682 replies to this topic

[Bowelhacker]

Longbow. LONGBOW.

But only the one that looks like the Macross rip off.

Edited by Bowelhacker, 03 May 2021 - 04:20 AM.

[Bamboozle Gold]

MW Waldorf Statler, on 03 May 2021 - 01:46 AM, said:

and by the Axeman for example you have 5t for a not useable Melee-Mainweapon and against the Tabletob in game Reality a slow 64kmh Mech with a Melee Weapon is very useless out of TT

Sure, there is no melee weapons in MWO. So let's stick 6 fixed HMGs in that arm with 2 free tons. Give it some quirks for HMG damage. That's basically like a melee attack.

[Aidan Crenshaw]

Speedy Plysitkos, on 02 May 2021 - 10:37 AM, said:

Is Thor possible ?

um... the Summoner (aka "Thor") is available since the inception of the clans. https://mwomercs.com/clans

[C337Skymaster]

hardenum, on 17 November 2020 - 08:19 AM, said:

IS XL is just a meme, dont tell me you actually use them

On every 'mech that takes them per their Record Sheet. Obviously the only ones of those that successfully function are the ones that hang back and fight at extreme range, but still. Some of them perform rather exceptionally.

That said, I mostly play Clans.

[KursedVixen]

NEw mechs

Arctic wolf II <--- would like

Hellhound (Wolverine IIC)

Battlemaster IIC <--- Please?

Pheonix hawk IIC

Urban mech IIC

Locust IIC <--- Yes please?

Shadow hawk iIC

Thunder bolt IIC

Griffin IIC

Edited by KursedVixen, 22 May 2021 - 09:52 PM.

[KursedVixen]

Martaloc, on 02 May 2021 - 12:18 AM, said:

For clans :Turkina and Woodsman.
For Inner Sphere: Crusader and Imp or Pillager (the Victor big brother)

Stone Rhino is outdated , bad design, you can make the only one confugurtion the Rhino has on the Kodiak 2 and 3 , why would you want guys the exact same mech wiht different skin? Cuz this is what you wants.

Kingfisher? Hell no !!! Same reason why IS fanboys dont want IS omnis, Kingfisher is omni ,but the cheap variant ,standard reactor with standard chassis, and because clan omnis chassis and reactors locked , this is almost unplayable for a 90 tons claner,same as IS omnis locked with XL reactors die very fast , thus nobody want them in MWO (not even me).

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Woodsman; https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Turkina
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Pillager; https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Crusader; https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Imp

Imp is technically a clan mech https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Imp made by clan wolf...

C337Skymaster, on 22 May 2021 - 08:28 PM, said:

On every 'mech that takes them per their Record Sheet. Obviously the only ones of those that successfully function are the ones that hang back and fight at extreme range, but still. Some of them perform rather exceptionally.

That said, I mostly play Clans.

are you talking about IS omnis??? well they could give IS omnis with XL fixed engines structure and or armor quirks on the side torso to somewhat compansate.

Edited by KursedVixen, 22 May 2021 - 10:59 PM.

[C337Skymaster]

KursedVixen, on 22 May 2021 - 09:49 PM, said:

are you talking about IS omnis???

No, just IS XL's. They belong on certain loadouts (all the Bushwackers, for example), and I use them in all of those cases. The only ones that perform decently are the ones that hang back, usually with LRMs or ERLL or something of the like.

[KursedVixen]

C337Skymaster, on 23 May 2021 - 05:40 PM, said:

No, just IS XL's. They belong on certain loadouts (all the Bushwackers, for example), and I use them in all of those cases. The only ones that perform decently are the ones that hang back, usually with LRMs or ERLL or something of the like.

Well the bushwacker has extremly thin side torso so yeah for mechs like that that make sense but i personally think that if IS omnis are introduced and they have Fixed XL's in their record sheets they should keep the fixed XL engine and add armor and or structure quirks to the side torso ,but again MUST KEEP THAT IS XL. it's only fair. it's a price you pay for being in an omni on both sides to have fixed stuff so IS mechs must have Fixed XL engines on those that come with it in their record sheets.

