The Warrior's intro date is 2957, before the Star League Exodus.
The Donar's intro date is 3017, before the Clan Invasion.
Precisely how did they "Clannify" a VTOL that they didn't know to exist yet?
you mean "After" the Star League exodus. I was speaking more in terms of how it was done outside the fiction, Retry. TRO 3026 predates the Clan invasion books and material very significantly, while TRO 3058 was published in the middle of the Clan invasion material and AFTER Serpent. it was quicker to translate the most commonly used Inner Sphere VTOL for that TRO, than to completely come up with something new. (Plus, they copied the most successful Inner Sphere vtol design)
In CANON, it's probably an outgrowth of re-designing the Cyrano to be...useful, since the SLDF only had a handful of VTOL designs of their own in TRO 2750.
But compare;
Donar: 21 tons
H-7: 21 tons
Donar: counterrotating rotor assembly
H-7: counterrotating rotor assembly
Donar: Long range main gun, SRM backup weapons.
H-7: Long range main gun, SRM backup weapons.
The differences come down to the Clan design using fusion power (which was fairly common for SLDF, and thus, Clan vehicles. certainly more common than ICE engines or Fuel cells), and in using fusion power, relying on an energy weapon for the main gun instead of a light autocannon. For the Missile packs, the Clanners chose a pair of streak-2's, for a four-missile volley, while the Warrior uses a single SRM-4 of the same mass for the same size volley (but significantly less accuracy).
The movement split can be explained by different priorities and different ways of dealing with both technical and tactical issues-the Donar can spend more time hiding thanks to the significantly higher damage curve, and pre-invasion Clan trials aren't played as no-holds-barred fights, so your Donars will spend more time in the barn, than in the air, being as they're more likely to be bid away in a Batchall, even when it's second line forces facing front liners, so your performance requirements, and combat endurance requirements, are reduced.
I know, that falls into your argument as support, but then, you're positing a design POST invasion, likely by Clans who've learned that everyone else is NOT going to play by their rules and your design falls more into the 'formal trials' style of combat, where counting coup might actually be a viable choice, while the base model 3026 H-7 was built for NO rules warfare (or exceedingly lax rules of engagement) where dragging it out and bleeding the foe is considered just as 'lawful' a tactic as smashing them flat in one glorious rush forward in the open.
The Donar philosophically straddles that line-it has enough punch for the glory boys, but it's got range enough to drag it out-it simply lacks sufficient speed to do so as well as an older-stat model H-7.
Yours, by contrast, is definitely a glory-boy model-it has one glorious rush in it, and then it's either supernumerary or dead. That fits with homeworld trials machines, but it's not battlemech enough to do that outside of a very narrow group of HOMEWORLD clanners.
I don't see the Homeworlders shucking their Cyranos for your version, but then, I don't have your gaming group. I do NOT see the Invading clans designing it-if they've faced enough H-7s to respect the design enough to update it, they're not going to update it into something less useful than the original design, or worse, less useful than a design that's been in Clan inventories for decades to centuries.
But I'm not in your campaign, I can't speak for what goes down in your version of the BT 'verse. I know that I wouldn't have a problem annihilating your version of the Warrior(clan version) using stock designs from the books in that same family, which suggests it's not much of an improvement, and I can think of at least four existing inner sphere machines that outperform it for less cost across a broader area of uses, none of them customs.
In a sense, I have to say it, if you're going to do a 'C' variation of an Inner Sphere design, it needs to be BETTER than the stock, yours resembles a Cavalry stuck with a popgun on the nose and the ammo bins removed, only with less capability. That's not a favorable position to be in, and I am fair certain you can do better than this.
once you get over your offense at the criticism.
First thing to argue, is why did the Clanners see the H-7 as WORTH updating? what does it do well? How can Clan tech make it BETTER at that job? You don't provide a solid argument here, and getting all offended doesn't help make your case.
What the H-7 does well: scouting and harassment, secondary strikes on conventional assets, and plinking fire delivered from a very difficult to hit platform over a sustained period of time. it excels at this, it also excels at hunting other VTOL units and fast conventionals, it's tailor made to suppress uprisings, harass enemy scout formations, and delay/distract/reveal enemy movements.
How does yours do these things? well, assuming the main gun doesn't jam, it's mediocre to poor as a sniping platform, and the bundled one-shots will certainly one-shot a single vehicle target with the right ammo...but then, it becomes effectively worthless. one-for-one trade, under your BEST circumstances, after which it becomes supernumerary in short order. no legs, no repeat engagement, no way to sustain a threatening posture or draw off enemy escort units.
which, if you've used ultras in play for any length of time, isn't a guarantee, even WITH a TC (which doesn't count toward that, check the rules.)
means your "main weapon" is that array of one-shots, and you have to get standing in their boots range, have ONE shot at it, and after that, you're basically done. which is fine for the one or two mapsheet battles you're probably used to, since you keep referring to fragility as if it's not a thing with EVERY VTOL in the game, as if
every close approach wasn't taking a calculated risk.
the SINGLE thing in your design I feel is worthy, is the use of the chin turret with that main gun. THAT makes sense as an upgrade. your weapons fit, however, is a drastic DOWN grade from a premier harassment/battlefield influencer, to, well, an expensive, yet less useful, take on the base concept of the Cavalry AH, which is another design that relies on SRM spreads to do its job, but does so far, far, better using a lower technology base, at less objective cost.
what your design reminds me of, is that dreadful thing that Wolf's Dragoons built and then abandoned-I can't remember the name, but it was another VTOL with missile primary/and secondary, that was fragile enough to make the H-7 look tanky, and so successful even the gear-hungry inner sphere powers didn't place a second order (and nobody in the Periphery is even interested in buying one.) basically a hell of a punch-once, after which it's dead.
dammit, now I can't remember the name of it...
anyway, you don't like criticism. that's fine. you be you. that doesn't change that your design is a set of bad decisions made easy.
