Veritatem Imperialis mod - Version 1.2

[Imperator5]

What Nova shells will be present for the IN? Since we're on the subject

We are planning to have the normal Plasma and the Neutronium as standard. They'll share cooldown. Cooldown is now 120 seconds to offset the better accuracy.

There will be an upgrade replacing macro AP for replacing Plasmas with Vortex shells.

Plasma will be huge AOE but lowest damage.
Vortex medium AOE and medium damage. A gravity-changed red explosion.
Neutronium will be tiny AOE and highest damage. A smaller, gravity changed dark green blast.

Though Vortex will not be lagging much behind the Neutronium in the damage department. PistonMiner said he will have some very nice visual effects for them.

Also it has been brough to my attention that Vanguards got the same hull stats as a Strike Cruiser.

[PistonMiner]

To clarify, the vortex shell will most likely not be shipped with the prerelease.

[Imperator5]

What would people think, how "lore accurate" should the mod be?

[Halstead]

The starting cooldown seems like overkill for a nerf.
The Nova basically never gets used after you've closed with an enemy in my experience (beyond maybe finishing off ships warping out or kiting fleets).
Although I can respect the reload nerf with the accuracy buff.

I can tell you in the simple Cruiser Clash, unless you're Eldar who's dashing toward the opponent right away, it can take at least a minute for the line ships to sight each other enough to start shooting with normal weapons. (I would know since I can set off two or three torpedo volleys before our main ships actually spot each other in Cruiser Clash).

[Cryhavok]

What would people think, how "lore accurate" should the mod be?

I would prefer it to be:

TT accurate>Lore accurate>apocrypha accurate

The reason I would put TT above lore is it's rules are consistent, where lore sometimes varies from one author to another.

[Ahzek Ahriman]

What would people think, how "lore accurate" should the mod be?

I do believe that lore should not stand in the way of functionality and gameplay. Especially so since we have some factors like arch-classical GW inconsistency and badly written lore. Also, Battlefleet Gothic lore is pretty old and not updated for quite some time.
For instance I refuse to acknowledge sources stating that Imperial macros are reloaded using a muscle power of hundreds of slaves. 40k is ridiculous, but even Imperium is not that stupid, especially AdMech. Although this example is not good for game purposes.

But for instance, why not modify weapons loadouts a bit? Why not give Retribution the ability (via Orkish system of customization) to replace 1 out of 3 plasma macro batteries with ordnance bays? Deviations like this are sure to exist, lore-wise the ship was badly damaged and they just put craft bays instead of waiting for replacement plasma macros.
While gameplay wise I want some fighter screen but think the Emperor is a bit underpowered for a battleship (at longer range at least).

Totally contradicting the lore is not good either, but I'm not against several liberties to make things more practical/believable (khy khy... manual macro loaders.. khy khy...), more gameplay friendly and more fun of course.

Edit:

What would people think, how "lore accurate" should the mod be?

I would prefer it to be:

TT accurate>Lore accurate>apocrypha accurate

The reason I would put TT above lore is it's rules are consistent, where lore sometimes varies from one author to another.

Respectfully, I disagree with my fellow chaos admiral (exchanging bolter shots above the table, bro-fisting below).
Tabletop had a set of mechanics suitable for turn based game oriented around stationary models, for instance Eldar pulsars/all weaponry prow mounted, and look just how much balancing trouble we all have with them (especially devs).

I'd go raging if my Despoiler's prow lance had 6k range (which would be TT-accurate), even if it had 6 or 8 launch bays in turn.
For me it's:

game-practical > lore accurate > TT accurate > apocrypha accurate

[Halstead]

What would people think, how "lore accurate" should the mod be?

I do believe that lore should not stand in the way of functionality and gameplay. Especially so since we have some factors like arch-classical GW inconsistency and badly written lore. Also, Battlefleet Gothic lore is pretty old and not updated for quite some time.
For instance I refuse to acknowledge sources stating that Imperial macros are reloaded using a muscle power of hundreds of slaves. 40k is ridiculous, but even Imperium is not that stupid, especially AdMech. Although this example is not good for game purposes.
.

