Xiticix breakdown?

[Nekira Sudacne]

The book Xiticix Invasion has complete breakdowns of MDC by body part for the Xiticix. All of them. the Xiticix you are thinking of from the main book is just the Warrior (fighting to defend and expand the hive territory), but the invasion book has stats for queens and noncombatants, as well as Hunters (the other main kind, these are scouts who go beyond the hives boundries to search for threats, and operate in smaller groups)

[Killer Cyborg]

I was hoping for a badass new bluegrass song.

[Alrik Vas]

Queens of the Hive, on stage this friday! Watch as they perform all the great hits!
I need a can opener for this Dead Boy
Buzz Off
Through the Rift? Through your face, human!
Rumble in the Hive
I bet you're a psi-stalker
Taste Cold Resin!

[Tor]

The big problem with body part breakdowns is that it becomes a massive invitation for called shots, something you can avoid so long as there's only a main body to hit.

[Nekira Sudacne]

The big problem with body part breakdowns is that it becomes a massive invitation for called shots, something you can avoid so long as there's only a main body to hit.

The intended purpose of body park breakdown is to show what you can do with called shots. Inviting called shots isn't a problem, it's what it's intended to do.

[Alrik Vas]

Absolutely, Nekira. It's fully intended.

[flatline]

The big problem with body part breakdowns is that it becomes a massive invitation for called shots, something you can avoid so long as there's only a main body to hit.

What's wrong with called shots? One great way is to fire at and destroy your enemy's weapon.

The weapon is typically too valuable to destroy needlessly. Aim for their head or arm. Or use a weapon that lets you incapacitate them or their weapon.

--flatline

[Alrik Vas]

Sometimes the weapon has WAAAAAY less armor and your enemy has some serious @#&*%# that keeps them from getting held/stunned/sleeping etc. Granted, most mudane opponents are a bit easier than that, but the situations do come up, especially in Rifts.

[Tor]

What's wrong with called shots? One great way is to fire at and destroy your enemy's weapon.

The problem is just implementing it. I don't remember if all the Xiticix weapons were given MDC, for example. Or guidelines on how much of its full it can take before it begins to malfunction.

Also there's a major problem with Palladium's combat system regarding called shots and ranged shots. Instead of simply penalizing a strike roll (although some do so in addition) they increase the base needed to hit. Initially this was from 4 to 12 for called, and 4 to 8 for longer range shots. Making a called shot at long-range wasn't any harder than making it at close-range though, which is one of the problems.

Another problem was that shots that fail to hit where they're called will still hit the main body. That's silly. If you miss shooting at a guy's hand, you're more than likely to hit air than to hit the main body, if it was outstretched. Defaulting to main body on called shot misses should only happen if there's a reason to think the hand would be held in front of or near the main body.

The simplest way to work things, rather than increasing the miss/hit barrier from 4/5, would be to translate any such increases into penalties, so that they can stack.

So if long shots take a base of 8, that's -4. If close-range called shots take a base of 12, that's -8. Stack that, and you're -12 to strike, and if someone is holding their hand out and you get a total or 4 or less, you hit nothing.

Called shots should be harder and more of a gamble.

[Killer Cyborg]

Another problem was that shots that fail to hit where they're called will still hit the main body. That's silly. If you miss shooting at a guy's hand, you're more than likely to hit air than to hit the main body, if it was outstretched. Defaulting to main body on called shot misses should only happen if there's a reason to think the hand would be held in front of or near the main body.

Totally agree with you there. It's silly to aim at something, miss and hit something anyway. Every shot should be a called shot, because you might hit what you want, but hey, if you miss, no big deal! (I joke, of course.)

Under the original rules, that's sometimes how it worked: people always did Called Headshots.
The main downside was when you were fighting enemies with different MDC by location. My players found out the hard way that trying to headshot a Thinman or Runt actually meant that the thing took longer to kill, because they were dividing their attacks between two different damage pools instead of one.

Under the new rules, of course, a Called Shot takes two attacks, so there's a much bigger investment in making Called Shots.
For that matter, I don't know if the "missing with a Called Shot means hitting the main body" rule carried over to RUE. I didn't see it anywhere, just glancing through the rules.

[Tor]

I'm usually all for carrying over RMB-series rules that didn't make it into RUE but this is a case that tempts me to deviate from that policy...

Oh yeah, and I forget to mention ARs, but that's a third issue in SDC settings. The higher base to-hit for called shots or longer-range attacks never made it harder to pierce an AR.

If you were shooting a guy with AR 14, you might as well called shot him from a mile off too, because these 3 factors which all make a basic shot harder don't combine in any way to enhance difficulty.

[Killer Cyborg]

I'm usually all for carrying over RMB-series rules that didn't make it into RUE but this is a case that tempts me to deviate from that policy...

Oh yeah, and I forget to mention ARs, but that's a third issue in SDC settings. The higher base to-hit for called shots or longer-range attacks never made it harder to pierce an AR.

If you were shooting a guy with AR 14, you might as well called shot him from a mile off too, because these 3 factors which all make a basic shot harder don't combine in any way to enhance difficulty.

Right.
Each one should have been a shot penalty, not a different target number.