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PhotoKirk posted:I'm a big fan of Double Blind. Good story, lovable underdog mercenary unit, good pace. It's nice to see a book that gives Sun-Tzu some depth instead of Stackpole's cardboard cutout villain. For a moment I thought you were suggesting Binding Force and I was going to drop the hammer on that since I despise Loren Coleman's "heroic terrorist" characters, but yeah. This is a good suggestion, Double Blind is good. The Avanti's Angels are good. My personal suggestions: Wolves on the Border - is the best written of the lot, bar-none. It does things I still strive to emulate. The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy - read these after Wolves on the Border (if you read them at all). Heir to the Dragon - is written in an entirely different style, but very solid. Way of the Clans - The first of the Jade Phoenix trilogy is worth the read, the author pretty much condemns the entire Clan lifestyle. Don't read the next two books in the trilogy, they're bad and dumb and alter the way you'll see the first book. Highlander Gambit - I'm not a huge fan of Purdue since his climaxes tend to involve Deus Ex Machina, but Highlander Gambit's pretty good and the follow-up, Impetus of War, is... alright, I guess? Close Quarters / Hearts of Chaos / Black Dragon - my favorite trilogy. The first and second are action movies with tons of gunplay and martial arts, the third is a crime / political drama featuring a badass old man in a wheelchair. And Ninjas (a lot of Ninjas). And there're BattleMechs too, I guess. Cassie may be the protagonist and the star but she's a sociopath and the books go out of their way to point out that she's not someone to be emulated (the one character (introduced in the second novel) who tries winds up completely messed up). Also none of the novels are really about her. Double Blind - Down on their luck Mercenaries who are actually down on their luck. Also Word of Blake. Books to Never Read: Natural Selection - Stackpole wanted to write a novel about Katrina Steiner as the Red Corsair. He got told he couldn't, but was already partway done writing it. He repurposed what he had and it's a complete and utter mess, one of the worst books ever written (I do like the very beginning where Phelan shows off what an egotistical dumbass he is though). Ideal War - The worst BattleTech novel ever written. Far Country - The entire story is full of completely unnecessary and ill-fitting allegories and everyone, heroes included, are straw men. Even the Tetatae never grow beyond the 'noble savage' archetype. You could replace all the characters with cowboys, all the BattleMechs with horses and/or six-shooters, and all the birdmen with Indians and the book would read basically the same (poorly). Exodus Road - Blane Lee Purdoe overuses Stackpoling, the novel. Stackpole did it first, Purdoe does it the most egregiously. Ghost of Winter - A kid hallucinates while freezing to death in the snow. I mean saves the day when he finds a cache of Clan `Mechs and Weapons on a world the Clans never visited. Also features Suzy "One Eye" Ryan. Any novels in the FedCom Civil War era, but especially those featuring Archer "I Can Do No Wrong" Christifori. Doubly-especially the book with both Archer "I Can Do No Wrong" Christifori and Adam "My Home Planet" Steiner (where we learn that the events of the cartoon actually happened and the Jade Falcons did manage to fit the entire population of Somerset onto like, 3 DropShips). PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Nov 19, 2015 |
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Nov 19, 2015 19:20
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PoptartsNinja posted:
What, no "Main Event"?
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Nov 19, 2015 19:36
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Pattonesque posted:What, no "Main Event"? There're worse. Main Event and DRT are dumb but amusing. If I ever get back to finishing the first Dark Age novel (I misplaced it) I'll read Ideal War for you and show you why it's the worst novel in canon. Edit: I'd suggest someone blind-read Natural Selection and/or Ideal War but I don't want to be directly responsible for killing anyone's love of BattleTech. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Nov 19, 2015 |
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Nov 19, 2015 19:41
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Scintilla posted:I kid. I'm not going to do anything stupid, but my mech was built for melee combat. Gotta get in close to put that big stick to use. You have masc and clear terrain, you can get a 7 hex move, fire all your guns into them and then beat them with a mace all in the same turn. Remember to fire the streaks at any enemy who comes into range and you can potentially hit (if it would need a 13 its never happening.)
