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Reading Tactics of Duty right now and I had hopes at the start when they said Davis was stressed that the phonetic Scottish accent writing would stop as the book went on. Oh dear
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May 21, 2024 07:21
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Painted some Wolf's Dragoons for a friend.
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May 21, 2024 21:02
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GD_American posted:Mad Cat isn't named after a cat, it's because it's a mixture of a Marauder and a Catapult. Thanks for the catposting. I liked light mechs in MechWarrrior so I might pick up the Cougar. Right now they're all using one mech and doing the beginner/arcade-y rules.
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May 21, 2024 22:09
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Inner Sphere 'Mechs named after cats: Anzu - A 60 ton heavy 'Mech named after a Sumerian monster that was a lion-headed eagle, a bit of a proto-Griffon. Cataphract - A 70 ton heavy 'Mech, not actually a cat. Catapult - A 65 ton heavy 'Mech, not actually a cat, but its in-universe nickname is "Cat" Catapult II - See Catapult Cattlemaster - Ok, this is cheating and it's an IndustrialMech. Chimera - A 40 ton medium 'Mech named after the mythological Chimera, which was part lion. IIRC it's kinda bad. Griffin - A 55 ton medium 'Mech named after the mythological Griffin Lynx - A 55 ton medium, the Star League version isn't that bad. Panther - 35 ton light 'Mech, remarkable for its lack of maneuverability. Good in certain circumstances, a light 'Mech pretending to be a medium Rakshasa - A 75 ton Mad Cat knockoff named after a tiger-headed supernatural entity / species. Temax Cat Ninjabolt - A unique 65 ton Frankenmech Clan 'Mechs named after cats: Cave Lion - 75 ton heavy Cougar - A 35 ton light 'Mech with a lot of firepower and decent maneuverability Ebon Jaguar - A 65 ton heavy notable mostly for how many times it's been completely redesigned. Griffin IIC - A 40 ton medium, see Griffin Hellcat - A nice looking 50 tonner without many variants Iron Cheetah - A 100 tonner that started life as an up-engined Dire Wolf. It's basically just a Dire Wolf with too big of an engine; but at least it's less prone to killing ejecting pilots Jaguar - A weird 35 ton quad 'Mech Mad Cat Mk. II - A brutal 90 ton assault 'Mech intended to be sold to the Inner Sphere. Got the Sea Foxes in hot water. Mad Cat Mk. III - A brutal 55 ton medium 'Mech intended to be sold to the Inner Sphere. See Mad Cat Mk. II Myst Lynx - A garbage 25 ton 'Mech, probably the worst thing the Clans regularly field Nova Cat - A reasonably brutal 70 ton heavy that has overheating problems Ocelot - A goofy looking 35 tonner that does not carry any form of revolver Pouncer - Technically named after a cat, 40 tons medium, basically an up-scaled Adder Shadow Cat - A 45 tonner with decent mobility and firepower, named after an X-Man Shadow Cat II - A really bad 60 tonner, see Shadow Cat Shadow Cat III - basically a remake of the original Shadow Cat. Sphinx - A weird 75 ton heavy that's basically like a mini-Cyclops. Named after the mythological sphinx.
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May 21, 2024 22:50
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okay now do dogs
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May 21, 2024 23:02
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Nebalebadingdong posted:okay now do dogs I like dogs almost as much so yes please. Alright I ordered the beginner box.
