Implementation Tier List
= S =
A BREEZE, A PLEASURE, 10/10 GIFTED CHILD
I did almost the entire Metalmark license in just one hour, which would have unambiguously crowed it best mech to implement, but the little note that it can see normally in its flash grenade area took the rest of the day. This originally bumped it down to C, but I was later able to use the same sight-blocking zone tech for Saladin and Napoleon, so I’ve forgiven MM and moved it back up to the top of the heap.
As soon as I gave the Raleigh the one custom engine feature it wanted — a reaction hook for weapons being reloaded — it trundled off burbling like a baby and happy as a clam.
Not much to say about the rest of the mechs in this tier because, by definition, they went down smooth.
= A =
STRAIGHTFORWARD WORK, IT WAS FINE
Manticore was fun because I got to go delving into the Book of the Dead for little quotes. Its Arc Projector should have been harder but I implemented it poorly and then later got a free ride to a way better system using Tortuga’s Throughbolt proxy-attack-location technology.
Drake, my sweet walnut, you would have S tier if not for your portable bunker. You forced me to bend the general-use deployable UI to be able to handle putting down large things on semi-even terrain. This was probably good for the engine but means that we’re keeping this relationship professional from here on out.
Folks predicted the Gorgon was going to be a nightmare with all the reactions, but she ended up super chill. She sees a simple thing, she does a simple thing. Only two brain cells (reactions) and I love her for that.
Nelson: your Armor-Lock Plating was the only thing that forced me to add additional brace triggers. We almost got away with our Brace trim-down without totally invalidating any kits, but you had to be a stinker about it. You’re shadowbanned from ever getting higher than this..
Toku was nice to do early because it established the system for adding numbers to weapons based on persistent effects and state. I don’t really remember anything about Dusk Wing besides asking #rule-channel about its CP’s mirrors exploding, so I guess it was fine?
Genghis, you were mostly fine but the fiddly sequence of effects in your CP, the weird two-step line for your napalm grenade, and your plasma thrower fires were annoying to do and keep breaking in subtle ways. I expected better of you.
= B =
A SLOG TO GET THROUGH
You’ll never guess the worst part of Swallowtail: Retractable Profile’s “rolls to locate you receive +1 Difficulty while you are HIDDEN;”. It’s insidious. Living inside a toggleable ability, I need to give every other mech on the map difficulty on a specific contested check whenever they might make it, but only against us and while hidden. I absolutely should have taken a step back and just tweaked this to giving accuracy to ourselves, it would have been 5% as difficult. So maybe it’s my own fault Swallowtail is down here, but I still resent it.
[Later Olive] » actually, you know what? I am going to go and make that change, and throw away all the complicated stuff I was doing. [gymnastics meme about giving difficulty vs accuracy]
[LATER later olive] » disregard the above. I left it as-is because it’s working.
Minotaur & Black Witch. Your kits just have. So much text. Nothing was simple.
Iskander was Raleigh’s evil twin. It too just wanted to own its one custom thing (Grenades & Mines) but interacts with them in a myriad of ways rather than just a “on X, do Y” basis. As the very last frame implemented, I had to go back through all the implemented mines and grenades to give them new tags to make sure they played nice with the Isk. Never a good sign.
Napoleon and Saladin get lumped in together because they both went to the same school making weird line-of-sight-blocking bubble shields. Napoleon is slightly worse because it also has its CP that “deactivates all other systems”. Word?? Yeah?? Would you like to define that a bit better please?
Hydra, managing your OROCHI drones was basically an entire license in of itself. You can fit so many systems in this one system, then there’s the rest of the Hydra’s drones on top of that. Nothing was too difficult conceptually here (thank Tom) but there was just a lot of it.
= C =
YOU HAD ONE SYSTEM THAT WAS A MASSIVE PAIN
(WALL OF SHAME)
I implemented Intangible just for you, Mourning Cloak. I hope you’re happy. Might be the most single most far-reaching ability in terms of what the basic engine has to deal with.
Psych nope the Pegasus’s SISYPHUS allowing player intervention into any d20 roll anywhere ever actually takes that cake, ha ha.
Vlad’s superheavy drill did some very bad things to the damage and overkill calculation flow.
Much like the Metalmark, I blew through the entire Tortuga license in an hour or two… save for the damn Throughbolt Rounds. Unlike the Metalmark, I do not forgive the Tortuga because it had more fiddly rule riders.
Barbie, it makes sense that your big gun would also take up a half page to describe just by itself, but it made for a lot of busywork. I promise you did not actually need three different tiers of what your aftershock fire smoke does. (Also, why is your roller grenade the way it is? Why the line? Why did it not just have damage and knockback?)
Monarch is a beautiful horse that runs free and fast and sleek and then inexplicably breaks its leg while like drinking water. Its Pinaka Missiles’ delayed firing had way more hidden edge cases than you might think (one of the few “triggers at the end of the round” abilities anywhere in the game), and its Seeking Payload trait it a rat’s nest of conditions and tricky bonuses.
There’s essentially three methods of controlling a mech in LT: player input, the entire NPC AI system, and the Sekhmet flowchart. Which intersects with player input in ways that put her precariously close to D tier. She’s lucky I love her.
= F =
I CURSE THY NAME, BLACKGUARD. YOUR BUGS WILL OUTLIVE ME FEAST ON MY GRAVE-CORPSE.
Goblin’s Symbiosis and Lannie’s Mule Harness. Treating two mechs as one mech for occupation and movement is so so so awkward. These are going to cause problems for the entire lifespan of the game.
And then on TOP of that, the Lannie has the gall to have an unbreakable connection at-range whose cable can “be broken by melee attacks by any adjacent character”?? Worst mech to implement and maintain going forward, hands down.
Congratulations to Lancaster and Metalmark as the worst and best mechs to implement in Lancer Tactics, respectively. I’m so tired, and we still have all the NPCs to go. 😮💨