13 replies to this topic

[Valkyrie73]

Hi all
so I've been playing MWO for nearly 3 months now and like it. Mostly because it brings back memories of playing battletech 25yrs ago. So my question is why are there no official units and also their insignia etc when ingame? I used to love reading about units and their exploits whether they were loyalist or mercs. Eridani lighthorse, waco rangers, wolfs dragoons, davion guards etc. Doing some googling for mechwarrior artwork I have seen pics of mwo mechs with wolf dragoon or steiner markings etc. Did these use to be in the game and were removed?
cheers

[Kira Onime]

I know there's a reason but I can't remember it. Someone will fill that in for me.

What I do know is that there are "lore" units in the game but they use a slightly different name.

[Alan Davion]

Valkyrie73, on 24 July 2015 - 01:38 PM, said:

Hi all
so I've been playing MWO for nearly 3 months now and like it. Mostly because it brings back memories of playing battletech 25yrs ago. So my question is why are there no official units and also their insignia etc when ingame? I used to love reading about units and their exploits whether they were loyalist or mercs. Eridani lighthorse, waco rangers, wolfs dragoons, davion guards etc. Doing some googling for mechwarrior artwork I have seen pics of mwo mechs with wolf dragoon or steiner markings etc. Did these use to be in the game and were removed?
cheers

Because all the House and/or Merc units are property of the current wargame/RPG producer, Catalyst games, who inherited it from I forget who, who inherited it from Fasa way back when.

Unless PGI works out some sort of deal with them, it's up to us to create our own versions of those canon units.

Edited by Alan Davion, 24 July 2015 - 01:42 PM.

[Alistair Winter]

As far as I know, the only official mention of these units is an old Vlog from 2013 when Paul Inouye talks about joining canon units in CW. He says you won't be able to call your unit Wolf Dragoons, for example, because the Wolf Dragoons will be an NPC-governed unit that players can join if they have the maximum CW rank for all the 4 Clans.

So basically, the idea was that you'd unlock access to different canon units, such as the Eridani Lightourse, by playing the appropriate factions. And presumably, this would also unlock the appropriate decals.

But that was one mention, years ago. They've said nothing about this since, as far as I know.

[Valkyrie73]

So pgi has permission to use mechs but not emblems and names?

[CDLord HHGD]

Names and Units are supposed to stay away from canon stuff too, possibly to reserve the use of them in the future, IDK. There are loopholes though....

[Vxheous]

Valkyrie73, on 24 July 2015 - 02:45 PM, said:

So pgi has permission to use mechs but not emblems and names?

PGI has permission to use lore units, but they do not want players to use lore units. RP units go around this by naming their units slightly different than lore, but close enough that the players all understand

[Valkyrie73]

Thanks guys
Thats a shame though

[Joseph Mallan]

Vxheous Kerensky, on 24 July 2015 - 02:51 PM, said:

PGI has permission to use lore units, but they do not want players to use lore units. RP units go around this by naming their units slightly different than lore, but close enough that the players all understand

They don't want players to RUN Lore Units. There is a difference. You would get to be in a Canon Unit by earning Loyalty Points as Alistair said. But PGI isn't or wasn't sure who(an employee) they could put in the big chair for those units.

[Escef]

Alan Davion, on 24 July 2015 - 01:42 PM, said:

Because all the House and/or Merc units are property of the current wargame/RPG producer, Catalyst games, who inherited it from I forget who, who inherited it from Fasa way back when.

FASA >WizKids

WizKids licensed to FanPro, later FanPro gave up on license and let it lapse. WizKids then licensed to Catalyst Game Labs.

Wizkids>Topps (yes, the sports card company)

Topps chose to continue honoring CGL's license.

WizKids has since been sold to another company, but it appears Topps still owns the Battletech franchise.

Also, when FASA shut down, FASA Interactive was sold to Microsoft, which is where PGI has licensed the game from.

The migration of intellectual properties can get really convoluted at times.

[Alan Davion]

Escef, on 25 July 2015 - 07:40 AM, said:

FASA >WizKids

WizKids licensed to FanPro, later FanPro gave up on license and let it lapse. WizKids then licensed to Catalyst Game Labs.

Wizkids>Topps (yes, the sports card company)

Topps chose to continue honoring CGL's license.

WizKids has since been sold to another company, but it appears Topps still owns the Battletech franchise.

Also, when FASA shut down, FASA Interactive was sold to Microsoft, which is where PGI has licensed the game from.

The migration of intellectual properties can get really convoluted at times.

Thanks Escef.

The problem is I've never actually played the TT RPG/Wargame, so aside from Fasa who were the original owners, I haven't kept track of BT/MW much until now, with the recent announcement from CGL which Cyckath was kind enough to post in that Unseen thread.

[Joseph Mallan]

Escef, on 25 July 2015 - 07:40 AM, said:

FASA >WizKids

WizKids licensed to FanPro, later FanPro gave up on license and let it lapse. WizKids then licensed to Catalyst Game Labs.

Wizkids>Topps (yes, the sports card company)

Topps chose to continue honoring CGL's license.

WizKids has since been sold to another company, but it appears Topps still owns the Battletech franchise.

Also, when FASA shut down, FASA Interactive was sold to Microsoft, which is where PGI has licensed the game from.

The migration of intellectual properties can get really convoluted at times.

You do know that CatLabs is basically the same guys and gals that was FanPro thought right? It was a business decision something about not properly LLCing as FanPro as I remember it.

[Escef]

Joseph Mallan, on 25 July 2015 - 08:13 AM, said:

You do know that CatLabs is basically the same guys and gals that was FanPro thought right? It was a business decision something about not properly LLCing as FanPro as I remember it.

I know a lot of the same people from FanPro USA are in there.

[Moku]

They just didn't want anyone to claim canon units since it wouldn't be fair if everyone else also wanted the same one. Therefore they allowed merc corp units to use the name, but add their own unique name/identifier to it and reserve their 4 character unit tags. They also wanted to incorporate some sort of in game thing with official units but that was just long term dreaming and open ended conjecture...