‘Mech of the Week: Storm Raider

[Liam's Ghost]

Because TPTB took Cbill pricing out of the crunch.

How much of that was because of not dealing with cost calculations and how much of was because the C-Bill ceased to be a viable currency in universe AND they didn't want to deal with cost calcuations that would need an exchange rate table to make any sense?  :D

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

C-Bills were removed from the TROs before the Dark Age.

[Liam's Ghost]

C-Bills were removed from the TROs before the Dark Age.

CBills were in the TROs? I never noticed.

Though my point about cbills being a bad investment still kinda holds in the jihad as well. The economy was a mess. Plus all this new tech was going from the labs to production... It was a bad time to try to figure out Blue Book values.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

How much of that was because of not dealing with cost calculations and how much of was because the C-Bill ceased to be a viable currency in universe AND they didn't want to deal with cost calcuations that would need an exchange rate table to make any sense?  :D

And how much of it was not wanting to deal with evolving commonality of equipment over the many eras of the BTU?

Granted, a SFE will always be cheaper than the more complex options of the same eras, but *how much* cheaper will of course vary.  When prices were being given they were pegged to the 3025 universe where even SFEs were so rarely available no matter what the price, and lostech may as well have been magic items ala D&D.  Yes, granted, the SL era sources gave the same prices for fusion engines when civilan motorcars had fusion engines as in the Succession Wars when most tanks had to make do with ICE. But they never should have. Rather than going back and "fixing it", or even giving new prices for inventions new to the 31st century to reflect a century or so of refinement, TPTB are taking the (imo smart) decision to just drop the whole concept of monetary cost from actual game rules. 

[Decoy]

You guys haven't looked at Combat Operations yet, have you? All prices in there are done by cbills.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

You guys haven't looked at Combat Operations yet, have you? All prices in there are done by cbills.

You talking about page 14?  If so, that's pretty abstract still.  No difference in price between say a Wasp and a Wolfhound.  And unless they errata'd it, it appears that XXL engines are as cheap as SFEs because they omitted a multiplier for it :D

I'd also point to the budget for buying forces on page 12 to support certain tech becoming "cheaper" to produce in some eras compared to others.  If you do a campaign set during the 1st Star League, rather than saying fusion engines are twice as easy to make/cost half as much to acquire, you have twice as much "buying power".   Makes more sense than saying mercs start with more or less money based on era, at any rate.

[Decoy]

pg. 10 Combat Operations

While different currencies are used in different eras, C-bills
are used throughout the Force Construction rules as a matter
of compatibility with other core rulebooks. Players may convert
them into currencies suiting their era and faction after Force
creation is complete.

Pg 12 Combat Operations

This step is straightforward: the controlling player rolls to see
if a unit can be acquired, and then spends money from their final
budget calculated in Stage 2. The Master Unit List, or MUL, is an
online resource for BattleTech available at MasterUnitList.info and
lists costs for most combat units. That resource should be consulted
first when purchasing units. If a cost for desired personnel or
equipment is not listed in that database, it may be calculated
using the construction rules in TechManual, Tactical Operations,
and Strategic Operations, and found in the equipment lists in A
Time of War.

It then goes on to use that the more abstract method can be used if wished. However, going back to page 10, everything is done in C-Bills.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

It also goes on to say that you can also use the chart on page 14.  Ergo, there is no single price tag that is the only correct price anymore if you're measuring in Cbills.  And circling back, TPTB don't even put Cbill prices on units anymore, like with the Storm Raider's MUL entry.  Rather than rendering the TM obsolete, they're just acknowledging you can still use it if you want to.

I feel like we're arguing over a point of semantics that's tangental to the thread.  As a peace offering, I'll concede that c-bills are still an alternative available to SPs or WPs.  I'll also agree with Liam's Ghost in that a SFE Storm Raider would be cheaper than the given XL model.

I'm going to still insist however that in the 32nd century the Storm Raider is cheaper than it would have been had it been built in 3025.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Now I'm picturing this terrible mismatch of units.  Charger, Targe, Storm Raider, and an Urbie all walk into a bar together...it would be a really weird lance to put together but it could be fun(ny) as hell.

[wantec]

Wait. That would mean someone looked at the Berserker and said "You know, we need a midget version of this."

I can only assume that person was executed by Atlas-stomp for his un-Lyran thinking.

See below

Are we forgetting doctrine?  When Lyrans deploy a platoon of this battle armor model, they're more respectable.  16 of these could be scary.   :P