Edited by KursedVixen, 23 May 2021 - 06:06 PM.

[C337Skymaster]

KursedVixen, on 23 May 2021 - 06:05 PM, said:

Well the bushwacker has extremly thin side torso so yeah for mechs like that that make sense but i personally think that if IS omnis are introduced and they have Fixed XL's in their record sheets they should keep the fixed XL engine and add armor and or structure quirks to the side torso ,but again MUST KEEP THAT IS XL. it's only fair. it's a price you pay for being in an omni on both sides to have fixed stuff so IS mechs must have Fixed XL engines on those that come with it in their record sheets.

Agreed, 100%. To be fair, I also have it in my Orion-Ms. Only the original -M seems to work, though. The MA, MB, MC, and MD are barely meh.

As for IS Omnis, I feel there has to be something "extra" that makes an omni special. My thoughts are that omnis (and only omnis) have some last-minute build-change option, so they can be configured for the coming battle, since that's literally what omnis were good for: last minute reconfiguration to perform specific battlefield roles depending on what was needed. They were also much faster and easier to field-repair.

[KursedVixen]

C337Skymaster, on 23 May 2021 - 06:18 PM, said:

Agreed, 100%. To be fair, I also have it in my Orion-Ms. Only the original -M seems to work, though. The MA, MB, MC, and MD are barely meh.

As for IS Omnis, I feel there has to be something "extra" that makes an omni special. My thoughts are that omnis (and only omnis) have some last-minute build-change option, so they can be configured for the coming battle, since that's literally what omnis were good for: last minute reconfiguration to perform specific battlefield roles depending on what was needed. They were also much faster and easier to field-repair.

so maybe like if you pick and omni mech and you own other configs you can choose between the ones you own after the map is voted for??? anyway what I don't understand about Omni's is Sarna says

Quote

[color=#000000]An OmniMech's structural components (its engine, internal structure, armor and any equipment installed on the base chassis of that OmniMech) are "hard-wired" and cannot be modified outside of a total redesign of the 'Mech.[/color]^[30][color=#000000] While customization of these components is theoretically possible in the field, it is avoided as it hard-wires all the 'Mech's components and effectively transforms the OmniMech into a standard BattleMech.

but does this mean they can't change the engine say you get an omni from salvage and it's engine is dead, can you not replace the engine???? it seems to me like you can't take the fusion engine out for a tune up or regular maintainence..without screwing the omni up...[/color]

[Y E O N N E]

KursedVixen, on 23 May 2021 - 08:49 PM, said:

so maybe like if you pick and omni mech and you own other configs you can choose between the ones you own after the map is voted for??? anyway what I don't understand about Omni's is Sarna says but does this mean they can't change the engine say you get an omni from salvage and it's engine is dead, can you not replace the engine???? it seems to me like you can't take the fusion engine out for a tune up or regular maintainence..without screwing the omni up...[/color]

What it is saying is that only the payload carried by the Omni can be modified easily in the field; in all other respects it is no different from a standard BattleMech and requires facilities to do the modification.

The advantage of am OmniMech is economics, not battlefield prowess. If you have the right BattleMech for the mission, it can easily match the equivalent Omni. If you don't, however, it's slow and expensive to change a BattleMech to suit the mission or acquire more BattleMechs so that you have one that works. With Omnis, you can just have the field tech pull out the previous mission equipment and swap it for the stuff suiting the new mission parameters.

Locking omnipods after doing a modification to basic items like Engine or Structure is just a gameplay balancing mechanic. I wouldn't read too much into it from a lore perspective because, contrary to popular belief, TT rules are not lore.

[KursedVixen]

Y E O N N E, on 23 May 2021 - 09:07 PM, said:

What it is saying is that only the payload carried by the Omni can be modified easily in the field; in all other respects it is no different from a standard BattleMech and requires facilities to do the modification.

