Major overhaul of Alpha Strike In Play

[james-elliott]

In-play complete rewrite

Now in HTML instead of SVGs

• Improves accessibility, particularly for keyboard navigation
• More flexible for responsive layouts
• The unit cards can reflow based on available space
• Some elements are hidden at smaller sizes
• Optimized for iPads and phones.
• iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Mini should all work well in portrait and landscape
• Aimed to fit up to 6 units on screen at a time
• Single column layout on phones should be easier to use with larger tap targets
• Fixed position for Back, Next Round, and Settings button bar reduces scrolling up and down.

Still pays homage to print card layout

• Damage buttons are in the same line
• Take damage button and armor/structure pips are similar
• Criticals Hits table is in the bottom right

Formation bonuses are links to a modal

• This save screen real estate when playing, but allows for lengthier descriptions
• Future plans to make them interactive and allow users to select which units receive the bonuses, where applicable.

App Theme still applies.

• Retro is a bit janky because of the font difference.
• It needs more work to better realize the monochrome monitor look. Mostly going full dark-mode and removing all the white.

For-Print improvements

Cards are based on the images from MUL

• Following the copyright respect similar to MegaMek, cards are marked with Topps copyright
• Optimized to print 6 unit cards per page. This puts the cards to be about the same size as ones from game boxes, while still leaving room to print formation bonus descriptions.
• SPAs are on a separate sheet of cards after all the units. They are grouped by 1 card per unit with SPAs and will list all the SPAs for that unit.
• All units also have a printable token at the end of the document. Optimized to layout by size to maximize the number of units per page and save paper. Especially useful if you use heavier and more expensive stock for this. Token sizes are based on the official dimension in AS:CE

New Features

Movement Tokens

Added movement tokens to the unit cards. In large battles this is useful for keeping track of which units have moved in a round and what movement options are available.

TMM is adjusted to include:

• The bonus from jumping
• The bonus or malus for strong or weak jump jets
• The bonus or malus for strong or weak submersible movement
• The bonus from hull down
• Bonus or malus from unit type under the Other Modifiers [O] => Target section.
  • Airborne units need to be using an airborne movement token to get their bonus
  • VTOL and WiGE units will get the +1 TMM when their altitude is greater than 0
• DOES NOT INCLUDE:
  • Stealth. This is handled separately in the attack overlay because it depends on range.
  • Dropped by Airborne Unit. Seemed an edge case where adding an “Air Dropped” token would be cruft.

To Hit for the damage boxes is adjusted based on attacker movement and unit type

• -1 for Standstill / Immobile
• +2 for jumping
  • If the pilot has Jumping Jack it is only +1
• -1 for hull down
  • Only applies if the unit was hull down in the previous round as well

Aerospace

• Tokens are for the 4 flight levels and a landed option
• Aerospace height tokens will update the displayed altitude in hexes or inches
• Levels of flight will change the available attack options
  • Strafe is only available at low altitude
  • Strike will use the attack value for the correct altitude
  • Dive bomb is only available at Low and Middle
  • Altitude bomb is only available at High and Extreme
  • Air to Air is available at all flight levels

Attack tokens
Charge and Death from Above attacks are declared in the movement phase and do not allow units to perform a weapon attack. Tokens were added for these to restrict the available attacks in the damage row.

Altitude

Altitude is displayed for Aerospace, VTOL, and WiGE units.

• Aerospace is based on movement token
• VTOL and WiGE have - and + buttons to adjust the value
  • Holding shift when clicking will increment by 5
  • Holding control when clicking will increment by 10

Heat

Heat scale is updated

• 0 value isn’t shown. Clicking on the current heat will stage a change back to 0
• If the pilot has Hot Dog SPA, the heat scale will now be 1,2,3,4,S
• The TSM special is accounted for and will increase unit speed and normal or melee physical attacks.
• Heat scale does not show for units that don’t track heat. E.g. vehicles, aerospace, infantry, battle armor.

