Let's Talk Engines by David McCallum #701548

Cue the regular complaints about equipment that costs too much and has built in penalties.


How dare they develop equipment like this.


NEWS FLASH!!!


There is a line of equipment that consistently delivers exactly what it says on the tin, is cheap as chips and has no drawbacks.


Humble. Motive. Power.


Lemme get a "VROOM" from the audience...


Seriously though, one single line of unadulterated decent equipment is the humble crystal engine. And in most cases, its some of the best there is too!


Lets start at the very bottom. Your basic Block Charge. At a speed rating of 25, there is no faster rated
engine. You can have an engine with the same weight range and speed rating for 11 Niodes if you get a Cogwerk Micro Block... that niode expenditure essentially buys you a single point of auto repair. Seriously... what use is 1 auto repair in a fight where mechs fall over when you sneeze at them?


The point is though, the cheapest engine there is is the best there is.


The pattern stays the same moving up the weight brackets. We will ignore the crossover points where two crystal engines meet, because obviously you won't make the mistake of equipping a slower engine. (Yes, we've all done that...)

Next up is the Wankel Rotary, weighing in with a speed of 20 for a measly 32 Crystal. At the bottom end, niode expenditure can only equal rather than surpass it. Yes, Niodes get you a few nifty tricks like slow or armour. But the point is that pure Cystal will still get you all the speed you can get and at the top of its bracket there is still nothing comparably as fast.





After that is the Pebble Bed Reactor. 47 Crystal and a speed of 14. Now a 40 Niode Semi Stable Field will give you 3 more speed, but ah-ha... we start running into penalties, in this case a chunk of 8% laser vulnerability. Lasers have been your staple weapon since you first mounted your Warhorse... no pun intended.

54 Crystal for a Max Torque Charged and its straight speed of 10. For 43 Niodes you can get an Indefinite Singularity, 1 more point of speed and a rip roaring 3% 2x damage multiplier. Not exactly a huge bonus for such expenditure, and that is the only engine faster.






No crossover point before we move up to the Heat Cycler at the same Crystal cost but a bit more Bioptics and Ferrite. Now lets be honest, at this weight range you really want the R.A.C.E. The point is though, crystal still buys you one of the fastest engines available with no drawbacks.

At the top of the range there is the Kinetic Converter. 56 Crystal for a speed of 5. Now admittedly  there are five other engines that are faster. All but one, the new Zentron Thrusters have penalties associated with them. This is probably where the complaints, especially by the highest level and most vocal players are coming from.






The thing is, I don't know why. I don't understand why there are complaints when there is a whole range, a whole classification of equipment that goes from the lightest mech to the heaviest behemoth that has a range of cheap, excellent stuff that has no drawbacks.


Sometimes, these things need to be pointed out so that people can just be quiet for a while.




Submitted by David McCallum #701548