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hooman posted:Clan Invasion 2: Twice as crazy, half as prepared. Oh poo poo you're right. Clan 2.0, with four times as many of the same jokes delivered in a quarter of the time for 800% the humor!
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Feb 5, 2016 21:05
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Historically the Second Crusade was a colossal clusterfuck that failed to achieve anything of note, humiliated all the major figures who called for it and left the various factions convinced that each had betrayed the other when in reality the failure was mostly thanks to their own incompetence and lack of co-ordination. I have a sneaking suspicion the Space Second Crusade is going to end the same way.
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Feb 5, 2016 21:17
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Scintilla posted:Historically the Second Crusade was a colossal clusterfuck that failed to achieve anything of note, humiliated all the major figures who called for it and left the various factions convinced that each had betrayed the other when in reality the failure was mostly thanks to their own incompetence and lack of co-ordination. If we're following history, the Sibko Crusade will be a tragedy, and I have no idea who will get invaded for the 4th.
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Feb 5, 2016 21:32
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AJ_Impy posted:If we're following history, the Sibko Crusade will be a tragedy, and I have no idea who will get invaded for the 4th. The Ummayad Caliphate in the periphery.
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Feb 5, 2016 21:48
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Richard the Stone Lionheart will conquer all the way to Terra, but turn back at the last minute because of his treacherous Sibkin messing things up back home.
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Feb 5, 2016 21:52
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A bit of a tangent, but how are clan warriors named? I guess the computers in charge of the cloning vats would just spit them out with one? Maybe there's some type of formula that comes from their heritage? Personally I like to imagine that there's just a rotating list of names, like for tropical storms and hurricanes. Maybe once in a while a couple people kill each other over whether or not "Cindy" is worth keeping on the list.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:32
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Octatonic posted:A bit of a tangent, but how are clan warriors named? I guess the computers in charge of the cloning vats would just spit them out with one? Maybe there's some type of formula that comes from their heritage? Personally I like to imagine that there's just a rotating list of names, like for tropical storms and hurricanes. Don't they not get names until they're teenagers or something? They're not even considered people (by Clan standards) until they win some kind of lovely contest to prove they're Warriors, right?
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Feb 5, 2016 22:34
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Zaodai posted:Don't they not get names until they're teenagers or something? They're not even considered people (by Clan standards) until they win some kind of lovely contest to prove they're Warriors, right? No, they get first names, it's last names that they have to test for, only getting one if they win the right to their bloodname.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:36
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Zaodai posted:Don't they not get names until they're teenagers or something? They're not even considered people (by Clan standards) until they win some kind of lovely contest to prove they're Warriors, right? I don't know. If that were true us expect more of them to be named "Gun" or "Non-recreational-sex" or "Stefan" or whatever clanners think is edgy.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:40
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They're probably named by the scientists who birth them, so common names include Guy, Coffee Cup and Sonic the Hedgehog.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:43
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Pussy Cartel posted:No, they get first names, it's last names that they have to test for, only getting one if they win the right to their bloodname. I know how bloodnames work, but I vaguely remember one of the books they're all just called by nicknames until some kind of test. I'm probably mis-remembering, but it was definitely stupid enough to fit in.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:43
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Octatonic posted:A bit of a tangent, but how are clan warriors named? I guess the computers in charge of the cloning vats would just spit them out with one? Maybe there's some type of formula that comes from their heritage? Personally I like to imagine that there's just a rotating list of names, like for tropical storms and hurricanes. They're named by their caretakers, usually one or two failed warriors that were so bad at the whole fighting thing that they got promoted straight into the laborer caste. Caretakers serve as combination kindergarten teachers / parents / brainwashers, and can give any names they choose. Since most caretakers are dumber than a bag of hammers, most Trueborns wind up with one- or two-syllable names that are easy to say, with three syllable names being fairly rare.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:51
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Psion posted:the lasing rods or collimators aren't surviving the nuke blast, they get destroyed in the process of lasing. Look up Project Excalibur from SDI back in the 80s. It doesn't help you survive the 2nd nuke, but whatever.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:54
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Zaodai posted:I know how bloodnames work, but I vaguely remember one of the books they're all just called by nicknames until some kind of test. I'm probably mis-remembering, but it was definitely stupid enough to fit in. Didn't one of the Thurston books have all of Aidan Pryde's "children" use anagrams of his name?
