First played Battletech as a tabletop boardgame in '95-ish. I had a sizeable collection of Mechs at one point. I've played most of the Battletech computer games over the years, including the not so great Xbox titles which had me weeping into my hands at what they did to the franchise. I've read most of the classic Battletech titles, though I never did get to finish of the Fedcom civil war properly. Kind of grew despondent towards the novels after finding out Stackpole wasn't going to write for FASA because of legal disagreements. Since then I've always held a flame in my heart for giant walking mechanised death.

Cassi McDoolan, on 27 September 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:

No, the Crusader mentality is based on Alecksander Kerensky's Hidden Hope Doctrine, which was an attempt at keeping the morals of the Exodus Fleet as it made it's way to what became the clan home worlds. It set out his ideas of what the goals of the fleet should be and laid part of the foundation of clan culture in discipline in the face of adversity. This makes the clan way of life based on the mixture of propaganda, political and military philosophy, and out right pragmatism when faced with limited resources.

Also I do believe Ghost Bears turned Warden after the Great Refusal, also voicing the folly of the Crusader philosophy, though there'd be signs of them sliding towards being Wardens before then.

Jaroth Winson, on 27 September 2012 - 06:15 AM, said:

Actually I did address your point with my opinion. Seeming the Crusader mentality is based on belief and not fact, opinions count.

As for the Ilkhan's realisation? You have two options: You either read 'The Wars End' on this link here. Or you read Twilight of the Clans, if you haven't already. Basically the Inner Sphere beat the clans at their own game, managing to accomplish what had only happened once before in clan history - the utter annihilation of a clan. When the 10th Lyrian Guard crushed the last remaining Smoke Jaguar units in the Great Refusal, the Ilkhan was effectively a broken man. His clan had been wiped out by a people who lived in a way which was seen to be inferior to clan culture. In his last final moments before asking for (and receiving) an honourable death by the hands of Prince Victor Steiner-Davion he had an epiphany, realising that the Crusade to liberate the Inner Sphere had been utterly misguided and utterly wrong.

Assault:

King Crab: 100 tonnes of urban warfare death. In a built up area it'll pretty much toast light and medium mechs and give assault mechs a severed headache. It lacks any real long range punch with the pair of Ac20s taking up most of the room for weapons, leaving just the LRM15 and large laser to punch out at range.

Thug Under armed for it's class, but I'm going with it more for the looks tbh.

It's more or less what makes Eve Online, so yes it's more then possible to keep a gaming going through PvP. Though that has a unique skill system which requires long term commitment to make anything out of it. Ideally though if you want to make a lasting online PvP game, you need to give something people to fight over. Something that keeps people coming back because of an invested interest which goes beyond Kill ratios or bragging rights. True passion comes when you build something and fight tooth and nail to protect or grow it.