It's been good! Busy and lots of personal life stuff happening but good! Next version probably won't be ready for a while (doubt before 2025 with how ambitious it's gotten) - I really should post some of the preview stuff soon, but I don't want to show stuff that won't actually hit the next version.
Also I absolutely ADORE this kind of mechanic!! One of my favorite boss encounters I've run involved a fake-out death, and this is a glorious way of systemizing it to create both tension and drama!!
Slow going! I haven't truthfully touched Steel Hearts in a while - Been working tons, settling health issues, and using smaller projects to hone my layout skills / test bed ideas for how I want to do GM side stuff. It may be a long while before I touch this game again BUT given its relatively stable state I'm pretty happy letting it sit for a bit.
(1.1) Re; Improvised Actions (and again it's GM discretion so if you feel it adds some texture to your game to not run them like this go for it) - For me it feels like a more than worthy trade-off.
Basic ATKs are a keyworded ability that Generate Synergy for yourself and allies that can be proced by or help proc conditions on Stratagems and Parts (also to my memory each of them has an Element allowing for even more combo potential) - The "cost" Players pay in terms of Credits to get a Part usually gives them more than just a Basic ATK too.
Meanwhile for an Improvised Action a Player has to describe and set a whole scene that's interesting or convincing enough for me the GM to start handing them comparable DMG (and the GM would have to be in an extra generous mood to pepper in some SYN for the teammates) that still doesn't interact with the system as deeply as Basic ATKs - In all my years of running Improv Actions as described Improv Actions have almost always been used as a last resort when either a Basic ATK would be impossible (usually do to Part Breaks) or when a specific Effect needs to get slapped on that no one has a Stratagem up for. ((Or when something like "Scoop Up the Tank" or "Weld Myself to the Enemy" gets brought up that I'm like "OK this falls firmly in the "Other" Category.)) I also say this as someone who did a whole "hits and kicks" Basic ATK build on the other side of the table because there are some nasty part Combos between extra dice, switching elements, comboing into Stratagems etc - I love Basic ATKs and I would honestly be bewildered by anyone who thought an Improv Action was giving them nearly as much DMG (not to mention SYN) as I was shelling out with those builds.
If given all this a Player still felt they didn't want to use a Basic ATK vs just continuing to describe unique Actions for less combo-y DMG and no SYN to themselves, I'd honestly let them just keep using Improv Actions because it wouldn't meaningfully harm any balance I'm going for and would likely just lead to a lot of flavorful descriptions from that Player. If that Player ever complained they felt their Improv Actions weren't doing enough, I'd remind them an alternative utility exists :p And if any Player felt legitimately cheated by another player dolling out basic roll DMG for describing stuff I'd probably have a sit down with them about what they're actually looking to get out of the game and why they feel someone mildly succeeding via creativity is hurting their game experience and we'd try to figure something out.
(1.2) Oh I get ya! I mean yeah Stat Scaling just /is/ just how most Stratagems with Rolls work - A flat non-rolled bonus could be interesting but yeah that's less the flavor I'm going for because it'd probably be hell to balance appropriately. ((Unless different Parts gave you Hull based off different Stats which could be interesting, but also at that point every MEC is just operating the same and only nominally different which I'm already worried the game has too much of))
(3) Yeyeyey ~ It's different strokes for different folks - I think a LOT of Steel Hearts' mechanics (intentionally) grind up against a more BattleTechy idea of system balance and equilibrium which is absolutely not going to be everyone's flavor.
So the way that I've ruled these Part Breaks ((Which will deffo be on the page that talks about Empty Part Slots)) is as follows:
When taking an Extra Part you must mark that Part as being attached to the Core. When Rolling a Part Break do so as normal, Extra Parts only become part of the equation if the Core is rolled. IF the Core IS rolled and Broken /all/ Extra Parts attached to it become inaccessible / unusable until Pilots perform a Repair.
For an even Scrappier Game: When the Part attached to an Extra Part breaks have the Pilot Call Evens or Odds for each Extra Part. If they are wrong the Extra Part also Breaks. If they're right it merely becomes inaccessible as described above.
