Posts from 2018-11-24

November 2018 update and devblog

Hi, it's been a little while since I've done an update, andso of course there's plenty of fixes and new stuff! 

One of the most important changes is the reduction of time used for learning new abilities. If you're paying for skills, talents, manoevures etc with Accolades, there's no time cost at all now. This helps reduce down time for characters and allows for faster paced campaigns.

Another improvement is that skill manuals now have expanded use, to speed and improve learning of related skills. 

For the scifi edition, there's an overhaul of the Telemetry station for starships, with expanded drone capabilties and damage control using repair bots, which helps spread the work around the ship more. Plus, there's the usual balancing of the system :)

I have been developing a base building system too, but it's not ready for release yet. It'll cover the ability to make bases of all kinds, in all eras, so that includes castles, warehouses, starports etc. It's been tested as I tweak things, so maybe it'll be ready to go for the holiday season! Anyway, that's all for now, peace out.

 

v1.05 Scifi Edition

Starship stuff

* Revamped starship hull species modifiers, and moved them to the starship design section for easier reference.

* Added 'Micro' sized drone.

* Drones now can only be made with Hull Parts, not regular Parts.

* Adjusted the cost of buying drones.

* Expanded details on how drones use fuel and capacitor.

* Added 'Stealth Mode' to drone actions.

* Added 'Stardrive' drone upgrade.

* Added 'Mag Clamps' drone upgrade.

* Added a separate weapons table for drones, including demolex and plasma grenades for suicide drones.

* Replaced 'Drone Slaving' upgrade with 'Drone Swarm' upgrade, and added a section on how drone swarms work.

* Removed 'Drone Swarm' talent, and put its abilities into the upgrade.

* Added electronic warfare and jamming/amplifying communications to the list of functions handled by the defence operator.

* Added 'Lock Target' as an action for defence operator.

* Removed 'Partial Shields' starship manoeuvre and replaced it with a talent.

* Added 'Jam Communications', 'Overload Sensors' and 'Amplify Sensors' defence systems manoeuvres.

* Removed 'Study' on starships, replaced with improved 'Library' upgrade.

* Updated the engineering and telemetry ship sheets.

* The console bonus for the Telemetry station has been changed to +2 movement for drones and repair bots.

* Added 'Precision Repair', 'Extensive Repair' and 'Transfer Power' Telemetry/DC manoeuvres.

* Added a 'Worn-Out' condition for starships.

* Altered 'Emergency Battery' ship upgrade to instantly provide 20 Capacitor Points.

* Altered 'Cloaking Device' to provide the ship with a +40% result bonus to a Stealth Mode action, and allows going stealth in plain sight of enemies. Requires 1 slot per ship hull size.

* Added clearer information to the ship combat section (defence and damage) about the order defensive actions should be taken.

* Emergency repairs to a ship now last 1d6 hours. 

* 'Remote Operations' talent is now listed under Telemetry systems.

* 'Targeting Expert' talent now called 'Fast Targeting', can also be taken by defence operator.

* Clarified that weapon linking cannot be applied to point defences.

 

Steampunk (Industrial Era tech)

* Added details to the individual invention sections on how Clockwork and Steam robots function.

* 'Neural programming' talent can now also be taken for Clockwork and Steam robots.

* Added 'Steam Golem' industrial era invention. 'Clockwork Golem' invention now only requires 50% skill to take.

* Added 'Clockwork Part' invention, necessary for making clockwork parts!

* Revised the components for making clockwork engines.

* Added 'Clockwork Engine, Medium' and 'Steam Engine, Medium' inventions.

* Reduced the cost of 'Science Goggles' invention.

* Mechanic and Scientific toolkits are now listed as being available in the Industrial era.

 

Age Category

* Modified the skill bonus to age categories.

* Veiran are now listed on the age table.

* Age categories and advanced character templates now also gain additional professional skills.

 

New Stuff!

* Added 'Inspiration' leadership manoevure.

* Added 'OmniTool', 'Sonic Ratchet', and 'Laser Scalpel' devices.

* Added 'Auto-defib' high-tech device.

* Added 'Crush' shifter species manoeuvre.

* Added quick links to the header of the weapons section.

* Added 'Battery Pack' modern era device.

* Added a table for robots showing the size of power source they need for each body type.

* Added 'Macro Link' robot upgrade.