Damage buttons

The damage scale has been replaced by interactive buttons that will open the attack overlay on the unit card. The buttons are enabled when a movement token is chosen and will show the correct values based on it.

• Sprint does not allow attacks
• Charge and DFA only allow the respective attacks
• Hull down will adjust the units damage value based on:
• Unit type
• The values from the TUR special
• Units with the ART specials will have a split “L / ART” attack to represent how on board artillery attacks are always calculated with the Long range target number modifier
• Aerospace units have a separate set of attack buttons for the various types of attacks they can make.

Attack Overlay

This is a completely new feature meant to help speed up gameplay by allowing you to quickly select the modifiers to the attack roll and damage and then roll for the attack. It follows the rules of the SATOR attack modifiers table, but is not organized the same way. This is mostly because we already know the S,A, and R values and a good number of the O values as well. I’ve ordered the options by O => Attack, Target Movement Modifiers, 0 => Terrain, and then modifiers that affect the overall damage. This was to simplify the UI by only showing relevant options and following the cascade of relevance. For instance, an IF attack needs the spotter’s movement modifier and whether they have TAG or attacked this turn. Damage mods, like “From rear” or certain SPAs don’t affect anything but the damage, so they are included at the end.

Rolling the attack

At the bottom left of the overlay is the roll button, with the target number just above it. At the bottom right is the damage result, with the potential damage above it. When you click the button, the appropriate amount of dice will be rolled, including extra dice for minimal damage or to determine scatter direction for bombs and artillery. If the unit has FLK or HT specials, the result for those will also be shown next to the damage total in the bottom right.

NOTE: Changing attack and damage options after the roll may change the outcome, but will NOT re-roll the dice. This is to cover instances like “oops, forgot stealth” without altering the random outcome of the dice.

Artillery and Bombs

Artillery and bombs do not specify their damage, instead they roll to see if they hit the target location and whether they scatter. Alternate munitions are not implemented at this time, so the attack modal does not handle homing munition attacks.

C3

If a unit has C3, there will be an option to select a different targeting range to update the To Hit. The damage value is not updated. C3 networks are not modeled, so it is on the user to know that they are allowed to choose a different range and which ones are available.

Overheat

Units with overheat can toggle off and on an overheat value to use in this attack. If the unit has the OVL special, it will also be available in the Long range bracket.
Note: Overheat is automatically staged on the unit when an attack is rolled. (roundHeat is adjusted to currentHeat + overheat selected)

Criticals

A roll of 12, and some pilot SPAs can result in an automatic critical hit. If that happens, a count of crits to roll will be shown next to the damage result. In MAR mode, only 1 crit from rolling a 12 will be counted, even if multiple 12s are rolled.

Variable Damage

In the settings, you can choose between Standard Single Attack Rolls, Multiple Damage Rolls, and Multiple Attack Rolls.

Standard Single Attack Rolls

This mode will apply all damage and effects (FLK,HT) on a single successful roll.

Multiple Damage Rolls

This mode will apply all effects (FLK,HT) on a single successful roll, and roll a damage die for each point of damage.

Multiple Attack Rolls

MAR will roll a pair of attack dice for each point of damage and designate the FLK and HT values to the first rolls in the attack. For example, a unit with FLK1/1/- and HT2/1/- makes an attack at short range with a potential damage of 4, the first die will be designated for the 1 point of FLK and the second and third will be designated for the 2 points of HT.
MAR also always presents a Multi-Target option. Unlike the other damage models, MAR doesn’t change the damage value because it can be variable and does not need to be split down the middle.

Physical Attacks

In all damage models, physical attacks are a single roll and apply full damage.

Critical Hits

The critical hit box has been replaced with label and number counters. The dots were a limitation of the print version of the cards and the rules do allow for additional crits beyond what is displayed on the cards. For instance, a unit with 5 damage can take 5 weapons hits before being reduced to 0 damage. The old implementation would only reduce it to a minimum of 1. One of the overriding principles in this redesign was to fit 6 units, legibly, on iPad screens without scrolling, and allowing for large tap targets for accessibility. Using digits instead of dots here greatly helps in both cases.

