Thread to list your suggestions

[JiCi]

Here is a thread to list everything we can to improve the rules ^_^

I'll start:
* Adding abbilities to some mech weapons
Lower Limbs - Treaded
Being able to ignore difficult terrain

Weapons - Battle Staff
Being considered as wielding two weapons, essentially a double weapon

Weapons - any energy melee weapon (Plasma Sword, Flame Doshko, etc)
Having the powered special quality, like their regular counterparts

* Unarmed Strike for mechs

* A "very low" damage progression for these unarmed strikes, and possible operative mech weapons

* The ability to use a Solar Weapon/Flare while piloting a mech

* The ability to cast spells while piloting a mech

[IvoMG]

JiCi wrote:

Here is a thread to list everything we can to improve the rules ^_^

* The ability to use a Solar Weapon/Flare while piloting a mech

* The ability to cast spells while piloting a mech

I desagree with these two, althou it would be funny to see a mech with a solar weapon or a spell casting mech.

Table page 15
* Non linear MP
* Removal of minimum mech MP

Mech Parts and building:
* Shield generator: various type of shield generator to give more variation to mech building

* More options for frames like Skirmisher MK0, MKI, MKII, subtracting power in exchange for MP

* More frame options for single operators

* Mech Frames with lower HP but more SP

* Hybrid mech

Weapons:
* Welder - 1arm slot 2 ammo medium damage blast weapon with PP ability to spend ammo and fix (heal) other mech for a certain amount

* More low cost weapons for low budget mechs (1xLevel)

* Hability to turn weapons into plasma weapons (Plasma Sythe or Plasma spear) for added cost, making it target eac and adding more damage.

* Rail gun, long range penetrating rifle

* Surface-to-air missile battery (only targets Starships or flying targets)

MECH UPGRADES
* Targeting assist: +1 to attack

Mech Combat

* If mech is destroyed all operators take fall damage based on mech size (thei are tied to a chair or other equipment) and operators can be trapped in the rubble meaning that thei do require time or help to get back in the fight.

Auxiliary systems
* Auxiliary system with fixed cost (even if it's low)

* Fall absorption: protects operators from fall damage

* Ejection seat: In case of emergency the operator can be extracted at the right time

* Nano repair system: nano machines can repair the mech every 10 min, this can be purchased for additional uses.

[JiCi]

IvoMG wrote:

JiCi wrote:

Here is a thread to list everything we can to improve the rules ^_^

* The ability to use a Solar Weapon/Flare while piloting a mech

* The ability to cast spells while piloting a mech

I desagree with these two, although it would be funny to see a mech with a solar weapon or a spell casting mech.

This is something I saw popping a lot of times. A technomancer or a mystic cannot enhance itself and others while riding mechs, for instance.

A Solarian should be able to form its Solar item for its mech, maybe with a feat or a system. A Low progression for Flare and a Medium progression for Weapon could work.

[Sauce987654321]

I would like to see orbital boosters + vaccum shields on mechs and whatnot, giving it the same capabilities to travel in space like a dropship can.

[Porridge]

1. Weapon Arms: One thing that stands out in mech art is the prevalence of upper limbs that consist solely of a weapon, be they giant laser or plasma cannons, or missile batteries. It would be cool if there was a mechanical options corresponding to this, providing upper limbs with no hands (so unable to grapple or pick up things), but with some other benefit.

2. Weapons in Arms: This is largely a flavor thing, but it's too bad there's no way to get Laser Rifles or Missle Batteries on a mech's upper limbs. (A lot of mech art sports mechs with laser rifle arms or missle battery arms.) It would be cool if there was some way to get these in arm slots.

3. Ballistic Cannons: This is another flavor thing, but the lack of ballistic cannons is noteable. It would be cool to have something like that as an option.

4. Action Economy: I had a hard time explaining the action economy of mechs to players. It's different from the standard action economy in a number of ways, and is kind of hard to wrap one's head around. It would be cool if the mech action economy could be simplified a little, to make it easier to teach people how these rules work.

For example, consider the following (very similar) economy: Every mech with at least one operator gets the same actions as a normal character - a standard, move and swift action (and a reaction), or a full action (and a reaction). In addition, the mech gets one additional standard action per extra operator it has. These extra actions can be used in all the usual ways, with the following restrictions:
(a) A mech can't use an action to move more than twice per round.
(b) A mech can't use a system or weapon more than once per round.