While a bit punishing taking extra parts is incredibly powerful, so this feels like a fair trade-off. Breaks are supposed to really hurt when they start to go through putting Pilots into a potential death spiral, so losing access to all the Extra Gear you were able to bring makes sense to me.
(1.1) Yeah I think you're still not quite understanding what improvised attacks are for (which is perfectly reasonable because they need a more thorough explanation as it's a wide umbrella). On the one hand it can be as simple as "My MEC lost all its attack parts, I slam into the enemy with DUR" at which point I might rule Hit = 1 DMG. It also might be something like a player saying "I shoot down some stalactites to slow down my enemy" for which I might rule that the player needs to get 8+ hits on a FIN roll and then they can cause Stuck and deal 3 Direct Damage.
The key words here are "I might rule" though - Improvised actions is where the system goes pretty hands off and asks for GM fiat to step in (After all, if it wasn't the sort of game that needed a GM it would just be a video game). Improvised Actions (and Attacks) is an explicit rule to say "You can use your actions for things that don't have an explicit rule."
(1.2) Yeeeeah I really should nix the MOB scaling... I'm not sure what you mean by Stat contributions can be the effect of specific Parts, Stratagems, or Perks - Since there are Perks and Parts that explicitly boost your Stats though? (Be it Shields, Armor, any of the core ones etc)
(2) Hull could work too (And I definitely prefer it to Armor, and it's vague enough to feel appropriate)
(3) I understand your argument, and were the goal of this game to have each part be more similar in utility then I might consider it, but you mostly lost me when you argue there's a bad kind of variety (To me the only bad variety is if a Part was like "Hey here's 10 billion DMG for free" not "Hey this part is hella niche" especially given there's nearly 200 of 'em having some mechanical outliers is good). The Chances aren't changing any time soon and I really don't think they need a separate keyword when their mechanics (a certain condition must be fulfilled for this side of the card to proc) all work the same. You're definitely allowed to dislike those parts or think they're too risky (heck I wouldn't feel like I was achieving my goals if people weren't split on how good certain parts were) but changing the keyword feels unnecessary TBH. [[And similarly if you feel "punished" by Third Time's the Charm, I'd advise taking another part - That Chance has a very strong anti-boss utility and the main component doubles as some nice mid-range ad clear - And at 5-2 the part is practically a steal]]
I really like their balance and niche as they stand. They have incredibly valuable effects ((True Charge essentially giving you an extra burst of movement + an extra attack on top of the DMG+move you got last turn from Charged Slash, and Giga Blast having an incredibly generous range)) and frankly, as someone who's played the game on both sides, Charged Slash is in an especially solid place (I used the crap out of it and has honestly been worried that it's too strong - especially with how fiercely it combos with Topple [especially if you have both charges up and Unrelenting, it's all but guaranteed] - Which trust me if you build into either of these abilities even as a single MEC you have more control than you may think - even if you have to work harder for it [[which is why they have a higher payoff]). Their Set-up to Pay-off ratio feels solid (if not comparatively generous) and if you're the kind of player who doesn't feel like it's worth it, that should be your signal to build into something else ((much like how I have players who try not to take abilities that operate off of doubles/triples instead of the ramps that scale off of dice)).
Inevitably there's going to be parts and mechanics that people want to see seasoned to their own personal taste and it's a reason I encourage GMs to make the MEC Shop their own if they feel there's something lacking, but when it comes to Chances I feel like those are in an especially good spot for how I run things at my table and the experience I was looking to craft. As always folks are welcome to mod the game to feel more "balanced" or however they want it, but for me the game feel is what's most important and all the Chances you mentioned feel like they're capturing their respective kinetics perfectly.
As an aside, I will warn you that if you're going into this looking for a balanced war-gamey strategic experience as opposed to grid-based turn-based stylish action house rules you're going to be sorely disappointed by what's on offer here. The game is unique, asymmetrical, and (especially when you start getting into all the wild stack order stuff you can do) pretty variable in the ways it lets you build and play. There's some parts that I've had some play-testers insist are actively useless and some (including ones you're suggesting are too unreliable) that I've been told are way too powerful and too reliable to be left in the game without nerfing them. Presently (minus some potential minion tweaking) I really think the parts/stratagems available are right where I want them to be, which definitely won't be for everyone, but for the people who it is for they'll feel just right.