The advantage of am OmniMech is economics, not battlefield prowess. If you have the right BattleMech for the mission, it can easily match the equivalent Omni. If you don't, however, it's slow and expensive to change a BattleMech to suit the mission or acquire more BattleMechs so that you have one that works. With Omnis, you can just have the field tech pull out the previous mission equipment and swap it for the stuff suiting the new mission parameters.

Locking omnipods after doing a modification to basic items like Engine or Structure is just a gameplay balancing mechanic. I wouldn't read too much into it from a lore perspective because, contrary to popular belief, TT rules are not lore.

Well lacking specifc omni pods would be down to logistics, but i have to ask can you literally put whatever you want into an omni provided you have the space and the tonnage? In lore or are there specific omni pods for like missiles or balllstics or can one arm take any weapon or other equipment limited only by tonnage and space? it seemed to me that for the most part OMni's are like USB plug n play...

Edited by KursedVixen, 23 May 2021 - 10:37 PM.

[Y E O N N E]

KursedVixen, on 23 May 2021 - 10:29 PM, said:

Well lacking specifc omni pods would be down to logistics, but i have to ask can you literally put whatever you want into an omni provided you have the space and the tonnage? In lore or are there specific omni pods for like missiles or balllstics or can one arm take any weapon or other equipment limited only by tonnage and space? it seemed to me that for the most part OMni's are like USB plug n play...

The OmniPod is just an empty vessel for housing the equipment; what's inside of it is the part that's actually modular.

If you want to cut to the chase, the secret sauce to make an Omni is that all of your equipment has been standardized to an interface specification that you ostensibly use across your entire armed services, so you can rip an ERML out of any one of your vehicles equipped with that spec and plug it into another one and it should theoretically work as long as the recipient vehicle meets all the requirements listed in the interface spec. If you pull this out to its logical conclusion, it makes zero sense that the Clans would manufacture weapons that do not adhere to this spec, so really all of their 'Mechs ought to be Omnis except for old ones that were developed prior to the implementation of the Omni-spec equipment...but even then you'd likely retrofit wherever possible.

And even then, this is a concept that should have been around and widely used back in the Star League era and shouldn't have been voodoo to literally anybody in the business of procuring and manufacturing military hardware, Inner Sphere or otherwise.

TL;DR: plot holes.

[KursedVixen]

Y E O N N E, on 23 May 2021 - 11:23 PM, said:

The OmniPod is just an empty vessel for housing the equipment; what's inside of it is the part that's actually modular.

If you want to cut to the chase, the secret sauce to make an Omni is that all of your equipment has been standardized to an interface specification that you ostensibly use across your entire armed services, so you can rip an ERML out of any one of your vehicles equipped with that spec and plug it into another one and it should theoretically work as long as the recipient vehicle meets all the requirements listed in the interface spec. If you pull this out to its logical conclusion, it makes zero sense that the Clans would manufacture weapons that do not adhere to this spec, so really all of their 'Mechs ought to be Omnis except for old ones that were developed prior to the implementation of the Omni-spec equipment...but even then you'd likely retrofit wherever possible.

And even then, this is a concept that should have been around and widely used back in the Star League era and shouldn't have been voodoo to literally anybody in the business of procuring and manufacturing military hardware, Inner Sphere or otherwise.

But on another note i don't think it's very efficient to have say a missile arm and a ballstic arm for say a summoner in the warehouse it'd be much more efficent to have a single arm that can carry either or even lasers, I'm thinking maybe the weapons like for Lrms or srms on say the summoner arm come with thier own outer casing or something? I dunno.

TL;DR: plot holes.

Well according to lore even the clans could only afford to field their front line troops with them, though i think that's just an excuse to use normal battlmechs... the clans may not have all the worlds of the Inner sphere but their bound to have plenty of other ways to get materials and as far as I know clans don't exactly have a 'money' system.... and since warriors are the rulers you'd think they'd have all the money they'd need to afford a mech ,but ontop of that i don't think a mech belongs to any warrior either so again...

