Build your own mech, yes or no

[Drewbacca]

The question wich I have always wondered, not including custom variants, what is the general feeling towards designing your own mech from scratch. My oldest rulebook has the construction rules in it, but I only rarely build my own. How about all of you?

[Sartris]

i've made a giant pile of them, sure. most have never seen the table since i don't play with customs often outside of villain boss variants.

[Alsadius]

I get substantially more fun out of design than actual play, tbh. Which is weird, I know, but I'm a weird dude.

[Daryk]

I've designed far more 'mechs than I've actually gotten to play.  That said, stock (and stock variants) are the easiest to bring to a table.

[rebs]

Same here, I've designed a lot of 'mechs that I've never used except for battles that were exclusively for customs. 

[Luciora]

Same here.  Love building minis for customs too even if they never see play.

I get substantially more fun out of design than actual play, tbh. Which is weird, I know, but I'm a weird dude.

[boilerman]

I think designing my own mechs, vehicles, DropShips, etc. is the main draw to this game for me, always has been.

[Mattlov]

i've made a giant pile of them, sure. most have never seen the table since i don't play with customs often outside of villain boss variants.

 :stupid:

I have FOLDERS of customs that see occasional use in Mechwarrior RPG campaigns, but for every 50 designs I make, I might use one.

[SteelRaven]

Go for it!

I never done so myself because sooo many existing mechs to choose from but I did have a idea for a 75 ton Bushwacker I never got around to.

[Ogra_Chief]

Like many others have stated already, I have built many custom mechs over the years. Though I prefer super-heavy tanks (mini Bolos/Ogres) and have made far more vehicles than mechs. Thanks to megamek I get to test them out to my heart’s content. When I make a mech, it must be bad, as in a bad mech design. My head cannon will not let me use it otherwise, there needs to be a reason why its rare and not as common as stocks. Its one thing to design a min/maxed mech, it is another matter to build a good bad mech. So, all my customs are uniquely bad mechs. Including bad quirks and all; two bad quirks for one good quirk is my custom rule.

[garhkal]

The question wich I have always wondered, not including custom variants, what is the general feeling towards designing your own mech from scratch. My oldest rulebook has the construction rules in it, but I only rarely build my own. How about all of you?

I love making custom mechs.  BUT there's many a time, you don't get to use them..

[mbear]

I love designing new 'Mech variants, but mostly as a response to events or settings. For example, how do I make the Mjolnir suck less? What if the SLDF refitted Scorpions as ground based SDS elements? (Those go to Fan Design threads, in case you're a CGL employee/freelancer.)

One of my latest unfinished ideas is the note that the Outworlds Alliance purchased several Hercules 'Mechs. What if the Raven Alliance produced a version of it?

[Kit deSummersville]

For a while, I got paid to do it!

[Colt Ward]

For a while, I got paid to do it!

So is the lie . . . you did it or you got paid?

[Kovax]

Topic: Build your own mech, yes or no?

Response: Work on it is going VERY slowly in my basement, for lack of parts.  They don't stock myomers or ferro-fibrous armor at my local Home Depot for some reason, and I got some REALLY funny looks when I tried to buy a fusion reactor.  Not sure how I'll get it out the door if I ever finish the thing.

Seriously though (which in itself is a relatively rare event for me), I design a LOT of customs, but rarely ever use one in a game.  I've even got a handful of custom miniatures (scratch built) to represent a couple of them on the table, and built up an entirely scratch-built light 'Mech in roughly 1:72nd scale to go with a couple of old Revell plastic model kits of the old "unseen" 'Mechs.

In some campaigns, I'll make a few small changes to an existing design using salvaged equipment to replace damaged equivalents, which may require a few other tweaks to make fit, but that's not "my own", merely a modification.  Fielding a full custom generally doesn't go well, because everyone then has to verify that the design doesn't go overweight for its stated tonnage or violate other construction rules.  I've met several players who won't hesitate to build a "75 ton 'Mech" that weighs 80 tons if they think they can get away with it, and several more who simply can't get the math right and unintentionally violate the rules one way or another.  Basically, it delays the start of a game while everyone checks the other players' designs for legality.  We eventually stopped using customs, but it's a phase that almost every player goes through when they first get into the game.

[Kit deSummersville]

So is the lie . . . you did it or you got paid?

Perhaps it's the while.

[Empyrus]

I have tens of designs across two computers, across all weight classes and types, all tech bases, from weird to optimized. A lot of them i've posted in the custom designs forum. But i have no real intention of playing any because i prefer to stick with official designs in games (and there's more of those than i'll ever have time to try them out).
Plus i don't have suitable miniatures, i don't like proxying wholly different designs. Maybe one day when, if, i can design and 3D print my own.

