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thetruegentleman posted:You should also know that the Free Worlds League saw the Cappellans going full war crime, so they know about the tech at the very least. Have Carlos' Crusaders - the FWL unit that witnessed Full War Crimes - made it back to the FWL yet? I know there was some talk of a rescue mission but I don't think we actually saw said mission's results yet. As one of the players who helped Carlos get a message out and then encountered the AI Super Sentai Shadow Hawk Squadron, I am perhaps more invested in this than I should be.
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Jan 3, 2018 18:55
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A. Wolverines!
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Jan 6, 2018 02:38
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Synthbuttrange posted:Happy Page 2000 Battletech thread! My god what have we all done
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Jan 6, 2018 07:38
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Zaodai posted:The NRWR haven't really been giant dicks in this timeline? They have a relatively stable economy, with a healthy populace and a strong military, and a leader that at least pays lipservice to giving a poo poo about the lives of his people. They expand their influence by showing up with space factories and food and being like "hey, how'd you like to not be dirt-farming peasants?". They still fight the Clans, but I like them not because they oppose the Clans (I don't actually hate the Clans that much), but because they represent a rarity in Battletech: A leader with a surprisingly competent plan who understands the usefulness of technology and expansion through means other than "I land stompy robots there and plant a flag in the dungheap". Honestly the reasons you like the NRWR are the reasons I don't - over and above the fact that they're loving with my beloved FWL. Battletech is a setting that requires vast arsenals of weapons-grade stupidity to work out, and introducing factions that aren't massively dumb only (IMHO) lampshades the flaws of the setting. And that can be a good and useful thing to do sometimes, but sometimes the flaws of the setting are what make the setting enjoyable, which I would argue is the case for Battletech - a game about giant stompy robots. Put bluntly, if the leader with a surprisingly competent plan who understands the usefulness of technology and expansion through means other than "I land stompy robots there and plant a flag in the dungheap" is shown to be uniformly successful it begs the question of well why have the stompy robots in the first place and that's a problem when stompy robots are the whole point. That is, it's kind of like saying "hey why did Emperor Palpatine send stormtroopers to kill Luke's family when the smarter plan would have been to send him a letter saying 'congratulations you've been selected for a full boat scholarship to Imperial University, complete with a dorm room on Coruscant and a living stipend, here is a list of the fraternities that are interested in having you pledge' since he clearly wanted off Tatooine, and then either quietly killing him on Coruscant or even better recruiting the kid?" Which, like, yes that would be smarter but that kind of defeats the purpose of telling the story, y'know? Having said that, I do think the NRWR is interesting and fun to have around - and they've been demonstrated to lack some of the Plot Armor of the average Mary Sue because we've already seen that their centrally-planned economy is a house of cards currently diverted into a massive war effort that House Amaris appears to believe will pay off down the line for Reasons, so it's not like I object to them on the grounds that they're Too Perfect. If nothing else they give the Galactic South some poo poo to do, which is handy. But honestly, I'm looking forward to the day it all blows up in their faces. (none of which stopped me from voting for Red Dawn because c'mon) Anyways, tl;dr: Anything that lampshades the folly of basing your entire culture around Big Stompy Robots and the Shooting Thereof is something I want less of in a game about Big Stompy Robots and the Shooting Thereof. I already know it's stupid, I want the stupid, the stupid lets me enjoy Big Stompy Robot Action. 
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Jan 6, 2018 09:23
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No, I agree with you, which is why I took pains to point out that they're not a Mary Sue - the very fact that they're on such a shaky foundation demonstrates that - but that doesn't take away from the fact that personally (and I'm not saying anyone needs to agree, for the record) I don't care for the NRWR because thus far they've been too smart and Battletech needs more stupid if it's gonna work.
