#

I’ll test it out then!

#

I’m getting very excited to finally use all these NPCs :3

muted blaze
vagrant grotto
#

Open up the conditional formatting menu and you’ll see my setup

muted blaze
#

This is a new term I haven't heard of that I will research

#

I don't think I have permission to view it on your sheets

#

Alas, I can figure it out

vagrant grotto
#

Make a copy then

#

Should still be there

muted blaze
#

Sick

#

Formatted my bug tracker to look somewhat more appealing 🫡 Thanks

vagrant grotto
muted blaze
#

Well I added it to my bug tracker 😛

#

And I went "huh, the test tracker is very helpful" and made my own

vagrant grotto
#

Got it, I’m just saying my bug tracker also has it

#

In case you wanted a reference for how to build yours out

muted blaze
#

I already am using Pestos

vagrant grotto
#

Nice- I am confusion then

#

Because Pesto’s has it preconfigured on the bug tracker…

#

Based on the issue’s status (open, fixed, etc)

#

Whatever, doesn’t matter

#

Glad it helped!

muted blaze
#

I read Pestos guide, basically copied the bug tracker. But the test tracker I made was a different format to yours and I realised yours was a good format so then ended up making my own

#

If you got your test tracker from Pestos guide then I guess I just built mine wrong initially

vagrant grotto
#

I made my test tracker by hand yesterday

muted blaze
#

Ok sick

vagrant grotto
#

I’m gonna add one more sitrep I think: “Vanquish”

#

"Modular ""kill this thing"" objective. Can be one or several. Can be combined with a second objective"

#

Then maybe have the spare page demonstrate some combination objectives

#

Maybe add a morale score tracker that decreases when NPCs face setbacks?

#

Point being: I wanna make an objective for killing a target, as a “sometimes food”, and showing how it can be incorporated with other objectives to remain interesting and dynamic

#

“You killed the guy but he’s in the ass end of nowhere and it’s harder to drag the corpse around than it is to grapple them”

granite saddle
#

Well, not really with handling being a thing

#

As long as it's not a size 3

flat urchin
#

inflatable mech expands to size 3 after being wrecked

granite saddle
#

It was Paris right ? no it isn't found it it was Hector

vagrant grotto
granite saddle
#

Grapple restricts boost anyways, so unless you're a blackbeard it's not so big of a difference

ashen crown
#

Villainous idea: pair Demolisher with Metafold Riposte Mesmerist

#

Or Goliath- a Goliath would probably be better

vagrant grotto
#

Use Grapple + Skirmisher 2 to walk someone over

granite saddle
#

Right. Forgot you're not taking yours or Al's talent rework in all this

#

Still, I very much do enjoy the thought of having an option for Vanquish be "when you kill the guy it becomes a Transport Objective"

vagrant grotto
#

Yup yup

#

Dogwater Gulch has a neutral monstrosity kaiju that both the PCs and opfor want to catch, so once it’s downed it becomes a holdout zone

dapper goblet
#

I can test alt pattern vulture today - I feel like the cone is awkward anyway tbh

#

(Very late on this but)

ashen crown
#

Would y’all say Barricades and Torrents fill similar niches as Controllers?

#

Asking because I’m making substitutions to a module and wanna check that this isn’t a stretch

dapper goblet
#

Imo no. Barricade is “don’t come over here” torrent is “come along children”

vagrant grotto
#

Barricade is rearguard coded

dapper goblet
#

Ultimately they’re both movement controllers but they do it really differently

vagrant grotto
#

Torrent is Vanguard coded

#

Torrent is like, primary Vanguard secondary Controller tbh

ashen crown
#

Hm, so maybe that substitution wouldn’t be as clean as I thought. Then again the sitreps with Barricades are like. Controls and the like. So I almost feel Torrent would be more at home than Barricade. But maybe Barricade is there to make things easier?

vagrant grotto
vagrant grotto
ashen crown
#

IGF act 2

#

some of the combats are unfinished so I’m filling in a lot of blanks myself

dapper goblet
#

Still in roguelite hell so data will be funky but player builds are really shaping up and combats have felt fairly balanced so far

ashen crown
#

one of the optional ones is just gonna be completely built from scratch by me since it only exists in Discord Conversation thus far

#

It’s the || KTB|| chapter specifically

vagrant grotto
#

Is it intended to be a playtest report

#

Mostly asking for Vex’s sake

ashen crown
#

On the combats? Not especially tbh

#

Mainly just the story pacing

vagrant grotto
#

In any case, I’d sub an occultist for barricade on control

ashen crown
#

I kinda just accepted that’s not something my group in particular will be able to give firsthand feedback on unfortunately, partially because there’s so far not enough to work with RAW for me to have a good idea what’s intended, mostly because my group was dealing with the end of IGF going somewhat off the books mechanically and it’d feel weird to stop now

ashen crown
#

So for this arc I’m leaving pretty much the rest of PPG at the door for now, templates excepted

#

I like Rebake Barricades and I miss them

vagrant grotto
#

Aight well if you wanna run torrents then go for it, it’ll just be a very different experience and purpose than Barricade

ashen crown
#

It’s a distance away so I’ll have plenty of time to choose

#

Plus I’m gonna be using PPG sitrep rules for that combat most likely

#

And for the rest of them too most likely

vagrant grotto
#

Unfortunate, maybe sometime in the future then

ashen crown
tame wharf
#

@vagrant grotto is there a recommended amount of enemy structure/activations for a Transport?

vagrant grotto
#

It depends on how long you want it to go

#

Every objective has the same number of allotted enemies based on duration

#

So it’s not about “what is the enemy count for this objective” it’s “what is the enemy count for this target duration”

tame wharf
#

ive just had a really dumb idea

#

@vagrant grotto can Prototype take features from 'any' part of an NPC?