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Nov 19, 2015 19:48
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PoptartsNinja posted:Edit: I'd suggest someone blind-read Natural Selection and/or Ideal War but I don't want to be directly responsible for killing anyone's love of BattleTech. I've never read either. Don't ... don't tempt me 
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Nov 19, 2015 19:57
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Natural Selection has a few good moments. Not diamonds in the rough, exactly, but at least glass beads in the dungpile. Ideal War will make you glad they never wrote any books about the Free Worlds League.
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Nov 19, 2015 20:05
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AtomikKrab posted:Remember to fire the streaks at any enemy who comes into range and you can potentially hit (if it would need a 13 its never happening.)
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Nov 19, 2015 20:09
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Holy Stackpole's mechsplosions, I'm on the alternate list  I'll go brush up on the QuickStart guide...
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Nov 19, 2015 20:24
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Pooncha posted:Holy Stackpole's mechsplosions, I'm on the alternate list Just a reminder that a bunch of us nerds sit in #megamek on synirc if you ever want to BS it up or noodle over turn options in real time along with posting in the thread!
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Nov 19, 2015 20:26
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Ardlen posted:Even on 13s, fire them anyway - there's no penalty since they won't launch or add any heat. And with this many ACEs, maybe they'll move into range. only 3, players have faced more at once. Hey ptn when does the YOU ARE NOT AN ACE have to get declared? turn before?
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Nov 19, 2015 21:04
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Gwaihir posted:Just a reminder that a bunch of us nerds sit in #megamek on synirc if you ever want to BS it up or noodle over turn options in real time along with posting in the thread! And if you are terminally lazy about getting on IRC re: installing any software, there's always mibbit: https://client00.chat.mibbit.com/?server=irc.synirc.net&channel=%23megamek
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Nov 19, 2015 21:37
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Okay, heads' up on what C3 targeting is and why it should scare the poo poo out of you. C3 systems allow a linked lance, regiment, Level II, or triad (depending on the C3 system) to share targeting information. Mechanically, this means that units in a C3 link calculate their TNs as if they were only as far away as the closest member of the group. Minimum ranges and damage decreases by range are still calculated by the actual range-which means that C3 LRM units, for example, are going to get a lot more shot range shots than a normal LRM boat will. C3 is affected by ECM. The most basic form of C3 is the C3 system, which has 1 5-ton master and 3 1-ton slaves. This is the most vulnerable-you can take the entire network out by killing the guy with the C3 Master, or you can break the network by putting an ECM bubble between a unit and the master (although this is temporary). However, the biggest advantage of the basic system is that 3 C3 Masters, each with 3 slaves, can also link to another C3 master, allowing up to 13 units to share targeting information simultaneously. If you have terrain which allows you to take advantage of it, this obviously leads to incredibly hilarious levels of accurate firepower being thrown around. Again, the main vulnerability of basic C3 is that it is reliant on C3 Masters to work, and those can be headhunted in various painful ways-especially given that 5 tons is a fairly large payload. Either you're going to put it on an assault or large heavy chassis, at which point you've got a slow command unit, or you're going to put it on a lighter one, at which point your command unit is very fragile and finds it difficult to defend itself if isolated. ComStar, and later the Word of Blake improved on the C3 system by creating the 2.5 ton, 2 crit C3i system. C3i lets you link 6 units into a network. However, C3i is fault-tolerant in a way C3 isn't. If you take out any member of the network, the network keeps going. There are no 'masters' or 'slaves' in a C3i net-to cut off a C3i spotter via ECM requires that the ECM bubble block all of the other Level II members from receiving signals. C3i is heavy and bulky compared to the cheap-as-free C3 Slaves, but is a good compromise between redundancy and firepower. It doesn't have quite the same redundancy as Nova CEWS does, it doesn't let you concentrate the firepower of a C3 Master setup, but it's redundant enough and it's got firepower enough. The last form of terrestrial C3 is the Nova CEWS. Built in the original timeline by the Society, a Clan Scientist Caste rebellion, the Nova CEWS allows a mech to network to two other nova-equipped units. However, Nova lets a equipped unit freely change the units it's networked with, which means that multiple three-unit groups can link with each other as their members fall, allowing them to take full advantage of their C3 network. You are facing this C3 variant. The main way to deny someone use of C3 is to make sure they don't actually have spotters. The other way is to block the link via ECM, or by simply making sure that the enemy formation is forced into ranges tight enough that C3 is kind of pointless.
