Introduction
Todd's Awesome Combat System, or TACS, was designed by Transformers 2005's former coder Hazard. It was first implemented on TF2005 a number of years ago, but since then the game's headwiz has given us permission to use it here. It is specifically tailored to the world of Transformers, which is why it suits almost any Transformers MU* quite well. It features core and mode-variable stats, highly customizeable attacks, as well as coded special abilities. This article will outline some of the basics of design and usage, so that players may gain at least a base understanding of how the system works.
Core Stats
Core stats are stats that are always the same no matter what mode your character is currently in. Just like all other stats, they are on a scale of 1-10 during character generation. They are as follows:
- Endurance - This is how many hit points your character has.
- Courage - This is essentially a measure of how beat up your character can get before he'll loose his combat effectiveness. It determines what a character's Courage-Endurance Limit (COU-END) is. If your character's Endurance falls below his COU-END limit, he will be flagged as SCARED, which will strongly debuff all of his stats.
- Leadership - Kind of self-explanatory, but this is essentially like charisma--it's your character's ability to influence others with his rhetoric or talk his way out of situations. In other words, lead other characters to do things.
- Technical - Skills in technical fields like medicine and engineering.
- Intelligence - Also self-explanatory. This is how smart your character is.
- Energon - Most attacks and abilities cost Energon. The maximum amount any playable character can have is 50, however, this number may be less if your character has AMMO based attacks, which will be covered later.
Mode-Specific Stats
These stats may or may not change based on which mode your character is in.
- Strength - The fuel behind melee attack types.
- Firepower - The fuel behind ranged attack types.
- Accuracy - Hit chance.
- Agility - How well your character can dodge. It's kind of like versatility. This is the primary defensive stat.
- Armor - Also a defensive stat, decreases damage taken if hit.
- Velocity - How fast your character is.
- Size - Self-explanatory. How big your character is. Smaller characters are harder to hit, but do less damage with melee attacks. The opposite is true of larger characters.
Attack Basics
All attacks have 4 basic parameters that help determine how much damage is dealt upon a hit:
Attack Type
- Melee & Area Melee - Damage is determined by a character's Strength.
- Ranged & Area Ranged - Damage is determined by a character's Firepower.
- Science - Damage is determined by a character's Intellect.
- Velocity - Damage is determined by a character's Velocity.
Damage Type
Some characters are resistances or weaknesses to certain types of damage. Whenever your character is damaged, there is a chance one of his stats will take damage as well. For more information, see 2K5's guide to Damage Types.
- ENERGY - Standard Energy-based Attacks (e.g. lasers, cannons)
- IMPACT - Physical Attacks (e.g. swords, fists, claws)
- BALLISTIC - Projectile Weapons (e.g. machine gun, rifle)
- FIRE - Fire/Heat Attacks (e.g. fireball cannon, flame breath)
- EXPLOSIVE - Warhead Attacks (e.g. rockets, missiles, bombs)
- AIR - Air/Wind-based Attacks (e.g. cyclone cannon, rotorblades)
- SONIC - Sound-based Attacks (e.g. sonic boom, siren/music blast)
- WATER - Water/Non-Acidic-Liquid Attacks (e.g. glue gun, ice)
- ACID - Acidic/Venomous/Corrosive Attacks
- MAGNETIC - Magnetism-based attacks
- PLASMA - Plasma/superheated gas attacks (plasma rifle/pistol)
- ELECTRIC - Electricity-related attacks (e.g. lightning, shocks)
- MISC - Everything else!
Damage Level
Damage level is a number between 0 and 12. The higher the damage level, the more Energon it costs and the more damage it deals on a hit. Most attacks are between 0 and 8.
Optional Parameters
These are extra parameters that are not mandatory, but are sometimes used.
- Effects - Attacks can cause effects upon striking a target. To see a full list of available effects and what they do, go here.
