Durant Carlyle, on 06 February 2012 - 06:19 PM, said:
Are you asking for something like Armored Core or Front Mission, where arms/legs/torsos are interchangeable?
If so, then no. No way. H-E-double-hockey-stick no. I don't want to see a Marauder arm on any other 'Mech. I don't want to see chicken-walker legs on a 'Mech unless it was designed from the ground up to have them.
Most MechWarriors are actually piloting the very same 'Mechs, with the only variation coming from regional differences like the House-specific variants. Some will have installed field modification kits, if they are available for their 'Mech. Only a few famous/infamous MechWarriors actually have their 'Mechs customized beyond the official variants. Why? Because most MechWarriors don't own their own machines. They get thrown into a unit and assigned whatever the unit has available, with maybe a little consideration for what preference they have.
This is actually sorta what I mean, there are already different variants within the BT/MW universe. Specifically between different regions, merc units, houses, etc. This would allow mechwarriors to pilot the same mech but still with differences.
I was not implying that ANYTHING could be placed on a mech. Obviously if you take an arm (and technically its not the whole arm usually, just the gun part) and change it from a laser to a ballistic variation, it will still be limited to what kind of weapon it can take based upon its tonnage and size of the part. You're obviously not going to be able to mount a PPC on a raven.
Besides, you can't put an LBX 20 on a light mech even in Mechwarrior 4, the limitation of tonnage does not allow this to happen plus weapons/weapon slots use size limits that, even if somehow you would've SOMEHOW been able to find the tonnage, the size of the weapon would be to large to place the LBX20 onto a light mech
Again though, I'm talking about modular components based upon the tonnage and limitations for each mech. As in my previous example, say you want to put a missile system on a bushwhacker's left arm to replace its ballistics (I think the left one is ballistics...or is it laser O.o), obviously its possible and was used before. This change of the arm to accommodate a missile system wouldn't be a huge change, but it would be limited to its tonnage, the weight of the missile system, and the ability to carry extra ammunition for said weapon.
I would be completely fine though, with allowing players to use not only the default (prime) variants, but also allow them to use house/regional variants if they are part of those areas. In question of merc units, I would imagine they were stuck with prime variants and possibly regional variants unless they were able to salvage/buy the extra variants from houses or other.
Edited by Mautty the Bobcat, 06 February 2012 - 07:25 PM.