Inside campaigns though, ... I'd be far more comfortable with a retcon of autocannon prices. It's going to invalidate the one stat on recordsheets that would be flexible in a campaign anyway. So here's my take.
For campaigns Cut the autocannon and standard ammo prices in half. Yeah half, make it cheap enough it makes since to field them. Also, no logistics checks to purchase AC ammo, it may not be on planet, but someone somewhere has it, and its easy enough to produce finding it on the market should be a non issue. The "can I purchase" check gets replaced with a "time to arrival check".
This is an easy change that I can get behind. Although the reasoning may differ. I view ACs as able to accept any bore-size with some minor machine work in the shop.
Here's the top 4 of my "simple" tweaks that I use.
1.Remove the Minimum Range on all ACs
2.Reduce the heat on all AC/2 variants to 0
3.Increase AC2/5/10/20 ammo to 60/24/12/6 shots per ton.
4.Allow Autocannons to rapid-fire like Ultras with a +1 to-hit penalty
(And change Ultras to not jam, and roll to-hit twice for each shot instead of rolling on the cluster table)
BT's Ultra Autocannons are closer to how I envisioned BT's original, vanilla autocannons than the original: Rapid Fire! This gives the AC/2 and AC/5 a solid boost in damage output, especially when the target to-hit numbers are relatively low. Instead of rapid fire being the Ultra's shtick, the new advantage of the Ultra becomes that it's just much better at rapid fire: No jamming chance, no accuracy loss with rapid-fire, and much better at getting at least a partial hit (due to making 2 to-hit rolls instead of just 1 + a cluster roll).
I like all of these, and have considered some of them at one point or another. I've never completely played around with them, but, they make sense in a development stand-point. Ultra Autocannon were simply normal autocannon at one point with some tweaks to rate of fire.
I'd never thought about tweaking the ammo beyond standardizing the AC/2's ammo to match the rest. But, I like the notion of improved ammo capacity, as maybe lostech or upgrade. Anyone remember the Gauss Rifle misprint in TR 2750? It had 10 rounds instead of 8. I look at that as a lostech find and have incorporated it in my campaigns. This could very well be the same thing.
My TweaksA lot of my tweaks I've really put thought into are less improvements but sideways performance changes. I'm not looking to improve the autocannon, but to get it to perform like it reads it aught.
Burst Fire Change - As a rapid-fire burst weapon, it should be a cluster weapon that does variable damage to a concise spot. I don't like the idea that the Class value is its max value, so I've gone through the cluster tables to find which columns average 2, 5, 10 and 20, and that's the column the AC rolls on to determine actual damage, giving it the opportunity to do more or less. The AC/2 rolls on the 3 column. The 5 gets a choice between 8 and 9, and tech base can be applied here. The ten would roll on the 16 or 17 columns, again using tech base to determine which. And, the 20 would have to double the effect of the 16 or 17 table. So, on rare occasions, the AC/20 could work better than the RAC 5 at full rate.
This is more for the idea that there are no advanced homing rounds in stock AC munitions, and work strictly with the idea its firing a burst in a tight grouping. So, if you wanted to, this could be a cheap ammunition type that could be sold to militias and mercs. With this ammo type relying solely on the recoil-compensation capacities of the normal cannon, it makes sense that no minimums apply.
Ultra Autocannon would simply double the final damage value of the column rolled on. Changed my mind. Both shots are rolled on the column separately, and applied separately, as normal.
I'm not sure how I would apply this to RACs.
You could multiply the final damage by the RoF. But, one of the things that I liked about the RAC was the fact that it got to apply the damage across multiple locations. And, I don't want to do '5-point groupings' because that, in my view, is a sign of homing rounds, and that's not what this style is trying to emulate. So, if you're willing and patient, you could roll for each burst separately, maybe as separate attacks, even.
(This gives me an idea - see below.) Variable Speed AC - This is what I think ultra should have been. The different classes of cannon can underperform to the lower class levels to get better ranges.
So, an AC/20 can fire like a 10, 5, or 2, and get those ranges, as an example. But, ammo tracking would be different. Each bin would come with 100 ammo, and firing like an AC/2 would mark off 2 points of ammo, firing like a five would mark off 5, a ten would eat up 10, and twenty would eat up 20.