This is almost identical to the playtest mech action economy (it differs in that it explicitly adds the swift action back in, and doesn't allow for arbitrary amounts of swapping two standard actions for a full action). But it's much easier for unfamiliar players to parse, because it's just like the normal action economy rules, but with an extra standard per extra operator.

Anyway, details aside, it would be cool if the action economy could be made a bit simpler and/or easier to grok.

[Ixal]

Inventing a new type category for mechs instead of making them vehicles which do not use vehicle rules.

[Garretmander]

Ixal wrote:

Inventing a new type category for mechs instead of making them vehicles which do not use vehicle rules.

I so badly want to disagree with this, but I can't.

The way spells and such are written, this just makes the most sense in terms of compatability with earlier products.

[Wheeljack]

I have to agree there needs to be a way to interface your character's abilities with your mecha. The lack of such really struck me. You may as well be playing a completely separate game. Have a "Solarian Crystal Array" to let you make a giant weapon, or an "Ether lens" to scale up your spells to mecha level.

Really seems strange to be a technomancer wrapped in a giant robot and then being unable to do anything with said technology.

[Pantshandshake]

I don't know, letting solarian weapons do this presents some issues. Bigger versions of weapons don't do more damage in Starfinder, so why would a bigger solarian weapon do more damage? Also, if a mech can have a bigger solarian weapon that does more damage, why can't a solarian in a huge power armor, or just a large sized PC?

Why couldn't I put a Crystal Array in my jeep and have a car-sized energy axe for ramming?

Ditto for something that scales spells up. Why wouldn't I put that in a big old armor, or on a Hover Tank? Or hell, a power plant from a mech in my living room and turn my house into a big spell-gun?

[Garretmander]

Pantshandshake wrote:

I don't know, letting solarian weapons do this presents some issues. Bigger versions of weapons don't do more damage in Starfinder, so why would a bigger solarian weapon do more damage? Also, if a mech can have a bigger solarian weapon that does more damage, why can't a solarian in a huge power armor, or just a large sized PC?

Why couldn't I put a Crystal Array in my jeep and have a car-sized energy axe for ramming?

Ditto for something that scales spells up. Why wouldn't I put that in a big old armor, or on a Hover Tank? Or hell, a power plant from a mech in my living room and turn my house into a big spell-gun?

Mechs are apparently starship cost scale, so buying a weapon that lets your mech use a big sized solarian weapon that does damage just like a mech sized longsword seems fine.

As far as why it's not more common in other tech, well, it's just as good as a mech sized longsword, and the longsword is cheaper and easier to build... why not just buy a huge sized longsword?

[JiCi]

Pantshandshake wrote:

I don't know, letting solarian weapons do this presents some issues. Bigger versions of weapons don't do more damage in Starfinder, so why would a bigger solarian weapon do more damage? Also, if a mech can have a bigger solarian weapon that does more damage, why can't a solarian in a huge power armor, or just a large sized PC?

Why couldn't I put a Crystal Array in my jeep and have a car-sized energy axe for ramming?

Ditto for something that scales spells up. Why wouldn't I put that in a big old armor, or on a Hover Tank? Or hell, a power plant from a mech in my living room and turn my house into a big spell-gun?

Still, a Solarian or spellcaster should be able to do something specially while riding mechs.

Y'know, I'd like to know if other classes can benefit from their own features in mechs...

Can Operatives and Soldiers attack more than once per round?
Can Mechanics use their drones or systems?
Can Vangards use Entropic Strike?

Also, for your "Crystal Array", it wouldn't be that surprising to see a jeep popping out a Solar Flare in the shape of a gatling gun XD

[Raia of Jabask]

Mech combat is mech combat. You want to use your class abilities, pop out of the mech.

[JiCi]

Raia of Jabask wrote:

Mech combat is mech combat. You want to use your class abilities, pop out of the mech.

or offer an archetype that focuses on mechs more than on ground combat/exploration...

Right now, that's technically locking out every class except the Soldier.

[avr]

If your character has little or no effect on the mechs abilities and mechs are simple then mech combat offers very little. More complications means more reasons to use the system.

Also it'd be nice to be able to have a hotshot mech pilot, an expert mech brawler or sniper, or maybe a mystic or technomancer who can do weird things with mechs, or a leader or tactician of note. Simply ruling out almost all abilities is dull.

[Ixal]

I fail to see what the point of mech combat actually is.