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Jan 6, 2018 09:38
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Fraction Jackson posted:I agree on this line, and honestly on most of the rest too. We may have voted differently, and for different reasons, but I think we see the NRWR in pretty similar ways outside of the fake-rules-of-war ethical questions. And for my money that can only be a good thing; diversity of viewpoints makes for a more interesting thread (and gives us discussions to have during voting periods so that there isn't just page after page of single-letter posts, which is good)! Anyways, even if I liked the NRWR a whole lot I'd still have to root for their failure as they threaten the stability of the One True Heroic Faction of Battletech, the Free Worlds League. NO YOU SHUT UP EDIT: Thread is now BATTLETECH: A SPACE ODYSSEY
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Jan 6, 2018 09:45
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Zaodai posted:This is the part that has me worried about the NRWR losing the fight on Andurien if it doesn't win the overall vote. Red Dawn is almost certainly the more interesting fight, and I do trust PTN, but I can't really see a way the NRWR loses their fight on Andurien with their ENTIRE military and the Clans, incompetent they may be at "lasting victories", not being able to successfully roll around to a bunch of undefended worlds and just murder everyone unopposed. That really feels like a situation where President Amaris gambled big (as he is one to do), and lost, and now everybody in the NRWR dies. Battletech jumps don't even work like Freespace jump tech where the NRWR could collapse a jump node or something out of desperation, trapping the Clan forces on Andurien so all the NRWR people on Andurien die, but the Clans are trapped there in a meaningless victory that still protects the rest of the NRWR. Honestly even if the Clans wipe Andurien to the last man, I don't see them as having the resources left after Andurien to pose an existential threat to the NRWR or anyone else; they have no supply chain, and every 'Mech exploded by a Good Doggie is a 'Mech the Clans aren't going to get back. Also, if memory serves the agreement the Clans worked out with the FWL gave them the right to pass through FWL territory unscathed on their way to the NRWR... not the way back. (maybe it's House Marik who had the real plan all along!  )
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Jan 7, 2018 22:57
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Surprise Pizza posted:No, he said they were guaranteed to lose "something", not necessarily the entire battle. Yeah, let's not fall into the habit of thinking we know what PTN has in store. He's a clever one; he knows how to build suspense. My bet is that the Demon Hawks will leave the NRWR's service and take off to sign up with a nation that isn't constantly shouting "hey Clanners come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" - given Jason Youngblood's affinity for the Steiners, maybe he convinces Duncan to sign on with the new Star League by taking a job with Skye...
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Jan 8, 2018 07:22
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Defiance Industries posted:I should be able to get backshots with the Nyx and a knife in the back of that Daishi if I counted correctly this turn War to the knife; knife to the hilt
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Feb 8, 2018 04:18
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RA Rx posted:So, what's the society like, I hear horrible things, but how bad can they be? The Society are Clan scientists who don't believe in Warrior Supremacy. That's commendable! They also don't believe in ethics or basic human rights. That's not so commendable! They're the dudes who would say "Hey let's develop a gene-tailored plague to wipe out everyone belonging to these Bloodnames," and when the warriors in charge said "um, no, not only is that not Space Honoraburu but it's also loving inhuman, dudes," they'd just quietly putter away continuing their work in the background, only with the Bloodnames of all the warriors who told them to stop added to The List. They're the University faction from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri with the option to take the kinder and gentler Social Engineering choices turned off. If you ain't got a Ph.D., you're not just a second-class citizen, you're meat.
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Feb 19, 2018 05:35
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RA Rx posted:Thanks for all the answers! hahahahahaha they plan to use eugenics to ensure that they and their descendants stay in charge while everyone else is bred for docility and servitude, would be my guess. But we really have little information on the long-term goals of the Society beyond "supplant the Warrior Caste as the rulers of Clan society;" their entire existence can be summed up as "the nerds who vowed that one day the jocks would pay for all those times they got shoved into their lockers." The Society are not transhumanists. The Society are monsters. They're less 'scientists' and more 'what the average Republican voter in the United States thinks scientists are.' e: that might be a bit cynical of me; I should not come to the Battletech thread after reading D&D and C-SPAM.
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Feb 19, 2018 06:41
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Zaodai posted:Yes, yes, I know. Glory to every faction but the CapCon, hurrah hurrah, vengeance for the Caballeros, etc. Honestly, "deceased victims of their own hubris" is more interesting than the CapCon's usual status of "default mustache-twirling baddies."
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Feb 20, 2018 09:31
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Night10194 posted:The Society was upset about their work being disrespected, being told to throw it out, and having it spit upon. Yeah, most of the research that the Society was so gung-ho about pushing was stuff that the Warrior Caste shut down because it didn't match the Clan Warrior Ethos. The Capellan Confederation is very unlikely to be saying "no, don't research that, it's terrible and dishonorable and unethical." They're much more likely to say "Yes, research that because it's terrible and dishonorable and unethical."
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Feb 21, 2018 04:57
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goatface posted:You should be voting for the mission that sounds the most interesting rather than cheering for a team, you scrubs. Eh, I'm a big fan of letting the players vote the way they want to vote, honestly. Having said that, I want to stay on the FWL bandwagon forever and ever, but at the same time I keep getting distracted by That Mission Sounds Awesome, so I'm neither fish nor fowl, apparently.
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Feb 25, 2018 01:10
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So... note to self. If I ever find myself in a light 'Mech, find Defiance Industries and do whatever they tell me. Holy poo poo, man.
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Feb 26, 2018 04:17
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Defiance Industries posted:Yeah, I think it will just force a PSR. But that could be to our advantage. Society pilots are basically defined by being lovely pilots, right?
