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Old Dog
Capellan Confederation
Sang-wei
Joined: 24-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 299
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 Posted: 07-Feb-2004 09:13 Post subject: D0G-1L Dog |
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Model: D0G-1L DOG
Mass: 40 tons
Power Plant: GM 200
Cruising Speed:
Maximum Speed:
Jump Jets: Hellespont Leapers
Jump Capacity: 140 Metres
Armor: Hellespont Light
Armament:
1 Firmir MaxiLase Large Laser
2 Firmir Standard Medium Lasers
1 Holly-4 Pack SRM 4
2 Maxi Mini Machine Guns
Manufacturer:
Ceres Metals Industries
Communications System:
Olmstead 3000
Targeting and Tracking System:
Virtutrak S1
Type: D0G-1L DOG
Tech Level Level 2 Inner Sphere:
House: Liao
40 TONNAGE
4.0 Internal Structure (Standard)
8.5 Engine (200 Standard)
Walking 5
Running 8
Jumping 5
1.0 Heat Sinks (11 Standard)
2.0 Gyro (Standard)
3.0 Cockpit (Standard)
7.5 Armor Factor (120 pts Standard)
Head 4 8
Center Torso 12 18
Center Torso (Rear) 6
L/R Torso 10 15
L/R Torso (Rear) 5
L/R Arm 6 12
L/R Leg 10 12
5.0 Large Laser RA 2
1.0 Medium Laser RA 1
0.5 Machine Gun RA 1
0.25 Ammo (Machine Gun) 50 RA 1
1.0 Medium Laser LA 1
0.5 Machine Gun LA 1
0.25 (Ammo) Machine Gun) 50 LA 1
2.0 SRM-4 LT 1
1.0 Ammo (SRM-4) 25 CT 1
1.0 Jump Jets RL 2
1.0 Jump Jets LL 2
0.5 Jump Jet CT 1
Overview
As the wave of Capellan pride spread across House Liao, the New Years designs continued to roll off teh assembly lines, one state of he art machine after another. Sun Tzu Liao was no fool, however, and he knew well that, in addition to modern designs, he needed cheap, sturdy mechs to hold the defensive line long enough for better machines to take the field. Indeed, with the upswing in national pride, he found his Mechwarrior legions filled near to bursting with young canidates, happy to take any mech in service of the greater society. While the venerable Vindicator and loyal Urbanmech had, for decades if not centuries, held the defensive line, he felt that a new machine, formed of time-tested components and easy to produce, would be an excellent addition to the New Years line. Thus was the Dog born.
The Dog is a very simple machine. A medium mech of anthromorphic design, it copied much from more successful designs that had proven their worth time and time again. In particular, the Dog resembles nothing so much as a smaller, slower Phoenix Hawk with additional firepower. The main firepower comes from the Firmir MaxiLase large laser rifle carried in the rprimary hand of the mech. This laser is detatchable, leaving the hand free for use in construction, raiding, rescues, or melee combat, also allowing a semi-modular approach to combat, where a bad laser can be left behind for repairs while a new rifle is used in place of the damaged one. This design harkens back to the Phoenix Hawk or Griffon, two mechs with similar weapon designs.
A pair of Firmir Standard medium lasers serve as backup firepower, one mounted in each forearm sleeve, allowing ease of aim and a wide fire arc. Not the most powerful of lasers, the Firmir are durable and cheap, making them ideal for second-line garrison mechs. The Holly-4 Pack serves as the close-range knockout punch of the Dog, making it a fierce street fighter and quite able to battle armor as well as mechs. The Holly-4 rack, in fact, has gained quite a reputation from Davion fighters who have faced it, learning too fast that the Dog's bite is nasty indeed. Lastly, a pair of Maxi Mini machine guns are sleeve-mounted with the medium lasers, allowing anti-infantry work and, when loaded with less-lethal ammunition, serve well as riot supression weapons.
