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- BattleForce 3.0
-
- (c) Copyright 1989
- by Ralph H. Reed
-
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
-
- BattleForce - Heavy Metal Combat
-
- What is BattleForce? It is a game that simulates combat between two or
- more giant, robot-like machines. Simple words can't begin to give you the
- feel of piloting a 30 - 40 foot tall, fire breathing, earth shaking colossus
- that obeys your every whim. To enjoy the game you must put yourself in the
- cockpit of a Battle Mech. Live the experience!
-
- You are the elite of the elite - a Mech Warrior. YourBattle Mech
- thunders under you as you pace across the land, searching for a reported
- enemy mech. You view the land around you, searching for the enemy. To your
- left the plain climbs gradually from low hills up to high mountains. To your
- right is a lake, the calm waters shading from light to cobalt blue as the
- water deepens in the center, with patches of treacherous swamp at the edges.
- Ahead of you the hills meet a mixture of light and heavy woods. You are
- debating whether to climb the hills or fight your way through the trees when
- the enemy mech steps over the crest of the hill.
-
- Your heart leaps as you recognize a heavy Archer, just as he fires one
- of his massive 20 racks of Long Range Missiles. Your Marauder is staggered
- by the multiple impacts as you frantically pit your piloting skill against 75
- ton overbalanced mech. You swivel your torso and call up your weapons
- display. The reassuring green lights indicate that all weapons are ready to
- fire. You select a Particle Projection Cannon, one of your main weapons. A
- moment later your combat display shows you your field of fire and weapon
- range. The targeting pipper is blinking on the Archer as you fire the P.P.C.
- up the mountain.
-
- "Too quick" you curse under your breath as the scintillating beam of the
- P.P.C. slashes to the left of the Archer. The temperature in your cockpit
- jumps as the heat from firing the P.P.C. soakes into your mech. No problem
- so far, the heat sinks can handle it. You drive your mech into a pounding
- run. You've got to get close, his L.R.M. have a minimum effective range, if
- you can just get inside it...
-
- The Archer is shrouded in smoke as another salvo of missiles blast their
- way toward you. Missiles clang off your armor, tearing chunks away. Your
- cockpit rings as one hits the head of your mech. You fight for consciousness
- and keep going, his racks are empty now, he has to reload.
-
- Motion, behind you. Another Battle Mech breaks from the forest and
- races across the plains toward you. You quickly identify it as a light
- weight Stinger, ordinarily no threat to a Marauder, but it AND an Archer?
- What to do? Run? Fight? Fight which one?
-
- There's no real choice, if you turn your back on the Archer he'll nail
- you. Ignore the Stinger. You quickly check your status. Your heat is
- dropping as the heat sinks suck away the excess heat. Your armor indicators
- are still all green although those missiles have chewed away about half of
- you left leg armor. One P.P.C. is in recycle, the yellow indicator shows
- about 75 seconds to go. Time to Rock an' Roll.
-
- Weapons select. You arm your Auto Cannon. The targeting computer comes
- up and you select the Archer again. Your mech is rocked by laser blast in
- its vulnerable back, but you ignore it, triggering your cannon. Thunder
- rumbles across the plain as your Auto Cannon belches explosive death. A
- direct hit, the Archer is staggered as the cannon shells punch craters in its
- chest armor. You watch the Battle Mech fight for balance and fail, tumbling
- backward off the mountain.
-
- One down. Another laser digs into your back, as red lights flash on
- your status display. Your back armor is breached, the laser got through to
- your Auto Cannon and its out of the action. You begin to turn your ponderous
- steed. As you turn to face the charging Stinger it suddenly jumps into the
- air on jets of flame.
-
- "Damn!!!" you yell as you frantically bring up your weapons. The Auto
- Cannon in your Left Torso is disabled, your #1 P.P.C. is still recycling.
- Your still hot, but there's no choice as you arm you other P.P.C. You try to
- target the fast moving Stinger, but before you can fire 20 tons of armor and
- fire power land on top of you.
