An attempt at the "best" generalist proto.

[Prince of Darkness]

I was inspired by the Minotaur Z, after I realized that in Greekfire's article the only thing that proto lacked was weighing just a little less. For protos not in the ultraheavy category, the best weight to use them is 8 tons because an omnimech treats the carried unit as if it weighs 5 tons instead. This in turn lets us abuse math to our advantage- at "5" tons, a simple Firemoth carries one of these no problem, though said Firemoth goes down to a speed of 7/11. What is notable however, TW says a 'mech can carry up to 10% of it's weight with no penalty- meaning one of these strapped to the front of a Septicemia wouldn't slow it down.
Otherwise, everything is maximized. An ER medium laser was chosen due to the slightly less weight of the heat sinks, and each location should pass some kind of weapon test with the legs absorbing an LPL hit and the body a gauss rifle. Of course, it could still be improved- with it's jump range the main gun is a little questionable and its loss could shore up head armor. Still, I think its a damn good design all things considered.


New Protomech Assualt Protomech
Mass: 8 Tons
Chassis: Bipedal
Power Plant: 40 Fusion
Cruising Speed: 3 kph
Maximum Speed: 5 kph
Jump Jets: Extended Jump Jets
    Jump Jet Capacity: 150 meters
Armor: Standard Proto armor
Armament:
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown

 
 
 
 
 
Type: New Protomech Extended Jump Jets
Technology Base: Clan (Wars of Reaving)
Tonnage: 8
Battle Value: Incomplete
 
Equipment:                        Mass
Internal Structure:                800 KG
Engine:               40           1000 KG
     Walking MP:      3
     Running MP:      5
     Jumping MP:     
Heat Sinks:           5          1250 KG 
Cockpit:                          500 KG 
Armor Factor:         39          1950 KG 
                Internal       Armor
                Structure      Value
   Head            2             5 
   Torso           8             15 
   R/L Arm         2/2           3/3
   Legs            5             10 
   Main Gun        1             3 


All Weapons and Ammo    Location    Mass(KG)
ER Medium Laser(1)                      MG          1000   
Magnetic Clamps(1)                      T           500   

[Xeno426]

Did you ever come up with a good name for the unit? I get 327 for the BV.

I'd have sent this by PM, but you can't seem to accept PMs. :P

[Crow]

Since it has MCS and you can drop it within spitting distance with the enemy anyway, why not give it a Chemical Medium Laser and an SRM3 to up the firepower a bit?

[Xeno426]

You know, since the Gorgon was in use with the Society, this could just be called the Gorgon Z.

[Xeno426]

Since it has MCS and you can drop it within spitting distance with the enemy anyway, why not give it a Chemical Medium Laser and an SRM3 to up the firepower a bit?

Loooong delay in posting, but I was thinking about this against recently.

I went and made this, but could only fit ten shots for the MCL and five shots for the SRM-3. Swapping down to an SRM-2 let me fit 15 MCL shots and ten SRM-2 shots, plus an extra point of armor.

Not sure if the extra tube is worth the loss of longevity on the field. 15 shots for a MCL seems to be a good number of rounds, especially after using units like the Roc Z and Roc 5.

[Crow]

Well you could shave the torso armor down by 2 points to have an extra 100kg for ChemML/SRM ammo and still be able to take an AC20 square in the chest and live...

[Xeno426]

Yeah, that lets me put in two MCL and one SRM-3 rounds.

[Crow]

Yeah, that lets me put in two MCL and one SRM-3 rounds.

Well, I was only suggesting increasing the SRM3 rounds. I mean to be honest, I would shave the armor down to so you could have 9-10 shots for the Chemical ML and SRM3 each, but that's just me. Each SRM3 shot is only going to be 25kg each. If you insist on having the armor levels where they are, just go with ERSL and SRM3(10), and there you go. Of course now the design starts looking suspiciously like half of a Delphyne 2...

However, I'm of the opinion that the best generalist Proto is the Centaur 4 and I'll stand by that. Since it has two ammo bins for its SRM1s, you can fill one with inferno and the other with smoke rounds, or whatever you like.

Although to be perfectly honest, while I want to like the idea of a generalist Proto, I don't think that it's a good idea. I prefer each Protomech design to serve a particular niche and be optimized for that task (scouting, harassing, battle, fire support, etc), while the "generalist" function is performed by the point or star as a cohesive unit.

You could also go with