Archangel.84, on 19 June 2016 - 09:30 AM, said:
My problem with the Hatamoto - and I know it's a minor one, but still - is that the classic one's loadout is exactly the same as the Thug, and i like the Thug better.
There's nothing that says we can't ultimately have both.
That being said, the
Thug would need more help to make it a viable option compared to the
Hatamoto.
The
Thug is rather variant deficient as of 3053-ish, offering only the
THG-11E and
THG-10E until the 3067 introduction of the THG-12E.
On top of that, the 11E & 10E are largely identical to each other - the latter is the LosTech-deficient version of the former, losing its CASE and swapping out the DHS & Endo-Steel components for SHS & standard structure.
Both also have the same minimum hardpoints: an energy weapon in each arm and a missile launcher in each side-torso.
Even adding the SLDF Royals variant, the
THG-11Eb, doesn't help with the homogeneity issue; the 11Eb merely replaces the 11E's standard PPCs with ER-PPCs.
IMO, the
Thug could be made more workable with focused hardpoint inflation.
As most of the other IS 80-tonners in game thus far have 7-9 hardpoints, the
Thug could be reasonably endowed with 7-8 hardpoints per variant.
Then, the 10E and 11E could be focused on different weapon types. For example, the 10E could have a 6E/2M setup (three energy hardpoints in each arm, one missile hardpoint in each side-torso) and the 11E could have a 2E/6M setup (one energy hardpoint in each arm, three missile hardpoints in each side-torso).
PGI could then make up a third variant and a Hero 'Mech (either or both of which, for diversity's sake, could be any of: all-energy, energy/ballistic, ballistic/missile, or three-weapon-type loadouts).
Thoughts?
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