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May 21, 2024 23:19
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Inner Sphere 'Mechs named after Dogs Anubis - A 30 tonner. Jackals aren't actually dogs, but nobody cares, the Anubis sucks. Barghest - A 70 tonner. Named after a goblin dog. Bloodhound - A 45 ton super-scout Cerberus - A rare but very good 95 ton Gauss Rifle boat. Give us a mini already Catalyst, the Cerberus is rad! Garm - A 35 tonner named after a dog Grommet - A 75 ton industrialmech probably not named after a dog, but we can pretend Gulon - A 25 ton industrialmech named after a mythological fox-dog HawkWolf - An 80 ton weirdo built by a bunch of periphery cultists. Hound - A 70 ton periphery front-liner that's actually pretty ok Jackal - A 30 tonner, jackals still aren't technically dogs but nobody cares because the Jackal sucks too. Omega - An unworkable 150 ton monstrosity. Stefan Amaris was into some weird poo poo, ok? Rock Hound - A 40 ton industrial miningmech Toyama - A 75 tonner named after Conrad Toyama, 2nd Primus of ComStar War Dog - A 75 tonner most notable for its complete lack of an rear end. Hank Hill in BattleMech form. Werewolf - A 40 ton bespoke Solaris VII gladiator Wolf Trap - A really bad 45 tonner whose actual name so bad even House Kurita is embarrassed by it Tora = "Attack!" Wolfhound - A really good 35 tonner invented by Stackpole Wolfman - An apocryphal 55 ton Wolverine/Rifleman frankenmech Clan 'Mechs named after Dogs Amarok - A 95 tonner named after an Innuit ghost wolf. Also it's the Mad Cat Mk. II Mk. II Arctic Wolf - An ugly but pretty good 40 tonner Arctic Wolf II - See Arctic Wolf Canis - An 80 tonner most notable for never appearing in anything Corgi - An apocryphal 10 ton micro-mech Coyotl - A pretty ok 40 tonner Dire Wolf - 100 tons, the second most recognizable 'Wolf' Lobo - A 40 tonner named after a Superman villain. Lupus - A 60 tonner, very early Clantech Mad Dog - A fragile 60 tonner liked by all the Clans that don't like the Timberwolf. I'll spare you the details but the Mad Dog is basically the Archer IIC. Mad Dog II - The original Mad Dog prime but with the medium pulse lasers moved into a chin turret for Mechwarrior 4. Apocryphal. Mad Dog III - The Mad Dog II but uglier, somehow Mad Dog IV - The Mad Dog III but so ugly it's kinda coming back around to good again, like a very angry pug. Mongrel - A 45 tonner with a name so bad even the Clans just call it the Grendel. Night Wolf - 90 tons of I see Clan Wolf isn't tired of this naming convention yet Pack Hunter - 30 tons of "It counts, drat it!" Pack Hunter II - 30 tons of the ugliest Dark Age 'mech Rabid Coyote - 55 tons, pretty striking design Savage Coyote - 85 ton bruiser, courtesy of Clan Coyote Savage Wolf - 75 ton Timberwolf Mk. IV (Mad Cat Mk. IV), the Wolves are not yet tired of remaking the Timberwolf Skinwalker (Stormcrow III) - 55 tons, skinwalkers are a type of werewolf, I'm counting it. Stormwolf - A 50 ton knockoff of the Vulpes, which is itself a 60 ton knockoff of the Rabid Coyote Timber Wolf - 75 tons of "the most iconic 'Mech in the franchise," was a wolf before that was overdone Tundra Wolf - 75 tons of "Mechwarrior: Dark Age needs an iconic 'Mech too!" Fittingly, it looks like someone welded 2 dumpsters to a couple of classic metal trashcans. Inner Sphere 'Mechs named after Foxes Arctic Fox - A 30 ton Kit Fox knockoff, I usually forget it exists. Fennec - A goofy-looking 55 tonner that's probably secretly pretty good Foxfire - An apocryphal 15 ton trashfire Gulon - A 25 ton industrialmech named after a mythological fox-dog Silver Fox - A 35 ton bespoke Solaris VII gladiator Thunder Fox - A 55 ton quad, notable for appearing a lot in the Dark Ages. Vulpes - 60 ton totem 'Mech named after Hanse Davion, he probably would've hated it but it's secretly pretty good. The Federated Suns somehow knew that "Fox" was already a taken name even though the early Clan-era Fox has been out of production for like 200 years. Looks like a Rabid Coyote IIC, but in reverse. Clan 'Mechs named after Foxes Fox - A really old 50 tonner that predates most Clantech Kit Fox - A 30 tonner named after a baby fox, the Clans use it as a training 'mech. Sometimes carries a Gauss Rifle. Snow Fox - A 20 ton quad Inner Sphere 'Mechs named after Bears Beowulf - 45 ton super-scout, "Bee Wolf" AKA Bear. Basically an upgraded Mongoose, IIRC. Ursa - A pretty new 65 ton Quad, TharHes was probably shocked the Ghost Bears haven't used this name yet Clan 'Mechs named after Bears Bear Cub - A 25 tonner that's kinda bad? Beowulf IIC - A 45 ton scout killer that's really dangerous. See Beowulf. Bruin - An 80 tonner that feels like it's secrectly the Hoplite IIC Grizzly - 70 tonner, the second most memorable Clan 'Mech named after a bear Karhu - 65 tons of murder, Finnish for bear, basically a Z'Gok Kodiak - 100 tonner, most recognizable bear 'Mech Kodiak II - 100 tonner, yes there's a Kodiak II. No, there shouldn't be, it kinda sucks. Kuma - 60 ton anime bear Sun Bear - 55 tons of the Ghost Bears also aren't tired of this naming convention yet Ursus - 50 tonner voted most likely to be a skull. Ursus II - 50 tons of "Ok, the original design was embarrasing, please forget it exists" PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 00:06 on May 22, 2024 |
