Upgrade kits & shops

[Colt Ward]

I have been a fan of the idea of the major merc worlds offering either DIY kits for common mechs or upgrades- something like the 3050 being kits shipped units.  Or refit shops where you can look at the menu and have the shop upgrade from one variant to another (Yeah *looks at menu board behind the counter at Mek MakeOver* I will take a order of Warhammer 7A, hold the machine guns.) while you are on world either hunting for a contract or rebuilding your command.

Each approach has its own advantage- kits could be ordered and shipped to a location.  The upgrade shops are less likely to botch parts of the conversion, be faster due to standardizing, and cut costs due to the two previous points.

But aside from the 3050 kits . . . what else would be out there?

I thought of this while reading about some of the Thunderbolt variants that were lost during the Succession Wars and thinking about the Royals.  I mean I would prefer a Thunderbolt 5L over a -7M . . . maybe a -5LS loadout if it had DHS instead.  Or I might prefer the Marauder 2R to some of the 5 series models if I was a merc who was finally able to scrape together the funds to upgrade.

[Giovanni Blasini]

This might seem like an odd one, but I'd expect to see a standard refit kit to swap in an AC/5 in place of the heavy rifle on the Arbiter.

[Thatguybil]

Source books talk about this on outreach.

Swapping in DSHS and LBX / GR into most mechs are no brainers.
Is their a difficulty reduction for going between published variants vs a custom design?

[glitterboy2098]

by the jihad i'd imagine that there would be kits to convert some designs to their Star league counterparts.. like going from a WHM-6R to a WHM-6Rb (DHS, artemis, and Ferro-fib) or a MAD-3R to a MAD-2R (DHS, CASE, Ferro-Fib, ERPPC's)

also, i'd imagine that there would be standardized kits for converting a mech to a Command Console by way of pulling some less needed weapons/equipment or replacing it with lighter stuff.

[Drewbacca]

Leaving upgrades out the picture for a minute, I always wondered about salvage and how it was used. Say you have a merc unit that lucks out and scored a bunch of salvage but it includes gear you just can't use. What happens next? You sell it of course and your employer will likely buy it, but they will probably give bottom dollar for it. What about private salvage yards? Do they exist?

Lets say they do. Here is Mr. Merc with his salvage to a private yard. Ms. Merc comes along with a PHX-1 on izs last legs, litterally. The yard owner says, "Sure we can get you the parts to fix it, but we could also convert that Pixie to a D if you want, guarantee and all. Even polish the armor when we are done and through an air freshener in the cockpit."

[Colt Ward]

Well, one of the MWDA books (Patriot's Stand?) has them go to Galatea where they are trying to hire help (Seven Samurai?  Magnificent Seven?) and they walk into a Arms Dealer's showroom (think biggest & gaudiest car lot) . . . then out the back door to the used & junk lot.  So yes, they exist . . .

I use the loot-type rules from WEG's Star Wars Pirates & Privateers for selling off things taken with the Alliance or a fence- or something similar as I remember them.  Which means black market your are making out like a king if you get 40% of the value, gray might be 60% (yeah, you can sell those weapons to another approved entity . . . but you are ducking the tax forms, approved end user forms, etc) and selling to the faction/business that hired you might be 80%.  Of course, I also think that buying a new or factory refurbished mech should be something like 130% to 140% of the listed value or if buying from a noble/other merc/security business maybe 110%-120%.