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So because I am totally insane, and also would rather avoid doing the work I should be doing right now, I wrote a program to scrape every update PTN has made since the start of the thread for combat rolls*. For those interested, here are the results. PTN has rolled 8,284 2d6 in service of our vicarious bloodlust. This doesn't count anything offscreen like crit table or cluster rolls. It does include things like piloting checks and whatnot, basically if it appeared in an update I have it. It is safe to assume the actual number is well north of 12,000. code:*There was a moment where combat was being displayed as images instead of text so I couldn't scrape that data, and it isn't present. If you want to go count it, be my guest.
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Jul 25, 2014 09:51
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Affi posted:People I care about and want to succeed in order. So, you're rooting for, in order, the Place Run By A Possibly-Psychotic Despot, the setting's Default Terrible People Who Are Also Terrible Racist Caricatures, and the Group Of Mechwarriors Who Eschew Battlemechs In A Game About Battlemechs. ....I gotta say, I don't think those are priorities I can get behind, but whatever works for you, man.  (Also gently caress the NRWR for dicking over the FWL. Marik 4 Lyfe, yo)
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Jul 25, 2014 10:07
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:(Also gently caress the NRWR for dicking over the FWL. Marik 4 Lyfe, yo) You're just mad because the NRWR beat the FWL to the punch.
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Jul 25, 2014 10:38
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Olothreutes posted:So because I am totally insane, and also would rather avoid doing the work I should be doing right now, I wrote a program to scrape every update PTN has made since the start of the thread for combat rolls*. For those interested, here are the results. It looks close enough and 8k rolls is a pretty small sample. I honestly don't know what you'd even run on rolls of multiple dice. Paranoid nerds sometimes crack out the chi squared test on individual dice but I'm not sure it would give up any useful information on a box of death.
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Jul 25, 2014 10:38
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dis astranagant posted:It looks close enough and 8k rolls is a pretty small sample. I honestly don't know what you'd even run on rolls of multiple dice. Paranoid nerds sometimes crack out the chi squared test on individual dice but I'm not sure it would give up any useful information on a box of death. Yeah I don't really worry about statistics much in what I do beyond running something like a billion or more trials, so I don't really know how I would begin to figure out how this data applies. Anyway, the dice are clearly cursed because all the 2's were rolled by the players or something. It would be interesting (and nearly impossible outside of hand documenting this stuff) how the players roll versus the opfor.
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Jul 25, 2014 10:50
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:So, you're rooting for, in order, the Place Run By A Possibly-Psychotic Despot, the setting's Default Terrible People Who Are Also Terrible Racist Caricatures, and the Group Of Mechwarriors Who Eschew Battlemechs In A Game About Battlemechs. NRWR seems to be a cool place to live, and the Minnesota tribe is cool too. And their mechs are cool. And yeah. poo poo. They are cool. Might even be good guys! Capellans have our favorite group of Death Commandos, poo poo who doesn't remember Terrence Williams? That whole campaign was concentrated awesome. Also they are in an interesting position and also underdogs. And yeah probably evil but I like them still. Hell's Horses have some of the most ballerest mechwarriors out there. Grier Siedman anyone? I probably will like the Goliath Scorpions too. But I think they are actually allied with the Minnesota Tribe and maybe even on the side of the NRWR.
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Jul 25, 2014 11:37
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Affi posted:NRWR seems to be a cool place to live, and the Minnesota tribe is cool too. And their mechs are cool. And yeah. poo poo. They are cool. Might even be good guys! Don't waste your time trying to justify yourself to someone who's rooting for Marik. Obviously it's a very damaged person who doesn't think that the best thing to ever happen to the Free Worlds League would be its subjugation by Locust-driving Bird Aliens.
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Jul 25, 2014 12:21
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TildeATH posted:Don't waste your time trying to justify yourself to someone who's rooting for Marik. Obviously it's a very damaged person who doesn't think that the best thing to ever happen to the Free Worlds League would be its subjugation by Locust-driving Bird Aliens. Well yeah, but that'd be the best thing to happen to any faction! Sorry, that's probably just the infection talking.' No but seriously boo RWR yay FWL. You've gotta sympathize with the guys being hit in all directions like that.
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Jul 25, 2014 13:05
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Olothreutes posted:So because I am totally insane, and also would rather avoid doing the work I should be doing right now, I wrote a program to scrape every update PTN has made since the start of the thread for combat rolls*. For those interested, here are the results. That's certainly a lot more efficient than me manually scraping two dozen updates for rolls! Given PTN mentioned he shakes the Dice Box and starts over for each 'Mech, I suspect we're seeing over-sampling of the first few slots of dice, but that's representative of how often we see those dice. So that's okay. Kudos, this is interesting work!