- Building mechs takes effort and time and not in a good, exiting way. So its nothing you would normally do for only 1-2 combats.
- If you give the players pre build mechs on the other hand you are basically taking away their characters and giving them a new one for several encounters as nearly no abilities from the character matters in mech combat
- Mech combat itself is too similar to normal combat, only simpler and with less character specialization. So its not something new but the same thing you have done all the time just with the word mech in front of it. Sure you can tackle more dangerous enemies, but there does not seem to be an advantage compared to instead reducing the power of the enemy so that the normal party can fight it with their individual characters.
- You still run into similar problems as in space combat that one character is doing everything while the other is just there to donate actions and maybe give tactical advise.

So, whats the point of mech combat? There doesn't seem to be much of one except being able to say that "we have mechs, buy the book!"

[Toxicsyn]

Ixal wrote:

I fail to see what the point of mech combat actually is.

The point of mech combat is RIDING GIANT ROBO MECHA INTO BATTLE!

Building mechs is gonna take time and effort, just like starships.

Pre-built Mechs is for people who don't wanna take the time and effort to build mechs. Just like pre-built starships.

Mech combat is a boost to PCs fighting tougher opponents or other mech opponents. It is a power boost.

I do agree that player agency needs to be addressed in starship combat and mech combat. Give players more options.

[Pantshandshake]

Toxicsyn wrote:

Ixal wrote:

I fail to see what the point of mech combat actually is.

The point of mech combat is RIDING GIANT ROBO MECHA INTO BATTLE!

Building mechs is gonna take time and effort, just like starships.

Pre-built Mechs is for people who don't wanna take the time and effort to build mechs. Just like pre-built starships.

Mech combat is a boost to PCs fighting tougher opponents or other mech opponents. It is a power boost.

I do agree that player agency needs to be addressed in starship combat and mech combat. Give players more options.

Yeah, you kind of need to think Mechs are really damn awesome (which I do) to get excited about it.

I mean, Starfinder and Pathfinder are essentially the same thing. But I like Starfinder so much more just on the basis of LASERS and 'SPLOSIONS over MORE SWORDS or LOOK ANOTHER CLERIC.

[JiCi]

Here's a suggestion worth giving:
More... more... MORE lower-level Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal aliens to fight

It's not directly tied to mechs, but that's going to become necessary ^^;

For instance, I know that Colossi are powerful and high-leveled, but we should get some that are CR 10... at least.

[Ixal]

Toxicsyn wrote:

Ixal wrote:

I fail to see what the point of mech combat actually is.

The point of mech combat is RIDING GIANT ROBO MECHA INTO BATTLE!

Building mechs is gonna take time and effort, just like starships.

Pre-built Mechs is for people who don't wanna take the time and effort to build mechs. Just like pre-built starships.

Mech combat is a boost to PCs fighting tougher opponents or other mech opponents. It is a power boost.

I do agree that player agency needs to be addressed in starship combat and mech combat. Give players more options.

As this is a game of imagination you do not need a separate system to imagine that you are fighting in giant robo mecha.

Remove the "GIANT ROBO MECHA" bonus and look at what is left. A system which in the end allows you to fight the same enemies you would fight 3 levels later with a string of problems attached to it, from the time spend building the mechs for, usually, little use, over the removal of character specific abilities to the problem with multi seated mechs that one player does the interesting stuff while others sit there and donate their actions, not all that dissimilar to starship combat where this has already been identified as a problem.

[Toxicsyn]

So how would you improve it?

[Ixal]

Toxicsyn wrote:

So how would you improve it?

Scrap it.

And if you really want mech combat as something special compared to power armors make it a separate system equal to starship combat with its own rules and no multi pilot mechs. There do need to be rules for person vs. mech combat and I am not sure how they should look like, but they should be different from mech vs. mech combat.

[IvoMG]

Ixal wrote:

Toxicsyn wrote:

So how would you improve it?

Scrap it.

And if you really want mech combat as something special compared to power armors make it a separate system equal to starship combat with its own rules and no multi pilot mechs. There do need to be rules for person vs. mech combat and I am not sure how they should look like, but they should be different from mech vs. mech combat.

