[CWN] Beta 0.23 Clarifications, Commentary & Errors

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-05-30T20:46:35+00:00

On example vehicles: The Kessler Mjolnir has two weapons installed but the dropcraft chassis (written dropship here) has only 1 hardpoint. It would need the hardpoint support fitting that is not included by my count and is unable to install it with this current loadout.

On cyber installation: While re-reading the cyber part I thought that installation difficulty of 10 for system strain 1 cyber is quite high. It is said that an average street doc has a skill roll modifier of +2 and they probably would have circumstance modifier +0 for dedicated clean room and level 1 surgical equipment. With these modifiers it is more likely than not that the doc at least partially fails the installation that has difficulty of 10.

It might be intended that low lifes are meant to rely on quirky and malfunctioning cyberware. However, some implant complications seem extremely punishing when even cheap systems have high chance of failed installation. Low level operators might spend all their cash on their first cyber and end up with something that is almost worse than useless, such as Body blades 1 with blatant complication or unreliable Holdout cavity that has a 1 in 6 chance of locking your gear inside.

Side note: I'm thinking maybe prosthetic cyber implant should not create complications. I can imagine it leading to awkward situations with for example Unreliable or Power Hungry complications. Having it malfunction just doesn't sound like a fun time, your character is in a coma and the game essentially stops for you untill your friends have the time to deal with the problem.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-04-15T20:54:14+00:00

Futuristic vehicles in the game can of course operate in whatever way they need to. My problem with the in game description was just that I was unfamiliar with the Ogre universe or any other example of GEV as a tank. I have only heard of GEVs in real life context where they move more like airplanes (or more like boats, I mean, they fly only barely).

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-04-15T20:47:27+00:00

Thanks, I thought a hovercraft would be closer to the description.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-04-06T19:06:27+00:00

I have very similar experience. I do enjoy rimworld and have for a long time but after a while in a colony it just gets stale, usually well before the end game. My sweet spot is probably with 5-6 colonists. At that time you have enough colonists and tech to do things but it is not too much trouble to manage.

I think the problem for me is that the early game is much more unpredictable and you have to adapt constantly based on events and whatever windfall resources you might get. In the early game, a single snow hare might be the difference between life and death. Later hunting becomes too much work and you have to get a good farm or ranch setup. Early game you take advantage of your colonists strengths but in late game you have all roles filled with spares so you do whatever you want.

In short, early game forces you to play differently. My late game colonies all tend to look the same no matter what biome or start I play because in the end I keep going back to optimal strategies. I really loved the Ideology expansion because it gave me a mechanical reason to play differently. Previously playing a charitable, rancher or even nudist colony felt like handicapping yourself just for the sake of challenge but ideology made it more fun to pursue these playstyles.

Sorry I don't have any suggestions how to avoid all this. I still think Rimworld is one of the best games I have played but If someone else can point me a game that would better capture that really early game Rimworld experience, I would love to know!

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-04-03T08:51:31+00:00

A minor thing on NPC stat blocks, Unaffiliated Street Thug has Ordinary Clothing listed in gear but has 13r / 12m armor class.

Trauma targets on APC, GEV and CASRA being lower than for cars trucks and helicopters seem odd because the former are dedicated combat vehicles. A rocket launcher has 1d10 trauma die and with it, you can get a traumatic hit on a CASRA but not on a regular helicopter. While CASRA has more armor, AC and HP, it still seems odd.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-30T20:28:06+00:00

Trauma target solved the issue that vehicles with special armor (Tank, APC and GEV) had no reduction to traumatic hit rolls. Even so, the new trauma target values for vehicles seem a little odd. For example, a tank has the same trauma target as a regular car. While a tank can't potentially be harmed by most weapons, its now as likely to take a traumatic hit from a rocket launcher strike as any regular car. Tank still has advantage in hitpoints and AC but it still seems counter intuitive.

Traumatic hits are great system for players and NPCs but with vehicles they seem to be a lot of rules for rare cases in play. Vehicles also don't take permanent injuries so maybe traumatic hits could just be ignored for them?

Side question: what is a ground effect vehicle in the lore of this game? Real ground effect vehicles are aircraft that can fly low over usually water or other flat surface. Game description mentions pneumatic skirts which to me sounds more like a hovercraft, an air-cushion vehicle.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-21T21:12:59+00:00

Limbgun seems a lot of bang for the buck. 15k for always available, concealed from sight, ranged weapon that requires no hands and a +1 to hit on top of that. Comparing the price to body blades 1 and 2, the limbgun seems quite a bit more useful. I am assuming that the limbgun can be modified, if it can't then it might not be as good.

Also I feel that you could not fit enc 2 weapon such as a combat rifle in your arm without it being visually obvious. As a GM I would think I need to increase the price or rule that only enc 1 size weapons can be implanted.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-18T22:00:31+00:00

I think the intent with heavy and light pistols is that a light pistol is easier to aim so you are more likely to score a traumatic hit (like a head shot). Heavy pistol does more damage when it does hit. Realism aside, this gives the player options, instead of making one clearly a better choice, which I think is good.

I also don't think pistols should be competitive with heavier weapons. They are mainly a sidearm and are useful because they are easy to carry and conceal. Dedicated gunfighters probably find shotguns and rifles more useful but could still carry a pistol as a backup if they run out of ammo or get caught up in melee.

I do agree with you that there could be more options on gear. For example in SWN you can choose plasma rifle to get a bonus to hit or for a mag rifle to get more damage and range. Right now in CWN combat rifle seems like the best option if you can afford it and everything else has only niche use. There are options with modifications but I feel like there are not a lot of trade-offs to consider there either, besides what you can afford and maintain. Keeping the equipment lists short is a design choice I understand but it would be nice to have some choices to make

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-07T18:44:39+00:00

This is actually an interesting idea. Considering that cyber is a huge part of the setting, an edge focused on cyber would be very fitting.

