Like many have said, it's a cheap, straitforward box of toys and little else. It's a style that I like aesthetically, though I'd implement it a bit more caricaturistically if it were up to me.
For those of us watching the debate at home, how much does a dedicated vehicle for hauling toads (and/or squishies, for that matter) cost if it's of appropriately minimalist style to match the Hetzer? How does its BA-carrying capacity per C-Bill compare to omnifying the Hetzers?
Cost to modify a standard
Hetzer with an AC/20 loadout is 166,000, comparing that to a wheeled HAPC that has been "Omni-ified"(MG's only, and the 6 ton infantry bay), the total costs are 149,645 and change, stock is 119,717...as a Battle taxi this is better for moving units, but has to rely on the "Kobold defense®" to avoid not being flaming wreckage...there are possibilities with that 6 ton bay as well...might be on to something....
As for adding uncertainty re: loadout, in the case of something that's meant to be used in groups anyway and shouldn't be seen until it's ready to attack, what makes omnivehicles better at hiding their loadouts than standard vehicles? (I've exactly zero double-blind experience.)
My thought/experience with this is more anecdotal, Many years ago I had to set up an OPFOR unit in a level 1 game, I for get what constraints I had as to BV but the units I picked were all variants, the HBK-4H, a CNT-9AH, I think a Jenner 7F. It turned out to be one of the more fun games we had as none of the opposing mechs acted like their base models..not game breaking but a little shocking when at 15 hexes you hear "OK, the Hunchback is firing", suddenly your assumptions go out the window. Today with active probes and ECM, you can still get that little bit of a Tempo Point because until the unit fires, you may not know exactly what you are facing, that's not supposed to happen...especially if you assume and don't ask. :-)
If no rules exist for there being a difference between standard and omni for this, my fiction-oriented perspective is that I imagine it would be more appropriate for Quikscell to just encase everything in the same nondescript box, so that all variants look the same until the door on the front slides open. If I fail to kill my target I expect my whole lance will likely be flanked and destroyed, so if I even get to worry that the enemy might be able to later recognise a particular Hetzer by its body damage I'll consider myself rather lucky to still have it at all. Even in that case, I'd probably rather have a fifth Hetzer than have the ability to change loadouts, since Hetzers are already confined to narrow range of uses by their mobility and armor AND, to my eye at least, they look like they're meant to be used in groups.
I would say that is an equally valid point of view..the
Hetzer does well in mass, anything subtracting from that mass reduces combat power. personally i would make the
Hetzer kinda of the Universal Weapon Carrier and just sell everything and every type of armament option out there.
P.S. Try running the 2 LRM-15 variant, people don't shoot it as much...cheep too.