-
- Your mech shutters under the impact. You scramble to control it, but
- you're falling. "The next time I'm in the Factory I'm putting jump jets in
- this thing" you vow. The ground shakes as 75 tons of Battle Mech falls flat
- on its back. Lights are flashing all over. You bring up your status
- display. The Stinger landed on your right shoulder, its out along with all
- the weapons in your right arm. The fall did more damage to you weak left
- leg. You'll survive, now where is that little Stinger. You look around.
- The Stinger is racing for the forest.
-
- "Oh no you don't" you mutter as you target your second P.P.C. at the
- racing Stinger's back. The warbling blast echoes across the plain as your
- man-made lightning bolt hits the Stinger dead center.
-
- The Stinger stumbles, starts to fall... a blinding flash lights the sky
- as its fusion reactor explodes. Metal peppers your mech as the concussion
- threatens to knock you unconscious. Your temperature gauges peg as the mech
- shuts down from too much heat. With time your mech will recover. Lets just
- hope the Archer has had enough.
-
- This is BattleForce. Its not much fun with one person, but get two or
- more people with imagination in the room and its a blast.
-
-
- BattleForce Documentation
-
- The first thing you will see when the game starts is a requestor asking
- you to select the Type of Game. The first option allows you to Continue a
- Saved Game. The second option is a Simulation mode and is used for training.
- This mode allows all combinations of teams and mech types, but damage and
- experience are not saved at the end of the game. Arena Challenge is a One on
- One combat playing against another person or the computer. If the computer
- is the opponent it will pick its own mech. Arena mode will also let you Bet
- on the outcome of the combat. One of Major Houses may offer to Sponsor you
- in the Arena. This may offer a little protection from other friendly
- houses, but it will make you a target of enemy houses. Not having a sponsor
- won't keep some houses from picking on you. This takes the form of Sabatage
- to your mech. The computer will check and see if your pilot can detect any
- sabatage. If he does he will be given the option to try to repair the
- sabatage. Sabatage may make a critical part fail during combat. Trying to
- repair the sabatage may make it destroy it completely. The chance of
- sabatage gets higher as you win more Arena Combats. Combat Patrol is one
- player Team against one Computer Team. The computer will pick its own team.
- Combat Mission is just like the Simulation mode, all combinations of teams
- and mech types are allowed, the difference is that damage and experience are
- saved at the end of the game.
-
- BattleForce is played in Teams. Once you have selected the type of game
- you want to play you will get a Team Selector. This window contains four
- rows of selector boxes. The center box contains the Team number. If you are
- playing Arena or Patrol mode, only the first two rows will be active. The
- Left and Right boxes in each row represent the two sides of a combat. To put
- a Team on a side just click in the box. The word "Team" and the team number
- will appear in the box. To change sides, click on the other side. To remove
- a team, click on the same side a second time. Once a team is placed on a
- side the central box becomes the selector for the teams control device. An
- "M" will appear indicating that the default control device is the Mouse. By
- clicking on the center box you can also select "J" for Joystick, "K" for
- Keyboard and "C" for Computer controlled. If computer control is selected,
- ALL teams on that side will be computer controlled.
-
- The next thing you need for combat is a place to fight. If you are in
- Arena mode the computer will randomly select one of six special maps. In
- Patrol mode the map will be generated randomly each time. In all other modes
- you will get a file requestor with a list of all map files currently
- available. To use a map file, click on the file you want and click "Load" to
- use it. There is also a gadget marked "Random". This will allow you to
- generate a random map for your combat.
-
- The Random Map Control Panel is a little complicated. It contains six
- slider gadgets. The top three control the percentage of Forest, Mountains
- and Water in your map. The bottom gadget controls the density of the top
- three. A cluster is one group of woods or mountains or water. It can be one
- hex or many hexes. The more clusters you have the more details you will have
- in your map. The Sand and Snow requestors control the amount of sand and
- snow in you map. Sand and snow are added by replacing whatever plain hexes
- are left after the forest, mountains and water hexes are added. The gadget
- controls the percentage of plain hexes that will be replaced. Sand replaces
- hexes in the bottom half of the map and snow replaces hexes in the top half.
