this is where MW2 rises above the rest. particulary when yousee how damage is recorded directly translates from/to BT's 'mechwarrior damage' on the BT Record Sheet.
personally i dont see what a big issue using 2D6 is but then i dont primarly roleplay. for me its the BT game first and any RP is just to flesh out the guys in the Mechs and MW2 works just fine for that
In the basic BT game (correct me if I am wrong) for gunnery 5 was considered 'green', 4 was 'reg' (your average guy) 3 was 'vet' and 'elite' was a 2
In MW2 it was possible to build characters rather easily that would get to zero.
example (again from memory, don't have MW2 next to me right now) gunnery was 18-(dex+ref)- skill level.
So, make a top class guy, not 'exceptional' but the top of 'normal' range, with 6 for both dex and reflex.. when he gets to 6 skill, he's 2 stages better (target 0) [rockon] than an 'elite' (target 2).
Give him a single exceptional attribute and and suddenly he can get to [notworthy] 'neg one'
And really, especially if the character focuses their exp spending, it's pretty easy to advance from a starting point of +1 or +2 skill, up to a 5 or 6 and suddenly be down in the zero range.
Build a 'bloodname capable' clanner with like 7's for dex and reflex, and 'neg two' becomes easily possible. Make it an exceptional clanner, with like 8,7 for dex and reflex and with just a single level of skill the guy is a 2 out of the starting gate, and eventually negative three is possible.
Let me say that again for Emphasis :o Negative Three :o
That means, this guy could be shooting you at long range, jumping, and his chances to hit would be just like a normal 'reg' guy hitting you flat-footed standing still, at point-blank range. Unless you've actually played with numbers like this, it's difficult to really truly comprehend what this does to the flavor of the game. Lets just say zero to
hero Demigod in no time flat
The basic problem is that the BT game was never designed for long term campaign along with character progression. If it had been, it would have used larger number ranges, and dice with more sides to allow for a more linear progression of the character. It was designed as pretty much a 'tactical' game, but then a bunch of RPG nuts like us said "we want to rpg in this universe" and it pretty much went off the rails shortly after that.. ;)
If the BT creators had had massive demand for a great rpg game, and they wanted to address that, they would have perhaps changed the main BT game from 2D6 to D20 or 2D10. Which would allow for a larger range of numbers and more gradual progression of your character. But that would have massively ticked off the majority of 'tactical' players who don't give a rip about RP, and would not have liked having to change dice and learn all new numbers for stuff. No big shakes if a majority of the players cared about RP in this universe, as you could have sold the benefits to us. But unfortunately us RP folks are NOT a giant majority of the players, so the BT folks do the best they can to (with a virtual crowbar and a big mallot) try to fit in an RP game that integrates with the main BT game. Which AToW does, within limits,do a pretty good job of. The one big 'gotcha' is a cap on the core MW skills in terms of what numbers will translate over into the BT game. This eliminates the MW2 neogod players with -2 target numbers), but also places a limit on MW character progression because pretty rapidly you will hit the cap (especially if you have a link bonus) and pretty soon there's no point buying those skills up any higher. which means you are denied demigod status, but you can still get to 'hero' status pretty darned fast.