Lets All Play Battletech and rewrite Inner Sphere history

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Lets All Play Battletech and rewrite Inner Sphere history

«‹›2 »

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Holy check, I�m not the only fan of the Sharks out there! :3:

For every rule that the Clans have, the Sharks are often enough the walking, talking exceptions to it. I enjoy seeing the traditional spit-and-polish Clans like the Falcons having the piss taken out of them by guys who recognize that most Clan trappings are impractical bullshit and appropriately give the barest minimum of fucks.

Agent Interrobang posted:

Yup! The Diamond Sharks preserved several sea fox specimens in captivity, and through a long, slow, and troubled breeding program, reintroduced them to the seas of Strana Mechty in 3100, which is when they changed their name back. I think the Snow Ravens got pissy about THAT, too.

That's close, but not quite right. All of the Clans that are in the Inner Sphere by the time of the Dark Age got kicked out of the Clan homeworlds during the Jihad. The exact reasons for that and what happened to the Clans that remained there have only been hinted at, though it looks like a sourcebook on it will be coming out soon. They changed their name back to Sea Fox for marketing purposes because even though the Sharks only briefly showed up to get punched in the balls on Tukayyid, Inner Sphere folks associate them with the invasion and think the only Clan willing to sell Clan tech is mean and out to conquer them. :downs:

# ¿ Feb 1, 2011 00:28

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 05:41

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

With who knows how many pages of material printed across hundreds of novels and sourcebooks, it's absurdly easy to get something wrong. I've seen guys on the official forums ask for where some detail everyone treated as fact was printed, only to have nobody know where it came from or even where to look. :psyduck:

Catalyst did a Very Good Thing by recruiting a team of the finest high-functioning spergs in the community to handle fact checking.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2011 01:04

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

WarLocke posted:

Guy 1: "Now that the Clans are all punked out we need some sort of new threat. An even worse one!"
Guy 2: "I know, let's have the Word of Blake go all Jihad on everyone!"
Guy 1: "The WoB? The AT&T guys? What are they going to Jihad with?"
Guy 2: "Uh, they have a bunch of old nukes. Oh and they have their own mechs they designed and built in secret!"
Guy 1: "Where did they build these mechs that nobody knows about them?"
Guy 2: "Well duh, they have a bunch of planets hidden away that nobody knows about!"

Way to ignore the five in-universe years dedicated to the FedCom civil war.

...wait a second, ignore my sarcasm because that's actually a good thing.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2011 07:27

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

PoptartsNinja posted:

I love that, for the Federated Suns, both of those are 'Hanse Davion'

Depending on if you're a fan of the Suns or not, yeah. But if you're a fan and need someone from the Suns to be a bad guy, then look no farther than New Syrtis, because everyone from there is a treacherous dick.

I only wish I was kidding. Both this and the fact that all good Capellans come from St. Ives comes up a sourcebook about the formation of the Clans.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2011 08:56

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

We've yet to touch Battletech's other great sperg magnet: how the population of the Inner Sphere is large enough to easily support armies a few hundred times larger than what we see. :madmax:

(The answers to anyone debating this are "shut up you twats, it's fiction for a game," and "just imagine everything's a few orders of magnitude smaller if it bothers you," in that order.)

# ¿ Mar 4, 2011 02:10

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Hob_Gadling posted:

I feel compelled to answer this.

I'm not going to argue the point, because it's nothing that wasn't annoyingly done to death in a bunch of threads on Catalyst's official forum archives that I never cared to get involved in. It's the simplest solution. FASA had minimal interest in fact checking or coherency, and Catalyst will never print anything as detailed as the factory lists in Objective Raids or the unit upgrades in FM Updates again precisely so they don't tie their hands and have people obsessing over the most insignificant of details. Even if they recruited a few members of their factchecking them that way. :v:

Arquinsiel posted:

Also: "remember the conventional militias".

Great point, but it works even better when you shave off a few zeros to get in the ballpark.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2011 05:59

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

PoptartsNinja posted:

Ah, but a whole regiment (plus armor regiment, plus infantry regement, plus aerospace wing) was bid to oppose them, quiaff? It's hardly Star Colonel Dawn's fault that she kept her own command binary in reserve to shore up the lines and was attacked by a lance of 'Mechs trying to headhunt and/or flank the main battle lines.

