Honestly armored core 6 is doing an amazing job of leading the player and suggesting free will. Walter says to ignore the big bad tetrapod in the middle of the arena. I of course think “why shouldn’t I” and absolutely ripped it apart, and then felt proud because I did good. Then I realized I am a fool, I absolutely fell into the developers trap. The illusion of free choice. And what’s worse is that instead of viewing the tetrapod as a soldier, just doing their job, I viewed it as a challenge, a toy to be thrown against the wall, exactly as the in universe pilot would have seen it as.
Character design commissioned, commissioned by @Yourdailyomega on VGEN to design their Armored Core character, based on C4-621 set in Armored Core VI -FIRES OF RUBICON-
What is it, 621? You'd like to go by "she/her" from now on? Hm... Alright, I'll update your records. Thank you for telling me.
ayre:
I'm glad you're being true to yourself, Raven. I didn't want to say anything but... I can see inside your head...
sculla:
This ones a woman, huh? No matter, I'll put you down like all the rest.
rusty:
Yeah, I figured. If you need hormones, I know somebody. I'm pretty sure she sells estrogen too.
snail:
I don't care if you're a he/she/they whatever! You're nothing but VERMIN, the lowest of the low, and I, V.II SNAIL, WILL-
iguazu:
W-what! Damn you freelancer... How come you always get what I- ... forget it.
carla:
Congratulations, tourist! You know, RaD is setting up new chem labs for that kinda thing. Yeah, its a real money maker. Mostly RLF, but Arquebus higher ups are buying in bulk for a "secret project". No clue what thats about but, hey, their moneys good. Come stop by, we'll get you sorted out!
freud:
Is that why you're such a good pilot? I've heard estrogen is a performance enhancer... I've been using it for about a month now, and I feel great. Like a big weight is off my shoulders. I'm still cis, though.
michigan:
Looks like G13 is switchin' sides! Congrats, kid! Hormone therapy is covered under Balam's insurance policy, just throwing that out there.
An Introduction to Machine Heart, an Armored Core inspired ttrpg
To begin understanding the intricacies of your core, we must first begin with your most crucial statistics and resources. You have two resources when piloting your core, action points and energy. Action points allow you to perform actions such as firing a weapon, reload a weapon, quick boosting, assault boosting, recover energy, or repairing your core. You have three action points, though this can be augmented. Energy is a resource provided by your cores generator that must be spent to ascend, quick boost, assault boost, and fire energy weapons. Energy is also utilized in reactions such as evasive maneuvers or aggressively seizing an opportunity. These two resources must be managed appropriately to ensure your success on the field of battle. Energy has a subresource known as red line energy, determined by your core piece, which is made available when your core's base energy is depleted. Utilizing this resource will leave you exposed until your following turn, however.
Your core has several important stats, the most important being your armor points, AP. AP represents the durability of your core, and when depleted, your core will be destroyed. The next most crucial is Stability points represent how much impact your core can take before being staggered, a state which leaves you vulnerable to a critical strike. The stability points of your legs snd head piece combined determine your core's breakpoint. When this number is surpassed, you will be staggered. Stability recovery, similarly attached to your leg and head parts, determine how much stability will be restored, should a round of combat end without you receiving impact.
Following this are your cores boost speeds. First is your base speed, which does not require energy or an action to utilize. The second is your quick boost speed, which represents a sudden burst of horizontal movement that can be used for evasive maneuvers or repositioning. Quick boosting requires a certain amount of energy as determined by your booster. A bonus can be provided to your quick boost distance while on the ground determined by your legs. Assault boost speed represents your speed when utilizing your cores assault boost, and is represented by a distance per energy spent. A cap on both speed and energy that can be spent in one turn is determined by your core. Ascension speed represents how fast your core can move upwards. This is combined with your cores jump height, a distance determined by the legs of your core, upon initial ascension. Ascenion requies energy, but jumping does not. Finally, your booster will determine your hover efficiency - how much energy must be spent to maintain hovering above the ground.
