Karagin
01/06/18 01:32 PM
72.176.187.91
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Okay so had an idea, what if we used a D12 with the locations on it in place of the numbers. You calculate the to hit numbers and when you roll, you roll the to hit dice and the D12 for location.
Similar idea, but one that keeps the chart per-say and adds in two extra DIFFERENT color dice for location all rolled when you roll to hit.
So if you miss, then you miss, but I think this might speed up things, cut down on dice rolls and charts needing to be consulted.
Thoughts?
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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wolf_lord_30
01/08/18 03:56 AM
74.214.54.153
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I don't really feel like going over the numbers and probabilities, but using a d12 is going to have a big impact on the chances of a headshot or not hitting the CT.
However, rolling different colored dice right with your shot works. If you hit, you know where. If you miss, well, just don't get mad if it was going to be a killshot. Same amount of dice rolled, half the time.
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ghostrider
01/08/18 03:53 PM
66.74.61.223
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Need to change the tables a little.
Roll a one and where does it hit?
Now there is the issue wolf said. It changes the probabilities of hitting certain areas. All numbers rolled have the same chance to come up, though it would definitely speed up resolution of the game.
Might suggest a d20, so you can have a little less chance of the crits or head shots. Granted, it is not as easy to deal with as the d12. The tables are pretty well set up for it.
Might even go so far as using the d12 for other things as well, such as piloting rolls, and the weapons hit tables, like missiles.
Adding the 1 in there shouldn't be hard.
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Karagin
01/08/18 07:19 PM
72.176.187.91
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Ghostrider note the part where I said the numbers are replaced by the location names...
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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ghostrider
01/09/18 02:43 PM
66.74.61.223
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And you didn't give the location name to the number one.
What location would that be? Or even suggested it be?
Would really be interesting if it could be a combo location like half damage to arm, half to torso next to it. Really shake things up a bit. Though it would slow it back down again, as you figure out what parts.
Center torso goes to which side or even head sort of thing.
As for colored dice, if you have enough, just assign them to specific weapons, such as left ppc, right ppc for a warhammer, with the lasers having their own. Did that with multiple attacks playing D&D. Do all rolls at once, and if the first attack indicates a fumble, well, it voids the rest. But avoids issues of time spreading it out.
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Karagin
01/09/18 03:05 PM
72.176.187.91
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There are 12 locations arms are 2, legs are 2, Side torsos 2, center is 1 then the rear torsos are 3 and the head and the floating critical would go in there as well.
That covers all 12 sides of the die.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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ghostrider
01/11/18 11:18 PM
66.74.61.223
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I believe you don't see the mistake here.
Unless you are able to hit front and back as the same time, the 3 front and 3 back should not be considered on the same table.. Either front torso or rear torso is possible.
With that, there is only 9 locations you listed.
Though there is only 11 in the regular tables in the game. 1 floating crit, 2 right arm, 1 right leg, 1 right torso, 1 center, 1 left torso, 1 left leg, 2 left arm and 1 head.
That is unless they change this after the bmr book.
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Karagin
01/12/18 12:20 AM
72.176.187.91
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The idea needs work but a bit of common sense plays into it, if you are not facing the rear of the mech then the three rear location could be either ignored and re-rolled, or applied to the front and same for if you happen to be firing on the rear and roll the front, since arm and leg hits from the rear would still be arm and leg hits.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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ghostrider
01/12/18 11:52 AM
66.74.61.223
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So you have 2 center torso locations, with 2 side torso locations, with front/back interchangeable.
Just the way I seen it, it sounded like all locations were open for hits from one side.
This really does speed up the game, since you have a 1 in 12 chance of hitting the head, not the 3d6 probability of the 1 in 36 if I remember seeing put up. Also, more hits faster on the torsos, instead of having to deal with the arms soaking more damage changes a lot.
Still would love to see the d8 set up kj has going.
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Karagin
01/12/18 12:57 PM
72.176.187.91
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More or less, I am not saying anything else has to change, but as I am finding out there are draw backs to this, but it does have the chance of speeding up the game some.
The d8 set up shows promise, and I too would like to playtest it, but I am lucky to have time to post on the boards.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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boneshaman
03/13/18 10:50 PM
63.155.110.146
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if you have a smart phone and i assume most every one dose look up in your app store
"Mech Factory", Battletech Calculator" and BT Dice Roller.
they have all sorts of goodies for your game. BT Calculator has to-hit calculator for just about everything.
i have a Samsung galaxy but sure its on apple and such.
I found that this speeds the game up for me quite fast.
where was this app in the 90's when I was really playing.
Edited by boneshaman (03/13/18 10:52 PM)
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ghostrider
03/14/18 01:06 AM
66.74.61.223
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Dice rolling or even figuring out the to hits doesn't seem to be the big issue here.
It is the style of playing were no one will get within range unless they get initiative, and someone screws up.