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Nov 19, 2015 22:10
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I think Nova CEWS also generates heat when active. Taking out the 'Diyu' group's network with ECM is also gonna be tough since we only have two ECM-capable units and the Warhammers can just switch their own suites over to ECCM mode. Still, something to keep in mind.
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Nov 19, 2015 22:29
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a PPC to the cockpit is also an effective way of removing C3 from the playing field. Anyone who wants to step close and spot for the rest of the lance should be eating enough man-made lightning to make any FASA author blush.
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Nov 19, 2015 22:35
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PoptartsNinja posted:Any novels in the FedCom Civil War era, but especially those featuring Archer "I Can Do No Wrong" Christifori. Doubly-especially the book with both Archer "I Can Do No Wrong" Christifori and Adam "My Home Planet" Steiner (where we learn that the events of the cartoon actually happened and the Jade Falcons did manage to fit the entire population of Somerset onto like, 3 DropShips). The Archer novels are probably the most egregious examples of "everyone in the story is really in to whatever the author likes and it's totally relevant" in BT. Somehow comparisons to Stonewall Jackson are super relevant and meaningful to the point they can become a part of Victor's propaganda toward the Lyran Commonwealth in the 31st century. This is because BLP likes to do Civil War reenactments so everyone in the Inner Sphere suddenly gives a gently caress about it.
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Nov 19, 2015 22:42
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AtomikKrab posted:Hey ptn when does the YOU ARE NOT AN ACE have to get declared? turn before? They'll have to designate a target they're trying to hinder so I can move them normally, yeah.
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Nov 19, 2015 23:27
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Lots of good stuff here but I am particularly jazzed by the Timber Wolf. Mad Cat's are my favorite mechs because of how incredibly versatile they are.
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Nov 20, 2015 00:07
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MJ12 posted:Okay, heads' up on what C3 targeting is and why it should scare the poo poo out of you. So, question time. If there is a spotter that can see the players just fine, and two other opponents that are separated from the players by a smoke screen, can the screened units fire as if it were not there?
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Nov 20, 2015 00:28
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Player checking in: I'm not sure which mech I'm piloting but I am very much down for running around in stompy mechs. I'm very excited about this mission 
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Nov 20, 2015 00:29
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Olothreutes posted:So, question time. If there is a spotter that can see the players just fine, and two other opponents that are separated from the players by a smoke screen, can the screened units fire as if it were not there? No, even units linked by C3 networks still need line of sight to be able to fire. If there is enough hexes of smoke to block LoS, then it's flat blocked.
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Nov 20, 2015 00:33
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Psion posted:I've never read either. Don't ... don't tempt me I have read both. It's not worth the pain. Trust me.
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Nov 20, 2015 00:35
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Sel Nar posted:I have read both. It's not worth the pain. Trust me. Natural Selection did at least have a cool ending. Shame about the rest of the book. But ending spoilers ahead. The way Phelan Kell-Wolf-Ward-Kell killed Conal Ward was pretty drat hardcore. Faking a trial of refusal like that to stop his political maneuvering dead. Almost enough to make you like Phelan. And with hindsight Ideal War is pretty great foreshadowing for how both Regulus and the Word of Blake were going to act during the Jihad. Just a shame that the main character was bland and uninteresting and the thinly veiled Vietnam IN SPACE! analogy was terrible. Still it's probably not worth reading at all even despite that.
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Nov 20, 2015 00:46
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Gwaihir posted:No, even units linked by C3 networks still need line of sight to be able to fire. If there is enough hexes of smoke to block LoS, then it's flat blocked. But if there is still LoS than the smoke penalty doesn't apply? Smoke is like light forest, right? Three of them blocks LoS but the first two are just to hit penalties? So would C3 allow them to ignore those penalties?
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Nov 20, 2015 02:35
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With respect, as someone who is far too deeply into the lore of this dumb fun game to back out now, I will offer some amplifications and alternate opinions to PTN. Anything I do not quote can be taken as complete agreement with PTN.quote:My personal suggestions: quote:Books to Never Read:
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Nov 20, 2015 02:41
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Scintilla posted:I think Nova CEWS also generates heat when active. Taking out the 'Diyu' group's network with ECM is also gonna be tough since we only have two ECM-capable units and the Warhammers can just switch their own suites over to ECCM mode. Still, something to keep in mind. Actual Nova CEWS is immune to non-Nova-CEWS-based ECM. Dunno about this subset of it on the board but PTN probably would have mentioned it if it was so.