Edited by KursedVixen, 24 May 2021 - 12:04 AM.

[C337Skymaster]

Y E O N N E, on 23 May 2021 - 11:23 PM, said:

The OmniPod is just an empty vessel for housing the equipment; what's inside of it is the part that's actually modular.

If you want to cut to the chase, the secret sauce to make an Omni is that all of your equipment has been standardized to an interface specification that you ostensibly use across your entire armed services, so you can rip an ERML out of any one of your vehicles equipped with that spec and plug it into another one and it should theoretically work as long as the recipient vehicle meets all the requirements listed in the interface spec. If you pull this out to its logical conclusion, it makes zero sense that the Clans would manufacture weapons that do not adhere to this spec, so really all of their 'Mechs ought to be Omnis except for old ones that were developed prior to the implementation of the Omni-spec equipment...but even then you'd likely retrofit wherever possible.

And even then, this is a concept that should have been around and widely used back in the Star League era and shouldn't have been voodoo to literally anybody in the business of procuring and manufacturing military hardware, Inner Sphere or otherwise.

TL;DR: plot holes.

So I think the one aspect you're missing is the onboard computer, and programming and calibrating it for the new loadout. Battlemechs have an "older" ("cheaper"? "inferior"?) computer which needs to be carefully calibrated for each specific weapons load every time the configuration is changed, whereas an omnimech's computer can "automatically" (or thereabouts) adjust for varying weapons payloads.

Now where this would make more sense to me is if you're required to keep the weight balanced from side-to-side, so you're not throwing the 'mech severely off balance, but of course, that would massively complicate loadout customization on TT, and would invalidate most of the stock builds that do exist.

[Tarl Cabot]

KursedVixen, on 24 May 2021 - 12:02 AM, said:

Well according to lore even the clans could only afford to field their front line troops with them, though i think that's just an excuse to use normal battlemechs... the clans may not have all the worlds of the Inner sphere but their bound to have plenty of other ways to get materials and as far as I know clans don't exactly have a 'money' system.... and since warriors are the rulers you'd think they'd have all the money they'd need to afford a mech ,but ontop of that i don't think a mech belongs to any warrior either so again...

Read anything about the Clans, novels, etc? There is a difference between the ability to afford mechs vs stilling more inline with their "Honor" and how they view those "under" them. Premium Clan Omnis are for Frontline warriors, Second-line units are a Clan's reserve and garrison force and they get some top Clan equipment, then there are the Provisional Garrisons and finally the solahma units. Why snowball older equipment when there are those who are less worthy to utilize it, ensuring that the best gets the best without costing an arm and a leg?

You are correct though, for Clans in general they did not own their own mech but are assigned a mech, then there are the various Trials and such.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 26 May 2021 - 04:57 PM.

[Y E O N N E]

C337Skymaster, on 24 May 2021 - 03:03 AM, said:

So I think the one aspect you're missing is the onboard computer, and programming and calibrating it for the new loadout. Battlemechs have an "older" ("cheaper"? "inferior"?) computer which needs to be carefully calibrated for each specific weapons load every time the configuration is changed, whereas an omnimech's computer can "automatically" (or thereabouts) adjust for varying weapons payloads.

Now where this would make more sense to me is if you're required to keep the weight balanced from side-to-side, so you're not throwing the 'mech severely off balance, but of course, that would massively complicate loadout customization on TT, and would invalidate most of the stock builds that do exist.

I'm not really missing it; that's part of the requirements necessary for the modular weapons to work and would be in whatever interface spec they use to document it. If you have all the physical connections needed but your computer isn't up to snuff, then you can't expect it to work as-advertised per that spec.