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Mar 15, 2018 03:01
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LegendairyBovine posted:RWA MVPs: Gurkha #1 for punching way above that 35 ton weight, and the Dragoon II for pumping out consistent damage and keeping a sandpapered command mech alive Seconding (more like ninth-ing, I think) this voting slate
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Mar 22, 2018 00:35
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wiegieman posted:Battletech is the most realistic sci-fi setting, where humanity conquered the stars so we could make all the same mistakes. I remember reading somewhere a very cogent explanation of various subgenres of science fiction that went something like "transhumanist SF posits that technology can address the human condition and allow us to become something greater, something better, than we were before. Cyberpunk posits that even if technology can do that, it won't."
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Mar 23, 2018 21:14
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berryjon posted:I was going to make a comment about some of the Deep Periphery states, so I went to Sarna to double check my names. Basically whenever a writer or designer wanted to kludge together a new and "unique" setting and they couldn't find a way to kludge it into the Inner Sphere they just made up something in the Periphery, and usually no one noticed... until there were enough of these states that even the Periphery was starting to look pretty crowded.
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Mar 24, 2018 05:46
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PoptartsNinja posted:I made you cheer for Miles "Hawk" Hawkins and Val Ryder And killed the Grey Death Legion off-camera!
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Apr 18, 2018 10:07
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PoptartsNinja posted:Yeah, this is very BattleTech. Rip the AC/2s out of that Blackjack and give it a pair of AC/5s and you'll have 70% of a JagerMech's killing power in the early game. I really like Breaching Shot for lurmboats, actually, especially since if you split fire among multiple targets (and you have to get the ability to do so in order to get Breaching Shot anyways) and use one weapon on each, Breaching Shot applies to each target. Mind you, it's also really good on an AC/20 Hunchie, I'm finding in more recent missions...
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Apr 27, 2018 19:39
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Green Intern posted:Bah Gawd, those mechs. THUNDERBOLT IIC MATCHKA
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Apr 30, 2018 04:48
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I wonder if the Legionnaires' Buffered Direct Neural Interface and Pain Shunt implants could facilitate stealing a new ride; just yank out the old neurohelmet and plug the wires into your DNI slots. I mean, if I was PTN, I'd allow it under Rule of Cool, maybe by saying "okay, you can do it, but you lose your immunity to pilot hits and if your new ride gets popped you don't come back out in your battle armor; also you get a slight penalty to piloting and gunnery skills because you're using unfamiliar and not-entirely-compatible equipment." So... it's probably a good thing I'm not PTN.
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May 9, 2018 03:01
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painedforever posted:A bonus objective! Four turns to go! Kill 'em all! We are not killing fast enough!
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May 10, 2018 05:45
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GhostStalker posted:PTN's Dekker still lives, though his Glitch bought it a while back. Noooooo not Glitch! She is the best character! 
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May 23, 2018 02:35
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Xarbala posted:this explains why the line devs forgot about it  Also I really wish HBS BattleTech had Chargers in it. Chargers are just fun.
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May 28, 2018 10:40
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Defiance Industries posted:It IS surprising there's not an Urbie variant with a Fluid Gun, now that you mention it. The poor pilots already have to drive a 'Mech that looks like a fire hydrant, let's not make the jokes any easier for the hotshot Wasp jocks
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May 29, 2018 03:07
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Defiance Industries posted:STILL the Inner Sphere's most peaceful border. Say what you will about 'em, the FWL gets that right!
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May 31, 2018 14:32
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dis astranagant posted:Coulda sworn there were a couple 2009ish lps with really slow updates still trucking along. There are several threads only a few months younger than this one that I can find so far, but I haven't found any older yet. This thread has by far the highest postcount in the LP subforum, with nearly as many more than second place than third place has total. I know Smasher's rebooted the Super-League thread (#2 on that list) at least once, as the thread's first season is Super-League VII (I think; the thread's organization is for poo poo) and we're now leading up to XXV. But the point stands. (also it's a pretty good 'in favor of starting a new thread' argument because the Super-League did it and didn't die, so)
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Jun 2, 2018 22:54
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Xarbala posted:Speaking of Clanners, if the thread closes does that mean Mukaikubo is finally free from his geas I vote yes. Let the poor goon contract again.
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Jun 6, 2018 07:36
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Hell yeah Carlos Marik. Helping him evade Death By Sentai Team was a great mission and I hope his Crusaders keep him safe.
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Jun 6, 2018 16:53
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GhostStalker posted:Now I need to reread a whole bunch of stuff... I keep thinking to myself "DCB, you should reread the thread and summarize all the poo poo that happened so PTN doesn't have to" and then I talk myself out of it because I'm not sure I have a firm enough grounding in the original timeline to know who half these people are. I may still try and hammer something together for the new thread, but man, that would be a project and a half.
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Jun 7, 2018 07:36
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