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TLDR: The Crab and the King Crab belong in MWO for their iconic shapes, unique loadouts, and area denial capabilities. People want these mechs, and I think we should work on adding all of the IS mechs before worrying about the clans. Plus this buys PGI a little bit more time (2 months)
Cancer is the star constellation that honors Karkinos. Karkinos is a crab that fought Heracles and was honored by Hera with a place among the stars. It should also be the name of the next prepay expansion pack offered after project phoenix and saber.
Why the Crab?
The Crab is an all energy 50 ton mech. It has a reasonable cruising speed of 80kph and is “heavily armored”. It’s obviously a lower profile mech giving it a distinct shape change from the giantly tall mechs which are the centurion, trebuchet and all current 55 ton mechs. It also is an all energy mech, so no ammo.
What makes this thing special?
Besides a unique shape? It’s got an energy focus which you can’t say for the Centurion/ Hunchback or the Trebuchet. Centurions have a missile energy variant, and the hunchbacks have an energy variant. The Crab would have three while offering an entirely new torso shape to the game.
Why do you keep talking about the torsos?
It’s like the stalker or the dragon. Those mechs benefit when using cover because of their profiles. The dragon is squat allowing it to more easily hide behind things. The stalker has high placed weapons on a squat frame allowing it to fire over crests with ease. The Crab has both of these advantages in a 50 ton medium frame.
While it’s true their arm weapons hang lower the CT and Head weapons of the Crab offer a bit of peak and shoot to the crab which isn’t available to the centurion or the trebuchet and is only offered to the hunchback in limited quantities.
Unique Animations
The crab also has unique hands that look a bit like pincers. This offers protection to their hand weapons. These could work a little like missile doors and allow for crab pilots to protect their weapons while using their arms to block fire. Also it would be neat to see them pinching.
Variants? You said this was all energy.
It is but that is not all that makes a mech special. Location and number of hardpoints also factor in. For argument sake I am going to use 7 as my max number of crab hardpoints.
CRB-27 7 energy hardpoints, 4 arms, 2 chest, 1 head
CRB-27b 7 energy hardpoints, 2 arms, 1 RT, 1 LT, 2 chest, 1 head, Max Engine +40
CRB-27sl 6 energy hardpoints 4 arms, 1 chest, 1 head, 5 JJ
CRB-30 6 energy hardpoints, 2 arms, 1 RT, 1 LT, 1 chest, 1 head, ECM (Not included in Operation Cancer)
No that’s too OP!!!
Not really so much, it has all of the energy hardpoints several other mechs in and around it’s weight class. BJ have 8 energy hard points at 45 tons The Hunchback 4P has 9. so 6 or 7 really isn't OP. and the low slung arms and torso focus of this mech will more than even it out. The ECM is clutch because it will be only the second non light (Cicadas are lights, trust me) to have ECM. The ECM variant of the Crab does not come in the pack but will offer the utility of a medium mech with ECM to cover the other Medium Mechs without intentionally running slow.
How about The King Crab?
This mech is a beast in ways. It is a low profile area denial mech centered around large ballistics in it’s hands. At 100 tons this would be a needed addition to the game as only the second 100 ton assault. It would be the first ballistics based assault offering additional play styles and utilities to assault mechs.
When high alpha is a good thing...
The king crab has great alpha potential with twin autocannon 20s. a Large Laser and an LRM 15 give it some ranged backup. This creates a situation where the King crab is somewhat situational. It runs hot, has heavy weapons loadouts, and has a giant torso which opens it up to damage. If you get the crab out in the open that is. In cover however there is an arc of near certain death in front of the King Crab.
We already have an atlas why is this necessary?
Different battlefield roles. The King Crab is an area denial mech with good damage and brawling potential. The atlas is less of an area denial mech and more of a jack of all trades. They have totally different shapes. The Atlas stands tall like a man, the king crab hangs low and scuttles.
I am worried it will be too good...
It’s situational: in a tunnel, in a city it’ll be great! On an open battlefield? nope. This is a tactics mech. It’s not suited to some tactics but if you play to its enormous strengths you’ll have a truly frightening mech.
This too has too few variant.
Not really, sure the Sarna variants lack that separation of a hunchback, but once you experiment with moving hard points around and subbing in and out actuators you’ll find you can get quite the variety.
KGC-000 1 ballistic in each arm, 2 energy LT, 2 missile RT (6 total)
KGC-000b 2 ballistics each arm, 1 energy LT, 1 missile RT, DHS, Art (6 total)
KGC-001 1 ballistic each arm, 3 energy LT, 3 missile RT, DHS, XL, Fully actuated arms. (8 total)
this is inline with the idea that removing an arm actuator reduces your total hard points by 1, or 2 in this case, and gives you the option to really have some fun and unique mechs by fielding a 4 ballistic assault on the battlefield.
Alright I am buying in...what is the buy in?
40 Dollars. That’s right 3 mechs of each chassis plus a cancer variant which gives you a unique crab themed camo, (I am thinking black with stars on one side, and red crab claws on the other) and Cbill and Loyalty bonuses. This is a stand alone package not linked to project Phoenix, but does use the price per ton of the Saber Reinforcements.
Edited by HammerSwarm, 06 February 2014 - 09:39 AM.