Clicking on a critical hit label or number will stage an incremental hit. If clicking on the critical would go over the maximum, it will instead revert to 0 to allow users to manually reset their criticals.

Engine

Engine hits are largely unchanged. You can have 0,1, or 2. Now engine hits on vehicles will automatically reduce their damage, movement, and TMM.
Note: Units with an engine hit and a heat scale will automatically increase heat level staged after using the attack overlay.

Fire Control

Fire Control hits add +2 To Hit. The maximum is set to 6 as it will mean even a skill 0 pilot would have a minimum to To Hit of 12 with that many Fire Control hits.

Weapons

Weapon hits reduce damage by 1. Therefore, the maximum for weapon hits is set at the highest damage +1 to allow for 1 => 0* => 0. Weapon hits now will update the relevant specials as well. ('flk', 'tur','srm','lrm','if','rear','ht','art','ac','iatm','msl','narc')

Movement

Some units could reduce their movement in half 4 times and still have remaining movement. For instance, the Fireball ALM-XF would have 3” of movement remaining with 4 hits. It would take 2 more hits to reduce it to 0.

Therefore movement critical maximum is set by calculating how many hits it would take to reduce the unit to 0 by dividing movement in half or subtracting 2”, whichever is greater.

Roll Critical Hit button

There is now a roll critical hit button below the listing of Critical Hits. Clicking the button will roll for a critical, check the critical table for the unit type, and then show an overlay with the result. Click again to hide the results overlay.
Note: In the case where the critical would have no effect, such as a Weapon hit for a unit with no remaining damage, it will stage a point of damage to the unit. AS:CE pg 50

Vehicle Motive

Much like critical hits, vehicle motive hits only had so many dots due to the print version of the cards. A 9 or 10 motive hit removes 2” of movement, but you could roll that 4 times on a unit with 10” movement without immobilizing it.

Motive 9-10 hits

These are now capped at the movement of the unit divided by 2.

Motive 11 hits

These are now capped by calculating how many hits it would take to reduce the unit to 0 by dividing movement in half or subtracting 2”, whichever is greater.

Motive 12 hits

Still immobilize the units with a single hit.

Roll for motive hit button

Vehicles are supposed to roll for motive every time they take damage. Because an attack can do more than 1 damage, but only roll for motive once, it is not tied to clicking on an armor or structure dot. Clicking the button will roll 2 dice, adjust for the motive type, and then stage an increment to the appropriate motive hit number.

Unit Specials

Unit specials are still displayed as a comma separated list with links to a description in the modal. Many specials have been implemented into either the movement tokens TMM, unit movement, and attack modal options. The following are the specials that are currently implemented.

Anti-Mech

CI and BA units with the AM special will have an enabled physical attack that uses their short range damage. It should also indicate the 1 automatic critical.

Armored Motive Systems

Units get a -1 on the damage roll to determine motive hit.

Basic Fire Control

Support vehicles with this receive a +1 To Hit instead of the +2 for not BFC or AFC.

BattleMech HarJel

Units with BHJ2 or BHJ3 will appropriately recover armor as part of the Next Round calculations.

Bomb

Units will Bomb will have the specific number of bombs available in the attack overlay. Users need to keep track of Bomb inventory and effects on movement.

CASE and CASEII

Units with CASE will not be destroyed on hit, but will take damage. Units with CASEII will ignore Ammo hits.
Energy
Units with ENE will take no damage from ammo crits. Aerospace strafing will have adjusted damage.

Flak

Units attacking with FLK values will see those calculated next to damage result on the attack overlay. It is listed separately from damage because it only applies to certain target types.

Heat

Heat damage will be shown next to the damage result on the attack overlay.

Indirect Fire

IF is a toggle-able option in the attack overlay. It will show additional options for the spotter as well as update the TN and potential damage.