#

When choosing optional features, the Prototype
may choose from this template’s Optional
Features or features from any other NPC class

granite saddle
#

That's what that means I think, yup

#

It doesn't specify Optional features so I imagine anything

vagrant grotto
umbral sluice
#

this is Valk's way of telling you to void your warranty /j

#

go, put Siege Armour on things that should never have it

ashen crown
tame wharf
vagrant grotto
#

Sure

#

Bolster neat

ashen crown
#

Imma be honest I don’t get it

#

Like it’s neat but that seems like the end of it

tame wharf
#

i mean it dosent need to be wacky wohoo crazy, but also i think i undersold it

viscid ingot
#

Payday be almost here.

#

I'mma bout to yoink the PPG like I'm the yoinkman from Florida.

tame wharf
#

Initial Deployment

  • Prototype Elite Commander Boombox (Bust A Move, Powerchord, Soundbarrier, Ghost [PPG] Ghastly Vigor, Press On!) - Two Structure, Two Activations
  • Prototype Veteran Witch [K] (ICE Cracker, Infoscramble Cloak, Pain Transference, Xnopyt Potato) - Two Structure, One Activation
  • Berserker [K] (Harpoon Cannon, Overdrive Servos) - One Structure, One Activation
  • Sniper [K] (Moving Target, Sharpshooter) - One Structure, One Activation
  • Rainmaker [K] (Seeker Volley, Suppression Salvo) - One Structure, One Activation

Reserves:

  • Berserker [K] (Harpoon Cannon, Overdrive Servos) - One Structure, One Activation
  • Rainmaker [K] (Seeker Volley, Suppression Salvo) - One Structure, One Activation
  • Sniper [K] (Moving Target, Sharpshooter) - One Structure, One Activation
#

the Gang

tame wharf
#

@vagrant grotto how do you have where Scanning an enemy in Foundry also just lets you look at its sheet/token?

muted blaze
#

If you open the macro, at the top there should be a section that says "actorPermissionLevel"

#

You want to change that bit to CONST.DOCUMENT_OWNERSHIP_LEVELS.OBSERVER

tame wharf
#

👍

muted blaze
#

This is basically saying that if you scan the target, everyone becomes an observer

ashen crown
vagrant grotto
#

yeah

#

needs a GM to do the scans though

#

players don't have permissions to change permissions (obviously)

ashen crown
#

I’ve been manually changing permissions this whole time lmao

opaque crescent
#

tbf the scan macro isn't exactly explained, more like dropped into the laps of anyone who boots up the foundry system

sudden cosmos
#

a boombox test has been penned in alongside the howler now

#

literally all of its stuff needs to be tested okay cool aaaaaaaaaah

#

reverb feedback or power chord

#

I can't decide

tame wharf
# 
# House Rules In Play:
- Structure and Stress Changes 
- Overkill Toggle
- Drone Standard Move
- Aid Quick Action
- Object Handling Rules (Ignored, see below)
    - “As a protocol or quick action, a character may start to handle an adjacent object or willing character by lifting or dragging them. A character may choose to stop handling an object as a free action.”
      
      “If a character starts to handle an object handled by a hostile character, the object does not move until it is only handled by characters allied with each other. If a character handling an object is involuntarily moved such that they are no longer adjacent to the object, they cease to handle the object. As a protocol or quick action, a handler may roll a single HULL check. All hostile handlers must succeed on a contested HULL check or cease to handle the object.”
- 1/Scene Brace (Used, is fine)

# Budget:
Budget: 2-3 Normal NPCs per PC, with 6 Activations/Round
4 PCs.
11 TOTAL NPCS.
-3 For Elite Boombox
-2 For Prototype Veteran Witch
-2 For 2x Berserkers 
-2 for 2x Rainmakers
-2 for 2x Sniper
-1 for Mirage
# OPFOR:
## Initial Deployment
- Prototype Elite Commander Boombox (Bust A Move, Powerchord, Soundbarrier, Ghost [PPG] Ghastly Vigor, Press On!) - Two Structure, Two Activations
- Prototype Veteran Witch [K] (ICE Cracker, Infoscramble Cloak, Pain Transference, Xnopyt Potato) - Two Structure, One Activation
- Berserker [K] (Harpoon Cannon, Overdrive Servos)
- Sniper [K] (Moving Target, Sharpshooter)
- Rainmaker [K] (Seeker Volley, Suppression Salvo)
## Reserves:
- Berserker [K] (Harpoon Cannon, Overdrive Servos)
- Rainmaker [K] (Seeker Volley, Suppression Salvo)
- Sniper [K] (Moving Target, Sharpshooter)
- Mirage [K] (Metafold Shove, Illusiory Subroutines)

## Notes:
- Player enjoyed Prototypes, the Witch's stuff didn't come up because they just ignored it and gunned down everything else, so. 
- Expanded Compartment allowed one of the characters to just load the Objective into their mech, not requiring them to handle it. 
- Soundboard possibly too strong against melee mechs since its 'come near me and get Jammed lol lmao'
- Power Chord is fine.
- Bust a Move is...weird? Its strong and being able to just eat someones Standard Move at range is really good and it only having a 4+ Recharge makes it decently likely it'll be able to do it multple times. 
- Player thought was:
    - The Boombox fucked over every attempt to end the encounter as fast as possible and is so anti-melee that it feels completely unfun to play against. It did define the fight though so it's decently setpiece-e
- Player played several melee mechs and thought that it was really really painful.