Imperium isn't being stupid, it's just being smart because manpower is the most abundant of the resources it has. See Imperial Guards, they are quite willing to send waves after waves of humans to overwhelm their enemies.

[Imperator5]

What would people think, how "lore accurate" should the mod be?

I do believe that lore should not stand in the way of functionality and gameplay. Especially so since we have some factors like arch-classical GW inconsistency and badly written lore. Also, Battlefleet Gothic lore is pretty old and not updated for quite some time.
For instance I refuse to acknowledge sources stating that Imperial macros are reloaded using a muscle power of hundreds of slaves. 40k is ridiculous, but even Imperium is not that stupid, especially AdMech. Although this example is not good for game purposes.

But for instance, why not modify weapons loadouts a bit? Why not give Retribution the ability (via Orkish system of customization) to replace 1 out of 3 plasma macro batteries with ordnance bays? Deviations like this are sure to exist, lore-wise the ship was badly damaged and they just put craft bays instead of waiting for replacement plasma macros.
While gameplay wise I want some fighter screen but think the Emperor is a bit underpowered for a battleship (at longer range at least).

Totally contradicting the lore is not good either, but I'm not against several liberties to make things more practical/believable (khy khy... manual macro loaders.. khy khy...), more gameplay friendly and more fun of course.

Well the Manual macro loading was always not an universal rule I think.

However, I'm sorry that my question was not really right.

What I meant, how should we do on the balance vs lore scale?

The mod is basically based on the "books" and background stories, "fluff" as some call it.

So TT mechanics will not hold, however TT weapon loadouts will. I know GW can't balance nor write lore accurate rules to save their money... I mean hides!

We are thinking that the ork customisation will be used to choose between battery and lance types, maybe between prow torpedoes/novas for Imperials too.

So it will not be able to switch around hangars to lances, lances to macros, but you will be able to choose between adding plasma macros or laser macros or missile macros or keep the normal railgun ones.

I am thinking about raising squadrons to TT values for the species that had it reduced (Navy, Chaos and orks right?) .

[Cryhavok]

But for instance, why not modify weapons loadouts a bit? Why not give Retribution the ability (via Orkish system of customization) to replace 1 out of 3 plasma macro batteries with ordnance bays? Deviations like this are sure to exist, lore-wise the ship was badly damaged and they just put craft bays instead of waiting for replacement plasma macros.

I think this would be an interesting addition to the progression system. Ship ended battle heavily damage/weapons destroyed, so you get a chance to spend renown to replace the component with something else. If you don't it remains stock. Then if a certain % of the player based has converted over to a certain pattern of replacement, it becomes a new stock design under production and able to be chosen normally.

[Ahzek Ahriman]

What would people think, how "lore accurate" should the mod be?

I do believe that lore should not stand in the way of functionality and gameplay. Especially so since we have some factors like arch-classical GW inconsistency and badly written lore. Also, Battlefleet Gothic lore is pretty old and not updated for quite some time.
For instance I refuse to acknowledge sources stating that Imperial macros are reloaded using a muscle power of hundreds of slaves. 40k is ridiculous, but even Imperium is not that stupid, especially AdMech. Although this example is not good for game purposes.
.

Imperium isn't being stupid, it's just being smart because manpower is the most abundant of the resources it has. See Imperial Guards, they are quite willing to send waves after waves of humans to overwhelm their enemies.

They are smartass, but not in that way. IN wouldn't be so stupid as to take thousands of slaves more than they need and then have severe problems with keeping them alive (food n' stuff), disposing of their bodies and so on instead of just asking Mechanicum for some hydraulics. That part of lore in particular, if I remember well, comes from 3rd editions, when the levels of Grimdark went so absolutely off-the-charts it was ridiculous even for 40k standards, so all the less reason to take it seriously.

As for balance <--> lore, I'd say balance. Just look at Eldar example I gave, you'll see.
It's quite an extreme, but probably the best example.