48 replies to this topic

[Atlas3060]

Art doesn't always match fluff.

[Joachim Viltry]

Aaron DeChavilier, on 03 December 2011 - 12:34 PM, said:

so let me get this straight; Ultra A\C's fire at only twice the
fire rate of a normal autocannon...but they are depicted
with up to 6 barrels!? meanwhile the Inner Sphere invents
Rotary A\Cs that look exactly the same but can fire
up to 6 times!?

that doesnt make any design aesthetic sense! I had never
seen a depiction of UA\C's being multi-barrel, I had always
just assume it worked off a double-action internal in
the firing mechanism.... <facepalm>

and I never undertood why PPC's have 5 little holes on
the end of the barrel...

well, several standard AC's have been described as being 'spun up' - indicating that under their armored casing there are multiple rotating barrels. since an ac5 can be firing a burst of shells rather than a single projectile, the ac could be configured any way the designer chose.

Ultras aren't 'double action' - that is a real world term that describes something very different** what they are is a weapon that reloads and cycles much faster (with an increased chance of a jam because of this)- rotary configurations make sense as it keeps barrels from overheating under sustained fire.

RAC's are poorly named, but MUST always be multi-barrel weapons due to very high rates of fire- they have a dual feed / loading system, that reloads the weapon very quickly.

I used to be ambivalent about the multi-barrel thing, but over the years I have come to accept it. because well, why not? it does look good and make some sense. the GAU-8 is a rotary cannon afterall, and it is menacing as ****!




The PPC thing is kind of odd though, but at least there is a self contained standard appearance for all of these modular clan weapons now.





**Double Action, describes a weapon trigger that also c ocks the hammer when pulled (modern Revolvers) -vs Single Action, where the trigger only drops the hammer; meaning that the hammer must be physically cocked to the rear in a Single Action design (Colt Peacemaker, Single Action Army, 1911)

often on modern pistols / revolvers the action is actually a Double / Single- meaning that the weapon operates in both modes dependent on hammer position ( Sig p226, Beretta 92) -


http://www.genitron....Beretta-92.html has an interactive model that shows both types at work, just click 'operate' and 'fire' o see Single Action, and then 'decock' and 'fire' to see Double Action.

Edited by Joachim Viltry, 03 December 2011 - 01:31 PM.

[SMDMadCow]

Alizabeth Aijou, on 02 December 2011 - 12:01 PM, said:

In part because of the whole Dark Ages era it spawned.

When I first saw it I thought "Oh cool, they're rebooting BT in the Succession Wars with clicky stuff .... is that a chain saw ... *** is this?".

Back on topic - A friend of mine paid the $800 for the Mad Cat Mk4 sculpt last summer, and they STILL haven't made the thing yet.

[Cyttorak]

They ended up making canon minis inspired by the previous generation of computer games. Last time I checked, Ral Partha Europe still sold the packs: one from Mechcommander and the other from Mechwarrior. Then, there's the newer-sculpt Catapults which beefed up the torso section and modified the legs to be less spindly...that was inspired from the Mechwarrior version.
If this game is as popular as the old games were, I don't see why they wouldn't do the same thing...especially since the art is somewhat different.

[Aaron DeChavilier]

I guess Viltry, but to me the difference as always been something like this:

A\C: (Bradley 20mm)


UA\C (MG42)


maybe not so much in pure mechanics, but in look, sound, and 'feel' of the
respective weapons. Plus Im not a fan of massive miniguns, surprisingly, the
more I see them, the more they make somewhat goofy designs even more
so.

[Ghost]

As long as it never gets this far.

[Garyb]

Ghost, on 06 December 2011 - 11:14 AM, said:

As long as it never gets this far.

And now, now I will have nightmares.

[Brakkyn]

Saranpää, on 02 December 2011 - 05:42 AM, said:

While the arts of the mechs are being redesigned, are we gettin new miniatures to the tabletop as well?

Many companies which sell TT miniatures have started to sell their existing stock at discount prices.

Could that be interpeted as that there will be new range of battletech miniatures?

Does anyone have any viable info on the subject?

It's a reboot of the MechWarrior game series, not the BattleTech tabletop universe.

[Demi-Precentor Konev]

Brakkyn, on 06 December 2011 - 11:38 AM, said:

It's a reboot of the MechWarrior game series, not the BattleTech tabletop universe.

Yet the MechWarrior game series is part of the table-top universe. Same as the Dawn of War games are part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

[Atlas3060]

lahyenne, on 06 December 2011 - 12:50 PM, said:

Yet the MechWarrior game series is part of the table-top universe. Same as the Dawn of War games are part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Video games are non canon. Herb and Randall Bills both said this long ago to answer some questions about MW3 and MW4 back in the day.
Events or even designs might inspire the main Battletech line, but they aren't canon until they get printed in a book.

