Mechas customized for factions

[EuchreJack]

For the reference of future Mecha Modders, I though it would be useful if we discuss exactly how each faction would most likely customize their mechas.  I'll start with some stray ideas, and my fellow forum goers are encouraged to jump in with corrections, comments, and additional ideas.

Corporate Faction Customizations:
Each corporation has its own style, but they all share some similar concepts towards customization.
1) Limited Missiles: Each fired missile costs the company money, so Corporate conversions would tend towards reducing costs by limiting missile loadout from the standard design.  This brings up the next idea
2) Replace ammo weapons with lasers/melee: Weapons that do not cost money per shot are preferable to those that are ammo-dependent.  Of course, the corporation will not put a 1,000,000 Laser Weapon on a 2,000,000 Mecha, but cheap lasers are preferable to cheap cannons.
3) High damage, single shot weapons: Weapons with burst are to be avoided, as they ruin the quality of salvage, which can be converted into raw materials for mecha manufacturing (different than the way that the player recovers and fits mecha components, the corporate factories can use far more than the player)
4) Move the cockpit to the head: A lance of head cockpit mechas will perform better on average than a lance of chest cockpitted mechas.  Other factions avoid doing this because mecha are easier to replace than pilots.  While true, the corporations know that mechas are more expensive than pilots, especially considering the corporate uses for pilots are probably for lesser-experienced pilots anyways.  After all, the corporations are generally the only faction that do not require experience for the player to join.

I'll cover a few of the other factions in far less detail:
Rishi Spinner forces: They generally go for firepower over all else
Pro Duelist League: Increased performance, putting the cockpit in the head, less armor for more maneuverability
L5 law/Silver Knights: Status effects seem prevalent.
L5 Law specifically: Self-reliant mechas that are recon capiable.  Upgunned recon mechas especially, L5 Law probably get more search-and-destroy missions than any other faction.

[Katyusha]

While I agree with #1 (unless they were say, a missile manufacturing company that wanted to show off their wares), I'll disagree with the rest.

On #2: Remember, alot of the corporations sell weapons too. When you see a company's own mecha refuse to use their own wares, it hurts the image of the product, and thus will likely reduce sales. In terms of long term profit, ammo reliant weapons give them more, as the end user must continually replace expended ammunition. Ergo some (Hoeller especially, with their Warcry and Roc) would have plenty of reason to use Ammo reliant weapons.

On #3: It's more than likely the only salvage theyre interested in is enemy corporation's new models to grab onto possibly new hardware to reverse engineer. A corporation's mecha forces are most likely to be found either defending it's assets or destroying an enemy corp's. Between combat effectiveness and saving some mecha parts, a corp is more likely to demand maximum effectiveness rather than risk a factory's destruction (or risk an enemy factory surviving) vis a vis the chump change of salvaging a mecha.

On #4: A pilot is cheap. An EFFECTIVE pilot is worth more than their weight in platinum and gold. Do you want rent-a-cops guarding your precious shiny factory from pirates and rivals, or do you want ones who can square off vs the Army?

On others:

Silver Knights: Due to their lack of numbers, the ideal solution for them would be to maximise quality. Speed, Mobility, Firepower and a good command and control structure ala the US Military or the Israeli Defence force. Avoids direct confrontation on even terms, and would rather disable their enemies and wreak havoc on logistics and supply lines and command and control. Ergo, they'd lean towards specialist mecha.Ones supremely capable in a given task, and use them as a cohesive unit.

On L5 Law: Completely and utterly disagree. they're a POLICE force. Serve and Protect. their bailiwick would likely be heavy armor (so they can use themselves as shields for civilians etc) and status weapons that disable. They'd try to be as intimidating as possible as to force enemies to back down rather than direct combat. Think Patlabor. They would have the FEWEST search and destroy missions because their thing would be to contain an event and then move in with overwhelming power.


Edit: ...wow... some of those typos were >_>

[Vair]

#1 and #2 should be balanced and different companies should have different policies here. After all every fired missile may cost some buyer money but such money are also what manufacturer of another missile will get more of. So, basically I am with Katyusha here.
#3 for armies wanting to reduce the costs - sure. In case of Duelists though, big, shiny gun ripping enemies into pieces would provide more public enthusiasm probably and just look far better for some people - a factor important on the arena.
#4 Again, I would agree with Katyusha at this moment. In case of some groups where pilots are cheap and expandable - Euchrejack is right. Otherwise, faction should do what is possible to make the pilot survive. Especially since even heavily damaged mecha can fight as long as the pilot can control it (and machine isn't smoldering wreckage) while whole lot of almost unscathed mechas lying on the battlefield with their pilots dead will provide absolutely no chance to win the battle.

Also, generally Duelists should go in every direction as they're just organization of people who work usually in the same field but other than that there isn't that much of a structure and how machine should be improved is to be decided by the pilot alone. Also, I am quite sure that most duelists would not care at all of whether their own machine is in good state if it's at the cost of them being dead and so would do what is necessary to improve chance to survival more than any other faction mass-producing combat units.

Edit: Taking care of some typo, adding last thought.

[EuchreJack]

Some good points.  Actually, your arguments comvince me that companies are unlikely to field many modified mechas, as they feel their default mechas are perfect.  Kinda like my arguments against companies using kitbashed mechas, lol.

Other thoughts were more based on existing modifications in-game.  My comments on the Pro-Duelist league come straight from the Secutor description.

For low bv mechas, it is more likely that the assigned pilots would be low-skill, and thus I'd imagine some versions with head-mounted cockpits.  Especially in the designs that can not survive long even with a body-mounted cockpit.

Until I learn more about L5 Law, I reserve my ideas on their activities.  It may very well be true that the reason they assign so many "find the bandit mechas and kill them" (aka search and destroy) missions to the PC is because they refuse to do those missions themselves.   Still, whenever they fail to hire the PC, they sometimes say, "There is no need for citizens to get worried, L5 Law will handle it."  Thus, I genuinely think they do a lot of search and destroy missions.  Or maybe they always 'handle it' by hiring calviers and whichever mercenary group has prominence in the local spinner (aka Rocket Stars for Rishi and related, Silver Knights for Marquise and related, and Privateers Guild for all other spinners that L5 Law has jurisdiction).

[Katyusha]

That would actually fit in with their ethos. Think about it, if they had equipment to conduct proper seek-and-destroy missions, they wouldn't be hiring you all the time. I can imagine a military force would do so for plausible deniability ("that Cavalier Lance that annihilated the Rishi force totally had nothing to do with s Silver Knights") but the police have no such thing to worry about since their actions would universally be seen as peacekeeping. Mecha bandits blown up? That's totally good PR right there.

And on an only tangentally related note, the Privateers were supposed to be the mercs for the alliance people with the Silver Knights being a regular uniformed (if somewhat weirder) military. I imagine the silver knights not showing up for most fights and hiring you instead being the Alliance's complaint on Rishi that caused the tensions to begin with: THe bit of no spinners shall initiate military action (besides defence I suppose) without a vote from the FCS to say so (or I suppose in the case of the alliance, a vote between themselves).


And back to mecha customisation, companies probably do have room for a few modified mecha, but that would most likely be test models and whatnot to improve performance or are generally prototypes for a variant or the next model.