145 replies to this topic

[valkyrie]

Peiper, on 02 March 2013 - 04:36 AM, said:

Dark Age had some really friggin' creative mechs. It's downfall was the ruleset, rather than the models.

Funny that you say that but post the Shrike Prime. There's no doubt it was creative, but using a magazine feed system that was outdated and loathed in WWI on a 'Mech always bothered me. I do like a lot of the other original chassis though, and I'm dying to see FD's updated Gyrfalcon from the front.

Hawkeye 72, on 02 March 2013 - 10:41 AM, said:

They should just retcon 90% of the Jihad. Wizkids did irreparable damage to certain factions and killed some iconic figures in very lame form.

I refuse to believe Dirk Radick of Clan Wolf, a known Crusader extremist, aided Devlin Stone in liberating Terra and the Blake Protectorate, nor that Khan Vladimir Ward, a staunch Crusader himself, sanctioned the action. That Radick went on to become a Paladin for the Republic of the Sphere makes zero sense

Eh, a lot of the Jihad was screwy, I'll give you that, but Catalyst did some pretty good work considering what they had. There's just no saving the whole Devlin "Totally Not a Blakist Plant Mary Sue" Stone thing, for example, but a lot of the other stuff isn't bad.

Now, Dark Age...man, they're gonna REALLY need to do some serious work on that. I'm still pissed off about how badly Malvina screwed the entire Jade Falcon schtick.

[Hawkeye 72]

valkyrie, on 02 March 2013 - 02:23 PM, said:

Now, Dark Age...man, they're gonna REALLY need to do some serious work on that. I'm still pissed off about how badly Malvina screwed the entire Jade Falcon schtick.

Don't talk to me about Dark Age...I am still having some nightmares...

[CG Oglethorpe Kerensky]

The noble Tetatae warriors have arrived and have caused a temporal anomaly.

All BT lore past 3050 is out the window thanks to our influence.
Your Welcome.

[DerMaulwurf]

valkyrie, on 02 March 2013 - 02:23 PM, said:

[...]

Eh, a lot of the Jihad was screwy, I'll give you that, but Catalyst did some pretty good work considering what they had. There's just no saving the whole Devlin "Totally Not a Blakist Plant Mary Sue" Stone thing, for example, but a lot of the other stuff isn't bad.

Now, Dark Age...man, they're gonna REALLY need to do some serious work on that. I'm still pissed off about how badly Malvina screwed the entire Jade Falcon schtick.

So they cobbled together some borderline fan fiction to connect to a later timeline that stinks. What an achievement.

I still like BT as a game, but it's been some time since I got the urge to buy one of the new products.

[Wrayeth]

William Conrad, on 02 March 2013 - 10:19 AM, said:

The only mech I want to pilot one day, should this game survive near a century, is the capelan TianZhong, which has 2 Gauss rifle and Sheath Armor

My friend, you are in luck! You can already pilot a mech with two gauss rifles and stealth armor. The Pillager -4Z and -5Z have told me they would like to have a word with you, in fact.

[Adridos]

Wrayeth, on 03 March 2013 - 10:04 AM, said:

You can already pilot a mech with two gauss rifles and stealth armor. The Pillager -4Z and -5Z have told me they would like to have a word with you, in fact.

Already? 4Z is a Capellan design from 3064 and 5Z is even later at 3070.

Besides, Pillager is slower, much bigger and has the gausses in arms, whereas the Tian-Zong has them in side torsos.

[Evinthal]

Peiper, on 02 March 2013 - 04:36 AM, said:

I think she does a cartwheel with said mech earlier in that novel....)

Yup, that and her "5 ton depleted uranium hatchet" gets mentions every other sentence for like five pages or so from what I remember. Ugh.

I actually liked the Dark Age Click game, much more so once AoD came out and 'mechs were actually better than tanks. It was more of a combined arms game than sheer hot 'mech on 'mech action.

Some of the Jihad/DA designs are amazing. The Blade, Valiant, Mangonel, and Thunderfox come to mind immediately, not to mention some of the tanks they brought out for it were amazing, like the Carnivore.

But to each their own I guess.

Also Sun Cobra. Sure it is slow, but woo two gauss!

Edited by Evinthal, 03 March 2013 - 01:06 PM.

[Grizley]

Sorry, but if those are the GOOD mechs you linked then I am just that much happier I skipped everything post 3055. None of them look even passable to me.

The whole Click thing, terrible. Buying boosters instead of nerding out with a paper and pencil to come up with a perfect design? Nahhhhh.

BT really needs to go back to maaaybe as far forward as the FedCom civil war and say nothing after that happened and then do it right. Likely before the attack on the Smoke Jags.

[Damocles]

Adridos, on 03 March 2013 - 10:31 AM, said:

Besides, Pillager is slower, much bigger and has the gausses in arms, whereas the Tian-Zong has them in side torsos.

Pillager is torso-gauss too, are you thinking of the Devastator?

[Vega Obscura]

Evinthal, on 03 March 2013 - 12:47 PM, said:

Yup, that and her "5 ton depleted uranium hatchet" gets mentions every other sentence for like five pages or so from what I remember. Ugh.