## Ariana Thoughts:
- I don't like the Boombox in its current state. It so heavily punishes melee by just *existing* and throwing out Bust a Move so consistently (though that may have just been luck based) caused the player to almost lose the Sitrep because of how consistently their mechs were on their ass. Boombox also feels like its trying to be a Support/Controller/Striker with how close range its weapons is, and how it wants to walk up. It does want a melee kill squad, but it *only* wants a melee kill squad. It does not work with ranged units besides having super-mega-long ranged ones such as Archer or Bombard, but it can't have *both*. It needs to have one or the other and I could feel the confliction with how it wanted to be in peoples faces and also how it *didn't*. Personally I feel like it should be Drone based, with it having its own aura and then having drones that mimic the aura like Speakers (literally call them Speaker Drones and we're good). Overall its all over the place and needs to have a good look at it to try to figure out what it wants to do.
    - Boombox flavor seems too silly (player comment)
#

@vagrant grotto

sudden cosmos
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reverb feedback it is since power chord has a datapoint now

tame wharf
#

Powercord was cool, both player and I agreed that the 'Stunned until start of turn' is a cool design space and should be explored more. Soundbarrier and Ghastly Vigor didn't end up coming up but thats fine.

sudden cosmos
#

I do agree that the boombox's flavor is a bit silly, but it's a reference to kill the noise and I think that's cute

sudden cosmos
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party's gonna have a fun one this weekend

image.png
vagrant grotto
#

What was the player teamcomp, if you don't mind me asking?

tame wharf
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BB was Melee, Heca was Melee/Ranged

tame wharf
#

which was chill tbh

vagrant grotto
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Did you require that all players still extract?

tame wharf
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yeah i did

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they did just

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end up killing all the allocated NPCs I had for this sitrep

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and as soon as the Boombox died I had the enenmies on the field dip and give her the win (shes been having a rough few days so I just handed her the win)

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but for an extraction there should be constant waves of enemies im realziing

vagrant grotto
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Okay so it was supposed to be an Extraction variant then?

tame wharf
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no sorry im dumb

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Transport

vagrant grotto
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right I mean "extraction modification of Transport"

tame wharf
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correct

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Extract with VIP

vagrant grotto
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How did the "1 heat per save inflicted" on Soundboard feel?

tame wharf
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it only triggered once because the player did not want to close with it/.

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She also popped BB CP specifcally to just go 'no, you stay here now'

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I do like it, but for non-once-per-scene jammed on a QA zone? its not enough of a costr

vagrant grotto
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so wait, did you only use the Jammed version of Soundboard? And it only triggered once?

tame wharf
#

correct

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the player had enough range to just stand outside and beat its ass with 3 threat nanocarbon

vagrant grotto
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I'm noting that I might have worded Jam Session incorrectly

tame wharf
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I also realzied I built the supporting opfor wrong. It dosen't want to be guarding ranged folks it wants to be guarding melee folks so they can walk up as a death ball and murder someone

vagrant grotto
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I believe I intended it to be possible to step out of the area and shed jammed immediately

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then they could step back in, unjammed

tame wharf
#

The Boombox plays music in a Burst 2 area until the start of its next turn. Upon activating this system, the Boombox chooses one of the following effects, which affects hostile characters that start their turn in the area or enter it for the first time in a round:

Bass Drop: Make a Hull save or be knocked Prone.
Jam Session: Make a Systems save or become Jammed while in the area.
Each save caused by this effect inflicts 1 Heat to the Boombox.

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this is how its currently worded?

vagrant grotto
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yes

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I am saying I think I could've worded it better

tame wharf
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I agree with this

vagrant grotto
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It sounds like the players were very threatened by the Jam field even though it only ever triggered once, and the players had the range to play around it

tame wharf
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ye, because she didn't want to close for fear of gettign jammed

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i will say though, Bust a Move was abolsutely the main thing that got the Boombox the death warrent

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being able to Range 8 prone a mf on just a 4+ Recharge is strong

vagrant grotto
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No joy for Balance Control Lockout: NPC version I see

tame wharf
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it is 'QA to eat someones standard movement and impair them'

vagrant grotto
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feedback noted

tame wharf
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I'd argue that BCL and Bust a Move are in similar power tiers but sideways from eachother

vagrant grotto
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It makes sense that it would get high uptime as an Elite

tame wharf
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Yeah, also that

vagrant grotto
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I'm honestly glad to hear Power Chord is fine

tame wharf
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it being an Elite let it drop it on someone at least 1/round

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I really like Power Chord

vagrant grotto
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even if it's just "fine"

tame wharf
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i only managed to catch one person in it and we agreed that the stunend until start of turn is much much nicer then every other stun effect

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but the main comment of the player was "i dont like fighting this because of how hard it punishes melee'

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Soundproof didn't come up

vagrant grotto
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so wait was this only 1 player commanding 4 mechs?

tame wharf
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Correct

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We didn't have any of the other players around due to Life Stuff so it was just msyelf and one player

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I'm torn on Boombox in its current state

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On one hand, its got a really clear idenity for what it looks like what its doing.
On the other hand, I don't know what it wants to be set up to do

vagrant grotto
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Can you clarify what you mean by "It does not work with ranged units"

tame wharf
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I don't actually think I mean that, I'm just tired and my thoughts are blurring together

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My specific issue is that 'the Boombox currently only really "wants" to have melee units next to it to get the most benefit out of all of its stuff"

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See: Powerchord, Waveform Nexus, and Soundboard all being really short ranged, as well as its optionals that buff its Soundboard

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Does that make sense?

vagrant grotto
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I can see where you're coming from

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btw you mentioned you only caught 1 character in Power Chord. How did the Cone 7 feel? (Also how big was the map, for reference?)

tame wharf
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uh I think it was Medium or Long length?

