Ahem. Grade school math aside... ::) I was refering to
I know you didn't mean to imply that I was a short bus rider, but I was actually refering to the RAW.
:P
Ah, sorry. My apologies.
Wait a sec, so that means if you calculate an engine rating from an even walk MP as normal and then simply add 5 to the rating, you can get ONE WHOLE EXTRA run MP? Cool! :D ;)
Hmm... to make a 5/8 get to 5/9, I need a base run greater than 8 (base run for 5 is 7.5). 8/1.5 = 5.333333. On a 50 ton mech, that would be a base rating of 266.666667, or 270. A 270 rated engine on a 50 ton mech gets an actual walking speed of 5.4, and an actual run speed of 8.1 which according to rules rounds up to 9.
So for a 50 tonner:
5/8 move = 250 rated engine = 12.5 tons
5/9 move = 270 rated engine = 14.5 tons
6/9 move = 300 rated engine = 19 tons
That one extra run MP only costs you 2 tons. An exta walk MP costs 4.5 tons more than THAT. So a 5/9 certainly looks like it's worth the cost.
Of course, all this is rules lawyering. Realistically, a 50 ton mech with a 270 rated engine barely moves faster than one with a 250 rated engine. And of course the original rules never envisioned anyone getting a run MP that was x.0 or x.5. If you have to get the run up to a more realistic 8.5, then you wind up needing a 285 rated engine which is 16.5 tons. That's 4 tons more than the 250 and 2.5 tons short of the 300. That may make it more worthwhile to simply take the full 6 walk instead.