Odanan, on 07 December 2013 - 09:16 AM, said:
A great number of chassis listed on Sarna have nothing to do with our timeline. Once I had the trouble to count the timewise chassis and Assault had more different mechs than Medium.
I agree the mediums are the most common weight class fielded in IS. But they don't have necessarily more different chassis.
And no, MWO has nothing to do with that. People will play with which is the most efficient.
And using the tables for the SLDF 'mech as of 2750 - well before most of the 'Mechs anyone would recognize were even designed - is deceptive.
For example, why not use the 3025 LCAF table (pg. 13 of the FA&RT) instead? They heavily favor heavier designs, and anything they had as of 3025 would be fair game for 3050 (provided a sufficient number of variants were developed and deployed as of 3050), especially since its identical to the 3039 LCAF table (pg. 30 of the FA&RT) in terms of which chassis are listed.
LCAF 3025/3039 Medium 'Mechs (20 chassis):
- Vulcan
- Sentinel
- Cicada
- Assassin
- Clint
- Hatchetman
- Centurion
- Blackjack
- Whitworth
- Trebuchet
- Wyvern
- Enforcer
- Phoenix Hawk
- Hunchback
- Shadow Hawk
- Wolverine
- Crab
- Dervish
- Griffin
- Gladiator
LCAF 3025/3039 Heavy 'Mechs (18 chassis):
- Rifleman
- Champion
- Quickdraw
- Merlin
- Ostroc
- Ostsol
- Orion
- Warhammer
- Crusader
- Thunderbolt
- Bombardier
- Marauder
- Guillotine
- Archer
- Catapult
- Grasshopper
- Black Knight
- Flashman
LCAF 3025/3039 Assault 'Mechs (14 chassis):
- Charger
- Cyclops
- Longbow
- Zeus
- Victor
- Banshee
- Golaith
- Striker
- Awesome
- BattleMaster
- Stalker
- Highlander
- King Crab
- Atlas
Even the Lyrans, with the greatest proportion of heavier machines (on average, ~50% of the LCAF 'Mech forces would be Heavies and Assaults) and the greatest number of regiments as of 3050 (indicating that they would have most likely had a greater number of individual 'Mechs than the other factions) would still have generally had greater chassis variety within the Medium class than each the heavier classes.
As far as in-MWO, we already have three 50-tonners (
Centurion,
Hunchback, and
Trebuchet) and we're about to have four 55-tonners (
Kintaro and
Shadow Hawk, plus
Griffin and
Wolverine).
If PGI wanted to have Medium 'Mechs be the most commonly played 'Mechs (in addition to the most numerous chassis type), they would need to somehow either (or both) incentivize playing Mediums or disincentivize playing Lights & Heavies & Assaults.