I'd actually think it'd be neat if they did a not-medchanoid pair in the pack. Something updated and derived from the old figure, but having a doctor and an engineer model each, rather than one that does both (along with profiles). Obviously that's not the current plan since the medchanoid is listed on the Army sheet, but still. Then you could keep the old stand by while still getting a new design.
Nope, as it is apparently part of the design philosophy for CA that they have a doctor/engineer (apparently as a representation of their high technology). Please note that Aleph has Sophotects who work exactly the same way (both forces do have minor/specialized Engineers, though CA seems to lack a specialized Doctor). But model-wise, CB could, absolutely, resculpt the MedTech Mechanoid, and put two variants in the box (basic MedTech and Journalist option too). That is, unless they have some extra profile for it planned...
Could be. I’m banking on resculpt, though, mostly because worm is a PITA to assemble and has the fiddly little antennae. Its not a super great product for people new to the hobby as is, and that’s a primary focus for code one. The YJ bots, while old, are still fairly simple to assemble. I mean, “know” is a big word here. But I don’t think the nox box will be code one branded. The code one lines are very small (Action pack, Dire Foes, support pack, remotes pack, tag, two boosters and a hero) by design. I think one focus in delivering product will be to include at least one model of each available unit. If you look at the PanO C1 list, there are six units available that are not in Kaldstrom, beyond or the dire foes (Kamau, Akali, Nisse, Aquila, Swiss and Croc Man). I expect those six units will be represented in the booster packs (and that they’ll all be repacks in this case). Same situation exists with the Yu Jing list. The CA list has three units that are not in wildfire/beyond, so I expect those to get a release. (Interestingly, it also includes enough characters to cover releases in a DF, hero blister and three more to cover the rest of the booster pack spots. I’m just hoping that we don’t get a booster of three characters). This is just me speculating. It all makes sense to me given what little information I have and my assumptions about the goals of Code 1. I’ve made the facts fit my ideas, like any good conspiracy theorist. :-p
Makes sense as well. Not "know" like, real knowing, but like Internet Knowing. Like, suspect based on personal whims and half baked rumors, oobviously. :) I do wonder if we'll get a non-Defiance Cho, but it could make sense to have a Cho + PSiCo+something maybe, assuming Casanova vs a Shas is a Dire Foes. It seems odd to give Code One O12 more units when they haven't even finished the core O12's units, but then I'm still assuming GenCon/ August release of N4 will include an actual O12 Sectorial, so maybe something with that theme. I mean, what else is the internet for?
Agent Dukash, Vashar Special Corps is the Dire Foe in all likelihood. Symbol looks Shasvastii too, and the color palette on the icon matches.
Martial Arts changed (Damage boosted) Reportedly Protheion now takes the quality of the weapon, so Sheeskin with DA CCW forces 2 bts saves.
Spotlight can be used in ARO now Immobilized-A can be canceled by the effected unit with a -6 PH dodge roll. Likewise Immobilized-B can be canceled with a -3 WIP reset roll. No essential change to how doctors/engineers work. So you still kill your own guys :\
No explanation of how Monofilament interacts with crits unless I missed something? Presuming just another armour save.
"CRITICALS A Critical is an automatic success. Unless otherwise specified, each Critical rolled in an Attack causes the target to make an additional Saving Roll. If the Attack does not cause the target to make Saving Rolls, the effect of the Critical will be specified in the rules for that Attack, Ammunition etc. NOTE: Some weapons use Types of Ammunition that are capable of altering the effects of an Attack, such as, causing “multiple” Saving Rolls for each success, reducing the ARM or BTS of the target, etc. This may also alter the way Criticals work. The additional roll gained by scoring a Critical Hit, will retain both the attribute used to make a saving throw and the traits of the weapon used in the attack, (unless otherwise stated)."
Talking about monofilament, will the new martial arts levels add to the damage? I.e. will a martial artists level 4 hit with a damage 15, arm=0, state= dead weapon? Asking for a gardener...
Going from previous way, no, it's a fixed number with no mods. I'm sure we'll have plenty of updates this week.
