BlueRangerofDoom
05/27/23 02:55 PM
86.48.15.221
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Been a lurker on the site for a while now, haven’t been able to find an answer to this question.
Would it be cheaper overall to refit stock IS battlemechs, ASFs, and vehicles with advanced/Clan equipment or to produce older Clan Standard mechs and such if a faction had the techbase available?
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Karagin
05/27/23 05:45 PM
38.48.39.237
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Why not just buy from the Sharks?
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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ghostrider
05/28/23 12:09 PM
45.51.181.83
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Omnis have a major advantage of being able to change the load out of the mech quickly. The LRM boat you met yesterday, may well be the close in laser boat you just ran into in the heavy woods. So efficiency is key to helping answer the question of what is 'cheaper'.
If the unit returns from the field, especially in good shape, from tough battles, it is worth the higher costs of better equipment. If you don't care about performance, then cheap units is fine, until soldiers catch on to the fact that you don't care if they return.
Range and power comes into the picture here.
If the enemy can hit you, while you can't return fire, then you tend to lose. You tend to win if you can hit the enemy without then being able to return fire.
How much can you afford to lose becomes the question.
I would like to ask if the older standard units you are talking about are just SL stocks left over from the original exodus?
If so, they should be the same thing as the advanced tech IS ones. It is highly probable they are using the same weapons load out.
Now if you are talking about more unique clan only units, with SL era weapons, they shouldn't really be much different then refitting advanced tech on normal models.
I personally thing omni tech is the best way to go, as you can change weapons load outs, making normal, well known units more dangerous. An Archer normally had LRMs on it, so most will try to get under the minimum range of them. Imagine if they have an ac 20 or massed SRMS? Even a dozen lasers?
Clan tech is even better in cases like an SRM/LRM carrier. Half weight launchers means you can actually armor up the unit, so the measly 12 points a side become 30+ or more.
So each person will say this or that is better. Eventually, you will have to decide this for yourself. Cheaper to buy isn't the same as cheaper over all. Is an extra 3 mil now worth not having to replace the unit?
There is no guarantee that the extra cost now will allow the unit to survive, so it might not be worth it.
The only issue of buying from the Sharks is relying on someone else for your units. If you can't make them yourself, the buy away. Hopefully they have what you want, when you want it. But if you can build things yourself, I would avoid buying from others, except special purchases.
Granted, having to protect factories and supply lines to build things is more then most players want to deal with. So if you get that far into playing, then thiings change the answer as well.
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Karagin
05/28/23 09:44 PM
38.48.39.237
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Given that House factories are still limited in what they can make to Clan Specs without the help of Clan techs...yeah it's going to be cheaper and easier to buy from the Sharks.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Cray
05/30/23 07:36 PM
71.47.208.18
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Quote:
Been a lurker on the site for a while now, haven’t been able to find an answer to this question.
Would it be cheaper overall to refit stock IS battlemechs, ASFs, and vehicles with advanced/Clan equipment or to produce older Clan Standard mechs and such if a faction had the techbase available?
Within the limits of construction rules, tech base (IS or Clan) doesn't impact cost directly. An IS ER PPC costs as much as a Clan ER PPC, and Clan endosteel costs the same as IS endosteel. A Clan 'Mech can generally fit slightly more equipment and thus tends to be slightly more expensive, all else being equal.
The real cost determinant (assuming your faction can build Clan tech at normal cost) will be whether or not you install an XL engine. Clan XLs are more practical / survivable than the bulkier IS designs and thus Clan designs tend to use XL engines, which hugely changes the price of a 'Mech. (Typically, an XL-powered 'Mech runs about 2.5x cost of a standard engine 'Mech.)
Conventionally, though, the Inner Sphere pays 5 times as much for Clan gear whether it is acquired as salvage, bought from Clan Sea Fox, or painstakingly built in Inner Sphere facilities. Retrofits of IS chassises with Clan gear are normally quite expensive. Not that trying to buy a complete Clan-built 'Mech is any cheaper.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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