Roguetech Wiki
Explore
Main Page
All Pages
Interactive Maps
navigation
Main page
Community portal
Recent changes
Random page
Admin noticeboard
Starting RogueTech
What is RogueTech
Introduction to Roguetech
Gameplay Changes
Installation
Online Experience
The Rogue War
Credits
Support Links
Installation
Performance Tips
Change Log
FAQ
Known Issues
Roguetech Articles
Mechs
Vehicles
Gear
RT Flashpoints
Online RW Map
WarTech IIC
Starting Equipment
In-game settings
Gameplay Changes
Advanced Guides
Gamepedia
Gamepedia support
Report a bad ad
Help Wiki
Contact us
FANDOM
Fan Central
BETA
Games
Anime
Movies
TV
Video
Wikis
Explore Wikis
Community Central
Start a Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Sign In
Sign In
Register
Roguetech Wiki
14,718
pages
Explore
Main Page
All Pages
Interactive Maps
navigation
Main page
Community portal
Recent changes
Random page
Admin noticeboard
Starting RogueTech
What is RogueTech
Introduction to Roguetech
Gameplay Changes
Installation
Online Experience
The Rogue War
Credits
Support Links
Installation
Performance Tips
Change Log
FAQ
Known Issues
Roguetech Articles
Mechs
Vehicles
Gear
RT Flashpoints
Online RW Map
WarTech IIC
Starting Equipment
In-game settings
Gameplay Changes
Advanced Guides
Gamepedia
Gamepedia support
Report a bad ad
Help Wiki
Contact us
Editing
Change Log
(section)
Back to page
Edit
VisualEditor
View history
Talk (0)
Edit Page
Change Log
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Key Changes == <tabber> |-|Piloting classes= As it was too easy to build the perfect stall of MechWarriors that can fulfill most roles, a new feature called Piloting Classes has been introduced to RogueTech. All MechWarriors will be limited on what unit types they can pilot based on their assigned piloting classes. There is a total of 3 primary and 2 secondary piloting classes, where the primary classes can only be obtained as the pilot is generated or created. Secondary classes are in addition to the primary classes. A pilot cannot have a secondary class without the valid corresponding primary class. '''Primary Classes''' * Mech Class - Allows piloting of all mechs * Ground Vehicle Class - Allows piloting of all ground-based vehicles * BA Class - Allows piloting of Battle Armor '''Secondary Classes''' * VTOL Class - Allows piloting of VTOLs; requires the pilot to also have Ground Vehicle class. * LAM Class - Allows piloting of LAMs; requires the pilot to also have Mech Class. '''Other Piloting Requirements''' * QuadVee - MechWarrior needs both Mech and Ground Vehicle class ''Note'': Quad units, Battle Armor VTOL, Protomech WiGE Glider and other advanced unit types not mentioned here do not require a specific class, they fall under their respective main unit type. === Pilot Class Training === New events are added to allow select pilots to be trained in an additional secondary class. Not all pilots are eligible. VTOL training requires pilots to already have Ground Vehicle Class. LAM training requires pilots to already have Mech Class. An item to start the training event has been added to stores, in a similar way to how ''Pain Shunt'' and ''Neural Implant'' surgery currently work. Training is risky and there is a chance for the pilot to die. Training is not instant - it can take anywhere from 6-12 months to complete training and during this time pilot is NOT available for drops or events. Only the Commander and one other pilot may be away training at any given time. Upon training completion, if no injuries were sustained, there will be an offer to buy the unit the pilot trained on for a fee. If acquired, the MechWarrior will start with a small amount of affinity for the unit. '''Note:''' Due to how events work, it is not possible to train every pilot in the barracks. If an event doesnโt trigger, typically it is due to not enough valid candidates; not enough cash on hand; a pilot already being trained or the pilot being in a cooldown period. ===Career Start & Backgrounds=== To ensure a fair start of a new career, on the career start the starting roster of pilots (including the Commander) will be assigned extra piloting classes as needed to cover all units. In the same way, depending on the Commander background selected the Commander might be assigned further piloting classes. |-|Artillery Rework= {{#tag:tabber|Reasoning= Artillery has had a major rework, transforming it from a instant hitting heavy damage dealer to a more tactical weapon. === Why change Artillery? === Since its introduction in Roguetech, artillery weapons - particularly when using indirect fire - have been problematic to properly balance due to their strong impact on the battlefield. A large part of it has always been the very long range and