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May 22, 2024 00:00
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Finished Wars of the Republic Era. Too bad Victor didn't join in so the galaxy could be rid of all the Superfriends earlier. The RAF remains a homogenous gray paste btw. Also, if this prevents folks from instantly dismissing me upon seeing me post (or increases the chances, fuckin whatever), I'd already dropped the Capellan Confederation as my cringe LARPing faction about 2-3 years ago when I learned that Daoshen wasn't stopping at Chesterton. Now you have to deal with my mouth-foaming bullshit as a FWL player
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May 22, 2024 00:07
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The CapCon has been in the same place as the FedSuns was since Coleman declared them his favorite faction.
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May 22, 2024 00:10
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PoptartsNinja posted:The CapCon has been in the same place as the FedSuns was since Coleman declared them his favorite faction.
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May 22, 2024 00:21
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PoptartsNinja posted:The CapCon has been in the same place as the FedSuns was since Coleman declared them his favorite faction. Sidesaddle Cavalry fucked around with this message at 00:29 on May 22, 2024 |
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May 22, 2024 00:22
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yess. i guess the timberwolf really is the best mech because its on both the dog list and the cat list
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May 22, 2024 00:38
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Would you say that BattleTech has suffered as a result? Clearly a question I don't see asked often enough in the past 20-25 years. In public spaces anyways, online or otherwise No, not especially; but I don't think it suffered earlier either? Every fiction is going to have a favored faction, either favored by one author or favored by the company. It's just how people are kinda wired. The real trick is making sure the unfavored factions don't go ignored (FWL) or that the people who write for them don't outright hate them (Eldar, Tau). Catalyst is getting better about spreading out its fictional viewpoints, and recognising that there is (or may be) a creative bias is better than pretending there isn't. I vastly prefer the current CC fiction to the early "every Capellan character is a terrorist but they're doing it for good reasons!" of Coleman and Pardoe's earlier CC-focused work. The "good reasons" were always because Dear Leader ordered them to commit terrorism.
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May 22, 2024 00:43
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Now you have to deal with my mouth-foaming bullshit as a FWL player As a Clan Protectorate fan, greetings brother. Now we fight.
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May 22, 2024 01:18
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PoptartsNinja posted:No, not especially; but I don't think it suffered earlier either? The crowd's gotten better about that. Humanizing terrorism isn't easily depicted in pulp science fiction with fanciful knights, that's for sure. It helps terrorists to know that every faction does what they do, and that its benefactors love to say they're promoting freedom and prosperity. The bandwagon fallacy is an incredibly comforting thought to arguably most humans, to the point that it's not completely implausible to read fiction on a society built in part by it. Crazy Joe Wilson posted:As a Clan Protectorate fan, greetings brother. Now we fight.
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May 22, 2024 01:32
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The late Dark Age novel line had some genuinely good FWL stuff, didn’t it?
