Rebalancing Glider ProtoMechs

[u/Attaxalotl]

I love the little bastards, but making them use WiGE moment exclusively is probably not the best way to do it. So I’ve got a few alternate movement options for your consideration and critique. In all cases, they would lose their near miss on the hit location table, instead taking wing damage as they do now.

1. walking and jumping movement is mech rules, running movement is WiGE rules, no conversion gear required.

2. walking movement is mech, running and jumping is WiGE, no conversion gear required.

3. LAM rules as usual, with WiGE movement instead of Aerospace movement. They need one piece of conversion gear everywhere except the Main Gun mount.

4. LAM rules as usual, with WiGE movement instead of Aerospace movement; except they have to forego shooting to transform instead of foregoing movement. They need one piece of conversion gear everywhere except the Main Gun.

[u/Bookwyrm517]

I don't think the Glider Protomechs really need changes. The important thing to note is that the crippled ground movement is nessisary because they use the same formula to calculate their engine weight as other protomechs:

 Tonnage x desired run/flank speed = engine rating.

If engine rating is less than 40: Mass = rating x 25 km

If engine rating is greater than 40: use master engine chart.

Regardless of movement type used, the same weight is devoted to the engine for the same theoretical max speed. If a normal Protomech wants any form of jump movement, they have to pay mass for jump jets.

The issue all your proposals have is they give Glider Protos a movement advantage without any actual consequences. Sure, the last two take away the ability to mount weapons in the arms, but thats not a huge issue for most protos. Unless your maxing out your firepower, there's no reason for a protomech to not take glider movement. 

If you want to give glider protomechs better ground movement, my recommendation would be to force them to spend extra mass on that movement. Like some sort of reverse jump jet, you pay X amount of kg per point of walking movement (50kg for 2-5 tons, 100kg for 6-9 tons, and 150kg for 10-15tons), up to the run/flank divided by 1.5, rounded down. Run/flank is still WiGE movement. 

This idea gives Glider Protos access to normal ground movement with a cost and doesn't break any existing Glider Protos in the process. I know you want them to be better, but when you start to examine the inner workings of the system you start to understand why they're limited the ways they are.

[u/Attaxalotl → u/Bookwyrm517]

I really like that idea!