The Dog is well-armored for a medium mech, with average speed and excellent jump capability, making it a slightly above average weapon platform that's shockingly survivable. There are quite a few reports of Dogs being savaged, missing whole torso halves or limbs, but being patched together and sent back out in under a day. These mutts are certainly under their peak performance levels, but, much like the Vindicator that they are slowly replacing, the Dog is just tenacious enough to cause serious delays in an attacking force. Delays that allow more advanced machines to be sent in and unleashed on the then-weakened foe. The one flaw in teh Dog's armor is the legs, which are somewhat fragile, but the city-fighting armament is enough to keep most infantry from closing enough to take advantage of this weakness. The weak leg armor also discourages pilots from risky 'Death from Above' maneuvers, which generally wind up throwing good machines away for little gain. Since pilots know that they cannot do this maneuver, it is believed that they will, instead, retreat and preserve their machine for future glorious battles in the name of House Liao.
Capabilities
As noted, teh Dog is primarily a second-line mech, great for garrison duty, urban conflict, and fighting pirates. If pressed into front-line service, the Dog is servicable against other medium mechs, but is simply outmatched by most Heavies and outclassed by most Lights. Of course, the Dog is also quite cheap, and is usually fielded in non-mixed lances of four Dogs, allowing them to combine their average performances into a group effort that can savage unsuspecting mechwarriors. The true strength of the Dog, however, is that it can face any challenge, by it mech, vehicle, or infantry, in any weather conditions, and not only survive, but thrive. A mix of energy, missile, and ballistic weaponry allow the Dog to use whatever is most appropriate, but it does rely on the lasers to handle the majority of work.
It should be noted that the Dog is effective in the hands of rookie pilots, but in the hands of standard House-trained mech pilots, it really begins to shine. At first glance, it seems that the Dog has serious heat problems, but, in fact, it runs quite cool due to a designed 'Heat Ripple', where one weapon stops being useful as others come into their own. The Large Laser can be fired on the run, for example, then mediums used when the Dog jumps, or the twin lasers and a missile barage after a slow walk, all without building heat. When needed, a larger battery of fire can be unloaded at once, allowing the Dog to deal damage quite larger than one would expect from such a small mech, but the heat effects will require a few seconds to recover. A skillful pilot will learn to mocve properly and fire certain weapon combainations at certain ranges or certain situations, getting far more performance out of the Dog than expected.
Deployment
Found only in House Liao, the Dog is found mostly on rebellious worlds where riot supression is common, or second-line worlds where the defense isn't as neccessary.The periphery edge, of course, sees quite a few packs of Dogs, for pirate raids, while very few face the Marik side of the border. Dogs are also seen on several front-line worlds along teh Davion border that are of little importance, intended solely to slow any invasion long enough for better Mechs from more important worlds to be sent as rescuers. As riot-controllers and urban experts, Dogs are *everywhere* in teh former St Ives area, and quite a few have popped up in the hands of Capellan-aligned mercenaries or rebels in the Chaos March. No other House has shown any intrest in the design, tho it would be easy to emulate.
Ceres Metals has thrown much weight behind the Dog as a replacement for the venerable Urbanmech, and, to a point, the Vindicator, which has seen the dog produced in huge numbers, with ample supply parts. Indeed, the Dog can canibalize parts from the Vindicator, Phoenix Hawk, or Whitworth with little trouble. Some backwater Dogs have even been seen with car parts for armor and improvised Actuators, and still work. They might not be top of the line machines, but they're hard to keep down.
Variants
The primary variant of the Dog is the Fire Dog, which supplies the Holly-4 Pck with Inferno missiles, rather than standard, and the Machine Guns with Flamers. This variant is produced one out of every twelve machines, giving a ratio of one per company of Dogs. The only other standard variant is the Wind Dog, which replaces the Holly-4 pack with a LRM-5, giving the Dog a long- range bite at a cost of short-range oomph. This variant is poorly recieved, as it takes the Dog out of the streetfighting style it prefers and tries to turn it into a more general fighter.
