Sunday, July 17, 2022

Proposal: The Great Clean-up

Timed out unpopular, 3-5 with one unresolved DEF. Josh

Adminned at 19 Jul 2022 16:00:16 UTC

In BotScript, reword the reaction starting “...use the following system” to

“...use the following System:” followed by the name of a Usable System that the Actor has. If that system is not currently usable, this script entry is skipped as if the trigger was false.

In BotScript, remove the line starting “A Reaction is considered Resolvable if: ” and remove the bullet points under it. In the next line, remove “and its corresponding Reaction is Resolvable”

In Systems, remove the line “If a System effect is preceded by “Passive:”, then it has no effect when used, and instead applies to a Bot with that System at all times.

In Systems, reword the line “While a System has a Condition of 0%, then its Effect is considered to be “No effect.”, and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.” to

“While a System has a Condition of 0%, it has the Defunct tag and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.”

To the end of the rule Systems, add:

Each system may have any number of tags - this is represented by that tag being within square brackets within the effect of that system. Some tags may permit additional information which may be unique to the system, known as that tag’s Tag Effect. The information of a tag effect (if it exists) is also found within the square brackets of that tag, separated by a colon. The tags a system can have are:
*Electrical: The electrical tag has no direct effect, but may be referenced by system effects.
*Inert: The inert tag has no direct effect, but may be referenced by system effects. The consumption of this system (if any) is said to be due to the weight of the component, rather than the energy cost of using it.
*Mechanical: The mechanical tag has no direct effect, but may be referenced by system effects. A part with neither inert nor electrical is considered to have the mechanical tag irrespective of whether they actually have it.
*Usable: This permits tag effects. This tag permits the system to be Used, as defined in BotScript. When it is used, the tag effect applies.
*Melee: This permits tag effects. When a system with the melee tag is used and the Opponent’s Bot is in any of the three spaces immediately in front of the Actor then the Melee Tag Effect applies - otherwise it is ignored. All Melee systems are said to have the Usable tag irrespective of whether they actually have it.
*Aggressive: If this system causes scratch damage, that scratch damage increases tally as if it wasn’t scratch damage.
*Defunct: A system with this tag loses all effects and tags except Inert, Mechanical, or Electrical.

For each of the following systems if they exist, reword their effects as follows:

Ram: [Mechanical] [Aggressive] Scratch Damage dealt to opponents by this Bot as a result of Shoving is multiplied by ten.

Flipper: [Mechanical] [Usable: If the Actor is Flipped, it ceases to be Flipped.] [Melee: If the Actor did not start the turn with the Flipped Condition, the Opponent becomes Flipped and takes Scratch Damage.]

Axe: [Mechanical] [Usable] [Melee: The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis has 25% subtracted, and the Condition of the Opponent’s Engine has 10% subtracted.]

Grinder: [Mechanical] [Usable] [Melee: The Condition of the Opponent’s Exposed System (if it has one) has 25% subtracted.]

Plate: [Inert] While the winner of a bout is being determined, Plate is considered to be at 50% condition if it is below 50% condition. (Note: this effect is lost as normal when the system is defunct.)

Taser: [Mechanical] [Electrical] [Aggressive] [Usable: If the opponent is within six spaces, their exposed system (or the chassis if none are exposed) takes Scratch Damage. The system that loses condition from this scratch damage (or the engine if the chassis loses condition) is affected by Shock damage: it is treated as if it had a condition of 25 fewer percentage points than it actually has (to a minimum of 0) until the end of the Bout. Shock Damage is permitted to stack with itself. Electrical systems take double shock damage, and inert or defunct systems take none.]

Mound-Shaped Body: [Inert] If a bot with this system would gain the Flipped status, they do not. Due to being a larger target, any condition loss that any systems of the bot with this system would recieve is also recieved by its chassis.

Spikes: [Aggressive] [Inert] Scratch Damage opponents take which is caused by Bumping is multiplied by the number of spaces that were moved preceding the Bump that turn. This has no effect on damage from shoving.

Cow Catcher: [Inert] When moving into or past an opponents space from any distance away, the excess move beyond the amount that it would take to move adjacent to the opponent is treated as a shove. This effect cannot cause the actor to move futher than their script declared that they would move.

Grapple: [Mechanical] [Aggressive] [Usable: When used, this system causes Scratch Damage to the closest opponent within three spaces in the direction the Actor is facing. If such an opponent exists, the Actor then gains the Tethered to Opponent status, targetting that opponent until the end of the bout. Irrespective of whether that status was able to be applied, this system gains the Defunct tag until the end of the bout.]

