71 replies to this topic

[CDLord HHGD]

Gyrok, on 14 March 2016 - 11:55 AM, said:

Sure, there are some technicalities off...

But the voice acting, and the characterization of Optimus Prime is spot on. Plus, cab overs were a lot more common back in the days transformers came out...these days it is much more common for a big sweeping superliner to be seen than a cab over...

Well, we did get lucky on Peter coming back to voice OP. Wish they did the rest (in fact Peter did Ironhide too).

[Appogee]

The Clans, and their invasion of the IS, are the single most imaginative RPG story arc I've encountered in 30+ years of gaming.

[Johnny Z]

Not sure anything needs to be changed directly or not. The entire theme is excellent including the Succession Wars and Clan Invasion. The cyberpunk theme of the Inner Sphere using technology they can no longer produce and the Clans who have retained technology but at the cost of some of their humanity. Classic cyberpunk.

This may seem off topic but its worth mentioning. Its like Ludwig Beethoven when the piano that is still used today was first made available or the one just before that Mozart used, or when the printing press first became available the writing that went on. These things are some of the best ever and wont ever be surpassed in many ways. Kind of like the fiction that was first made during the 80's or other such things at these interesting times.

Point being Battletech fiction is great stuff and got a lot of things really right.

Balance and alot of things may need to be worked on or what ever but balance isn't the fiction. I am not sure anything needs to be changed just maybe fixed up like an old building. Or maybe some mistakes were made and need to be corrected.

Anyway, its a good idea to try and do the best to get it in working order.

Edited by Johnny Z, 14 March 2016 - 12:46 PM.

[CDLord HHGD]

Appogee, on 14 March 2016 - 12:27 PM, said:

The Clans, and their invasion of the IS, are the single most imaginative RPG story arc I've encountered in 30+ years of gaming.

Seeing as how the Star League era was never defined or storied. If not a reboot, then a reactivation of all eras for play/lore/novels. I would love to read me some Unification War stories or the Amaris Civil War.

[Revis Volek]

cdlord, on 14 March 2016 - 12:40 PM, said:

Seeing as how the Star League era was never defined or storied. If not a reboot, then a reactivation of all eras for play/lore/novels. I would love to read me some Unification War stories or the Amaris Civil War.

I think if they reboot they reboot from day one like you suggest.


I need to see what it WAS before i truly understand where we are NOW. I wanna see the day they left for the void, i wanna experience the loss of the greatest era man has ever seen in this universe by our own hands. I wanna ride in the cockpit of the most technologically advanced mechs of our day and then on the flip side i wanna be in a piece of trash and see them come back, better then ever as the Clans.

They need to tell the WHOLE story over again i think and on the way fix the mistakes we all know and see as glaringly obvious. Its a great story and a reboot i think would fit into todays world much better then it ever did in the past. We are leaping forward with out tech year after year. I remember my first cell phone was in a briefcase basically, Now my cell phone is a computer that fits in my pocket. I think more people today in RL would see this story and relate then did back in the 80's by orders of magnitude lol.

[Alex Morgaine]

Personal thoughts to fix the back sorry via reboot/retcon would be:
1) clans. Later publications give each sub faction different figure and ideal that the original clan ideally didn't really have. Expand on it during the invasion period. Really Sig made all the clans look lastly similar just with different animal flags.
2) wobbies and jihad. This one is a little more complex but the simple is: Start the group's existence in the 2800s. All those warships they suddenly had?
Wobbie: "We're taking derilicts and moving them out of system for the houses' safety, as per comstar regs"
Comstar: good job, keep up the good work.
Wob: of course, all in the name of Blake... (hehehe)
Cs: what was that?
Wob: err, well Blake did put down regs to save tech after all...
Cs: good point, keep it up.

Basically have them doing their thing but start it waaaaaaaaaaay earlier, right under com stars nose without them realizing the(later) betrayal and multi system bombing (and other madness) of the jihad.

Schism wobbie as normal, now they have 200 years of recovery to use as their fleet

[BomberJako]

Their is only one true good update that we need. That update is the remastering and remake of the Mechwarrior 2 and mercenaries games. If these games would be remade and remastered, it could spark a new line of mechwarrior games that the younger generation needs to keep the game alive. Just imagine, the once worthless Nova with super little torso twist becoming a nice reliable mech that rivals the Stormcrow. Just make sure that the games mechanics aren't changed except the weapon grouping system(because that sucks) and the customization in the game. Remaster the mechs by borrrowing the designs from PGI, and expanding the mechs arsenals. Like having the Warhammer in the game. *Also free mech DLC and maps.* If mechwarrior 2 and mercenaries would be remastered and remade, I would be first in line to get it.

