7 replies to this topic

[Riverboat Sam]

I played Mechwarrior 4 and both Mechwarrior titles on the Xbox to death back in the day, and was really happy to discover MWO a couple months ago. I decided pretty quickly to make a commitment to the game so I bought the first clan pack. I've been having a lot of fun learning the game and leveling up my clan mechs. I went ahead and bought the wave 2 pack as well.

What I need help with is that I have only a vague idea of the lore behind the game. I most identified with the Merc faction because that was the faction represented in the previous games I played. Well, now I'm a Clanner just by virtue of the gear I have purchased. I thought that Mercs could maybe field Clan mechs, but that was shot down by Russ in the recent town hall.

Not knowing or feeling any association to any of the four clan factions in MWO, I'm considering being a Clan Loyalist.

Can someone fill me in on what mechs I should be running as a loyalist, and what's special about them? What was their story?

[CyclonerM]

Basically "Clan loyalist" is just a tag for all the Clan players who want to be part of one the Clans not represented in MWO (currently only Clans Wolf, Ghost Bear, Jade Falcon and Smoke Jaguars are represented in-game as they were the first invading Clans).

On the official website of BattleTech and on Sarna.net you will find more info about these four Clans and all the others

[Revis Volek]

Clan loyalist is just anyone who supports the clan or covers the other Non-Invading clans like mine which is Clan Star Adder.

There are many other (Snow Raven, Fire Mandrill, Sea Foxes, Steel Viper, Hell's Horses, Etc.) clans that are not invaders but still must be represented somehow in the game. Thus the Clan Loyalist tags come in....The Cameron Star is a universal sign of the old SLDF and the Clans.

[Modo44]

For a basic overview of the Clans, go to Sarna. It will tell you the general history, and explain the attitudes of various Clans towards each other, and towards the IS factions. It does not explain all the nuances behind various decisions and major battles -- you would have to read the novels for that. (Warning: While a good introduction to BT lore, the novels are generally of mediocre quality if you are 13 or older.)

[Griggio]

Check out the sections in Sarna that cover the Invasion corridors as well. Some good brief sections on events leading up to the invasion for each of them as well.

You can spend hours on there reading, especially getting familiar with Clan customs and how they influenced the events leading up to and during the invasion.

[Seeker Kirov]

Sarna is a great resource, but it can be very overwhelming if you do not know what you are searching for. For someone brand new from a lore standpoint, I would suggest checking out the official Universe Guide that is found on the BattleTech website: http://dy3dqm2d46w3j...erseGuide-1.pdf

There is a section in there called 'A Brief History of the Inner Sphere'. It is 12 pages of text with pretty pictures for people that hate reading. Note that it goes past the part of the timeline for MW:O and into later history, so you could also skip those bits if you have trouble keeping track of the story. It also discusses some factions and some 'Mechs in the back half of the .pdf, but the Brief History is really the crucial part.

That being said, if you want an absolute bare bones understanding of Clan archetypes you can just flip through Sarna's summaries on main Clan page. http://www.sarna.net...s#List_of_Clans

Oh and there's a bit of lingo to Clanners as well. http://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=3698

[LauLiao]

Modo44, on 18 September 2014 - 07:54 AM, said:

(Warning: While a good introduction to BT lore, the novels are generally of mediocre quality if you are 13 or older.)

OMG like the Grey Death series? I don't know how the managed to go so out of their way to take the same characters and manuver them into the exact same plot for 3 different books. By the third one I thought I was Yogi Berra (Deja Vu all over again...)

[Spike Brave]

To more directly answer the question for which Mech you should run, it doesn't matter at this point. The current selection of Omnis are used by all the Clans. Some are more common in certain Clans (Wolf likes the Timberwolf and Smoke Jaguar likes the Dire Wolf), but they are included in the armies of all the clans.