[Aaron DeChavilier]

Atlas3060, on 06 December 2011 - 12:56 PM, said:

Video games are non canon. Herb and Randall Bills both said this long ago to answer some questions about MW3 and MW4 back in the day.
Events or even designs might inspire the main Battletech line, but they aren't canon until they get printed in a book.

thank god, cant tell you how interpretations of designs come out of those games and mektek (shudder) and hopped they stayed fanon the way they should.

as for that Dark Age Atlas, never got a good look at it until now...my pumpkin head AS7-D weeps. D:

[Galaxy613]

Atlas3060, on 02 December 2011 - 03:12 PM, said:

From the depths of the Internets I command these links to RRRRIIIIISSSSEEE!

Downloads section for Battletech which also has the quickie rules for Quick Strike and free Quick Strike sheets for the introductory boxed set 'Mechs. There's also free downloads for Battleforce counters in case you don't have minis.
http://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=27

Now onto the stuff that costs money.

Quick Strike sheets for designs in 3039. Cost $5.99 and its also a PDF. The great thing about Battleshop is they'll alert you if they have news about a product you bought, let's say they've gone and updated some things...you get the ability to download that fixed version for free since you already bought it earlier!
http://www.battlecor...roducts_id=2439

Quick Strike sheets for 3050 tech! Cost $5.99 same song and dance as before about product alerts.
http://www.battlecor...roducts_id=2502

Quick Strike sheets for 3055 designs. Cost is $5.99 same song and dance as before about product alerts.
http://www.battlecor...roducts_id=2889
And that's not all! Designs for 3060 all for the low low price of....$5.99!
http://www.battlecor...roducts_id=2650

The Battletech crew is slowly but surely trying to show that Quick Strike can be a valid system of play, it might never replace the old methods but its a fun new dynamic into the Universe.

Before I realized Quick Strike was a thing I came up with my own simplification. In retrospect it's like a mix between Quickstrike and full records sheets:
http://i257.photobuc...eSheet_1024.png
http://i257.photobuc...dSheet_1024.png

I also made up my own simplified Battletech tabletop rules and used d20's instead of 2d6's and used d4-d12's for missile and LBX damage. I don't know if anyone wants to see my crazy bastardized rules. xD

Edited by Galaxy613, 06 December 2011 - 02:28 PM.

[Aaron DeChavilier]

Galaxy, send ruless away! I would love to read your take on btech
AND play test it. I love the TT sooooo much, but clunky rules (CBT) are clunky
D:

Once I get some kinks out of my own TT system, I'll post them here to see if
we could adapt Btech to them.

[Blackangel]

before the flames hit

i had a cbt set of metal recon minis(had the lams stinger wasp) when i was 8-9 really didnt know the game just liked the minis and played with them like hotwheels cars
if only i stll had them today when mwda aod clicky games came out i got back into both cbt and the clicky game , i did mods of the click versions , made them from the game to cbt style older mechs , still do. when i get bored.
i made several dropships excalibur/overlord (over 2ft tall), union (hampsterball), mule , bought a leopard.

i have recently just started getting more metal minis to start my sons up in the cbt universe since they are 6 and 8 i let them use the mwda minis to do the quick battles. they like it want to do that all the time now .

i think the cbt time line universe was moving way to slow and thats why the dark ages bumped the game into age of destruction the clicky games. and that a reboot is needed to get new blood playing thats why xbox picked up mechassault and now a new mechwarrior online.
mechwarrior will be both online and the xbox 360 platform.

i would like to see minis spawned from this version also.

[Galaxy613]

Aaron DeChavilier, on 07 December 2011 - 07:29 AM, said:

Galaxy, send ruless away! I would love to read your take on btech
AND play test it. I love the TT sooooo much, but clunky rules (CBT) are clunky
D:

Once I get some kinks out of my own TT system, I'll post them here to see if
we could adapt Btech to them.

Here are my rules: https://docs.google....uthkey=COfj1bsM

They are fairly complete and I've play tested it a few times. But I still haven't figured out a good overheating system, it feels like it breaks from the rest of the system when you have to worry about each weapon's heat and how much it went over and etc.. I donno, I'll love input on that and the whole system.

IF you don't feel like converting a bunch of weapons and mechs over to playtest the darn rules, here are some stats I've already done:
https://docs.google....&hl=en_US&gid=2

I took a few liberties with the variants too but everything could be changed,.

Edited by Galaxy613, 07 December 2011 - 10:05 AM.

