HMWCombat

Introduction
Welcome to the combat section of Heavy Metal Warriors. As can be expected from the title, combat is an integral part of this RPG. This page will explain how combat works.

Basics
Combat in HMW is turn-based, meaning that each character takes their turns in sequence in a single 'round'. Every combatant gets a turn, and the turn does not end until the combatant decides to 'wait', or runs out of AP.

Turn Order
At the start of combat, each combatant rolls 1d100 and adds their Initiative score. This determines the order that turns take place within the rounds of combat. The highest scorer goes first, then the next highest and so on. A 'round' refers to an entire sequence of turns, and in terms of actual time, is roughly equivalent to 6 seconds of full combat where all participants are acting all at once. Being turn-based simply allows the game to be broken down and easily swallowed.

Squad vs Squad Battles
To simplify matters in large engagements, the rounds are split up into two turn-blocks known as "phases". In this case, the Player Phase is always executed before the Enemy Phase, which means the players move and attack first, then the enemies. Players must still roll their Initiative to determine their turn order.

When it's your turn
There are several things you can do in your turn. Here's just a few! Every person involved in a battle can move once, and then perform a single action, be it firing or reloading a weapon, using an item, ejecting or what have you. Using battle skills, however, does not end your turn, and you may activate as many of them as you like as long as you have SP to spend.
 * Move one square.
 * Costs 1AP per square
 * Fire a weapon.
 * Costs xAP, depending on weapon type. AP cost is equal to the weapon's range.
 * Use an item.
 * Costs 3AP
 * Store a weapon in a holster or back-mount.
 * Costs 2AP
 * Exchange a weapon for one that's holstered.
 * Costs 2AP
 * Reload weapon
 * Costs 3AP
 * Use a support backpack.
 * Costs xAP, depending on support type.
 * Eject
 * Costs 0AP, pilot appears adjacent to the vehicle it ejected from.

When it's not your turn
If you're attacked when it's not your turn, you may counter-attack if you still have AP leftover from your previous battle. Otherwise, you just have to sit and wait.

Flow of Combat
When actually making an attack, it follows this flow: Attack roll, defense roll, damage if hit, counterattack roll, defense roll, damage if hit.
 * Magazines: Most ranged weapons have limited ammunition that the weapon can carry, as indicated by its 'magazine' field. Every time the weapon is fired, one round per shot the weapon fires is consumed and once the weapon is empty it cannot fire anymore and must be reloaded. Every weapon comes with a few spare magazines, and there are items which count as spare magazines for your weapon.

To actually make an attack, you have to roll 1d100 your Accuracy versus your opponent's Agility. Your total accuracy is the weapon's skill plus your pilot's Perception, plus your arm's accuracy bonus, plus any special modifiers from equipment.
 * Example: My character has 15 skill in Rifles, and arms that give +10 accuracy. His perception is 20, and his gun has a scope that gives +20 accuracy. So my total accuracy is +65, actually pretty impressive. So my character would then roll 1d100+65 to fire his rifle.

Once the attack roll is made, the target rolls their Agility, which is Piloting skill plus Reflex plus your Legs' agility score and finally plus any special modifiers from equipment.
 * Example: The same character is piloting a Heavy Walker with 15 skill in Heavy Walkers, and 20 Reflex. His legs' agility is 0, and he has no special bonuses, so he would roll 1d100+35 to dodge an incoming attack.

The highest roller wins; if the attack wins, it's a hit and it goes on to deal damage to the vehicle. If it's a miss, the attack is wasted.

Weapons which fire multiple bullets
A lot of the weapons that are fielded fire multiple bullets at once; be they shotguns which fire a spread of pellets, or machineguns that spew out hundreds of rounds per minute. Weapons have a 'Cycle' field, which tells you how many shots are taken every time it's fired. 1x1 means it fires one bullet one time. 7x1 means it fires 7 bullets one time, while the inverse, 1x7, means it fires one bullet seven times. Weapons like these only roll accuracy once. If the attack hits, subtract your target's defense roll from your attack roll. For every 5 points over, an additional hit is scored up to the total amount of projectiles fired. Weapons with ammunition consume ammo only for the number of times actually fired, and not for multiple projectiles. This means that a machine gun consumes multiple rounds of ammo at once, but a shotgun still only consumes one round because it only fired one actual shot.
 * Double Tap: All one-handed firearm weapons; pistols, machine guns, and shotguns can be fired multiple times if you have the AP to do so. This is called a Double Tap. Autoshotguns fire multiple shells at once and thus get multiple attack rolls, but may also be double tapped. Flamethrowers are one-handed energy weapons, but may not be double tapped, however a laser pistol may.