Scrap it it's too radical

Most of players that love Sci-fi games also like huge robots and every group like to tell it's own kind of tales.
Having a mech system compatible with Players vs Mech opens alot of possibilities.
In starfinder Starship battle there were no options or help to build campains focused on a Squad (with the new book it's possible) your only option was to fight together and coordinate actions (this also happens in movies like starwars inside milenium falcon, large destroyers or even death star). So now players can each make their own starships and act on thei own, and the player building could be left to a secondary aspect of your campaing.
With mecha rules you can do the same, you could leave the player building as a secondary aspect of the game but the way the system is going the only possible adventures are power rangers. The group goes on fight a bunch of people and then to defeat a stronger opponent thei summon a megazord...
why? if a mech take damage (it will) you have to pay for the repairs so you can invest in gear or repair your mech (so that it can be damaged again... yay). This way you can't use your mech too often or even in a series of battles (your shield recovers so little after combat)

Thei did set rules clear that starship should not work with players therefore 10x damage multiplier rule. Having this king of rule to mech could cause alot more problems then it would solve, for instace Paizo would have to release a new set of rules for powerfull monster building or even a Kaijuu Archive

[Wheeljack]

The model they should follow is that of G-Gundam or Xenogears/Xenosaga, where the mecha reflect the pilot's abilities, allowing them to be used on a greater scale. Fei is a marital artist, his Weltall mech uses the same moves and has the same ki blasts. Imagine a Solarian generating a mammoth solar weapon or solar armor, a Technomancer supercharging their main mecha gun with a spell or unleashing an overheat cone, an Operative ninja mech doing a sneak attack.

Have the mecha be summonable as needed, make adventures where there are areas big enough for the mechs to operate and the PCs can call them up. But there are narrower areas that can only be investigated on foot.

There are a lot of mecha games around, but none can really do that sort of mix the way Starfinder could.

[IvoMG]

Wheeljack wrote:

The model they should follow is that of G-Gundam or Xenogears/Xenosaga, where the mecha reflect the pilot's abilities, allowing them to be used on a greater scale. Fei is a marital artist, his Weltall mech uses the same moves and has the same ki blasts. Imagine a Solarian generating a mammoth solar weapon or solar armor, a Technomancer supercharging their main mecha gun with a spell or unleashing an overheat cone, an Operative ninja mech doing a sneak attack.

Have the mecha be summonable as needed, make adventures where there are areas big enough for the mechs to operate and the PCs can call them up. But there are narrower areas that can only be investigated on foot.

There are a lot of mecha games around, but none can really do that sort of mix the way Starfinder could.

I don't think that using the pilots abilities could be something to be that useful, i mean we are talking about mech. Every thing can be replaced with technology.

If your character is a rogue, maybe you wanna play a different role in mech combat. Yes i do agree that having character skills on mech it's awesome but it has to be done in a way that let people do something different if thei want. Perhaps an auxiliary system to mimic those abilities even if the pilot does not have them, giving a mech a sense of class.
What would you propose for soldiers to have as abilities? Thei do have fighting style, gear boost and high bba... Bba everyone can have full at mech combat, gearboost it's going to be hard to adapt, fighting style most of them are not compatible.

[Sauce987654321]

JiCi wrote:

Here's a suggestion worth giving:

More... more... MORE lower-level Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal aliens to fight

It's not directly tied to mechs, but that's going to become necessary ^^;

For instance, I know that Colossi are powerful and high-leveled, but we should get some that are CR 10... at least.

There are some. There are Herd Animals/Predators that are CR8 and CR13 at colossal size, respectively. You can apply the giant template to a CR10 gargantuan Predator to make it colossal in addition to other templates. Like a Colossal Cybernetic dinosaur that's CR10.

[JiCi]

Sauce987654321 wrote:

JiCi wrote:

Here's a suggestion worth giving:

More... more... MORE lower-level Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal aliens to fight

It's not directly tied to mechs, but that's going to become necessary ^^;

For instance, I know that Colossi are powerful and high-leveled, but we should get some that are CR 10... at least.

There are some. There are Herd Animals/Predators that are CR8 and CR13 at colossal size, respectively. You can apply the giant template to a CR10 gargantuan Predator to make it colossal in addition to other templates. Like a Colossal Cybernetic dinosaur that's CR10.