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May 22, 2024 01:42
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Finished Wars of the Republic Era. Too bad Victor didn't join in so the galaxy could be rid of all the Superfriends earlier. The RAF remains a homogenous gray paste btw.  PoptartsNinja posted:I vastly prefer the current CC fiction to the early "every Capellan character is a terrorist but they're doing it for good reasons!" of Coleman and Pardoe's earlier CC-focused work. The "good reasons" were always because Dear Leader ordered them to commit terrorism.
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May 22, 2024 01:58
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General Battuta posted:The late Dark Age novel line had some genuinely good FWL stuff, didn’t it? Yes, the last four novels in that line were all FWL/LC heavy, and Pandora's Gambit/To Ride the Chimera were BattleTech at its best, feudalism, intrigue, dynastic squabbles, spies and military, with a ton of inner character conflict.
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May 22, 2024 02:05
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the MWO enforcer already looked a lot like samus, so i recoloured it, but then also i stole the arm off the vindicator so she could have a left hand like she ought  also i got tired of cleaning the edges partway through so it's a bit messy, oh well
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May 22, 2024 02:41
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I never ever get tired of cross-genre Mech painting
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May 22, 2024 03:05
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Well I picked a poo poo time to try to get back into Battletech. My FLGS didn't have any of the box sets at all, and told me the AGoAC box set was out of print. Same with the Battlemech Manual? That's the one I want for fighty robots, right? Great time to find the lore though. Got a fat bundle of books from humble couple weeks ago and it's like a hundred books for forty beaver bucks. My lore is near zero in this game, like I know the clans came in and hosed poo poo up and stuff but only from the video games. And the cartoon, oh my god. You dare to refuse my batchall?! I haven't played tabletop battletech since the mid to late eighties, the box with the Warhammer on it and everything was so ripped off from Robotech. I'm considering just buying the pdf of the Battlemech Manual to see how much I remember and how much has changed. Anyway that's my story, thanks for listening. I'll probably be back more to complain about some bullshit laser that didn't exist in 1987.
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May 22, 2024 04:49
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Impressive & delightful work, PoptartsNinja  I have two to add Clan Mechs named after cats (by some people) Adder - An adder is a snake but Inner Sphere likes to call this one Puma, 35 tons with two PPCs Mixed-tech Mechs named after bears Kontio - a 40-ton assassin mech with claws, named after another Finnish word for bear
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May 22, 2024 04:54
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The books and box may be temporarily out of stock but they're absolutely definitely not out of print.
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May 22, 2024 04:59
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Yeah, AGOAC is getting a new cover for the 40th anniversary of BattleTech and that should be out soon-ish? They seem to make print runs of like five copies of BattleMech Manual because I’ve been trying to buy one for a year now and it’s never in stock where I am, and when it is, it’s gone instantly yes I know I could also just reserve a copy but I don’t really need the BMM right now I have it on PDF
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May 22, 2024 05:13
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Yeah sorry I wasn't clear, not like permanently out of print, just that he couldn't order them because they were between printings. I am gonna buy the Battlemech Manual pdf I think, unless one of you cool cats tells me it's not worth.
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May 22, 2024 05:14
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The BMM only has rules for mech on mech combat, but it does it in considerable detail and has basically all of the weapons and equipment you’ll see in 99% of your games of BattleTech. It is an excellently put together rulebook that’s laid out like an actual rulebook, unlike Total Warfare which you absolutely should not buy as a physical book.
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May 22, 2024 05:19
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boneration posted:I haven't played tabletop battletech since the mid to late eighties, the box with the Warhammer on it and everything was so ripped off from Robotech. I'm considering just buying the pdf of the Battlemech Manual to see how much I remember and how much has changed. Anyway that's my story, thanks for listening. I'll probably be back more to complain about some bullshit laser that didn't exist in 1987.