I actually liked the Dark Age Click game, much more so once AoD came out and 'mechs were actually better than tanks. It was more of a combined arms game than sheer hot 'mech on 'mech action.

Some of the Jihad/DA designs are amazing. The Blade, Valiant, Mangonel, and Thunderfox come to mind immediately, not to mention some of the tanks they brought out for it were amazing, like the Carnivore.

But to each their own I guess.

Also Sun Cobra. Sure it is slow, but woo two gauss!

The Blade should be 45 tons..
The Blade was originally supposed to be a medium mech that magically became a light mech.
How ever the best Jihad Era mech is the Legionaire...

Pretty much the Jihad also gives you Hauberks the single best battle armor made to date...

[Evinthal]

Grizley, on 04 March 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

Sorry, but if those are the GOOD mechs you linked then I am just that much happier I skipped everything post 3055. None of them look even passable to me.

The whole Click thing, terrible. Buying boosters instead of nerding out with a paper and pencil to come up with a perfect design? Nahhhhh.

BT really needs to go back to maaaybe as far forward as the FedCom civil war and say nothing after that happened and then do it right. Likely before the attack on the Smoke Jags.

Again to each their own, but really the whole post Jihad mind set for warfare seemed much more of a "combined arms" approach than just 'mech on 'mech, and that wasn't just the Inner Sphere, but also the Clans adopting that mind set. Almost as if they learned from some past mistakes.

And no those aren't the only "good" 'mechs. All of the Blakist Celestial Series of battlemechs put up a hell of a fight.

I like the Jihad and later simply because of the sheer variety of technology and different toys available. Snub Nose PPC's are back (as they apparently were experimental tech in the star league due to retcon), HAGs (Absurdly funny), and a whole lot more.

If we really want to play the whole "this should have never happened" game, I have three words for you "double heat sinks". Those being removed alone would tone down the firepower of the game over all.

You'd be really hard pressed to use a Hellstar with out the 30 double heat sinks it uses, or hell any of the Clan designs would be a hell of a lot less effective without them.

As for the the "They need to do this" spiel, yeah good luck on that one. You want that to happen? Take over CGL, or snag the rights away from them from TOPS. CGL have said multiple times that the Jihad and Dark Ages have happened and won't be changing that any time soon, and that they want to jump beyond that time (News flash!: TRO 3145! Era Report 3145!) and be done with it, which for the most part is great because they have done pretty much all they could do in order to sort those Eras out.

And I think you are missing the entire point of the click base (aside from the cash grab. I'll even concede that). It was so you didn't have to pull out your pencil and paper and "make your own", which is something that in my mind is a no no any way for casual play (you want custom? good, play a campaign and manage fiances.), but instead sit down and say "Okay I have X amount of points to work with" then look at the point costs and build an army. It was meant to be quick and easy. I am in no way saying you should absolutely love it, but I am saying it had its reasons and merits.

Honestly, had the clix game not came out, I might have never looked into playing battletech or mechwarrior again. It sparked my interest in the universe again.

Vega Obscura, on 22 March 2013 - 03:32 PM, said:

The Blade should be 45 tons..
The Blade was originally supposed to be a medium mech that magically became a light mech.
How ever the best Jihad Era mech is the Legionaire...

Pretty much the Jihad also gives you Hauberks the single best battle armor made to date...

Ah good old "gun face" as we call him around these here parts.

I'm a pretty big fan of the Word of Blake "Demon" battle armor line up myself. Also the Turducken mech (Gestalt)! Leave it to the Wobbies to make a mech that A.) Is basically the Predator in battlemech form, B.) Works with out a Gyro by using a battle armor interface instead C.) Gives the pilot MORE protection by doing B.

Interesting note: Had the Jihad continued the Neural-Interface Link used in the Gestalt battlemech may have migrated over to other mechs. Can we say Omega with 5 Gauss Rifles? How about Archangel Zombie mech of "OH GOD WHY THE HELL WON'T IT DIE?!"-ness.

Edited by Evinthal, 23 March 2013 - 10:04 AM.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

Peiper, on 02 March 2013 - 04:36 AM, said:

Dark Age had some really friggin' creative mechs. It's downfall was the ruleset, rather than the models.

I agree there are some really awful sculpts and SOME of the novels should have never been considered, but as the game went on, more and more models were made to scale, and the sculpts got pretty darned cool looking.

The ruleset, however, made vehicles and infantry more effective units than mechs for the most part. Age of Destruction alleviated some of the problems. The other major problem was, in order to play competitively - as a collectable game - you had to spend a LOT of money on boosters to gather the mechs you really wanted to play. Imagine if all the mechs you bought for MWO were random, how much money and resentment there would be from players who were trying to play the 'I WIN' mechs like the Raven 3L, Splatcats, and D-DCs?