Each movement statistic is altered by your cores weight, which can generally be broken into three classes. Light, medium, and heavy. A heavy core will reduce your speed, while a lighter core will increase your speed. The number of spaces you move in your turn will determine your modifier for dodge rolls, which an attacker must beat with their attack roll to land an attack. While a heavier core may have a harder time dodging attacks, heavier parts come with higher AP and SP. The maximum weight your core can carry overall is determined by your legs, but a separate weight limit exists, known as carry limit, which represents how much your guns can weigh as determined by your arm part. All parts of your core have a weight which contribute to the total weight. Your arm part will also determine your firearm proficiency, a modifier which may be used when making attacks outside of your FCS parts preferred range, and your melee proficiency, used when making melee attacks.
Your FCS part will have five modifiers attached to it. Close range, medium range, long range, missile tracking, and missile lock-on speed. Some FCS parts will feature an extreme range option, but they are few and far between. The highest of your range modifiers will determine your FCS part's preferred range. Missile tracking will be added to your attack roll when making a missile attack, but this modifier can only be used when locked on. Lock on speed is the number of action points required to fire missiles with tracking. Lock on can be foregone, and will instead require the enemy to make a reflex check to avoid being hit. If your opponent is out of energy, locking on is unnecessary.
On the topic of ranges for your FCS part, lets quickly break down their definitions.
Close Range - Within one hundred meters
Medium Range - Betweent one and three hundred meters
Long Range - Between three hundred and five hundred meters
Extreme Range - Greater than five hundred meters
Your final stats are your cores scan range, scan recharge, and energy weapon efficiency. The scan action can be taken to reveal enemy positions within its set range, and recharge represents how many turns until the scan action can be taken again. If a target has been scanned, you may begin the missile lock-on process even if they are not visible. These two stats are determined by your head piece. Energy weapon efficiency is determined by your generator, and provides a bonus to damage dealt by energy weapons.
Now that we have discussed what resources and statistics will determine how your core will pilot, lets summarize.
FCS - Range proficiencies, missile targeting bonus, missile lock on speed reduction
The weight ranges of your core are as follows:
Light: Less than 7 tons. A light core will grant a bonus to boost speeds of twenty meters and a boost to quick boost distance of ten meters. Ascension speed is increased by ten meters, and hover cost reduced by one.
Medium: Between 7 and 9 tons. Medium cores do not grant bonuses to boost speed.
Heavy: Greater than 10 tons. A heavy core will cause a penalty to boost speeds of twenty meters and a penalty to quick boost speed of ten meters. Ascension speed is reduced by ten meters and hover energy cost is increased by one.
Now that we've looked at the pieces that make up your core and how it functions, we can equip your core. There are three types of equipment slot, and six total slots. Hand-held equipment, back mounted equipment, and shoulder mounted equipment. You have two slots for each type of slot. While hand held and back mounted equipment contains both weaponry and utility, shoulder mounted slots are reserved for utility.
Weapons will have a variety of tags which describe their functionality. There are kinetic weapons, which use physical projectiles and come with a reload stat. Reload represents how many attacks can be made before the weapon must be reloaded. Energy weapons will have an energy cost, and do not require reloading. Both of these weapon types will require making an attack roll. Explosive weapons will require the enemy to make a reflex check to avoid damage, if it is possible to move out of the explosion radius. Some explosive weapons have proximity detonation, which mean that the physical projectile will detonate even if it misses, forcing a reflex check. Charge weapons allow you to spend multiple actions to increase damage, explosive radius, or provide other effects. The melee tag indicates that damage can only be dealt with this weapon when directly next to an enemy. Lastly, certain weapons will require a firing stance. When using a firing stance weapon, you will leave yourself open to a counter attack if you miss. These weapons should be used when you are either out of range of a counter attack or have no chance of missing.
Weapons can have mutiple tags in a variety of combinations. While these tags will inform you on how your weapon will function, weapons will also come with a set of statistics as follows; damage, impact, effective range, and minimum range. Damage will lower the AP of a target, impact represents the number by which the target will move towards their breaking point should an attack connect, and ranges will inform you at which distance to use your weapon. If beyond the weapons effective range, you may attack at a damage loss and accuracy disadvantage. Minimum range exists in the case of many missiles and special case weapons. If a target is closer than the minimum range, you cannot hit the target.
