Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 155: A Question of Legality

 Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 155: A Question of Legality

I have already mentioned the incompatibility of certain CEL option combinations in an earlier post in this series, but I have felt it necessary to bring it up again after realizing that it reminds me of the Illegal Design quirk in BattleTech. For example, the Lucky option "AWD" (which refers to AWD drivetrains, not 4x4) forces the build to have an AWD configuration; however, this is not possible for any car whose trim year is 1980 or later, after adjusting for drivetrain techpool allocation (up to +15). As such, if the Era option is either "1940s" or "1950s", and the Lucky option is "AWD" (assuming it takes effect, which occurs if the Luck option is either "Lucky" or "Both"), then the resulting build will be impossible to develop in Automation; however, if the Era option is "1960s" or "1970s", such a combination will only be possible if the trim year is 1965 or later (and even then, only with at least +1 techpool for the drivetrain, depending on trim year). Similarly, if the "Automatic" Unlucky option (which requires fitment of a standard automatic transmission with 3 speeds or fewer) is combined with the "1940s" Era option, the two will be incompatible with each other without a drivetrain techpool setting of +1 or more (depending on trim year, since the model/family year cannot be earlier than 1946). Most annoyingly, however, the CEL Challenge spinner wheel set gives no explicit onscreen confirmation that such combinations are impossible to create in Automation - you'll have to play the game yourself to find out.

Given that illegal builds can result from a CEL Challenge combination, it is unsurprising that BattleTech also has a Design Quirk for such an occurrence, called Illegal Design. Any unit with this quirk will not only break the normal construction rules, but also receive a penalty to all repair and modification dice rolls. In addition, this quirk must be combined with the "Obsolete" quirk upon the year of its introduction, and use of illegal designs require specific content from all players in the game in which it is used. When playing under the faster-paced Alpha Strike rule set, the quirk also doubles the penalties for having the "Obsolete" quirk, quintuples its base price, and prevents affected units from being replaced by identical ones in a campaign, in addition to causing them to be destroyed upon a Repair dice roll of "2". The Champion LAM (LAM being an acronym for Land-Air 'Mech) is an example of an illegal design, being based on a heavy 'Mech but fitted with the conversion mechanism required to turn it into a Land-Air 'Mech; it never entered service due to being very heavy for a LAM, leading to underwhelming performance, as well as rapid wear and tear on its conversion systems.

In the CEL Challenge spinner wheel set, if an illegal combination of results is generated, you can choose from one of two solutions: either adjust the techpool allocation accordingly (if possible), or generate a new combination, thereby ignoring the current one. In BattleTech, however, if any players object to the use of an illegal design before a game, then it cannot be used in that game (without any exceptions), and must be replaced by a legal one. In both cases, the possibility of illegal designs cannot be avoided completely, but it can be made less likely to occur.