- Once you have everything set the way you want it, click the "Create" gadget
- and your world will be drawn. A small window will then appear asking you to
- comfirm your world, "OK", or try again, "ReDo".
-
- The next thing you need are mechs to fight. Two windows will open. The
- first one shows the Team you will be working with in the central box on the
- bottom. The second window is a file requestor for loading mechs. There are
- three flavors of mechs. Plain "Mechs" are the type your create in the
- Factory program. The pilot for these mechs will be randomly created by the
- computer. "Warrior" files are created in the Warrior program and contain a
- mech and a pilot. "Unit" files are collections of warriors, mechs and
- technicians all in one common file. Only Simulation mode will allow a player
- to fight with a plain mech, all other modes require you to use a Warrior file
- or a warrior from a Unit file. All members of a team MUST be of the same
- mech type. Warriors are marked when they are loaded and can not be loaded
- twice. If you save a game in progress those warriors can not be used in
- another game until the first game is completed. To load a file, click on the
- file you want and then click on "Load". If the file is a plain mech you will
- get a requestor asking you to name the pilot. To load warriors from a Unit,
- Load the Unit and then select the warrior from the list of warriors in the
- unit. The mechs and pilots you selected will appear in the Team window.
- When your team is complete, click on the "Done" gadget in the file requestor
- window and it will disappear. At this point you can use the small selector
- boxes to the right of each name to customize the control device for each
- player. You can not change the device for a computer mech. To change teams,
- click the "Team" gadget. The "Load Mechs" gadget will bring the file
- requestor back. When you are done with all teams, click the "Done" gadget in
- the team window.
-
- A word or two about memory. BattleForce is a huge program. If your
- system has only 512K of memory you will be limited in the number of mechs you
- can load. Computer mechs take a lot more memory than player mechs. You will
- probably be able to load 24 to 32 player mechs, but if you are playing
- against the computer 8 player and 8 computer will probably be the limit. If
- your load too many mechs there will not be enough memory left to load the
- sound files.
-
- From this point on everything is controlled from a control menu at the
- bottom of the screen. These menus consist of a prompt and two or more
- options. The selected option will be highlighted. Control depends on the
- device you are using. The Keyboard uses the Left and Right arrows to change
- and the Space Bar to select. The Joystick uses Left and Right stick command
- to change and the Fire Button to select. The Mouse changes by moving the
- mouse over the desired option and selects with the Left Button. The mouse
- will only work when it is positioned in the menu line.
-
- The menus are pretty much self explanitory. There are two main menus
- associated with two timers. One for Movement and one for Weapons.
- Everything is based on TIME. Since there are TWO timers you can move and
- fire weapons at the same time. The Wait options are especially powerful if
- used properly because you can wait in weapons and still move.
-
- MOVEMENT Menu:
- Walk: Walk forward or backward one hex. Takes base time + heat penalty +
- damage penalty. The base movement time and penalty times can be
- found in the status display. Walking generates 1 pt of heat/second.
- You can Crawl (Walk) while you are down at double the normal time.
- Run: Run forward. Takes 2/3 the time of Walk and generates 2 pts of
- heat/second.
- Jump: Use jump jets to jump forward, backward or turn. You must have jump
- jets and fuel to jump. Your remaining fuel is shown in the status
- display. Don't run out of fuel in mid-air. When you jump, the image
- of your mech will change color from red to pink. Jumping generates a
- fair amount of heat, but there are no terrain modifiers. Base time
- is the same as running. You must make a Piloting Skill roll on
- landing or fall.
- Turn: Change direction 60 degrees (one hex side). Time is based on
- whether you are standing, walking, running or jumping. Turning while
- jumping is very quick. You can turn while you are down at double the
- normal time.
- Stop: Stop is used to stop jumping. You must make a piloting skill roll
- when you land or fall.
- Stand: Stand up after your mech has fallen down. Standing takes the same
- time as moving one normal hex.
