Finestaut, on 29 October 2013 - 11:40 AM, said:
Those 4 'mechs, with stock lockdowns are completely invalid in MWO. The Loki's stock armor is a guarantee for disaster (see the Jagermech). The Black Hawk will function, but will quickly be replaced by heavier 'mechs that can go just as fast, with more available space (See pre-buff hunchbacks). The Puma and Uller are worst off, they'll get run down by IS lights, out-fought by IS mediums, and bullseyed by IS heavies and assaults (see pre buff X-series ravens).
While this a valid argument, something I propose could conceivably fix this, and allow you to have fixed variants of the omnimechs for leveling purposes. Basically, have three hardwired variants of each omnimech. One variant would be the stock chassis with the original engine, internal structure, armor, and electronics hardwired to the frame. Call it the B[ase] variant. The second variant would have the original engine, internal structure, and electronics, but have maximized armor (probably without ferro-fibrous to save space for larger weapons). We'll call it the A[ssault] variant. The last variant would have the original internal structure, electronics, and armor, but have the largest engine possible, maximizing its speed. We'll call this variant the C[hase] variant.