OK, I should've posted this ages ago...

So I've been working on another update. Well, I say working on, I finished it. And went over and corrected/smoothed over it. I guess I missed the cue to blog...

The update is for the first half of the rulebook. (Work on the other half's already begun. I am THAT late with this.) I've totally rewritten most of the rules, adding clarity and definition to some sections and rewriting everything in order to restructure the turn sequence. Such a simple change, but it needed rewriting of pretty much the entire core rules. I did add reactor points in as well, but it'd have been the same without it, probably.

DoS is now totally different from 40K. It's come a long way; two years ago it was a 40K spin-off. (Literally - I actually submitted it to Specialist Games and everything; obviously, they ignored it. I'll teach 'em.) With the latest change, models now activate individually - a system that I'd feared would ruin the game's tactics, but actually enhances them, and is a heck of a lot more fun. A turn or two of playtesting at a friend's suggestion was all that was needed to convince me.

Action points are of debatable worth, they could be fiddly, but slaving every possible action to them does give a feeling of these mechs having a finite amount of power, and allows better control over how much firepower a mech can lay down . A model being able to spend 4-6 movement points and unleash up to 10 heavy weapons, two of which are paired, is just ridiculous... especially if they're all missile weapons. You know the one. 36", Strength 2D10, AP5, Shots 4. 89 cogs, if memory serves me right. 44 shots with the pairing on the shoulders. Put that on a Rn 8 Leader, that's an average of 32 hits a turn if there aren't any shooting modifiers. During playtesting I had a Leader cause some 90 damage on an enemy super-heavy with just three such weapons (two of which were paired). No more. Take a nerf bat to the face, missiles.

I've also taken the opportunity to firm up the rules a LOT, partly inspired by the new 5th ed 40K rulebook which is a lot cleaner than previous, and partly because of how my own outlook on games design's changed since I wrote out the previous incarnation of the rules. Podcasts, forum usage, and starting Warmachine have really emphasised the importance of rules clarity to me. So I added some. :)

As well as that, I added leader abilities - ten of 'em, in a chart upon which your leader rolls a D10 before the start of the game to determine their ability. These range from providing their Psychology to any friendly model on the table, to the good old Hard as Nails, to forcing models within D6+2" to take Reflexes tests or fall over in lieu of shooting. These'll make leaders more interesting, important, and tactically different - even two people using the same army will play differently depending on which skills their Leaders have.

Part Two of this update is, as I said, in progress. I'm going to be adding more variety and versatility into the weapon choices, making Rail Guns a separate class altogether, removing negative special rules (Jam, Overheat) in lieu of altogether more painful ones (Grinder and Focused!) and giving the poor underestimated energy weapons Surge as a basic rule. Many more special rules will also appear - I want 4 for each weapon, maybe five, with more for the alien weapons (one from each other class plus one or two unique ones).

More significantly, I'm changing the system from cog limits to weight limits - which you can break. Each upgrade has a weight, and if you pile too much weight onto your mech it gets encumbered, represented in-game by a loss of Reactor Points. Also, if you put too much weight on a weapon it becomes ordnance, encumbering you further and becoming harder to fire - but you can break that limit, the possibility is there! Light weapons won't have a separate maximum profile, instead a light weapon is one under a certain weight limit (upgraded Strength values are going to be very heavy, especially the higher powered ones).

The overall aim is a more realistic game, and one that's a bit more balanced too. One where mechs don't immediately vapourise when more than one enemy shoots at them, and where missile weapons don't rule over everything else. And, hopefully, a bit more variety in terms of both tactics and armaments. Wish me luck!