[Easy]

cleanup

[Col Toda]

If you are doing a Solaris VII campaign unique customs are great . Otherwise custom varients are far better.  Taking a solid successful design and modifing or upgrading with the latest systems seemsvto be a far better idea . A host of 3050  Draconis Combine mmechs have er energy weapons and single heat sinks just a double heat sink upgrade as they become available is a huge improvement . It goes on from there . Successful stock tweeked with more advanced systems requires little or no playtesting required to determine if it was good idea . Where as an unique mech is an educated guess if it is any good and under what terrain and conditions it is any good ig any .

[grimlock1]

I've only built 3 mechs from the ground up.  How many have I tweaked, modded, massaged or otherwise adjusted?  2<x<1E6

And there are other's that have started as tweaks and mods, that basically turned into a brand new machine. Like when I started playing in the Mjolnir Refit thread.  Maces have TH penalties, and bring a risk of falling. So I wanted AES in the legs and the swinging arm.  That meant no TSM.  What's the smallest mech that can carry a mace that hits for 12+?  45 tons. Okay, lets scale this thing up to 45 tons....

[RifleMech]

I enjoy building Mechs and other units although mostly I'll customize. Customizing is either part of a story/campaign, to match stats to art and fluff, or to re-purpose a unit like turning an APC into an Armored Car or Light Tank.

[Pouncer]

I also have many, many folders of custom mechs, fighters, vehicles and a warship as well.  Very few ever get to see the light of day, often due to BT being the game we play least.
 

A personal fave of mine is an overteched IS Locust fluffed as an early attempt to make an IS omnimech.  Production model has five specific, easy to change to configurations but it just can't mount any ol' equipment due to never truly being an omni. 

-POUNCER

[StoneRhino]

Back when I got into the game all I had to work with were the handful of designs that were in the back of the BT Compendium:RoW. This meant between the time that I got into the game and got my friends to play it, we either used those few designs or used the construction rules to design our own.

Considering everyone in the group played RPGs together the idea of designing our own mechs was a big draw. I got more questions about what was allowed in regards to mech creation then anything else. We designed, we played, we had fun. We continued this for several years. Were the games balanced? Nope! Did we have fun still? Yup!

Now games are regulated by BV2, which should mean that home made designs should not be an issue at all. There are enough published designs that get close to many of the maximized designs that people can come up with.

Part of the fun of the game has not been related to what happens on the maps, but what you can do at home. At home you can design mechs all day long if you have the time. That gives you an idea of what you want to run, why, and what you wouldn't want. I know that I have designed several mechs and other units in the past, but I may have only used one in a game before.

I think that some people make to big of a deal about facing customs, with or without BV2.

[SteveUK]

I do it all the time, by hand in the early days then HM pro, then Solaris Skunk works and now MM Lab. It's a fun mental exercise, coming up with the design and then the fluff to justify it, I have even set up various manufactureres to provide the components, mech built by Swan Hunter mech yards, weapons by Armstrong Vickers, Electronics by Plessy and engines by Doxford. Strange thing is I've never played with any of them as I only play with stock mechs as that always seems both more fitting and challenging. 

[Elmoth]

I like customs. Buy a custom to me is some minor changes, not the fact that you can take any mech and change it so much as it can be come something else entirely. A wasp turned into a stinger, yeah sure. An Enforcer turned into a Hunchback specs not so much. That makes mechs bland and lacking in character IMO, since they become just a name and a weight class, not a charismatic machine.

(In our games if you change more than 2 specs of the machine it becomes unreliable, but that is us)

[Sabelkatten]

About 500 files in my SSW customs directory. And going back to the age before computer support I've got two full notebooks with multiple designs per page, probably 1000+...

I've played several times more custom mechs than stock.

[LastChanceCav]

Like many others one of the things I enjoy most is designing new mechs. I spend more time with SSW and spreadsheets than i do actually playing the game. Despite all the designs I've created I pretty much only play with canon designs.

Cheers,
LCC

[RifleMech]

One of the great things about building and customizing is that you can take a Mech that's been totally gutted with missing limbs and bring it back to life. You can completely restore it to original condition, upgrade it to better than before, use whatever's available to get it to work, or anything in between.

[BloodRose]

Do I have to upload my old designs again? Build-a-Mech is good for the game and can be really fun. And if one guy goes full TFG then just introduce a counter.

[Hominid Mk II]

The question wich I have always wondered, not including custom variants, what is the general feeling towards designing your own mech from scratch. My oldest rulebook has the construction rules in it, but I only rarely build my own. How about all of you?

My own policy is... not usually. Unless you're a talented artist or sculptor or you have one as a friend, having even an illustration of it isn't going to be an option, let alone a miniature. I totally suck as an artist and I couldn't sculpt to save my life. Likewise with the rest of my group.

We all usually play with custom refits of designs we already have minis of.