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May 22, 2024 05:42
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Ok this is crazy. I have no idea what so much of this gear is or does, and I'm having fun guessing before I look. There is no way this is right, clan large pulse lasers reach to twenty hexes? All their stuff is bonkers. I knew they had better tech but drat. What is the purpose of the Magshot Gauss Rifle? Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Cool fact about BattleTech: a lot more of the original 'Mech designs were copped from Fang of the Sun Dougram rather than Macross! The Shadow Hawk (Dougram), Griffin, Scorpion, Wolverine, Thunderbolt, Goliath and BattleMaster. It's worth checking out, even for just a minute (like on a YT clip). Huh, had no idea. I actually will check that out.
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May 22, 2024 05:47
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boneration posted:What is the purpose of the Magshot Gauss Rifle? It's an anti-infantry weapon.
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May 22, 2024 06:06
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PoptartsNinja posted:Tundra wolf I case anyone isn't familiar, it is this monstrosity. The mech, not the book. 
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May 22, 2024 06:10
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PoptartsNinja posted:It's an anti-infantry weapon. Lol, you'd think that but it has absolutely no anti-infantry advantages whatsoever. It's garbage.
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May 22, 2024 06:33
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I meant in the classic sense, where it's useful for shooting unarmored civilian targets and not much else. Just like the AC/2.  The real-real answer is: It's an SRM-1, good for 'Mechs with more space than tonnage but that can't afford to risk a machine gun ammo explosion.
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May 22, 2024 06:35
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The best argument I've seen for them comes from the FPS games. AP gauss (clan) and magshot gauss (IS) are a popular pinpoint-damage replacement for machine guns on light and medium mechs in MWO, which opens up possibilities for peeking and cheeky backshots.
Kesper North fucked around with this message at 08:43 on May 22, 2024 |
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May 22, 2024 08:40
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They're ER machine guns, basically.
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May 22, 2024 08:56
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boneration posted:There is no way this is right, clan large pulse lasers reach to twenty hexes? All their stuff is bonkers. I knew they had better tech but drat. Yep. I only got into BT two years ago but I can understand why there’s still such resentment for the Clans and why certain grognards refuse to play anything past 3025. Poopoo to that, I say, the Clans are beatable in the Clan Invasion era too, and then basically everyone gets access to any tech so it all starts to even out.
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May 22, 2024 15:28
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BV2 works well and the clans are balanced (at a disadvantage even?) except a few really cheesy corner cases.
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May 22, 2024 16:08
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Grogs hate Clantech because when it came out there was no balancing mechanism besides tonnage (lmao). We got the first version of BattleValue in like the mid-90s and even if it still wasn't great it was better than tonnage. Current BVs still have blind spots and pulse is one of them but it's infinitely better than practically no balance at all. Like 90% of people who refuse to play past 3025 got big mad in 1989 and never got over it. I do not respect it.
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May 22, 2024 16:33
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Strobe posted:Like 90% of people who refuse to play past 3025 got big mad in 1989 and never got over it. I do not respect it.
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May 22, 2024 16:38
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Strobe posted:Grogs hate Clantech because when it came out there was no balancing mechanism besides tonnage (lmao). We got the first version of BattleValue in like the mid-90s and even if it still wasn't great it was better than tonnage. Current BVs still have blind spots and pulse is one of them but it's infinitely better than practically no balance at all. I think a lot of grogs hate Clantech because they understood that tonnage was a poor balancing mechanic and their system mastery was based around gaming it and picking mechs that were really good for their weight class while ignoring mechs that weren't--always choosing Awesomes over Chargers, for example. And then Clantech comes along and throws all that system mastery out the window by making even the most optimized introtech mech into a poor choice. Arquinsiel posted:This is the correct take. I like 3025 tech games because I'm fine with a game ending when we run out of time with both sides still combat capable, but fuuuuuck refusing to play in other eras. Yeah, I prefer 3025, but it's silly to never want to play in any other era.
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May 22, 2024 16:55
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I mean, understanding grogs doesn't even go as deep as BV. Grogs will get upset at having to remember how to use equipment like C3 or Stealth Armor, or worse, actually have to fight against them. Then there's the (in-person) challenge of trying to pronounce all the new equipment & unit names that aren't exactly words commonly used in foreign languages, much less English. Which can bring up plenty of other nerd social anxieties. They're just sensitive to change, because it can be overwhelming.
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May 22, 2024 17:08
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