(1) MEC Stat Involvement (and why it got dropped)
So firstly, no one understood improvised attacks which is why it's getting a full page in 0.14 - The idea is you can use any stat, it's your reminder that this isn't a board game and you can do anything so feel free to just roll some dice and see what happens as long as the GM is cool with it.
DUR used to contribute to Armor for years and pretty much towards the final iteration I decided to cut it. Reason being it became an instant pick in a game with no healing - More Armor means more SYN you can pull for Overheats, more survivability, etc etc. Pair this with DUR usually having defensive stratagems and it was just a no-brainer. It's also why Shields got some late game counter-play.
I actually had played with COMs affecting shields for a while, but similarly the scaling felt... off. Not bad necessarily but not what I was going for. The game feels sufficiently complex as it is, so I didn't want to add too much scaling with stats (which is mostly where Perks come in to pick up some of that slack).
There were plans to strip out MOB from contributing to Max Speed which I still consider now and then, but a fair few things would need some rejiggering - It is a big outlier at this point so I honestly might do that.
(2) Integrity vs Max Armor -- So the reason here (which is hella subject to change) is the idea that people were getting confused what "losing armor" meant in the context of the fiction etc etc - TBH if I were to go through and change things I'd probably have Integrity / Damage as the two (or something to similar effect) - Or Max/Current Integrity etc - This is mainly a hold over of "Armor" having a lot of pre-existing connotations in games and why I'd honestly prefer to drop the term "Armor" altogether (Which I might!)
(3) So the whole idea with Chances is that they're gambles, and there's a reason those two Stratagems are exceptional (we like some ~variety~) - They're heavy set-up with heavy pay-off, but require a level of commitment that changes how you have to play (or requires you to wait for the right opportunity to strike / teammates to assist) - Both heavily favor actually using "Stuck" and other enemy movement manipulation stuff which is why I really like them!~ [[Plus in the case of Charged Slash you still get an attack out of it either way, you just get an extra damage blast and some movement if the enemy is close at the start of the next round -- Might need to clarify that better in the text]]
As for multiple Action Cost abilities I think that could be very neat for new MECs! (Though I'd have to consider balance and such) - There's a cool potential with 3-4 Action Cost abilities because (depending on how your cycle works out) you could theoretically do those in one phase buuuuut that lands in a realm of sufficiently fiddly that I probably wouldn't jump for it ((Similarly I'd require both Action Points to be spent at once to proc a 2 Action Cost Stratagem - Could be cool to combining a Flash Action and Normal Action to do one when you only have one Action Point))
Thank you again for all this awesome feedback!!
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))
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)
Additionally - I absolutely adore the focus Glossary you put together! It feels all-at-once accessible, but also covers a lot of the most important bits!~ ((Also I need you to know I just kept saying out loud "This is so fucking cool" as I was exploring how you organized all the parts and did the glossary just ahhhhh spectacular work on this!!))
Ooooooo this is all spectacular food for thought! (And actually has me really thinking about re-designing the visuals of a few a few things) - There's definitely some vestigial design after 3+ years of dev (a good example being how big the prices are even though that's all but standardized) and focuses in general kinda fell by the wayside in favor of just getting the game done ((and I still really need to do that 0.14 editing pass cause woof the typos)).
This honestly has me wanting to repurpose that "Cost" spot for the specific "Stat" focus of each part, then replace "Focus" with like "Utility" and pick like 9 keywords that there's a glossary for and each part would likely have 2 ((Though TBH I've been considering getting rid of the "Focus" spot altogether cause I question its ultimate utility vs listing the Element and Stats the part uses for quick ref)).
It can't be said enough how cool it is to see someone deep dive into this game like you are, and this feedback is the kind of sublime "fresh eyes" constructive criticism that I really treasure ((and seriously it's amazing you got through all 180 parts - Heck writing descriptions for all of those was a huge part of why I needed to take a looooong break after getting the beta out)). Honestly this is helping motivate me to keep plugging away at 0.14, so thank you fr.
