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Old 01-16-2020, 04:38 PM   #11
swordtart
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Default Re: Odd Designs: Bikes And The Mechanics

I have hand fettled a screw using a file (I decided to do this for my period musket to replace the obviously modern ones and so I could describe the process to the public). This cost me nothing in materials (as I used a junk worn screw as the start point) it took the best part of an hour to make two screws. If I wasn't doing this for recreational purposes I wouldn't have bothered and would have just bought one from the local hardware shop. Taking the recreational part out of it (and most restorations are about the journey rather than the destination) I traded an hour of my time for a few pence. If you rate the value of your time taken to make a part more than the value of buying the part, it is more efficient to buy the part.

If most CW repair work is fitting not fabricating the 1/3 cost makes sense. I had to repair a washing machine and it turned out that a circuit board had failed. Now I could have spent an hour or two diagnosing the issue and probably identified a single component that had burned out that I could replace from my bits box. Instead I chose to spend £20 for a refurbished board off e-bay. My time is worth more than £20 an hour to me. At some point in the future when I am bored I may take that damaged circuit board from my bit box and fix it, but it will more likely become a source of components for another project.

I can happily use that to justify the 1/3 cost rule. On the other hand. If you don't accept something as fundamental as the cost basis for the salvage rules you might as well say everything is free and not bother with campaign rules for salvage and repairs and then the discussion about mechanics and toolboxes etc. is irrelevant. If you think you can fit the parts to restore a half destroyed plant that weighs getting on half a ton in a lunch box then I daresay a motorcycle with a portable shop makes as much sense.

I'll draw stumps on this particular aspect of the discussion here.

Last edited by swordtart; 01-17-2020 at 04:08 AM. Reason: I couldn't let it go ;(
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Old 01-17-2020, 01:55 PM   #12
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Odd Designs: Bikes And The Mechanics

Quote:
Originally Posted by swordtart View Post
I can happily use that to justify the 1/3 cost rule. On the other hand. If you don't accept something as fundamental as the cost basis for the salvage rules you might as well say everything is free and not bother with campaign rules for salvage and repairs and then the discussion about mechanics and toolboxes etc. is irrelevant. If you think you can fit the parts to restore a half destroyed plant that weighs getting on half a ton in a lunch box then I daresay a motorcycle with a portable shop makes as much sense.
It depends on what exactly is causing the part to not-function -- a "disabled" power plant could be anything, from as drastic as "the battery pack is split open" (releasing all the fun chemicals and such inside... :P ) to as basic as "a piece of shrapnel knocked off one of the lines connecting the batteries to the wheel motors". For an in-game example: Look at the gas-engine Critical-Hit chart -- that details not-a-few of the myriad problems a gas engine can face (blown radiator; "box of neutrals" transmission; engine block with a window in it; etc.).

Some of those problems can be fixed with parts which might fit in a lunchbox -- a lot of folks I know *have* lunchboxes or similar, filled with things like spark plugs, fan belts, and such, for when one is out in the sticks and something decides to go paws-up.

(An author associate of mine was telling just yesterday about an incident like this: He was on a book-signing trip, and his truck's battery decided to fail. He got it jumped, using only a set of cables and a small battery pack, and was able to get to someplace where he could get a replacement battery. He noted that the last time he'd been in that area, it was the *alternator* on the truck which had failed, which was a bit more of a palaver to get repaired. :) )

This is where the die-roll enters into play (excuse the pun): If the roll is successful, one can say "OK -- it was a fairly minor fix which can be handled with what's on-hand" (in the parenthetical example above: The battery died); if not, "OK, it's a more-complicated fix than what you can handle here-and-now" (again using the example above: Dead alternator). But one doesn't know for sure until one rolls the dice -- much like Reality (there's that word again :) ).
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Old 01-18-2020, 02:04 AM   #13
swordtart
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Default Re: Odd Designs: Bikes And The Mechanics

We are NOT talking about real-life. We are talking about Car Wars.

There is no dice roll to see what your 1 DP damage constitutes. It is 1 DP damage.

If it is the first point of damage and it hasn't destroyed the component, it costs 10% of the cost of the undamaged component to repair that damage. You can reduce that to 6.6% if you do the work yourself.

If it is the second or subsequent point of damage and it hasn't destroyed the component, it costs 20% of the cost of the undamaged component to repair that point of damage. You can reduce that to 13.3% if you do the work yourself.

The key thing is that unless it is the LAST DP and the component is destroyed, it keeps working. Once the damage is sufficient to stop it working (i.e. it is destroyed) you can no long REPAIR it, it must be JURY-RIGGED. Jury-Rigging doesn't require parts (so the bits rattling round in the bottom of your tool box are enough).

The gas engine effects are ADDITIONAL effects that happen immediately you take any damage to the plant (electric engines just soldier on). If you make the repair roll for that effect, you get your plant going again, you don't require parts for this unless it specifically mentions it in the critical result. If you make the repair roll to fix engine critical damage you still don't get the DPs back. DP recovery requires a normal REPAIR under the salvage rules, requiring parts at the costs above (in addition to any parts you may have needed to fix the spec critical).

These are the RULES.

If you were really unlucky a single point of damage to a pristine 700 cid gas plant with 30 DPs could result in cracked block that destroys the engine, then and there, with no possibility of REPAIR. It is unclear whether you could still Jury Rig it, since arguably it is a non-functional plant that cannot be repaired but it still has 29 DPs.

Last edited by swordtart; 01-18-2020 at 03:54 AM.
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