That is the take I got from the responses here. It mirrors more then a few games I have played myself.
And sometimes, we had a long time for people to even think of their moving their units around.
Basically a chess game that random dice rolls affected the outcome.
There were programs around that simulated dice rolling. Maybe not set up for figuring out wood hexes and such, but for the most part, they tended to be home made programs.
Not many had smart phones in the 90's. Honestly, I don't know if there were any then. I didn't even have a cell phone for most of it. Never thought I was important enough to waste the money to get calls while driving or at work.
And we did figure out how to make chess harder by having to roll dice.
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boneshaman
03/14/18 01:25 PM
63.155.110.146
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No their were no smartphones in the 90's I was just saying in general that they would have been nice.
but the Battletech Calculator that I have on my phone looks just like the Weapon to- Hit table you just select your gunnery/ movement range target movement missing actuators terrain heat and even custom quirks. its really nice unfortunately it dose not have ATMs MRMs MMLs for the cluster hit table only SRM/ LRM. but my BT dice roller has them.
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Karagin
03/14/18 02:05 PM
72.176.187.91
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The idea was to cut the dice rolling down by not needing to roll for the extra stuff.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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boneshaman
03/14/18 05:04 PM
63.155.110.146
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ah well that's easy.
play on terrain less maps.
no weapons that give you a + or- modifiers when firing
no ECM AMS Targeting Comps.
no punching, kicking, clubbing, scratching, biting, spitting, or flash dancing.
no LRMs SRMs MRMs ATMs MMLs RLs LBX Cluster HAGs ( only weapons where all damage hits one location)
link/ group weapons "one of them is if you hit they all hit but in different locations. the other one is roll for separate hits but they all hit one location i think it was in the maximum tech book under special or custom rules."
or the APPs i talked about above. they auto calculate everything and all you have to do is tap the screen to get hit locations never use real dice again "that's if you want to trust a program instead of real dice"
personally i just use the hit modifier part of it get my number than roll the dice and try not to forget about ECM or other things like that. the programs also have all the tables you need. just open that to the roll for hit location and cluster table.
i mean they are free and worth checking out if you want to i know they are on Samsung just checked the ipad so its not in the istore but i think mech factory has a website you can go to and
heck when my friends and i started back before dumb phones we had gone out and printed every table from every rule book we had and put them in a binder so all we had to do was flip to that table. even than we some times forgot where that table was at.
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Karagin
03/15/18 02:01 AM
72.176.187.91
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You are still not on the same page, the idea was to work the locations into the roll the to hit with the 2D6 and then the D12 with the idea it would speed things up, since you could have the names of the locations already on the facings of the D12, not sure how an app is going to speed anything up and given that yes it's a computer doing it for you and the random factor might, maybe, be there, you don't have the human interaction of the game.
If you get a chance go back to the original posting of mine at the start of this if you are not sure about what I was aiming for.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Retry
03/15/18 02:49 PM
64.189.130.11
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A computer can do thousands of calculations (or 'dice rolls') in a fraction of a second, requiring just a click of a button to start the program. When you're talking about twin LB-Xs on a battlemech firing cluster rounds, that's 2 2d6 rolls to determine whether they hit or not, up to 40 more 2d6 rolls to determine where they hit, add extra rolls for determining those lucky critical hit and head rolls determining consciousness, and that's just for 2 weapon systems on a single asset. That's a lot of rolls and time for a lance-size confrontation, god forbid if you try much larger formations like Companies or Regiments. A computer doing the gruntwork instead of hand-checking everything manually can change the time to go through a few turns of such a match from months to hours.
Boneshaman is clearly talking about phone apps that do these calculations, as opposed to a full-frontal CPU emulation of CBT. You still have the board and human interaction but simply neglect some of the heavier dice-rolling components via app, so the whole "human interaction" criticism is simply incorrect in this case.
Your 2nd idea works, and it's very similar to the "box of death" method that's used to speed up the results from those big cluster weapons on the tabletop. Of course, the quickest way to cut rolling is to, simply, cut rolling by using such a BT dice roller program in lieu of physical dice.
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boneshaman
03/15/18 04:00 PM
63.155.110.146
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Yeah but I made a mistake. I misread his post sorry Karagin.
I thought you were asking on some advice to speed up the game in general. Form all parts. I use the apps because I'm slower than 2 turtles fu.... umm.. yeah I'm just slow at calculating the numbers and get distracted so the apps really helped speed things up for me. Sorry about that.
When my friend got me in to BT he only had the 2750 TRO "everything was i think lost or stolen"
Our maps were grid paper with hills rivers trees drawn on it and we used a 8 sided dice to determine hit location "surprisingly we never got that many head shots"
We just winged the rules till he got the 3rd edition boxset.
After that we started getting Real miniatures the TROs and rulebooks.
After a while we started to go to 3D terrain so we can have our own custom battlefields.
Sorry i was 0 help. and misunderstood your post
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