Edit: Also a good idea to add in the game would be more campaign options. I know its fun playing as the Wolfs, or the Falcons, or the Bears or what ever. But I want more sides to play as. I want to play as the Smoke Jaguars as they desperately try to fend the Second Star League, or play as the various houses against the clans during the clan invasion. Or choosing one the clans for the clan invasion with different ending for them. Like a ending for the Smoke Jaguars and a different ending if you chose Clan Wolf. That type of expansion

Edited by BomberJako, 14 March 2016 - 01:07 PM.

[Aetes Nakatomi]

BT would be perfect if it had a little GRR Martin/Joe Abercrombie style GrimDark story telling.

[Homeskilit]

I would keep everything up until the Great Refusal (actual end of the Clans) and follow that with an extended period of peace (timeline skip) then start a new War. Something along the lines of the Clans being oppressed by the new Star League and eventually rebelling.The whole IS would dissolve into chaos like it always does as the various Successor States start attacking each other as well. Basically have a 5th succession war and erase jihad and the dark ages.

[Johnny Z]

Revis Volek, on 14 March 2016 - 12:52 PM, said:

I think if they reboot they reboot from day one like you suggest.


I need to see what it WAS before i truly understand where we are NOW. I wanna see the day they left for the void, i wanna experience the loss of the greatest era man has ever seen in this universe by our own hands. I wanna ride in the cockpit of the most technologically advanced mechs of our day and then on the flip side i wanna be in a piece of trash and see them come back, better then ever as the Clans.

They need to tell the WHOLE story over again i think and on the way fix the mistakes we all know and see as glaringly obvious. Its a great story and a reboot i think would fit into todays world much better then it ever did in the past. We are leaping forward with out tech year after year. I remember my first cell phone was in a briefcase basically, Now my cell phone is a computer that fits in my pocket. I think more people today in RL would see this story and relate then did back in the 80's by orders of magnitude lol.

These really are super interesting times that's for sure. Its worth a chat for sure.

My Great Grandmother was born in 1900 when basically there were no air planes around or anything and passed in 1994 when technology had changed a lot. Just a prime example of what a person can see happen in their life time.

When my Grandfather was young, a swimmer from Japan came to the Adriatic to practice swimming for the Olympics and the entire village and surrounding area came to see because no one had ever seen a Japanese person before.

So things are changing a lot now but really its always been that way. An interesting subject. Worth noticing.

Edited by Johnny Z, 14 March 2016 - 01:25 PM.

[2fast2stompy]

How are the Clans barbarians, exactly? They literally ritualized combat in order to minimize loss of life, materiel, and infrastructure, while the Inner Sphere nuked itself into the stone age by doing the exact opposite. I bet you reproduce sexually, too.

Not to mention certain clans having an obsession with art, preserving history, etc.

The Clan invasion is the single best thing about BT, and the Clans are hands down the most interesting part of the setting.


I can understand why people who were into BT before the Clans are salty about the introduction of an alien element that undermines the whole Space [insert country here] thing they had going on, but it's 2016, give it a rest and just play in 3039 or something.

Edited by 2fast2stompy, 14 March 2016 - 01:56 PM.

[Johnny Z]

Heres another fiction that started by imagining how things would be in 2020. They are doing a reboot and with a budget that is off the charts.

[Escef]

[C E Dwyer]

If there was a reboot, I'd take it back to the years it started 3025.

I'd expand on the lore, and no nations culture would be based on a single 21st century nation, its simply far to duh, to be taken seriously, though the ruling factions would retain their distinct culture, all nations would be truly multi cultural and realistic, with all the problems that causes, and much of it would be centered on the F.R.R, the politics and the war that led to independence, without ignoring the bottom half of the I.S, as the MoC and TC in the periphery deserve more depth.

Clans introduction would be handled far far differently, and their culture would be changed to something sensible and not outlandish and stupid like it is now.

Regardless of the morals of Crusader, Guardian, these people jumped into the unknown, with ZERO support from the home worlds, colonised one set of worlds had a civil war, jumped deeper into space with again zero technical support formed the clans and uber tech then fought another war with the remains of the old SLDF then invaded the IS in 250 years

All I have to say to that lore is Pffft. though they would have as big an impact on the politic's of the IS as they have now.