I think you mean Dusk, right?

On a totally unrelated note, please tell me there are no distant descendants of certain usurpers running around in this alt. timeline. :suicide:

# ¿ Mar 24, 2011 20:51

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

PoptartsNinja posted:

Go reread the Dismal Disinherited entry from the first vote.

Huh, that reference totally flew over my head. Then again anything involving either the Vipers or the FWL alone have a way of slipping people's minds, so I guess I was lucky enough to remember anything involving Star Lord in the first place.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2011 22:28

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Boogle posted:

What was the point of taking Terra anyway? Aside from being the symbolic seat of the Star League and the hub of the HPG network, is there any larger strategic aim here?

The Clan that performs the best and takes Terra becomes ilClan, which means that the ilKhan position will default to the Khan of the ilClan from then on. And I guess that the ilKhan will then have sweeping authority over Clan society as a whole like Kerensky originally did. Call in all of the Clans and divvy up the Inner Sphere for conquest, leave and gently caress off forever, disband a rival Clan(if they didn't die trying to stop you), order the Smoke Jaguars to live up to their namesake and inhale anything the Nova Cats give them, remove all of the dumb rules, whatever.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2011 08:00

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

WarLocke posted:

It's called a Nova because that's what happens if it actually fires all of its weapons at once.

The Nova's also a smaller OmniMech version of this melter of faces, which happens to be the size of G4.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2011 08:26

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

The Merry Marauder posted:

Forgive me from being nonplussed by the modern-tech meets Battletech discussion, which inevitably happens whenever new people are introduced to the system and is no doubt very interesting to them.

You can add me to the list. Even though I hate the numerous grognards who consider everything before they joined up the one true Battletech, the rare opposite that demands change is somehow even more annoying.

Silly me, thinking that seeing over a hundred new posts meant that some interesting turn had taken place in the game~

# ¿ Apr 2, 2011 23:00

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

ShadowDragon8685 posted:

Please, please, PLEASE have Duncan Fisher narrate the match between rounds!

Since it's the 3030s I hope to see him in his fighting prime, the best medium Mechwarrior to ever fight his way into Valhalla! :v:

PoptartsNinja posted:

Star Adder - "Intriguing, let us do science at it!" - new weapon/equipment research

I'd say their gimmick is to revere the image of the professional soldier of the original SLDF, while failing badly at it because they're Clan. Even with the addition of the dumb rock bug guys they're pretty bland.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2011 05:43

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Boscrossos posted:

Meh, they had it coming, living next to a fuel refinery. What kind of urban planning is that? No respect for human lives, I tell you...

Tharkad's probably like Los Angeles, with the refinery and other industries starting out in the middle of nowhere, far away from anyone until urban sprawl resulted in a tidal wave of idiots moving in and filing complaints about the noise/smell/pollution/anything else non-morons should have known about before signing on the dotted line. Good thing ExxonInterstellar's board of directors have friends in high places who can creatively resolve legal disputes on their behalf. :v:

# ¿ May 16, 2011 20:38

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

MJ12 posted:

It actually has 2 HAG40s I bet. Just because the Clans hate you and want you to hate them forever.

HAGs won't exist for a few decades, but I'm certain it will dish out few harder knoxcks and single-handedly slap around a few Mechs before this mission ends.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2011 11:07

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

wiegieman posted:

So there's the whole freeborn-trueborn mixing thing going on here. How hard was it for the squad to get their positions, seeing as they don't fit the clan ubermenschen model (although it's funny that the stats are the same), and how big of a snub is it for the star commander to be here instead of somewhere important?

How far a freeborn warrior can get depends on what Clan they're in, though unless they're Phelan Kell their odds of advancing in rank quickly falls to zero. The Steel Vipers and Smoke Jaguars don't allow any to become warriors, while in the spirit of Falcon-trolling and adhering to the bare minimum of fucks mandated by Clan tradition the ~~Diamond Sharks~~ Sea Foxes will post them anywhere if they prove their merit. If Clan Sea Fox is organized here like they are in the regular timeline the 42nd should be part of Beta Galaxy, which is good even though it isn't Alpha Galaxy, and beats getting posted to a garrison unit fresh out of training. Even if this world is the most rear end-end Periphery backwater imaginable, participating in the invasion of the Inner Sphere is important enough that any foothold is going to be defended with high-end forces and considered more prestigious than being stuck back in Clan space.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2011 01:14

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

SynthOrange posted:

Is it fan art? I'm sure I've seen that signature on official TROs.