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I don't have the foundry open to check

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I say I also only caught one character because only one character really got into range for it

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Also: whats the intent behind making it a Heavy melee?

vagrant grotto
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the intent was that it was like playing a guitar with a soundwave, and the soundwave then ignores Engagement and Cover penalties

tame wharf
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Power Chord dosen't say it ignores engagement but im dumb and thats just how melee works

vagrant grotto
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yeah that's just how melee works

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did Boombox ever get a chance to use Waveform Nexus?

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if so, how did it feel?

tame wharf
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It did yeah

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It felt fine

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I have no strong opinions on it

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I do feel like the Boombox would beenfit from an optional or somethjing in its kit where it can choose an ally and have its zone also originate from another target, but it becomes Immobilized while it does

vagrant grotto
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Veteran has Subwoofer for that, and the object can be dragged around if desired

tame wharf
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true, yeah

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i do feel like it should be a drone the Boombox can move rather than a stationary object but thats just me

vagrant grotto
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I haven't seen it used yet, happy to take playtest feedback on it though

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I will say that the intent for the Boombox was for it to be a force multiplier granting extra accuracy for its allies, through a combination of Lock On and Prone

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At one point I wanted to have Soundboard be both beneficial to allies and detrimental to enemies, but right now it seems a bit Controller-oriented

tame wharf
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ye

vagrant grotto
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alright, thanks for staying up and answering my questions then

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this is helpful

tame wharf
serene tangle
#

Question about the prism's weapon, is it fired as Burst 1 or range 10, or fired as range 10 + burst 1?

(Not used to seeing both burst and range on a weapon profile)

(Also please ping me or I'll miss the reply, thanks!)

sudden cosmos
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But it's kinda like insulated or the energy resist that scourer has. It's a bit niche, but being niche is okay.

tame wharf
vagrant grotto
vagrant grotto
serene tangle
dapper goblet
#

Very quick thoughts on the vulture weapon retemplating - it is notably stronger. There are a lot more opportunities to place in perfectly so you can basically force players to eat over watches without much counter play by parking a ronin next to them and then only smoking the player. This was possible before but much easier now. I tested at Blast 1 range 10 with an elite vulture

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I would hesitate to say it’s oppressive but it is very, very good on fairly park-and-bark sitreps like control or holdout

vagrant grotto
sudden cosmos
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I wonder if R5@ Blast 1 would be more reasonable

granite saddle
#

You could always do the Return To Sender reserve funny of blast 2 range 3; still close to Big Cone, but even wider.

vagrant grotto
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I’d just stick with a cone at that point

sudden cosmos
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Wasn't there going to be something in the PPG structure/stress plugin that could have it set to PCs only for those of us who wanna use Kai's structure/stress for NPCs?

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Figured I'd ask here since it's a PPG thing so it's less likely to get buried than in #lancer-vtt

ashen crown
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You could also be a freak and make it a ranged cone attack lol

vagrant grotto
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I'm not doing Blast 2 range 3

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I'd rather do a cone in that case

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didn't say I wouldn't do Range 5 Blast 1

ashen crown
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Who said Blast 2 range 3?

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OH

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lol I missed that

sudden cosmos
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I know I'm using a vulture soon. The problem is I don't know when my players will open the door that has the vulture behind it.

vagrant grotto
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all good

vagrant grotto
opaque crescent
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uhhh so with the way I'm currently doing it, no

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I was looking into it at one point, but have since put it on low priority of things to do with the module. Currently how it works is by mangling the existing structure flow and removing all the steps we don't care about - this isn't exactly a clean way of doing it.

It's on a to-do list to properly look at allowing other structure/stress code to run for different actor types

frosty karma
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is it possible to use these macro for the npc instead of the mod if i wanna use both? #1334655875679260692 message

vagrant grotto
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I’d assume so yeah? Depends on whether the structure/stress auto decrements or not

ashen crown
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You know it just occurred to me that Formation is essentially “a grunt but with better reach and taking 4 hits to kill instead of 1”

vagrant grotto
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Depends on how you interpret the formation

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I tend to interpret the formation as 1 NPC in 4 bodies instead of 4 Grunts

ashen crown
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Yeah I interpret it as 1 NPC too

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Weirdly, I feel a Formation can in some contexts make an NPC more tanky rather than less, which isn’t a bad thing just an observation. Example: a Hornet could be 1 shot by a charged DD-288, but a Formation Hornet can’t be

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In terms of direct bulk it replaces HP with “it takes exactly 4 hits to kill this thing”

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Which I can see a lot of utility in

muted blaze
ashen crown
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Hence “some contexts”

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Also the AoEs without reliable could always just miss, hence why I used DD-288 as an example because hit or miss that Hornet is ded

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It’s niche but noteworthy to me

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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The more I look at Formation the more interesting it feels, because it doesn’t feel like a direct downgrade so much as it feels like a side grade to an Untemplated NPC

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Also weird scenario- Formation Specter using Hunt and then hiding to hide 2/4 of its members

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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Formation Specters feel like they’d both suffer yet find contexts where they excel

vagrant grotto
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But yeah it’s 100% a side grade and was intended to be so

ashen crown
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They be funky ones

vagrant grotto
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Much like how grunt was intended to be one

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Assuming 4 grunts were deployed

ashen crown
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Before I was pretty lukewarm on Formation but after dwelling on it for a while I feel I gotta use one at some point

vagrant grotto
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My first outing with them was satisfactory, looking forward to using them more

tame wharf
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Formation of Boomboxes, call that a boyband

ashen crown
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Hm… 3 questions:

for effects like Aegis Defense Net or Anchor’s Lodestone, does only the formation member that used the action produce the area? Or is it like Prism where they all produce the area? And if the latter do they all count as the same area (for the purposes of shooting from one Formation Lodestone area to another) or no?