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Nov 20, 2015 02:46
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Mukaikubo posted:With respect, as someone who is far too deeply into the lore of this dumb fun game to back out now, I will offer some amplifications and alternate opinions to PTN. Anything I do not quote can be taken as complete agreement with PTN. Every character in Exodus Road is a cardboard cutout. As funny as it is to watch the Smoke Jaguars poo poo all over Trent they do so because he's a good and noble savage and they're bad and evil ones. The concept of the first Twilight of the Clans book? It's alright. I suppose. The actual execution is pretty miserable. ComStar wins because Trent is an idiot. Trent wins because the Smoke Jaguars are all idiots and/or can't see him eject when he Stackpoles his `Mech right in front of them.  The only redeeming part of the book is the ending when Trent's like "I brought you this, I want to lead a regiment" and Focht is like "Yeah, no. I'll give you a company command though."
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Nov 20, 2015 03:26
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Olothreutes posted:But if there is still LoS than the smoke penalty doesn't apply? Smoke is like light forest, right? Three of them blocks LoS but the first two are just to hit penalties? So would C3 allow them to ignore those penalties? I think the to hit from intervening light woods or light/heavy smoke still applies. I'd have to go back and check the Wolverine training scenario to see though, I'm pretty sure they made shots through woods with C3i. e: Yea, c3 doesn't just magically make the woods/smoke go away, you still eat those penalties. Gwaihir fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Nov 20, 2015 |
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Nov 20, 2015 03:29
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I have two Battletech books. One of these is Wolves on the Border, and is great. The other is Tactics of Duty, which features Jaime Wolf and Grayson Carlyle reenacting the battle of Gettysburg... with battlemechs. Also people taking down Victors with battle armour and agromechs. The little blurb from the middle of the book that sits on the front page to get you hooked has a typo right in the middle of it. Urbanmechs that fail at doing what Urbanmechs excel at. Did I mention that they REENACTED THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG WITH BATTLEMECHS AND IT LASTED ABOUT 10% OF THE BOOK? Thankfully someone tries to kill Carlyle in the middle of it to keep it from dragging on any longer. Sadly, he continues to be unkillable.
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Nov 20, 2015 03:45
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I have a lot of the Dark Age novels and wouldn't mind doing some reads of them. Just got to get them from the 'rents' house. Also, that ominous news about all communication being cut from the homeworlds to the invading clans makes me think Clan Blood Spirit is on the rampage. I think it'd be cool to do even just one mission out there as a breather between all the Inner Sphere action, and nominate the best Clan, Clan Nova Cat for the player faction.
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Nov 20, 2015 03:56
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Scintilla posted:I'm just going to charge forwards and hit stuff with my mace until they / I die. Just don't let Caesar get headcapped/die. Defiance Industries would never forgive you. The only BT books I've read are the Blood of Kerensky trilogy that my cousin had and lent me, plus a couple other secondhand ones I read at Bookoff when I was bored a couple years back which I forgot off the top of my head. I'm used to Stackpole since I used to eat his Star Wars books up when I was in middle school (I still actually really like Corran Horn in I, Jedi, as well as the first X-Wing series of books, though Allston's series with the Wraiths were definitely a lot better and more hilarious, and the Jedi Apprentice series was pretty overblown now that I look back on it but back then I overlooked the problems because of my huge Star Wars fanboyism and loving to read space battles and such), but reading his BT books with the benefit of hindsight like 4 years ago, I can tell how bad of an author he actually is with writing characters and small unit action scenes in mechs... My cousin also had a bunch of the Dark Age books, but he warned me off of me borrowing them, since he knew they weren't as good.