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Jul 25, 2014 14:02
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Affi posted:Capellans have our favorite group of Death Commandos, poo poo who doesn't remember Terrence Williams? That whole campaign was concentrated awesome. Also they are in an interesting position and also underdogs. And yeah probably evil but I like them still. I definitely remember Terrence Williams. 
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Jul 25, 2014 14:38
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See, maybe I'm crazy, but aren't there enough gigantic assholes in the setting that even if a few factions worked their poo poo out and started being reasonable we would still have no end of conflict for the campaign to continue? I only ever understand half of what's going on in the political updates, my entire knowledge of the characters is the presentation from PTN. I have no basis in the canon to get pissy if people make good choices over being dicks. Hells Horses seem like a cool faction within the clans, and our (Snow Raven?) survivor from last mission appears to have had a few revelations as a result of the battle and could come out better for them. The NRWR might serve as our clanstoppers in this continuity! I'm open to anything, but all the factions continuing to be unreasonable dicks and maintaining a status quo of stasis would be a pain. Edit: Sucks that the powered armor mission isn't going to work out, that seemed like it would have been really cool. 
SageNytell fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 15:26
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SageNytell posted:Edit: Sucks that the powered armor mission isn't going to work out, that seemed like it would have been really cool. I'm still waffling on that, the biggest reason for cancelling is that I ran out of ways to make the map visually interesting. If anyone knows of some good top-down sci-fi sprites I can "borrow" to use for partial cover, barricades, etc. I might pick it back up. I just don't have the time to sprite a visually interesting battlefield by hand and just designating certain hexes as 'cover' vs. not looks as boring as it sounds.
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Jul 25, 2014 15:44
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What sort of sprites are you looking for? Just doodads like radar dishes and such? Because there are some nice exterior vents/domes/dishes in the MegaMek 'lunar' image hex folder.
Scintilla fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 16:05
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Affi posted:Capellans have our favorite group of Death Commandos, poo poo who doesn't remember Terrence Williams? That whole campaign was concentrated awesome. Also they are in an interesting position and also underdogs. And yeah probably evil but I like them still. Wait until you see them under a leader who isn't legitimately insane! Either Sunny or Justin would probably be good. Oh, wait wait wait! What about both? Co-Chancellors!
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Jul 25, 2014 16:17
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Scintilla posted:What sort of sprites are you looking for? Just doodads like radar dishes and such? Because there are some nice exterior vents/domes/dishes in the MegaMek 'lunar' image hex folder. Interior stuff like tables, boxes, "science equipment" for the players to smash, zero-g catering trays, etc. I may have some time to work on these since I wasn't able to finish the update in time for a Saturday update, but I don't think I'm going to be able to add enough (of high enough quality) to make the mission interesting to watch. Shoeless posted:Wait until you see them under a leader who isn't legitimately insane! Either Sunny or Justin would probably be good. Oh, wait wait wait! What about both? Co-Chancellors! Romano was mostly insane because she was in constant competition with her sister. Who Justin killed back when he was still a FedSuns MechWarrior. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 17:11
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Dolash posted:No but seriously boo RWR yay FWL. You've gotta sympathize with the guys being hit in all directions like that. You know who else was hit in all directions? 
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Jul 25, 2014 17:18
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Frederick the Great?
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Jul 25, 2014 17:21
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PoptartsNinja posted:Interior stuff like tables, boxes, "science equipment" for the players to smash, zero-g catering trays, etc. I may have some time to work on these since I wasn't able to finish the update in time for a Saturday update, but I don't think I'm going to be able to add enough (of high enough quality) to make the mission interesting to watch. Oh, so it's inside? I'm not sure if the style is appropriate, but there are plenty of RPG Maker sci-fi tilesets with lots of interior stuff like shelves, work desks, swivel chairs, stasis pods, maintenance hatches, etc. Most of them are 3/4 view rather than true top-down, though.
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Jul 25, 2014 17:25
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PoptartsNinja posted:Interior stuff like tables, boxes, "science equipment" for the players to smash, zero-g catering trays, etc. I may have some time to work on these since I wasn't able to finish the update in time for a Saturday update, but I don't think I'm going to be able to add enough (of high enough quality) to make the mission interesting to watch. You know what you must do. A Battletech mission on the Space Station 13 map.
