ice trey, on 20 September 2014 - 07:16 PM, said:
Remember, the King Crab is not an Inner Sphere mech, but a cutting edge Star League mech. It's Lostech. The King Crab is really not SUPPOSED to be available right now. A minute hand full are left in the inner sphere, most in the possession of Comstar, mothballed on Terra. The inclusion of the King Crab is only because the community has been mewling for an assault mech with dual AC20s to beat the Daishi.
It looks a little sleaker and a little more high tech, because it IS supposed to be a little sleaker and more high tech. The same could be said about the Highlander, as it's Star League tech, too. The only difference being that there's still a few in production.
It's not completely impossible find, but not much easier than. It's kind of like having the YF-23 being a playable jet in a modern flight simulator.
The
KGC-0000 (with four 0's) is the non-LosTech variant that was available to the Houses' armies (albeit in relatively small numbers) throughout the Succession Wars (as it was in production by General Motors since 2815; see page 120 of TRO 3025 Revised &
its MUL entry), while the original Star League built
KGC-000 (with three 0's) only made use of FF Armor & CASE but was otherwise identical to its less-advanced cousin.
With FF Armor being recovered in 3036 & FF Armor being recovered in 3040, modifying a KGC-0000 into a configuration similar to a KGC-000 would have been a relatively-minor change.
Additionally, it should be noted that the DCMS would have received several KGCs - likely including a few KGC-000 models - as part of ComStar's "
Operation Rosebud" in 3039.
In fact, it is explicitly mentioned in TRO 3039 (on page 278) that there are original LosTech-equipped KGC-000s in private hands well before the Clan Invasion; one Corinth Brody, president of the Nightwatch security company, possesses one such 'Mech and has been working security on Terra since 3038.
As for the third variant needed for MWO (and with the knowledge that PGI is unlikely to ever introduce the SLDF Royals variant (the KGC-000b) or introduce the Clanbuster variant (the KGC-001) early), both TRO 3039 & TRO 3050 Upgrade (on page 222) mention the recent discovery of the specifications for the
KGC-010 within Star League era archives (though, all original physical models are known to have left with Kerensky); it makes use of CASE, Endo-Steel, and LB 10-X ACs but is otherwise standard tech; the IS would have the technology to have it produced.