Some experimentation is being done with captured Davion light autocannon, to possibly replace the Large Laser of the Dog, but the hot worlds that this would be most useful on are all sandy, and the sand is absolutely ruinous of Davion cannon technology. A few experimental Metal Dog variants do exist, however, but it is assumed that this line will soon be put down.
[ This Message was edited by: Old Dog on 2004-02-07 09:29 ]
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Old Dog
Capellan Confederation
Sang-wei
Joined: 24-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 299
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| Posted: 07-Feb-2004 09:14 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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...
Nuts!
And formatting, once again, bites teh Dog in the tush.
Grr!
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Nightmare
Lyran Alliance
Kommandant-General
Joined: 03-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 2214
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| Posted: 07-Feb-2004 11:12 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Well, it's certainly the thing you advertised. Cheap, reasonably effective and sturdy. Reminds me a bit of Davion's Watchman mechs, actually. Not that House Liao would ever admit to copying a design from outside, of course... 
_________________
A tree fall in the forest, and no one is around, and it hits a mime. Does anyone care?
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
Posts: 1297
Location: United States
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| Posted: 07-Feb-2004 14:35 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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*nods* It's very nice, and this is a design I can see the Confederation using in numbers similar to the old Vindicator. In this 'Mech would do very well alongside the older Vindie. Great work Old Dog! 
_________________
Jarylan Blackwell
"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Gangrene
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 939
Location: United States
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| Posted: 07-Feb-2004 15:06 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Its almost a Phoenix Hawk. I am not sure if the differences are good enough for me to prefer the Dog. The extra heat sink and SRM are nice, but the slower movement is a big drawback. Maybe if you dumped the mg's and added a heatsink and an extra 0.5 tons of armor I would prefer it.
[ This Message was edited by: Gangrene on 2004-02-07 15:11 ]
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Gangrene
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Motown Scrapper
Clan Ice Hellions
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 24-Jul-2003 00:00
Posts: 2074
Location: United States
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| Posted: 08-Feb-2004 04:49 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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The Format was a little hard on my eyes but the design looks like it would be a passable city fighter but it really needs Double heat sinks as it is you can overheat this mech easily and it is not a volley fire configuration.Especially for city fighting you need to have a heat efficient design and I do not want to hear that Ramlatch about game challenge of using a defective design. I like to use designs that use realist logic not trying to work around intentional flaws as a challenge .I think a lot of people who use that excuse are trying to compensate for poor design skills
_________________
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have-Rush Limbaugh www.rushlimbaugh.com
Force of nature
Still crazy after all these years
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Old Dog
Capellan Confederation
Sang-wei
Joined: 24-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 299
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| Posted: 08-Feb-2004 08:16 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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DHS would increase the cost and would draw resources away from the front line machines that are otehrwise mentioned (For example, teh Tiger, which is the Liao equivilent of teh Kurita Grand Dragon, only better) ... the things don't grow on tres, after all. They're an expensive and rare resource that you can't just toss about willy-nilly.
As for the heatband options of teh Dog, for heat-free maneuvers, you have, for example:
Stationary fire LL and ML
Stationary fire LL and SRM-4
Walk/Run and fire LL
Walk/Run and fire ML, ML, and SRM
Jump and fire ML and ML
Jump and fire ML and SRM
All of which can add Machine Gun fire if within range. In addition, you can easily absorb a heatspike for a round, doing an Alpha Strike, then leaping away to find cover for another ambush. The Dog's just a couple of tons too heavy to lurk on Light buildings, but can stay on Medium or greater with ease.
You have to look at the overall picture of teh universe, not just battlefield efficiency, on a design.
See? I mentioned you wouldn't like it.
-- Old Dog, realistic rover
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Vagabond
Mercenary
Mr. Referee
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 5724
Location: United States
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| Posted: 08-Feb-2004 12:54 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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And that is what makes you the master designer you are OD.
There are dumb man efficent mechs, then there are OD efficent mechs.
