18 replies to this topic

[Brody319]

There has been some debate on how to handle clan heros since in the lore clanners just piloted the mechs they were assigned, so didn't have personalized mech like IS heros. I came up with 3 ideas I think sound good.
The first is instead of buying a special mech, you could buy a pilot who is known for piloting them instead. Some pilots might fit into multiple mechs because of lore. Once you purchased a hero pilot you could assign them to one of the variants of the mech you own. So for say the Kit fox, Phelan Kell/Wolf, had to pilot one. So you would purchase that pilot then assign them to one of the kit fox variants you own. Once assigned you cannot change it, your pilot skin in the mech becomes different and unique, you might also have them gain a unique skin or pattern. They would also gain the natural c-bill boost that all heros get.

The second idea I had was to offer the IS salvage created mechs as a hero mech. So for the kit fox, you could have the Arctic Fox battle mech as the hero. It is made from the salvage from other kit foxes, would look similar without being the same, since its salvage the omnipods could have been damage or put on improperly forcing them to be locked. Instead of customizing the engine, you could have a system where you dictate how much tonnage you want to give towards the engine, and that would increase or decrease the speed without replacing the engine. Now there could be a cap on how fast you could tweak the engine, so for the Kit fox, being that its speed is 97kph, you could say give a maximum engine tweak that makes it run at maximum 120kph, but since you are giving up tonnage for it, you also have to give up weapons and armor to keep going.

If neither of those are favorable, maybe they should just lock 1-2 special hardpoints on their hero mechs. So for a Twolf, you might lock the unique Torso, but allow all other omnipoints to be changed.

[Gyrok]

I would prefer to have the bounty hunter TW, Natasha Kerensky's DW, etc...

And NO Clan hero mech should be an IS pilot...(Just Say NO to Prometheus DW!)

[Impyrium]

I'd like to see heroes as pilots for both IS and Clans. In fact, I still wish PGI would put some more focus on the pilot aspect of MechWarrior hands down. My dream is to have a standard slot for both an IS and Clan pilot, and with the ability to purchase 'hero' pilots which provide C-bIll, XP or unique colours/patterns.

[Hillslam]

barring the fact that no clan pilots are heroes, given that they're all yogurt vat grown, genitalia missing, humor and intellect challenged clones, i'd say no.

just give them "hero" mechs and be done. just dont call it a hero. cbill boost. nuf said. lore be dern'd

[Ace Selin]

Clan Heroes should not be pilots, because you own one Hero mech, not a fleet.

Clan Heroes should have locked hard points & or quirks (locked to one specific mech build only) to make it different.

Edited by Ace Selin, 05 November 2014 - 09:58 PM.

[Mad Strike]

Gyrok, on 05 November 2014 - 09:00 PM, said:

I would prefer to have the bounty hunter TW, Natasha Kerensky's DW, etc...

And NO Clan hero mech should be an IS pilot...(Just Say NO to Prometheus DW!)

You can make Natasha kerensky DW , i have it my mech lab. It's called PARTY POPPER

Cooldown weapon mods for medium and large pulse lasers to counter the negative energy quirks from arms.

Prime Right torso has positive movement quirks and A variant right arm has less negative energy quirks than Prime left arm.

Finally those 23 double heatsinks will keep that heat under control so you can have an effective all range puncher of a mech.

I suggest use the Buccaneer pattern , Hot Rod Dark Red , Polygon Black and Polygon white (in that order) for more badass power. You're gonna love that DIRE SITUATION words there XD.

Edited by strikebrch, 05 November 2014 - 10:13 PM.

[Brody319]

Ace Selin, on 05 November 2014 - 09:56 PM, said:

Clan Heroes should not be pilots, because you own one Hero mech, not a fleet.

Clan Heroes should have locked hard points & or quirks (locked to one specific mech build only) to make it different.

You can buy one pilot, put him in one clan mech that they have piloted in the lore effectively, and that normal clan mech becomes a hero variant. 1 clan mech + pilot = 1 clan hero mech. cant buy a fleet of pilots to put in them, you can own one pilot and thus can only have that one pilot in a single clan mech.


some other benefits might be to apply positive quirks that benefit one build for the pilot. in the example I used, the kit fox he piloted had 2 ERLLs and 2 ERMLs. So if you put him in a kit fox, that one kit fox build gets:
+10% C-Laser range
-10% C-Laser heat generation
-10% C-ERLLs heat generation
+10% C-ERMLs Range

That would make them more unique and would encourage you to use a build. I was just using the IS quirk format, but it may be better to be 100% weapon specific so people can't exploit it to make broken clan builds.

