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It makes a little more sense if you assume most planets have functioning planetary economies and the big interstellar governments only get a cut of the surplus / offworld trade. Like if the US Federal Government could only tax interstate commerce. And that all the local governments make up big dumb expenditures to keep their interstellar taxes as low as possible.
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Dec 11, 2020 17:09
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Fidel Cuckstro posted:The thing that got me on this last night was reading through the House Arano sourcebook, and one of the intro fiction bits where Kamea is complaining about how few mechs are left in the Aurigan Coalition after the civil war. I was just trying to run the numbers in my head, and I feel like it would probably cost them $1B c-bills to buy replacement mechs off the market In the era where the Coalition exists there really isn't much of a secondary mech market. It's the era of scrounging, where factories are building new machines but in small numbers that are being gobbled up by the Houses as fast as they can be built. The Houses are even buying out Periphery stock. It's like comparing MSRP vs the ability to actually buy something because demand is so high that there's shortages everywhere. Numerous computer components are going through something similar to that right now. Xotl fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Dec 11, 2020 |
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Dec 11, 2020 19:11
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Hardware export also works under whitelists, instead of blacklists. So the Coalition doesn't just need to have enough money, they also need to convince a foreign government that they should sell them mechs instead of keeping them for themselves.
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Dec 11, 2020 19:18
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The Coalition desperately needs a battalion of PS5s and is having about as much luck as I am finding one.
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Dec 11, 2020 19:38
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Taintrunner posted:A few shots from the game I played last night, set within the infamous Pleasure Dome! as the chapter finale of my narrative campaign. I really wish I could have maps like this. I can't find where to get any of this stuff you have for your maps and it makes me sad.
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Dec 11, 2020 20:43
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Feels like there's probably an Inner Sphere sized ebay or craigslist that House Arano could buy from. Yeah they'll get scammed a bit buying replica models and boxes of sand that that 'puto' from time to time, but I think they can afford it.
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Dec 12, 2020 14:28
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Fidel Cuckstro posted:Feels like there's probably an Inner Sphere sized ebay or craigslist that House Arano could buy from. Yeah they'll get scammed a bit buying replica models and boxes of sand that that 'puto' from time to time, but I think they can afford it. Basically! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Upt-fruJ4U
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Dec 12, 2020 14:35
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Has anyone played with any of the RPG rules for mechwarrior (or whatever it's called these days) or have any good recommendations for rules for doing RPGs in Battletech where most of the time people are just doing people stuff, and maybe occasionally doing mech stuff? Story: when I was a kid, the first Battletech book I had was the Mechwarrior core rulebook, which had nothing about mechs or the Battletech minis game rules, and easily for 2-3 years I was incredibly disappointed in the whole idea of Battletech.
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Dec 14, 2020 06:54
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What kind of rule system are you looking for? I like the latest system, which is Mechwarrior: Destiny, but if you want something that's rules-heavy it's not for you.
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Dec 14, 2020 07:31
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My DEMOlition game is a go for next Saturday. Store approved using a deck of cards to draw initiative as it should be obvious we're not doing something nefarious like playing Blackjack. I'm going to start printing piles of record sheets in anticipation!
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Dec 14, 2020 11:38
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Defiance Industries posted:What kind of rule system are you looking for? I like the latest system, which is Mechwarrior: Destiny, but if you want something that's rules-heavy it's not for you. That's a good question, and I of course have not thought about answering it. I don't think I'd do anything rules-heavy since my brain is getting older and dumber and long rule sets make me mad and will probably turn me in to a new form of Republican that calls in Hannity to complain about how come we don't just have 1e D&D anymore??
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Dec 14, 2020 12:29
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Mechwarrior Destiny is really good. The system is self-described as "Battletech, as an Action Movie." Compared to the often-unnecessary crunch of the old Age of War ruleset, it's very streamlined by comparison and has rules that let you theater of the mind 'Mech combat rather than asking you to break out tabletop every time you need your Wasp to fire its medium laser at a jeep. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Dec 14, 2020 |
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Dec 14, 2020 13:27
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Does any fiction or sourcebook address two questions I have on jumpships/kf drives? 1) how do they identify jump points in distant systems? Do you just kind of point towards a place you know a star is and the drive figures it out from there? 2) is there anything that keeps jumpships from jumping in to another one at their destination?
