Yeah, autofire lets you make more use of precision over damage, though from what I see, mostly in danmaku they don't use Force Field and Protection(particularly the Impervious sorts) much except as bosses, while the bulk of the blasts are really low DC.
Fits with to-hit for DC and Autofire anyway, then - The attacks are less damaging... but there's a lot of them.
Unfortunately, though, Impervious may still become an issue for a Danmaku character in a 'regular' MnM game where stuff will have Impervious Force Field or whatever.
So, thoughts on the basic Blasts. Four alternate powers of each other, each themed fter one of the Tarot suites.
Swords Descriptors: Magic, Ballistic, Air; Extras: Autofire x2, Area, perhaps Penetrating. Targets Toughness. Makes swords and shoots them Gilgamesh-style, so probably a cone.
Pentacles Descriptors: Magic, [something], Earth; Extras: Autofire x2, Area, perhaps Penetrating. Targets Fortitude. Exploding penacles make shockwaves, so Explosion or Sphere? Or maybe some kind of particles to fit witht he whole toxic schtick they seem to advertise for Fort saves, so perhaps a cloud.
Wands Descriptors: Magic, Fire; Extras: Autofire x2, Area, perhaps Penetrating. I want this to target ref for damage (that is, make an attack roll and do damage based on their Ref save instead of Toughness save), but I have no idea how to accomplish that. Makes fire (duh), perhaps a Shapeable area.
Cups Descriptors: Magic, Mental, Water; Extras: Autofire x2, Area, perhaps Penetrating. Targets Will. Some kind of mental assault; maybe a sphere.
Damn, that's a lot of extras. Good thing I the ranks don't have to be as high if I do a to-hit for DC swap (though then the area also decreases). For more point-saving, I'll probably put all of it in a device (a deck) and perhaps use the same cheese Flay used to make his device cheaper.
Gonna have to actually pick up one of the PC games and check out spell cards and bombs for myself. For now, how's this for a sample spell card?
The Tower Blast (Durationx2 for Sustained, Cylinder area, Hellfire), Plus a Line electricity Blast every round. Needs some way to keep people inside. Full Power and Limited (fixed shape) flaws.
Speaking of long-duration area blasts, how do they work anyway? Do people need to make a save every round they're in one?
Also, in case it isn't obvious,
my knowledge of Tarot basically consists of "what's on wikipedia".