- Wait: Wait is used to control the timing of events in the Move timer. You
- can wait On Time, wait until you Call Move, wait until all of your
- weapons are recycled or the next weapon is recycled or your arms&legs
- are recycled, wait until your heat drops to a certain point (color),
- wait on your weapon selection, or wait on your enemies move.
- Call Attack: This option will call the attack menu if it is waiting. You
- can also 'Call Attack' from the Options menu and interrupt any attack
- WAIT command.
- Options: This option brings up another menu of special options. The "Call
- Attack" will interrupt an attack in progress. The "Call Move" option
- will interrupt a move in progress. "Status" will bring up your
- status display window. "Eject" is used to leave a badly damaged
- mech. There is a skill roll for Ejecting from a mech. If you fail
- your pilot takes damage. You eject into the hex in front of your
- mech. DON'T eject into a forest fire. You will also have to make a
- Survival roll to keep from being captured. "Surrender" means that
- you stay with your mech, but you have quit fighting. If your side
- loses captured mechs and pilots belong to the winning side. The
- "Self-Destruct" option makes the thermonuclear engine of your mech
- explode. This option can only be used by Player characters (not NPC)
- that have advanced beyond the "Green" rank. You can not Surrender or
- Eject of you are Unconscious or your mech is Shutdown due to heat.
-
- WEAPON Menu:
- Weapon: Brings up the weapon select display. This display shows all
- weapons, including arms and legs, where they are located ( LT=Left
- Torso, etc), and their condition. If the status indicator is green
- they are ready to use. Red indicates damaged or out of ammo. Yellow
- means they are recycling and is a bar graph of how long until ready
- to use again.
- Wait: Use this to control the timing of events in the Weapons timer. You
- can wait On Time, wait On Call, wait on your current move, wait until
- all your weapons are recycled or your first weapon to recycle or your
- arms&legs are recycled, wait until your heat drops to a certain, or
- color, or wait On Enemy move.
- Call Move: This option will call the movement menu if it is waiting. You
- can also 'Call Move' from the Options menu and interrupt any movement
- WAIT command.
- Options: This is the same as the Move Options except the time comes off the
- weapons timer.
-
- The movement and weapons timers are separate so you can move and fire
- weapons simultaneously. The wait conditions allow rapid movement without
- bothersome weapons messages, or standing still and firing, without bothersome
- move messages. For even more accurate timing you can use the call feature
- and then Call Move or Call Attack from Options menu item. The Options items
- are also available as pulldown menus at the top of the screen. There is a
- small experience penalty for using the Call Attack and Call Move options from
- the pulldown menus. You can still shoot at Surrendered, Ejected and Dead
- mech. You can not shoot at Escaped or Destroyed mechs.
-
- Pulldown Menus
- Game Menu: This menu has six items on it. "About" tells you a little
- about the Author, me. "Save" gives you two submenus, "Game" and "Map". Save
- Game will save the game at the end of the current second. Save Map will save
- the game map only to a file that can be used in another game. "Sound"
- toggles the sound on and off. If you didn't have enought memory to load the
- sound files this will start as "Silent". "Setup" brings up a window that
- lets you change the speed of missiles and the delay for messages. It will
- also display the name of the first player and his Input Device. By Clicking
- on the Name you can flip through each player. By Clicking on the Device you
- can flip through the devices. This allows you to change player Input Devices
- during the game. "Color" changes the color of Mechs from Red to White. This
- if for some people that have trouble telling the difference between red and
- green. "Quit" allows you to quit a game in progress. For most real combats
- this option is disabled.
-
- Team Menus: Each team has a pulldown menu with all of the members of
- that team as items. If the member is not computer controlled there will be a
- submenu with all of the options in the Option menu. If the member is
- computer controlled there will be no submenu and the menu item will call the
- status display. If the computer mech is not visible on the screen you will
- not be able to call its status display. There is a small experience penalty
- for using the "Call Attack" and "Call Move" items from the pulldown menus.