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Dec 14, 2020 17:23
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1. All Stars essentially have universal jump points anywhere far enough to the edge of the system. You can determine how far out using just the class of star which we can do today. The zenith and nadir points are two examples of this, but the gravity is negligible enough to generate a stable jump point virtually anywhere as long as you're far enough away from the star. Planets can throw a wrench into this, which is why most of the time you jump in either above or below the ecliptic. 2. The jump drive ignores locality, so rather than their only being a measurable effect when you actually jump in, there is a detectable signature when you initiate the jump sequence, which takes anywhere from several minutes to about 20, depending on how big the ship is. Plenty of time to get out of the way. Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Dec 14, 2020 |
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Dec 14, 2020 18:18
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Fidel Cuckstro posted:2) is there anything that keeps jumpships from jumping in to another one at their destination? It's such a nonissue it's never even mentioned as a concern in a setting where misjumps get mentioned every time someone is traveling. Space is really big. It's not elaborated in-universe but there are so few JumpShip manufacturers it's likely every ship manufactured by the same company uses a different random seed to determine their final destination. Left to their own devices (without human interference) you could jump a thousand JumpShips into the same jump point at the same time and odds are none of them would be close enough to even see each other. The military throws a wrench into this by using fleet formations, but in theory every ship jumps at a fixed distance from every other ship and emerges at that same fixed distance. JumpShips don't really move (unless they absolutely have to), they fold space. It's a bit like driving a parked car, except once or twice a month the stagehands come out and rearrange all the scenery. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Dec 14, 2020 |
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Dec 14, 2020 19:49
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Also, the consequence of doing your jump wrong is usually a misjump, so if you WERE to try and jump on top of another JumpShip, the KF drive at your destination point would interfere with your attempt to create a jump point (this is an important thing, KF drive cores don't get along with each other) and you'd just get catapulted off into whatever place misjumped ships go. It's sort of a self-correcting system that way.
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Dec 14, 2020 20:16
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Liberation of Terra had a warship misjump into part of another warship. though I guess with the caveat that the warship that got jumped into had some sort of drive failure.
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Dec 14, 2020 20:50
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I'm sure some wild poo poo could happen on that scale given how much larger it was than anything else. Like buying a million lottery tickets.
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Dec 14, 2020 20:57
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Defiance Industries posted:Also, the consequence of doing your jump wrong is usually a misjump, so if you WERE to try and jump on top of another JumpShip, the KF drive at your destination point would interfere with your attempt to create a jump point (this is an important thing, KF drive cores don't get along with each other) and you'd just get catapulted off into whatever place misjumped ships go. It's sort of a self-correcting system that way. Isn't that how you get the ones with bite-marks taken out of them who show up 100 years later?
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Dec 15, 2020 02:00
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Presumably something really weird always happens to you. But most of the time you don't show up anywhere anyone finds you, let alone where you actually meant to go.
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Dec 15, 2020 03:28
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I downloaded Destiny. I'll give it this- it's not at all what I would have expected for a legacy property like Mechwarrior
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Dec 15, 2020 03:39
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I think they recognized that AToW was as far as one could go following the old-school path. I have no interest in Destiny, but it didn't at all make sense to double-down on an older path that clearly wasn't working. I wish they'd stop remaking the system, however, and start releasing content that demonstrates why the BT universe is one of the best RPG universes ever.
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Dec 15, 2020 06:08
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It would be nice to get stuff like A Guide to Covert Ops for MWD. Maybe a book on non-state employers, all up and down the spectrum from Nashan to Quikscell.
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Dec 15, 2020 08:16
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Defiance Industries posted:It would be nice to get stuff like A Guide to Covert Ops for MWD. Maybe a book on non-state employers, all up and down the spectrum from Nashan to Quikscell. God yes. That’s the one thing Battletech really needs, narratively. I want my corporate warfare resolved with massive steel behemoths, damnit!
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Dec 15, 2020 08:29
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I remember Habeas promising a new version of the Guide to Covert Ops and some similar sourcebooks years ago, and I'd love to see those get done for MWD.
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Dec 15, 2020 21:41
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I'd like to see literally anything as support for a BattleTech RPG, and that'd be a decent place to do it.