You are correct. I wouldn't mind getting pre-generated creatures though ^^;

Imagine Alien Archives 5: Fauna edition with dozens of predators, herd animals and dinosaurs for 10 different systems with various settings. That's for another discussion though :p

[JiCi]

* More Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal-sized aliens

* Adventure hooks for a variety of planets involving mechs

* Colossal transport frames

* Climbing frames

* Burrowing frames

* Quadrupedal frames (multiple legs beyond 4 as well)

* Combiner frames

* Frames that can transform into starships, like racers and fighters

* Frames that can transform into terrestrial vehicles

* Wheeled lower limbs (not treads, but actual wheels)

[IvoMG]

JiCi wrote:

* More Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal-sized aliens

* Climbing frames

* Combiner frames

* Frames that can transform into starships, like racers and fighters

* Frames that can transform into terrestrial vehicles

* Wheeled lower limbs (not treads, but actual wheels)

I don't see a point in climbing frames, usualy thei will be bigger then any obstacle (or fly, or jump)

Combiner frames is joining 5 mechs into 1 and vice-versa?

Frames that transform into starships is cool but maybe you don't need rules for that because since thei use diferent rules you can say to your players to make 2 sheets (1 for mech and other for Starship) and to swap you spent 2minutes to rearange configuration while unnable to act (to prevent player abuse). But using this type of rule may bring a part of the adventure that players will use a starship to take down a NPC but that will probably ruin every thing because of 10x damage and the massive amout of shields that starships have.

Wheeled lower limbs it's kind of cool because if we see every piece of mech parts maybe we can use those to build every kind of vehicle (like tank, aircrafts, etc).

* I don't know how to describe this but it could be nice to have a weapon/cannon frame similar to starship operations manual the spinal mount

* Better description for Mech combat rules: Initiative, Attacks of oportunities and etc.

[JiCi]

IvoMG wrote:

JiCi wrote:

* More Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal-sized aliens

* Climbing frames

* Combiner frames

* Frames that can transform into starships, like racers and fighters

* Frames that can transform into terrestrial vehicles

* Wheeled lower limbs (not treads, but actual wheels)

I don't see a point in climbing frames, usualy thei will be bigger then any obstacle (or fly, or jump)

Never rule out climbing speed. Flying can sometimes be impossible and climbing up or down a mountain side might be the better option.

IvoMG wrote:

Combiner frames is joining 5 mechs into 1 and vice-versa?

Yup, be like Power Rangers or Voltron :P

IvoMG wrote:

Frames that transform into starships is cool but maybe you don't need rules for that because since thei use diferent rules you can say to your players to make 2 sheets (1 for mech and other for Starship) and to swap you spent 2minutes to rearange configuration while unnable to act (to prevent player abuse). But using this type of rule may bring a part of the adventure that players will use a starship to take down a NPC but that will probably ruin every thing because of 10x damage and the massive amout of shields that starships have.

Oh... right :P

IvoMG wrote:

Wheeled lower limbs it's kind of cool because if we see every piece of mech parts maybe we can use those to build every kind of vehicle (like tank, aircrafts, etc).

Eh eh ^_^

[Sauce987654321]

JiCi wrote:

* More Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal-sized aliens

* Adventure hooks for a variety of planets involving mechs

* Colossal transport frames

* Climbing frames

* Burrowing frames

* Quadrupedal frames (multiple legs beyond 4 as well)

* Combiner frames

* Frames that can transform into starships, like racers and fighters

* Frames that can transform into terrestrial vehicles

* Wheeled lower limbs (not treads, but actual wheels)

All of these ideas are good, for the most part. I just want to give my 2 cents.

I don't want to see more huge creatures, tbh. There's already an abundance of them if you look at all the archives. I'd rather focus more on gargantuan and above. At least with gargantuan, you can give it a giant template and have it work either way. Kinda killing 2 birds with 1 stone, with that.

I don't think they'll add colossal transport frames, though it would be cool. I don't think they like the idea of a mech carrying mechs, even if it does sound cool.

For the vehicle part, I'd rather see mechs playing the roles of vehicles rather than mechanically becoming an actual vehicle. You'll lose most of your attack bonuses. Significantly plummeting your attack rolls. I think it'll be better if they perform similar tasks and becoming a vehicle is just flavor text.

As much as I'd love to see mechs participating in starship combat in any fashion, I know the devs are cringing at the idea of doing this, lol.

But yeah, good stuff.

[JiCi]

Sauce987654321 wrote:

JiCi wrote:

* More Huge/Gargantuan/Colossal-sized aliens

* Adventure hooks for a variety of planets involving mechs

* Colossal transport frames

* Climbing frames

* Burrowing frames

* Quadrupedal frames (multiple legs beyond 4 as well)

* Combiner frames

* Frames that can transform into starships, like racers and fighters

* Frames that can transform into terrestrial vehicles

* Wheeled lower limbs (not treads, but actual wheels)

All of these ideas are good, for the most part. I just want to give my 2 cents.

