Having looked at
Diabl048's mech design thread, and being relatively new here at the time of posting, I have decided to create a thread for me to post all of my homebrew designs in.
I may, if the mood takes me, post a short description of a unit as I post it, incorporating what I designed it for, why I thought there was need for
another mech that fills that role, and how I went about designing it. I may also post an in-universe description from the point of view of either the mercenary Draco Ferox, which will be
red text, or from the hoary old trader Rourke Desirae, who tends to talk in... what was it again?
"Blue! Back to work on that engine, goldfish-brain!".I just thought I'd take the time to make a few points here before I start:
1. I don't optimise ruthlessly. I may do it occasionally, but for the most part, I don't mind if the units I design have inefficiencies or weaknesses. After all, this is, to me at least, the way that most of the canon units are designed- they have their weaknesses that you have to work around. In the same way, whilst I don't consciously work weaknesses into my designs, if they do end up with them, I won't go back and try to change them.
2. I design mostly from an in-universe perspective, so I go for cost over BV, and availability will often decide what I use. The ER medium laser is the same weight and size as the standard medium laser, but costs twice as much. This, to me, makes the ER laser much less useful, as for each one you buy, you can either mount 2 standard lasers on the mech, or have a spare one back home for when the mounted one is inevitably destroyed (it'll happen eventually, no matter what you mount it on).
3. Despite the name of the thread, I will sometimes post units that are not mechs. Kind of unavoidable, seeing as I don't want to clutter up the forums with a separate thread for each different type of unit I have a design for. Just a minor point, but as great as this forum is, this is the internet, so it's sadly necessary.
4. This thread is not just for me. Should you wish to post something, be it criticism of a design, another variant, or just a comment on anything posted before, feel free.
5. You may notice a distinct lack of variant designs for canon units. This is because I don't do them. Related to my first point, I find playing some canon units enjoyable because of the challenge they pose (except the charger, which is just frustrating), and redesigning them to cover these weaknesses removes something of what that mech was, as well as the satisfaction of using it successfully.
Well, that's everything for now. I'll try to get the design that got me started up tomorrow.