[Elizander]

They can just quirk the parts differently and the parts can't be bought with cbills.

[Ace Selin]

That Clan pilot should only able to be a Hero in a single designated chassis then.

[CycKath]

Gyrok, on 05 November 2014 - 09:00 PM, said:

I would prefer to have the bounty hunter TW, Natasha Kerensky's DW, etc...

And NO Clan hero mech should be an IS pilot...(Just Say NO to Prometheus DW!)

Um.... you do realize that would also count out the Bounty Hunter's Mad Cat too, him being an IS pilot and all...

[Vassago Rain]

No.

[Willard Phule]

First thing I did with my DW was to build the "widowmaker."

Yeah, it doesn't work here. 1 shot shutdown build. Thank you, ghost heat.

[SaltBeef]

HILLSLAM Wrong !! Clans pilots are not missing genetailia Phelan Kell got butthurt when Vlad was boinkin his squeeze. She did not understand why Phelan got angry about it and thought he was loony because of it..

[Brody319]

Ace Selin, on 05 November 2014 - 11:33 PM, said:

That Clan pilot should only able to be a Hero in a single designated chassis then.

Yes. that is what I was saying. 1 Pilot can be put into any Kit Fox build, and that specific and only that Kit fox variant becomes a hero. I can put him in my Kit Fox Prime, then it becomes a hero mech, and none of my other kit fox do.

[Agent1190]

How about "Hero-Pods" that can be purchased with MC for clan mechs. Not sure how bonuses would work, but if there were a pair of legs that I could get for the Thor that didn't have jump jets to free up some tonnage, i'd be all in.

[Danghen Woolf]

While the idea of having hero variants of Clan mechs is interesting it should be noted that the hero Inner Sphere mechs for the most part were standard variants with notable pilots and unique quirks/paint schemes that stood out apart from tactical operations. For example COM-TDK is described in TRO 3025 (Level 1 rules) but is designed in MW:O as a 3050+ Design (Level 2 rules). In the fluff for the Commando it does not indicate that it had a unique loadout or that there were any design changes. Many of the designs are not even replicable using the Battletech rules (aside from fractional accounting and other Level 3 options).

Aside from notable cases like the Daishi Widowmaker, Mad Cat Pryde, and Vlad Ward's customized Gladiator, the Clans were very strict in the use of one off variants of ther mechs. A member of a Star was not encouraged to change load outs as many of the designs were created to complement one another. One unique note to this though is the nature of the pods allowed Commanders to dictate certain things be used, more energy weapons if ammunition is short, etc. I think instead of hero variants there should be Clan specific variants, e.g. Mad Cat Prime(W)(GB)(JF)(SJ) these would have different quirks based on the origin of the CT and not the pod configurations or would have CW bonuses similar to Faction mechs. Clan Wolf loved Mad Cats and Man 'O War mechs, Jade Falcons Thor and Ullers, Ghost Bear had the Vulture, and the Smoke Jaguars used the Mist Lynx and Ryokens in great numbers.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Agent1190, on 06 November 2014 - 10:45 AM, said:

How about "Hero-Pods" that can be purchased with MC for clan mechs. Not sure how bonuses would work, but if there were a pair of legs that I could get for the Thor that didn't have jump jets to free up some tonnage, i'd be all in.

Actually this might be a great idea.

Hero Pod packs. Basically for XXXX MC you get a set of unique omnipods with a 30% bonus with the catch being that you have to mount ALL the pods on one mech (no mixing and matching) if you want the 30% bonus. Alternatively they could make it so each piece gave a 5% bonus to c-bills which would allow you to mix and match for lower bonuses. Honestly this second option would sell like hotcakes simply because some people would pay $30 just to get the one piece they needed to complete their perfect build.

[AlmightyAeng]

Hillslam, on 05 November 2014 - 09:37 PM, said:

barring the fact that no clan pilots are heroes, given that they're all yogurt vat grown, genitalia missing, humor and intellect challenged clones, i'd say no.

just give them "hero" mechs and be done. just dont call it a hero. cbill boost. nuf said. lore be dern'd

Call it a Bloodnamed. Done.

[CycKath]

Ghost Badger, on 06 November 2014 - 12:30 PM, said:

Call it a Bloodnamed. Done.

If it was pod rather than chassis based, that would also make sense for a different naming scheme than hero 'Mech.