mek construction

[joe90]

Ok now im pretty upto date with the rules now. I think all of my queries have been answered by you good people out there so what I would like to do now is to create a mek using the mek construction rules.
To make sure im doing it right I would like to construct a mek and compare it to the mass-produced warmeks in the book to see if I can come up with the same data for the mek. ie the price.
So how do I create not a custom mek but a mass-produced mek.
In other words I use the mek construction rules but reducing the cost as I want it to be mass produced.
On page 129 it reads
'All mass-produced meks including most of the designs in this chapter, are subject to at least a 5% discount on the standard purchase price of their components. When the gamesmaster comes to design a new production warmek he should total up the price according to the cost of the components and then multiply the total by 0.95 to determine the price after the mass production discount. How does this work - im not too good with maths! hehe

So what do I do - i create a mek with all my weapons/armour and technology and add up the cost of everything. Once I have this figure I then multiply the total by 0.95 and this should give me the same price as the warmeks in the core rulebook. (im trying to design a mek exactly as in the book to make sure im calculating everything correctly.

I think im correct in the above but just wanted clarification on this to make sure im doing this right
Cheers Guys
Happy gaming
Joe

 

[Neo]

So what do I do - i create a mek with all my weapons/armour and technology and add up the cost of everything. Once I have this figure I then multiply the total by 0.95 and this should give me the same price as the warmeks in the core rulebook. (im trying to design a mek exactly as in the book to make sure im calculating everything correctly.

I think im correct in the above but just wanted clarification on this to make sure im doing this right
Cheers Guys
Happy gaming
Joe

that is correct yes. Though you could allow a greater than 5% discount if you wanted..though thats more a GM call. I'd personally allow a greater discount on mass production for the larger, richer countries and corporations and a smaller one for the more sturggling, war torn countries or less bountiful corporations.

 

[lastbesthope]

Also, I'm sure it states somewhere in the Mek construction gubbins that some of the production models can't be built using the rules because thay have stuff where it can't go or need an extra hardpoint that isn't on the basic chassis. but that too is explained away due to extra R&D spend during product development.

Just don't expect to be able to recreate every Mek in the book for the same price as the listing.

LBH

 

[mthomason]

Similar to an answer I gave recently on the B5 board when someone brought up ship building rules:

When building something yourself, you have to take into account the fact that production models are churned out a lot cheaper than if you're building something yourself. To take a real world example, try building a Vauxhall Corsa for cheaper than you can buy one - and that includes having each individual part fabricated outside of a Vauxhall factory. When building something yourself, even when it's something that already exists, you can't expect the cost (money or points) to come to the same as one thats in the book. It might, but it might not (and realistically it shouldn't). Characters building their own vehicles/meks/ships/whatever really ought to be paying a huge premium over and above "off the shelf" models because they're having a lot of components designed and crafted from scratch, most likely using equipment that's generic in nature.