The Cizin's Battle Computer

[Saklad5]

This is a question for Johannes Heidler, who recently welcomed forum questions from anybody who is "really curious about some specific detail".

Why does the Cizin in TRO:3145 have the Battle Computer quirk? Only three other chassis in the entire setting have that quirk canonically, at least to MegaMekLab's knowledge, and they're all quite heavy and incapable of moving quickly. The Cizin is just a fast hovercraft, and I have never seen any fluff suggesting it has sophisticated command equipment.

From a game balance perspective, it's quite questionable: Battle Computer is the only source of +2 Initiative that can't be jammed by ECM, and being on a particularly fast and relatively cheap design seems like an encouragement of cheesy keep-away tactics to preserve that advantage. There's a reason only units in at least the heavy tonnage bracket are allowed that benefit with a Cockpit Command Console, after all.

[jymset]

Hi! Thanks for checking in - sorry about the slow reply, I missed this one somehow.

Quirks in TRO 3145 were the prerogative of the respective writers, barring the few that the design team pre-ordained based on whatever prior sources were at hand. In the new style of TRO writing that started with 3145, Capabilities were intended to focus on attributes not just directly transcribed from the game stats on the other pages; these were then intended to be reflected by the quirks.

I just spent a little bit of time in Febuary/March 2013, going through the old threads for 3145 - Kurita; nice trip down memory lane. I can confirm the Cizin was submitted without any quirks, so all five (!) of its quirks were determined by its writer. For instance, for us to have suggested Battle Computer, the unit would have had to feature the "Command" special ability on some of its MechWarrior: Dark Age / Age of Destruction game pieces, which the Cizin didn't. 3145 Kurita was a single-writer issue penned by Ben Rome. I did see that they aren't directly connected to the quirk, so I can but guess at the intent. Which I won't.

FWIW, these days, quirks will be used only restrictively at the design stage, and any additions due to lore need a compelling hook.