Re: FMA DSII+

Great explanation of your logic in designing the mod's - I was wondering
about some of the reasoning on a few items (All/2 = Red and Yellow for
example.)    Makes things a lot clearer in intent and design aspects. 
Chits are not perfect but this method might win my grudging acceptance
(I
still am miffed at Andrew Jackson if that tells you anything about a
certain streak of stubbornness running in my family...)

Gracias,
Glenn/Triphibious@juno.com
This is my Science Fiction Alter Ego E-mail address.
Historical - Warbeads@juno.com
Fantasy and 6mm - dwarf_warrior@juno.com

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001 20:12:28 -0400 "Brian Bell" <bbell1@insight.rr.com>
writes:
>HI Roger!
>
>I just recieved your request today. I have sent you an individual 
>reply, 
>but I will also post it here.
>
>As for the dice system...
>To put it mildly the vehicle to vehicle combat in SG2 stinks.
>1) All weapons have the same range. 
>2) Base Die Roll x Size gives too wide a range of results.
>3) If you use the xDice added method, you have to have at least 5 
>   sets of the dice for each player.
>4) Either multiplying or adding slows down the game and looses the
>   wonderful aspect of FMA where what you see on the dice is your
>   result. This was the main complaint against chits, that they 
>   slowed down the game (the 2nd was what happened when you lost 
>   chits).
>5) The infantry fire against vehicles is too powerful.
>
>I left the to-hit method the same as in Dirtside II. I only changed
>the damage resolution (chit draw).
>
>I needed to represent the power of the weapon and the variable
>effectiveness over the given ranges. I prefered to do it on 2 dice
>without modifying the result shown on the dice (add or multiply).
>DS2 already had 5 sizes for the the weapons, so it was a no brainer
>to assign die types to them. The chit validity was a little harder
>There are 7 color combinations (All x2, All, Red & Yellow, All /2,
>Red, Yellow, or Green) Of these, 2 (Yellow and Green) had the exact
>same count and mix of chits, so I combined them. So I was down to 
>6 and needed to reduce it to 5. After consideration, I decided that
>All/2 was roughly equivilent to Red & Yellow. So now I had the 2 
>dice for the attacker. Armor is already divided into 5, so the same
>die types that were assigned to weapon size were assigned to the
>Armor values.
>
>The result is as quick as any system that I have seen.
>
>---
>Brian Bell
>bbell1@insight.rr.com
>ICQ: 12848051
>AIM: Rlyehable
>YIM: Rlyehable
>The Full Thrust Ship Registry:
>http://www.ftsr.org
>---
> 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
>[mailto:owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of Roger Books
>Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 17:09
>To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
>Subject: Re: FMA DSII+
>
>
>On 24-Sep-01 at 16:59, -MWS- (mshurtleff1@qwest.net) wrote:
>> At 04:46 PM 9/24/2001 -0400, Roger Books wrote:
>> >Yes, I know, DS is already FMA.  I'm talking about dropping
>> >chits and going to a SG style of fire resolution.  Here
>> >are the initial ideas, probably paraphrased out of SG with
>> >minor mods.
>> [snip]
>> 
>> Brian Bell has already the conversion - here's the URL:
>> 
>>	    http://www.ftsr.org/ds2/techlib/ds2fma.asp
>> 
>> I posted a request about a week ago for playtesting feedback on his 
>set and
>>  got no response.  As soon as I get less busy, Lonnie & I are going 
>to run
>> a  few games using Brian's mods and try them out ourselves.
>
>I looked through his mods and, while they look like they will work,
>have a different feel than the SG system.  He is attempting to
>duplicate the chit draw with dice.  I don't feel that is any more
>realistic, and certainly more complicated that the SG method.
>
>It looks to me that with a little effort DS can be given much
>of the same "look and feel" of SG without damaging the system.
>Brians mods are DS with Dice.	I'm looking for SG in another
>scale, much as the playtest of FMA felt like SG in a bit different
>scale.
>
>Roger (Never Happy)
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: books@jumpspace.net [mailto:books@jumpspace.net]
>Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 14:30
>To: bbell1@insight.rr.com
>Subject: FTSR
>
>
>First, a couple of quick (minor) problems.
>
>On the DSII Vehicle Registry you can't get to the page
>with the size 4 vehicles.
>
>The link to Andy Cowells Vehicle Generator is broken.
>
>The thumbnail for FTW-12 doesn't link to a pic on the
>DS pics page.
>
>
>
>Now, on to the real question.	Why did you try to stick
>with the chit->dice roll mechanic instead of using the
>SGII mechanics for damage?  It looks to me like the
>simplicity of the SGII mechanic far outweighs the
>benefits you get from the "realistic" chit draw system.
>If you want to differentiate weapons have some roll d10s
>instead of d12's for damage as was once discussed on the
>list.

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