I have not! Truthfully I've been hella busy with my day job and other ventures (and also am still waiting on a bit of art before I drop 0.14) - The big thing that's taking a while is I've probably scrapped and reiterated the formatting for how I want to handle data packs 2 or 3 by this point (especially in the map department) - Namely because I'm trying to figure out what utility they serve and the kind of game I want this to be (and ironically I'm finding story and map data will probably be wildly more useful than enemy data, so I want to really get that right in the same way the mechanic shop was).
For some inside baseball: In many ways Steel Hearts is house rules designed to run for bespoke campaigns customized for each table down to the enemies. As a result it's kind of tricky to release general purpose enemies and content when the best experience you'll get as a GM would be something custom tailored to your players ((and worse yet, I don't want to release a data pack that accidentally puts a GM in a position where they wipe a party due to mismatched expectations of the system and how to use a data pack etc)). However I would really like to add a whole bunch of enemies, so I may fully abandon the idea of "threat levels" and simply say "Here's a bunch of enemies that I've run in the past, how I stated them out, what they were used for" etc with the very big caveat that GMs will need to custom tailor stuff for their play groups instead of expecting enemies to work out of the box with an easy way to tell if your party is ready for it. It's simply not that type of game considering how wide the build variety can get, and how much player strategy and gameplay "skill" can turn an impossible scenario into a trivial one and vice versa.
Steel Hearts Zero was always about getting all the player functionality done, (relatively) polished and out in the wild so that I can tell people who want to use the system (re; many of my friends and colleagues who wanted to and ended up running it) that all the player stuff is readily available! ... How the GM stuff aught to manifest is still a mystery to me because it needs to feel like something I would personally use, otherwise I'm stuck tailoring to an audience I don't understand which is a lose for all involved.
What I should do is write another big update about all the stuff I've been tinkering with, buuuuut that'll probably wait til February when that sweet sweet cover art is done.
Thank you so so much!! Honestly your videos have been what kept my love of this project alive when I was having my doubts! I'm also chomping at the bit to dive headlong into Steel Hearts Black but I gotta get 0.14 out the door and give some other projects some love before that haha ~ Can't wait to get it done tho! (Hopefully before Monster Hunter Wilds totally takes over my free time.....)
Eerie, novel and absolutely sublime - Sinjin blends an evocative necromancy system with a Zone expedition worthy of the greats like STALKER and Annihilation. It feels familiar enough to easily grasp as a GM, while doing plenty to blaze new trails and bring its unique setting to life ~ I really can't recommend this enough!
Heya!! Thanks for all the feedback! Some of these questions have already been answered elsewhere on here but I'll try to get back to this in the next week! Right now I think my time would be better spent editing in the answers to the book itself and then I'll copy paste those passages here to answer your questions :)
It's been months since this came out and I still find myself drifting back to it. Something about this pamphlet's tone, texture and execution is incredibly enigmatic. It's a pamphlet that never fails to spark my imagination and create a sense of place in its sparse few pages. And it's a module that I'm incredibly happy to have read and keep rotating back to every now and then.
Hiya!! Thank you for the kind words and the awesome questions!!
Yeah that's some of a slew of Typos that are getting fixed in 0.14 ((Soon...ish... probably...))
So two handed parts actually fully break if either one of the slots is broken! ((It's a major tradeoff of these otherwise very powerful weapons)) One of the advantages of Super Robot Helm is you're halving the chance of this happening (and freeing up an arm slot). The reason 2-handed parts spread their text across 2 "parts" is just to make use of the space, it's all meant as one contiguous part. ((Of note though, if it break it only counts as 1 Part Break))
Hope that helped clarify things for you!
Got a question about this and just wanted to update here how those bottom tree perks are unlocked. You only need to purchase the nodes DIRECTLY and NON-CONSECUTIVELY attached. You don't need every single Node on the bottom tree to get those perks, just the ones that have one line connecting the node's side to the perk's side (each bottom tree perk is only connected to 2 nodes). Some people were confused because technically "attached" and "connected" could mean the nodes are all chained together. Y'all seem pretty smart, but just in case I wanted to have the clarification out there.
Similarly regarding PAA generally you're not allowed to give your actions to other players. Every player MUST act before actions refresh. Not at the start of the round. If you're finding certain players are never acting to prioritize other players you probably are getting this rule wrong.