large Area of Effect for both damage and other effects such as heat and instability. As a result, it would often lead to a situation where players rely on several artillery units that are kept very far back to repeatedly unleash powerful strikes at enemies with little risk to the unit themselves until the opposing forces are weak enough to engage directly. Although this is quite tactically sound, it also often leads to static gameplay with limited challenge. The vision of the Roguetech mod has always been to provide a very challenging experience, especially at higher difficulties, that would require well-planned and well-executed decisions to win its battles. The gameplay that the current implementation of artillery enables falls outside this vision, and as a result, the Roguetech team has long wanted to address this. A previous attempt to balance artillery was the introduction of the brace-to-fire mechanic, which did not solve the situation as players quickly found ways to practically neutralize the mechanic. Even with repeated changes (such as the removal of immunity for QuadMechs), this mechanic proved to not be useful for the situation of indirect artillery fire. The mechanic does however keep a role with direct-fire artillery attacks and large-bore weapons, limiting the strategy of just using the biggest gun around in large amounts with little downsides. === Possible ways to balance === As Roguetech is heavily inspired by the actual rules of the tabletop version of Battletech, the first step is to look at how artillery is balanced within this ruleset. There are several limiting factors within the tabletop rules, but the main differences (besides lower damage and smaller radius of impact) compared to Roguetech is that the artillery shells have travel time before impact and fixed accuracy. The travel time is based on distance from the target, which allows targets further away to manoeuvre before the shell strikes, possibly resulting in a miss. One thing we considered to emulate the travel time was to simply add a cooldown to artillery, but cooldowns are something players tend to not enjoy and could also lead to a situation where the solution is just to bring more artillery to be able to fire constantly. Another thing discussed was to reduce damage and radius to be more like the tabletop values, or possibly increase the spread of the shells so much that they would be less reliable. Both of these solutions would however just be nerfs done to the stats of the weapons, in an attempt to lower the strength of the weapons in the player's hands, and not address the actual root cause. === The Solution === Instead of the above-mentioned ideas, we instead decided to take a different approach to make artillery gameplay unique, but enough of a limiting factor to prevent it from being a too easily used crutch against difficulty. From this release onwards, indirect artillery strikes will work as a two-phase attack. The first phase initiates deployment of the artillery unit allowing it to brace and aim, while the second phase allows the actual firing of the artillery weapon. During the first phase, an enemy unit or ground attack is selected as per normal during the artillery unit's activation. Once the target is selected and the '''Fire''' button is pressed, a new marker will appear at the aimed location - showing the projected impact of the artillery weapon(s) - and the unit's activation ends. [[File:Artillery-aimed.png|none|Example of aimed artillery strike]] Example of an aimed artillery strike after the target selection phase has been finished. Upon the artillery unit's next activation, the unit is now prepared to fire the artillery weapon(s). The only allowed actions at this point are either to fire the weapons(s) or to cancel the firing sequence by bracing to end the unit's activation. [[File:Artillery-phase2.png|none|Example of firing phase of an artillery strike]] Example of the second phase of artillery strike, allowing firing of the artillery weapons. When the AI fires at the player's units, they follow the same two-phase attack pattern to clearly show where the artillery strike will hit. This allows the player to react and move out of the way if possible. [[File:Artillery-incoming.png|none|Example of incoming fire]] Example of incoming artillery fire from an AI unit. The fact that instant indirect fire is no longer possible allows for relaxing some of the previously introduced limitations of indirect fire. The Brace to Fire-mechanic will no longer apply - the first phase of artillery fire includes bracing after all -, the spread of missed attacks has been considerably lowered and the radius of the shell impact increased. However, as the above changes