Determining Damage and Location
The next step is to determine the location of the damage. If the weapon is a shotgun, the hits follow a specific pattern. Otherwise, each bullet fired is randomly allocated by rolling a number of D4s equivalent to the bullets fired; a 1 hits the left arm, 2 hits the right, 3 hits the legs, and 4 hits the torso. Any hits allocated to a disabled part(its Armor is reduced to 0 and the part is non-functional) are instead allocated to the Torso. The weapon you use has a 'damage' statistic. What that is is a full damage roll, with all base damage statistics given by a weapon. The damage with a weapon is the number and type of dice(3d8 for example), plus the weapon's raw bonus(+40 in this example), multiplied by the weapon's base multiplier(*3 in this case). Your pilot adds his or her skill with that weapon divided by 100 to the multiplier. Say you have 30 skill, and your weapon multiple is 2. Divide your skill by 100, and then add to the multiplier for the final result; in that case 2.3. Any special bonuses given to weapon damage that are "+n" add to the raw bonus, and any that are "+%" are added to the multiplier. Once you've determined how many hits you have, and where they are allocated, you roll your final damage a number of times equal to the number of hits you made. If you scored 6 hits, you'd roll your damage 6 times, and apply the damage to each part. Simple, no?

Counter-attacks
If the defender has AP left over from their previous turn, and one of their weapons are in range(explosives excluding), they are eligible for a counter-attack. The cost for executing a counter attack varies depending on the range of the engagement: combats inside 5 squares cost 3 AP to counterattack, from 5 to 9 squares 2 AP, and 10 squares and up cost 1 AP. Note that this is in addition to the weapon's firing cost; a shotgun costs 6 AP total, a sub-machine gun inside 4 squares costs 8 AP and so on. Counter-attacks also consume ammunition.
 * Shields: Large metal plates affixed to the arm of a battlewalker can provide a supplementary defense against attacks. Shields are a little different from normal weapons; you cannot attack with them. Shields are only used in response to an attack, instead of a counterattack. When a shield is used, all attacks made against the target impact the shield, reducing its HP. Shields have a "damage resistance" score, which reduces a portion of the incoming damage after all hits are made.

Damage Types
There are a few damage types, AKA 'classes' in Heavy Metal Warriors, and each one has a different secondary effect that it applies to a target battlewalker. The trigger for these effects is every time the target is attacked by a type of attack. Below are the damage types, and their secondary effects. Threshold: This is the number you have to roll above your opponent's defense to trigger the secondary effect. Effect: The effect applied to the target. Difficulty: The number the target must roll over to resist the effect.
 * Impact
 * Pilot Stun
 * Threshold: 75
 * Effect: Pilot skips their next turn.
 * Difficulty: T+Skill
 * Armor Breach
 * Threshold: Critical Hit
 * Effect: -50% damage resistance
 * Difficulty: 200+Skill
 * Piercing
 * Pilot Damage
 * Threshold: 75
 * Effect: Pilot is damaged for 1d8 HP
 * Difficulty: T+Skill
 * Internal Hit
 * Threshold: Critical Hit
 * Effect: -1 durability on hit part
 * Difficulty: 200+Skill
 * Heat
 * Forced Eject
 * Threshold: 75
 * Effect: Target is forced to eject from the battlewalker.
 * Difficulty: T+Skill
 * Ammo Explosion
 * Threshold: Critical Hit
 * Effect: Target loses one magazine, and is attacked by the weapon without the possibility to evade(still roll for threshold hits)
 * Difficulty: 200+Skill

Abilities
Battle abilities are activated skills which can add modifications to your attacks, defenses, or provide certain bonuses. Check the effects of the skills for more detailed information on what they do. Activated abilities consume a Pilot's SP, or Skill Points.