Side-grade for Styxx

My last game piloting Styxx Configuration 3 (Mega Gun, Laser Blade, Sponsons, Thrusters, Digitigrade Legs, Sensors (x3), Capacitors, Extra Armour (x3), and Deflectors) revealed what I consider to be a pair of minor weaknesses to the so-called Raptor configuration, which is where you sacrifice having a pair of arms for some other useful pair of systems. In the case of Styxx, what She gets is an extra pair of sensors now that other sensors have been scaled back to just the Sensor 3 pod that makes up the Titan's head. Being able to detect buildings on either side of a Titan, or behind them, is pretty incredibly handy, and I may not have exploited it to the hilt. What actively worked against me, however, was the mega gun. 

At first I was pretty excited to bounce around the board, making it look like I was trying for a ring-out when I would be looking to pick off buildings and wrong-foot my opponent with the mega gun until I was ready to carve off a leg, or an arm, or what have you. Notably my opponent had Tethys Configuration 4 (Laser Blades, Rocket Pods, Sponsons, Arms, Digitigrade Legs, Sensor, Extra Armour (x4), and Shield) and where I had the Sagacious personality (precisely what I wanted) my opponent drew the Vivacious personality, effectively adding a third sponson! Getting behind them wasn't going to work, and they very cleverly hoarded up Extra Armour and stacked shield tokens on those systems. I wasn't getting through without being very, very clever (or my opponent being very, very dumb), and the result was losing by 8 VPs, and nearly a knock-out. 

Notably also was the fact that my opponent, having hoarded Tethys' four extra armour packs, had a very good set of options for turning my mega gun's Impact trait against me, using it to get turned around! This is 'as intended' in the design. Plus the combination of rocket pods and laser blades was put to good effect damaging my own sponsons, meaning my mobility was limited from the mid-game onwards. I couldn't concentrate my own shields because then Tethys' rocket pods would start to chew into the gaps in my shield configuration. All-in-all, I think that what I really wanted was a weapon with the High Explosive trait, so that Styxx could shank someone in the back without helping them turn around. 

Styxx Configuration 4 has exactly that, boarding a Macro Laser and Rocket Pod where 3 had a Mega Gun and Laser Blade. Notably as well, Styxx Configuration 1 has a Plasma Shotgun, Rocket Pod, and Laser Blade, which is a brutal combination. Rather than duplicating an existing configuration, or going for a dual close-combat configuration, I decided Configuration 3 would be a stripped-down version of 1, much like how the other Titan Configuration 3s swap in or out a weapon in their Configuration 1s. 

In this case Styxx doesn't lose any range, or effect, and gains both HE2 and Shock for the loss of combined attacks and Impact. It would be something of a dead heat, but the Plasma Shotgun has a Charge of 2 compared to the Mega Gun's Charge of 1. I feel like the HE2 means an attack is going to cause damage, either because of concentrated shield tokens over protected areas is going to mean valuable unprotected areas (as well as knocking two shield tokens off the armour), or because the shields will be more even distributed and thus easier to knock out. Then the shock will mean any attempt to block will cost the target twice as much in lost cards. 

Back to the charge cost, Styxx could Jump (2), fire the Plasma Shotgun (3), and then Full Power the Plasma Shotgun again with a Capacitor (3), or activate a Sponson (1), Jump at an angle (2), Operate with an Initiate crew (1), and fire either the Plasma Shotgun or the Laser Blade to amputate something. That's either the first round, or making sure Styxx alternates rounds. Firing twice is going to require at least six cards in your hand, although again Styxx can Jump (1), Attack with Her Digitigrade Leg (3), and then attack again with a weapon or capacitor to re-activate the leg. 

I think the HE and AP weapons complement each other, and that Shock will help offset the Styxx 3's range deficit. It might also make things a tad more interesting without those arms to swing around. I also think that by homing in on these sweet-spot combinations as the default layouts for players they can have a more positive experience trying out Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator. 

Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: Rationalizing Point Values

Part of updating cards, particularly implementing changes that affect the values on the cards, means that I need to go back and update the Human Resource and Victory Point values. Which is a good thing, and following on Great Wickedness' example I've put those in the rule book. I need to update with new diagrams for attacking buildings anyways, and it's always useful to wrap all those changes up in an update, which I try to do on a monthly basis. In particular it's interesting to re-visit the valuation rubric itself, to see if it's spitting out intuitively correct answers, and in particular to engage in a little bit of comparison. Part of what I enjoy about developing Titanomachina is how, having played it for years now, that I feel like I understand it better now than when I initially designed it. 

Certain systems simply feel better than other systems, and have more oomph, and I believe that they're the systems that have more than a 100% effect/charge (where charge is read as the cost of activating a card including itself, so Charge 2 is 3). Stuff with less than 100% efficiency is going to feel underwhelming, like arms. Interestingly though I've noticed that while you can really feel the lack of arms in the Styxx configurations without arms, you'll feel it more if you don't maximize the use of them when you have them. Certain other systems, while not actually doing anything themselves, really have an impact on the game: sponsons, turrets, and capacitors. And it's these latter systems that I have difficulty representing in the scoring/costing rubric. 

Currently the cost/scoring rubric is (Effect/Charge)+1 per trait or combined/extra action+0.25 for each tile of range after the first. That sticks the Capacitor at HR~0.33 because it's Effect 1, Charge 2, (1/3) and nothing else. Likewise the turret comes out at HR 3 which is perhaps excessive when Digitigrade Legs are currently HR 3 each, although those should come to 5 because 3/3+1 for push and +1 for block. Jump jets and thrusters would go down because they do one thing for the cost of doing so. Mobility has a big effect on the game though, so even jumping two tiles can feel significant where the game is often a matter of a few degrees. Sponsons and turrets really kick up the significance of a Titan's actions. 

I think the scoring rubric should be the (Effect + Traits or Additional Actions + Range bonus) / Charge as that's the benefit divided by the cost. I think it's worth rounding up or down depending on breaks like whether a system is unusable after only light damage (Rocket Pod, Hand), The gun battery is treated as having a charge of 1 because it's a weird outlier for both doing a whole lot (attack, block, push, at range 3) and not a whole lot. Basically this gives a premium to those systems with less charge. Weapons with longer range also get a premium, because being able to reach across the board is very valuable when your opponent doesn't obligingly move in close, or moves in close and detects habitats across the board. Which is why sensors have a trait cost of 4 despite being only having a dual-action, as the value of those actions is disproportionate to their apparent costing; detecting habitats is a much easier way of scoring than inflicting damage where Effect is concerned.