just address the problem of indirect fire, the direct fire mode would still stay a bit too strong. To address this the maximum range of a direct attack has been lowered to the tabletop value of 425 meters (17 hexes), instead of the previous 600 meters. This will ensure that the artillery unit has to get close enough that it is not a low-risk attack. However, the minimum range for direct fire modes has been reduced significantly as well, making it easier to use direct fire at closer ranges. Further, the brace-to-fire penalty will be tweaked to more appropiate values in line with the other large-bore weapons. Finally, the last change will be to introduce the fixed accuracy previously mentioned. This means many negative accuracy effects such as size difference, injuries or negative effects from enemy weapon's fire won't have an impact on artillery strikes, as the target is a ground location, not a moving unit. Using targeting equipment such as TAGs and Narcs will still allow increased accuracy for artillery strikes, as this allows the artillery targeting computer to slightly adjust the firing position for the intended target. The AI will now also know what an artillery strike means and will move away from its area of impact if possible. This means an artillery strike against more mobile units will possibly be hard and require planning ahead, but instead artillery strikes can be used to control enemy movements if placed in advance. === TL;DR === Artillery will be changed in the following way: * Indirect fire will be a two-round attack ** The first round involves selecting the location to strike. ** The second round allows firing the artillery weapon. * The brace-to-fire mechanic will no longer apply to indirect fire attacks. * Direct fire will have a shorter range and higher brace-to-fire penalties. * Artillery weapons will use fixed accuracy, meaning bonuses and maluses to accuracy will have little to no impact. TAG and Narc applied bonuses are exempt. {{!}}-{{!}}Change Details= All artillery weapons have had the following changes to them: * All evasion ignore has been removed. * All direct fire modifiers have been removed. * Direct mode accuracy modifier -4 * Direct Fire minimum distance to fire reduced to 425 meters. Other ranges also adjusted where appllicable (e.g. cannons) * Indirect mode accuracy modifier -5 * Direct mode not allowed ammunition: FASCAM (Mines), Nuke, FAE (Thermobaric) * Flak Mode allowed ammunition: Standard (HE) * Indirect mode not allowed ammunition: Solid Slug, Shaped Charges, Armor Piercing The following accuracy modifiers still impact Artillery: * C3-style networks * Low visibility * Bad weather * TAG and Narc effects {{{!}} class="wikitable" ! Name !! AOE Range - Std Ammo !! Indirect - Scatter !! Direct - Minumum Distance !! Direct / Flak - Self-Instability on Fire {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Arrow IV {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 50 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 25 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Arrow IV (C) {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 50 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 20 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Arrow IV (OS) {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 50 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 25 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Arrow IV (P) {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 300 -> 180 {{!}}{{!}} 0 {{!}}{{!}} 30 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Arrow IV Pack {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 50 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 25 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} BA Tube Artillery {{!}}{{!}} 75 {{!}}{{!}} Min 5, Max 40 {{!}}{{!}} 30 {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Big Steel {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 60 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 48 (x1) / 64 (x2) {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Carronade<sup>1</sup> {{!}}{{!}} 120 -> 160 {{!}}{{!}} Max 222 -> 137 {{!}}{{!}} 370 -> 81 {{!}}{{!}} 40 per shot {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Cruise Missile 50<sup>2</sup> {{!}}{{!}} 400 -> 500 {{!}}{{!}} Max 250 -> 125 {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Hellstorm<sup>3</sup> {{!}}{{!}} 60 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} Min 5 per shot, Max 12 per shot {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Howitzer Rifle<sup>4</sup> {{!}}{{!}} 60 {{!}}{{!}} Min 15 -> 10, Max 60 -> 30 {{!}}{{!}} 150 -> 75 {{!}}{{!}} 12 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Long Tom Artillery {{!