Have you ever heard of it's younger sister, the, hunchback iic? Course' you have! (Least I think)
Like it's Inner Sphere counterpart, this mech has the same engine cap, but that's not bad, considering now you can xl without having to worry about your big gun falling off and thus insta death.
Which leads me to it's design.
Let's compare. There are now actually many different features noticed immediately, both by look and on paper:
The hunchback iic now has two huge gun racks instead of 1, which makes it that much more intimidating.
It's arms are now full, and are circular like as opposed to rectangle like arms, as well as it's legs now more sleek in design than of rugged legs.
It's torso is now shifted into what seemingly looks like chest plate as armor, but that won't stop it from having good hit boxes which I'll explain later.
One thing that you cannot see from the concept art is this: jump jets. Unlike the Inner Sphere hunchback, it never had jump jets. The placements are likely to be both in the rear torso and legs, or just the legs itself.
Now we're here about problems with the hunchback iic:
Like the previous model, the iic variants will have a incredulous time dealing with the shoulders. Although they are not as big as the IS version, they will hinder the pilot's blind sides, meaning it will be hard to maintain a good self awareness unless it is given a seismic or a uav to compensate.
Most weapons on the variants are torso mounted, save for the extra variant, meaning that if there's a enemy above you but you torso pitch is not high enough you cannot hit them, rendering arms useless in combat expect for shielding which may not help much at all.
Since some variants allow 2 ballistics per torso, that means they will be placed below the gun, preferably where beneath the gun mounts it curves seemingly as if another gun was there before the final product during refit that was taken off. (Basically like second mount placement as seen in IS hunchbacks)
Very little quirks will be given, specifically armor and structure, in that it is very easy to aim and hit the side torsos of the mech, which can lead to zombification if not running a xl (something that some have dreamed of in a clan mech with ct weapons). Thus, nerfs will be very minimal, and any rant thread (I think) will be overzealous, yeah sure it has firepower, but at a cost of visibility and ammo count.
Regardless of what happens, it will be a all around mech to have handy in cw and a fun mech to play in groups for the public que IMO.
Also hate asking but mcgral18, could you give a approximate on the jump jet height?
Short Summary:
2 big guns instead of 1!!!!
Jump jets!
Blind spots.
Side torsos possibly magnets for damage.
Quirked little for side torsos and blind spots.
More fuller in shape than is version.
Guns, guns, and more guns (same can be said for missiles)
Fun mech to play in public que or cw.
Can xl finally!(yes!!!

Edited by Scout Derek, 01 August 2015 - 10:18 AM.