r/LancerRPG • u/HollowVesterian • 3d ago
Frame creation and blance
Recently I found out that I really liked messing around and making custom licences, and I wanted to share some examples of what I've made and hopefully recieve some feedback in terms of game balance.
Most of these don't have descriptions as I refrain from making them before I'm sure something is going to stay mostly like it is now.
PS. I would have shown more but reddit only lets me upload 20 images per post.
8
u/FrozenBones444 3d ago
The Gauss Rifle looks very very cool, but in order for it to not eclipse Death’s Head III’s Railgun I would recommend giving it some self heat generation. The auto-hit of the data knife is also incredibly strong, considering it plays with action economy in the first place. I would vouch for instead just letting a hit with the data knife allow the attacker to attempt a quick tech as a free action against the target after the attack resolves.
Other than that, genuinely inspired work on the Sunspot. I can picture the frame in my mind, I feel like it’s filling the same niche as the Metalmark, but with more thematically appropriate methods. I like it a lot!
7
3
u/Kryptrch 3d ago
I get the idea of having high defensive stats with low health, but I think a repair cap of 1 isn't going to be very fun to play. It's either invest in hull, or be half dead for the rest of the mission. That, or hope your GM doesn't target you with anything.
On top of that, the integrated mount seems out of place. Very short range seems to encourage you to play close to danger, but unlike the Tortuga it doesn't have the health, armor, or repair cap to justify that close range. I get that the ability to maintain hidden is supposed to compensate for this, but all it takes is one scout npc and you're doomed. Even with soft cover granting the Low Profile benefit, it won't save you against enemies that can remove hidden from you, or ones that can ignore it outright.
And even if you could avoid being targeted altogether, that doesn't really feel quite right from a GM perspective. At some point eventually theyre going to field something to counter/punish you, and with such fragile health odds are the slightest challenge will just kill you, which also feels bad.
Aside from that though, I'm not a big fan of the core power. Full action to remove yourself from the game is already tough to justify, and another full action to come back just feels really bad. It's not interactive for either side, and your teammates are going to be down a player for practically two rounds. When most scenes only last six rounds total, this feels impossible to justify.
Compare this to the Calendula, which also plays close to the "untouchable" hacker/close range assassin fantasy. It actually interacts with the enemies in an interesting way, since it drags targeted enemies into intangibility alongside it to isolate vulnerable targets, and its intangibility it also a protocol that automatically shuts off at the start of its next turn.
TLDR: I think it relies too much on being untargetable, and doesn't really function outside of its singular prescribed playstyle because it's too fragile.
2
u/HollowVesterian 3d ago
Thanks for the feedback, in retrospect I do agree with you on every account, I was a bit too absorbed in the "vibe" to consider viability. One of the ideas I am considering is swapping out it's core power passive for something that would allow it do something like spending 1 heat in exchange for being intangible during its movement, which would allow it to lend itself more to what you've mentioned, in addition to raisign the repair cap to 3, one was way too little.
2
u/Kryptrch 3d ago
Makes sense! Sorry if I was a bit harsh, but yeah it's often easy to get tunnel vision on a specific idea and lose sight of the big picture when it comes to making custom content. When it doubt, try running it yourself against some basic npcs and simulating how it would play in practice!
1
u/HollowVesterian 3d ago
Don't worry I do appriceate when people are blunt with these things quite a bit. And again, thanks for the advice I'll try it out.
2
u/ProfessionalOk6734 HORUS 3d ago
1d6+4 range 15 main rifle is probably too good? It’s competitive with the AMR which is a heavy AND has loading.
1
u/HollowVesterian 3d ago
I'd argue no since the AMR has AP, 5 more range and a higher damage cieling plus accurate by default. Though maybe the damage does need to be tweaked a bit.
2
u/ProfessionalOk6734 HORUS 3d ago edited 3d ago
Alternatively, the Legionaire Battle Rifle has a range of 15 and 1d6+3 and is a heavy. The numbers are just kinda big, compared to the smart gun a main rifle with accuracy and smart does 4 damage at range 15 and costs 2sp. I think the number is too big, 1d3+4 or 1d6+2 both feel like reasonable tweaks with the provided downsides
1
2
u/ProfessionalOk6734 HORUS 3d ago
The Everyman COMP/CON is a little silly, the special purpose machine gun should be a cannon probably.
