the devs have a for me strange way of ballancing bots of the same class.

in general they try to ballance stats against each other.

the lithus is a heavy mech just like the scarab, and as it seams they need around the same materials +/- a bit.

lithus does not hve that cargo but have some accu and tanking capabilkities.
the scarabs way higher cargo and glider abilities come at the cost of very few low slots, and nearly no armor and accu.

from my point of view ballancing should be a bit more in the costs.
of cource the sequer is a assault nad the next big lithus is a heavy. so we are missing a mech in between. that also means big cost differences.
to nerv the lithus to get it cheeper will make no sense because it has its role with the more sturdy tank.
on the other hand i would have no problem in making scarabs more expensive and give thme a bit of a boost. like better accu skills so a mk2 can at least tank a bit with a shiled. and also a bonus to masker energy usage. we have a bonus for it but it runs dry in less then 2 mins, so running a masker on any transport operation is totaly impossible... maybe if you use injectors (lol).

I dont care what will be the solution, just make a difference as for haulers 80% of the cost is about cargo capacity. So they can declass Lithus make it mech class.

Yes Lithus has more tankable but still 240 U cargo vs 720.

Anybody use Lithus??? I know 1 people but I think he also would like some costdecrease.

So I still about make a bit cheaper than now. 15 millio should be enough or something like this. I talk this with tankable bonus of Lithus.

Aliens.

95% of the cost of these bots is from Epi/norg based material;

             Scarab                 Lithus
Brio       12500                   10000
Esp          3000                    2000
Alli           1500                    5000

Both use exactly the same amount of Epi: 850K units

The only difference is that the scarab uses 2500 more Brio, which is 125K more Norgalis.

There's no reason for the Scarab to be 2x the cost of the Lithus.

Without knowing the current material costs, I can confidently say that either the Lithus is currently UNDER valued or the Scarab is OVER valued.

It's a heavy mech so it mimics heavy mech costs.

Aliens.

I use Lithus, when I need Lithus and Scarab when need Scarab.
They have not exactly the same role.
Lithus can easily support operation with 3 nexus, Scarab can't (one without external energy supply).
Lithus can tank enemy to a certain degree (once had tankfit Lithus tanking a whole squad of light/assault until they run out of ammo), Scarab can't.
Unbalanced issue for me is that scarab has bonus on indu nexus while Lithus has none and scarab has better terrain ability.
For the price is Lithus still cheaper in production as brio is the cost controlling issue and scarab needs 25% more Brio than Lithus. With considering all other resources Lithus is usually ~15% cheaper in overal production costs which I think is fine.

I think I suggested about a year ago to re-design the haulers so it looks something like this:

Separate racial hauler extension

Light haulers = 30U
Assault Haulers = 90U
Mech Haulers = 270U
Heavy Mech Haulers = 810U

Vary it up (like in the X series) so some racial haulers are faster/less cargo capacity, slower/more cargo, slower/less cargo/better tank. It would end up with 12 new bots instead of 4.

Having a Mech hauler with the typical Racial Ext 5 requirement would make it possible for new people to make hauler-alts with a decent cargo-capacity on the same account. As it is now they can only make sequer-alts, and sequer hauling is pretty similar to gouging your eyes out with a toothpick.

But I don't think they have the resources to design 1 new bot, nevermind ~8. So might as well flush that idea down the drain.

both, lithus and scarab have useless weapons slots...

imho scarab should have at least 3 legslots, same accumulator, same cpu/reactor capabilities as lithus
and really normal heavy mech hitpoints.
- and a negative shield bonus to achieve the goal that led to the the current implementation with only 1 legslot.

My mom called me and said to leave the Lithus alone...that there is no data supporting a petition to change the cost.  Checking the market confirmed that my mom was right.....I hope the big eye did not look this way...

That trying to mess with a fragile market is iresponsible. 

sorry.

......yeah............... ZigZag......... um....  hmm....  I'm going to leave this thread now and btw -1.  Different roles same Heavy Mech costs.