And for Formation Prisms, do they only make 1 projector that corresponds to the Formation Member that used the action? If so, does that 1 projector only benefit that 1 formation member, or can all of them draw LoS (and be hurt by) it?

And for persistent effects like Deathcouter or Mirror Image, do all members of the formation share the same uses of that effect? (This one I feel more secure about saying “yes they share them” but idk)

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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Interesting interesting- Formation Prisms sound terrifying to run from a tracking PoV but a Formation Mesmerist sounds fun AF

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“BEHOLD! 5 REFRACTING ARMOR AREAS!!!”

vagrant grotto
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Hehehe

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No seek, only find

tame wharf
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Formation Goliaths

ashen crown
vagrant grotto
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Destroy it, if only for sanity’s sake

ashen crown
# tame wharf Formation Goliaths

Formation Knight- get compelled duel and have your movement not at all be restricted because there is a member of the formation in each cardinal direction so you’re always moving closer

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but watch out

tame wharf
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Formation Sentienl

vagrant grotto
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In general: stuff directly linked to a member of the formation should only affect that member

Stuff that is linked to a target will, in contrast, be linked to all members

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So if something uses Lodestone, it centers it on itself and nobody else (self-targeting, if you will)

But if something uses snipers/assassins mark, it is doing “other targeting” and all members can use it

ashen crown
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Makes sense

ashen crown
frosty karma
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formation lurker

ashen crown
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Imma be real that’s not too different from a regular lurker. Or 2 lurkers

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
vagrant grotto
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But that means half with eye and half without

ashen crown
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Well no dupe action restriction

vagrant grotto
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Im saying over time

ashen crown
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Ah okay

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Still, I doubt the eye users would live long enough to make real use out of it

vagrant grotto
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2 bodies for standing still and 2 for preparing rapid response

vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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You got me there

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But Bodyguard Formation Sentinels

vagrant grotto
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Yup that’ll work

ashen crown
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One of them uses eye of midnight, and the rest will trickle in with boosts

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With maybe 1 of the non midnights getting an overwatch out of it

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(That feels like a fair ruling- the non midnighters share 1 overwatch while the midnighter has its own limitless pool?)

vagrant grotto
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Yeah

ashen crown
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It certainly sounds easier to track than “first overwatch used steals it from everyone, midnight or not”

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Anyway a Formation Sniper sounds genuinely terrifying tbh

vagrant grotto
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Halo 2 sniper alley hours

tame wharf
vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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Formation artillery in general seems pretty dangerous due to the fact you could, idk, put a member of the formation in each corner of the map on deployment and make them really hard to kill

vagrant grotto
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Sure does

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Good luck

ashen crown
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Oh I just realized something fun to do with Doppelgänger.

Deploy a “Berserker.” Trick the players to leave it alone til later because it’ll take time to close the gap and there are more high priority targets. Activate last. Fire the Bombard Cannon.

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If you feel extra mean about it, if they take damage in a scenario where both Stampede Defense and Siege Armor would be in effect, don’t reveal the resistance trait in use :)

ashen crown
granite saddle
final violet
#

Soliciting opinions on a combat for a PPG playtest that I'm proud of but is kind of boundary-pushing in a way that modular sitreps enable. It starts at<t:1772553600:f>, more detailed announcememnt forthcoming, so if you're planning on showing up don't look.
||Combat 1: Kentucky Meat Shower ||
||Sitrep: Blitz, currenty have it penciled in as a 4-player Long but the numbers could go up and down depending on people and time (There are twice as many objectives as needed to win, which is important because the objectives are Wrecks and the combat is called Kentucky Meat Shower. Note that contrary to the rules as written for Blitz, the objectives are Size 2. It's a suprise tool that will help us later)||
||Extra note: NPCs will not be using Overcharge Rerolls||
||1x Elite Veteran Napalm (Firefly Drone, Incendiary Grenade, Reactor Accelerant)||
||1x Elite Veteran Torrent (Scalding Greywash, Crashing Tsunami, Self-Repair)||
||5x Vulture ||
||1x Anomaly Formation Vulture (Process Drinker, Heliocide, Dust and Echoes)||
||Objectives: Anomaly Veteran Barricade (Titan-Snare Drone, Hunger/Pursuit Limpets, Remote Assemblers Time Stop, Local Climate (High Gravity). They will turn back into scorable objectives if they turn back into wrecks.||

vagrant grotto
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||Heliocide on a Formation is hilarious, and makes me glad I made it 1/round||

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||do the objectives need to die in order to be scored, or something else||

final violet
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||Dying is what I meant by turning them back into Wrecks.||

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||It's not a Vanquish into a Blitz, the Barricades only spawn if the Souls get into an objective, which should trigger an 'oh crap' moment once the players realize that it's a possibility||

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||Player: "Wait, if the objectives are wrecks of something in particular, what is it?" Me: :)||

vagrant grotto
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Ah fuck I miswrote Reap the Chaff

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I need to revise it to say “the target’s adjacent allies”

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Because otherwise it’s allies relative to the Occultist, which excludes itself

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I should honestly do a general sweep of drone language to clarify language around it, like i did for Hero’s Banner

ashen crown
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I thought it wasn’t

vagrant grotto
viscid ingot
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I now have PPG.

