Shiva Variant Suggestion's.

[Come and See]

Shiva Prime - Remove 2 LRM10 & Gauss Rifle's. Add 2 LBX-20 in their place.

Shiva A - Remove 2 free tons and BHP. Add 2-4 DHS & GECM in it's place.

Shiva B - Replace ELRM 20's with LRM20's. Add 4 free tons of ammo.

Shiva C - Remove PPC's. Remove DHS and add GECM. F-bomb's only -> reduce cost.

Shiva D - Remove M-gun's. Add extra tons of ammo.

Shiva E - Replace 2 RAC5's with Thunderbolts. Remove M-gun's.

[Leeko]

Shiva D - Remove M-gun's. Add extra tons of ammo.

Shiva E - Replace 2 RAC5's with Thunderbolts. Remove M-gun's.

THESE. YES. PLEASE.

[HAARP]

LBX20, 4x Large Pulse, 1x ER Small
The real Prime.

Dual LBX20 would be ridiculous unless damage modifiers are fixed.

[(TLL)Andreas]

Shiva Prime - Remove 2 LRM10 & Gauss Rifle's. Add 2 LBX-20 in their place.
No thanks, I do not want to see a Shiva one shotting other aeros , besides the rac Shiva is really good vs aeros and it requires at least some skill to use and is not insta death from behind.

Shiva A - Remove 2 free tons and BHP. Add 2-4 DHS & GECM in it's place.

Shiva B - Replace ELRM 20's with LRM20's. Add 4 free tons of ammo.
This would make the Shiva B more or less useless because of the long missile lock on times(not even counting in the gecm effect) and it would get shot down on almost every run. Maybe the narc should be removed to even it out vs AA (but atm I do not like that idea because I seem to have problems with my view distance and can only see things closer then 1100m most of the time  ).

Shiva C - Remove PPC's. Remove DHS and add GECM. F-bomb's only -> reduce cost.
I like the fact that if you bomb a mech and it goes deep red/black an all parts but I ran out of bombs that i still have a chance to destroy the mech before i have to reload by using the dual PPC's. Adding GECM to this variant feels like it would become a bit to powerful.

Shiva D - Remove M-gun's. Add extra tons of ammo.
This I want  .

Shiva E - Replace 2 RAC5's with Thunderbolts. Remove M-gun's.
Do not mess with a really fun aero, its the best Shiva hunter in the game atm and it can be fun to just use the 4 rac 5's on mech/tanks, although the M-gun's should go for either more armour, heat sinks (for longer masc times) or C3 though I doubt that any Shiva will ever have C3. Hell i have even managed to kill a huit prime with this beast once.

If there should ever be a Shiva with thunderbolts I suggest basing it on Shiva B and just changing out the 4 ELRM 20's for 4 thunderbolts and 4 tons of ammo, or 3 thunderbolts with 6 ton ammo if the first should prove to effective.

[~SJ~ Griffin]

Call me crazy, but my favorite plane is the dual hgauss shiva. However, I would like to recommend a change to the hgauss itself. I think this variant could be so much more effective if the hgausses for aeros would have the damage dropoff reduced or have the full effect range increase. Since hgausses arent effective beyond 300m, you have to fly in fairly low to deal enough damage. This puts the shiva in perfect range for lbxs, trees, and random small hills; all of which are a shiva's worse enemy.

It would be great if the aero hgauss had a effective range of 500m instead of 300m. The devs can even make it weigh more than the normal hgauss, I would be okay with that. I dont think it would be game-breaking because at 500m a shiva is still in range of lbxs and other AA fire, just it becomes a lot easier to dodge trees and hills. There is nothing more frustrating than a tree taking a wing off your shiny new shiva

[xInVicTuSx]

I think they should just upgrade the Hgauss damage drop off anyways, 300m seems a bit harsh and 500m sounds better to me, the old days of one shotting stuff with it are long gone and it is annoying having to get into sneezing range to do any real damage, why not just use an AC20 instead at that point.

[Taemien]

Give the dual heavy guass shiva something else. Like 4 regular guass.

[HAARP]

Happy overweight boat times?

[=KoS= Tripod]

Happy overweight boat times?

Why does that blue smiley puke out of it's eyes, as well as it's mouth?

[Come and See]

Shiva Prime - Remove 2 LRM10 & Gauss Rifle's. Add 2 LBX-20 in their place.
No thanks, I do not want to see a Shiva one shotting other aeros , besides the rac Shiva is really good vs aeros and it requires at least some skill to use and is not insta death from behind.

Shiva A - Remove 2 free tons and BHP. Add 2-4 DHS & GECM in it's place.

Shiva B - Replace ELRM 20's with LRM20's. Add 4 free tons of ammo.
This would make the Shiva B more or less useless because of the long missile lock on times(not even counting in the gecm effect) and it would get shot down on almost every run. Maybe the narc should be removed to even it out vs AA (but atm I do not like that idea because I seem to have problems with my view distance and can only see things closer then 1100m most of the time  ).

Shiva C - Remove PPC's. Remove DHS and add GECM. F-bomb's only -> reduce cost.
I like the fact that if you bomb a mech and it goes deep red/black an all parts but I ran out of bombs that i still have a chance to destroy the mech before i have to reload by using the dual PPC's. Adding GECM to this variant feels like it would become a bit to powerful.

