17 replies to this topic

[Sandpit]

You can, you become a merc

[Sandpit]

Then what would be the point of Mercs?

[Mercules]

[Sandpit]

Marack Drock, on 20 November 2013 - 01:47 PM, said:

Cause people like Mercs. Some people like Clans some people like Inner Sphere. But if you don't like the ideals of any existing faction you can make a new one. Its the same as making a Fleet in STO or a Guild in Spiral Knights. This way people can have a variety of stuff to choose from or make a faction that suits them. Mercs are rogue and have no rules except Kill and Get money.

The problem I see with that (well the main one at least) would be complete break of lore which the devs have already stated (thankfully in many opinions) that even though we'll fight for planetary ownership and such we will be limited to certain planets to ensure the timeline can play out. Mercs are unique, it costs a lot of money to form one, and it takes a dedicated amount of people. If you can do that with any faction in the game it completely takes away the luster of a merc unit.

If it helps, just form a merc unit, call it the New Lyran Freedom League, take a planet, and go forth working only for the faction you enjoy most as an "ally". Since as a newly formed government in this universe you would NEED a big house to ally with or get squished very quickly either politically or by force.

[Sandpit]

Marack Drock, on 20 November 2013 - 06:02 PM, said:

starting Merc units would break lore also. Any non canon things that happen is a breaking of lore. Plus they are making it so planets can be conquered and stuff like that without Lore anyways. Lore will be broken by any new Merc unit, any character, and any campaign that is not completely focused in the Lore. Plus MW video games are also considered non canon and therefore do not have to be Lore. Mech Assault is not Lore at all but is still a Battletech title. There is also Mechcommander 2. To what I have found there isn't even a planet named Carvor V. And Mechwarrior 1 Ander's moon doesn't exist. Also what they can do is have Episode playing. So you can play the Episodes and play in Lore and then out of the episodes we can have a hole Fan type universe.

Also we are technically fallen from Lore because it is 3050 and not a hint of the Clans and by the way according to the Wiki, Sarna, and several other places the 1:1 timeline is currently inactive. This means that right now there is no Lore at all.

Regardless if opinions on lore that's what the devs have stated as to why you won't see what you're asking for. My personal opinion is I don't like the idea. I don't want it broken like that. If at some point later into CW they decide that the biggest abd bestest merc units are powerful and rich enough to morph into a quasi-faction, I could maybe get behind that. But outside of the particular scenario no thanks

[Dirus Nigh]

Marack Drock, on 20 November 2013 - 01:47 PM, said:

Cause people like Mercs. Some people like Clans some people like Inner Sphere. But if you don't like the ideals of any existing faction you can make a new one. Its the same as making a Fleet in STO or a Guild in Spiral Knights. This way people can have a variety of stuff to choose from or make a faction that suits them. Mercs are rogue and have no rules except Kill and Get money.

That is what mercenary units are for. The ability for groups of players to create a mercenary unit is fore those who do not want to join an established faction. That is exactly what you are asking for.

[Durant Carlyle]

Some of the best-known canon mercenary units will be their own factions -- we already have confirmation of the Wolf's Dragoons being one such unit. I'm sure the Kell Hounds and Gray Death Legion will be joining WD too, among others. You need to earn certain in-game achievements to get an invite to those units.

Player-controlled mercenary units will never become their own faction, so there's no worries on that front.

[Mirkk Defwode]

Marack Drock, on 20 November 2013 - 06:02 PM, said:

starting Merc units would break lore also. Any non canon things that happen is a breaking of lore...

Small Merc units popped up and died out all over the place in Btech fiction. This was mentioned a lot in Archer Christifories story through the FedComm Civil war. Not to mention there are Militia units that go rogue and take the offensive and freelancers that picked up the idea of being a mechjock and went to Solaris to fight for riches.

All of these characters and units are too small to really be taken into account compared to the larger or prestigious units that surrounded hero characters or were pivotal to the core storyline.

Also calling the games outside the canon isn't really true. You have the first Mechcommander game and Mechwarrior 2 and 3 firmly rooted in storylines that are intrinsic to the storylines.

I also don't acknowledge the mechassaults as having existed. Cause those were abominations not worth of the name.

Also here is some info on Carver V it's Sarna so can't speak fully to its validity but it's more details than just the MC2 campaign.

[CycKath]

As long as we're talking crappy little merc units, no problem, that's not going to hurt Lore. Literally hundreds operating and most were never named, only the really notable ones any kind of detail

[LordSkippy]

Marack Drock, on 26 March 2014 - 08:59 AM, said:

Lore will be hurt severely by Community Warfare. Literally any faction could take any planet at any time because of Community Warfare. I could take Tharkad in the Clan Wars and be a Liao and it would work because of Com Warfare.

No you couldn't. In the CW reveal they had last year, only planets in border regions were up for grabs in CW. So, Liao could take all of the planets away from Marik and Davion within those border regions, but go no further. Tharkad is well outside the the border region of any neighbor. So, no one but Steiner will be able to hold it in CW. Same goes for all capital worlds. This is specifically so that lore can't be overturned so radically.

If you want to create your own faction, you're limited to making Merc units. That's the way Battletech is meant to be. You can pretend they're from some wanna be house or clan out in the periphery all you want, but it will still be just a Merc unit.

Edited by LordSkippy, 26 March 2014 - 10:52 AM.

[LordSkippy]

Marack Drock, on 26 March 2014 - 05:56 PM, said:

Actually I was reading and there were over 200 unnamed actual planet holding factions on the outskirts of the Inner Sphere so ha.

Which you can make a merc unit for, name it the "1st Lancers of the Drock Republic" or whatever, and roleplay that it's a faction. No need for any additional mechanics.