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Nov 20, 2015 04:22
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Dachshundofdoom posted:Would somebody mind giving a rundown on what Variable Speed Pulse Lasers, X-Pulse Lasers and eERPPCs have going for them? I'm fairly familiar with the basics of Battletech but I don't know anything about these fancy big-city guns I see headed our way. X-Pulse Lasers are IS Pulse Lasers with higher heat but the same ranges as IS standard lasers. Variable Speed Pulse Lasers are... interesting very short-range weapons. The LVSPL that you're seeing does 11 damage with a -3 to hit at 0-4 hexes, 9 damage with a -2 to hit at 5-8 hexes, and 7 damage with a -1 to hit at 9-15 hexes. Basically, try to stay far away from VSPL shooters, because they basically cannot miss if they get in close. The eERPPCs are ER PPCs that do 12 damage a hit, and thus headcap.
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Nov 20, 2015 04:37
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The Merry Marauder posted:I haven't read that since it came out, but my hazy recollection is of S-TL tapping his lacquered fingernails together in a room that sounded like the MJ12 facilities in Deus Ex. Can you speak to the characterization it offered to refresh me? I keep trying to articulate it, but I'm not the best writer. His choice of a gift for the MoC, his deliberately vague wording to put the MoC off-balance during his visit, his final deal with Marcus GioAvanti to get both revenge and a share of the loot - all portray a very cunning character. Let's just say this: He isn't the mustache-twirling evil Chinese caricature that Stockpile used for every member of the Liao family.
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Nov 20, 2015 06:19
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Gwaihir posted:I think the to hit from intervening light woods or light/heavy smoke still applies. I'd have to go back and check the Wolverine training scenario to see though, I'm pretty sure they made shots through woods with C3i. Interesting. That makes the smoke rounds a lot less scary than I first thought. It will still be a pain to deal with but I was assuming that proper smoke placement would allow for some supreme bullshit levels of C3 abuse. Admittedly I think that would actually be really neat, it's not like smoke actually interferes with missiles.
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Nov 20, 2015 06:29
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PTN told me about Ideal War some time ago and I don't want that book to ruin my good impression of the fake Thomas Marik and Paul Masters. EDIT: Also, eERPPCs are interesting in that they're essentially the missing link between Star League ERPPCs and CERPPCs in development, from back during the birth of the Clans. The only cases of those to show up in the IS were, I believe, used on Minnesota Tribe `Mechs. Because they're Clan Wolverine. You don't find any in Clan space anymore because they're obsolete, so it's pretty cool to see Clan scientists in the CapCon trying to, essentially, rebuild their Clantech capabilities with the more limited, barely-Star League-level facilities they have to work with. Runa fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Nov 20, 2015 |
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Nov 20, 2015 06:30
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My goodness, that sure is a lot of plot-relevant characters on a battlefield full of headchoppers. Hope PTN's ready to tear up his storyboard.
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Nov 20, 2015 07:29
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Voyager I posted:My goodness, that sure is a lot of plot-relevant characters on a battlefield full of headchoppers. I'd like to think that PTN has a conspiracy theory board/room that's just a bunch of strings going everywhere. Which kind of makes me want everyone to die this mission.  his outline for the fluff. 
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Nov 20, 2015 07:43
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PoptartsNinja posted:
Oh hey, I actually read that one. Yeah, it was... kind of really bad. Random kid stumbles into a clan cache, somehow singlehandedly gets several clan 'Mechs up and running and successfully fights off a veteran pirate outfit, which itself also has clan 'Mechs because of course they do. But hey, the book came bundled with two other stories, which were at least reasonably decent.
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Nov 20, 2015 10:52
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Perestroika posted:Oh hey, I actually read that one. Yeah, it was... kind of really bad. Random kid stumbles into a clan cache, somehow singlehandedly gets several clan 'Mechs up and running and successfully fights off a veteran pirate outfit, which itself also has clan 'Mechs because of course they do. The worst part about that book was how he defeats the pirates.
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Nov 20, 2015 16:00
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The hate for Far Country makes me cry a solitary Tetatae tear. Especially since at least 3 bird legged mechs and 2 bird named mechs are in this scenario. Squawk 
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Nov 20, 2015 16:06
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I just realized; with the way that ComStar tries to assassinate any IS scientist who's actually creating a threat to the status quo, did this Society guy engineer the HPG attack in the planet so that he could do his work without ROM being able to easily interfere? Are the Capellan Power Rangers loyal to him over the CapCon now? 
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Nov 20, 2015 16:28
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