I don't want to see more huge creatures, tbh. There's already an abundance of them if you look at all the archives. I'd rather focus more on gargantuan and above. At least with gargantuan, you can give it a giant template and have it work either way. Kinda killing 2 birds with 1 stone, with that.

I'll take an online alien generator to speed thing up then :P

Sauce987654321 wrote:

I don't think they'll add colossal transport frames, though it would be cool. I don't think they like the idea of a mech carrying mechs, even if it does sound cool.

The thing is that several vehicles are Huge, and the Cargo Hold can carry a vehicle two sizes smaller. Since transport frames are Gargantuan, vehicles have to be Large or smaller.

Sauce987654321 wrote:

For the vehicle part, I'd rather see mechs playing the roles of vehicles rather than mechanically becoming an actual vehicle. You'll lose most of your attack bonuses. Significantly plummeting your attack rolls. I think it'll be better if they perform similar tasks and becoming a vehicle is just flavor text.

I'm referring to Xenoblade Chronicles X's Skells, which are mechs with a vehicle form. You cannot fight with them, but it does travel much faster :P

Sauce987654321 wrote:

As much as I'd love to see mechs participating in starship combat in any fashion, I know the devs are cringing at the idea of doing this, lol.

Yeah... ^^;

Sauce987654321 wrote:

But yeah, good stuff.

Thanks :)

[Sauce987654321]

IvoMG wrote:

Frames that transform into starships is cool but maybe you don't need rules for that because since thei use diferent rules you can say to your players to make 2 sheets (1 for mech and other for Starship) and to swap you spent 2minutes to rearange configuration while unnable to act (to prevent player abuse). But using this type of rule may bring a part of the adventure that players will use a starship to take down a NPC but that will probably ruin every thing because of 10x damage and the massive amout of shields that starships have.

I guess that's a neat way of house ruling it. There's really no reason for the x10 rule to apply, because if they're attacking a non-starship encounter then just treat it as a mech as normal. Also, you aren't supposed to get your x10 multiplier against normal monsters because it says you're supposed to treat them as hazards instead at the very most. Orbital weapons work just like this.

[JiCi]

Maybe I have too much of a Transformer vibe, but mechs that could transform into vehicles would be a huge benefit for in-planet travel.

Terrestrial vehicles do include Recon Enercopters, Stealth Subs and Performance Cruisers ;)

[Pantshandshake]

Anyone remember the AD&D barehanded/wrestling charts? I'd like that, but for mechs.

And some truly weird mech-scale enemies. I want to Evangelion up this mess.

Bio-mechs!

A setting that includes a giant colosseum for mech gladiator fights.

[IvoMG]

I've tried to make mechs to form a party, while doing i took this premisses 5 level 20 operators 1 mech for each. 2 tank role mech, 2 Melee focused (aka DPS) and 1 long range.

It was hard to fill those roles because of missing components.

* More heavy mech frames, maybe a new category with lower speed with more slots, armor or Hp (could even be 3 new type of heavy each focusing in one stat)

* Most of the arms have only 2 slots, only assault frame has 3 slots. We need more arms with 3 slots (i mean heavy and strong should have 3 while assault should have 2)
Perhaps having a mounted weapon arm style could reward players with 1 additional slot (like those mechs with guns attached directly to the frame)

* More shields, currently we do have only 1 shield and it uses 2 arm slots (there should have more and using 1 slot). Light shield (1 slot), Heavy shield like a tower shield (2 slots). This way a mech with 3 slots can use a heavy shield and a sword or a light shield and a spear.

* Weapons full customization options. What i mean is give a basic weapon stats and cost and players add functions to change that weapon. For instance long sword could target kac and for a additional cost the player could create a flaming sword, plasma, cold, sonic, eletric and etc that targer EAC. This goes for every weapon. So we could make any type of weapon Scythe, axe one hand or two hand, doshko, hammerfists. This work with ranged weapons too. This weapons could be considered powered and spend PP every attack or every turn.

* Auxiliary system to imbue magic to weapons

[Jack Rift]

IvoMG wrote:

I've tried to make mechs to form a party, while doing i took this premisses 5 level 20 operators 1 mech for each. 2 tank role mech, 2 Melee focused (aka DPS) and 1 long range.

It was hard to fill those roles because of missing components.