I also have to say that unfortunately, the layout and most of the illustration design are absolutely horrible. Clashing colors, white text on stark saturated orange background. In other cases, unsaturated icons of miniatures on paste background, the image itself barely column width. Grey text on white background with lighter grey abstract shapes under the text. The CGI 3D visual rule examples are full of unintelligible tables, icons, lines of fire, all in brash colors. Or, in turn, some of the 2D top-down examples are huge fields of pure white (empty) with splotches of solid black (walls). 3D drawings used as Example 1 of Climbing, then 3D CGI used as Example 2 of the same rule. Why the sudden change of style? Lots and lots of white space, no paragraph indentation, default font kerning, absolute zero point zero professional DTP work done. It's really hard to watch and looks awfully rushed. I have zero hope for the quality of N4 rulebook and will not preorder. As a bright side, the "drawn" 3D examples are very good, very legible - this style should have been used for all of the 3D examples. The miniature photos are excellent. The cover is cool. The rest of the book looks and reads (functionally, I'm not after the contents) like absolute hot garbage. Examples below, good and bad, so nobody can claim I'm stomping on CB or that I'm a "hater". I wanted this whole book to be DTP'd professionally and all examples / tables look like half of them do. Instead we have no DTP and two mixed styles which is just insane. #1 BAD page 4, zero DTP work done, neither with kerning nor even hyphenation. The text just dumped into the columns and left as it landed. as comparison, here's a page from an excellently made and laid out RPG rulebook ("Call of Cthulhu - Grand Grimoire of Mythos Magic") that I'm reading now. Take a moment and compare how well the text flows, how the line spacing and paragraph indentation help your eyes not to "slide off" the text and follow it closely. How even the font itself is chosen much better and adjusted with kerning to ensure the lines are the same width. #2 GOOD, page 9, cool illustration, well used #3 BAD, page 10 This is the introduction. This shows the customer "I don't care how this book looks, it can look like a student laid it out after school". That cut off orphaned "sci-fi universe" hurts my soul. #4 GOOD, page 10 again Clear, legible tables. Good! #5 GOOD, page 11 Great 2D and 3D example styles, legible and good color palettes, very nice! #6 BAD, page 12 & 13 Who's responsible for those palette choices? #7, GOOD, page 13 Legible weapon tables, nice! Good color palette! #8, GOOD, page 14 Nice legible table, another pattern, but cool, good calm palette. Great use of the "drawn" 3D example style, not overwhelming with information and symbols.
and then there are those monstrosities... page 15, with complete change of style, tiny full-table images with colors that blend with the miniature icons... "are those examples for ants?!" and page 16, Infinity rules on three liters of Mountain Dew - MOAR! MOAR! LOUDER! MOAR TABLES! MOAR ICONS! MOAR DICE ROLL! LOUDER COLORS! PEW! PEW! PEWPEWPEWPEW! I'm physically drained just looking at those... And then, there's this gem, too. Page 19, who the hell thought that a green serif font on dark graphite background, with a WHITE OUTLINE is a good idea?! It just feels like there were two graphic designers of the book or one with schizophrenia, who went in completely opposite ways, both in style and in professional capacity. Can we please leave the guy who did all the nice, calm, smooth design like this below and fire the other one?
Also, those are great! Those with appropriately colored subtitles, as in PanO Dude pewpew 6 and 9! Yu Jing girl pew pew ARO 11! She wins the Face to Face! would've been more than enough. This ZoC example is great, too. but why the style change between Example 1 and 2? why later in the book do the weapon range bands use saturated color all of a sudden, not the previous nice set of colors from page 13? why is there like a 5th or 6th style of examples introduced, this time 3D models but with gradient background instead of white? and then another, with color, but no gradient?! and then yet another, but now the top-down-with-black-blocks is 3D instead of 2D, but so the blocks have confusing shape and SHADOWS and because of the processing the tables are blurry... I... I'll shut up now. So disappointed. One guy did a great job, the other half got completely shanked, amateur hour. Did CB fire their DTP / layout person in the middle of the job and did the best they could? What the hell happened here?! O_o
► Damage MOD: A MOD to the PH Attribute of the user to determine the Damage of a successful CC Attack. My emphasis
Have to agree on most of Nuada's criticisms. No idea what the intention was with the layout in general and the color design specifically but my guess would be that because of everything happening and their schedule beeing tight already they made a compromise when it came to QC. Since it's an digital only product right now I'd guess they are treating this are sort of an early access rulebook? Lot's of nice quality of life changes in the content itself but I personally wish they would've been a little more willing to take risks when it comes to the streamlining and would've focussed more on the "positive gameplay experience"-approach. Something like beeing able to cancel Immobilized-A with a dodge roll is a good example of the imo right approach. Still letting doctors and engineers kill your own units with one failed roll is not. I know they always said they're not reinventing the wheel and it is more a streamlining than a complete overhaul but I have seen x.5 editions of games taking more risks. I know it's C1 and not N4 but I'd argue we can extrapolate a lot from the C1 rules. In the end it is still the Infinity I love with some positive changes so I'll take it.
For the record, the situation for multiple doctors/engineers is actually more strict than it was in N3. N3: Failed rolls cancel successes. C1 Doctor: A single failure kills you. C1 Engineer: Presumably the gains and losses cancel out (rules don’t really say). I sort of get the impression this means that medics in link teams are being discouraged from trying really hard to save one trooper. Since that would make link teams a really strong advantage for them.