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Jul 25, 2014 18:26
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PoptartsNinja posted:Romano was mostly insane because she was in constant competition with her sister. I'm also getting pretty much all of my BattleTech lore information from this thread, but I still enjoy the way troublesome characters (either because they're insufferable mary sues or just make other characters terrible by being around them) have a remarkable habit of being dead before the narrative even begins.
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Jul 25, 2014 18:44
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Keru posted:You're just mad because the NRWR beat the FWL to the punch. Yes. Yes I am. The only people I will forgive for dicking over the FWL is the FWL themselves.  (I've had a lot of practice at this particular doublethink) ...or bird aliens, sure. But only if they SQUAWK! properly before battle to infuriate the pubbies.
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Jul 25, 2014 19:09
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Voyager I posted:I'm also getting pretty much all of my BattleTech lore information from this thread, but I still enjoy the way troublesome characters (either because they're insufferable mary sues or just make other characters terrible by being around them) have a remarkable habit of being dead before the narrative even begins. Candace was actually strong and capable individual who actually overcame problems to become so. She was one of my favorite Stackpole characters right up until she ninja'd her way into the palace on Sian without any assistance or anyone even realizing she was still alive, personally murdered Romano in front of Romano's son, and escaped completely unscathed. VVV Yeah, but I can forgive that because A) PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 19:27
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Back when the Dragoons were under contract with the CapCon, Candace Liao invited Jaime Wolf to her place for dinner. He declined and she sent assassins to try and murder him.
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Jul 25, 2014 19:30
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I'm still rooting for our Steiner Rules fighters, and our brave salaryman from the city fighting scenario! Honestly I think part of the reason this little world seems so alive is that we constantly choose interesting an fun options, instead of trying to fit it all into "The Vision" Looking forward to Operation: Payday here and the turn 1 head cap!
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Jul 25, 2014 19:48
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I've never played Payday so there's a good chance I might disappoint you. We can all look forward to The Watcher's ritualized condescension, though!
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Jul 25, 2014 20:13
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PoptartsNinja posted:Romano was mostly insane because she was in constant competition with her sister. Romano was insane for the same reason her father was insane: Stackpole wanted a mustache twirling pure evil face for the CC. Because making multifaceted three dimensional characters and accepting that the world isn't black and white is hard you guys! 
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Jul 25, 2014 20:26
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Defiance Industries posted:Back when the Dragoons were under contract with the CapCon, Candace Liao invited Jaime Wolf to her place for dinner. He declined and she sent assassins to try and murder him. Sounds like an average feast for CK2. Are the Capellans quite feudal? My impression was just moderately, where else do they get their crazy from? Readingaccount fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 20:27
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Readingaccount posted:where else do they get their crazy from? Stackpole found characterization difficult. That's where.
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Jul 25, 2014 20:35
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Trial By Fire: Tactical Update 1 “Your mission choice has been noted. Your opponents have been informed and have deployed their forces appropriately. All are Mk. 6 or less,” Silas thought the Watcher’s inhuman voice seemed dispassionate or perhaps simply disinterested and wasn’t sure whether he preferred the first or the second possibility. “Command has determined that the target has been scouted in advance. Potential objectives are marked on your tactical maps. Several are false. Three contain valid plunder. One is too large for a medium-weight BattleMech to carry and will require a heavier unit with two hands. An additional piece of false plunder has also been deployed, but should be obvious. Points will be awarded based upon the amount of plunder you successfully return to the extraction zone. Returning the false objective to the extraction zone will score no points but will not directly penalize your score.” “You will be penalized for every friendly unit that is damaged or disabled. You will be penalized for killing an opposing force Mechwarrior. You will be awarded bonus points for damaging or disabling enemy units to compensate. These bonus points will not be sufficient to compensate for failing your objective. They may prove some consolation when you repeat this test in six months’ time. There is no enemy command unit, so all opposing forces will fight with equal ferocity. Nothing will distract them from defending the objectives.” Apparently freed of his or her obligation to explain the mission objectives, The Watcher spoke a final time. Silas cringed as he managed to make an emotionless, computerized voice positively drip with condescending disappointment. “It is interesting that you chose a mission that does not require you to actually fight when that is the express purpose of this trial. Is looting your only reason for becoming Mechwarriors? Did we accidentally recruit you from the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns?   Player Status:  Neutral Forces:  Opposing Force (level) Cyclops (Mk. ?) Woodsman Prime (Mk. 6) Mountain Lion (Mk. 4) Thunderbolt (Mk. ?) Kintaro (Mk. ?) Wolverine (Mk. ?) Coyotl A (Mk. 6) Commando (Mk. ?) Mission Objective: Plunder Recovered (0/1500 points) Secondary Objectives: Enemy Units Damaged (0/400 points) Penalty Accrued (-0/-300 points) Orders Due: Tuesday Night! Attention, Mechwarriors! You will be receiving a PM / E-Mail soon.
