5. DROPPING PRONE

Mecha have the ability to drop prone on the ground at any time, except when jumping in the air. By entering the command prone, you immediately drop to the ground. When you are between 0 kph and 1/3 your MaxSpeed, this command is automaticly successful with no damage. If you attempt this at speeds above that, dropping can cause damage. In order to avoid damage, the pilot has to make a piloting skill check. At walk (and above 1/4 MaxSpeed), no penalty is applied. A +2 penalty to piloting is applied when attempted at a run. If successful, the drop causes no damage. If your roll fails, you will take damage based on your speed and your heading will randomly change.

While prone, an opponent may loose LOS (line of sight) of your mech because the the terrain the mech is on or around. Water, forests, hills are able to hide mechs in this fashion. Be warned that standing in water increases the chances of head shots. Mechs may not move forward or backwards while prone, but they can change their heading. There are also many other commands that may not function while you are prone.

Once prone, you can return to the standing position merely by typing stand. Again, you need to make a skill roll to perform this maneuver without falling and if successful it will take 6 game ticks to complete. While waiting to stabilize, the inbetween time where you are prone and standing, prone modifiers are in effect.

- +2 penalty modifier is added to your base-to-hit (BTH) when prone.

- When a target is prone a penalty of +1 is added to your BTH if the target is not in an adjacent hex. If the target is in an adjacent hex, a -2 bonus modifier is applied instead.

Move on to the next section...