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Dec 15, 2020 21:44
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It would be nice if they threw some MW:D sheets in for stuff that doesn't have much use on the TT battlefield because it's built for espionage. Stuff like the Constable couldn't be more clearly intended for the RPG.
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Dec 15, 2020 22:15
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I wish Catalyst could get their shipping situation figured out. Its nearing three weeks now since I ordered BattleTech: Battle of Tukayyid, and it still hasn't shipped. I appreciate that in the meantime I have the PDF.
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Dec 16, 2020 01:13
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Every time I think about understanding any Btech history after ~3055, I remember there's a character named Devlin Stone and I say "nope, will not be reading about that"
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Dec 17, 2020 01:58
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If you can tolerate Victor you can handle Stone.
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Dec 17, 2020 02:06
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Fidel Cuckstro posted:Every time I think about understanding any Btech history after ~3055, I remember there's a character named Devlin Stone and I say "nope, will not be reading about that" Wait what's wrong with that name, is it too...butch? Stone is actually a pretty good character and a lot better than Victor. We never get earnest first-person point of view about what a decent guy he is. His inner circle is cultish and mysterious. He's kind of reclusive, high-handed, and arrogant. You get the sense that he earnestly believes in his mission, but he needs people to believe in him. There are genuinely extraordinary people in history, both in Battletech and in real life, and Stone is one of them, but he is far from flawless and even before his, uh, later exploits were detailed, it was obvious there was something off about him. The Jihad was always going to fail and someone was eventually going to pull together and wipe out the Blakists. Stone was just the one who got a local resistance group going, made some real progress, and attracted the attention of enough IS leadership for a coalition to crystallize around him. Stone's lack of a past was vital to that; he wasn't nobility or ComStar or a Clanner, so there were fewer pre-existing reasons to hate him. (Even then, the Capellans refused to ever work with him, basically on the grounds that he wasn't Sun-Tzu.) What was "lucky" about Stone, as a rallying figure for the Inner Sphere, is that he was only high-handed and self-centered, rather than a berserk broken man like Titus Cameron-Jones. Well, lucky in the short term.
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Dec 17, 2020 03:46
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He's also secretly a Blakist, so that's more layers (one) than Victor ever had
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Dec 17, 2020 04:14
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Between Case White and all the defections he caused you could ALMOST make a case Victor is too 
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Dec 17, 2020 04:17
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There's no way he'd pass the exam to take his Initiation. It would require him to read a book.
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Dec 17, 2020 04:38
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Sorry, gotta draw a line at the name. Every man needs a line!
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Dec 17, 2020 04:59
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"Devlin Stone" almost certainly isn't his real name. He Joseph Stalin'd himself, poorly. VVV The Wobbies were too busy running around naming everyone and everything after demons because ComStar's Precentors Marik were tired of everyone making fun of their names. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Dec 18, 2020 |
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Dec 17, 2020 17:26
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PoptartsNinja posted:"Devlin Stone" almost certainly isn't his real name. He Joseph Stalin'd himself, poorly. That implies he deliberately chose a different name though, which, based on the DA fiction and Jihad sourcebooks, he may truly just not know due to Blakist torture. Being a clix guy, Devlin Stone and his Republic are favorites of mine. Here's hoping they survive in some format into the IlClan era.
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Dec 18, 2020 13:16
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TRO: Jihad says they do not.
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Dec 18, 2020 19:03
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I stumbled on the 4th edition tokens a while back, and two have made mechs I always ignored in to some personal faves. I like how this leans in to the goofiness of the Grasshopper, but also the crouch makes it look agile and kinetic, which a lot of heavy mechs don't (even when they're trying to do so). I like to mod my Grasshoppers with improved jump jets and a chain or other physical weapon when possible, so they can just run around the battlefield trying to smash smaller mechs.  And I like how this Quickdraw sort of has a Boba Fett/bounty hunter look here. The tokens all make medium lasers seem really big for 1 ton/1 crit weapons, so I usually refit quickdraws in to having 2 large lasers on their arms and they can sort of actually fit that "replacement rifleman" role the original material claimed for them. Anyways- two sort of forgettable mechs that I probably make worse because I like them. Fidel Cuckstro fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Dec 18, 2020 |
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Dec 18, 2020 19:33
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That token's art was what made me want to love the Quickdraw, in spite of how terrible it almost always is in action.
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Dec 18, 2020 20:23
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