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jphillip
Clan Nova Cat
Warrior
Joined: 13-Aug-2020 13:03
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Location: United States
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 Posted: 13-Aug-2020 14:46 Post subject: Very new, question regarding critical hit table and heatsink |
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I just was given a 1985 version of Battletech, and am reading through the rules to understand the game. It is now time to try it out for the first time and I figured I would print off sheets instead of coping the ones that came with, and are roughly 30 years old  . One of the things that is confusing, is from what I can see, when I distribute the heat sinks in the game I have, each heat sink goes it's own critical space. However when I have looked up the various sheets, all of them have the heat sinks at a much lower number. Example, if the mech has 10 heat sinks, only 4 have crit locations. If the mech has 18, I could only find 5. Just looking for some clarity on why this is.
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Mordel
Mordel.Net
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| Posted: 13-Aug-2020 15:32 Post subject: Re: Very new, question regarding critical hit table and heatsink |
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| jphillip wrote: | | I just was given a 1985 version of Battletech, and am reading through the rules to understand the game. It is now time to try it out for the first time and I figured I would print off sheets instead of coping the ones that came with, and are roughly 30 years old . One of the things that is confusing, is from what I can see, when I distribute the heat sinks in the game I have, each heat sink goes it's own critical space. However when I have looked up the various sheets, all of them have the heat sinks at a much lower number. Example, if the mech has 10 heat sinks, only 4 have crit locations. If the mech has 18, I could only find 5. Just looking for some clarity on why this is. |
It's based on construction rules. Per those rules, 4 heat sinks are built into the engine for every 100 points of engine rating. So a 50 ton 'Mech that moves 5/8 has an engine rating of 250 (50 tons * 5 walk). So that unit has 10 heat sinks built into the engine. If they add any additional beyond the 10, they would have to be placed in the critical chart.
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jphillip
Clan Nova Cat
Warrior
Joined: 13-Aug-2020 13:03
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 13-Aug-2020 15:55 Post subject: Re: Very new, question regarding critical hit table and heatsink |
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| Amazing, thank you for the quick response! As I said, new so was very confused. I also feel slightly like I am beginning to glimpse into a world that is much bigger than the small game I was given. A little lost feeling at the moment, but diving it a bit. Suppose part of that comes from reading/studying instructions for this game that are from 1985...
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Mordel
Mordel.Net
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| Posted: 13-Aug-2020 22:19 Post subject: Re: Very new, question regarding critical hit table and heatsink |
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| jphillip wrote: | | Amazing, thank you for the quick response! As I said, new so was very confused. I also feel slightly like I am beginning to glimpse into a world that is much bigger than the small game I was given. A little lost feeling at the moment, but diving it a bit. Suppose part of that comes from reading/studying instructions for this game that are from 1985... |
We aim to please at the Bar & Grill!
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Ruger
Lyran Alliance
Hauptmann General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2039
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| Posted: 14-Aug-2020 22:29 Post subject: Very new, question regarding critical hit table and heatsink |
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To add to what Mordel already said, in the original rules, all heat sinks were assigned to critical spaces outside the engine. One of the earliest (of the relatively few compared to other games) outright retcons to design rules changed this to one heat sink being inside the engine for every 25 points of engine rating.
Therefore, an 100 rated engine can store 4 heat sinks inside and the remaining 6 of the base 10 (or more of more have been added) must be assigned critical slots, while the 250 rated engine Mordel mentioned can store all 10 internally, and a 300 rated engine could store 12. The largest normal engine in the early game, the 400 rated engine could store 16 heat sinks inside.
This has been said to also explain some of the design decisions of the earliest BattleMechs, which seem “questionable” under more modern design rules. For instance, in the earliest rules, the Marauder would have had to allocate 16 heat sinks, which means that some got placed in the left torso to pad out it’s autocannon ammo. In more modern rules, as only 4 heat sinks have to be allocated crit spaces, the ammo is left alone in that section. Therefore, if you get any critical sin that section, they automatically hit the ammo (only item there to take the crit). In the original version, you could have critted a heat sink instead.
Ruger
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Mordel
Mordel.Net
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| Posted: 15-Aug-2020 11:29 Post subject: Re: Very new, question regarding critical hit table and heatsink |
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| Ruger wrote: | To add to what Mordel already said, in the original rules, all heat sinks were assigned to critical spaces outside the engine. One of the earliest (of the relatively few compared to other games) outright retcons to design rules changed this to one heat sink being inside the engine for every 25 points of engine rating.
Therefore, an 100 rated engine can store 4 heat sinks inside and the remaining 6 of the base 10 (or more of more have been added) must be assigned critical slots, while the 250 rated engine Mordel mentioned can store all 10 internally, and a 300 rated engine could store 12. The largest normal engine in the early game, the 400 rated engine could store 16 heat sinks inside.
This has been said to also explain some of the design decisions of the earliest BattleMechs, which seem “questionable” under more modern design rules. For instance, in the earliest rules, the Marauder would have had to allocate 16 heat sinks, which means that some got placed in the left torso to pad out it’s autocannon ammo. In more modern rules, as only 4 heat sinks have to be allocated crit spaces, the ammo is left alone in that section. Therefore, if you get any critical sin that section, they automatically hit the ammo (only item there to take the crit). In the original version, you could have critted a heat sink instead.
Ruger |
I didn't start playing until 1990 or so, and by then it was already retconned. So I always forget about that big change!
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chihawk
Clan Blood Spirit
Master Bartender
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 8072
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Aug-2020 16:49 Post subject: Very new, question regarding critical hit table and heatsink |
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I suggested many years ago that many of those older 'mech sheets should be redone officially to fix all those glitches (meaning fixing the errors of the people who updated them the first time), but I was rebuked by Lord Warner as it being "too much work" and "unneeded".
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