How to attack with Vehicles?

[ican]

Some vehicles have weapons, so what do you use to make an attack (shooting or ramming)?
Vehicle skill? Drivers attack? Some other base number?

Also, are vehicles power level limited? For the smaller personal vehicles it makes sense, but once you get into large ships operated by crews I'm not sure how it should work?

[Arthur Eld]

If you're trying to ram with a vehicle, that would probably be a slam attack, and I would say uses either Vehicles or Close Combat score, whichever is higher. (Its rare, but who knows? Someone might have a few ranks of Close Combat (cars)).

As for shooting a vehicles weapons, that would be a ranged attack thing.

Vehicles should be PL capped, to be sure. So if you want to play Maverick from Top Gun, you'll probably be PL 8, as fighter jets have Blast 11 (Burst Area .

Now I kind of want to stat up Maverick.

[Murkglow]

Some vehicles have weapons, so what do you use to make an attack (shooting or ramming)?

Same as your normal attacks, Fighting/Close Attack Advantage for "melee" (more often used for humanoid vehicles like Mecha), Dex/Ranged Attack Advantage for ranged (Guns, Missiles, ect...) and of course relevant skills (something like Ranged Combat Skill [Aircraft Weaponry] could work or perhaps Range Combat [Machine Guns]).

Also, are vehicles power level limited? For the smaller personal vehicles it makes sense, but once you get into large ships operated by crews I'm not sure how it should work?

Yes, obviously if your setting is too low PL for a battleship to reasonable appear then your GM isn't likely to be having one in your game is he? You don't need to be able to fit anything that exists into your settings PL only what your characters are going to be doing/facing.

[Batgirl III]

Yep, PL is a cap on the players but is merely a guideline for the GM. No one promised you a fair fight, did they?

If you're playing a Teen Titans / New Mutants / Hero High style game and the Big Bad Evil Guy sends a squadron of F-15s after you... run away.

[FuzzyBoots]

Depending on how gritty you like your system, you can always make use of the mass as well as the speed. It's more damaging to ram with a Mack truck than with a motorcycle, even if the former has a higher speed.

[ican]

Okay, so what I'm gathering the character would need a combat skill to attack with the vehicle?
So if the vehicle is the tank a character would need a Ranged Combat “Tank Cannon” and Ranged Combat “Tank Heavy Machine Guns”, or something to that effect to use its weapons?

Is there a way to make vehicle to attack on its own, like automated systems?

[Murkglow]

Okay, so what I'm gathering the character would need a combat skill to attack with the vehicle?
So if the vehicle is the tank a character would need a Ranged Combat “Tank Cannon” and Ranged Combat “Tank Heavy Machine Guns”, or something to that effect to use its weapons?

Yes though you could probably just do "Tank Weapons" or even "Vehicular Weaponry" you don't need to be that specific.

Is there a way to make vehicle to attack on its own, like automated systems?

A Summon is what you're looking for.

[FuzzyBoots]

Is there a way to make vehicle to attack on its own, like automated systems?

Buy it as a Minion.

[Murkglow]

Buy it as a Minion.

True, Minion, Sidekick, or Summon work.

[ican]

Thanks guys, I was thinking sidekick or something, but I wasn't sure if I was overlooking an easier way to give the vehicle the ability to attack on its own. Maybe I'll do it as some sort of A.I. System.

Going back to characters controlling a vehicle, how might a crew work?

The pilot would have the Vehicle skill, gunners would have Ranged Combat “Vehicle Weaponry”, a radar operator some kind of Perception skill, I guess, and maybe an engineer of some sort. I'm curious if functions can be split up to give different team members something to do, I would like to see what ship related roles I can translate from sci-fi shows. I'm not sure if it will work well in game but it could be fun.

[Murkglow]

I'm curious if functions can be split up to give different team members something to do...