You have! It's from Matt Plog, who has done a bunch of TRO and sourcebook art, but to my knowledge it's not official.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2011 09:32

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

T.G. Xarbala posted:

Did the Combine fix their lack of upgraded heatsinks by the time of the canon Clan Invasion? Or, if you prefer, the "Clanonvasion?"

Nope, the lack of double heat sinks was the official excuse for why upgraded Drac Mechs from the 3050s like the Panther were stuck trying to use ERPPCs with regular heat sinks.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2011 21:30

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Dolash posted:

I imagine it wouldn't have been so bad if the clans weren't all treated as equal political units. It made it feel like four clans invading the Inner Sphere represented just four of almost twenty roughly equal fighting forces were attacking. If it were rather four great clans and the remaining clans were of lesser rank, some even directly subservient to others, people wouldn't be left wondering "what do the clans do with like three quarters of their strength?"

You can have lots of factions, clans, tribes, noble houses, or whatever in your setting, but you have to proportion how much they really matter.

Part of the problem was that there were too many Clans that were removable discontinuities to the game universe, because they didn't really influence events even in the limited scope of the Clan homeworlds. I could understand it back when the Ghost Bears were the only introverted wallflowers in the Clan scene, but then the writers applied that quality to most of the ones that didn't invade. The Ice Hellions were ineffectual, but at least they tried to do the quintessential Clan thing: attack others and take their poo poo. If the Cloud Cobras, Goliath Scorpions, or Fire Mandrills never existed, who would know the difference?

# ¿ Apr 28, 2012 23:56

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

DarthXaos posted:

Battletech should have a metaplot reboot and do it L5R style where major storyline decisions are determined by the results of tournaments.

There were a handful of tournaments years ago that let the results determine the outcome of a few events, but already mentioned issues of abuse aside the results averaged out to a horrific bloodbath for every faction involved because the most experienced players were the ones playing it out. The main one that comes to mind was the one for the aerospace tabletop game, which left the Ghost Bears with a fleet consisting of a handful of the heaviest space battleships in the game.

PoptartsNinja posted:

My only real concerns with the Jihad come from my issues with 'shaking a tree just to see what falls out', and the lack of character-driven stories.

I usually say this when grognards whine about the unconventional style of the Jihad plot sourcebooks, but the loss of the paperback publishing contract with Roc after FASA went south utterly hosed things up for the writers. Being reduced to short stories and small in-character bits in the sourcebooks and Battlecorps for new fiction sucks, but at least guarantees that the exploits of Jeremiah Rose will never be inflicted upon the general populace again. :v:

# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 09:54

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Crazy Joe Wilson posted:

So is that what happened to the paperback books? I was wondering why they never managed to get a paper copy of "A Bonfire of Worlds" out.

The Catalyst guys have attempted to bring back the Battletech line of novels a few times, as opposed to under the Mechwarrior branding, but the best I recall them doing is compilation reprints of the the main plot trilogies.

TildeATH posted:

You could still have big, stompy mechs shooting each other. Frankly, I find this level of stasis oppressing to the point that it interferes with enjoying these game, and it's especially bad since so many games nowadays are subject to it.

As fundamentally dumb as the Clans are, I liked the smaller scope and higher tempo of events in their homeworlds. Everyone's crammed into about 40 planets, most of them are shared, and even before the reaving stuff there was a lot of land grabs and other turnovers. Reducing the number of worlds on the map from the thousands to something closer to the number of worlds that are significant sounds like a good start to me.
There was a popular rumor on the official forums that the Clans were originally supposed to invade from the other side of the map and destroy the Capellans instead of Rasalhague, and that reversing everything screwed up later stuff like the Lyrans leaving the FedCom while sharing a border with the Clans. It certainly has its appeals though: the FWL gets to do actual things, the Feddies actually lose worlds, and Takashi Kurita sending mercenaries to save New Avalon? :shepface:

# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 19:38

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

GhostStalker posted:

A Sure, why not? It is a heavier and more powerful Blackjack after all... For those more learned in Battletech, can you guys infer what the mech in question's canonical name is?

