Additions & Substitutions
for
Mekton Zeta
General
Game Play/Design Changes
Wide
angle beam attacks are normally a spray of fire that covers a lot of space. But it should be noted that the wide beam only is a lot of small beams and not a solid ray. It should also be understood then that a the gunner's skill should take a back seat to the accuracy of the weapon because the spray is not controled. It will have a chance to hit all targets within it's area of effect, be it friend or foe, whether it is visable or cloaked. Instead of having a gunnery roll it would be more appropriate to have a flat chance for opponents to dodge the effect.
attack value=10+(WAx3) (no modifier for the attackers MechaReflex)
The defender gets all of their bonuses and penalties based on range of the attack and their MR.
The idea that wings make something faster isn't a very well thought out one. Wings actually add drag to the aircraft. A benifit that they do add however is lift as well as maneuverability. My thoughts are to give the designer the option of using wings as a +2 to Movement Allowance (So as not to alter any of the previous game designs.) or a +1 bonus to Maneuver Value.
Weight efficiency, as it is now, it is very simple and cost effective to bring down the weight of a mecha to almost zero, or even to zero. This should be very diffficult. While you may or may want to deal with people designing zero weight mechs just by throwing small hard polygonnal objects at them and enforcing the 'Not in my game you're not' rule. I can show you a way to deal with it with a less subjective method
The method is simple. take the desired weight of the object, divide that by it's base weight. After you do that, divide the end, after multiplier, cost of the object by the result you just got.
Example: To give the Defense Rapier the edge againsed Gorgons in combat, terrain scientists decide to redo the entire thing with advanced and lighter materials. The old weight is 58.85 tons(MZpg67) and they want to bring it to 48 tons. The cost multiplier will be (48tons/58.85tons)=0.86 (rounded up to the nearest 1/100th) The cost to produce the Rapier II will be (161.9cp/0.86)=188.3cp
More extreem example: The terrans are dreaming to create the rapier so light as it will only be 15 tons. The final cost of this expensive example would be: (15/58.85)=0.25. The final cost would come out to be a whopping (161.9cp/0.25)=647.6cp! I think this is much more realistic (Sorry, I used the R word.) then the +2cp per ton subtracted.
So, do you understand what I did for weight efficiency? I hope so because it is almost exactly the same case in space efficiency.
Take the desired spaces of the object, divide that by it's base spaces. After you do that, divide the cost of the object by the result you just got.
Example: A mecha currently has the biggest Beam cannon that it can use with two hands. (It costs 12 in cp and spaces.) Wanting to give the mech a more powerful weapon that it can use just like the previous, the designers came up with a 18cp version. They have to reduce it to 6spaces before the new toy can be usable for the Mecha so they use higher levels of micronization then is normal for the technology to do the job. The cost multiplier will be (12spaces/18spaces)=0.67 The end result will cost (12cp/0.67)=26.8cp
The more extreem example: The wepon designers want to put three times as many missiles into a mecha but each of the missiles having the same effect as the ones they are replacing. Each missile will end up costing three times the cost of the original missile it was replacing. But you can also put three times as many in it's original space. (the system originally held 10 missiles in a single space. The dirty weapons project wants to make missiles so they can stuff 30 of them in the same amount of space, with each missile having the same combat characteristics. The cost for the system will now be. (0.1space/0.3spaces)=0.33. The new cost of each missile will be three times its original cost (.1/.33)=.30. The entire new system will cost (30missiles x .3cp)=9.0cp. This is a pricy system! They might do better to find other spaces to convert to missile bays. But, if they don't have those spaces...
This
is easier to apply then the RTG's optimized armor system. Where the original Advanced armors in MZ+ didn't care whether the weapon that hit it was caused by an energy attack or a kinetic attack. The optimized rule let you mix and match the stopping power of the armor splitting between Energy and kinetic SP. (Example: A 6sp piece of armor could be 3sp vs energy weapons
and 9sp vs kinetic weapons.) A better way would be to use the advanced armor co-effient features depending on the damage type. Take the two multipliers for the the effects of the differant Co-efficients and get the average.
Example: The Fire Wraith's Armor was designed to be highly resistant to energy attacks. The problem of the armor is that it is very fragile to kinetic force. The armor is 6sp all over. It's effect vs. energy weapons is Beta Co-efficient (a 1.5 multiplier to the armor cost.) It's effect vs. kinetic wepons is dismal (ablative is a x0.5 multiplier) The final multiplier for the armor comes out to be (x1.5+x0.5)/2=x1.0.
Stargates
are well known in science fiction. It is a gateway that can take a ship and bring it light years in the matter of moments. There are two ways of designing them. Both ways use the existing Mekton Z+ system multipliers, but in different ways. There are stargates which teleport objects instantly from one location to another. These use the Teleportation mutiplier system rules. The other type opens up a gate to an interdimensional space in which
ships fly though to get to their destination in the matter of hours instead of years. These use the lightspeed Multiplier system.
Stargates require at least an enterance point and an exit point. This meens there needs to be at least two to operate effectivly. Find the maximum amount of spaces you can gate in one turn. This is the basic cp and spaces of the system. Now you need to place the multiplier system on to these cps. This is the cost of the system. This system is very fragile and has no kills involved with it. You must place it within a servo (Or split it between multiple servos). The new "Stargate" now can be used to transport a number of spaces as it's base cps per turn. It may not use it to 'gate itself but it may purchase it's own form of movement. (Or not, Most stargates tend to be stationary affairs.)
Example: Based on a popular TV series, stargates are used for the most common intersteller travel. Battle cruisers may even use these gates to enter "Hyperspace". This is bought as a Lightspeed Multiplier Gate. We'll say that it can gate 22 x100scale spaces in a single turn to reflect the ability to do some of the biggest ships possible. (22cp x 1.25Hyperlight)=27.5 or (22+27.5)=49.5cp and spaces. As can be seen by the series the gate is made up of four seperate pieces. We'll split the system up into four pieces and buy three intermecha links. Evenly split will make the system (49.5/4)=12.4 cp/spaces each. So we'll buy 4 Light-Heavy(14 sp/kill) Torsos, give them minor thusters and call the entire thing a single stargate. The entire cost will be- 49.5cp(Stargate based on Hyperlightspeed) + 12( three inter-mecha links) + 4x14 (4 Light Heavy Torsos, no armor) + 4 (1cp of thrusters apiece) = 121.5cp for the four of them unscaled cost. Scaling costs x500 for a x100 scale ship. Scaled cost = 60750cp for this one gate. (About 6.1 billion credits)
This doesn't include the other gates that need to be used to exit Hyperspace on the destination.