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Jul 25, 2014 22:53
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PoptartsNinja posted:I've never played Payday so there's a good chance I might disappoint you. Basically the average round plays out like this: Everybody huddles in the corner while one guy explains a super convoluted strategy, then the new guy screws up three seconds into the mission, then everybody starts shooting civilians. I have a feeling we won't be disappointed in the least. 
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Jul 25, 2014 23:14
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PoptartsNinja posted:Candace was actually strong and capable individual who actually overcame problems to become so. She was one of my favorite Stackpole characters right up until she ninja'd her way into the palace on Sian without any assistance or anyone even realizing she was still alive, personally murdered Romano in front of Romano's son, and escaped completely unscathed. Yes Stackpole does completely suck but in this case he actually did have a reason that Candace was able to get back on Sian. Her ally on the inside was Ion Rush, the head of the Capellan Warrior Houses, and pretty much the only dude with the resources capable of bringing her back into Capellan space hidden like that from what I gathered when Sun-Tzu brought it up in the Capellan Solution books. It's still kinda weak though, but I guess that's par for the course with most of Stackpole's "cool ideas" it seems. Edit: I'm pretty interested to seeing what the different capabilities of the other Marks are. So Mark VI is Clantech. Mark IV must be post-Star League advances but not Clantech, guessing from it being on the Mountain Lion which had stuff like plasma rifles and VSPL. So Mark I is probably primitive tech, Mark II Succession Wars/Age of War, Mark III Star League? Holybat fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 23:26
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Mk. I is introductory, but otherwise the lines are pretty blurred. For example: Mk. VII and Mk. VIII were basically competing prototype generations, they're nearly identical and the Mk. VIIIs are only Mk. VIIIs because they "won" and entered full production. VVV That's a Karnov. I like them, they're neat. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 23:32
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I do hope you're going to steal that vertibird.
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Jul 25, 2014 23:33
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PoptartsNinja posted:VVV That's a Karnov. I like them, they're neat. Oh, God, what did you put in the Karnov?
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Jul 26, 2014 00:13
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Weissritter posted:I am surprised they turned out warden though, what with Nicky's personality as you all described from Operation: Klondlike. Also, he murdered his brother? Andery's death has always been written as convenient, but definitely at the hands of a rebel ambush. Considering he was the super nice brother and was the best-est of friends with everyone in the Clans (and the Wolves he was with in particular), I think Nicholas would have a hard time ordering anyone to either kill him or do nothing to help. Shoeless posted:On the topic of Wolverines getting their asses kicked, the whole "nuking a genetic repository" was probably one of their less good ideas. I know in canon there's some evidence to suggest that it was staged, but I actually kind of hope that in PTN's timeline that isn't the case, and the Wolverines are dicks like everyone else. It's Battletech, if someone's identifiable as an absolute good guy then something's wrong. A few years back they published a story about what happened to the Wolverines. It was Stackpole-level writing, with a cast of heroic morons smugging away against a team of incompetent Sidney Whiplashes while still somehow losing because that was the one thing that couldn't be weaseled out of. The Ravens actually nuked themselves because there was some space battle near [planet] and some pilot died with an armed nuke. His uncontrolled space fighter drifted for a few hours without anyone noticing and survived atmospheric reentry to crash on Main Street, Ravensville. Also the Wolverines take the Clan's flagship where Ghost Dad Kerensky is entombed for a joyride in which they orbitally bombard a few hundred workers to send a message(  ), because the writer wasn't allowed to let Victor do it in the Smoke Jaguar novels.
