PATROL Patch Notes 1.16 (FINAL PATCH)
A drastic simplification of Strength, Carrying Capacity, Load, and Movement Speed has occurred. Carrying Capacity is now a simple ceiling on what you can lift, and Strength is by default double your Fortitude. The two are disconnected in most ways. This makes it far easier to figure how how much you can move around!
In place of the previous penalties for carrying more than your capacity, you can now Push Yourself to move a higher speed than your Load would allow, taking Exhaustion and Thirst! This also allows Exhaustion and Thirst to be expended for benefits in a more direct way, which has much better game feel.
All load-bearing equipment has been totally reworked. This includes a new light Haversack backpack, a good option for scouts and light troops. This item was imported from The Trench Raiders. Strength is never modified by equipment, so its much easier to track.
A new Take Aim Minor Action makes for better sniping and stronger ambushes, and lets precision fire take people out of trenches, but is basically worthless in pitched battle as Suppression adds directly to the difficulty. It also requires Vigilance rather than Proficiency.
I’ve sort of kluged together some previous versions of Suppressive Fire to create the best version. The suppression dealt is based on successes meeting or exceeding, while the hits inflicted are based on multiples of, with the damage as 1d6-1. This means that at close range ambush you can personally hit three or four guys, while at long range you’ll probably only hit one, but your other excess successes will still have impact.
Throw Grenade is now a special kind of action that can be taken as a minor or regular action, or both! This lets you shoot and throw grenades at close range, throw grenades while on the move, and throw two grenades per turn, all of which I feel more accurately represents the fairly cavalier manner grenades are often used.
Melee combat now works like Shock Checks; extra Successes negate Failure. This is in response to testing for the WW1 Trench Raider game and new information from experts. It preserves the indiscriminate lethal nature of melee combat in unskilled vs unskilled combatants and skills vs skilled combatants, but skilled melee fighters will competently dispatch unskilled ones.
Medium Range band is now 50-250, rather than 50-200.
Resting has been buffed to remove an Exhaustion every other Turn. This also makes a full night sleep 7 hours, which is as good as you can expect in a war zone.
A language clarification was made to Shock Checks so that excess Successes negate Failures instead of reducing Ongoing Damage overall.
Language clarification on Shock Checks taken from Ongoing Damage, which has the additional effect of preventing blood loss from crippling or blinding characters.
Description update for Forward Air Controller and Forward Observer, properly associating the Skills with Spot Target instead of Bombard.
Fixed mislabled Table Names on page 150.
A minor mechanical change to the Observe Action. Stealth Rating is now added as Failures instead of difficulty, so instead of just not seeing anything in the dark, you’ll see false things. This is much more interesting and dynamic.
The severity of Conceal FUBARs have been reduced to alerting targets within 100m instead of 500.
Narcotics adjustments. Uppers are now dangerously awesome, completely negating Exhaustion and Injury as well as making you Skilled at Shock Checks. The fact that all the exhaustion and injury comes back, as well as the overdosing, will more than balance it. Downers lost the Shock Check effect, but it has a more consistent effect.
A new Extended Magazine weapon mod has been added.
Complete overhaul of vehicle crew position capacity, making it much more restrictive.
The internal passenger slot in the T-54 has been eliminated, as I’ve seen inside one of those now and there’s just not room.
