So I was wondering what people think about making MSVs deactivateable, as it seems weird to me that Aquilas and Hsiens can not choose to deactivate their visor when confronted with, say, a white noise zone. I'm not in the position to make a call on this in terms of balance and general gameplay implications, so I was hoping for some input from you guys and gals. My idea is to make it at least a short skill, if not a full order to de-/reactivate a visor (to make it a trade-off) and maybe restrict it to non-REM troopers to reflect the lack of improvisational capabilities on autonomous machines. Let me know what you think!
Fluff wise it makes a lot of sense (I expect that a high trained soldier knows that removing the freaking piece of gear inside of a white noise zone is a good idea), but I don't like that idea balance wise. Visors are pretty good as they are, the last thing they need is the ability to avoid one of the few counterplays to them, specially in the reactive phase. But still, I think the entire Smoke and White noise mechanics could be revised, not being able to even fire really sucks.
Sure, I love that "it's always your turn" thing thanks to the ARO mechanic, the ability to play in the active and in the reactive phase is cool and add tactical deep to the game. The zero visibility zones are a useful tool, but when it goes too far the game start to be as uninteractive as other games and may be matches where the smoke create a very uphill situation for one of the sides. That doesn't happen in every game of course, but versus some smoke happy armies it does. If that mechanic were revised (and balance adjusted) so they are still an useful tool to cover the advance of the troopers but giving the other side some room to actually play the game in the reactive phase, it would be a better game experience imo. But I understand that is a change that would require a new edition to happens. For example giving the smoke a full -6 and -1B MOD, even also limiting the shooter attribute to his WIP if it's higher (or requiring passing an extra WIP roll to be able to shoot, for example rolling an extra dice while attacking with a different colour that would nulify the ARO if that fails). Something to keep both players engaged and rolling dices even if one of the sides has all the smoke in the human sphere. The full zero visibility zone could stay, but as a much more limited tool reserved only for some non spammable models and with limited uses.
I think IJW meant the "not being able to even fire really sucks" part. You can absolutely fire back against shots through smoke.
I think the biggest issues with being able to turn off MSV is that it's the sort of "plausible but complicated" detail is the sort of thing that they were trying to eliminate in the transition from N2 to N3. And second, you're already second guessing the idea by assuming that remotes with MSV wouldn't have the completely sensible option to switch to normal optics. If they wouldn't include normal optics in a remote, why would they include normal optics in powered armor? Note that in a lot of cases, the MSV is shown as part of the helmet that the model is wearing. Other "plausible but complicated" options: Only Tohaa models with bio-symbionts have an option to get out of their armor suits when they've been hit by adhesive. Wouldn't it make sense for everyone else to be able to do so? Riding other people's motorcycles.
Exactly. The reference to not being able to fire made me think that you were talking about not being able to fire back when shot at - not that you were talking about the ability to block sight.
Lol, good point. No, I was refering about these I smoke half of the board in my impetuous phase and I still have my full order pool to ignore your overlapping AROs while killing that one model, touch all the buttons or double move my CC monster towards you with 0 risk.
My take on it is that time in the game is really hard to put into real world terms. When you Rambo it can almost look like someone is The Flash and everyone else is glued in place. I think, that time where he is surprised and unable to see can easily encapsulate one player turn in this wildly abstract time.
The best metaphor I ever heard is that Infinity uses Action Movie Time. When you spend an order on someone, the camera is currently on that character. It doesn't mean nobody else is doing anything, but it's not interesting to the narrative.
This is the explanation that makes the most sense. Which means in my last game Kerr-Nau was the star. I'm ok with this.
Wasn't MSV2 in core links literally the solution to this? I forgot what contradictory ideas the forums are telling me I'm supposed to have today
I know that the RPG handles "turning off all your tech to get away from those pesky cyberpunk things" by basically self-inflicting Isolated and -3 BS, since those visors and aids happen to include stuff like the primary firing mechanisms on Combi Rifles. That could possibly work in the wargame, since it's one hell of a debuff to take in exchange for ignoring White Noise or Jammers or the like.
I just was under the impression that MSV2 was considered too strong right now, not in need of another buff.