Shiva D - Remove M-gun's. Add extra tons of ammo.
This I want  .

Shiva E - Replace 2 RAC5's with Thunderbolts. Remove M-gun's.
Do not mess with a really fun aero, its the best Shiva hunter in the game atm and it can be fun to just use the 4 rac 5's on mech/tanks, although the M-gun's should go for either more armour, heat sinks (for longer masc times) or C3 though I doubt that any Shiva will ever have C3. Hell i have even managed to kill a huit prime with this beast once.

If there should ever be a Shiva with thunderbolts I suggest basing it on Shiva B and just changing out the 4 ELRM 20's for 4 thunderbolts and 4 tons of ammo, or 3 thunderbolts with 6 ton ammo if the first should prove to effective.

I never lock on with the Shiva B. I always use my narcs then fire so having that 120 missile capacity instead of 240 kills your battlefield longevity.

[Brainwright]

I never lock on with the Shiva B. I always use my narcs then fire so having that 120 missile capacity instead of 240 kills your battlefield longevity.

You must be one of those people who unload a full ton of narc missiles as fast as possible in an attempt to get a hit.

I hate those people.

[(TLL) Heretic]

I never lock on with the Shiva B. I always use my narcs then fire so having that 120 missile capacity instead of 240 kills your battlefield longevity.

You must be one of those people who unload a full ton of narc missiles as fast as possible in an attempt to get a hit.

I hate those people.

The ELRM Shiva B creates a severe imbalance between AA and ASF.  It's the only variant that breaks the AAvASF mechanic completely.

The class 2 Autocannons have an effective range of 1200m, with drop off over 1200m, the UAC2s on a Huit Prime can only really scratch at enemies between 1200-1300m.  A Shiva B pilot with a minimum of skill can air-camp with impunity.  2 or 3 Shiva B pilots working together can strip a battlefield of any AA in moments and then attack the 'mechs with impunity, earn enough for the firebomb variants and then switching back to ELRM config when AA shows up again. The fact that it's a missile camper dream and is also self narcing make this one of the most OP variants of the Shiva, the only counter to that tactic  is to take a fighter to knock them out (proof that the Shiva B breaks the AAvASF mechanic).

Remove ELRMs & Narc from all ASF (or give AC2s 1500m reach with drop-off after 1500m), but right now the Shiva B should be called the "CheeseBoat" IMO.

[~SJ~KorbinWimmer]

The dedicated ground AA vs ASF mentality is flawed imo.  Anything that is AA should not be required to stay on the ground.  Instead of nerfing the ELRM shiva which definitely has it's roles. There should be a more effective dogfighting counter to high flying bombers. All within reason of course I would hate to see a flying assault mech that took a fair bit of either coordination or time to get only to be knocked out of the air in 10seconds by a 20k sparrowhawk. Technically speaking the RAC5 Shiva already answers this, but besides Shiva's and ground assets it's a bit to slow and clunky to try and take on the lighter aircraft. 

A 4 or 3 TBolt15 (maybe heavier) shiva would cause even more rage (I want one though >: ) ).  It would be essentially a locking instagib. Where as the ELRMS usually take at least two- three volleys on moving targets.

Narcs only have a 900m range btw. That puts the Shiva in a dangerous zone for dedicated ground AA.

[Askis]

Narcs only have a 900m range btw. That puts the Shiva in a dangerous zone for dedicated ground AA.

Protip:
Dumbfire

Since dogfighting is pretty much useless atm, ELRM Shivas with Pilots that know how to hit with dumbfired NARCs (or NARC stationary targets or just blow 2 tons of NARCs on one enemy) are near untouchable.
Tried that once (on Mirage no less) and I had more money than I could possibly spend after a short time.

However it is about as exciting as watching paint dry >_>

[(TLL) Heretic]

Narcs only have a 900m range btw. That puts the Shiva in a dangerous zone for dedicated ground AA.

Protip:
Dumbfire

Since dogfighting is pretty much useless atm, ELRM Shivas with Pilots that know how to hit with dumbfired NARCs (or NARC stationary targets or just blow 2 tons of NARCs on one enemy) are near untouchable.
Tried that once (on Mirage no less) and I had more money than I could possibly spend after a short time.

However it is about as exciting as watching paint dry >_>

Thank you. That's the point, if there's an exploit (such as a 300m gap in the counters weapons) then some folks will always pick it, even if it's boring or cheap.

Maybe the Narc having to lock-on to make the beacon active (so no active beacon when dumbfired), or having them fall out of the air at 800m would be enough to balance this out more, but I still think there's going to be problems with the ELRMs making the Shiva B skycamping while being immune from AA groundfire.

An increase to the UAC, AC and LB-X Autocannon ranges would be the best solution; for example: AC2s to 1500m, AC5s to 1100m, AC10 to 800m & AC20 to 550m.  This would balance things perfectly with the added increase in game play that would come from the AA tanks being able to reach-out and touch missile campers on the ground with the AC5. 

@Korbin, Although I want to see some effective dogfighters I think it defeats the point of having a dedicated AA tank if it can not engage every ASF in the game (and in that case people will always go for the fighter over the AA tank if the AA tank is only partially effective in it's job).  It's combined arms, if a dogfighter is the ONLY answer to some ASF then we have a separate Air War developing, and that's not good for a combined arms game.