This design is a much needed relief from the average stuff that has been crossing this forum where any fool with a brain can stupidly roll dice and not worry about its effects. i think most players tend to forget that even though its been 15 years since the clans and lostech hitting the market avalibility of componets isen't like going to 7-11 for a twinky. they'd rather not think about how best to fire and instead just blindly pummel each other but then that is what seperates the old players from new players and the great players from the average ones.
welcome back OD i for one have missed you sorely. if it wasn't for you i wouldn't be considered the vetern designer i am as i would still be publishing crappy designs with little concern for fluff and non-dueling settings.
again great design and the great write up we have come to expect from our faithful pooch.
_________________
one must work hard to cultivate the mind and body. and one must always cultivate the mind.
//^(^_^)^\\
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Motown Scrapper
Clan Ice Hellions
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 24-Jul-2003 00:00
Posts: 2074
Location: United States
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| Posted: 09-Feb-2004 06:07 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Double heat sinks would only give a slight increase in price and the ability to use all weapons will more than offset the increase in cost IMHO .In a lot of cases the increased efficacy of the advanced materials offsets the cost of the material a case in point I have a 10 ton security mech that has XL engine FF armour, endosteel, skeleton their are three chassis with a variety of weapon load outs.when I first posted them on HMP I caught flak over the cost of the components as was told that It could be done cheaper with I.C.E.s and low tech structure and armour a few months later somebody who had not seen my designs came up with a 30 ton ICE powered security mech It was slower had a weaker weapon load-out and thinner armour the only edge it had on my 10 ton Harley-Davidson designs was am out of internal structure it cost 1.2 million C-Bills My Hi-Tech 10 toners 800-900 thousand If you hit search here and Put in Harley-Davidson for the search word you can call up all my design the HD-3,HD-4,and HD-8 are the 10 tonners the others are 15 except for one 20 ton quad.So you can see for yourself.A lot of times High-tech can be cheaper in the long run because the efficacy means that every thing can be smaller and as a result cheaper overall
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Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have-Rush Limbaugh www.rushlimbaugh.com
Force of nature
Still crazy after all these years
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 09-Feb-2004 06:40 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Ancient Hound, Isn't this one of your Capellan Zodiac Mechs??? 
I still have some of these saved somewhere...
Along with the Damselfly and a few others..
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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Old Dog
Capellan Confederation
Sang-wei
Joined: 24-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 299
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| Posted: 09-Feb-2004 13:01 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Yup. You'll notice the 'New Years' comment in the fluff, even.
Vamp sent me some older files, including about eight of the Chinese Zodiac designs. This one wasn't in that batch, tho, but I can still construct it from memory.
The other missing ones that I instantly saw missing were teh Goat (Nothing big) and the much-maligned Rat.
I'm happy that *someone* kept the Damselfly, tho. I know it isn't great, but it's still a personal favorite.
-- Old Dog, wag-tail woof-woof
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Old Dog
Capellan Confederation
Sang-wei
Joined: 24-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 299
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| Posted: 09-Feb-2004 18:28 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Quote:
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On 2004-02-09 06:07, Motown Scrapper wrote:
Double heat sinks would only give a slight increase in price and the ability to use all weapons will more than offset the increase in cost IMHO . |
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Well, lessee.
The Dog pays 8400 C-Bills to have 11 HS.
MegaDog pays 92,400 C-Bills to have 11 DHS.
For a pack of ten, that's 84,000 to 924,000.
For a production run of a thousand mechs, that's:
8,400,000 C-Bills
vs
92,400,000 C-Bills.
That's a whoooooole lot of difference.
Now, when you recall that there are 5000 Stingers in servie, and that over 200,000 gad been made (Admitedly of one of teh most produced of all mechs), you can easily see a Dog, which steps up for teh MASSIVELY produced Vindicator and Urbanmech) getting a run of, say, 80K, perhaps even a full run of 100K machines.
Just think about the level of money involved in outfitting a hundred thousand mechs with DHS, when single HS work almost as well. Then think about how many frontline machines (Like the Tiger) won't be able to get DHS needed, because so many are being placed in second-line garrison mechs, like teh Dog? At a hundred thousand Dogs, that's over a million DHS, GONE, taken out of circulation.
