After catching up. UrbanMech LAMs...YAY!!!!!!
I hope stats, fluff and art, will be available for them and other LAMs. We do need new Mk2 LAM art and art and stats for the Clan Jade Falcon's LAMs. And it would be great if the UrbieLAM was made canon. Since we do have a Third Star League now, there's no reason the PDF, and the UrbieLAM couldn't be made canon.
I've never agreed with the "LAMs don't fit Battletech" argument. LAMs fit. The reason for their creation makes sense and is as valid as wanting Fighters to have VTOL and tanks to hover. If those things fit so do LAMs. That doesn't mean all mechs have to be LAMs but they do fit. For those that don't like LAMs, don't say they don't fit. Just don't use them. That simple.
LAMs were never Lostech. Not in the way that Gauss Rifles, XL Engines, and other SLDF Tech was. LAMs are more unused and forgotten tech. All the information is there to build LAMs. It's just no one uses them so knowledge about the how to is forgotten.
I am hoping that the use of QuadVees will help bring back LAMs. Not just by the IS but by the Clans also. I think the whole Clans hate LAMs thing has been overblown. The Nova Cats might have hated LAMs. Attitudes among other Clans varied. The Jade Falcons experimented with LAMs. Clan Wolf equipped Wolf's Dragoons with several LAMs and at least one of their LAM pilots was a Goliath Scorpion. So, I can see the Ravens building their own LAMs. I can see the Hell's Horses building them too.
I don't think LAMs should have to wait for Aerospace to be fixed. AirMech and BattleMech modes are used on the ground map. I do think their rules could be better, and we do need rules for AirMechs in space, but they're more workable than Aerospace Rules. A couple of them are pure nerfs and we ignored them but the rest are okay. Although, some of the tech restrictions do get very shaky with the presence of QuadVees.
I don't think having LAMs as Special Forces only would work even with force building rules. Units don't always stay what they were designed for. War pushes them into other things. Plus there's always going to be units, like mercenaries, that don't fit a mold.