-
- Skill Rolls:
- While moving or in combat you will occassionally be asked to make a
- skill roll. This means that something has made your mech off balance
- (slipping in water, heavy weapons hit) and you as a pilot must roll to see if
- your skill is sufficient to keep from falling down. Falling in heavy mech is
- not trivial. The mech will take damage equal to its weight divided by 10.
- If you roll down a mountain this is multiplied by the number of levels you
- fall. Landing in water cuts your damage in half. All damage is applied in
- groups of 5 points all over your body. Landing on your head can ruin your
- day. Crashing is the same as falling only from three levels up (triple
- damage). When you are asked to make a skill roll there will be an option to
- "Modify" your skill roll. If you select this option you can trade experience
- points for an improved skill roll. This is expensive, but in critical
- situations it could save your life. If you use it too much you will not have
- any experience to improve your character. The computer can also modify its
- rolls and you may see a "modified+2" occasionally.
-
- Firing weapons requires a skill roll vs your Gunnery skill to hit your
- target. You can modify this roll also. If you miss a shot there is a chance
- that you might hit someone else in an adjacent hex. There are also skill
- rolls for being knocked unconscious, shutting down due to heat and ammo
- explosions due to heat.
-
- TERRAIN Types and Features
- Plain: This is basic ground level, open plain, and is what all movement
- times are based on. The base movement time for a Plain hex is given
- in the status display.
- Sand: It takes three times as long to move thru sand and it add 2 pts of
- heat per second.
- Snow: It takes twice as long to move thru snow, and there is a chance that
- you will slip on the ice. Snow will remove 2 pts of heat per second.
- Light Forest: It takes twice as long to move through light forest as across
- plains, and makes you one point harder to hit.
- Heavy Forest: It takes three times as long to move through heavy forest and
- you are two points harder to hit.
- Jungle: You can not move thru this hex. It is possible to jump over it, but
- if you land in a Jungle hex the only way out is to jump. Jungle
- hexes can be burned.
- Swamp: It takes twice as long to move, you are one point easier to hit, and
- there is a good chance of slipping and falling.
- Shallow Water: This type hex takes twice as long to move through and makes
- it easier for you to be hit and harder for you to hit others, but
- helps you to cool down. The water will remove 3 points of heat per
- second in addition to your heat sinks. There is a chance you will
- slip and fall.
- Medium Water: This type water is up to the mechs waist. Weapons below the
- waist can not be fired. You get 6 points of cooling per second, but
- you are easier to hit and it is harder for you to aim. You can't
- kick in medium water. Move at 1/3 normal rate.
- Deep Water: This type water provides 9 points of cooling/second. Weapons
- below the neck can not be fired and you are very hard to hit. You
- can't kick or punch in deep water. Move at 1/4 normal rate.
- Bottomless Water: This type water is beyond your mechs capability. It will
- crush your mech, destroying it and killing you. The only way past
- this type of hex is to jump over.
- Low Hills: Hills provide cover. You can't shoot over them. Low hills make
- it one point easier to hit mechs below you. Move at 1/3 normal rate
- uphill or half normal rate on the same level.
- Medium Hills: You get two extra points to hit mechs below you due to height.
- Move at 2 + 1/level going uphill.
- High Hills: You get three extra points to hit mechs below you due to height.
- Hills have a tactical advantage, but beware of skill rolls. If you
- fall you can roll all the down, doing multiple damage.
- Barrier Peak: This hex type is impassible. You can not jump over it. It is
- used for obstacles. All Arena maps have a border of Barrier Peaks.
- Fire: Energy and Missile weapons can start forest fires. Moving or
- stopping in a forest fire adds a 6 points of heat per second to your
- mech, and the smoke adds three points on all hit rolls. Move at half
- normal rate.
- Cleared: Cannons and Missiles can clear trees from forest hexes. This is
- rough terrain, move at half normal rate. Cannons and Missiles can
- also be used to 'blow out' forest fires.
- Burned: Once a forest fire has burned out the hex becomes rough terrain.
- Move at half normal rate.
-
- Terrain plays an important part in combat strategy. A good position can
- mean the difference between winning and loosing. Use the terrain to your
- advantage. If you try to leave the map area you will be asked if your wish
- to ESCAPE from the combat. If you say Yes, your mech will be removed at the
- end of the move and you are out of the game.
