Sorry to triple post on your awesome work here but it got my mind absolutely buzzing - Technically the MEC Shop's layout was done waaaay long ago and desperately needed an update (especially to improve the gutters at least a bit) - So taking in your feedback and some aesthetic flares I've been wanting to try out here's a before / after of what I'm working on (ignore that I forgot to update the Knight Core's title)
Viewing post in Automated MEC Sheet now available
I’m glad that you find my feedback valuable! And all that better that it’s helping to encourage you, too. It’s plain to see that a lot of time and effort went into the rules here, and as a fledgling/aspirant game designer myself, I wanted to do my part.
I think the new layout works great. De-emphasizing the Part type and cost shouldn’t be a problem, because the page setup follows a standardized Helmet : Core : Maneuver : Option : Arm : Arm scheme, so players can already intuit the type of Part by its position on the page, and have a place to sanity check without it taking up too much space. And the costs are already mostly standardized as discussed.
The main thing that stands out to me is those Parts whose Basic ATKs and Stratagems are mismatched. I don’t think the mismatch itself is a problem. The big ones are the Banshee’s two weapons and the Beast Tamer’s Guided Spear. If those mismatches aren’t in error, then they paint a picture of, “Attacking with the weapon requires X stat, but unlocking their full potential requires Y stat.” This is particularly fitting for the Guided Spear, since MOB/DUR lines up with physically manipulating the spear, while COM/TOR represents the guidance tech.
I would want those kinds of mismatches to be made clear on the Part sheet of a MEC, so I’m not “surprised” when I scroll to the Stratagem sheet. On that note, I would appreciate a “Source” field on the Stratagem sheet so I don’t need scroll back and forth checking what Stratagems come from which part. I did a lot of that while verifying the data entries, lol.
But yeah, going back to a previous reply, I think that if Focuses and other keywords are to be used, they need to be called out somewhere in the text. I got partway through the starter frames before I decided, “Yeah, no, this ambiguity is going to trip people up” and made a glossary.
I do have some more feedback to share that I might collect in a separate post, though part of me might want to wait until v0.14 since I expect some of the changes might already be addressed in some form. Either way, the sheet is mostly feature-complete now; I don’t intend to pre-populate the Stratagems sheet because a) The Horrors of Data Entry 2: Electric Boogaloo and b) players are only going to have a handful of Stratagems available in practice, so they’d either need to hide or delete a lot of “irrelevant” rows for their specific builds. At least with the Parts sheet, players only need to look at it as long as it takes them to adjust their equipped Parts.
Until next time, signing off. Keep up the good work!
EDIT: Ah, I did have one quibble that I wanted to put out there. I think having “Stat Boost” as a keyword has some unnecessary overlap with the Boosting mechanic. I think something like “Stat Tuning” or something would improve clarity. I also notice that some specific Parts have Stat Boosts that are in-line while others are separated into their own lines. The Necromancer’s Death Scythe actually has both:
[Stat Boost] : +1 FIN : +1 COM
[Stat Boost] : +5 Max Shields
[Stat Boost] : +1 Soak
Instead of, for example:
[Stat Boost] : +1 FIN : +1 COM : +5 Max Shields : +1 Soak
Though the latter would be subject to word wrap, of course. I guess that’s two quibbles, lol.
Ahhh yeah there's a few parts that have errors / vestigial bits of what their old Stats used to be ((So Guided Spear would just be TOR/COM across the board) - The reason I dropped splitting things out too much was to hone in on a level of simplicity that felt more approachable (and evened out Stat balance across the parts). In the case of Beast Tamer I think the whole MEC used to be DUR/MOB before getting switched a few months before 0.1 released - And yeah I definitely want to add a Focus Glossary of some kind.
Re; Stat Boost, I was actually thinking about that last night! (So that's very good feedback that it might actually be worth changing) Tuning might be a good replacement word too, might even use it! In terms of certain Stat Boosts being In-Line with each other and others not, the main thinking there was the desire to split off boosts to your DMG Stats vs Basic stuff like Speed/Soak/Armor etc - Generally I find it a little better for readability ((Often the only time these things will go in-line with each other will be to save space if absolutely needed)) - I'll definitely do some thinking on that presentation though.
Re; re; any feedback pre-01.4 I'm pretty open to any feedback! (Just know it may take a while or as you said may already be on the docket) - If it's balance tuning a LOT of stuff is still subject to change and rejiggering (and also as I've had to clarify in the past, the game's balance favors feel over any degree of wargamey-fairness - The big thing I try to avoid is any "instant pick" parts that are just too good not to go for, but most (most) of those have gotten stamped out - especially because so much of the game's difficulty comes from familiarity with systems and moment-to-moment choices even a "beginner" encounter could wipe one party while being a breeze for another- I think it's why I'm really hammering home that these are house rules and every GM is going to need to season to the taste of their party. What I build for it is appropriate for the skill level of my tables and the way I run the game, so your mileage may vary - By my estimation the game is relatively easy and about building a super cool engine, then getting into combat and having to improvise when that combat/enemy's gimmick comes into play or when something unexpected happens... and then being a super fragile human for the rest of it that can only solve so many problems with a giant war machine...))
There's a whole laundry list of typos that need going through. Additionally (as I think was posted in one of the updates?) the main rules are getting a few extra pages to cover things like empty part slots, two-handed part breaks, going point by point on what each MEC Perk does AND on top of all that Biomes/Units and Data Packs are getting fully reworked to be more drag-and-drop friendly (Since the game works best when you're making your own bespoke encounters). But if there's rule bits you feel could use some fleshing out or more explanation let me know and I'll add it to my list!! ((And thank you again for some of (if not) the best feedback I've gotten on this game outside of my playtesters))
Yeah, making Stats uniform would make things easier. From an outsider’s perspective, I couldn’t always tell whether the mismatches were intentional. I erred on the side of sticking with the book where it wasn’t an obvious error.
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Stat Boost I think the fact that the MEC Stats are in all caps makes them distinct enough from the likes of Armor, Shield, Soak, and Speed, and the X : Y format does a lot for readability on its own.
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Feedback I’m probably going to split it off into a separate, dedicated topic, but to respond to your points here, I think there aren’t any “instant picks” for all scenarios, so good job with that. Though, you might want to put a DMG cap on the Martial Artist’s Roundhouse Kick, from the Cyber-Thighs Part. Direct DMG is already powerful, and Speed can get quite high if you build around it (>30). That it gives SYN on top of that is icing on the cake. It’s stopped from being an instant pick by the need to build around Speed, but the ceiling on the payoff is quite high.
I did see your posts about v0.14, and (silently) updated the Perks on my sheet to match. It was Kinetic Regen and Overclock specifically that merited new text.
There’s also an edge case with the Knight Core, which allows two Option Parts to be equipped. Is the second Option Part tied to the Knight Core specifically, so that if the Knight Core suffers a Part Break, that Option Part is lost? This might be one to use an in-line Stat Boost to expand the effect description.
More will come in a future post. Still doing a bit of recovery from the data entry, haha. This game has been a brainworm for me for the past few days, so I’m taking time to catch up with other things I let slack during my fixation period.