Crazy movement by reinforced GoonCompany Death Commandos this turn, but I guess when you have no targets to shoot at the moment and are just waiting for the enemy to get into range or something... Next turn promises more fireworks.

F2 is one of these guys.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2012 07:21

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

fool_of_sound posted:

I wish I had the artistic talent to draw MechRomney. What model would MechRomney pilot?

Fake Edit: Is MechRomney a Blakist?

Grand Titan. The head is even creepily reminiscent.

KnoxZone posted:

I can't hear you over the sound of my MUSE EARTH Devastator. Any mech that costs under 130 million c-bills isn't a mech that I would want to drive.

Not pictured: billions of Davion citizens left starving and ignorant so the space-pentagon can have shiny robutts.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2012 06:24

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

The Gate posted:

I think the best part with Hastur is that he is a perfect example of how hosed Clan society is. Instead of cloning him a hundred times or putting his DNA into their next breeding cycle the second they realized how special he was, they've just done nothing. Since he hasn't gotten a Bloodname, he'll never be used like that, despite the fact that he's probably capable of winning any Trial ever and being a Khan. And everyone outside the unit he's in thinks he's just some old rear end in a top hat, not the most dangerous pilot ever. :clans:

Clan violent combat robot pilot careers remind me of high-end professional sports stars, though since they can mass produce people by the hundreds through mashing together genes from the best performers a few standard deviations out, it's probably even harder to stay competitive at the top as new cohorts are spat out. I think there was also a bit somewhere about how they consider relying on pulse lasers too much to be cheap, and his mech is pretty much the walking embodiment of that concept.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2013 21:17

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Arquinsiel posted:

Also relevant is that the current people in Catalyst are the same people that turned out the lights in FASA, jumped ship with the IP to Wizkids and almost killed the thing dead with Mechwarrior: Dark Age. There's gotta be at least some executive medelling to blame, but the same people managed to run this poo poo into the ground aready. Twice. The jargon was the same with MW:DA too, all about "mechs are rare and precious" and "poo poo is crappier than 1940's tech because" and all kinds of lowtech funzies which failed to pan out.

FASA was absurdly lucky to score a runaway hit, as those up top never quite grasped that they should make more products that actually sell and generate ROI like the TROs and discontinue scenarios/sourcebooks for insignificant mary sue mercenary units like the Black Thorns. I'll favor the people who kept the IP alive for over a decade, probably giving up earning more money elsewhere, over the freeper dinosaurs who will continue to bitch that something is insufficiently eighties for their tastes.

The accounting fuckup a few years back that almost tanked Catalyst and led to the glut of PDF-only content lies solely on their heads, though.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2013 12:36

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

The combo-mechs guy has started posting again under a new handle, for those who remember. Now to wait for the inevitable collapse into sperg. :allears:

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 20:06

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Defiance Industries posted:

I left the official forums because the mod staff is made up of idiots but I'll come back for this one.

It's been years since I've given up posting there, but at least I can now put people on an ignore list to avoid further IQ-imploding posts when I browse, even if I can't tell them off.

Some of you goons have already seen how terrible fans of the franchise on the MWO forums are, but that was only the tip of the iceberg that was actually willing to try something new instead of outright rejecting it. On the official boardgame forum there are dozens of people signing every post post they make like it's loving usenet, somehow oblivious to the fact that everyone can just look to the left to know. Rest assured that there will always be more, and it will always be worse.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 01:17

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Defiance Industries posted:

Okay, then it's just Diamond Sharks who actually do it?

Looking at the field manual, it says the Sharks allow warriors to temporarily retire to a lower caste as a reservist(something something heigra mumble), and as along as they pass an annual trial of position they can come back or be called up without too much fuss. If you're too old for this violently robutting poo poo elsewhere you're pretty boned and will probably get the old Soviet two men/one gun treatment or off yourself.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2013 23:10

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Mukaikubo posted:

When the monthly chats stopped/were stopped, that was kind of a red flag.

edit: Any takers to bet against Ben Rome getting the job if he wants it? I have to think he would be a leading candidate 'from within'.