* Added 'Repair Bot' robot upgrade, converting a robot to integrate with a starship's telemetry station.

* Added 'Lip Reading' to the skill list.

* Added an 'encyclopaedia' system for researching using the Knowledge skill.

 

Changes

* Stipulated that Antiseptic can only be used once per 24 hour period.

* 'Substitute' evade manoeuvre has been altered.

* Removed 'Energy Drink'.

* 'Coca Wine', 'Pinpoint' and 'Race' narcotics now remove all fatigue levels for their duration.

* 'Coffee', 'PowerAid' and 'EnergyX' now also remove some fatigue levels.

* Verified that 'Crouch' is in the list of special movements in the actions and reactions section (altered from 1/2 movement to 1 movement cost).

* Removed 'Reinforced Servos' robot upgrade, combined its ability into 'Heavy Suspension'.

* 'Tracked' upgrade now also increases ENC score by +10, reduced climb penalty to -20% and replaced loss of a Reaction with -10% to Evade results. Removed difficult terrain bonus.

* 'Quadruped' robot upgrade now ignores difficult terrain altogether.

* Adjusted prices on modern era heavy weapons to reflect actual costs (i.e. costs came down a lot).

* Altered the 'Worn Out' condition for weapons and equipment to make it less onerous.

* Energy AP now stacks with itself, but stipulated that only one forcefield can be active on a person, vehicle or ship at a time.

* 'Second Wind' and 'Adrenaline Surge' have no effect on robots/automatons.

* Modified 'Aimed Shot' longarm manoeuvre.

* Antiseptic now heals 1d4+2 instead of 1d6.

* Created a new subcategory of devices for high-tech toolkit devices. 

* Reduced battery life on medi-lab, nanobot lab and science lab devices.

* Added Mechanic to the list of possible Robot Programs.

* Revised Medi-labs and Science Labs to function just like toolkits but with a +10% skill bonus, and reduced their size to 2 ENC.

* Mini-drones and sentry turrets now also have a Hit Point figure.

* Robot 'Power Link' Upgrade is limited to 10 ammo per spirit point.

* Clarified that 'Automated Worker' robot upgrade can be used for repetitive tasks.

* Added Mounts to the Livestock section.

* The Manoeuvres section now includes a column denoting the activation time for each manoeuevre. 

* Added a note in the herb section that fully grown plants can be bought for 10x the listed value.

* Expanded upon the use of skill manuals, and adjusted their prices.

* Spending Accolades on a new skill, manoeuvre, psi discipline, invention etc doesn't take any time (you're applying learned experience). Revised all the tables related to this.

* Lowered the minimum Intelligence requirement for most Science talents.

* Cybernetic designs now use the same learning cost table as other systems.

* Improved the companion sheet layout.

* Space Cadet background has Astronavigation instead of Science, gains 'Space Pilot' talent for free but loses a Background Event. Has Academic contact instead of Nomadic.

 

v2.87 Fantasy Premium Edition

* Spending Accolades on a new skill, manoeuvre, spell etc. doesn't take any time (you're applying learned experience). Revised all the tables related to this. Spell costs have gone up, if learned from a teacher.

* Added a note in the herb section that fully grown plants can be bought for 10x the listed value.

* Expanded upon the use of skill manuals, and adjusted their prices.

* The Manoeuvres section now includes a column denoting the activation time for each manoeuevre. 

* Modified 'Aimed Shot' longarm manoeuvre.

* 'Substitute' evade manoeuvre has been altered.

* Added 'Inspiration' leadership manoevure.

* Added 'Lip Reading' to the skill list.

* Added an 'encyclopaedia' system for researching using the Knowledge skill. Manuals and Encyclopaedias are available under the tools section.

* Added a number of Drive skill manoeuvres.

 

v1.72 Fantasy Basic Edition

* Spending Accolades on a new skill, manoeuvre, spell etc. doesn't take any time (you're applying learned experience). Revised all the tables related to this. Spell costs have gone up, if learned from a teacher.

* Added a note in the herb section that fully grown plants can be bought for 10x the listed value.

* Expanded upon the use of skill manuals, and adjusted their prices.

* The Manoeuvres section now includes a column denoting the activation time for each manoeuevre. 

* Modified 'Aimed Shot' longarm manoeuvre.

* 'Substitute' evade manoeuvre has been altered.