So Players A and B could use 4 actions in a 4 PPA encounter then during the next allied phase they'd have no actions left. They need to wait for Player C (the last party member) to use their 2 actions before all 3 of them get their actions refreshed ((leaving 2 actions to be taken during this Allied Phase split between the 3 players)).
This is stated a few times in the book but the same group who was confused about the connections wording got confused about that.
Firstly thank you so much for the kind words!
So the included Midas units / The August are functionally what "Enemy MECs" end up looking like - One of the unfortunate things about the way the game ended up hashing out is that Enemies and Players are working on completely different DMG and Armor pools, so two players could nuke each other concerningly fast.
Thus "Enemy MECs" usually end up being tweaked enemy units to have similar flavor to existing MEC parts but executed differently. I've never had the GM generating SYN or anything like that. ((However the enemy MEC fights I have run have been an absolute blast! The balance is just tough to strike - It's something I'm looking to correct in a future spin-off project and by releasing more premade Enemy MEC content).
Did that answer your question?
Question 1) So Kinetic Regen needs a wording Tweak - It's per 5 DMG you /roll/ ((so it doesn't proc multiple times in an AoE nor Proc off of flat Status Effect DMG - You roll DMG, add any bonuses from a Stratagem and that outgoing number, no matter how many targets its applying to or what their soak is, is what Kinetic Regen scales off of)
Question 2) Nope! Beacon of Hope Procs automatically so you don't blind your allies at all!
Question 3) I always use gribblies to sort of "teach" boss mechanics ((like how Fenrir's gribblies teach you the importance of freezing against that boss)) - Or sometimes I'll set them up so they're mostly good at sticking on Status Effects which the Boss can then capitalize on. Hopefully those two pieces of advice can help get your mind turning.
Question 4) I'm not sure if it'll be in the next update but I'd love to write a primer on the EDA! The gist is that they're hella bureaucratic and most laws come down to a vote between the 9 Bastions (where Meru usually abstains or Quorikancha doesn't vote for obvious reasons. Of the 7 remaining, Babel, Kunlun, Duat and Avalon nearly always vote together.
As a result Asgard is soon to be forced to release the technological secrets behind its mass purification, causing a LOT of discontent among its largely nationalist populace.
The current leader Duncan Ragnarson is an old guard who'd survived the Awakening as a child (so he's nearly 106). He believes that EDA unity is important and is a big believer in mutual cooperation etx. His sons (all test tube babies in some variety) though...
Oldest is Halfdan (40) who oversees a large amount of Asgard's military manufacturing and deployment. He's fiercely loyal to the vision and cause of his younger brother Sigurd.
Bjorn (33) is the Defender Captain of Asgard, constantly fighting Wyrms on the frontline. Jolly, boisterous and incredibly skilled, he's been kept in the dark about his brothers' machinations for world domination.
Sigurd (28) has a snake's tongue (not literally) - A charming diplomat and a ruthless tactician he plans to put his father in a coma so he may ascend to power and use his Bastion's zeal and frustration to wage a war of conquest against the EDA, leaving him as the sole authoritarian ruler of Earth.
His cover for this initiative has been slowly heavily arming and defending Outlander/Freeroamer settlements (often without their input) to expand his physical territory. He also seeks to build a new Bastion as his new military base of operations: Niflheim.
Ivar (19) is a soft spoken Neurosensitive who requires a wheelchair due to an immune system disorder that makes cybernetics out of the question. Kind, empathetic and a bit mousey, Ivar has also been kept in the dark on these world domination plans. I usually have Sigurd use Ivar as a pawn who'll be sent to another Bastion as a kind of peace broker or olive branch ((though Sigurd would shed no tears if he died)) - Conversely Ivar is deeply affected if any of his brothers die, and the more who go down the more he'll use his piloting skills and blossoming Neurotype abilities to seak revenge.
Hope that gets some ideas flowing!
Question 5) So yes a lot of them just do mechanical stuff BUT biomodding is very real and it's not uncommon to see someone who's modded themselves into a biological cat girl.
