It's this place.
It warps you.
Either that or Pat just has an unhealthy effect on otherwise civilized people.
Case in point, we just saw the release of a new chassis piece for light mechs, the Interlocking Armour.
When your first impression is that they've made a corset for Red Ants, you know that intervention and rehab are just around the corner.
Saying that, apart from the obvious snigger factor, this is an intriguing little piece.
Before I go into the intrigue, lets quickly check the book value. 17 Niodes, 279 Bioptics and 345 Ferrite for a vaguely kinky set of flexible platelets that give a dodge rating of 6, auto repair of 1 and somehow slow the opposition by 3 factor points.
Presumably they must be doing a double take with their metallic jaws dropping at the sight...
Now the numbers aren't nearly as impressive as the looks. Up to 20 tons, it has the worst dodge of any chassis piece and the highest cost. Even at its top end of 30 tons, the only piece with worse dodge is the Nanobot repair kit, and it is your standard AR piece with a rating of 4 versus the 1 for the Interlocking. The slow stacks with a few cockpit pieces, but is not otherwise overwhelming.
The thing is, I realised that I was viewing pieces like this with the jaundiced eyes of a veteran who knows that a Red Ant fight is survival of the fastest. Your weapons are so powerful that any hit is a kill. Therefore I wouldn't normally bother with adding AR onto a light chassis until it reaches 30 tons or higher and of course by then you have Nanobots. I'd be using the funds for high dodge or precision.
I'm otherwise a very big proponent of AR, even gladly putting up with the large kickback from the pieces that give the best regeneration rate.
But I've been helping the junior pilots, and with their ludicrously light weapons it does take a few shots to put an opponent down. When you couple that with the non existent amount of equipment slots on their mechs, that concept of 'stacking' starts coming into play. You are unlikely to get an AR of 4, and a rating of 1 for a single piece is a waste... but I will tolerate a rating of 2 up at the 55 ton mark where no big AR piece fits.
If I can tolerate it there, I can do so at 20 tons or less. I wouldn't put two of the pieces on the same machine (even if it had the slots), but I might well pair one with a Cogwerk Micro Block especially if it was on a decent mech.
I guess I'll just have to keep a close eye on how those Commisars perform.
Submitted by by David McCallum : #701548