He's been the assistant line dev for a while now, and I'd be happy to see what he could do, but I recall him commenting that most of his day-to-day time and income involves outside freelance writing work. It depends on how much CGL can pay him to be at the center of that poo poo hurricane. If any goon has only experienced the long-term fans on the MWO brown sea, know that those dense neophobic fuckheads are just the tip of the iceburg.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 07:17

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

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( :911:

), because the writer wasn't allowed to let Victor do it in the Smoke Jaguar novels.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2014 00:19

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

The Casualty posted:

Hmm, interesting. I'm well aware (thanks to this thread) of the massive artistic appropriation taken on by Battletech for the first editions, but I've never heard of them commissioning designs from Japan for Clan mechs. I guess that explains why this particular 'mech hasn't really needed to be Re-seen or anything, despite the obvious similarities.

It actually was redone because it was produced by an outside company for FASA, and after the Unseen debacle any art that wasn't made in-house was no longer kosher to avoid legal issues.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2015 18:19

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

It's worth noting that the Comguards usually operate in mixed units of six, so anyone shooting that facility might awaken an angry beehive of nearby Mechs or tanks (or better yet, Purifiers at night :suicide:

) in addition to having their space phone service unplugged.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 17:51

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

LeadSled posted:

Is no one else a bit suspicious at the fact that Space-AT&T is comping a priority transmission like this? That's a lot of C-Bills that Comstar is giving away.

Since it costs only one C-Bill per page of text sent, probably not, though maybe they nab people with fees for priority messages. The free ride combined with the verigraph is worrying though, because Comstar has the technology to secretly crack those and can forge a message at the next station before passing it along. Fudging details about the Capellans sounds like a convenient way to draw inadequate League reinforcements into a meat grinder and keep the planet in the right hands, and if Carlos dies nobody will be the wiser... :tinfoil:

# ¿ Jul 13, 2015 06:18

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

T.G. Xarbala posted:

Fair enough.

Getting a historian's perspective summing up the 31st century ought to be interesting.

That reminds me of a blurb from the Brush Wars Historical saying that if anyone less psychotic or more reasonable than Romano was in charge, the Capellans would've folded when the Anduriens invaded, but they held out long enough for NO YOU SHUT UP to happen because they correctly feared for their lives if they didn't stand their ground.

AtomikKrab posted:

This is canon actually, you NEED space based production for good endosteel... I forget which book (one of the rpg ones?) but yeah, taking out gravity helps with making sure crap forms right apparently.

I think that there's an Era Report sourcebook around the Clan Invasion or Star League time frame that details how the rediscovered tech works, and in some cases what kept them from developing the different size models.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2015 04:42

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

T.G. Xarbala posted:

Also among those hidden NRWR listening posts/"pirate" staging grounds scattered across the periphery, there's one funny little blob of blue in the RWR's original territories right outside the Lyran Commonwealth.

It's the Rim Territory(?) in the regular canon, which is notable for being an entirely unremarkable periphery faction. It actually does consist of a good portion of a former RWR province by the Dark Ages though, which may make that area of space interesting if the Lyrans knuckle under. The spot up near the homeworlds is most likely the system where the Word of Blake cached some Mechs that the Scorpions found during the Reavings.

Ronin Of Dreams posted:

Andurien is going to be a bloodbath. I almost feel bad for the clanners involved. I will be sad if it means Clans Raven and Sea Fox outright cease to exist after Andurien, actually.

If it were up to the Bears, they'd have charged in with revved murderboners already. I'm half-expecting the Foxes to show up with a counter offer Amaris can't refuse, while the Ravens intend to strike a devil's bargain.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2016 11:07

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

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. :v:

# ¿ Feb 6, 2016 02:07

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Weissritter posted:

I always find it hilarious that the other clans decide to get the leader of the only clan to vote against the invasion to be the ilKhan.

As expected of a Stackpole antagonist plot, but if Conal Ward had taken Ulric's spot after he was elevated to ilKhan then he has no influence over the Wolves and becomes a warlord without an army, or last among equals in the land of the honor-bound strongmen.
Later ilKhans don't even bother with replacing the leadership vacuum in their old Clan and act like super-Khans of their Clan, though a few of those were busy trying not to die in their short time in office.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2017 06:29

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

CourValant posted:

Actually, I never got that part; he's a solider, not a babysitter, why would anyone think he'd do a good job raising a Cameron?

He could have been Regent without having the sole responsibility of molding the next leader of the Star League.

In any event, let's not argue about the efficacy of a fictional character in a Stompy Robot Combat setting; I just didn't want to see another setting character reduced to a 'one-liner pile-on'.