"Realistically," every 'Mech would have a balance calibration check it does, Omni or not, because you have to deal with shifting mass by the simple act of walking. Or using up ammo. Or losing a limb/torso. The Omni computer is only special in the sense that it has to be configured with software capable of interfacing with every single Omni-certified piece of equipment in existence where a BattleMech computer only has to interface with the stuff the factory intended. This, however, is not a complicated problem to solve. It is just a labor-intensive one.

[C337Skymaster]

Y E O N N E, on 26 May 2021 - 07:48 PM, said:

I'm not really missing it; that's part of the requirements necessary for the modular weapons to work and would be in whatever interface spec they use to document it. If you have all the physical connections needed but your computer isn't up to snuff, then you can't expect it to work as-advertised per that spec.

"Realistically," every 'Mech would have a balance calibration check it does, Omni or not, because you have to deal with shifting mass by the simple act of walking. Or using up ammo. Or losing a limb/torso. The Omni computer is only special in the sense that it has to be configured with software capable of interfacing with every single Omni-certified piece of equipment in existence where a BattleMech computer only has to interface with the stuff the factory intended. This, however, is not a complicated problem to solve. It is just a labor-intensive one.

So the definition of "complicated" gets complicated. Although not in the context of the Clans, never mind. I was thinking "lostech" and how technicians in the Inner Sphere keep getting assassinated so the "other guys" can't fix their 'mechs, but we're talking Clan battlemechs, so that argument doesn't count.

So at that point we're left with the "Labor Intensive" bit. Just how "labor intensive" are we talking about, and is anyone willing to put in the time and effort to execute on it? I mean, we know there are custom-built battlemechs. A custom configuration of the Grizzly wound up being adopted by the factory as an official alternate build, because it worked so well for the one guy. But if the labor is more intense than what one or two techs can accomplish with a cherry-picker lift out in the woods, somewhere, or even more time-consuming than is worth executing on while traveling on a dropship, then it might be something reserved for "when the time/resources are available", whereas an Omni can be reconfigured in 30 minutes (supposedly).

I got to sit-in on the calibration procedure for a digital jet-engine controller on a KC-135, trying to get all the physical throttles to be in the same position at every power setting, and every time they tuned the DEC at one power setting, it'd be off at another one. (I forget if they wound up replacing it again). So I can certainly see calibrating giant computer systems to be a long and complex process.

[Y E O N N E]

C337Skymaster, on 27 May 2021 - 03:12 AM, said:

So the definition of "complicated" gets complicated. Although not in the context of the Clans, never mind. I was thinking "lostech" and how technicians in the Inner Sphere keep getting assassinated so the "other guys" can't fix their 'mechs, but we're talking Clan battlemechs, so that argument doesn't count.

Even the IS would have 'Mechs competent enough to balance the physical forces acting on it in real-time.

There is nothing about the Clan lore that makes an iota of sense if you really think about it, least of all them somehow having better tech. They have fewer resources and had their own re-enactment of the Succession Wars. They kill each other for gains because gains cannot be had any other way. The invasion should have been launched out of desperation for the dwindling resources and what the IS should have encountered would be sketchy, clever modifications of ancient 'Mechs pushed way past their design limits with almost feral pilots using extremely dirty tactics to annihilate their more numerous, more vanilla foes with relative ease.

IS would have been out-classed in skill both on the field and in the hangar simply because they have never been pushed as hard for as long, but their tech should have still been in much better condition, Succession Wars and Comstar be damned.

Quote

So at that point we're left with the "Labor Intensive" bit. Just how "labor intensive" are we talking about, and is anyone willing to put in the time and effort to execute on it? I mean, we know there are custom-built battlemechs. A custom configuration of the Grizzly wound up being adopted by the factory as an official alternate build, because it worked so well for the one guy. But if the labor is more intense than what one or two techs can accomplish with a cherry-picker lift out in the woods, somewhere, or even more time-consuming than is worth executing on while traveling on a dropship, then it might be something reserved for "when the time/resources are available", whereas an Omni can be reconfigured in 30 minutes (supposedly).