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Jul 26, 2014 00:19
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Edit: ^^^ And people wonder why I prefer the sourcebooks to the novels for my canon and fluff. Interesting. At a glance, I'd guess the Karnov is the one that requires a Heavy+ mech with 2 hands. Does the Coyote have 2 hands? I'm pretty sure the Battlemaster and Crusader do, and I doubt you'd have mentioned it if all of them have hands, so it's process of elimination. Oh, or maybe it's that cleverly hidden Atlas wreck? That's valid plunder if I ever saw it, while the Karnov seems less so. Just seems too unwieldy to be worth it, but maybe I'll be surprised. It and the Atlas are the only ones that really stand out so I'd guess one of them is the false one that doesn't net points. For the Op4 mechs, I'd bet that few of them are canon configs. That Commando looks like it has a set of Claws on its right arm for instance. If there's one thing I would suggest to the Goons for this match, it's remember to focus fire, and finish off your enemies. As demonstrated last match, a mech that you spend 2 turns firing at and then stop while it's not really damaged or impaired is wasted firepower. Fitting with this, try to aim for the mech you guys think you can take down the fastest. Whether that be the lightest armored one or a heavier one that you think you'll have better to-hits on, just do your best to focus on it and take it out. Also, um, why is the Commando sporting Marik colors? Or do the Lyrans have a purple and red scheme too? I just know that the Mariks have a glut of purple with red bits schemes. Finally, I hate to ask, but do you think you could make the contract between the height levels' colors a bit more noticeable, PTN? Like, make Height 1 be slightly lighter colored, and 2 even moreso to compensate, etc? Shoeless fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jul 26, 2014 |
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Jul 26, 2014 00:30
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Shoeless posted:Interesting. At a glance, I'd guess the Karnov is the one that requires a Heavy+ mech with 2 hands. Does the Coyote have 2 hands? I'm pretty sure the Battlemaster and Crusader do, and I doubt you'd have mentioned it if all of them have hands, so it's process of elimination. Oh, or maybe it's that cleverly hidden Atlas wreck? That's valid plunder if I ever saw it, while the Karnov seems less so. Just seems too unwieldy to be worth it, but maybe I'll be surprised. It and the Atlas are the only ones that really stand out so I'd guess one of them is the false one that doesn't net points. The Crab, Battlemaster, Shadowhawk and Crusader all have two hands.
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Jul 26, 2014 00:31
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DeepThrobble posted:Andery's death has always been written as convenient, but definitely at the hands of a rebel ambush. Considering he was the super nice brother and was the best-est of friends with everyone in the Clans (and the Wolves he was with in particular), I think Nicholas would have a hard time ordering anyone to either kill him or do nothing to help. Yeah, there's never been any confirmation anywhere in canon that Nicholas was complicit in his death. It was spectacularly convenient for him, and the lance that ambushed Andrey was definitely shooting to kill, but it wouldn't be the first time in history something has simply been a spectacular coincidence. Sure, it's also very possible Nicholas did have a hand in it, but Sarah McEvedy's suspicions might ultimately have been a case of confirmation bias too, since she already disliked him. DeepThrobble posted:A few years back they published a story about what happened to the Wolverines. It was Stackpole-level writing, with a cast of heroic morons smugging away against a team of incompetent Sidney Whiplashes while still somehow losing because that was the one thing that couldn't be weaseled out of. The Ravens actually nuked themselves because there was some space battle near [planet] and some pilot died with an armed nuke. His uncontrolled space fighter drifted for a few hours without anyone noticing and survived atmospheric reentry to crash on Main Street, Ravensville. Also the Wolverines take the Clan's flagship where Ghost Dad Kerensky is entombed for a joyride in which they orbitally bombard a few hundred workers to send a message( ...What. Even if that's true, and I'm terribly dubious that was ever made official, I'm going to go with what every other source says instead. Especially as the Ravens nuking themselves makes literally no sense. Hell, the Clans didn't even have nukes really, as they'd been used up/left behind in the Pentagon Worlds. The one the Wolverines used likely came from a disputed Brian Cache that was explicitly called out as having tactical nuclear warheads in it. That event was a decent bit prior to the Trial of Annihilation too, so it's not a case of someone claiming so afterwards.
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Jul 26, 2014 00:37
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edit ^^ if you're not concerned about size and weight, nukes are pretty simple. Shipping container is pretty small in battletech terms. So, what's the theory on what the wrecked thing is? It looks like it's packing heat.
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Jul 26, 2014 00:38
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goatface posted:So, what's the theory on what the wrecked thing is? It looks like it's packing heat. Looks like an Atlas to me, assuming you're talking about the thing in 1415-1516. Damaged/wrecked battlemechs ARE valuable salvage, after all. goatface posted:edit ^^ if you're not concerned about size and weight, nukes are pretty simple. Shipping container is pretty small in battletech terms. Oh, I'm well aware. Just commenting that a random Snow Raven aerospace fighter randomly carrying a nuke out of the blue makes no sense for like 10 different reasons. And we're not even going to go into the fact that modern nukes don't randomly explode in a nuclear fireball due to a plane crashing. For one, they're built extremely tough. For two, the process of detonation is rather complex, with things having to happen in a precise sequence. For example, covering a warhead in C4 and blowing it up will make a decently sized area radioactive, due to scattering the stuff inside it, but you're not going to get a nuclear explosion. Lord Koth fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Jul 26, 2014 |
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Jul 26, 2014 00:40
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