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Feb 5, 2016 23:38
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I fall a day or two behind on the thread and the next thing I know, the goddamn Wolves are back. gently caress those guys on general principle! 
Mary Annette fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Feb 5, 2016 |
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Feb 5, 2016 23:45
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PhotoKirk posted:Didn't one of the Thurston books have all of Aidan Pryde's "children" use anagrams of his name? His biological daughter did, yeah. But Aidan himself was the 'son' of Ramon Mattlov, so it's not like that's a typical thing.
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Feb 6, 2016 00:13
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AJ_Impy posted:If we're following history, the Sibko Crusade will be a tragedy, and I have no idea who will get invaded for the 4th. Since the analogy is confusing enough without the Clans being Space Mongols, I'll default to the Mariks invading themselves. Again. I'd hate to be the guy playing the ilArchon on a river heavy map. 
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Feb 6, 2016 02:07
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I think I speak for us all when I say my only hope is that PTN is playing the "Sane Mariks" just long enough to make the inevitable Marik Clusterfuck even worse.
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Feb 6, 2016 02:35
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TildeATH posted:I think I speak for us all when I say my only hope is that PTN is playing the "Sane Mariks" just long enough to make the inevitable Marik Clusterfuck even worse. NO YOU SHUT UP ...let the Davions crumble into irrelevancy in a cloud of smugness. House Marik deserves to shine for once.
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Feb 6, 2016 02:44
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Remmon posted:Alas, that study was not an actual nuke in vacuum. It was still far too close to the planet, hence the EMP effect. Out in space, there is no meaningful EMP effect. You'd probably not scrap the hull except in really, really major hits. Starship hulls will stop the majority of the damaging particles pretty much immediately. Heavy ions, alphas, and betas will all stop pretty fast in a metal shield (the hull) and the amount of energy that you'd be depositing into the hull depends entirely on the yield of the weapon and the surface area of the hull that you are hitting. The really damaging stuff will stop within a few micrometers of the exterior of the hull at most, leaving what I assume is the majority of the hull intact after ablating a very thin layer into space. Neutrons, being neutral, would pass through the hull with various degrees of success, but in general neutrons could make it through several feet of material before being stopped depending on the intervening materials. Photons will behave similarly. Each of these has the chance to liberate electrons in the hull/internal equipment and thereby generate an EMP of some kind but I can't speak to the magnitude of it, because most of the EMP on earth is heavy ions interacting with air. Buildings actually do a pretty decent job of stopping EMPs, I've seen some simulations that track that sort of thing in a major city and you can definitely tell where the roads are and which ones are on a straight line of sight to the blast. I suspect that the hull will do a similarly good job. As for protecting the crew, it depends on what you need to protect them from. Any hull at all will stop electrons, alphas, and heavy ions as above. Any reasonably thick high z material will stop the photons. Lead would be great, but tungsten, steel, whatever will work. A few inches to a foot depending could stop the majority of those. Neutrons are best stopped by hydrogen, so as long as you store all your water supplies, crew waste (eww), etc in the outer hull that will stop a bunch of the neutrons assuming that you have ~2 feet or more of it. Given that space is full of ionizing radiation anyway I expect that much of the equipment and the hull is designed to effectively shield radiation and protect the crew and systems on board. Given that this is battletech I am most likely very wrong. If you asked me how I would design a hull to protect the ship and crew, I'd have a thick layer of something like aluminium or steel, followed by a section about 4 feet thick that is full of hydrogenous material like water, excreta, and probably just plastic in some places. After that I'd have another layer of metal, probably something higher Z like tungsten or lead, and some more steel. Hey presto the ship is largely safe. You could even get fancy and have the external layers be some kind of metallic layer cake of lithium, carbon, boron, lead, and other fun things that is designed to stop everything and ablate away over time as it gets damaged. That is probably overkill and entirely unnecessary. None of this accounts for things like heat dissipation from atmospheric flight, but I don't think battletech cruisers go into atmosphere anyway.
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Feb 6, 2016 02:53
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TildeATH posted:I think I speak for us all when I say my only hope is that PTN is playing the "Sane Mariks" just long enough to make the inevitable Marik Clusterfuck even worse. I rather like everyone acting generally like people instead of dumb caricatures meant to fit their assigned narrative role. There is already a great deal of tension involved in their current scenario without the Mariks suddenly sabotaging themselves.