-
- Combat HEAT Affects
- Almost everything you do in a Battle Mech creates heat. It is your
- worse enemy. Heat can slow down your mech, throw off your targeting
- computers, cause your mech to shutdown unexpectedly (that right, you're a
- sitting duck), and even cause ammo to explode. Watch your heat. The Status
- display gives the amount of heat generated by each weapon in hundreds. Ten
- heat means it generates 1000 points of heat. The actual temperature is in
- the Status display. In addition, there is a small status light in the upper
- right corner of the weapons selection window. Green=OK, Blue=reduced
- movement/aim, Yellow=danger of shutdown, Red=danger of ammo exploding. Your
- Battle Mech will automatically shutdown if your heat goes over 3000. In
- addition, a damaged engine generates 5 points of heat per second for each
- hit. The only thing that protects a pilot from the heat is the life support
- system. If that is destroyed you are in big trouble.
-
- COMBAT:
- There are two forms of combat, weapons combat and melee combat. Melee
- combat is hand to hand, punching, kicking and charging. Melee combat doesn't
- generate any heat, but you may do damage to yourself and you have to be in
- the same hex or in the adjacent hex. When used to fight, your arms and legs
- have recycle times just like your other weapons. Legs take 25 seconds and
- arms take 10 seconds. Both legs must be ready in order to kick so you can
- only kick with one leg, however a kick does twice as much damage as a punch.
- If you miss a kick you have to make a Piloting Skill roll to keep from
- falling. On the other hand if you connect with a kick the kickee has to make
- a Piloting Skill roll.
-
- Damage is based on the weight of the attacking mech. A 50 ton mech can
- do 10 points of damage kicking and 5 points punching. To punch or kick
- simply select the arm or leg you want from the weapons selection window. The
- arm or leg must be ready and in working condition. If the status light to
- the right is RED it means that that limb is too damaged to be used in melee.
- The numbers after arm/leg status in the status display give an indication of
- that limbs condition. The first number is the modifier on 'to hit' for
- weapons in the limb. The second number is a damage indicator. If it is over
- 6 the limb can't be used. You can select multiple weapons so you could punch
- with both arms and kick with one leg in the same attack. You can not kick
- and fire any weapons in the same attack. You can not punch and fire any
- weapon located in that arm in the same attack.
-
- When one mech attempts to move into the hex occupied by another mech,
- that is a charge. You must have both arms and both legs recycled and in good
- condition to walk or run charge. You must have both legs in good condition
- to jump charge. If your limbs aren't ready or damaged you won't be allowed
- to move into the other hex for the charge.
-
- Charging can do massive damage. The damage is based on speed for
- walking and running charges. Your speed is the TIME it takes to walk or run
- one normal hex, divided into 100. This can be a fraction. The time is
- modified by heat and the damage to your legs. The damage is spread out in
- groups of 5 points. The charging mech takes damage equal to the weight of
- the mech charged divided by 10. A charge that hits requires both mechs to
- make a Skill roll at +2 or fall. You can NOT walk or run charge a mech that
- is down.
-
- A jumping charge is called "Death from Above". Damage is the attacking
- mechs weight divided by 10, times three. An 80 ton mech jumping on you can
- do 24 points of damage. Damage is divided in half and each half applied to a
- random point in the upper torso, as though he kicked twice. The charging
- mech takes damage equal to his weight divided by 10, equally applied to his
- two legs.
-
- To do a jumping charge, jump into the opponents hex and stop. All
- charges that hit require both mechs to make a Piloting Skill roll, the
- attacker at +2 and the defender at +2. Only the attacker makes a skill roll
- if the charge misses, but it is at +6. You CAN jump on a mech that is down.
-
- If both mechs are jumping in the same hex there is a chance of a
- collision. This is not an attack and the computer rolls for whether a
- collision took place based on both pilots skill. If the mechs collide, both
- mechs must make a skill roll or fall and crash.
