thread: 2006-11-30 : Mechaton FAQ
On 2006-11-30, Valamir wrote:
Regarding the Yellow dice ruling.
I suggest reconsidering that rule for the following reasons.
1) Consistancy: you can spot to direct fire range...that means the yellow die should work similarly to red dice that can shoot to direct fire range. If you have no red direct fire attachments you can't attack at direct fire range. Ergo if you have no yellow attachments you shouldn't be able to spot at direct fire range either.
You can use white dice to attack at hand to hand because the white dice are just the mech (i.e. hands and feet and chassis). You can attack at hand to hand with your hands, you can move with your feet, and you can take a beating with your chassis. But you can't do any special stuff like shoot at direct or artillery range or function well in space or under water without a special attachment. Spotting...being that its a non-hand/feet/chassis function that occurs at direct fire range bears more in common with these special attachements.
2) Building strategy. Allowing white dice to spot without a yellow attachment really lessens the value of the yellow attachment. Red ranged attachments are special because they allow you to do things that you can't otherwise do...attack at range. Green attachments are special because they allow you to do things that you can't otherwise do...cross obstacles. Blue attachments are special because even though they don't do anything a white die doesn't they keep you alive, and that's inherently special. Yellow dice however, with the above ruling are no longer special. They allow absolutely nothing that can't be done with a white.
Further, they aren't useful nearly as frequently as Red and Blue dice will be. Given that they are -1 like a Blue die, and that they require you to hit making 1s useless, any roll of 1-2 is pointless. Given that other attackers may roll well enough on their own from time to time that they don't need the yellow they will often go unused. Given that they expire at the end of the round if you get stuck at the bottom of initiative order you may spot too late in the round to matter.
But sometimes they are killer crucial tide turning awesome...but often they are pfft. There are other dice (like blue and red) that are much more reliably awesome. Therefor, if I'm allowed to spot without a yellow attachment there is no motivation to ever take a yellow attachment. I'll grab an extra red or blue and use the white's for the occassional spot. It won't be quite as good as having both the white's and a yellow for the occassional spot, but the opportunity cost is just too high to futz with a yellow that only occasionally will matter.
UNLESS the yellow is the ONLY ding dang dong way of spotting. Then the massive death and destruction that is possible through spotting makes yellow attachments necessary to pursue the variety of strategies that rely on spotting. But if I can just spot any ole time I want with white dice it becomes much more valuable to grab something else and accept slightly less effective spotting.
In other words "I can't spot at all" is way way worse than "I can still spot but just not quite as good" and therefor the value of the Yellow attachment is only on par with Red and Blue if you need it to spot at all.
3) its just faster. Knowing you can only spot if you have a yellow means you don't have to sit and think about whether to spot and who to spot if you don't have any yellow attachments (true of most mechs on the board, especially after some damage). If you allow white to spot by themselves than most EVERY mech on the board most EVERY turn is going to be laying down yellow spot dice and the game is going to slow while players go through the "who should I spot" or "should I use this white die for defense or spotting" loops. And the "who should I spot" loop has way more handling time than the "who should I shoot" or "where should I move" loops, so you want to keep this loop called on only in special situations (i.e. when you have a yellow attachment) rather than make it universal all the time.
Any way. That's my analysis on why I think spotting should only be possible when you have an actual yellow attachment.