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I be readin. :3

viscid ingot
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I cast upon thee Valk. Suggestions for Advanced Variants of the Boombox just from my eyeballs picking stuff.

"Callout"

  • Bust a Move
  • Spotlight
    Description: Single out high priority targets with Spotlight to slap Lock-On and reveal if Invisible or Hidden, before using Bust a Move to get them to fall Prone.

"Groovy"

  • Reverb Feedback
  • Sound Barrier
    Description: Function like a pseudo Aegis with Sound Barrier providing Soft Cover and Reverb Feedback clear any debuffs allied characters are suffering from.
vagrant grotto
viscid ingot
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I unfortunately couldn't think of a fitting name for the Groovy one.

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I initially thought Disco but that was a bit on the nose.

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Maybe Rhythym would work but still

vagrant grotto
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Don’t worry about doing these for me please

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I’ll figure them out on my own

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Right now I’m more concerned about whether the base kit works, and if the individual optionals are functional

viscid ingot
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Fair fair.

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Also I noticed the Howler.

vagrant grotto
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I also don’t want folks trying to write this stuff up when I could scrap any amount of its kit

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Same goes for Howler

viscid ingot
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Neat little pressure NPC

vagrant grotto
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That’s what I’m hoping too haha

viscid ingot
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I can see the idea of the Howler. It's a pressure punisher similar to the Berserker.

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It is not meant to be ignored.

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Or rather, ignore at your own peril.

vagrant grotto
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Exactly

viscid ingot
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Oh looking at the Kensei. Damn, if I put a Kensei and one of my Ronin+ onto the field. Then players might cry.

vagrant grotto
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Lol, Jetstream Sam and Raiden

viscid ingot
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Honestly not a bad comparison.

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My Ronin+ are more so like Dynasty/Samurai Warriors characters in terms of gameplay tho.

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Kensei is Iaido master

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Also it feels kinda sad that Kensei and Ronin+ are what Atlas wants to be.

vagrant grotto
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I don’t know, I don’t think Atlas wants to be either of those

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I think Atlas wants to be Raiden, or an Attack On Titan survey corps member

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That’s why I let the Atlas Jockey

umbral sluice
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Atlas is an Attack on Titan character that the community sold as an MGRR character imo

vagrant grotto
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My counter is that Vanilla Atlas is a Shinobi character community-sold as an MGRR character

viscid ingot
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My counter is that vanilla Atlas is an Assassin's Creed character that the community sold as an MGRR character when honestly is a Sword Art Online mall ninja.

vagrant grotto
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I’ll believe that

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But yeah that’s why I changed it to be more survey-corps focused

viscid ingot
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Giving the Atlas the ability to Jockey honestly feels like that is what its missing.

vagrant grotto
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I got rid of the Grapple thing it could do and replaced it with Jockey, which imo is a lot more interesting

viscid ingot
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Essentially giving it survivability to make the Atlas harder to hit because it is climbing all over a mech.

vagrant grotto
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Yeah, it gets soft cover from jockeying and still can use Jäger Dodge to bail

viscid ingot
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My Assassin+ has a similarly functioning Jockey optional trait.

vagrant grotto
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So far though, folks have been using Atlas like an off-brand goblin symbiosis lol

viscid ingot
vagrant grotto
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So I may add a “you fall off when immobilized” clause but we’ll see

viscid ingot
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This is my Assassin+'s Jockey :3

vagrant grotto
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Looks pretty strong yeah

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I think it’s a little sad that there’s no contested check so it can flex its Kai bio plating, lol

viscid ingot
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Ooh, that might be a funny tweak I can slap into it.

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Maybe regular Grapple Contest rules but can choose between Hull and Agility against the Assassin+'s Agility.

vagrant grotto
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Hell yeah

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I just love contested checks

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Let’s fuckin roll-off

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Especially when players get Overcharge Rerolls

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They feel like heroes

viscid ingot
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Ah. I see you are a fan of the-

PC vs NPC Contested Hull Checks
PC attempts to succeed
NPC rolls higher
PC: "Ngh... it's too strong... But I'm not done yet!"
PC Overcharges to try again
NPC: "To think, you would struggle in such an unsightly way."
PC succeeds this time
NPC: "I miscalculated!"

vagrant grotto
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Players love to cheat rerolls

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And I love for my Veteran NPCs to cheat them too

umbral sluice
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AND THEN THE PC PULLS OUT TECHNOPHILE 2!!!!

tame wharf
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And then the Commander on the OpFor uses their Reroll ability

viscid ingot
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Average Contested Check in Lancer

vagrant grotto
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They’re normally not this involved lol

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This is why PF2E restricts Fortune effects though

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Only 1 fortune or misfortune effect, and 1 of each cancels each other out

muted blaze
#

Contested checks are funny

"Beat a 6"
"Done"

"Beat a 21"
"Easy, done"