I'm going to simplify this a lot, it's labor-intensive as in you have to write the code such that, for every piece of Omni-certified equipment in existence, your computer can:

1. Identify the installed equipment
2. Provide all the needed inputs to the identified equipment
3. Receive all the needed outputs from the identified equipment
5. Load-balance the available resources to support the identified equipment

With an OmniMech, the manufacturer would develop the vehicle to work with all equipment designed in accordance with the OmniMech interface spec. Adhering to the spec means that, in addition to a common physical connection standard, there will be some sort of common, shared communications protocol between the 'Mech and the installed equipment. That protocol is going to be responsible for identifying the equipment and establishing the functional boundary between the equipment and the 'Mech computer. This means that all Omni equipment is going to have a minimum amount of "smarts" and thus require armies of software engineers all around to develop the smarts to run their wares or tell the interfacing computer how to run them. They will have to coordinate with the broader community to keep the interface spec up to date. The equipment will thus be more complex and expensive, but it will also be plug-and-play so factory or field variants are only as expensive as the cost of the items.

With a BattleMech, the manufacturer would develop the vehicle to only work with the equipment they designed it for. The software would be hard-coded for specific weapons and electronics systems. There is no common interface standard and supporting adaptive software to allow plug-and-play aftermarket modifications, such changes will always require faffing around in the computer and modifying the physical connections to get it to work. This makes deviations from the original design more expensive to design and produce at the factory, and exponentially more expensive and time-consuming to implement in the field. However, the equipment can be simpler and cheaper and more compact, since the 'Mech computer will be built to handle all of the necessary smarts and you don't have a common physical interface standard adding bulk that might otherwise be unnecessary.

Quote

I got to sit-in on the calibration procedure for a digital jet-engine controller on a KC-135, trying to get all the physical throttles to be in the same position at every power setting, and every time they tuned the DEC at one power setting, it'd be off at another one. (I forget if they wound up replacing it again). So I can certainly see calibrating giant computer systems to be a long and complex process.

The KC-135 has fairly primitive avionics and controls, even by today's standards. Something sophisticated enough to balance while managing a fusion reaction, standing upright, and firing weapons with useable precision is going to be offloading that type of small, minute adjustment from the pilot and onto the computer, Omni or otherwise. The inputs from the pilot will be more or less focused on navigational directions, firing orders, and cycling through settings to refine the decision aid feedback they are receiving from the tactical computers.

[C337Skymaster]

Y E O N N E, on 27 May 2021 - 07:28 PM, said:

Even the IS would have 'Mechs competent enough to balance the physical forces acting on it in real-time.

There is nothing about the Clan lore that makes an iota of sense if you really think about it, least of all them somehow having better tech. They have fewer resources and had their own re-enactment of the Succession Wars. They kill each other for gains because gains cannot be had any other way. The invasion should have been launched out of desperation for the dwindling resources and what the IS should have encountered would be sketchy, clever modifications of ancient 'Mechs pushed way past their design limits with almost feral pilots using extremely dirty tactics to annihilate their more numerous, more vanilla foes with relative ease.

IS would have been out-classed in skill both on the field and in the hangar simply because they have never been pushed as hard for as long, but their tech should have still been in much better condition, Succession Wars and Comstar be damned.

So the main difference between the Clans (post Klondike) and the Inner Sphere during the Succession Wars, is that the Clans restricted their combat to combatants, whereas the Inner Sphere was hell-bent on destroying industrial capacity, knowledge centers, economic backing, etc. The Clans set up a system where the soldiers would go off into a field or the woods or something, somewhere that even stray shots would only hit nature, and when they came back to town, they'd say "we won" and the civilians in town would just shrug and go "okay". There was a LOT of mental conditioning that went into that society, and it was seriously messed up in the head, but it kept their industry and knowledge centers alive and untouched in spite of any rivalries or outright conflicts that might have cropped up. They also seem to have found some miracle materials because even after they returned to the Inner Sphere, they still couldn't quite reproduce the stuff they were making in Clan Space (hence Light Fusion Engines for IS tech, instead of just setting up a Clan XL factory on Outreach).