[Amarus Cameron]

Atlas3060, on 02 December 2011 - 08:35 AM, said:

IWM (Iron Wind Metals) tries to keep the fanbase up to date on their mini making process on the Battletech forums since their own forum went kaput. I've not heard any news about this, but even if they did chances are they would be backlogged for almost half a year.
I couldn't see The Powers That Be reboot the boardgame like that, if Dark Age click game taught us anything its the possible idea of a reboot is bad to think about.
However there is fan sculpting! IWM will gladly take your money, make a sculpt, give you store credit, and sell that new mini on their site. In fact that's part of the reason why there is such backlogging on their releases. They've actually shut down the fan sculpt program for a little bit so they can get caught up.

This being said if anyone can create some renders of the different variants of the Huntsman, Direwolf, Black Lanner, and Shadowcat. I would be most appreciative, as they do not have them on Ironwind. I would even offer a bounty. PM me if you can help I want those variants on IWM, but have no artistic talent whatsoever!

[Joachim Viltry]

Amarus Cameron, on 07 December 2011 - 11:38 AM, said:

This being said if anyone can create some renders of the different variants of the... Direwolf...

Yeah the second wave omni's need a bit of a redo, mostly to clean up some proportions and add finer detail... But why the Direwolf? It already got a full on resculpt, so what's wrong with the stuff they have now? it was one of the ones redone as a computer render and IWM sells the variant parts for the various omni's...

IWM has an Omni variants part's bin - not all variants are represented, but with proper planning any load out is possible. (and if you don't mind spending some cash Mr. balk takes commissions... check out his work over on the BT forums)

Sure some omni variants might require a bit of fiddly modding to make- but hell, this is a miniatures game - modding is half the fun (one of the reasons i want the full set of 3050 omni's in nice 'premium' plastic is to make modding easyer). also, they occasionally offer certain variants as online exclusives, so it's worth it to keep your eyes on their news page.


Camospecs has several examples of modded out Dire Wolves made to match the official variant art; and really any project should start by looking at Thudgun, then seeing if Mr. Balk, or anyone over at Camospecs has taken a crack at it. Then see what parts you need from IWM.

[Alizabeth Aijou]

Quote

and really any project should start by looking at Thudgun

Yeah, I don't like that site - they don't have the Ebon Jaguar listed.
Its also missing quite a few configurations.
Take the Nova as an example, its lacking the Alt F, and Alt U configurations.
The Summoner is missing the G, HH, Q and U configurations.

I also dislike the fact that they use the IS names.

[Joachim Viltry]

Alizabeth Aijou, on 09 December 2011 - 02:59 AM, said:

Yeah, I don't like that site - they don't have the Ebon Jaguar listed.
Its also missing quite a few configurations.
Take the Nova as an example, its lacking the Alt F, and Alt U configurations.
The Summoner is missing the G, HH, Q and U configurations.

I also dislike the fact that they use the IS names.

Well the Cauldron Born (" Ironically, the Clan Smoke Jaguar 'Mech that was intended to replace the Loki was not referred to by its Clan designation, Ebon Jaguar, by other Clans as it was still so new that many Clans just called it by its Inner Sphere designation. ") is not a 3050 omni, soooooo since only the 3050 omni's are were redone on thudgun this is consistent.

As to the missing configs. please note that at the time that site was done the first ATM, and Heavy laser variants WERE the newest ones out. In fact, right after he did his models, IWM came out with a limited edition Hellbringer C model based on his work, and that was a while back.



But time marches on it seems; and apparently no one has commissioned official art along those same lines from him. But the basic work provides the framework for what the newest 'official' configs look like. for anything not covered, one can simply extrapolate from there.

As to IS vs clan names, I've always been sanguine. after all the sourcebooks are usually from Comstar's perspective (and generally dressed up as Intel reports) so I don't mind the decision to choose one set of names and just run with it.

Edited by Joachim Viltry, 10 December 2011 - 08:33 PM.

[Alizabeth Aijou]

Quote

Well the Cauldron Born (" Ironically, the Clan Smoke Jaguar 'Mech that was intended to replace the Loki was not referred to by its Clan designation, Ebon Jaguar, by other Clans as it was still so new that many Clans just called it by its Inner Sphere designation. ") is not a 3050 omni, soooooo since only the 3050 omni's are were redone on thudgun this is consistent.

Except that it is.
It first appeared in 3049, which is: dam-dam-daaammm a year before 3050.
TRO:3050, on the other hand...

Quote

As to IS vs clan names, I've always been sanguine. after all the sourcebooks are usually from Comstar's perspective (and generally dressed up as Intel reports) so I don't mind the decision to choose one set of names and just run with it.

And as a choleric I prefer the clan names.