I don't see why not though you're going to need to work to ensure everyone is still engaged in the game. Even games with more detailed rules and options for ship combat often leave players a bit bored if their role is too seldom used or uninteresting (a radar operator or an engineer sound like jobs that would be a bit nitch for a player to stay invested in the game but that's just my quick take on it) but with M&M since there are basically no rules for vehicle combat at all it's all going to rest on you to make it interesting.

[Stigger]

Personally, I think I'd toss in a Fire Control Feature to reflect automatic fire, presuming you mean something like a CIWS or the like, and probably a Homing extra for said CIWS to reflect that fire control system correcting fire to strike its target. Using the vehicle's PL as the attack bonus, sort of like with Headquarters, seems pretty reasonable.

[Batgirl III]

Personally, I think I'd toss in a Fire Control Feature to reflect automatic fire, presuming you mean something like a CIWS or the like, and probably a Homing extra for said CIWS to reflect that fire control system correcting fire to strike its target. Using the vehicle's PL as the attack bonus, sort of like with Headquarters, seems pretty reasonable.

I'd actually think that close-in weapon systems (CIWS), which are rather large affairs meant to defend ships from anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft , would best be reflected by use of the Reaction Extra, triggered by enemy proximity. Something like this, perhaps:

Phalanx 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun Damage 6 (Extras: Multiattack, Penetrating [6], Ranged, Reaction [Potenial Target comes within Medium Range]; Flaw: Limited to Aerial Targets); Senses 2 (Visual: Accurate [0], Acute [0], Danger Sense [1], Radius [1]) [ 40 PP ]

[Stigger]

Personally, I think I'd toss in a Fire Control Feature to reflect automatic fire, presuming you mean something like a CIWS or the like, and probably a Homing extra for said CIWS to reflect that fire control system correcting fire to strike its target. Using the vehicle's PL as the attack bonus, sort of like with Headquarters, seems pretty reasonable.

I'd actually think that close-in weapon systems (CIWS), which are rather large affairs meant to defend ships from anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft , would best be reflected by use of the Reaction Extra, triggered by enemy proximity. Something like this, perhaps:

Phalanx 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun Damage 6 (Extras: Multiattack, Penetrating [6], Ranged, Reaction [Potenial Target comes within Medium Range]; Flaw: Limited to Aerial Targets); Senses 2 (Visual: Accurate [0], Acute [0], Danger Sense [1], Radius [1]) [ 40 PP ]

That could work too, though I'd question the Medium range... on a naval scale, it barely has any range at all compared to what its shooting down, but that could be that old naval wargamer in me talking. On a human scale though, I'd say it had a pretty long detection range since it's more easily measured in miles. Penetrating might be a bit much, since I can't think of many missiles I'd call robust, much less impervious... well, maybe just from ballistics and material alone you could justify it, but I'd probably cut that to Penetrating 3, personally. Depends on how you reason it I suppose.

My own reasoning would be to go with Homing over Multiattack, given that they aren't that great at, or meant to be, engaging large numbers of targets in a six-second period, and tend to focus on a single target until its destroyed before moving on to the next one. Sure, that doesn't usually take that long (maybe two or three seconds) with modern software and fire control systems, but Multiattack seems an awkward, and more expensive way of approaching it.

[Batgirl III]

In the real world the Phalanx CIWS has an effective range of 1.9 nautical miles... and a maximum range well past that, but classified (for obvious reasons). That range is well past gaming distances, and since the Phalanx ia famously short ranged as ASM systems go... I put gaming over simulation.

The Naval version fires 20mm Armor-piercing discarding sabot tungsten penetrator rounds... that says Penetrating to me, but YMMV. They use something different for its few land based deployments, probably DU tracers. We didn't get to play with these in my Coast Guard days, but the risk of anyone attacking an ice breaker with an anti-ship missile in the middle of Lake Superior were slim. ( Her Majesty's marine royale canadienne only having around 30 ships and none in the Lakes.)