I always tried to figure out how wizkids equated Battletech with MW: Dark Ages. I've come to the conclusion that they payed homage to Classic Battletech, but fudged a good deal. I look forward to seeing the TRO that tries to make sense of it all. I'm sure Catalyst will inject a little bit of humor into explaining a fair bit of it! (The HPG grid went down, after all. Maybe some of those Dark Age stories were just really tall tails meant to scare children away from being Mechwarriors. I do seem to remember a scene where Bannson pins down Tara Campbell's Hatchetman with his Jupiter, and staring lustily down into her cockpit as she fired her weapons into his chest until they melted down. I think she does a cartwheel with said mech earlier in that novel....)

the thing looks like a fantasy film that would fit in Lord of the Rings, or a Japanese anime, but otherwise just as ugly as ProtoMechs, .. definitely not a fighting machine

[Peiper]

CSJ Ranger, on 24 March 2013 - 07:00 AM, said:

the thing looks like a fantasy film that would fit in Lord of the Rings, or a Japanese anime, but otherwise just as ugly as ProtoMechs, .. definitely not a fighting machine

Perhaps you prefer the Jaggermech?

Edited by Peiper, 24 March 2013 - 02:20 PM.

[Evinthal]

CSJ Ranger, on 24 March 2013 - 07:00 AM, said:

the thing looks like a fantasy film that would fit in Lord of the Rings, or a Japanese anime, but otherwise just as ugly as ProtoMechs, .. definitely not a fighting machine

You do know that the 'original' battlemechs were from animes right? right??

Edited by Evinthal, 24 March 2013 - 04:04 PM.

[Rush Maguin]

Hawkeye 72, on 02 March 2013 - 10:41 AM, said:

They should just retcon 90% of the Jihad. Wizkids did irreparable damage to certain factions and killed some iconic figures in very lame form.

I refuse to believe Dirk Radick of Clan Wolf, a known Crusader extremist, aided Devlin Stone in liberating Terra and the Blake Protectorate, nor that Khan Vladimir Ward, a staunch Crusader himself, sanctioned the action. That Radick went on to become a Paladin for the Republic of the Sphere makes zero sense

At the same time the jihad was going on, the Wars of Reaving were happening in the Clan Homeworld. There's a pretty thick sourcebook about it, and believe me, it was *BAD* for the Clans. I'm not the least bit surprised that some of those leopards changed their spots. Even the Clans know when to step back and say "Whoa, WAIT now..."

(Save for the Clan Smoke Jaguar, which in turn was not saved because of it!)

[valkyrie]

For those not on the ball, TRO 3145 Mercenaries (because "TRO 3145 Mercenaries, Clan Wolf, and Clan Sea Fox" wouldn't fit on the cover) came out yesterday, as well as Era Report 3145.

Included in Era Report 3145 is a rather blatant mocking of "Far Country," and in TRO 3145 Mercenaries is this thing.

(IT'S SO CUTE OH MY GOD I WANT ONE)

[Hawkeye 72]

Rush Maguin, on 06 April 2013 - 02:36 PM, said:

At the same time the jihad was going on, the Wars of Reaving were happening in the Clan Homeworld. There's a pretty thick sourcebook about it, and believe me, it was *BAD* for the Clans. I'm not the least bit surprised that some of those leopards changed their spots. Even the Clans know when to step back and say "Whoa, WAIT now..."

(Save for the Clan Smoke Jaguar, which in turn was not saved because of it!)

I read Wars of Reaving. Awesome and brutal and the only piece of post-FedCom Civil War fiction I liked. Didn't care for the outcome though. I can't remember specific mentions of Vlad or his actions so I will need to go back and read. Obviously as the Khan of Clan Wolf he ordered the raid on Kerenskys Genetic Repository and was the one who removed it from Strana Mechty, so its possible seeing the venom and nature of the homeworld Clans and their abjuration from them caused him in his elder years to take a softer stance on the Inner Sphere. Good point-I hadn't considered this angle. Still wish some of the annihilated Clans were still around.

And the Smoke Jaguars did see a revival around 3130 I believe. Apparently they had been working as the private vanguard of the Republic of the Sphere for Damien Redburn maybe? I know they did not die in with Task Force Serpent but I need to go read up again.

Edit: Remnants of the Clan were found on the planet Yorii in the Draconis Combine. After serving the Republic of the Sphere after being reorganized by former Star Colonel Paul Moon, Exarch Jonah Levin told the former warriors that they had fufilled their debt to the Inner Sphere and were free to do as they wish.

Edited by Hawkeye 72, 06 April 2013 - 05:03 PM.

[Karl Streiger]

valkyrie, on 06 April 2013 - 03:17 PM, said:

Included in Era Report 3145 is a rather blatant mocking of "Far Country," and in TRO 3145 Mercenaries is this thing.

I thought the same after seeing that thing...sweet

[Peiper]

valkyrie, on 06 April 2013 - 03:17 PM, said:

(IT'S SO CUTE OH MY GOD I WANT ONE)

Yes. Cute like a manitee....

[Kissamies]

Pihb, on 02 March 2013 - 02:00 AM, said:

Or even worse, that stupid yuzon vong or w/e. I am normally a peaceful person but those guys and the legacy people need to lined up and shot. Fan fiction run amok I tell you!

Hey, NJO was a pretty good series though way too drawn out. Here and there it has some really good books. LotF was good as well despite Traviss' mary sue Mandalorians almost ruining it. No comments on Legacy comics, though, if you meant those.