Game wise for TT I'd find a better modelling company for the figures and the time sections would each have their spot, so you'd be able to game the civil war and Kerenski taking back Terra, and the conflict that Comstar causes when the clans are rediscovered, after the fourth civil war, and of course the Fourth Succession war.

Same with the PC games

The core game would be the 4 th succession war but add ons would be made for each period.

There would be no dark ages because the level of power creep that made that part of the lore needed , would simply never happen

Edited by Cathy, 14 March 2016 - 03:15 PM.

[thehiddenedge]

Honestly from a lore perspective Battletech has one of my favorite Sci-fi franchises. So story-wise I don't see much that needs to change. Obviously Clan culture could use a bit of work and they need more background to differentiate each one and the power creep does need to be addressed, but it's far better than most fiction based on tabletop games.

The thing I would like to see, and a few others apparently, is a return to the age of war and reunification wars, followed by the first three succession wars. There's so much good material there and I'd love seeing the struggle with insanity as mankind bombs itself into yet another dark age after the era that was the pinnacle of human expansion and cooperation known as the Star League.

Frosty Brand, on 14 March 2016 - 01:01 PM, said:

2) wobbies and jihad. This one is a little more complex but the simple is: Start the group's existence in the 2800s. All those warships they suddenly had?
Wobbie: "We're taking derilicts and moving them out of system for the houses' safety, as per comstar regs"
Comstar: good job, keep up the good work.
Wob: of course, all in the name of Blake... (hehehe)
Cs: what was that?
Wob: err, well Blake did put down regs to save tech after all...
Cs: good point, keep it up.

Basically have them doing their thing but start it waaaaaaaaaaay earlier, right under com stars nose without them realizing the(later) betrayal and multi system bombing (and other madness) of the jihad.

Schism wobbie as normal, now they have 200 years of recovery to use as their fleet

Well except that WoB WAS Comstar until Anastius Focht kicked out Myndo Waterly and put Sharilar Mori into office as Primus and then instituted secular reforms. Thus the schism, when all those crazy religous wobbies decided to leave and do their own thing in the Free Worlds League. But yeah... there was a lot of generally bad and unexplained stuff going in that Jihad storyline.

[Xavori]

If there was a reboot, the first thing that would have to go is 30+meter tall stompy robots because that's a freakin' stupid weapons platform.

I mean, an M1A2 Abrahms would put a shiny silver bullet right through the eye of any stupid Atlas that dared cross its path, and odds are, the Atlas would never even know the tank was there.

Next up would be the targeting. Going back to the M1A2, the computer in that tank could not only hold the left eye perfectly, it could automatically adjust for range, temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure, the speed and direction of the tank, and rough terrain. Hell, even lesser computers like in the ol' hummvee mounted avenger system could lock on to a human heat signature (I know this because once upon a time I did it to my squad leader while he was wandering around out in a field while we were sitting in the cab giggling at what we wished we could load into the rocket launchers to splatter him with...cow pies were a big favorite)

Third, elementals wouldn't be a late addition, but would likely be fully developed even before the rest of the story gets started. Heck, the battlearmor part might be done in our lifetime, and the genetics part won't be far behind.

Finally, at no point does anyone even remotely, even think, not even for a single split nanosecond, about adding in a technological superior outside invader that completely breaks the already clunk balance in the game.

[SuomiWarder]

My rebooted B Tech universe would not have the Clans. Some interesting ideas where there but overall I would argue that they are not a logically viable society as described and the tech differences messed up the gaming part of the universe pretty much from day one to now.

[Mycrus]

cdlord, on 14 March 2016 - 10:29 AM, said:

Prime is a cab-over tractor! The only time he paid any respect to that was in the 4th movie when Prime was disguised as a junker and disabled. I also dislike their appearance, thought the Gen1 and Gen2 renditions were better for the genre.

{Capellan} vs murica truckers...

[AEgg]

As already mentioned, I'd vote for going back to before the succession wars. Start with the height of everything, before, or as, it falls apart. Besides occasional inconsistencies and weirdness I don't think any major changes to the actual timeline or events are really necessary.

I'm with the group that likes the idea of the clans. They may not work well for balanced games, but they're great as a story element.

[SkaerKrow]

Reboots are often sickly, anemic pastiches of the original story. Battletech has a brilliant, lush setting with hundreds of characters and a wealth of interconnecting plotlines. You don't just throw all of that away. I mean, you can, but then you would be a complete fool.