To begin, pilots are given a set of stats (randomly set between 5-15)
They are compatibility, dexterity, endurance, and intelligence.
Compatibility- represents your psychic link with your mech.When you purchase a mech from your native faction, your compatibility is 20%, if it is purchased from anywhere else, it starts at 5% (Marauders do not suffer this, as they purchase and scavenge from everywhere, their compatibility always starts at 10%)
Compatibility is increased by 5 for each battle you fight in.
Each round in battle, the battle generator comes up with a number from 1 to 100, if it's is greater than your compatibility +20, then your mech. does not understand its orders and does nothing that round.
Dexterity- Dexterity represents the pilot's maneuvering and piloting skills.
In battle, when it is your turn, the defender and attacker are each assigned a number between 1 and 20; this is added to their dexterity. If the attacker's total is higher, the attack hits, if the defender's total is equal to or greater than the attacker's, they dodge the attack with no further consequences.
Intelligence- intelligence represents the pilot's ability to repair and add to his mech.
When you repair your mech after battle, you repair an amount of damage per day, equal to your intelligence (i.e. intelligence 20 - repair 20 points of damage per day)
When adding parts to your mech. Your intelligence is added to a number between 1 and 20, if it beats the TN (target number) then the part is successfully added, if you fail, then the part is lost (destroyed) and you must wait a week before attempting this again, and with a new piece at that.
Endurance- you endurance is the number of rounds you can last in battle before you black out due to overwhelming mental stress. (i.e. Endurance 20 - you last 20 rounds before you pass out)
XP- XP (experience) is gained through battle. You gain 20 XP for winning,and 5 XP for losing.XP is used to increase stats.
For pilot stats, they can be increased as high as you want, with no cap, the first time you upgrade a stat it costs 50 XP to upgrade it by 1, the XP cost for upgrading the same stat increases by 15 each time.
For mech., it costs 75 XP to upgrade a stat by 1, each additional time costs 20 more; you may only increase each of the mech's stats by a max of 10(If the mech's strength starts at 32, you may only upgrade it up to 42.)
*Note- if you increased lets say intelligence by 1, and it's your 2nd time, it costs 65, but if you're upgrading dexterity and it's the first time, it costs 50.
Now I'll explain the mech's stats: They are speed, strength, toughness, and armor.
Speed is determined by what mech you have, it is not really used much, but will become increasingly important in the future, look in news for updates.
Strength - This is how well you kick the crap out of stuff; your mech has a base strength, which is added onto by weapons. In battle, to see if you have successfully wounded someone, your total strength is added to a number between 1 and 20, if it equals or beats the opponent's armor, you wound.
Toughness- this also varies between mechs; it is how much damage you can sustain (like hit points); and your damage reduction.
**i.e. If you have toughness 30, you can take 30 points of damage before system failure, also, if someone was to deal let's say 40 points of damage to you, it would be reduced by your toughness 40-30= you'd only take 10 points of damage.**
Armor- your mech has a base armor, which is added to through helms and shields.
Pre-battle, the pilot with the highest dexterity goes first. In the case of a tie, moon goes first then marauders then Mars.
Battles consist of rounds; each round has a sequence - Hit, wound, and find damage. Whoever goes first takes their full round, then the next person takes their full round etc.
In battles, the generator will get the results of a round, post each person's round on the board, then do the next round and so on. This is to show how each round went. A story will accompany each round, taking a story-like approach to the results.
1. Hit - If it is your phase of the round, then you are attacking, if it is someone else's, you are defending. As attacker, a number from 1 to 20 is added to your dexterity. The same is done for the defender. If the attacker's number is higher, they have successfully hit; if the defender's number is equal or better, they dodge the attack with no further consequence.
2. Wound- if the attacker successfully hit, a number from 1 to 20 is added to their total strength. If it beats or equals the opponent's armor, then the defender has been wounded.
3. Find damage- after wounding someone, they take your strength in damage. i.e. if you are 50 total strength, you deal 50 points of damage
The opponent subtracts their toughness from the damage to find the actual damage. i.e. if you are toughness 20 and are dealt 50 points of damage;50-20=30, you take 30 points of actual damage.
Once a mech is either reduced to 0 hit points and reaches critical failure; or once a pilot blacks out, the battle ends.
Factions- There are three factions, Mars, the moon, and the spaceship Terra.
Each faction gets 1 of each of their store's lowest 2 of their mechs(besides trainee) to start with. Once these are assigned, that faction is allowed to give newcomers a suit of their lowest priced mech., and the lowest priced pack, shield, helm, and melee weapon of that faction.
Each group has a specialty,
- Mars - due to high industry and technology, humans from Mars get double gold from battles and have +5 to strength for the first round of combat.
- Marauders - because the marauders use things from the moon and Mars, they may combine mechs and parts from different factions.
- Moon- Due to the agility of humans from the moon, they gain +10 to their dexterity in the first round of combat and +5 the next round.
Mars- Mars had suitable metal deposits, and was therefore a natural choice to go to. Even though humanity's pursuit of adamantium had destroyed earth,humans were still obsessed with finding it, and Mars yielded some of this precious metal. The noxious vapors that form Mars' atmosphere have caused humans living on that planet to where special breathing devices.
Marauders- After earth's destruction, a few of the humans in space settled their spaceship, Terra, into the remains of earth. From here they launch surprise attacks on spaceships and are pretty much the pirates of the solar system.
Moon- Because the moon was very close to earth, it was a good choice in the minds of many humans. Due to the fact that the moon has low gravity, the humans residing there adapted to this environment and became very agile.
Cross faction purchasing. For those that don't belong to the marauders, you may purchase items from other factions. They cost 3 times as much and may only be purchased with permission from that faction.
There are, of course, some general rules for the community.
Taste the fire of a new age