RAC Attack - If you're gonna have the Ultra treat each burst as a separate attack with its own attack roll, for consistency's sake, so should the RAC. However, I'd change how Jamming is resolved. Instead of the increased threshold on the single attack value, since you're making multiple attack rolls, each one checks for jam on snake-eyes. To keep it simple
(especially for those that fistful-of-death often, which is common practice in my groups), roll all the attacks, and any hits still apply even if one or more of them jams the gun. The Jam happens at the end of the weapon fire phase, and multiple jams have no real effect. Unless! If you want to be mean, extra jams add to the modifier for the clearing attempt on subsequent turns. IE, you roll 1 jam, no mods. You roll three jams at full rate, that's two extra, and your clearing attempts on the following turns get a +2 modifier due to the extra damage.
The Glory Days of Yore - I get that mere board/war-gamers want the IntroTech Cannon to be competitive in IntroTech. Maybe it's because they have a favorite design that's burdened with one of these guns. But, one of the things I liked about the older boxed sets was the inclusion of the construction rules. I love the Warhammer, for example. I love how it looks. I love its big guns and can put up with some overheat. But, I don't like its armor layout, and a simple drop of the machine guns and ammo gives me the capacity to improve the legs and side torsos to take a 20-point hit with merely a ton of armor, and maybe throw in an extra heat sink, or go better on the armor.
Same with the Shad, or the Rifleman, or Wolverine, or Marauder.
This almost forces players to change eras to get away from the dated, dead-end technology weapons. It's because I look on the AC as a choice weapon from another time that I can get behind the notion that they, like intro-tech level mechs in later eras, should be easy to find and in fairly large numbers.
But, there was a time in history when it was the gun of choice for ground and space combat units. I point you to the Merkava Tank and others out of the history books. But, the way it performs in the current eras doesn't really suggest how it could have become such a mainstay, much like BattleMechs.
So, one of the things I've looked into, and am still playing around with, is improved performance against older technologies. I've brought this up in the 'Why' thread, but I think Stock ACs should get some sort of bonus against Anything less than BAR 10 and/or Tech Class C or less. And, if you don't use those armors, then anything that uses the primitive/commercial armor construction and rules.
Y'know how there's that armor-piercing munition for the newer eras? Well, stock front-line ACs should get that effect against commercial/primitive armors, with no change in tonnage or rounds per ton.
Anything not using a dedicated fire control system? Well it probably isn't moving defensively, either. So, Stock, front-line AC munitions should get the precision effect against that, too. (It's the only thing I could think of that emulates not having a high enough eco package. You could quirk primitive units into having ECM levels.)
Stock rounds should get the flak effect against primitive atmospheric and aerospace fighters.
Stock rounds should get some sort of Anti-personnel effect against non-frontline infantry. Personally, I'd have it roll 1d6 for each point of direct fire damage it would normally do unaugmented. AC/2 would become a murder machine at range.
And, each of these effects can also be bought cheaply with rounds dedicated to those effects, as is the case in Total Warfare.
(Aside: I would like to note that I'm not worried about range representation during this era because it predates the BattleMech. I'm willing to accept range truncation up until the Mech takes the field, or even suggest that ranges are on the low-altitude scale. It's when the Mech takes the field that ranges get cut short due to defensive maneuvering algorithms. And, for a short time, like maybe a decade, Mechs get to use that range advantage against other, low-tech forces that haven't figured it out. That includes the bonuses that comes from the AC/5 of the era, on the Mackie!)
Someone in the 'Why' thread suggested boosting the damage by +2, with some variations.
(I'm actually fond of the rolling a MoS of 1 or more getting the effect, where as a just hit does standard damage.) I could see this as yet another stock munition option against dated tech, or an alternate munition type.
(I know I'm going to be looking at this for my Magi Arena Magic Crossover setting. The Red Mage would definitely give that kind of boost.) An incendiary effect that works on dated building codes, maybe? Or, maybe applied to armors based on range of Tech Level from D?