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"Beat a 12"
"Piss, failed"

final violet
#

Posting Combat 2 of my playtest for review.
||Combat 2: Better Off TED||
||Sitrep: Triangulate (Decoys) Into Seize||
||Like Combat 1, Core Content is from the NPC rebake, NPCs do not use Overcharge Rerolls because I feel the harm is minimal compared to PCs, and the numbers are penciled in for a 4-player Medium/Long but may change.||
||2x Veteran Boombox (Reverb Feedback, Sound Barrier, Subwoofer)||
||2x Veteran Vulture (Magnet Bomb, Carcass Reclamation Bunker, Grapplescrapper)||
||2x Formation Assassin (Devil's Cough Shotgun, Shroud Projector)||
||2x Prototype Zealot (Auntie-Augmented Minigun, Blazing Fervor)||
||Like a TED conference, this combat revolves around speakers. Unlike a TED conference, the speakers are manufactured by Vultures and toted around by Asssasins so that Zealots can use them to hide. The Zealots will by and large Zeal-Auntie-Hide, and their other weapons and systems are Subwoofers in waiting. Remember that Handle can be used as a protocol, so all members of an Assassin formation can pick up Subwoofers individually and the Zealots can fit it in to their action rotations. Note that the Vultures might want to recharge Shroud Generator and reload Devil's Cough shotgun in exigient circumstances.||

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Is basic Triangulate designed around needing to find multiple objectives or should I use one of the variants?

vagrant grotto
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Otherwise it’ll get very confusing very quickly

tame wharf
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I forget: is this intended to be tech action or tech attack?

vagrant grotto
tame wharf
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That is really strong

vagrant grotto
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That’s the feedback I’ve been getting yeah

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I’m letting it stew for now

tame wharf
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Lock On the Ultra
They are now Hostile to Everyone
Profit

ashen crown
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Lesson of Held Image really pushed it over the edge too

vagrant grotto
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Tbh I have my own issues with Held Image lol

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But yeah I don’t know on intrusion package

sudden cosmos
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Howler playtest delayed again YAMERO

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I'll be able to run Lancer again someday

dapper goblet
# tame wharf

I guess my question here is: is this a 4th gate or a “fuck mirages” ? If the latter it’s good but so is 5 hp haha

umbral sluice
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in the playtests it's been in, it was a "fuck mirages" and the like

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its also a free impair on top

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and THAT felt very strong

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i'd be terrified if it was fourth gate

vagrant grotto
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It’s not 4th gate, it’s just fucking with allied buffs

dapper goblet
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Yeah ok I assumed. I actually made this half an invade system without the impaired once and whoofer can confirm

ashen crown
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Also the impair is crazy too

hushed anchor
hushed anchor
vagrant grotto
hushed anchor
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Fair

vagrant grotto
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if it becomes the Artillery Tokugawa build for Atlas, something has gone wrong

umbral sluice
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we'll see tomorrow how Default Atlas fares compared to weird ally jockey creatures, i guess

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I find the ally jockeying really fun but completely understand if you wanted to cut it

vagrant grotto
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oh I think it's neat, tbf

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and the most I'd do to cut it is "if you're immobilized or knocked prone you fall off" a la MULE

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so you could still ride, but there's vulnerability and you can't just do a mobile Hardlight barrier

hushed anchor
muted blaze
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Ally jockey I think would be really cool on a size half mech that couldn't already travel like 50 billion MPH

granite saddle
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Saladin alt that is actually intended to do allyy jockey

final violet
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@cinder vessel has you covered.

steel apex
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The problem with the tokugawa, at the outset, is that it rewards both ranged and melee attacks equally, so all else being even it's easier to lean into ranged attacking, but the other half of the problem is that Exposed is simply so punitive a tradeoff for what it does that it makes wanting to do so in melee unnecessarily and discouragingly offputting

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you can simply go "well don't give the toku bonus damage for ranged" and call it a day, BUT I don't think that fully addresses the issue, I think if you did that you'd still see people do artillery toku most of the time, they'd just complain that it sucks more

vagrant grotto
opaque crescent
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for the purpose of self-heat and one stress for all, does a formation keep the default heatcap of it's class?

vagrant grotto
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Behaves like a grunt

sudden cosmos
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If one member uses a self-heat ability, I'm assuming that gets mirrored to the entire formation too

vagrant grotto
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Nope

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They are all individuals

muted blaze
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Gee I wonder what's being playtested tonight :joyous:

opaque crescent
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unsure if I will, just looking through possible stuff and a thought came up

vagrant grotto
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It’ll work like a grunt scourer or pyro

opaque crescent
ashen crown
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Grunts and Heat Caps always felt like a weird thing to me tbh

vagrant grotto
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Sure do lol

final violet
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Fun NPC (not an opfor, just an NPC), since PPG is intended to be used with the rebake: Formation Hive (Driving Swarm, Solipsis Swarm)

opaque crescent
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Sitrep - Fetch / Ruin

Minor adjustment to fetch requiring an interaction with an objective zone

Opfor

Phase 1 Initial Deployment:

Elite Prototype Scourer - Locomotion Mode Shift + Pulse Laser
Ghost - Split Timestream

Phase 1 Reinforcements:

Cataphract - Electromagnetic Bola

Phase 2 Initial Deployment:

Veteran Boombox - Subwoofer + Sound Barrier
Brigand Howler - No Escape + Finishing Blow

Phase 2 Reinforcements:

Prototype Pyro - Directional Hardlight
Napalm - Long-Burn Catalyst

Feedback

Sitrep:

Keep ruin as damage or interact, tried it as only damage and wasn't received too well. Maybe this was due to low damage throughout party, but regardless.
Fetch feels alright as is, maybe tone back scaling?