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Feb 6, 2016 04:00
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Tran posted:I rather like everyone acting generally like people instead of dumb caricatures meant to fit their assigned narrative role. There is already a great deal of tension involved in their current scenario without the Mariks suddenly sabotaging themselves. It's also nice that PTN isn't showing blatant authorial favoritism to any one faction while reducing the rest to inept morons to make his favorites seem that much cooler by comparison.
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Feb 6, 2016 04:09
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Scintilla posted:Historically the Second Crusade was a colossal clusterfuck that failed to achieve anything of note, humiliated all the major figures who called for it and left the various factions convinced that each had betrayed the other when in reality the failure was mostly thanks to their own incompetence and lack of co-ordination. The First Crusade historically succeeded in all of its major goals; capturing Jerusalem, Antioch, defending the Byzantines etc. The first Clan Invasion failed. This Clan invasion as well looks like it is stalling out as the Snake Clans (Adder, Viper, and Cobra) have all jumped ship to the Star League, while the Burrocks and Goliath Scorpions continue to screw the Widowmakers over and the Jade Falcons are falling flat on their faces (Given their in-canon crazy successes, I suspect this is another GDL-twist of PTN's, make the overly-successful factions less successful, and vice versa) I really would kill for a scenario involving the 2nd Crusade with a chance for players to go as Clan Nova Cat. In canon they had the 2nd biggest navy, 2-3rd biggest Touman prior to the invasion, and some of the better flavor out of all the Clan factions. Plus, their fanbase was crazy and did stuff like demolish the Ghost Bear naval fleet (including one of those Leviathans) at the one Gencon event so hard that Catalyst had to completely retcon the entire event so that the Nova Cats lost their fleet instead, but the Ghost Bears now "respected them" (Except totally not, 2nd Dominion-Combine war anyone?). On the Nova Cat note, I like that this time the 3 Snake Clans have taken the place of the Nova Cats. Siding with the Inner Sphere and definitely getting abjured soon. Also, how many folks believe Erik Kerensky's claim that the Widowmakers have totally been faking the Kerensky bloodname for the last 200 years? That seems a little far-fetched to me, but maybe the Widowmaker hatred for the Kerenskies runs that deep?
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Feb 6, 2016 04:15
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It turns out the newly-released Interstellar Operations book for Battletech not only talks about how nukes work in Battletech physics, but also accounts for the lack of atmosphere in naval combat. Reduced damage to ships outside an atmosphere, but crits deal extra damage straight to the interior. Pussy Cartel fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Feb 6, 2016 |
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Feb 6, 2016 04:15
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Tran posted:I rather like everyone acting generally like people instead of dumb caricatures meant to fit their assigned narrative role. There is already a great deal of tension involved in their current scenario without the Mariks suddenly sabotaging themselves. W.T. Fits posted:It's also nice that PTN isn't showing blatant authorial favoritism to any one faction while reducing the rest to inept morons to make his favorites seem that much cooler by comparison. But but but they're Mariks. Saying you like them not being dumb and self-sabotaging inept morons is like saying you enjoy hummingbirds when they chill the gently caress out and start crawling around on their bellies. BEING INEPT SELF-SABOTAGING MORONS IS WHY WE TUNE IN TO THE MARIK SHOW
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Feb 6, 2016 04:54
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If you want inept morons just read a Stackpole book and look at everyone who isn't a Davion. We've had quite enough of that. THE HOUR OF HOUSE MARIK IS NIGH! More seriously, we have really no earthly idea what kind of impact Carlos' survival will have. There's still plenty of ways House Marik can be ratfucked; we can remain fairly certain that they won't do it by being loving dumb, though, and that's just fine by me.
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Feb 6, 2016 05:01
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:If you want inept morons just read a Stackpole book and look at everyone who isn't a Davion. We've had quite enough of that. THE HOUR OF HOUSE MARIK IS NIGH! Preach on, my brother, we just keep pressing the momentum and keep playing House Marik. Squawk! Back Hack fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Feb 6, 2016 |
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Feb 6, 2016 05:08
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Pussy Cartel posted:It turns out the newly-released Interstellar Operations book for Battletech not only talks about how nukes work in Battletech physics, but also accounts for the lack of atmosphere in naval combat. Reduced damage to ships outside an atmosphere, but crits deal extra damage straight to the interior. That's actually pretty neat. It really seems that maybe there is a push to move battletech into a not totally crazy disregard for science direction of late? I'm probably just being hopeful.