- Ammo - Some attacks use ammunition instead of Energon, and have a fixed number of charges per combat session. That fixed number is determined by the attack's bin size. For example, if Thundercracker can carry a maximum of three missiles at a time, the missile attack would have a bin size of 3.
Usage
Okay! Now that you have an understanding of some of the basics of how the system works, let's get into usage syntax.
Displays
- !profile - Shows an overview of your stats, abilities, and attacks. You should see something that looks similar to this:
=======================[ PROFILE: METROPLEX [VEHICLE] ]=======================
BASE STATS / MODE 1
Strength - 108 Intelligence - 79
Accuracy - 77 Leadership - 44
Endurance - 200 Courage - 87
Firepower - 101 Technical - 53
Agility - 50 Energon - 100
________________
_____/ MODE 1 - Robot \_______________________________________________________
Size: 10 - Velocity: 36 - Armor: 100
Attacks: A-4 Pulsar Cannon [12], Drone Missiles [8], Titanic Fist [10]
Abilities:
_______________
_____/ MODE 2 - City \________________________________________________________
Size: 10 - Velocity: 00 - Armor: 100
Mode Agility: 00 Mode Firepower: 78
Mode Strength: 58
Attacks: Chaos-Rift Combustor [5], Marauder Turret [4], X18 Scrapmaker [5]
Abilities: REPAIR, RESUPPLY, REFUEL, RADAR
___________________
_____/ MODE 3 - Flagship \____________________________________________________
Size: 10 - Velocity: 105 - Armor: 90
Mode Agility: 55 Mode Strength: 98
Attacks: Warp Cannon [12], Drone Missiles [8]
Abilities:
SKILLS
=============[ Use '!attacklist' for more specific attack info ]============== - !attacklist - Shows a full list of all of your character's special attacks. It should look something like this:
========================[ Attack List for METROPLEX ]========================= Mode 1 [Robot] A-4 Pulsar Cannon [LVL 12: RANGED] Damage Type: ENERGY Energon : 32 Drone Missiles [LVL 8: AREA-RANGED] Damage Type: EXPLOSIVE Effects : AMMO Ammunition : 6 of 6 units <Standard Bin> Titanic Fist [LVL 10: MELEE] Damage Type: IMPACT Effects : DISINTEGRATE Energon : 44 Mode 2 [City] Chaos-Rift Combustor [LVL 5: AREA-RANGED] Damage Type: EXPLOSIVE Effects : AMMO, CONTROL Ammunition : of 8 units <Standard Bin> Marauder Turret [LVL 4: AREA-RANGED] Damage Type: ENERGY Effects : CONTROL Energon : 8 X18 Scrapmaker [LVL 5: AREA-RANGED] Damage Type: BALLISTIC Effects : CONTROL Energon : 11 Mode 3 [Flagship] Warp Cannon [LVL 12: AREA-RANGED] Damage Type: ENERGY Effects : OVERPOWERED Energon : 35 Drone Missiles [LVL 8: AREA-RANGED] Damage Type: EXPLOSIVE Effects : AMMO Ammunition :6 of 6 units <Standard Bin> ============[ See also '!globals' for the "free" global attacks ]=============
This dialog tells you what each of your attacks does, and which modes they are available in. In this example, if Metroplex wanted to use his Warp Cannon attack, he would need be in his Flagship mode in order to use it. He could also type !attacks at any time to view the attacks that are currently available to him.