Industrial TSM and Prototype TSM

Units do +1 damage on physical attacks, regardless of heat. I-TSM also has a +2 To Hit penalty.

Jump Jets Weak or Strong

JMPS# and JMPW# values are calculated into the TMM for Jump and Death from Above. DFA also updated damage.

Melee

Increases physical attack damage by 1.

Mimetic Armor

Units that are immobile, standstill, or are hull down receive a bonus to TMM. MAS is +3, LMAS is +2.

Overheat Long

Units with OVL can use their overheat at long range in the attack overlay

Rear-Firing Weapons

Units can toggle on Rear (not From Rear) in attack options to update their damage and to hit.

Stealth

Because STL is based on the target unit’s type and range, it’s included as toggle-able mods in the attack overlay.

Submersible Movement

SUBS# and SUBW# are included in movement stats and movement tokens. TMM is updated as well.

Triple-Strength Myomer TSM

TSM is added when the unit’s heat is greater than 0. Additional move and additional physical damage.

Turret

TUR values are used to calculate potential damage for units that are hull down.

C3

Units with C3 will have range choosing options in the attack overlay. They will show the range letter and the base To Hit for that range. Users will be responsible for knowing which options are viable.

Artillery

Units with ARTX-# values will have a toggle to enable artillery fire in their long range attack overlay. It will roll attacks up to the number value to determine if the shot is on target and which direction it scatters.

Narc

Units with IF, LRM, or SRM abilities with values in the current range will see an option to toggle Narc to add the +1 damage to the attack.

TAG

Tag is implemented as an option in the attack modal for units equipped with IF.

Special Pilot Abilities

Cluster Hitter

Units with FLK, LRM, or SRM values at the current range that stand still or are immobilized do +1

Fist Fire

The unit adds half its short range damage to physical and melee attacks.

Golden Goose

Strafing, Striking, and Bombing attack To Hits are reduced.

Ground-Hugger

Gives the unit a Multi-Attack option for SAR and MDR damage models. Reduces the penalty for multi-attacking in MAR.

Hot Dog

Pilots with this get 5 heat levels; 1,2,3,4,S. Heat level 1 has no effect.

Jumping Jack

Pilots only get +1 To Hit for using Jumping Movement

Marksman

If the unit didn’t move, damage is halved but if the attack succeeds by 3 or more, it will automatically crit.

Melee Master

Add half the unit’s Size to all physical attacks.

Melee Specialist

Pilot gets -1 To Hit for physical attacks.

Multi-Tasker

Gets multi-attack options in SAR and MDR modes. No penalty for secondary targets in MAR mode.

Oblique Artilleryman

Pilot gets -1 To Hit on artillery attacks

Oblique Attacker

Pilot gets -1 To Hit on IF attacks. The unit will also have an option of No Spotter on the attack overlay which updates the -1 To Hit to be +2 To Hit.

Range Master

This ability is split up into 3 separate abilities; Range Master - M, Range Master - L, and Range Master - E. It applies +2 to the short range To Hit, and -2 to the selected abilities’ range.

Sandblaster

Increased damage for units with AC, FLK, IATM, LRM, SRM, or TOR specials. +1 at other ranges, +2 at short.

Sharpshooter

Same as Marksman, but without reducing damage.

Sniper

Reduces the To Hit increase for each range by 1.

Speed Demon

Ground units get 2” more move and 4” more sprint. Aerospace get 1” more thrust.

Street Fighter

The unit has an option to toggle Street Fighter on the physical attack overlay. It updates TN and adds short range damage to the attack.

Swordsman

The unit has Swordsman damage option added to Damage Options in the attack overlay. If it is toggled on, it adds 1 damage. If it is toggled off, a successful hit will show 1 crit.

Weapon Specialist

In SAR and MDR, the unit will still do half damage if it misses by 1. In MAR it will reroll the first roll that misses.

Zweihander

This adds 1 damage to the mech’s normal and melee physical attacks.