The rules for Dropship docking collars don't make as much sense as they used to- back in the day (aka way back before the Clans were written), the rule for Dropship Hardpoints on jumpships was: 1 docking collar per 50,000 tons, 1000 tons each, can hold a dropship of up to 100,000 tons.
Which is all fine and dandy, right up until they started giving more and more dropships to choose from.
Now, the rules clearly favor larger dropships- why bother with a Leopard class at all? It's so small there's no point in even building it, when a larger dropship can do everything it can but better.
(Frankly, a single Mammoth class refitted with armor and guns could still carry more mechs than 10 Overlord-class dropships)
So, I propose the equipment for jumpships: Docking Hardpoint extension.
The DHE weighs twice as much as a normal hardpoint, (2000 t), and can only hold a maximum weight of 50,000 t dropships. But unlike a conventional hardpoint, it can hold multiple dropships.
A DHE can hold up to a maximum of 10 dropships, as long as the total weight is below 50,000 t.
So, for example, a single DHE could, in a single trip, contain one of the following:
10 Leapords
10 Unions
4 Mules (civilian ship)
5 Overlords
5 Interdictors (pocket warship)
However, a ship with DHE would need twice the weight, so an Invader-class, for example, could only hold 1 DHE and 1 normal Dropship hardpoint.
What do you think?
