N4 is a more streamlined game, when compared to N3. A lot of cumbersome interactions were cut, but at the same time we've lost some capabilities that allowed for more nuanced, tactical play. I'd like to hear what people are missing and would like to see back in the game. My first thoughts: U-Turn on one of the hacking devices, probably on EVO. It'd allow for at least some measure of defence against GML. Fire ammo and Burnt status. Especially given the increased proliferation of Camo and Mimetism. Fire ammo could include Burnt and Continuous Damage effects, while allowing for both of them to be used separately on some unique weapons. More meaningful unit type restrictions. While I'm happy to see MI being faster, it took away any significant difference between them and LI. Maybe MI should have some kind of Immunity (Shock, Critical, AP, etc) as standard, representing their increased protection? Remotes should also be a bit more restricted, not being able to go Prone, for example, and/or still requiring a hacker to field them. Hacker programs having more diversity, with more modifiers and ammo types being introduced, maybe tying some bonuses to the hacking device type itself (for example KHD having Breaker on all its programs as default, EVO having advanced defensive bonuses, etc)
I would like to comment more on your suggestions, but I just agree with them :p By the way, picturing some remotes going prone and then standing up (while TAG's can't) is very hilarious, specially for remotes like the Auxbots XDDD
Guided Missile Launcher. I quite liked the range bands on it and the slightly toned down guided strikes. Echo on Fire damage and Burnt state. Great tactical depth was lost. Pitchers not existing. Much much fewer Shock damage sources for ranged attacks. Much much fewer units with Shock immunity. Most other changes, though... nah. Forward is better than backwards. (I think TAGs should be able to prone. S6->S3 & S7->S4 rather than SX however) (The defining trait of MI used to be that LI didn't get ARM 2+ and MI always got 4-2 speed and a small discount)
As someone who organises tournaments, this would make terrain so much easier to work with in terms of table setup. One of the biggest issues is making sure there isn't an elevated spot in the middle of the table where a player can get cheeky headshots on a TAG.
While we are at it... Prone Silhouette became SX. MOV = 0 Kneeling S1 => Nope S2 => S1 S3-4 => Nope S5-6 => S3 S7 => S4 MOV halved as per actual Prone
Ugh, no. Just get rid of them altogether. Scrub LI, MI, HI, Skirmisher, Warband, TAG, and REM from the game. Have skills for TAG, REM, and powered armour, all the other categories are already vestigial.
Interactable doors and scenery elements: Open/close shutters, doors or gates to prevent/allow access to buildings or sections of the board.
It is kinda silly how grenade launchers seem like they are worse than their grenade counterparts in most scenarios where I want to use them. More expensive, usually cost SWC, no good range. I don't see why I should bring Daturazi Smoke GL when normal Daturazi smoke grenades are better. When it comes to speculative attacks, my basic Naffatûn can use spec-fire grenades on 8s, but the Al Fasid with GL can only do it on 7s despite being a massive point investment. Even if they made the GL good rangebands the same as normal Grenades it would be nice.
We had a standing question for all of N3: "how the hell do doors work and please don't make them like in N2?!" I guess the addressed the question by simply nuking the rules causing it. I think bringing actual doors into the game would be a new feature request at this point as we haven't had functional official rules for them for over a decade
Impetuous being mandatory unless the model spent its own order, or spent a regular order, depending on edition. Those profiles are cheap for a reason and I feel they are getting a pretty damn good deal at the moment. So much this. Give the meatbags something over their robotic overlords. Was also a really interesting intangible downside for them. U-Turn was pretty shit. The old one from N2 was better I'm surprised how many people care about this. I ran so many Makaul against so much Ariadna and so many Cutter for so many years and never gave the slightest shit. Back then, there was just a mathematically best program for each situation, and the majority of hackers had access to the majority of programs. It was no more 'varied' than it is now, just hidden under false complexity. So I disagree with this idea, though not with the idea of having more specialized programs handed out to specific profiles.
I agree that N3 complexity was false; I meant to argue for having a have a real one, not for rolling the changes back. When we were discussing hacking before N4 arrived I proposed different hacking devices having their own special bonuses, just like KHD had its own. Let's say the lineup would look like this: KHD - Breaker Ammo AHD - +1 Burst HD+ - maybe some modifiers, but this could make for some real uberhackers DHD - being able to use defensive hacking to protect other units in its hacking area EVO - +3 MOD on everything rollable Upgrade programs would follow the rules for device they're being used on, so Trinity on KHD would use Breaker Ammo, but as an upgrade on AHD would have Normal Ammo, Burst 4, and so on.
Thats a solid idea. I'd still like it to be paired with some specialist programs on certain platforms. However this is a really interesting way to differentiate the same program from different devices.
I can't remember the exact name but Lean Out. The skill that allowed a model to overlook the cliff/cover/wall they were behind and see people below them.
Scenery rules, Give me back opening and lockable doors, and the ability to breach walls to engage from unpredictable angles. I really miss that. also bring back burnt, and all the other good tools that disappeared due to the asinine streamlining. also revert the shotgun DTW change.
If you are on the third (or whatever) floor of a building and there is a railing (at the edge of the building) that doesn't fit your base size I'm not sure you can move onto it to see below.
Give us BURNT back! With Avatar getting so much buffs and cost reduction we need something to take this beast out. Not every faction has decent damage/AP shooter with MSV2, FFS not every faction has even MSV2 at all. Being able to suicide LFT nerd to remove ODD and then kill the monster was my go to strat for weaker N3 Avatar. Other than that I would like prone rules to get fixed. In N3 any unit that could go prone was considered S0 and could go into Armory/Panic room and other ITS objective rooms. In N4 Thicc bois can't crawl at all into these.