Essence ofMegaMekLab
byRamble
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AI summary
Gives you MegaMekLab, functioning much like the real application, downloadable onto any sufficiently advanced device or projected into the air where you can expand, rotate and adjust the transparency of the screen, accumulating 25 BV per day to spend as you like with ordinary money convertible at one dollar to the C-bill. Purchases appear in front of you, somewhere safe nearby, or in safe orbit, optionally with instant Green-level proficiency, and you may buy specific historical units — not just a McKenna-class battleship but the SLS McKenna's Pride — at no extra cost, everything arriving fully fuelled and loaded, with optional basic repair proficiency and optional pre-supplied crews who begin absolutely loyal with appearances and backgrounds of your design but become real people with their own opinions afterward. Infantry purchases can be kit only or include soldiers, bays and compartments come empty so you must buy units to fill them, and a toggleable "normalization" setting, on by default, makes people simply accept machines and personnel materialising out of thin air.
Generated précis — the sections below are the author's original text.
Description
You get access to the Megameklab, which looks and functions pretty similarly to the normal megameklab.
Effects
12The application can either be downloaded onto a computational device with an appropriately advanced GUI, or can simply be projected out onto the air in front of you. You can expand, minimize, rotate, and toggle the transparency of the screen. You can even make it so other people can see and interact with it if you'd like.
You add 25 BV to your pool per day and can spend them on whatever you like. You can also use regular money in order to buy something at a rate of 1 dollar to the C-bill. The amount would automatically be deducted. Don't think too hard about where the money goes.
Upon purchasing an item, it will appear either in front of you, in a safe spot near you, or in a safe orbit above you. Upon purchase, you may chose to instantly gain basic proficiency with the purchased equipment, rating approximately as "Green" initially.
You may also purchase a specific historical item if you'd like. For instance, you can simply buy a Mckenna-class battleship but you can also buy the SLS Mckenna's Pride if you'd like. The history doesn't cost anything extra.
Battletechnology is effectively durable enough to need minimal maintenance work at all assuming it's not outright abused or neglected, but you may also choose to gain enough basic proficiency to perform most rudimentary repairs to any equipment you buy. You may also spawn in spare parts for the cost of the Battle Value of each individual part, but a number of components will require a requisite hulk to pull from.
Any units you buy will come fully fueled and fully loaded with ammunition. Ammunition can be purchased through the MegaMekLab, and fusion reactors can crack water into hydrogen fuel, but petrol, alcohol, and natural gas to feed internal combustion engines will be a continuing issue.
Any item you buy can also come already crewed if you'd like. These crew start absolutely loyal and you can customize their appearance, personality and backgrounds, but after they spawn in, they become actual people and will have their own opinions, thoughts, and morals. For example, if you spawn in some Eridani Light Horse and tell them to massacre civilians, you're going to have a mutiny on your hands.
When purchasing an infantry unit, you may chose to get only kit or gain soldiers wearing it.
You can toggle "normalization" off and on. This makes it so that people will simply shrug and accept machines or people popping up out of thin air or anything anomalous that happened as a result of the Essence. The default is "on".
Spawned in humans will conform to the physics of the world and any changes that you've made to the world. You may also chose if they need to eat and other facts of life, though this needs to be set from the start and can't be toggled afterward.
Bays and compartments don't come already filled. You need to buy an infantry unit to put it in an APC and you need to buy a mech to put it in a mech cubicle.
If you'd like, support personnel can also be purchased for one BV each.
ScenariosCampaign Operations ruleset
In the case of pairing this essence with a CYOA, you can, before starting the CYOA, pick or build a single unit at the very beginning at no cost. It is recommended that you use this to obtain personal conveyance, but it's not necessarily required.
Once at the very beginning, you may also use the infantry menu to customize your starting loadout, as well as any advanced gear, implants, or training (anti-mek, marine, Xenoplanetary Conditioning, etc) Your starting skills still count as "Green" though. This is free but you will not get the opportunity again.
Should it be necessary, your starting personal conveyance and units you spawn in will start with the minimum necessary provisions to last until you reach a place where normal resupply becomes possible.
You may at the beginning of your journey initiate a "campaign mode" of sorts in order to build up resources and forces more quickly than simply waiting for a long time to wait for the BV pool to fill. This is not necessary, but it could be fun.
Spawned in humans may also be modified using parts of any cyoa which allows you to construct your or a companion's body/skills/personality (eg. Be the Girl, Big Beefy Husbando, Battle Maid etc.)
"Campaign Mode" unlocks a "modifier" which forces all units other than capital units or dropships to spawn inside bays. Depending on difficulties or exact settings in the Interstellar Operations rule section, this can also be applied even to dropships and capital units other than space stations.
"Campaign Mode" can also unlock an MRBC from which you can pull contracts even in universes in which an MRBC does not exist.
You can toggle automatic repairs/maintenance, meaning the machines will simply maintain themselves. Normally Battletechnology is rugged enough that they don't need a lot of maintenance and repairs are easy even after the machine gets shot to bits. This however makes it so that repairs and maintenance are wholly unnecessary.
You can toggle automatic Ammunition/Fuel so that both are replenished the moment a unit enters an appropriate unit bay.
It is possible to buy units in a bulk package should you obtain the necessary resources or have saved up enough BV to do so. These units may be spawned in already grouped up into a unit with a set unit culture and shared values.
Interstellar Operations ruleset (WIP, non-functional currently).
BattleValue is by design a fairly scarce resource in order to encourage careful use and management, however it is understood that it is not necessarily suitable for waging or interstellar wars. Thus, the Interstellar Operations ruleset addon allows for an industrial manufacturing system almost independent from BattleValue.
As land based factories or even land based structures are not covered by MegaMekLab, it is not possible to create land based structures. The standard building blocks of the MegaMekLab Essence industrial ruleset are the 1000 ton machinery space/cargo bay of the MML default small space factory equipped with an SRCS (referred to as "small factory unit" or SFU) and the 6900 ton machinery space/cargo bay of the MML default medium space factory equipped with an SRCS (referred to as "medium factory unit" or MFUs).
SFUs are able to handle the production of simple things such as refining ores, or machining relatively simple components such as armor panels, myomers, spark plugs, mechanical actuators, and steam engines.
MFUs are able to handle manufacturing or assembly of more advanced components using materials from 4 or more SFUs such as "complex" engines, chassis, electronics, and neurohelmets. MFUs are also required for final assembly of a completed unit, assembling the components produced by multiple factory units into a finished unit. Note that a final assembly MFU cannot be used to produce components at the same time.
It's also possible to design additional factories and separating the cargo bay into SFU and MFU units.
In order for a shipyard to manufacture a spacecraft, it must be supported by a constellation of 25 SFUs and 15 MFUs for a dropship, and 50 SFUs and 30 MFUs for a jumpship (either a "normal" jumpship or a warship).
Factories can also optionally be manned, though it does not necessarily confer any sort of bonus.
It is possible to also set the spawn limitation to also include capital vessels and dropships as well, leaving space stations as the only units which can be spawned into thin air after the initial personal transport spawn.
Errata- LAMs.
As it's an extremely divisive topic, you can chose to use the default ruleset or you may modify them in the following ways.
Cancel Advanced technology penalties - use advanced technologies (DHS, Endosteel, Ferro Fibrous Armor) like any other mech.
+2 free thrust (to bring fighter mode in line with normal fighters).
Free wing pylons for drop tanks or bomb munitions.
Transformation time becomes a non-issue.
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