Thread by @BishopSteiner

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So @Bardsrok asked me to tell the tale of the mech that would become the UM-K9 in MWO. Not ideal a format to use Twitter for, but here goes.

Back around 01, 02 I had a campaign set on Hsien, and on a lark, it was pretty much dispossessed Mechwarriors trying to retain order

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while dealing with Sun Tzu's sponsored terrorists, Guerilla fighters, etc. The Garrison had one ancient STG-3R Stinger & some vehicles. And a lot of beat cops, retired vets, etc. It also had huge junkyards of scrapped mechs from the 4th Succession War, w/ lots of Urbanmechs

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and Valkyries. So after much salvage efforts and some cooked books to the AFFC logistics chain, after about a year they had cobbled together a lance of Urbi/Valk Frankenmechs. With all sorts of unreliable systems, faults, etc, that were worked out bit by bit. So basically 5/8

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Valkyrie Drivetrains mated to Urbie Chassis. Weapons configs were a mixed bag, but basically the campaign ran from 3055ish up until the Jihad. At the time we didn't have any Jihad info, so I basically had to retcon that to cap the story later. Also later would retcon to more

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stock Urbie drive trains, to be a bit less gimmicky, reliable, etc. The primary Urbie was christened the "Deputy Dawg".

Now fast forward to 2016-17ish and apparently, the constant posts of mine on the forums got the Devs attention at MWO, as the then Community Manager,

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Tina Benoit, informed me that the art for Deputy Dawg was in studio offices. Having already bought the k9 the moment it dropped, I was told they were going to gift me one, and so offered me another Hero, but instead we worked together to do a giveaway for 3x K9 packs on the

Forums. Which got some very cool fan art and literature created, including a story by @orcrist86 that I still hope he feels inclined to do a follow up on.

Anyhow that's pretty much the journey from silly Patlabor/Dominion Tank Police inspired Joke Campaign to MWO Hero Mech

Seems the idea resonated with a lot of people really loving that lil K9 hero, to the point of versions done by other Fan Artists, etc, but with very few knowing the genesis of the Inner Sphere's slowest Speeding Ticket writer. (3D mods by @ablackwell81)
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