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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16400
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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 Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 12:36 pm Post subject: Terrain Difficulties |
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The terrain modifier rules work well enough on the surface, but like many WEG rules, they fall short when you get in depth. I keep running into some questions:Scale - Should the size of a vehicle affect how it performs in close terrain? It makes sense; larger size means it becomes more difficult to maneuver around obstacles than it would for a smaller vehicle. Of course, depending on the nature of the obstacle, a larger-scale vehicle could just smash through or shoot down the obstacles to create a clear path. Several official WEG stat-write-ups mention the AT-AT and the Floating Fortress doing just that.
Terrain Type - IMO, some propulsion modes should be better suited to certain terrain conditions (walkers in particular), but how would that be represented? Bonus to the appropriate piloting skill when operating in a given terrain type? How many different types of terrain are there?
At the moment, I have no ideas for rules beyond some vague concepts, so this is more of an open discussion for opinions and ideas. Thoughts?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14343
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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Well larger vehicles usually have fewer maneuverability dice..
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Well larger vehicles usually have fewer maneuverability dice.. |
Yeah, but if you go strictly by maneuverability dice, a Star Destroyer is more maneuverable than an AT-AT.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16400
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:18 am Post subject: |
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ZzaphodD made a very valid point in another topic: | ZzaphodD wrote: | | crmcneill wrote: | | Anyone ever considered allowing more advanced bipedal walkers have emergency repulsorlift systems that kick in to help right the walker when they sense an imminent trip? Maybe even something that would allow a walker to make a repulsor-assisted jump to clear difficult terrain? Humans and other bipedal creatures are able to pick themselves back up after a fall, but a bipedal walker has no such ability. |
But then you are getting dangerously close the the question why one would bother with legs at all...  |
It got me wondering. Under the RAW, why would anyone bother with a non-repulsorlift vehicle? Repulsorlift vehicles are faster, more maneuverable, and (since starfighters and capital ships feature repulsorlift systems), they seem to have no real size limit for application. So why bother with something else? There has to be some reason. Thoughts?
Also, the official description of repulsorlifts say that they work in the presence of a gravity field, which they push against. If that is the case, any vehicle equipped with repulsorlifts would be able to operate anywhere within a planet's gravity field, as far out as 75,000 kilometers for a planet the size of Alderaan. So why do some repulsorlifts have an altitude limits measured in a handful of meters? Possible explanations?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16400
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:18 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe repulsorlift shouldn't be a single category. Maybe some vehicles (airspeeders, cloud cars, etc.) should function as described, pushing against the planet's gravity field, while others (land speeders, floaters, etc.) use an alternate form that exerts pressure on the ground...
EDIT: Come to think of, at least one EU author describes repulsorlifts as pushing against the ground, not against the gravity well (Aaron Alston describes the effect for cargo haulers in the first Wraith Squadron novel)
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
Last edited by CRMcNeill on Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16400
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe Maneuverability isn't the best catch-all attribute to decide how well something handles. A sports car would have a high Maneuverability rating, yet have a very difficult time handling any off-road terrain. The terrain difficulty chart lumps driving in crowded traffic in with all other obstacles, but an off-road modified four-wheel drive truck might not be as maneuverable as the sports car while still being able to handle difficult terrain far better...
Maybe another attribute, independent from Maneuverability, is needed to represent how well a vehicle handles rough terrain, with Maneuverability still being required for handling on winding roads or in dense traffic.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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Leon The Lion
Commander
Joined: 29 Oct 2009
Posts: 309
Location: Somewhere in Poland
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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I've been known to sometimes assign a vehicle a split Maneuverability score, one score used for dodges in combat, the other for handling terrain. Like an off-road buggy being a bit sluggish, but able to deal with rough ground really well, or a huge limousine that was supposed to be surprisingly nimble, but, due to it's low slung chassis, didn't agree well with any surface other than flat, well paved road. I admit though, there wasn't much more thought behind it than that.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16400
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Leon The Lion wrote: | | I've been known to sometimes assign a vehicle a split Maneuverability score, one score used for dodges in combat, the other for handling terrain. Like an off-road buggy being a bit sluggish, but able to deal with rough ground really well, or a huge limousine that was supposed to be surprisingly nimble, but, due to it's low slung chassis, didn't agree well with any surface other than flat, well paved road. I admit though, there wasn't much more thought behind it than that. |
That's one way to deal with it. I just get the feeling that Maneuverability is defined too broadly to be an accurate representation. I know in the 1st edition of Tramp Freighters, a ship owner could choose to upgrade his engines and boost either the speed or the cargo capacity. I could see something similar, where a character could modify a ground vehicle to better cope with terrain at the expense of speed (and possibly maneuverability).
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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