}}{{!}} 120 -> 160 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 60 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 64 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Long Tom Cannon {{!}}{{!}} 120 -> 160 {{!}}{{!}} Max 105 -> 75 {{!}}{{!}} 120 -> 60 {{!}}{{!}} 80 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} MARS {{!}}{{!}} 60 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 80 -> 60 (Spread) {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Sniper Artillery {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 50 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 48 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Sniper Cannon {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Max 75 -> 60 {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 45 {{!}}{{!}} 64 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Thumper Artillery {{!}}{{!}} 60 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} Max 100 -> 40 {{!}}{{!}} 180 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} 32 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Thumper Cannon {{!}}{{!}} 60 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} Max 60 -> 45 {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 45 {{!}}{{!}} 48 {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Oneshot Long Tom QS {{!}}{{!}} 120 -> 160 {{!}}{{!}} Min 5, Max 70 {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Oneshot Thumper QS {{!}}{{!}} 90 -> 120 {{!}}{{!}} Min 5, Max 60 {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Oneshot Sniper QS {{!}}{{!}} 60 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} Min 5, Max 50 {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Sawed Off Thumper {{!}}{{!}} 60 -> 90 {{!}}{{!}} Min 5, Max 50 {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}{{!}} - {{!}}- {{!}}{{!}} Yang Artillery {{!}}{{!}} 175 -> 210 {{!}}{{!}} Max 160 -> 80 {{!}}{{!}} 280 -> 70 {{!}}{{!}} 75 {{!}}- {{!}}} '''Notes:'''<br> 1) Recoil per shot changed from 1 to 3, Tonnage decreased from 38 to 37.<br> 2) Added clear minefield radius of 50 m.<br> 3) Clear minefield radius changed from 8 to 14. Jam chance changed from 6% to 3% per shot.<br> 4) Direct mode accuracy modifier is -1.<br> {{!}}-{{!}}Questions and Answers= The below Q&A is the summary of the most common questions asked by the community when the first draft of the artillery rework was presented. '''Q: Can other weapons be fired while aiming or between aiming and firing the artillery?''' <br> '''A:''' No, starting the firing sequence of the artillery is a commitment, no other weapons can be used during this time. '''Q: What does the circle on the ground represent after the aiming phase?''' <br> '''A:''' The circle is a visual representation of the radius of the weapon's standard high-explosive ammunition if the artillery strike would perfectly hit where it was originally aimed. In reality, the impact zone will be slightly different, as the circle does not account for scatter or misses. If specialist ammunition is used with a different area of effect, the circle will not adapt its size. '''Q: Will the artillery track the unit it was originally aimed at?''' <br> '''A:''' No, all indirect attacks are ground attacks, aimed at the ground where the unit was positioned at the time of aiming. It is also not possible due to technical limitations. '''Q: Does this mean artillery can no longer target units directly during indirect mode?''' <br> '''A:''' Yes, as all indirect artillery attacks are now seen as ground attacks. Even though you can select a unit during the aiming phase, once the aim is confirmed it converts to a ground attack at that unit's position, which is shown by the circle on the ground. '''Q: But what about specialist ammo such as shaped charges and solid slugs?''' <br> '''A:''' These types of ammunition will only be useable in direct-fire mode from now on. In the same way, some ammunition can only be used in indirect mode. Flak mode can only use standard (high-explosive) rounds. '''Q: Once aimed, can you keep the aim and fire every round?''' <br> '''A:''' No, each firing sequence always consists of an aim round and a fire round. '''Q: Once the firing phase is reached and if the shot is no longer desired, what other actions can be taken?''' <br> '''A:''' Bracing to finish the unit's activation is the only other allowed action. '''Q: Is it instead possible to start aiming another shot?''' <br> '''A:''' No, every firing sequence consists of one aim and one fire phase. '''Q: Has the Area of Effect damage model changed?''' <br> '''A:''' No, the damage dealt to units in the impact zone scaling remains linear to the distance. The same