Hello,
I've got a question on the engine ratings on primitive 'Mechs and aerospace fighters that may belong here, or may belong in Ask the Writers. If, after reading, this belongs there, please move accordingly.
I'm clear on how engine calculations work in both cases, but there are certain combinations of mass and speed that can result in some designs being able to use the same engine as both a primitive and more advanced design. One canon example would be the WSP-1, which uses a 120-rating engine to go 5/8 before jump jets, and the intro tech WSP-1A that replaced it, which used the same engine to go 6/9 base before jump jets.
This made me wonder, are these both the same engine? Were you to shove the WSP-1's engine, for example, into a WSP-1A (or vice versa), would the 'Mech's base speed be unaffected, or would this instead result in a mixed-tech design using a combination of intro tech and primitive tech, with a resulting change in base speed?
Basically, I'm trying to clarify where the *1.2 modifier comes from: engine or myomers (or thrusters in the case of aerospace fighters). Does the primitive unit's engine produce 5/6 the power output of a similarly-massed standard engines, or do primitive motive systems consume 20% more power to produce the same results?
