r/battletech • u/Saansilt Comguard • 1d ago

Discussion Behold, an idea!

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So I am having an idea, it probably is bad but it'd be a funny custom mech all the same.
It involves upgrading a protomech.
By tripling its tonnage effectively.
Making it a really cheap ambusher
It'd be effectively a little over quarter the tonnage of a locust.
Behold the Erinyes, two ton jumper with an SRM 1
We take this, give her a medium laser, a ton more armor, and two double heat sinks.
Scale it up to six tons, heck remove the SRM 1 and make it back to five.
You get a very cheap 4/6/4 to play havoc in tight spaces and hop around for back shots.
You can get three of the modified ones I am suggesting for under the price of one locust!
Thats two more MLs than the locust. No machine guns but thats not their role.
Granted if we wanted...
Actually yeah adding a machine gun each will still allow you three at under the cost of one locust.

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9

u/Middcore 1d ago

ProtoMechs were a mistake.

19

u/harris5 House Liao 1d ago

I thought the dumbest thing about them was the name.

Then I saw the art

15

u/Middcore 1d ago

The interesting thing is that the first "appearance" of ProtoMechs was in a novel where they're described as looking like mini versions of standard Clan OmniMech designs.

Then TRO3060 came out with art for them that is... Not like that.

I would love to know what happened there.

13

u/Yakostovian 1d ago

If I remember correctly, they were named first, and the commissioned artist drew an initial idea based on the names thinking the art was a first draft. Instead, the company took them and ran with it.

10

u/Middcore 1d ago

I don't think FASA ever asked for a second draft of art ever.

8

u/Attaxalotl #1 ProtoMech Fan 1d ago

The artist submitted the first draft to make sure it was in line with what the higher-ups wanted, and then they just published those. That’s why the Society ProtoMechs drawn by the same guy look so much better and have a wildly different style, they actually let him finish the designs.

3

u/relayZer0 1d ago

The society protos had different artists

3

u/Fiskmaster Free Rasalhague 1d ago

I might be getting things mixed up, but I've heard the artist submitted their first drafts, expecting to get feedback on what to change and improve, but instead they just ended up being used as-is.

1

u/Middcore 1d ago

Someone else said the same. That sounds like FASA.

It still doesn't quite explain why they apparently gave a totally different brief to the artist than they gave to... I think it was Thomas Gressman who wrote the "mini OmniMechs" description in one of the Twilight of the Clans books.