* More heavy mech frames, maybe a new category with lower speed with more slots, armor or Hp (could even be 3 new type of heavy each focusing in one stat)

* Most of the arms have only 2 slots, only assault frame has 3 slots. We need more arms with 3 slots (i mean heavy and strong should have 3 while assault should have 2)
Perhaps having a mounted weapon arm style could reward players with 1 additional slot (like those mechs with guns attached directly to the frame)

* More shields, currently we do have only 1 shield and it uses 2 arm slots (there should have more and using 1 slot). Light shield (1 slot), Heavy shield like a tower shield (2 slots). This way a mech with 3 slots can use a heavy shield and a sword or a light shield and a spear.

* Weapons full customization options. What i mean is give a basic weapon stats and cost and players add functions to change that weapon. For instance long sword could target kac and for a additional cost the player could create a flaming sword, plasma, cold, sonic, eletric and etc that targer EAC. This goes for every weapon. So we could make any type of weapon Scythe, axe one hand or two hand, doshko, hammerfists. This work with ranged weapons too. This weapons could be considered powered and spend PP every attack or every turn.

* Auxiliary system to imbue magic to weapons

Overall I agree, I will point out there is an Aux upgrade that does add energy damage to melee attacks or returning to thrown weapons, but it doesn't full convert, aka KAC to EAC. Otherwise, I agree. I would also like something like a kinetic sniper rifle. I personally would start with the rocket launcher and modify from there, but that is just my opinion.

[Ryuu-Okami]

I would like to see some sort of mech drone chassis for Mechanics.
Maybe a large-sized frame for small characters.

[IvoMG]

Ryuu-Okami wrote:

I would like to see some sort of mech drone chassis for Mechanics.

Maybe a large-sized frame for small characters.

That Aux it is good because it converts weapon damage right on the spot.

What i was talking is to make Sheets or stats for alot of normal weapons and rules to make them from a certain type (Plasma, Fire, Cryo, Sonic, Eletric, etc), making rules for every type of energy (lowering or scaling up damage) with a specific cost.
For instance:
Let's use Spear (i believe it's medium damage), it targets KAC and deal piercing damage.
With this rule we could have a Sonic Spear dealing medium damage vs EAC, for a aditional 0.5 x level, or a Plasma Spear dealing medium damage vs EAC for a aditional 0.5xlevel , Fire Spear dealing High damage vs EAC for a aditional 1xlevel. The amount of options could go up alot. But once made this changes cannot be undone. Every weapon can have only one of this upgrades.
The Aux system is still usefull because maybe you have a Fire Sword and your foe is resistant to fire, then you change the elemental damage in middle of battle.

*One thing that crossed my mind was this: You can only use each weapon once every round, but how can you use automatic weapons to fire at a bunch of enemies (yeah sure you are missing alot). So i was thinking automatic weapons could be used more then once but only one operator could fire it (so that every operator can't use the same weapon). In addition to that it could be nice to also have melee weapons that could be used more then once: Operative properties similar to player weapons,

*Maybe for ranged weapons could have Semi-Auto, that alows them to fire more then once but not use the automatic function.

* New Weapon property Balanced: When you make a full attack, attacks made with this weapon take a penalty of -3 instead of a –4 penalty (Or add +1 to attack made with this weapon).

[JiCi]

* Control panels
How about systems similar to Pacific Rim vs your levers and buttons?

Maybe there should be different kinds of control panels, each with their bonuses and penalties, such as being analog, connected to the brain (and vulnerable to mind-affecting attacks), how they can defend against hacking, etc.

* Auxillary systems for tools and augmentations
Pretty sure a mech can get a flashlight, a welder, a datapad or a prosthetic.

* Carrying item
The Motorsphere is a Tiny orb that can transform into an enercycle for 1 hour. Imagine this for mechs, but again, for 1 hour. PCs can have the most badass mech they can build, but if they wish to easily carry it around, they are limited to a duration.

* Vehicle harger bay variations
A large ship can carry smaller ships, so mechs should get a smaller bay, such as a military ship dropping its mech-driving infantry.

* Material variations
Plant-based and necrotic-based frames should be added, as well as the option to have your frame made in adamantine, for instance :P

[Toxicsyn]

Mechs (transport frames) already got the option of selecting two cargo holds that can transport a single creature, vehicle, or other object no larger than large or smaller.

And they can select a cargo catapult where the mech can transfer one operator onto a vehicle it has stored in its cargo hold, after which the mech launches the stored vehicle at high speed.