-
- Melee is also dependant on the terrain. If you are too high above or
- too low below a mech you can't melee. If you are one level above you can
- only kick him. If you are one level below you can only punch him.
-
- Weapon combat is fairly selfexplanitory. Pick the weapons you want from
- the weapons selection window. That arms the weapons. You can select
- multiple weapons. When you select a weapon a pink number will appear beside
- the status indicator. This number is the order in which the weapons will be
- fired. Two seconds later the targeting computer will display a firing fan
- for that weapon. The firing fan will show your field of fire and the weapons
- maximum range, and for some weapons the minimum range. You can fire inside
- the minimum range, but at a penalty to hit. The menu bar will list all
- players on an enemy team. The last menu option is "Team". This will allow
- you to change to a different team. As you highlight each one the image of
- his mech will blink. Select your target to activate the firing sequence.
- Two seconds later the weapons will fire. As each weapon comes up you will
- have the option to "Fire" the weapon, "Pass" on that one weapon, or "Modify"
- your gunnery skill roll. Hit locations will be flashed in the menu bar. If
- you miss a shot there is a chance that you could hit a mech next to your
- target by mistake.
-
- Terrain is important in weapon combat. You can't shoot through
- mountains so being on top of a mountain is a strategic advantage. Forests
- provide cover, but they can be set on fire or cleared of trees by
- concentrated fire. Water provide a good barrier from a charging mech. You
- can sometimes start fires by aiming at a forest hex. You can also blow out
- fires by shooting a fire hex with missiles or cannons. To shoot at a hex
- select HEX as the target of any weapon attack. You will then be asked to
- select the hex with the mouse. Click in the menu line to cancel the attack.
-
- The main objective of combat is to eliminate the opponents armor so that
- your weapons can damage delicate internal components, like the pilot. Once
- the armor in a particular location is destroyed any further damage in that
- area hits something inside. The computer rolls a 2d6. If it is less than 8
- the damage is applied to the Internal Structure of the mech. If it is 8 or
- higher one of the internal locations is hit. The internal locations contain
- such things as weapons, ammo, arm and leg joints, heat sinks, engines, gyros,
- PILOTS, etc. One or more hits will destroy an internal component.
-
- The internal structure has points like the armor. These points are
- shown in the Status Display right after the area name and before the list of
- internal components. If the internal structure is reduced to zero that area
- is Destroyed and ALL components in it cease to function. If it is the head
- or limbs, the area is ripped off. If it is the center torso there is a 50/50
- chance the engine will explode. Whether the engine explodes or not it stops
- working and the game is over for that mech.
-
- Internal Components
- ========================================
- Weapons (W): Destroyed with any hit.
- Ammo (A): Destroyed with any hit. The ammo will blow up doing internal
- damage to the mech.
- Arm and Leg Actuators (x): Destroyed with any hit. Leg hits will require
- a Pilot Skill roll to keep from falling. The status of your arms and
- legs is given in the status display. The first number is the
- modifier to hit for weapons in the limb. The second number is a
- weighted actuator damage. If it is over 6 the limb is unusable.
- Engine (E): Each hit causes the engine to generate 5 points per second of
- extra heat. There is a chance on ANY hit that the fusion engine will
- blow up. The odds are very good by three hits and 100% by four hits.
- Gyro (G): A gyro hit adds 3 points to all Pilot Skill rolls.
- Jump Jets (J): Destroyed with any hit. If you are jumping you will CRASH.
- Jump Fuel (F): Each hit destroyes 50 seconds of jump time. If you run
- out of fuel while jumping you will CRASH !!!.
- Life Support (L): Any hit destroys the life support system for the mechs
- cockpit. The mech pilot will take one point of damage every 50
- seconds that the heat is over 1500. If the heat is over 2500 he will
- take two points of damage.
- Sensors (S): The first hit on sensors add 2 points to all Gunnery Skill
- rolls to hit targets. A second hit destroys your sensors and you can
- not hit anything with your weapons. It is still possible to melee.
- Cockpit (C): Any hit in the cockpit kills the pilot. End of Game.
-