I was wondering what they could come out with the they don't already have. The only thing I can think of is attack remotes like Rui Shi or Tsyclon. O-12 seems to already have a little bit of everything else. HQ, stealthy guys, hard hitting HI, CC monsters, hackers, etc.
I'm not good at predicting profiles, but I'd really love for them to bring out Bureau Noir. More Camouflage (they only have two HD Camo so far, the Lynx and the Razor), maybe a second Holomask or Holoecho, and some more interesting combination with Infiltration. Not that I'm saying O-12's midfield is weak, just that it would fit the vibe. But yeah, coming up with stuff O12 doesn't already have off the top of my head isn't easy. It is, however, a faction with the size of a sectorial once you strip away all the Aleph crossovers and Mercs. Then again, all the other Vanilla factions also only use a third of their profiles, so maybe that's not a bad thing. I just want more O12, that's all :D
I don't play O-12 so I'm not an expert, but I think it would help if they come out with figures for profiles that haven't done yet. There's only one Gamma, Omega, right now. A few others too. I also noticed that if I wanted to get into Starmada, I would need to get the basic O-12 set if I wanted some combi Kappa. It's cost prohibitive and wasteful since I wouldn't use most of the rest of the box.
In addition to getting more native O-12 stuff: Why doesn't O-12 get all other's factions stuff, too? In the RPG, my Dog Warrior is a O-12 agent next to an awakened dog from Bakunin. Which is not unplausible for O-12. I want that in the wargame too: Dog warriors, Überfallkommando, you-name-it! Make a new O-12 sectorial for the misfits, ehm, specialists of all other factions. Getting only Aleph and some mercenaries is quiet boring for a faction that could be so much more.
It's a cool idea but that would make them a lot like NA2 I think. People that come from the various nations are supposed to give their loyalty to O-12. So it if it was a young Dog Warrior that left Ariadna to join O-12 before Ariadna drafted him, it would make sense. The same for Wulvers. But they would be trained from the start by O-12. It's probably very rare for an existing troop to change over to O-12.
The RPG has you playing Bureau Noir agents, while the the N4 lists are for Bureau Aegis (which includes Swordfor and Starmada) A Bureau Noir Sectorial could be cool, but I can see it being challenging to keep it identifiably an O-12 Sectorial and not something closer to a Mercenary NA2.
Bureau Noir would suffer the same issues in trying to be an actual playable sectorial that the Inner Hexahedron or Yanjing would.
Well, it seems you might get lucky. With the new Gangbuster KHD announced we have officially left the Starmada only releases and gone back to O12 vanilla. So there might just be an Epsilon HMG, Kappa ML, Omega Multi, and Razor Combi around the corner :)
Yes, it should not be a 1:1 copy of troops. Give the dog warrior / wulver Akrylat Kanone, Riotstopper, the good old Para-CC-Stick as weapons. Cop-dogs! They need an O-12 alternate version, like Cop-dogs. And NA2 has a copy of regular troops. It is dreaming, but I would dig a Bureau Noir sectorials that has some O-12 versions of troops from other factions. Make them low availability, give them a different loadout, but keep iconic characteristics (like tranformation of dog faces). It would also fit the O-12 design of "have a troop that can do one job very well": Take engineers from Nomads, doctors from Haqq, etc. not a 1:1 copy, but justify the design by incorporate the background of having specialists from all of the human sphere and give the models an O-12ish look that keep some visuals from the origin faction.
The O12 visual design is extremely distinct for its native units, as is its lack of indiscriminate firepower. Something like the Dogface could quickly be made into a recognisably O12 unit with alterations to its loadout- giving it a blue plated uniform, a MK12+Heavy Riotstopper, and a handler would turn Ariadna's suicide-berserker into a shiny O12 rifleman with a focus on withstanding damage easily. The big thing that would challenge CB is the need for restraint; they'd have to be careful to keep loadouts and playstyle in line with O12's design space and they're horrible about that these days.
Why would anyone wants a dog-warrior in O-12?? xD We have very cool units already like Raptors, Omegas, Crushers, Sirius or Gangbusters... Sure someone suggested the other day it would be cool for us to get something kinda a Bronze, but playable and with a riot-shield, but outside from that it's an almost all rounded faction that just lacks some basics extra copies of key units (Epsilon HMG, more Omegas) and maybe a better even distribution (like people said, Starmada Action Pack is really bad for playing both armies, and the Action Pack is mandatory for playing Starmada, but leave a lot behind if playing the sectorial).
Overall I'm pretty happy with where O12 is right now too, it's just that some units (Bronze, beta, psicop, nyoka) are pretty irrelevant to vanilla o12, and the sectorial they are relevant to (Starmada) feels pretty naff. This in a faction with a low number of profiles. The outcome is that most O12 lists base around the same small pool of units, and a high number of them aren't actually O12. Like, start with 3 varangians, add Andromeda, Knauf and an Epsilon, and Hector + Cho, maybe Parvati. 7 out of 9 of this key pool are loan units! ... In short, O12 really needs its second sectorial.
Because O-12 draws it's personal from all the human sphere. Also it's cool to "multi-faction", at least for some of us. O-12 is the perfect candidate for this. Forget the NA2 that put 2 factions together; O-12 has them all ;) (of course balance, design space and so forth has to stay intact ...) And of course it should not just be a copy of those troops. Then you ge the "we are half Alpeph" feeling all over again. No. O-12 has O-12 specific layouts/models etc., so that these units feel at home in O-12. And I really like them! I would not replace our own toys.
Unfortunately Carlos said at Adepticon this year, that they have no plans on making any new sectorals for a while. He said something about a Haqq one that was mentioned years ago but still it will be a long time before any happen. They already have a lot to deal with.
That have been mentioned, there are still the Khanate (biker/Kum territories) for Haqq and the Earth Bastion Army for PanO to go. There may be more that escape my memory as well.
For me O-12 is quite unpopular because the O-12 style is close to panoceanian style. In some faction you have an emblematic and unique unit. When you see it on table you know each faction is it. Avatar for CA , intruder for nomads, kuang shi for yu jing, etc. And for me this emblematic unit is missing in O-12. But i think to there is a huge improvement possible for O-12 because O-12 lore is Huge. For exemple Alpeh is observed by Thoth agency in O-12. thoth is an egyptian god and O-12 color can be very nice with some egyptian inspiration style sci fi miniature. We can easyly made a second sectiorial with strong hacker with egyptian sci fi style and have this emblematic and unique unit.
Half-empty/half-full glass counter-argument: Panoceania is unpopular because it's too close to O-12 playstyle ^^'
I thought so too at first. But honestly I feel people just haven't encountered or acknowledged the Gamma enough. It's a mini TAG on an HI profile. Plus it's a unique and extremely cool looking miniature (two if you count the Defiance one). To me, that's a standout O12 unit.