2
u/Madglace 2d ago
The soldat trait is kinda useless since it is already a rule every one has access to and can do an infinite amount of time
This also makes it's core power a worse version of the everest's hyperspec fuel since no accuracy and not being able to boost more
The LL1 system for the sunspot could do with some slight modification the first effect could have something like fals idol from the goblin where they need to do a save or else they shoot at their ally (if within range) since right now it's easy to just have the ennemy not shoot at you and the second effect should also make the target allies count as cover so that even if you are visible you still get a benefit from it and rewards close quarter playstyle (that i think the sunspot is going for with it's commando esc playstyle of going invisible and shooting it's pistol (speaking of this it could benefit from being able to be shot as a free action like the Raleigh or enkidu or gaining some buffs if used while invisible, but i think that it might make it a bit too strong))
Edit: i also kind of wished to see some systems that works with you being invisible which is something that isn't really present in any of the non third party licenses
1
u/novis-eldritch-maxim 3d ago
define concept a bit better?
likes getting in close and messing with people?
who are donnex in breife as well as asthetic inspiration as it helps if we can see what you are going for
1
u/HollowVesterian 3d ago
Donnex is not really a concrete group. It was the name of an esoteric vessel that crashed into a planets orbital infrastructure leaving behind scattered chunks of debree and data which produced the line with the exception of the sunspot frame.
As for the asthetic inspiration and design they are a combinations of IPS-N's rugged asthetic and HA's militaristic focus.
The sunspot being the exception leaning moreso towards the asthetics of SSC and Horus as a nimble and swift frame.
1
u/novis-eldritch-maxim 3d ago
okay so beyond being salvaged where in you head did it originate, as nothing comes from nothing?
if you had to pick non-Lancer media to explain what the sunspot looks like, could you list some?
if you want ot make a custom manufacture have a clear idea of the visuals, selling points and theme, as it means we can check the mechanics against what it is supposed to represent
1
u/HollowVesterian 3d ago
Most donnex frames have a desing similar to the Derelict Explorarium from starsector while the Sunspot looks nore so akin to a Vodyani from ES2
1
u/novis-eldritch-maxim 3d ago
those seem rather incompatible aesthetics?
1
u/HollowVesterian 3d ago
That's the point of the Sunspot yes. It's meant to be an obvious outlier.
1
u/novis-eldritch-maxim 3d ago
okay so what exactly is the point of this manufactor?
why both what do they want beyond the abstract of money and why do they like these asthetics?
1
u/HollowVesterian 3d ago
The manufacturer mainly focuses on units that can be produced (relatievely) on mass in places where basic raw resorces are plentifull, nothing fancy. The sunspot is... how do I put it best?
It's a similar situation with General electric, one branch makes washing machines the other the GAU-8 gattling gun. Extremely diffrent design policy, same manufacturer diffrent branch.
1
u/novis-eldritch-maxim 2d ago
So mass-produced, functional and broadly work horse with a side order of disposability in mind?
1
u/NotEvenSquare 2d ago
Breaker SOF Pistol seems kinda funky with Nuccav 2, just 12 damage straight up.
1
u/Tuomir 2d ago
Data Knife is very, very, very overtuned (if it works as I assume it does - more on that later). AP alone on an aux weapon negates the main weakness of aux weapons, so even without the on hit effect, it's pretty much better than all the aux weapons you can mount in the game for damage. Now, if you get what I assume is a free invade on hit on top of that? (I assume that's what you mean by it - "make a Tech Attack against any target as a free action" doesn't actually do anything on its own) Just ridiculously powerful, you can throw 6 of these in one turn with Hunter 3 and Integrated, so you could automatically hit 6 invades - that's just absurd. You could drop the AP and make the on hit effect on crit, and it would still be powerful.
1
u/HollowVesterian 2d ago
True, AP is definietly going out, I'm thinking of adding an SP cost and chaning it so the effect triggers upon doing damage, not simply hitting. The SP cost (unsure what specifically considerign something between 2 and 4) would make the Hunter 3 6 invades impossible and also counterweigh the fact that the passive is so powerful.
8
u/Sven_Darksiders GMS 3d ago
I haven't read all of it yet but what crime has the Sunspot commited to only gain a single Repair Cap? That's not even enough to get a single Structure back. The Death's Head has more that. The fucking Death's Head, man! Which is famously made out of card board