is true for the chance of any weapon or ammunition status effects being applied, the chance decreases based on distance from the centre of the impact. '''Q: What does "''bonuses and maluses to accuracy will have little to no impact''" actually mean?''' <br> '''A:''' Most accuracy modifiers will be ignored by any artillery weapon, no matter which firing mode is used. This includes things such as affinities, equipment, size difference, weather and other modifiers. A few modifiers will still work, mainly TAG and Narcs, and will be marked so specifically. This change affects all firing modes. '''Q: Will C3 bonuses also be ignored?''' <br> '''A:''' No, the various shared network bonuses remain. '''Q: Do pilot scatter bonuses still affect the actual accuracy of an artillery strike?''' <br> '''A:''' Yes, any scatter modifiers will work the same as before. '''Q: What about quirks or affinities that currently provide a bonus to Artillery accuracy?''' <br> '''A:''' They will be changed to other stats, such as reducing scatter. '''Q: Are there any other changes to the stats?''' <br> '''A:''' We have increased the radius for most Artillery weapons by between 25% and 50%. Generally, the smaller the radius they had, the larger the increase they got. All changes are listed in the ''Change Details'' tab above. '''Q: What about the evasion ignore artillery currently has in all firing modes?''' <br> '''A:''' It will be removed, it was a workaround for artillery being affected by negative accuracy modifiers. '''Q: Will Flak mode change as well?''' <br> '''A:''' Yes, Flak mode will also be changed, as mentioned above. Its range will stay the same, it still has no restricted (minimum firing) range and can fire as far as the unit has a clear line of sight within the weapon's max range. '''Q: Will the artillery cannons be affected?''' <br> '''A:''' Yes, they are just sawed-off artillery, all changes apply. '''Q: Will the '''Howitzer 2000''' be affected?''' <br> '''A:''' Yes, it is considered artillery. It was further a bit too strong and has been reduced in stats. '''Q: What about the '''Thunderstorm'''?''' <br> '''A:''' Although it somewhat behaves like an artillery, in practice it is just a thunderbolt launcher and will for this reason not be affected by the changes. '''Q: What about vehicles?''' <br> '''A:''' All units will have the same behavior, even turrets. '''Q: How will multishot work if you have multiple artillery weapons?''' <br> '''A:''' It works the same as now, you can target each artillery at the location of a different unit. '''Q: I have this really cool idea of how to do better! It only involves doing '''X''' when '''Y''' and then '''Z'''!''' <br> '''A:''' Most likely it is not currently technically possible. Even though it might sound simple, the amount of changes already done to the game makes every following change more complicated and we try to limit making things too complex. However, it is still the first iteration of the new artillery system, things can be changed in the future if it doesn't work out. '''Q: What is the actual end goal in terms of balance for artillery? Is it tabletop replication or a specific point on the balance curve in terms of power and function?''' <br> '''A:''' The goal is to try and find a niche for artillery in Roguetech where firing it every round without much thought doesn't immediately rule the battlefield, but still allows it to have a tactical impact on the battlefield when used properly. Pure tabletop replication will never be a goal as it is far too complex, including factors such as off-board artillery, counter-battery, bore sighting, altitude differences and so on. }} |-|Extended Difficulty Curve= Unit selection for the enemy lances during combat missions has been reworked from the ground up to extend midgame (medium-heavy) difficulties and improve enemy variety particularly in lategame difficulties. * Enemies now scale over the full planetary difficulty range (d1 to d20) with more granularity. * Adjusted support lance probabilities to fit the new scale. * Fixed early game lances sometimes being larger than intended. * Adjusted some contracts to make the enemies you find better match the description. * Will now see higher difficulties faster, '''does not mean harder'''. * Drop rating value per skull is reduced from 13.5 to 10 million. * Pilot variety has also been improved at lower difficulties. * Chance of high difficulty pilot getting the most powerful quirks reduced. </tabber> <hr style="height:5px">
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to the Roguetech Wiki are considered to be released under the CC BY-SA 3.0
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Follow on IG
TikTok
Join Fan Lab