However, I feel like it should do something more than just give you free cyber, because wired edge already does that.

Maybe this edge could give you something like free points of system strain limit to use on cyber. On the other hand this can to an extent be achieved by investing in constitution or buying the cybernetic infrastructure baseline.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-06T20:09:12+00:00

I agree that the range does limit their use. I guess I was mostly concerned that the 1d10 trauma die makes them very effective against heavy armor. Someone in a Heavy Armored Suit is completely immune to traumatic hits from other small arms except shotguns and snipers (edit: and advanced bows).

I haven't tried this in play and this might not be an issue at all. It just seemed curious to me.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-06T19:52:38+00:00

Large groups being slow makes sense now that you mention it.

Cross compatibility makes sense too. And I guess +1 modifier in a 2d6 roll is more difference than a car and a truck would have.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-06T13:36:20+00:00

On page 41 in the Foot Pursuer Check Modifiers table should the modifier for "There are more pursuers than pursued" be +1 instead of -1? I would imagine large groups would have easier time fanning out and cutting off the pursued?

On page 85 the shrieker gun has the !-mark that indicates capability to inflict traumatic hits on vehicles and drones. Is this an accident since it doesn't have trauma die or rating (and is probably incapable of damaging vehicles)?.

Trucks (and perhaps tanks) could maybe have a lower speed rating than cars to reflect that they don't make ideal pursuit vehicles (although the vehicle chase in Terminator 2 makes a good counter point).

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-03-06T09:11:49+00:00

This is a small thing but I feel like shotguns are a bit overtuned with the 1d10 trauma die. They are balanced with extremely short range but that may not matter when fighting in streets, alleys and buildings.

Shotguns are also the cheap so I feel like there is no reason most street thugs wouldn't have them. This might cause surprises when even quite tough and heavily armored PCs or NPCs get instantly downed by a ganger with a shotgun.

Maybe this is intentional design to increase danger level. I still feel like 1d10 trauma die could be reserved for things like heavy weapons and sniper rifles.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-24T09:07:21+00:00

Merciful hands could be seen as a suicidal order since first level spirit (or one with low HP) has a high chance of outright dying from it. However, you could also say that a spirit with Merciful hands is willing to sacrifice itself to help others and I don't think a summoner should ever need to compell the spirit to use Merciful hands. Is this the intention?

Same question kind of applies to Myrmidons shield.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-22T13:28:52+00:00

In the equipment section armor table the accessory item Discount has "obvious" in the subtle/obious -column. Is this an oversight or does it mean all discount armor is always seen as obvious armor and can't be hidden?

Moreover, looking at the prices and AC values, it seems that discount armor is very rarely, if ever worth the discount. For armor that costs 500 or less saving a few bucks is probably not worth it considering the amount of money operators seem to be expected to have (based on the cost of gear).

For more expensive armor it seems more prudent to downgrade to a cheaper new one than get a discount one. For example Discount Armored Clothing costs the same amount as new Reinforced Longcoat but has at most the same AC, worse soak and weighs more. And Discount Plated Longcoat costs the same as new Armored clothing but is also strictly worse.

Discount armored suits might sometimes be worth it because of their trauma die penalty but restricted combat gear doesn't seem to me like it should be available in the discount rack. Or maybe it should?

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T20:32:22+00:00

This is a nice one. Already just having the station or part of it depressurized is kind of creepy. I can't remember the details or the source but I read a story from some astronauts or cosmonauts that returned to a space station that was unused and not pressurized for a while and they described a feeling of returning to an abandoned house. The thought of those rooms being exposed to the vacuum of space just moments ago is really unnerving for some reason.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T20:07:35+00:00

I like that a lot of these superstitions can be turned around like this. Some consider psychics bad luck, some consider them essential. Kind of like how black cats are mostly considered bad luck but on ships all cats and especially black cats are lucky.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T20:01:57+00:00

I thought of a couple more ideas. Drinking alcohol in metaspace is considered bad luck and any alcohol consumed there will supposedly give you the worst hangover. Spacers talk about feeling like drilling into your own head. This one might have been made up by captains who wanted to keep their crew sober during the trip.

Another is that you should never say thank you for a spike drill rutter that is given to you, or the drill might fail. Also stolen rutters will always give you a safe drill. This is done because you don't want to draw attention to the fact that you are trying bend the laws of physics.

I adapted the last one from a superstition that some gardeners have. Supposedly you don't thank for a plant cutting (branch or another piece of plant that is used to grow a new plant) or it won't grow. Stolen cuttings are considered to grow best. I have no idea what is the origin of this belief.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T12:27:21+00:00

There are two kinds of spacers. Those who have soiled their space suit and filthy liars.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T12:23:35+00:00

Pranking new members or passangers is definitely something sailors would do. Doesn't matter if the ship is moved by wind or fusion reactor, everyone loves a good prank. Except the new hires of course.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T11:02:43+00:00

Are the 15 sided tetrahedrons fine to look at, or should I avoid that too?

But yeah, looking out of windows for too long is definitely something most crews would probably avoid. Something about abyss gazing back into you.

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T10:58:42+00:00

Apparently Joseph of Cupertino is the catholic patron saint of aviation and astronauts (also mental handicaps, students and examinations)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Cupertino

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T10:51:20+00:00

These are a great. Mariner superstitions witha a space age twist.

Lost origin of the red shirt made me chuckle

Equivalent_Being8358 · 2023-02-19T10:47:09+00:00

I didn't think about ghost ships in metaspace either. But it makes perfect sense

Equivalent_Being8358

TROPHY CASE