Honestly, when I saw cargo catapult.. I thought it was just the mech slinging its cargo at people as a new attack method.

[JiCi]

Toxicsyn wrote:

Mechs (transport frames) already got the option of selecting two cargo holds that can transport a single creature, vehicle, or other object no larger than large or smaller.

And they can select a cargo catapult where the mech can transfer one operator onto a vehicle it has stored in its cargo hold, after which the mech launches the stored vehicle at high speed.

Honestly, when I saw cargo catapult.. I thought it was just the mech slinging its cargo at people as a new attack method.

I'm actually talking about how starships and terrestrial vehicles can carry mechs :P

[IvoMG]

JiCi wrote:

* Control panels

How about systems similar to Pacific Rim vs your levers and buttons?

Maybe there should be different kinds of control panels, each with their bonuses and penalties, such as being analog, connected to the brain (and vulnerable to mind-affecting attacks), how they can defend against hacking, etc.
/QUOTE]

Just adding: maybe it could even afect the operator skill to use to calculate the AC or attack bonua for the mech:
Pacific rim style: Athletics
Mocap style: acrobatics
Some kind of Augmented realty, helmet(SAO), plug (matrix): Perception
Some kind of steampunk mech with lots of valves, levers and buttons: Engineering

[JiCi]

IvoMG wrote:

JiCi wrote:

* Control panels

How about systems similar to Pacific Rim vs your levers and buttons?

Maybe there should be different kinds of control panels, each with their bonuses and penalties, such as being analog, connected to the brain (and vulnerable to mind-affecting attacks), how they can defend against hacking, etc.

Just adding: maybe it could even afect the operator skill to use to calculate the AC or attack bonua for the mech:

Pacific rim style: Athletics
Mocap style: acrobatics
Some kind of Augmented realty, helmet(SAO), plug (matrix): Perception
Some kind of steampunk mech with lots of valves, levers and buttons: Engineering

I agree, and this combined with the appropriate tools, mechs could be customized for work, instead of simply be walking tanks ;)

[IvoMG]

*I dont know if we can use drop pods to launch a mech from space if its not possible it could be nice to receive mech during a mission

[JiCi]

IvoMG wrote:

*I dont know if we can use drop pods to launch a mech from space if its not possible it could be nice to receive mech during a mission

Titanfall :P ?

[JiCi]

Somewhat related to mechs... but not directly :P

* Mech-like modifications for androids and SROs, such as 4 legs instead of 2, treads instead of legs (oddly enough, the Small SRO artwork has this), etc.

* Synergy between nanocytes and mechs

* Anti-vehicle weaponry, for mechs and against mechs

[Pantshandshake]

Well, there are the X Legs augmentations for players. Everyone can have 4 legs. I agree that we also need treads. Or a hover disc!

As far as anti-vehicle weaponry, we've already got weapons with Penetrating to ignore hardness. What other kinds of anti-vehicle do you have in mind?

[JiCi]

Pantshandshake wrote:

Well, there are the X Legs augmentations for players. Everyone can have 4 legs. I agree that we also need treads. Or a hover disc!

Maybe they could rework them into an actual trait for robotic aliens.

Pantshandshake wrote:

As far as anti-vehicle weaponry, we've already got weapons with Penetrating to ignore hardness. What other kinds of anti-vehicle do you have in mind?

I had Titanfall in mind, in which you have regular weapons and anti-Titan weapons

I dunno, heavy weapons that can target a mech's core on impact, or scramble its auxillary systems, or whatever :P

[Pantshandshake]

JiCi wrote:

Maybe they could rework them into an actual trait for robotic aliens.

I had Titanfall in mind, in which you have regular weapons and anti-Titan weapons

I dunno, heavy weapons that can target a mech's core on impact, or scramble its auxillary systems, or whatever :P

Doubtful on the legs. They'd need to be either just flavor, in which case, go ahead and do it, or they'd need to rework various racial bonuses to account for the added legs bonus.

Weapons that are specifically anti-mech seem a little too niche. Nobody is going to buy those unless they're also at least as good as regular weapons as well as having anti-mech properties, and if that's the case, they're going to have to be ridiculously overpriced, which is a lot to ask in the starfinder economy for 'just in case there's a mech fight.'

[Garretmander]

I'm pretty sure 'anti-mech' weapons are just weapons of a level or two higher than the mech's tier.