Centurion fictional hero — "The Butcher"

The Centurion is without a doubt one of the most iconic MWO 'Mechs. In the lore they were conceived by the Corean Enterprises as a guard dog for the vulnerable LRM-lobbing Trebuchets. In their meatshield role, they were supposed to be tough and hard hitting at all ranges. Their most unique feature is their gigantic custom-made autocannon arm which made for the bulk of its firepower.

In MWO the Centurion began its journey as a beastly brawler. It had great hitboxes that oozed every bit of advantage out of STD engines. It also had a small bug feature where a small part of its destroyed arms remained in place and kept reducing incoming damage. The STD Centurion was such a tanker that the only way to get rid of it semi-reliably was to leg it and ignore its torso completely. Unfortunately the current Centurion is a completely different 'Mech. A hitbox pass made its CT a gigantic target which made it more XL viable but also much more fragile. Right now, it only exists as an "enthusiast" 'Mech where it's used pretty much only by experienced players who can make them work in their gimped form. It's more of a skirmisher rather than a full-blown brawler from hell.

Enter The Butcher

As I was creating my Centurion artwork ,which happened to my most detailed and complete one so far, I decided to go one more step further and give it a completely custom camo. It has splatters of blood and veins all over it and has a white/gray basecoat, much similar to a butcher's coat. It also has a custom decal on its autocannon arm which reads "chop" along with a butcher's knife.

Overall, I think it looks very intimidating but also beatiful with its colorful and contrasting camo. Since I really want this thing to be brawly again, I also came up with suitable specifications that'll make this a formidable close range brawler just like in its previous glory days.

Background 

The Butcher was the personal 'Mech of the renowned mercenary commander Artem Morisov from Black Omen. During the Third Succession War, he commanded a raid onto Ramen II in 2845 which ended up with the destruction of the Corean factory which produced CN9-As. However before blowing up the factory he got hold of a prototype Centurion which was made to address the unreliability of its main cannon by introducing an energy weapon on the arm. It also featured improved armor and an experimental type of myomer that gave it enhanced mobility at the cost of engine size. Impressed by its capabilities, he commanded it throughout the late 2800s with a special camo that invoked fear in its opponents before dying in a raid.

After his death, the Butcher was bought by the wealthy enterpreneur Norton Nate and participated in Solaris games throughout the 2900s. While it was one of the favorites of the crowd as the installed AC10 and LPL tended to hack limbs straight off of the opponents, soon its weaknesses were exploited. After a viscious fight in 2947, it was seriously damaged and was shelved until the 3030's. In 3033 it fought against the Yen-Lo-Wang in a thriller Solaris match but failed to win against the nimbler and harder hitting opponent piloted by a legendary pilot.

Since then, it was sold to a private collector and completely disappeared from the records.

Hardpoints and general specs

• RA: 1B 1E
• CT: 2E
• LT: 2M
• Engine limit: 250

Since pretty much every possible hardpoint configuration has been explored by PGI without breaking the character of this 'Mech, I went for a mixed combination of energy and ballistic hardpoints on the arm. This will naturally force people to either ignore that hardpoint and go full-brawly with the remaining 5, or utilize it with a big energy weapon while forgoing the missile hardpoints. For example, you can put an AC10+LPL there with 2xML as backup. On the other hand you can do a classic brawler setup with AC10+2xML+2xSRM6'es. It'll give the Butcher a flavor without making the other Centurions obsolete or making it too similar to other 'Mechs.

The engine cap emphasizes its brawliness and will direct people to using STD engines. It'll also work as the counterweight to the quirks it's going to receive.

Quirks

• +50% acceleration and deceleration (all speeds)
• +15% turn rate
• +30% torso twist speed
• +10% speed
• +20% ballistic velocity
• -15% ballistic cooldown
• +10% missile velocity
• -10% energy heat generation
• Additional armor (CT): 28
• Additional armor (LT/RT): 12
• Additional armor (RA): 18
• Additional armor (LA): 12
• Additional structure (CT): 16
• Additional structure (RA): 16

The Butcher receives significant mobility buffs, however considering the sluggishness introduced by the low engine cap, they're nothing ridiculous. The 10% speed boost is the real attraction here, it effectively boosts the engine rating by 25.

The weapon quirks are nothing special for a brawler. Two velocity buffs for ballistics and missiles allow easier weapon usage. Especially the AC10 will feel snappier which will be the main weapon of this 'Mech. Energy heat reduction helps with the heat efficiency by addressing the worst main heat source. The ballistic cooldown adds a tiny amount of DPS. Otherwise pretty mild quirks here.

Lastly, it gets massive CT bonuses to help with its horrible hitboxes. If PGI ever gets around to fixing them then more points can be taken from the CT and distributed to the STs. +44 health to its CT means this thing will take punishment like a boss in its current form. +34 to its right arm will help keeping its firepower.

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About Rak

I'm an engineer who likes to write extremely long articles about games that border simulation and mainstream.