I am a recovering rifts player.
I used to run a HEAVILY modified version of the first edition rules but recently one of my players (who also loves the setting) was complaining about never really getting a feel for the real Palladium system so I decided to run a really simple game with a wafer thin narrative as a "exposure to the basic system". Trouble is... since we played last they released the Rifts Ultimate Edition (RUE) which has some very tiny changes to the game which I liked a whole whole lot.
They are pretty subtle... but this is the biggest one.
In RUE, you simply track your attacks left in a combat round and you keep looping through combat with everybody taking an action until all people are out of attacks. When you dodge you simple burn one of your remaining actions up. No more (as in the first edition) losing your NEXT ACTION crap which was hard to keep track of in any fight with more than two combatants. In addition to that. Once you burn up all your actions you can still dodge but it burns an action from NEXT ROUND. If you run out of actions for next round as well as the current round I interpret the rule to read you get to keep dodging for free but only "free" after you burn up all of next round.
Also, Ranged combat is nerfed a bit with there being a reduction in strike bonuses (you no longer add all your hand to hand strike or PP bonus to it) which sort of encourages more melee fighting. Its a house rule... but I allow people to parry a ranged weapon when they are adjacently engaged in melee with the shooter.
In my revisit I decided to still deny buddy's exposure to the old First Edition and bought RUE. I liked it a lot better.
Now... I still have one issue with Rifts. And this is basically a game design philosophy thing about Palladium. Combat is a GRID not because the actual system mechanics make it that way just because all the setting components are geared to having low damage output compared to the target's ability to take it. Creatures and Armors have WAY more MDC then typical weapons dish out. Combat in Palladium is supposed to be like a Kung-Fu Theater affair with many many many exchanges before its decided.
Oh also... they have an optional section for surviving an MDC attack which is basically a hit location roll which gives you a chance to lose body parts and live as long as you get medical attentions in the next few minutes. Still in is the stupid yet necessary for game-playability rule that any MDC armor you wear protects you 100% from MD attacks but this extra hit location role allows your defeated character to live... and injects more opportunity for characters to have to seek out cybernetics. Both of these last details is a win - win for the game.
