Battle Princess gets no mecha!?

[Higher Game]

I saved a princess in battle and didn't recruit her at first. Later on, she appeared during a tough mission, so I decided to get her. After the battle, she has no mecha! Is this a bug?

[Anticheese]

Nope. Its intentional.

When lancemates are recruited they come as-is. Sorry.

Time for some non-canonical explanations.

a) The princesses mech is trashed

b) It was abducted by evil repo men

c) In a desperate attempt to survive after reaching X, she auctioned off her Neko to the highest bidder. She got $1200 which she promptly spent on overpriced earth hotdogs.

d) Spontaneous Combustion forced her to abandon her mech in the wasteland. She crawled out of the burning wreckage with nothing but a handful of high level sensors. She sold them and promptly spent the proceeds on overpriced earth hotdogs.

e) In a desperate bid to save their race, the evil overlord of the Hotdogs sent a crack team of Stormpretzels to overcome the princess. She was captured and subsequently rescued by a copyright infringing character ("You're a little tall for a Pretzel, aren't you?) leaving her stranded in a town after her rescuer had been abducted by Lucasarts lawyers.

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@HG - Feel free to pick any one of these for yourself.

@JH - Feel free to pick any one of these as the canonical explanation.

[SharkD]

Maybe lancemates should retain their mecha?

[macksting]

Other rationalization comes to mind. The Princess may have ditched her mech in order to lose her pursuers. Sold it off or destroyed it; she's slightly villainous, so I'm guessing sold.

[Ephafn]

Quoting: SharkD

Maybe lancemates should retain their mecha?

You mean, like Britaine's monstrous?

[Higher Game]

It would be nice if an in-game message explained it. I was stupid enough to put my princess in a mining mech, which got wasted.

[Zereth]

If I'm reading this right, she showed up, with a mech, to help you in a battle, you told her to join, and then after the battle her mech disappeared into thin air?

[macksting]

Aye, same with Vikki or any other NPC who can join you as a lancemate.
Although, really, she was the one in distress, requesting help from the player. Even so, it's my experience that my equipment when she shows up is vastly inferior to what she's pilotting.

[Zereth]

Nah, I think he said that he did that, saved her, she ran off, he didn't track her down and recruit her, then she showed up later, with a mech, then the mech vanishes. Which is a logic-failure, but I think most of the work is being done on GH2 now so I doubt this'll get fixed.

I would have sworn Vikki came with a mech when you recruited her in Hyoge, though.

[Shoelip]

I think the potential Lancemates will randomly show up to help you in mech battles from time to time if they haven't joined you yet.  In those cases they have mechs, and you can ask you to join them, but after that battle they lose their mecha.

[Joseph Hewitt]

For GH2 I've been thinking about what to do with lancemate mecha. One option would be for the lancemate to bring his own mecha the first time he's recruited; this mecha will go with the lancemate if he is removed from the party and cannot be sold.

[Erathoniel]

You could have a trade system with lancemates. For money or better equipment, they would give you their stuff they came with. Depending on their attachment to it, of course. Also, lancemates should be able to shop on their own, just by arriving at a store. (Weigh personality and skills, then intelligence to determine if (and what) they buy)

[Higher Game]

Lancemates should also be "clonable", since your main character practically is. I mean, if he's eaten alive by an albino alligator or hit with a plasma blast and annihilated, you KNOW he is "revived" by the cells he left behind at the hospital's lab.

Of course, it should be very expensive to revive them. Man, Vikki is just too cute to have to die forever. Those anime pictures actually do inspire more empathy than a traditional roguelike where she would just appear as a boring, expendable V.

[draconuszero]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

For GH2 I've been thinking about what to do with lancemate mecha. One option would be for the lancemate to bring his own mecha the first time he's recruited; this mecha will go with the lancemate if he is removed from the party and cannot be sold.

Hmm, I haven't played much of gh2, but would that mean that your lancemtes have their own variants of mechs (fitting their personalities) that they cherish dearly?  If it is not, then why would it not be sellable?

[Zereth]

Quoting: draconuszero

Hmm, I haven't played much of gh2, but would that mean that your lancemtes have their own variants of mechs (fitting their personalities) that they cherish dearly? If it is not, then why would it not be sellable?

So you can't recruit somebody, strip them of their mech and sell it, then kick them out on a street corner somewhere?