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Feb 6, 2016 06:42
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Olothreutes posted:That's actually pretty neat. It really seems that maybe there is a push to move battletech into a not totally crazy disregard for science direction of late? I'm probably just being hopeful. I get the feeling that they generally try to be somewhat hard with the scifi, but they make sacrifices for the sake of fun (weapon and sensor ranges, mechs existing, etc.)
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Feb 6, 2016 06:47
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AJ_Impy posted:If we're following history, the Sibko Crusade will be a tragedy, and I have no idea who will get invaded for the 4th. Snow Raven and Sea Fox fail at their invasion of the NRWR, settle within Marik territory and call on their clan brethren for aid when the NRWR inevitably backstabs the Mariks again. The fourth Crusade launches with the goal of destroying the NRWR but once they arrive in the FWL they find it much nicer and backstab them instead. Comstar disapproves and threatens interdiction until a sizeable Several successor states start to squabble about who is the true FWL but are ultimately annihilated by the encroaching NRWR.
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Feb 6, 2016 08:35
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I'm not really familiar with Battletech back story. But aside from a role in the original fall if the star league, what is the NRWR doing that's so villainous? The clans are crazy, comstar are technology worshipping nutcases, and the successor states are constantly fighting each other. The NRWR seem to actually be building up worlds with a long term vision, which isn't that evil. I'm also from Minnesota though, which may bias me.
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Feb 7, 2016 02:53
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Velius posted:I'm not really familiar with Battletech back story. But aside from a role in the original fall if the star league, what is the NRWR doing that's so villainous? The clans are crazy, comstar are technology worshipping nutcases, and the successor states are constantly fighting each other. The NRWR seem to actually be building up worlds with a long term vision, which isn't that evil. I'm also from Minnesota though, which may bias me. Why do they have the capability to do so when no-one else does?
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Feb 7, 2016 03:23
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AJ_Impy posted:Why do they have the capability to do so when no-one else does? Stayed off the charts so they wouldn't get invaded/nuked by the Successor States which results in them having some pretty cool poo poo back there that no one else is allowed to see. Because everyone else got nuked so hard they forgot how to make new soil on an arid rock and build jump drives and what have you.
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Feb 7, 2016 04:03
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Competence is inherently evil in the battletech universe. It's like Soviet propaganda. The enemy has better tech, better planning, and does not appear overtly hostile on the global political scene. But we will beat them, because they are baby-eaters and we have ENDLESS WAVES OF DISPOSABLE PEOPLE.
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Feb 7, 2016 04:07
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AJ_Impy posted:Why do they have the capability to do so when no-one else does? The Successor States suffer from Paradox-like Pretty Borders Syndrome, and expanding outward into the Periphery is just going to mess them up.
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Feb 7, 2016 04:09
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AJ_Impy posted:Why do they have the capability to do so when no-one else does? Serious answer, it's probably got something to do with them having discovered some form of faster communications and transportation. The size of the Great Houses seems to be more or less bounded by how long it takes stuff or information to go from one point to another. It's kind of why the FedCom was hosed from go.
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Feb 7, 2016 04:29
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Yeah, one of the key things that doomed the Star League was that they realized they couldn't effectively govern much more territory and started sabotaging further expansion so they wouldn't have to.
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Feb 7, 2016 05:06
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"Figured out how to do FTL comms and travel better" would be one hell of an advantage.
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Feb 7, 2016 05:47
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dis astranagant posted:Yeah, one of the key things that doomed the Star League was that they realized they couldn't effectively govern much more territory and started sabotaging further expansion so they wouldn't have to. Well, they probably could have if they were willing to raise anyone else to the level of Star League Council membership, but that sure as poo poo was never happening.
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Feb 7, 2016 06:53
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Defiance Industries posted:Well, they probably could have if they were willing to raise anyone else to the level of Star League Council membership, but that sure as poo poo was never happening. Battletech characters authoring their own dooms by being petty, short-sighted, and grasping of whatever power they held? How unheard of.
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