34 replies to this topic

[Richard Hazen]

What would it be called and what would be it's area of expertise?

[Blind Baku]

I'd rather just see them expand in the other clans, though most like the Snow Ravens suffer from a lack of Mech focus... :/ If you want a non-battletech lore option, um, Clan SPARK MANDRILL and ALL THE PPCs

[Richard Hazen]

Blind Baku, on 02 May 2016 - 10:06 AM, said:

I'd rather just see them expand in the other clans, though most like the Snow Ravens suffer from a lack of Mech focus... :/ If you want a non-battletech lore option, um, Clan SPARK MANDRILL and ALL THE PPCs

I just meant come up with your own clan, doesn't have to be added to MWO just the battletech universe.

[Mechteric]

Clan McClanner Face

[Barkem Squirrel]

Clan Lesbian Sea turtle. Just because.

Actually it was a unit on the NGNG TS site for a while.

[Koniving]

The Flying Laughing Surats.

Edited by Koniving, 02 May 2016 - 01:06 PM.

[TheArisen]

Clan Cobalt Crab, they're known for their exclusive King Crab IIC & Crab IIC mechs.

[SnagaDance]

Clan Amaris

Their specialty would be dying REAL fast to the other Clans!

[Karl Streiger]

Clan "Whirlwind"- because all Clans are the descendant of traitors and cowards. They followed a narcissistic tyrant and kin slayer - they should reap what they had sown

Edited by Karl Streiger, 03 May 2016 - 01:47 AM.

[Blind Baku]

Will Hawker, on 02 May 2016 - 11:07 AM, said:

I just meant come up with your own clan, doesn't have to be added to MWO just the battletech universe.

Cool, then I maintain Clan Spark Mandrill, known for Jumping, PPC's, and great theme songs.

[Mechteric]

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 03 May 2016 - 01:40 PM, said:

I would bring up the "Clan" I attempted to make... but I will let you find it.

Aww I'd like to see a "Clan Unicorn Wizard"

[Richard Hazen]

You know this was a serious thread, but there's been nothing but mocking replies, may as well just close it.

[B0oN]

MWLL´s Clan Jade Wolf .
Motto : Leg everyone . EVER .
Mascot : PsychoWolf

OM NOM NOM

[Tordin]

Will Hawker, on 02 May 2016 - 11:07 AM, said:

I just meant come up with your own clan, doesn't have to be added to MWO just the battletech universe.

Glad you asked. I wish there were more focus on this. I have ONE concept that have been in my mind for a long time. I wish the Battletech guys could incorporate great Faction ideas into the BT canon somehow, if done correctly. My idea are well in the Dark Age timeline, do mind I wish they could ret-con the bad things about the whole Dark Age ordeal. But I do find the Rasalhauge Dominion something that makes sense and what I like but kinda dislike that Clan wolf/ in exile became so diminished..

Maybe a Clan Werewolf.
Clan Wolf in-exile. Got a leader that was fascinated with old Earth myths of half man/ half wolf creatures.
Decided he could use gene technology to make intelligent half wolf/man hybrids.
Successful but they never turned out to be capabel of mech combat, but becoming their own people.

Wild idea but had ot try

That or a future Clan Wolf in-exile khan got inspired by reading about the ferocity and shadowy abilities the Werewolves had in legends on Earth and base his new found Werewolf clan around the beasts notable abilities.

Clan Werewolf

Territorial, independent, loyal and the shapeshifting from the legends translating to balance diplomacy with ease, having intelligence gatherers on par with Snow Ravens spies, info traders etc. And the thougness to survive severity of most battles, at least have the ability to always find resources and people to gather strenght quickly. Ferocity and savagery in battle, more agressive then the Smoke Jaguars were, but more control on themself not hurting innocent, civilians which in turn CWW care alot about. Bondsmen must prove themself but accepted after that and equality between castes, freeborns, trueborns etc.

Edited by Tordin, 07 July 2016 - 01:09 PM.

[SnagaDance]

My most disliked faction(s) is the Nueva Castille / Umayyad Caliphate.

Terrible concept. They just copied the Reconquista to the 31st century. Nonsensical and lazy writing IMO.

[SnagaDance]

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 06 May 2016 - 06:40 PM, said:

Dude you know that the Clans are basically Mongols with eugenics right?

Of course!

But basing something on a certain concept like 'Space Mongols' or 'Space Samurai' (Kurita) is one thing. But going so far to base actual planet names (Aragon, Asturias, Castile, Córdoba, Galicia, Granada, León, Navarre and Valencia, really guys?) or the exact sequence of their conquest directly on history is something else entirely.