Question 1: Upgrades only! It's essentially the "cost of a frame" since a fresh frame comes with 150k of upgrades! ((That said I've definitely bent this rule once or twice for players that realllllly want that extra starter part))
Question 2: Nope! That SYN comes out of thin air! Harmonizer is an incredibly strong support option!
Question 3: That's a Once Per Allied Phase, so you essentially announce that you're going to redistribute everyone's SYN at some point in the Allied Phase (probably discussed before hand) and whoever opts in is a part of it. Lets say we have 3 players who opt in, Mike (at 4 SYN), Lucy our Harmonizer (at 5 SYN) and Humbaba the Terrible (at 10 SYN). When a redistribution happens you can think of all 19 of that SYN going into one pool and then it can be divided out between players up to their Max SYN.
So maybe Mike gets 12, Lucy takes none and Humbaba holds on to 7. ((Or perhaps if Mike had Unshackled he could get 18)) - The key to using this is knowing / discussing who needs Synergy when singe you can only use it once per allied phase as a free action (unless players want to spend an Action to proc it)
It's a powerful ability that can help funnel dice into someone who needs shields or a DPS getting ready for a huge DMG dump!
Does that answer your questions? ((Happy to clarify anything else you need!))
Alright I'm (sort of) gearing up to do another editing pass for 0.14 (including some new pages) - If you're interested in bouncing some ideas or taking an early peak at some stuff definitely shoot me an email and we can swap Discords!
Granted there's already a few edits in here that I can tell you that you won't see ((ex: Molded / Molding are both used properly as the Verb tense of "Mold" as in mildew, while using Moldering would be more about it being decrepit))
That said I really appreciate your bit on Flying rules though - I think it could use a diagram for sure! ((Will probably do a whole page on the Z-Axis to really break it down))
And seriously thank you so much for catching all these!! I do most of my work past 2 a.m. after work so it means the world to have someone be able to proof read this without terminal sleepy brain.
In theory yes!! That's generally how it works - The buy back is not what I remember on that though because I think it used to be at 10? ((Also I have no idea why I added the +2 SYN to each ally - I think that was at a time where I was overtuning that MEC because some folks were complaining Melee builds were too weak so I had to shuffle a whole bunch of stuff down to give Martial Artist slightly more kit))
I might tune it down slightly (or more likely cap that DMG at 15 or something - Direct DMG in general needs another balance pass since its sources are so varied) - But the idea is it's a more or less guaranteed one-hit against non-boss enemies ((in general non-boss enemies are meant to go down very fast, usually within the first attack or two of getting hit - Something I'm trying to emphasize better in 0.14))
The draw back on Roundhouse is meant to be that it's a bit pricey to buy back and that you don't generate SYN for others ((again why I'm puzzled that I ever added the +2 SYN to allies)).
Re; it being on a Starter Part - Players can (and will as I've both seen and done) build a lot of very strong combos out of that list because they're all balanced to be taken to the end of the game.
That said Roundhouse will probably be getting a minor nerf ((In one of the campaigns I'd played in it was my staple part for obvious reasons but even then it got a minor nerf of only having one charge + at the time it generated no SYN which is a v bog part of how that part works // pseudo balances itself))
It is absolutely a net zero! (and yeah I give players the mercy of that part breaking instead of the actual core) - This (ostensibly gag part) is one of a handful of Fabled parts that are based off the three campaigns I ran ((I'm planning on breaking them out into their own category eventually)) the dual core in particular was built as a result of a hilariously failed operation by a PC trying to make their own Fabled part with an inept science crew. He'd joked about wanting to make a dual core to scam people earlier in the campaign and so his vision was later realized ((an immortalized in print))
I totally forgot to reply to this, BUT this absolutely rocks!! I really dig the directions you're taking this ((especially bringing the system back into a more deadly orbit - health bars got kinda bloated over the game's life span XT ))
Having the rotating Techniques slot is an addition that's particularly exciting and the vibes in general seem rad!!
Re; Team Attacks - Group Synergy dumps can be a really cool way to do this while keeping to a tighter balance, or perhaps techniques with Chances? - Alternatively you could build a whole new system on top of this that's /literally/ an all out attack type vibe with each character having a difficult/unique Trigger and once one player procs theirs everyone can join in ((just spitballing here)
