1 reply to this topic

[Havoc2]

There has been a lot of back and forth debates on if we should be able to customize our 'Mechs or be restricted to stock variants.

My question is:
How does everyone feel about unit specific variants?

It could simulate a unit capturing a 'Mech factory and building 'Mechs of that type. Unit members would have access to those variants at a reduced cost but have the option of putting the variants on the market for purchase (C-bills going to the originating unit).
The unit would also need to fund operation of the factory, could possibly lose it depending on if control of the world is lost, and could have the option to shut down the factory, re-tool and start building new variants of the same chassis.

In order to build a new chassis, a new factory would need to be captured/purchased and a delay in production simulating tooling etc.

Factory/chassis production could also be restricted on area. So merc units that have allied with a House wouldn't be able to just start producing that House's staple 'Mechs unless they captured a factory that produced that chassis.

We could make it really complicated and say also that no weapons of a certain type could be equipped on the chassis unless there was a weapons factory that could produce that weapon on the same planet, or another weapons factory controlled by the merc unit would need to be shipped in (could open up some nice convoy assault/defense contracts/missions).
I.E if Merc unit 1 wanted to start producing Hunchbacks with an AC10 and 2 LLas instead of AC20 and 2MLas they would need to have a factory that produced Hunchbacks, and weapon factories that produced AC10s and LLas.

Thoughts?

[Nik Van Rhijn]

I think this could be something that would take a while to develop and not suitable for start. There is no reason why mech companies could not negotiate with the house they are contracted to, but would be limited to models that the house produced and logical variants. Obviously the easier the variant, the more likely the chance of production.