NPCS:

Elite Prototype Scourer -

Novel tech continues to be neat, pushes players to do something they should be doing anyway
Locomotion Mode Shift is cool, +1 Armour +2 speed seems scary to me
Something about maybe specifying an armour cap?
Proning it allows for permanent accuracy and slowed, but the ignore difficult terrain lets it keep its base speed. Very cool.
Only straight lines keeps high speed classes in check

Ghost -

Split Timestream is powerful when it goes off, but also it means the ghost is off field if it pops it
Teams that can handle ghosts anyway have a quite easy time keeping it unbonded and destroyed before it gets this off
Maybe see how this plays out with a ghost will multiple structure

Prototype Pyro -

Hardlight Shield, maybe block LoS while inside?
Good anti-artillery with small downside to close rangers

Veteran Boombox -

Good anti-melee tool
Feels like a lot of different classes at different point
Jammed from Soundboard while in area feels good as a lockdown, without being repeatable jam until end of turn for example
Soundboard heat cost feels alright

Brigand Howler -

Howler seems to miss a lot, which feels kinda meh compared to sentinel and archer
Dirty Fighting + Finishing Blow almost feels too much, but it's crit AND save so maybe doesn't go off enough to need adjusting

Napalm -

Fairly one-note. That's ok

NPCS:

Everest -

HMG Everest feels not horrific anymore, new damage is good
2d6+4 damage is superfluous imo, new damage feels still good but much more reigned in
The reliable also keeps it from sucking without external accuracy
Actions felt like they needed to be taken to actually commit to getting the HMG to land (good thing)
Asura being restricted to no skirmishes is probably healthier for the game
Probably ok as is, no more limited feels good to not have to invest in a stat you don't typically want for builds that run it
Everest core being replaced with Initiative+ is fine, efficient makes it nice with unicomp
Unicomp always brings up issues with attrition in campaign settings - houseruling it to pop only once a mission is probably good (even with this, unicomp is a may so you can always bank it for later)

Black Witch -

Neurospike mirage feels meaningful to use now, rather than a GM just turning around and shooting a different ally. A good taunt option.
Intrusion Package, econ cost feels alright
Maybe a bit of overhead?

Atlas -

Jockey as intended is neat, good access to debuffs while maintaining melee pressure
Both the intended playstyle as well as the emergent gameplay that ally atlas became, work well

Kobold -

Interact for Slag Spray means it'll actually get used
Mimic Carapace lasting longer lets Kobold have a chance to live when it gets back to its turn and is surrounded by overwatches
If it loses this invis, it becomes very fragile (healthy)

vagrant grotto
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(I do, but it’s not mandatory, far from it)

drifting parcel
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@vagrant grotto should have Howler feedback from this weekend as well as potential synergy

vagrant grotto
tame wharf
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What were people's thoughts on the Boombox after yesterday?

vagrant grotto
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other notes included:

  • Soundproof and Soundboard are really closely named, and could cause confusion
  • Jam Session wording needs cleaned up so durations are more obvious
ashen crown
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After some recent additions by Vex, I’m now adding Zealots to my list of “PPG NPCs to throw into my next chapter”.

I could also throw Napalms I guess but.., I miss Bombards

muted blaze
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I could also throw Napalms I guess but.., I miss Bombards
So real for that

ashen crown
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Separate note: now I really wanna throw Torrents into this chapter. As a question for module substitutions, do you know what kinda NPCs might be comparable to Torrents? The closest one is Hive tbh, but there are honestly not a lot of Knockback Focused NPCs in 1st party so comparisons are not easy

vagrant grotto
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Torrent is a league of its own

ashen crown
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That’s kinda what I thought

vagrant grotto
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It was made specifically to fill a gap in the existing roster

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Same with most my NPCs tbf

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But yeah if anything I’d replace a Cataphract or Breacher with a Torrent

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Torrent wants to be a vanguard

ashen crown
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Knight is kinda like if Ronin, Goliath, and Bastion collabed on a group project to be fair, and Kensei is ultimately just “mobile Demolisher” in terms of the design philosophy I’ve read in its development

ashen crown
vagrant grotto
ashen crown
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I mean Demolishers are supposed to be on the Offense

vagrant grotto
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No

ashen crown
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They’re just slow so they’re not very good at it

vagrant grotto
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They’re very much rearguard coded

ashen crown
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I never read it like that since they don’t have much to do in the rearguard except leave it

vagrant grotto
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Time and again they are clocked as “keep away” NPCs

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They ward off an area, and if they have to move, they form a defensive, advancing core

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Brisk Pyros highlight this

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Walk up, Firebreak

ashen crown
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Hm. Their stats do highlight this but their action economy doesn’t IMO

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It’s funky

vagrant grotto
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I don’t know what you want from me, man

Demolishers are rearguards, rearguards like to sit still and play keep out

Demolishers definitively hate having to move anywhere

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And the hammer is keepout

ashen crown
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Fair enough I’m just trying to conceptualize this concept

vagrant grotto
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Kensei is “offensive Demolisher” because it can

  1. Actually get to distant objectives
  2. Exerts similar “keepaway” (or in this case, “back off”) threat thanks to its sword
ashen crown
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Okay I think it just clicked for me:

  • Kensei steals objectives (and has enough Defender to hold them down for a bit)
  • Demolisher keeps them, but while it’s fairly immovable it’s slowness and inaccuracy makes it somewhat inept at taking them
vagrant grotto
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Exactly

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Kensei is a bit flexible in that regard

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Torrent, in comparison, sucks at holding objectives, but is great at taking them

ashen crown
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I wouldn’t say it sucks at it- it’s fairly durable, and perma soft cover makes it hard to oppress, but the forced self movement and aggressive stats makes it best served not doing that