- !syscheck - Shows a brief overview of your current HP, Energon, Systems, Courage Limit and Combat Flags. This is good for quickly checking how well your character is doing throughout the course of any battle. Example:
==========================[ Brief Self Diagnostics ]========================== Health: [||||||||||||||||||||] 200 / 200 -- (100%) Energon: [||||||||||||||||||||] 100 / 100 -- (100%) Systems: [||||||||||||||||||||] (130%) Courage Limit: 26 Defense Level: NEUTRAL Combat Flags: ========================[ Current Mode: 1 - Flagship ]========================
- !systems - Shows a more detailed display of your current stats. This allows you to see exactly how much damage you've taken to other stats besides Energon and Endurance (HP) . Example:
======================[ Full Systems Check - Metroplex ]======================
End Cou Ener Acc Str Frp Agl Vel Arm
-------------------------------------
100% ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Mode 1 - Flagship
. ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Size 10
. ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Defense: NEUTRAL (-10)
. ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Cou/End: 26 (174 points left)
. ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
50% ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
. ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
. ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
. ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
10% ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
-------------------------------------
CUR: 200 87 100 77 98 101 55 105 90
MAX: 200 87 100 77 108 101 50 36 100
------------------------------------------
Abilities:
Attacks: Warp Cannon [12], Drone Missiles [8]
Combat Flags:
==============================================================================- !globals - Shows a list of global "freebie" attacks that are available to everyone at all times. You may use any of these attacks at any time.
Transforming
As mentioned previously, attacks are assigned to certain modes. To transform to to a mode, type !transform <mode #>. For example, to transform to Mode 2, type !transform 2.
Defense Levels
Defense levels give bonuses and penalties to Accuracy and Agility as follows (Accuracy/Agility):
PROTECTED: -10/+10
GUARDED 0/0
NEUTRAL +10 /-10
AGGRESSIVE +20 /-20
FEARLESS +30 /-30
To change your defense level, type !defend <defense level name>. For example, !defend Protected to switch your defense level to Protected. The default defense level is Neutral.
Attacking
Basics
Syntax is as follows: !attack <target name> = <attack name>. The attack name is the name of the attack as shown in !attacklist. Alternatively, if the attack is an area attack, the target name may be a list of comma-separated target names. Remember, you can only use attacks that are available to you in your current mode. Use !attacks to view only attacks currently available to your character.
Pulling Your Punches
Players are highly encouraged to "pull" most high damage level attacks, especially toward the beginning of a fight. This is done by typing a /<lower damage level #> after !attack as follows: !attack/# <target name>= <attack name>. So for example, if Metroplex wanted to pull his A-4 Pulsar Cannon attack down to a Damage Level 4 instead of 12 against Razorclaw, he'd type !attack/4 Razorclaw=A-4 Pulsar Cannon. This would cause the attack to do much less damage but also cost a lot less Energon.
Custom Attack Names
Optionally, you may enter an alternate custom attack name by typing =<custom attack name> following the attack's default name. For example if you wanted to enter a custom name for the global attack "Punch", you'd type !attack <target name>=Punch=<your custom name>.
Not Attacking?
If you decide not to attack or use an ability, you may !pass to regain Energon. Or, if you're done fighting, !retreat to leave combat. Whether or not others may attack you after you've retreated depends on your Velocity stat in whichever mode you chose to retreat in.
Abilities
Some characters have special abilities, such as the Repair ability that allows a character to repair another character, or the Resupply ability, which allows a character to refill another character's empty ammo slots. For a full list of available abilities and what they do, click here. Click the links in the table on the page to view usage syntax.
PvE
Sometimes, your character may be going up against something that is not another player or lacks a combat object to represent it. In this case, the GM may ask players to roll a particular stat, much like you would during a typical Dungeons & Dragons session. For example, your character may be trying to convince someone of something. This would fall under the charisma or Leadership quality, though it is not really an attack. There are two ways to do this: rolling a particular stat against a fixed number established by the GM, or rolling your stat against someone else's. The higher your score in that stat is, the more likely you are to succeed.
To roll a stat against a fixed number type: !check <stat name>=<#>
To roll a stat against someone else's stat: !compare <your stat name>=<target player name>/<target player stat name>
For example, if you were Metroplex and you wanted to roll his accuracy against 90, you would type !check acc=90
If you wanted to roll Metroplex's accuracy against Megatron's agility, you would type !compare acc=megatron/agl.
Please note that when using these commands you must refer to them with the abbreviations displayed in !systems, or else it will not work.
For more information and details on how to use TACS, check out the combat category page..