Tyrant Titan League: Let's Play Titans of Steel Warring Suns!

Titans of Steel: Warring Suns is a strategy game from 2003, which was itself a sequel to a freeware project named Titans of Steel that came out in 1999. The game is basically an attempt to port the Battletech tabletop wargame to the PC, with all the serial numbers filed off. There isn't a default campaign, but players are able to make their own maps and missions and have them strung together. For this LP, I plan to instead run a competitive league, where you, the readers, will provide teams and they'll be pitted against each other in AI run matches to determine who is the best!




Teams
- TBD


Matches
- TBD

Missions are played out on a hex map in a real-time/turn-based hybrid system. Players give commands to their Titans, who then act out the orders in "real time"; each second in combat is one turn, and each action takes a number of turns to perform. For example, instead of getting X amount of hexes that a pilot can move each turn, it instead takes X seconds to move from one hex to the next. Titans can perform multiple actions at once, but it depends on the action; a Titan can walk and shoot at once, but must finish walking to one hex before it can walk to another.


Titan pilots have 7 attributes and 19 skills that affect how they perform in combat, and they are described as follows:

(Primary Attribute/Secondary Attribute)

• All Attributes: Determines maximum Skill value based on the skill's Primary and Secondary attributes, following the formula 5 x ((2xPrimary + Secondary)/3).
• Constitution: A Jock's HP is determined by multiplying Con by 9.
• Intelligence: A Jock can only raise a number of skills equal to their Int.
• Recon/Light: (Dexterity/Reaction) Used for piloting checks, such as the chance to not be knocked down when hit with a powerful attack.
• Medium/Heavy: (Neural Sense/Dexterity) Used for piloting checks, such as the chance to not be knocked down when hit with a powerful attack.
• Assault: (Neural Sense/Dexterity) Used for piloting checks, such as the chance to not be knocked down when hit with a powerful attack.
• Jump: (Dexterity/Reaction) Used for determining success when using jump jets.
• Scouting: (Instinct/Intelligence) Makes it easier to move through trees, and also gives a bonus to defense when standing in any cover.
• Close Combat: (Instinct/Reaction) Increases chance to hit with all close combat/melee weapons, as well as charge attacks. Also reduces cooldown on melee weapons.
• Guided Missile: (Intelligence/Instinct) Increases chance to hit with guided missile weapons.
• Unguided Missile: (Dexterity/Reaction) Increases chance to hit with unguided missile weapons.
• Cannon: (Reaction/Dexterity) Increases chance to hit with cannon weapons.
• Energy Weapon: (Reaction/Dexterity) Increases chance to hit with energy weapons.
• Indirect Fire: (Instinct/Intelligence) Decreases penalty for firing without direct line of sight.
• Electronic Warfare: (Intelligence/Instinct) Decreases time to get a lock on an enemy Titan and activate ECM, and also adds a chance to defeat enemy scans.
• Scanner: (Intelligence/Neural Sense) Decreases time to get a scan on an enemy, and also increases the number of links you can have active.
• Defensive: (Dexterity/Intelligence) Decreases time and improves effectiveness of defensive options such as Flares and Shields.
• Damage Control: (Intelligence/Dexterity) Increases the effectiveness of a Damage Control System on the Titan. This skill is also used outside of battle to increase the amount of money you get from destroying enemy Titans, reduce the upkeep cost of your team's Titans, and also how many Titans your team can own.
• Leadership: (Charisma/Intelligence) Affects the starting skill values of recruited Jocks, and also determines the number of Jocks that a team can own.
• Business: (Intelligence/Charisma) Determines the Jock's salary, increases the amount of money you get from destroying enemy Titans, and reduces the cost to purchase new Titans. Amusingly, higher Business means lower salary.
• Survival: (Instinct/Constitution) Decreases the time and success rate of ejecting, as well as reduces the HP damage from various sources.
• Medical: (Intelligence/Dexterity) Increases the effectiveness of a Life Support System.

In addition to these, pilots can be one of 5 "Races", and either of the genders. These have the following effects:

• Human: +1 Instinct, +1 Charisma
• Android: Cannot choose a gender. +1 Reaction, +1 Neural Sense. Self-Heals (no effect from Life Support), resistant to Radiation damage and falling unconscious.
• Replicant (Dexterity): +2 Dexterity. Vulnerable to Radiation damage.
• Replicant (Intelligence): +2 Intelligence. Vulnerable to Radiation damage.
• Cyborg: +1 Constitution, -1 Charisma. Resistant to damaged Life Support Systems or cockpit damage, reduced unconscious time.
• Male: +1 Constitution.
• Female: +1 Instinct.

Pilots advance these skills and attributes by spending Development Points, with increasing costs for each level. Attributes take points from all pools of DP, while skills only take from their specific pool.

I'll go into more details on how the battle system works once the league starts. First, we need to have some actual teams!

Each player who would like to have a team needs to let me know the following details:

• Team name
• Names and desired stat/skill focuses for 5 Jocks
• Desired Titan focuses for each Jock (ie close combat, scout, etc)

Titans of Steel normally only allows 4 teams to be saved at once, but I can make use of save shuffling to let any number of teams participate. I would prefer to have at least 5, but the more the merrier~. I'll accept team submissions until the 15th of October, and if there's enough teams the first match will be on the 22nd. If there are any questions, please ask and I will try to answer as best I can.

So, come on down to the arena, and show everyone who the strongest is!

Not much time left until the start. Did anyone who wanted to submit have any questions, or is there something that I could make easier or clearer to help out? Any concerns or suggestions? ToS is certainly a very dense game, and I'd like to make it as simple as possible to get into for the purposes of this season.

Last minute entry but...!

Team Name: Red Raiders

Nora Murdoch/King (Human Female) (Skills: Leadership, Business, Guided Missile, Indirect Fire, Energy, Scouting, Survival, Electronic Warfare, Assault, Scanner), stick her in something big with a lot of guided missiles and energy weapons (Armadillo comes to mind)

Raine Quincy/Queen (Replicant D Female) (Skills: Medium/Heavy, Cannon, Unguided Missiles, Electronic Warfare, Scouting, Damage Control, Scanner, Survival) Two words: Gun Boat

Maeve Madigan/Knight (Human Female) (Skills: Recon/Light, Close Combat, Jump, Scouting, Damage Control, Electronic Warfare, Energy, Survival, Defensive) Just stick her in something fast with decent jump jets and melee weapons. Defensive features so she doesn't get shot up on approach are also nice, and maybe lasers to attack while closing in.

Alaina Winchester/Bishop (Replicant I Female) (Skills: Recon/Light, Scouting, Scanner, Electronic Warfare, Survival, Guided Missile, Indirect Fire) Shouldn't actually really be engaging the enemy, and instead should focus on maintaining scan links and hiding.

Azar/Rook (Android) (Skills: Medium/Heavy, Energy, Unguided Missiles, Scouting, Scanner, Damage Control, Survival, Electronic Warfare) Heavy emphasis on disruptive weapons (E.M. pulsers, neutron blasters, napalm missiles, etc.)

Well, I was under the impression that more people were interested in making teams, but I guess they decided not to in the end. But that's ok.

I didn't want to throw Yuu's efforts away, though, so I at least recorded a match between him and a randomly generated team.

Commentary Highlights

Full, Unedited Match

I guess that'll be it for this. Thanks, everyone!

Finished?

Yes, it is.