Targetting Module: [Electrical] Whenever another System Effect refers to the Exposed System of a Bot, it refers to the frontmost System with the lowest Condition instead (if it is facing the Bot using the Effect) or the rearmost System with the lowest Condition (if it is not).

Lead Weight: [Inert] If a bot with this system would be Shoved, twice its consumption is added to the Shove Power rather than having any portion of it subtracted from it.

Back-up Battery: [Electrical] The Condition of the Engine on this Bot is instead calculated as the Condition of the Engine plus 25% of the Condition of this system, up to a maximum of 100%. This system has 0 consumption if it is above 25% condition.

Modify the consumptions of the following systems if they exist:
Plate to 60
Mound-shaped body to 30
Spikes to 40
Cow catcher to 45
Lead weight to 150
Back-up Battery to 70

Add the following status to the bullet points in Statuses:

*Tethered to Opponent: This status targets an opponent, connecting the two bots together. When either bot moves more than three spaces away from the other, the moving bot is able to (and required to) shove its opponent. Unlike a normal shove, each bot halves its shoving power when it is facing its opponent rather than when it is facing away from its opponent.

Append the following to the rule Scratch Damage:

It is permissible for a rule to specifically state that a chassis, engine or system takes the scratch damage; in that case, it is that component which loses the condition.

This cleans up a lot of the jank and the repetition in the systems to a series of tags. Now, everything is passive by default, and parts are split into inert chunks of metal, sensitive electrical bits, and regular mechanical parts. Everything has a weight now, with parts that actually do stuff still taking the lion’s share of the energy consumption.

Comments

Darknight: he/him

17-07-2022 13:16:45 UTC

imperial

Trapdoorspyder: he/him

17-07-2022 14:54:28 UTC

imperial

Josh: Observer he/they

17-07-2022 15:31:04 UTC

C’mon guys don’t make me read this

(Seriously though: I won’t be doing a pass for scams so I recommend a close read rather than a quick def)

Josh: Observer he/they

17-07-2022 16:28:08 UTC

for I don’t love the tags but I do like the power consumptions for various systems. Operators should ensure in advance that these changes won’t make their rigs become Defunct.

Raven1207: he/they

17-07-2022 19:51:35 UTC

for

thundershrike:

18-07-2022 04:22:16 UTC

for

Kevan: he/him

18-07-2022 09:09:08 UTC

against since I don’t have time for a close read, and a quick skim turns up at least two undocumented functional changes to how systems work (Plate gets a new effect of “While the winner of a bout is being determined, Plate is considered to be at 50% condition if it is below 50% condition”, Lead Weight drops from a potential 10xCondition to just 2xConsumption), which goes beyond mere clean up.

SingularByte: he/him

18-07-2022 09:25:34 UTC

That’s fair.
The undocumented changes are:
*Plate counts as 50% condition because I figure it would be weird for judges to rule that a match was lost on the basis that a plate *successfully* did its job of shielding the weaker components.
*Lead weight was nerfed heavily because it gives outright immunity to shoving in the old version - you physically can’t build a bot that can shove someone with it, ever.
*Spikes have been nerfed to scale with distance travelled instead of a flat 15.
*Grapple is now usable even when you’re out of range but it just wastes the shot, and it now acts via shoving rather than auto-moving the grappling bot.
*Battery doesn’t cost any consumption if it has high enough condition (but it initially didn’t have condition to begin with), because I’m assuming it can give enough bonus power to not have any excess consumption.
*Flipper has regained scratch damage.
*Finally, taser now cares about exposed systems so it benefits from targetting, but it has a large damage nerf (33% to 25% and goes to 0 on inert systems), but does 50% to electrical systems now.

Chiiika: she/her

18-07-2022 11:01:52 UTC

To be honest if I’m running taser, I won’t have the energy to run targeting (and possibly LED boards) anyways; and 2) it will collide with unable to damage inert systems so against

Josh: Observer he/they

18-07-2022 11:49:11 UTC

CoV imperial as I don’t want my vote to swamp tactical considerations.

Lulu: she/her

18-07-2022 12:12:13 UTC

against

Trapdoorspyder: he/him

18-07-2022 13:46:23 UTC

CoV against on second thought

Brendan: he/him

18-07-2022 14:46:31 UTC

imperial