Mechanics (2)

Understand Movement Points, Action Points, Initiative, Difficulty Tiers, Ranged & Melee Attacks, Damage calculation, Injuries, Dodge, and Cover in "Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader".

Movement Points (MP): Movement points determine how far a character can move in their turn, with 1 MP equaling one cell on the battlefield. Moving diagonally costs +1 MP for every second diagonal cell.

Action Points (AP): Attacks and combat abilities consume Action Points. At the start of each character's turn, their AP are restored to their default value, initially 4, but this can be increased through various effects, abilities, and leveling up.

Initiative: Higher initiative improves your chances of being placed earlier in the turn order. Combatants are arranged into allied and enemy groups of 2-4 characters. The group with the highest average initiative goes first. A character's initiative is calculated as 1-10 + (Agility bonus + Perception bonus / 2).

Difficulty Tier: Enemies are assigned a difficulty indicator from I to VII, signifying their overall strength.

Ranged Attacks: The base success chance for a single-shot weapon is (30 + Ballistic Skill)%. This chance is halved if the target is beyond the weapon's effective range (typically half its maximum range). If an attack misses or the target dodges, you can damage creatures behind the primary target due to overpenetration.

• Overpenetration: Most non-area ranged weapons have a chance to pass through the primary target, dealing reduced damage to targets behind them.
• Burst: Some weapons allow firing multiple shots equal to their rate of fire. Burst shots automatically hit the first target in their trajectory, whether enemy or ally.
• Recoil: A weapon's recoil value applies an accuracy penalty to each shot in a burst after the first.
• Ranged Area Attacks: These attacks target multiple enemies within an area. If an attack misses a target within the area, they may still take grazing hit damage equal to 50% of normal damage, potentially increased by talents and abilities.

Melee Attacks: Enemies may attempt to dodge melee attacks and parry them if using a melee weapon. High Perception and Agility make dodging harder for the enemy, while high Weapon Skill makes it easier for the attacker to bypass parries.

• Melee Superiority: A creature surrounded by more allies than enemies gains a +10 Weapon Skill bonus for each additional ally. Large creatures require being surrounded by more than two enemies to grant this advantage. Most bosses have the Combat Master talent, which negates Melee Superiority.
• Attacks of Opportunity: A character with a melee weapon creates a threatened area. Enemies moving out of this area or performing certain other actions will provoke an attack of opportunity.

Damage Calculation: The final damage is calculated as: ((Base damage + flat modifiers + percentage modifiers) - (Deflection - Deflection Negation)) x (1 - (Armour - Armour Penetration) / 100). Base damage is influenced by the weapon, attacker's abilities, and active effects. This is reduced by the target's Deflection score (which can be lowered by Deflection Negation) and then by a percentage equal to the target's armour (reduced by Armour Penetration).

• Critical Hits: A hit may be a critical hit, dealing 150% of normal damage plus bonuses. The base critical hit chance is 10% for ranged attacks and 0% for melee attacks. Hit chance over 95% converts to additional critical hit chance.
• Direct Damage: This damage is not reduced by a target's parameters or bonuses.

Injuries: Taking damage exceeding 50% of total wounds in a single round (threshold modified by difficulty) can cause an injury, reducing resolve. Fresh injuries can be healed with a medikit. If not treated within a base of three rounds (modified by difficulty), they become old wounds requiring a Medicae skill test to heal. Accruing a base of three injuries (modified by difficulty) results in a permanent trauma until resting on your ship or a similar location.

Dodge: The base dodge chance is 30% + target's Agility - attacker's dodge reduction + dodge modifiers. Dodge modifiers include game difficulty and abilities. For ranged attacks, base dodge reduction equals the attacker's Perception. For melee attacks, it's half the attacker's Agility. When dodging area attacks, a target can move up to three cells to leave the affected area.

Cover (press the cover button to crouch behind walls or objects): Characters behind cover have a chance to avoid ranged attacks: 35% for partial cover and 60% for full cover. A successful cover check negates damage from an enemy attacking from the opposite side of the cover.