And since you're here again, did you miss my question about whetever your AC spreadshseet took in account that the heavier grades of armor accessories also nullify dodge/dex bonus to AC?
You mean RD's like two year old spreadsheet? It probably has some outdated information in it since the rules are always changing. Like your post is
already a little outdated.
The Astrangant starts at +20
Real Robots List Expanded
Mecha(lv) | Size | Save Bonus | Nat Armor/DR | HP/Energy | Dodge Bonus | Arsenal Space/Hardpoints | Speed |
Astranagant (VII) | Huge | +6 | +11/30 | 250/160 | +11 | 10/2 | 80 mu, fly 60 mu (good) |
The Astranagant clearly has a +11 armor and a +11 dodge bonus for a total of +22 to AC, not +20.
And
the difference seems covered by Fortress Z.O. Armor (+21), Artificial Aegis (+21) and Advanced AI (+7)
The Astranagant currently has two hard points, limiting it to two Accessories, not three btw.
Or is there any other bonus I'm missing that you included in your spreadsheet?
Do you think RD included this?
Artificial Aegis (VII):+21 Shield bonus to AC, +21 Reflex saves, +120 max HP, you're immune to the Power, Disarming and Grabbing properties. This is bolted down to a mecha arm and thus it can still use up to one weapon and maneuver/spell/similar per round, but you lose the bonuses if flanked or flat-footed. As a move action you can raise your shield to double its bonus to AC and reflex saves for 1 round.
Because that would make it's Shield bonus +42.
The loss of a Move Action, a penalty applied to the Pilot and not the mech, really isn't much thanks to 99.9% of Strikes using a Standard Action rather than a Full-Round. Plus you wrote homebrew to move and attack anyway, like AP's Devastating Assault which allows you to make a Full-Attack using a Standard Action. So really it makes doubling your Shield Bonus to AC is basically worth 35 Energy. And at the time of this post, the Astrangant also has more energy than any other Real Mech and it comes with Reactor 2 allowing it to regenerate 48 Energy per turn which is more than it needs to perform this tactic every single round and then some.
Although I guess that's a limitation with a clear intent and a player dickish enough to try to cheese that wording would be stopped.
Astrangant's AC can be 83 (+10 base, +11 natural, +0 dodge, +21 armor, +41 shield) using clearly intended abilities without cheesing any descriptions. And I would have probably used the Banpreios (+20 natural, 92 AC total) or the Alteisen Riese (+22 natural, 74 without using a move action, & 94 AC total) with an Automatic Aegis or better to prevent Power from halving the AC bonus instead for an example. Which makes her 79 AC figure about twenty points lower than you can achieve with minimal effort these newer updates you decided to write.