It's kinda like the Dark Ages from 500-1300 here on Terra. The Europeans lost pretty much all knowledge of how to do anything except raise stick houses with thatched roofs, and plow farm fields. All the history and influence of the Romans was lost during that time. Over in the Middle East, however, the Byzantines and the Arabs didn't suffer any such collapse of civilization, and retained all the scientific and technological knowledge that had been gained to that point in time, and it was actually thanks to the Crusades, and the interaction of Europeans with Arabs, that the Europeans relearned a LOT of what had been forgotten in the intervening centuries. They weren't exactly dropping Nukes to glass entire towns, but there was still a lot of murdering civilians (especially since there wasn't really much distinction in that time, between combatants and non-combatants. Just male and female), and a lot of knowledge lost.

Y E O N N E, on 27 May 2021 - 07:28 PM, said:

I'm going to simplify this a lot, it's labor-intensive as in you have to write the code such that, for every piece of Omni-certified equipment in existence, your computer can:

1. Identify the installed equipment
2. Provide all the needed inputs to the identified equipment
3. Receive all the needed outputs from the identified equipment
5. Load-balance the available resources to support the identified equipment

With an OmniMech, the manufacturer would develop the vehicle to work with all equipment designed in accordance with the OmniMech interface spec. Adhering to the spec means that, in addition to a common physical connection standard, there will be some sort of common, shared communications protocol between the 'Mech and the installed equipment. That protocol is going to be responsible for identifying the equipment and establishing the functional boundary between the equipment and the 'Mech computer. This means that all Omni equipment is going to have a minimum amount of "smarts" and thus require armies of software engineers all around to develop the smarts to run their wares or tell the interfacing computer how to run them. They will have to coordinate with the broader community to keep the interface spec up to date. The equipment will thus be more complex and expensive, but it will also be plug-and-play so factory or field variants are only as expensive as the cost of the items.

With a BattleMech, the manufacturer would develop the vehicle to only work with the equipment they designed it for. The software would be hard-coded for specific weapons and electronics systems. There is no common interface standard and supporting adaptive software to allow plug-and-play aftermarket modifications, such changes will always require faffing around in the computer and modifying the physical connections to get it to work. This makes deviations from the original design more expensive to design and produce at the factory, and exponentially more expensive and time-consuming to implement in the field. However, the equipment can be simpler and cheaper and more compact, since the 'Mech computer will be built to handle all of the necessary smarts and you don't have a common physical interface standard adding bulk that might otherwise be unnecessary.

This makes a lot of sense, and fits with a lot of the general "airs" put on about Omnimechs in the books. They generally give the impression that their overall electronic systems are "better" in that they're faster, more accurate, more precise, or something to that effect. Maybe kinda like the difference between this Alienware R1 (R5) laptop that I'm using now, and the Inspiron 9400 that it replaced 6 years ago. They both work, but one works faster because it's got better circuitry. Definitely hard to quantify on the multi-ton level.

Y E O N N E, on 27 May 2021 - 07:28 PM, said:

The KC-135 has fairly primitive avionics and controls, even by today's standards. Something sophisticated enough to balance while managing a fusion reaction, standing upright, and firing weapons with useable precision is going to be offloading that type of small, minute adjustment from the pilot and onto the computer, Omni or otherwise. The inputs from the pilot will be more or less focused on navigational directions, firing orders, and cycling through settings to refine the decision aid feedback they are receiving from the tactical computers.

That was sort of my point, but going the other way: it took that long to calibrate a relatively simple electronic device, it would conceivably be harder and MORE time consuming to calibrate even more sophisticated pieces of electronics due to the multiple different parameters that all influence each other.