Better to have the kind of gear available for teh frontline fighters, wouldn't you say?
-- Old Dog, big-picture bowser.
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-Mud
ex-Jade Falcon
Bounty Hunter
Joined: 04-Nov-2003 00:00
Posts: 1082
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| Posted: 09-Feb-2004 19:20 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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And now for a word from the Chancellor:
Nice 'mech OD; a bit of a Phoenix Hawk ripoff but there is nothing wrong with following genius. Try going lighter with it though. I managed to get seven tons of armor and the lasers onto a 30 ton chassis with no loss of speed. I had to drop the extra heat sink too though. Dropping the speed to a 4/6/4 frees up two tons, allowing the Machine Guns or an SRM-2 to be installed; as the 'mech is essentially a garrison unit the loss of speed will not matter too much (do not worry about the non-lethal rounds though; those who would oppose my Enlightened reign deserve no less than death). Decrease the weight, decrease the cost, and get more units in the field. One other thing; I think this 'mech is actually level one.
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Old Dog
Capellan Confederation
Sang-wei
Joined: 24-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 299
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| Posted: 09-Feb-2004 23:08 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Quote:
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On 2004-02-09 19:20, -Mud wrote:
And now for a word from the Chancellor:
Nice 'mech OD; a bit of a Phoenix Hawk ripoff but there is nothing wrong with following genius. Try going lighter with it though. I managed to get seven tons of armor and the lasers onto a 30 ton chassis with no loss of speed. I had to drop the extra heat sink too though. Dropping the speed to a 4/6/4 frees up two tons, allowing the Machine Guns or an SRM-2 to be installed; as the 'mech is essentially a garrison unit the loss of speed will not matter too much (do not worry about the non-lethal rounds though; those who would oppose my Enlightened reign deserve no less than death). Decrease the weight, decrease the cost, and get more units in the field. One other thing; I think this 'mech is actually level one.
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Well, it counts as level two due to teh quarter-ton MG puchases in ech arm, ather than a central one-ton reserve. Bah, humbug!
And it's a Watchman ripoff more than a PHawk, thanks.
Going lighter? Lessee..
30 tons = 3.0 chassis, 3.0 cockpit, 2.0 gyro, 5.5 engine, 2.5 JJ, 7.0 armor, that's 23 tons, leaving 7 for guns. LL is 5, two ML is 2 ... uh oh. No SRM, Ammo, MGs, or ammo.
Oops!
You probably went NewTech for it. Please oh pleas etell me that you didn't try to use an XL engine on a 5-8 light mech?
-- Old Dog, concerned canine
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-Mud
ex-Jade Falcon
Bounty Hunter
Joined: 04-Nov-2003 00:00
Posts: 1082
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| Posted: 11-Feb-2004 15:13 Post subject: RE: D0G-1L Dog |
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Quote:
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On 2004-02-09 23:08, Old Dog wrote:
You probably went NewTech for it. Please oh pleas etell me that you didn't try to use an XL engine on a 5-8 light mech?
-- Old Dog, concerned canine
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I may be bearing Clan colors, but I did this one strictly level 1. I think I stripped the ballistic and missile weapons from it though. let me crank up my drawing board and see right quick though...
O.K. I've got two working models. At 30 tons you can get 5/8/5, seven tons of armor, one large laser, and two medium lasers. I suppose you could theoretically drop one of the lasers for a M.G. in order to have some crowd-control, anti-infantry capability. No newtech on that at all. the cost for the two medium laser variant is 2.2 million.
At 35 tons, you can get the same speed, 7.5 tons of armor, one large laser, two medium lasers, and still have 2.5 tons of space left over. There are lots of possibilities there, but the 'mech is more expensive. Even with 2.5 tons free it costs 2.5 million, 300,000 more than the 30 ton variety. I think it's worth it though. The 'mech is tougher, and carries a more varied weapon loadout. Personally, I would go for an SRM-2 and load up some infernos. That will deal with those pesky protesters. 
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