That does not sound fast or swingy. If I'm parsing this correctly, you compare pre-calculated values which change every round according to damage? And then hit location rolls are wedged in somewhere? I get how these mechanics make sense from a mechanics standpoint, but definitely not the direction I want to go in.mlangsdorf wrote: DP9's Heavy Gear system is fast and swingy. Calculate attacker's margin of success against the defender, multiply MoS by weapon damage, compare result to 3 armor thresholds: if less than the lowest, no effect, less than the middle, light damage, less than the highest, heavy damage, and more than the highest, vehicle destroyed. Damage reduces thresholds against future attacks and also rolls on a random damage table: fire control/weapons, engines/maneuverability, crew, sensors/other. Light damage generally reduces fire control or speed while heavy damage cripples the system and in some cases destroys the vehicle (ammo/fuel explosion or pilot incapacitation, etc). Vehicle weapons generally achieve heavy damage with a better than average roll and instant kills with a good roll and favorable tactical positioning (ie, back shot on a damaged vehicle).
Again, I don't think you should use DP9's Heavy Gear system but I'd certainly look at it for inspiration. They also do Jovian Chronicles as an expy of Gundam (but same system mechanically) and Lightning Strike as a stripped down version of Heavy Gear/Jovian Chronicles for fast fleet engagements.
Classic Battletech, while a fun game, is much more ponderous and slow: roll to hit, roll hit location, reduce ablative armor, consider critical effects. It's also much more dependent on tactical position. It would be hard to play Heavy Gear without a tactical map but it would be impossible to play CBT without one. I'd most use CBT for information on what not to do.
Attack resolution in my game will look more like traditional rpg's with attack rolls and damage rolls. I'm still puzzling out how these will look, but for damage I plan on plain old attrition with FATE-like consequences thrown in.
I'll still be looking at established mecha games for outputs and the like, but I don't think I'll be using any of those mechanics.