Penalties for lack of regular maintenace?

[Hav0k]

Very good point !!!

Well I like to use mechanical and electrical problems in a sorted way....

Radar does not work as it should, a light or two start flashing...

Every possible failure can be used, since a weapon jamming is as possible as the ejection system failing just when you need it


But I think the idea is to give the characters hints with tiny little things like lights, temporary failures and such, before you actually say to them that the Veritech's arm is not bending the right way....

[Nekira Sudacne]

What sort of penalties do you apply to mecha that aren't given regular tuneups in your games?

Most machines would break down on their own through regular use and combat stresses, afterall.


Heh. This would be a good way to make more players choose to be engineers or to at lest take mechanical skills...

I don't worry about it too much really, unless it has suffered sever combat damage.

I just say that MDC materials are infanityly more resitant to normal wear and tear then normal ones, and only heavy combat damage will impare it.

[Comrade Corsarius]

Isn't there a table you can use in Zentraedi Uprising regarding second-rate or 'pre-loved' mecha that haven't had the best maintenence?

[Comrade Corsarius]

Isn't there a table you can use in Zentraedi Uprising regarding second-rate or 'pre-loved' mecha that haven't had the best maintenence?

I am presently unable to find that table, but I'm more concerned with handling mechanical failures and wear and tear over the course of gameplay.

It's close to the end of the book (don't have it here with me at work!) just before the 'new weapons' section. It's fairly good. But yes, I agree there isn't a great deal regarding wear and tear. For example, how often can something be damaged and repaired before it must be replaced? We're dealing with pretty high-tech war machines here. Even a BME can't repair a Veritech's sensor suite with two bits of blu-tack and a wire coathanger. Look at the support today's war machines require after nearly every mission. Even the Soviets (re the yak-38 thread) who deliberately built rugged realised that regular maintenance was necessary. In their case, they made a large variety of their parts 'immediately replaceable' to be used by half-trained conscript mechanics who just need to unplug a part and plug in a new one. This philosophy may well work for the RDF and to a lesser extent the SC, but to the REF on Invid Earth such a philosophy is a liability.

[Comrade Corsarius]

I'll say it before anyone else does:

Duct tape is like the force.... it has a light side and a dark side, and it binds the universe together.

[Borast]

Howsabout...infrequent use: 1% chance of a systems glitch per week without maintenance.
frequent use: 5% chance of a systems glitch per week without maintenance.
hard use: 5% per day without maintenance (for frequent/continuous use, or a flat cumulative 5% chance everytime the unit is used)
combat damage: +25%, +multiple systems
Severe combat damage +50%, +many systems
Critical combat damage +75%, +all systems

Feel free to fiddle with as much as possible.