CombatSystemConversion

This is a work in progress, please ignore me for now!

TACS FAQ ATTACK

 * Make sure you have read about the NewCombatSystem before reading this page.
 * Send any additional questions to Hazard or Boomslang and we will get them onto this page.

Overview
This page is about how to convert your character to the new combat system (aka TACS). For other points of interest, see:
 * A page dedicated to pricing your Original Character (OC) is referenced heavily here
 * A guide to the new combat system is referenced as well and is required reading before moving on
 * A page dedicated to Characters: how to get them and their associated limits is not referenced specifically but may be useful reading as it contains some new policies

Feature Characters
If you only play Feature Characters, congratulations! You can pretty much ignore all of this. The conversion team is going through and manually editting FC stats for the new system. In some cases this will involve stat decreases to better reflect traditional tech-spec scores. In most cases, your stats will be largely the same. FCs have an advantage in that many of them have features or abilities that are not available to standard OCs.

Original Characters
You are invited to submit your OCs for conversion. The LEAST amount of work you have to do is as follows:
 * Rebuild your Attacks
 * Send an e-mail to [[Image:2k5conversiongmail.PNG]] with the subject: 
 * Please include any justification you feel is required in your e-mail
 * If you wish to do more, continue onwards
 * After a month or so we will assume that all of the ACTIVE OCs have been converted and will disable the legacy combat system. After that, any inactive OCs will need to be converted before they can participate in combat again.

Conversion Staff
"Conversion Staff" is an amalgam of Character Staff, Code Staff, and Knowledgable Personages. Respectively, they are myself (Hazard), Boomslang, and Catechism. Additions to the team will be forthcoming as the conversion process speeds up and we have time to train the other Character Staff members. Please be aware that it is our FIRST and FOREMOST concern that everything be as fair and balanced as possible. We are not out to "screw" or "mess with" anyone. That being said, when you make an omlet, you have to break a few eggs. I apologize in advance if you are one of those eggs and I will do whatever I can to make you into a nice tasty McMuffin. :)

Stats
Your stats will remain the same. You will, however, notice a tiny (+3) bump in your scores. This is to reflect the fact that we have moved from the Legacy system (where a '6' equals anywhere from 57 to 66) to the NEW system (where a '6' equals a more logical 60 to 69).

Mode-Variable Stats
In the new system your alternate-modes can have different stats than your robot mode. For example, Broadside is very agile as a robot but as a giant aircraft carrier? Not so much. During the conversion process for Original Characters, we will allow you to differentiate your alt-mode stats to a degree.

Please note that when making mode adjustments, you can't adjust your mode1, as one of the purposes of the mode adjustment is to let people improve altmodes to make using them more desirable.

Core stats, the stats that are universal to your character like Endurance or Intelligence, cannot be changed between modes. Armor and size don't count for this purpose either. The mode-adjustable stats are: Strength, Accuracy, Firepower, Agility.

Essentially your net offsets must remain zero. This is covered under Mode-Variable Stats.

Energon
Since you already read NewCombatSystem you know that the new base energon level is 50. For 95% of people, this will not change. For the other 5% of people, their energon will be lowered depending on if they have any ammunition-based attacks

Armor
You will not have to do anything special to armor. Whatever armor you have now will be translated into the new 0-100 base system, where 50 points is the new average.

Protection
These are another new feature. Protection acts as type-specific armor. You can think of characters like Inferno and Hot Spot, who are specifically mentioned as being resistant to FIRE-based attacked. During the conversion process, you can elect to have protections for your OC but it is not required. It is left to the discretion of the player.

If you would like your OC to have resistances, you must "pay" for them with offsetting weaknesses. This is covered under Protection.

Attacks
This is the fun part. Let's break it down into steps:


 * 1) Take all of your attacks and assign them a value based off of their CHARGEN COST.
 * 2) You can find point values in news melee attacks and news ranged attacks
 * 3) Laser is worth 2 points
 * 4) Plasma is worth 6 points
 * 5) E-Axe is worth 5 points
 * 6) Special is worth 5 points
 * 7) Area-Melee and Area-Ranged are worth 6 points
 * 8) Freebies are worth 0 points
 * 9) Add up all of these points. This is your ATTACK POOL.
 * 10) You will build new attacks for yourself using this pool using the attack pricing rules.
 * 11) These can go in either mode
 * 12) These can be of any type (within reason -- remember your e-mail will still need to get approved!)
 * 13) Maximum damage level for any attack can not be higher than your current highest-ranked attack.
 * e.g. if your best attack is Plasma you may not have any attack higher than damage level 6 through the conversion process

Attack Conversion Rules

 * If you have Energy_Axe or Energy_Sword in the legacy system, and you are converting this attack explicitly, you can use two damage types (IMPACT + ) without paying the extra 1 point
 * Attacks must fufill the standard attack limits

Attack Conversion Notes

 * There is quite a leap to make from the old legacy attacks and the new attacks. For example, in the old system, Galvatron has THREE separate 'cannon' attacks: cannon, cannon2, and GalvCannon. The last one (GalvCannon) has some well-known nasty side-effects. In the NEW system, Galvatron need only have one attack. Why? Pay attention to our list of attack creation tips.

Abilities
Abilities are mostly the same, but there are some new ones and some current ones have changed slightly. But you've already read NewCombatSystem so I won't bore you with the details! Also I am sad to report that one ability has been eliminated FOREVER. *sob*


 * For a complete list of abilities see NewCombatSystemAbilities
 * Some abilities have dropped in price. In this case, you will get the difference back in CP to spend on something else within reason.
 * Some abilities have gone UP in price. Lucky you! No extra charge for these. You can thank me later.
 * One ability has been removed. If you had Infiltration (hello, one active OC that I know of) you will instead receive the SNEAK ability and 2 CP to spend on something else within reason.
 * There are four new abilities. For now! You can attempt to buy one of these by "liquidating" some current abilities and/or attacks you have (described above).
 * e.g. if you have Scout but would rather have Crackshot you can "liquidate" scout into 5 points and buy Crackshot for 4 points.
 * You can swap points between attacks and abilities WITHIN REASON. This will be heavily scrutinzed by Conversion Staff.
 * Your safest bet is to just wait and get one of the new abilities by spending AP on an upgrade at some point in the future. We will try to limit new abilities to those who it makes sense for. (e.g. not EVERYONE is a sniper and needs Crackshot, sorry!)
 * People using the Seeker Package can still not get E_Senses even though it costs 6 now. Sorry!

Upgrades

 * Sorry, no specific information on what upgrades will cost in the new system. Don't expect any drastic changes though. We will do everything we can to not "screw" anyone over. So, if you had an upgrade approved but it didn't get put in until after the new costs are out, we will take the lesser of the two.