There should have been some sort of imperial family household agency like in England or Japan to cover raising the next generation of Camerons and let the First Lord deal with business. But then Jeeves would've politely shown Amaris the door, informing him that little Richard has a busy social schedule with the children of other Camerons and Terran Hegemony elites, and that he should seek friends his own age. Even if clumsily handled the takeaway is that he was chosen because of the House lords politicking, they wanted a weak regency to give them room for more ratfuckery, with tragic consequences.

Defiance Industries posted:

Not THAT professional, he promoted his brain-damaged son to the rank of Major General. His decision to elevate Nicholas casts a negative light over every decision he made on the way to the Exodus, now that we know he intended to implement dynastic succession for his position rather than having it pass to his immediate subordinate. Also, his failure to designate a clear second who could fill the gap after DeChevelier's death contributed greatly to the Pentagon Worlds disintegrating along with the military structure of the Star League-in-Exile. I don't know if it's a coincidence that his most recent art (from Liberation of Terra) looks exactly like Putin.

There's a fair share of blame he shoulders for post-Exodus, namely the entire lack of a civilian government, but you're blaming him for both wanting his son to succeed him while not having said son in any position to do so. Plus, if people wanted him to establish House Kerensky in the Inner Sphere, why go to all of the trouble?

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 03:59

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

It feels bad to put a damper on things, but it looks like rumors of Victor Milan's passing are true. :rip:

# ¿ Feb 15, 2018 02:45

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Olothreutes posted:

iATMs are the biggest bullshit weapon ever. They are bonkers. They have something like five ammo types, a streak system, and ammo that reaches out to insane distances. I think it's ER missiles, regular, HE missiles, mech taser missiles, and infernos. All on a streak system. Have fun dealing with that.

I wouldn't ignore the NOVA system, C3 networks that cannot be jammed and can be reconfigured on the fly can make up for worse pilot skills with an advantage in range mods. There are means to reduce the effectiveness of iATMs out on the field, but even one of those spotters up in GoonUnit's face can enable two others to hit accurately at ranges that can make it hard to respond in kind. One of many reasons why both of those will never appear outside the Clan homeworlds, good luck!

CourValant posted:

Also, don't forget the hundreds of years that they've had to stew on their hatred of true borns

Many of the Clan's scientists are trueborns, either by being the smartest failures of their litter or the product of a rare sibko batch dedicated to producing scientists, they just hate the warrior caste running things like Pakleds. Their revolt was in response to warriors ordering them to destroy their genetics work, one of the few things Kerensky the Younger explicitly said the warriors did not have authority over. While they made kill_all_trueborns.exe, using it would've ranged from Pyrrhic-ly counterproductive to suicidal. While the Word would've loved to press that button (among many others) the Society was a Clan joint, and ultimately loyal to their idea of the Clan system with less MAKE GUN HARDER.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2018 20:12

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 05:41

DeepThrobble: Sep 18, 2006

Gwaihir posted:

I thiiiink your Angel ECM should still block the streak effect of iATM launchers, which means that they can still shoot you, but that they'll have to roll on the cluster table instead of automatically having every missile hit.

Yes. The things on the field I mentioned before are the Angel for breaking locks, ferro-lamellor armor for damage reduction, and anti-missile systems. The Angel has plenty of range to cover others, though since people brought up possible Arrow configs it didn't feel right to suggest everyone cluster around the Rampage.
The Sep Z might also start sending some nasty things through the space mail slot that may affect the bigger picture, not to drum up useless speculation.

MJ12 posted:

The two 3070-ish new baddie factions are interesting in that they simultaneously have significant similarities-both rely heavily on high-tech combined arms warfare-and some huge differences.

The Word and Society may also be Wolverine offshoots, if you believe two questionable things: that the Blood existed and secretly controlled ComStar, and the Society spreading the Wolverine BattleCorps story as propaganda means that they are ideological descendants of scientists the Wolverines left behind.
Those are a bit of a tall order, but the real deal-killer is it would propel Sarah McEvedy past Victor Steiner-Davion for BattleTech's "Well-Meaning Idiot Fucks Up Hard Enough to Kill Everyone" Award, and that's just nonsense.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2018 08:42

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Lets All Play Battletech and rewrite Inner Sphere history

«‹›2 »