I was just talking about various Ariadna HMGs, when a thought hit me. What if AP would remove 3 ARM from its target (including cover), instead of half of target's own ARM? It'd make it stronger against light troops at the cost of being marginally less useful against ARM 8+ TAGs. It'd also make AP vs Shock choice for Multi weapon users, well, a choice, instead of always going the "meh, just shoot Shock" route. Thoughts?
Presently, I prefer being able to give my opponent reason to pause when I pop out of cover and fire point blank at an Avatar with a Ryuken SMG :D
Why would they pause? Generally the correct response is 'I Sepsitor you', the only time it's not is if you don't have LOF (Change Facing if not in Suppression, 'do nothing' if in Suppression) or are in Suppression (BS Attack with MHMF in Suppression Fire, Shock Ammo). There's some edge cases where you want to do something else (use AP ammo if you need an Unc troop for a Classified) but they're largely self evident.
I was trying to psych him into breaking his suppression to free up an avenue of attack for Jimmy. I don't get your thinking on "do nothing" if in suppression and out of LoF though... If I'd managed the flank, that would have had me on 9s to hit with 3 dice with the Avatar out of cover... 5% crit chance, 45% to hit and 45% to fail Arm roll isn't terrible odds.
You're unlikely to do 3 STR, which means that the Avatar is most likely going to be able to Warning and turn to face, leaving you staring at an Avatar which is still on Suppression. Does nothing (51% odds of 1STR, 12% 2STR, 1% 3STR, 100% odds of Warning and does not lose Suppression). Change Facing (46% odds of 1STR, 9% 2STR, 1% 3STR, 9% odds of succeeding at a Change Facing and loses Suppression). Odds are either way you're probably losing 1 STR, but you're in significantly better position on the next order if you do nothing rather than Change Facing.
Too late! Problem with this idea is that it's too late. AP has already been made a dump-ammo and exists on a large number of weapons, many of which are cheap 0 SWC. As to the idea itself there's also the issue that it hits ARM in a really bad way. ARM is already really expensive and again with the large number of AP weapons it'd devalue all ARM values below 8. So sure. Just remove it from all ranged weapons that's not a shotgun or costs less than 14 points. (I think the AP sniper will be okay with that limit...)
I thought the same thing. The "half value" effects in the game (Breaker, AP, E/M) seem like a holdover from the RPG days, as -3 would be clearer and more consistent with other modifiers.
Point about not affecting cover is well taken, though I still think moving from halving the attribute to using modifiers would be a good thing. Same goes for Breaker and E/M ammo.
Mechanically I like it. That's how AP should work anyway, penetrating armour up to a certain point. To expand on that you'd probably need to also lower the DAM value for AP by one. That's how AP should work anyway, lower man stopping power (-1 DAM) as a tradeoff for higher penetration (-3 ARM) seems good to me. For the game as a whole it would mean AP gets better vs ARM 3 break even for ARM 1,2,4,5 and be worse against ARM 0,6+. Not sure if that is worth much, but it would be a way to increase value for higher ARM levels.
Nice idea. Where are all those people saying that game is fine and if you dont like it how designers made it you should GTFO ?
Probably in threads where people argue for some wild changes that would completely mix up the gameplay.
Interesting change, but can be devastating for most HI. As a much smaller change I would suggest the AP ammo cuts ARM in half OR subtracts 1. This way it can still be pointed as is and isn't totally useless against 1 ARM units.
Could be interesting change, but it would devastate a lot of troops so it should lead to massive point increase of all AP weapon holders because of increased efficiency.