• Registered: 2008-10-15
  • Posts: 2

Topic: Early periods and no thermal lock-on

The game seems to be capable of covering many genres from Victorian SciFi to hardcore future SciFi. But there is one issue I would like to get some insight on:

The lock-on procedure seems to be the one of the key concepts the game is based on. It represents spotting, target acquisition, locking of targetting instruments. But it's based on the thermal signature of the target....

In early periods or similar settings I would prefer to use no thermal lock-on. I'd rather base target acquisition on size or noise made by the target.

Of course one still use the thermal lock-on and state that in some way they have instruments necessary for thermal acquisition of targets, but I would prefer 'manual' targetting for steam powered mechs.

Any hints? Did anybody try it?

  • Registered: 2006-02-23
  • Posts: 78

Re: Early periods and no thermal lock-on

I haven't tried it, but I would imagine that with Clockwork and Steamtech you could just base the To Hit roll on the unit Size.  You could also keep the Lock system as-is (or use Size instead of Half Size for the base number), and assume all the rest of the modifiers are for "steam and clanking" and such.  By Combustion tech you could reasonably infer IR systems and computerized targeters, etc.

One of the possible aberrations of the Thermal Sig system is when units have a low TS (1-2) and enough movement adjustments (and/or cover) to present a TS of 0 or less pretty much every turn.  Low Tech mechs probably won't have that problem, although Clockwork has that nasty TS base of 0.  By the way, I always favored rating Steamtech as 0.85 instead of 0.8, a small but statistically significant advantage for the cost of the increased TS mod.

  • Registered: 2008-10-15
  • Posts: 2

Re: Early periods and no thermal lock-on

thanks a lot for your input.

my two ideas were very close to what you suggested:

either
use (modified?) Size instead of Thermal Signature - to represent that large targets are easier to spot and keep targeted,
or
use Thermal Signature and justify it - either by claiming there are some targetting devices suitable for the period, or justify that it stands for the general noise/smoke/dust/other traces of the unit. Thus larger units would be easier to 'spot'/'lock-on' due to much noise or clouds of smoke/dust.

The only problems I see is that in case of the first approach the balanced point system becomes flawed, and in the second approach one would have to justify the equipment which normally increases Thermal Signature somehow. For example: it can only operate in a noisy way and creates thick easily visible smoke.

Haven't encountered the Thermal Signature problem yet...
But the game seems to be fine anyway!

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,285

Re: Early periods and no thermal lock-on

Well...actually the astronomer, Sir William Herschel, in Bath, England, discovered the existence of infrared radiation by trying to measure the heat of the separate colors of the rainbow spectrum cast on a table in a darkened room. He found the highest temperature to fall beyond the red end, which he reported to the Royal Society as Dark Heat in 1800. His son, Sir John Herschel, who was more interested in photography, managed to record the heating rays on the infra red side of red by creating an evaporograph image using carbon suspension in alcohol. He termed this image a thermogram. The foundation was laid for the advances that would come over a century later  with the sophisticated thermal imaging devices that are used in military, industrial and medical applications.

Since mecha are an "advanced" armored unit in theory...use of thermal detection is still possible for even this early period. We're simply assuming that a thermo-scope was produced as a result of the above discoveries within 30-50 years instead of 100.  smile

So no issues.  If you do not want to use the thermal...you could just substitute the lock on roll with straight to hit rolls based off the melee to hit rules as Catenwolde noted.