The Clans aren't living on Karakorum, Ulaan Bator and Samarkand and they didn't orbitally bombard/sack the planet of Baghdad, just to name an example. They put in a lot more effort there. Nueva Castille looks like a brain child of IGP.

[Rushin Roulette]

Clan Wolverine... using mixtech mechs and fighting on the IS side....

I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father canister smelt of elderberries!

[Karl Streiger]

Hey of course its your personal opinion and as this it could be as wrong as you like it.
But your are so dead wrong that it hurts - badly.

Because I'm lazy i will not answer any of your brain farts but one
Alex Kerenskys name - Oj seriously there are two things you have to consider
First here in Germany there is another guy with exact the same name as mine and we both work in IT.
The other thing is when your name would be Kerensky how would you call your son, when you are sensible to history?

Maybe just maybe your whole post is just a kind of sarcastic joke - otherwise you must have sniffed to much Unicorn poo

[Karl Streiger]

OK, thanks for the clarification.
The problem with "originality" - its impossible to achieve today.

I'm currently working on a "sic-fantasy universe" i had the idea well 15 years ago. I thought space orks and elfes are unique.... but 3 years later when i thought BT is dead - i realized there is a thing called W40k

Since then, I altered the universe multiple times but whenever i think its original, i find another RPG book or novel or else that simply make clear - nope not original enough.

The good thing about the pure "human society" in BT is - it's believable that history is repeating itself sometimes.
You don't create a new working society from nothing - you need something to work with and in most cases long gone society's like the Roman Empire, for example, are a perfect foundation because they had a system that worked for multiple centuries and you have the luxury to know what caused their fall and prevent it - ok you will fail in other terms but not because of the same reasons the "historical" society failed.

About the "22+" designs... ever tried to "start" your own universe?
As said i try and to give your "universe" a cheap start it helps to use designs of other "fictional" works. Of course you can spend tons of money you don't have or create artwork that looks cheap. Or you simple take work from others to create a foundation - the only "crime" was not to pay for the Mechs when they had the money (ok i don't know enough about legal stuff)

As example, - for my universe i want air drop-able heavy biped war machines - no Mechs but more the kind of ProtoMechs. And for the concept, I used Heavy Gears because they have perfect size and look. Of course, I started to create my own now but it takes time or money and they would hardly look as great as a Kodiak Gear.

BTW because you think the clans are not innovative (it was Stackpole who was on of the main actors behind their creation just to debuk your theory:

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 25 May 2016 - 07:53 PM, said:

Seriously... the only times the writing wasn't lazy in this series was when Coleman, Stackpole, and Thurston wrote the books. Rest of the time it was basically "Hey guys I read about the mongols".

)

[SnagaDance]

They never stole those designs, they licensed them. unfortunately the ones licensing the designs to them did not have the right to do so worldwide, but FASA didn't know that. Hell, they weren't a real company back then, they were just a couple of people trying to launch a cool game. And also try to imagine the time, we're talking pre-internet here. You couldn't easily double check things through the net, you made phone calls and send letters, maybe you even had a fax machine (wow!).

Based on the art in about the first decade of BattleTech books I'd say they really didn't have any good artist(s) at the beginning. So licensing some cool designs from across the globe was a good time and money saving decision. Some people might know them and think they were cool already, and most people just didn't know them, and were unlikely to get to know them. I mean, would Japanese shows all of a sudden become popular in the West? And would the world become interconnected enough for people to learn all this? Talk about sci-fi.

About the planet names that were mentioned (by Marack I believe), what would you expect people to name them? Our own solar system is packed with classical gods and characters from Shakespeare plays, just saying. It's exactly what I expect humans to do, if the star already has a cool name keep that one and otherwise snag a different one from mythology, nature, popular culture etc. etc.
And yes, this would mean that joke names like 'The Rock' would also exist. Especially fringe planets like this one would be likely to get names like these, just look at the names some frontier towns were given during the expansion to the west in America. There are also planets that changed their names in BattleTech lore for exactly this reason, they had become far more developed and became embarrassed about the old name.

So I'm willing to give the people who created BattleTech quite some slack. Like Karl said, originality is almost impossible to achieve nowadays. Especially when you start to make too broad strokes in ones comparisons. For instance, I could claim Marack's mech suits were blatantly copied from BattleTech. Use actual implants and thoughts instead of a Neurohelmet? That's just applying current high tech advancement to a story, just like the writers did back then (advancement of fighter pilot helmet interfaces).
I think it's a dickish claim, but that's what you get when you start using those broad strokes. So I like to think it's the little things that can make a story unique. And in that regard the direct mind control through implants seem a unique touch. In the end though I mainly like stories through the quality of their writing. The interaction between humans and between human constructs like religion and politics (I'm curious as what you're going to do there Marack, sounds really interesting) is the backbone of any story IMO.