Weapons, however, do not represent the entirety of equipment that can be equipped to your core. Energy shields can be used to prevent or reduce instances of damage by spending energy, stabilizers can be added to increase the stability of your core, antenna can provide a constant scan effect over a certain range, and missile flares can be used to disrupt and confuse the tracking of missiles. Utility equipment tends to provide a general buff to your core or a tool that can be used in reaction to enemy attacks.
The last piece of the puzzle is you, the pilot. Reflexes represent how quickly you can react to a situation, and is your only stat. Your reflexes can be upgraded through augmentation enhancements, which are unlocked for purchase as your license rank increases. With each license rank increase, you also gain access to new parts and an additional pilot skill. The license ranks are as follows - F, E, D, C, B, A, and S. License rank is increased through the completion of a substantial mission, which features a boss enemy and propels you forward in the narrative as determined by your Handler.
Now with a rudimentary understanding of what makes up your core and its equipment, let us now discuss the fundamentals of combat. Combat begins with all participants making an initiative roll, to which your reflex bonus will be added, to determine the turn order. A turn comprises of one individuals actions, and a round comprises all the individuals turns. On your turn, you will have five actions to spend and your free movement.
Actions can be generally broken into three categories; attacks, advanced movement, utility, and free. Attack actions represent firing your weapons, and generally one attack can be made per attack action, but certain weapons have higher fire rates that may allow for making two or three attacks in one attack action. In a single attack action, you may also fire two weapons at once, so long as they are in the same type of equipment slot and do not require a firing stance. Advanced movement actions include quick boosting, which allows you to move an amount determined by your booster at an energy cost, and assault boosting, which allows you to cover greater distance within a single action both horizontally and vertically. Next, there are utility actions. Utility actions include reloading, allowing all depleted weapons to be restored, using repair kits, which restore your AP, activating drones, recharging energy, or utilizing your scanner. Finally, free actions include basic movement and communicating with your team.
Core combat is, however, a back and forth dance between you and your enemy. Thus, energy should be reserved for reactions. Reactions will allow you to make reflex checks to avoid area of effect attacks, fire missile flares to confuse missile targeting, raise an energy shield to reduce incoming damage, and most importantly to capitalize on openings for critical hits. An opening occurs when an enemy is staggered or enters a firing stance and either misses or targets someone other than you. When an opening presents itself, you may expend an energy to land an attack with double damage dice on your foe so long as they are within range. You may take this reaction on your turn, if you happen to stagger an enemy during it. You may take as many reactions as you have energy.
We have discussed a great many ways to expend energy, and now how to recover it. You may spend one action to recover a number of energy points as determined by your generator, and you may do this as many times as you have action points, or until your energy is filled. If all energy is expended and all red line energy is expended within the single turn it is available, you will recover half your total energy at the start of your next turn.
With a fundamental understanding of combat basics, it should also be noted that combat does not typically occur in a void, though the occasional bout in space is not unheard of. Both the terrain you fight on and the constructions that occupy it can and will influence the flow of battle, primarily through providing cover. When a solid object lies between you and your attacker that stands at least 10m, you are considered behind cover. Typical attacks cannot be made against an enemy behind cover, just as they cannot be made against you. Cover can be circumvented either through ascending a distance equal to the height and width of the cover combined, the use of weapons that can arc over or around the cover (this will typically be missiles), or through the destruction of the cover.
On the matter of destroying cover; not all cover is created equally. In fact, cover is split into three tiers. The first tier of cover is the easiest to destroy, and thus the most unreliable. Tier one cover has fifteen AP and can be damaged by any weapon. Tier two cover has thirty AP and takes half damage from non-explosive damage types. Tier three cover has sixty AP and can only be damaged by explosions. To provide examples, tier one cover may be a flimsy barricade, tier two may be a typical building, and tier three a thick wall of solid concrete.
Deciding the weights for all the parts in Machine Heart is a headache and whats kept me from making any progress.. but I need to finish making this game.. for the mechsplo girlies
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