139 replies to this topic

[Kodiak Jorgensson]

Metro, on 08 December 2011 - 09:20 AM, said:

Humanity evolved. Enter the Clans.

I am not for or against them, they are part of the Innersphere.

Kerensky left and took them and brought them back for a reason.

Not much different, from BSG adama and the cylcons. Humanity usually goes full circle, history repeats itself, because we as a race are tarnished, simple, and cannot learn our lessons.

So....the quesiton is, in the near future, will the clans assimilate back into the IS life and forsake where they came from.

this is true, also Clan Ghost Bear eventualy merged into the FRR to create the Ghost Bear Dominion, where Clan and I.S live with equal rights. CGB are (to me) byfar the best clan. anyway i loved the clan introduction to CBT (i learned form it via MW2Mercs and research into CBT) as for the technology, it is has been done right, the clan took Star League property with them, (star leauge tech being the most advanced for the time peroid) allowing the clans to improve there technology where as the inner sphere where to busy destroying them selfs and there remaning star league production facilities.

[metro]

Atlas3060, on 08 December 2011 - 09:29 AM, said:

Worse than that: MadLOLCats

The Clans for the Storyline of the Series I appreciated.

but as human nature would prove correct, the only reason they became so popular, was the advanced weaponry and tech....and well then all h e ll broke loose because a large % decided the game was more fun because their ER went farther than someone elses. Same old addage, mine is bigger than yours.

[metro]

Kodiak Jorgensson, on 08 December 2011 - 09:31 AM, said:

this is true, also Clan Ghost Bear eventualy merged into the FRR to create the Ghost Bear Dominion, where Clan and I.S live with equal rights. CGB are (to me) byfar the best clan. anyway i loved the clan introduction to CBT (i learned form it via MW2Mercs and research into CBT) as for the technology, it is has been done right, the clan took Star League property with them, (star leauge tech being the most advanced for the time peroid) allowing the clans to improve there technology where as the inner sphere where to busy destroying them selfs and there remaning star league production facilities.

well put Kodiak

[VEDRFOLNIR]

To the OP:

You have to deal with the Clans being part of the BattleTech universe.

I have to deal with that gawd-awful mess called Dark Ages being part of the BattleTech universe.

We all have our crosses to bear.

[Atlas3060]

VEDRFOLNIR, on 08 December 2011 - 09:33 AM, said:

I have to deal with that gawd-awful mess called Dark Ages being part of the BattleTech universe.

So you won't give Catalyst the chance to write decent fluff and storylines into the Dark Age?

[Tombstoner]

The Return of Kerensky heirs to reunify the IS is the completion of a circle started with the
fall of the star league. The creation of omni mechs was a nice touch. The lore supports this
development in some of the flavor text in one of the resource books. i attribute the clans advanced tech
to having a limited more structured approach to warfare. They competed to see who could obtain victory
with the least amount of resources. preserving the tech base that the inner sphere decimated in the early years
of the collapse, they used nukes... sending the IS into a dark age.

The art work for the omni mechs was lacking. the advancement in weapons tech i was OK with and justified.
Latter editions to the game had acid rounds... dammit. When i read that i put the book down and walked away.

I enjoyed the clans. what else could have happened and still be BT aliens?

[Cr0wb4r]

Skwisgaar Skwigelf, on 08 December 2011 - 08:19 AM, said:

I got into BT after the Clans had already been introduced.

Same here, but I love the clans to be honest. Now that they have the clans, were they to "die out" or some such thing, I would be most peeved.

[Mason Grimm]

Tombstoner, on 08 December 2011 - 09:42 AM, said:

The Return of Kerensky heirs to reunify the IS is the completion of a circle started with the
fall of the star league.

This

Tombstoner said:

i attribute the clans advanced tech to having a limited more structured approach to warfare. They competed to see who could obtain victory
with the least amount of resources. preserving the tech base that the inner sphere decimated in the early years of the collapse.

... and this.

I agreed with the introduction of the clans not from a technology standpoint but for the militaristic mindset, which appeals to me as a person and as a player. It brings the Battletech storyline to a natural conclusion (full circle) while still allowing for continued story (aka profit potential).

A General and his warriors left everything and everyone they knew behind venturing into who knows where. Not having brought all facets of society with them what else could they be or do? Evolving into a warrior society was the natural evolutionary path for them. What do warriors do? Think up new and improved ways to kill each other.

Their goal to one day return and whoop **** and reclaim their place in society allows for continuance of the story (read: more profit).

[Dihm]

I loved em as a kid, but the Quaff, Aff, Neg, Seyla stuff grates on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

[VEDRFOLNIR]

Atlas3060, on 08 December 2011 - 09:38 AM, said:

So you won't give Catalyst the chance to write decent fluff and storylines into the Dark Age?

Well, there were something like 30 novels published to support Dark Age - but I've just never been interested. I know Dark Age has its' fans, and more power to 'em! I'm just not one of them.

[Alex Wolfe]

Dihm, on 08 December 2011 - 09:57 AM, said:

I loved em as a kid, but the Quaff, Aff, Neg, Seyla stuff grates on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

Maybe it's old-fashioned, but I love a good newspeak personally. Clan's, based on a military jargon, seems pretty decent, at least it's not full of apostrophes.

[Aescwulf]

Alex Wolfe, on 08 December 2011 - 09:25 AM, said:

1. Moving the storyline forward = new books to sell

2. New factions = new franchise branches, alternative to the old ones some people may feel tired of

3. New technology = new miniatures

4. Power creep with the new technology = necessity to buy updates to remain competitive

...in the end, that's pretty much the end reason of most continuations of "collectible" hobbies. Not bad, mind you - of course corporations want to make a profit, bless them. It's just the mechanics, sometimes there's more creative thought behind it, sometimes less. In the end, it's a "new product line".

They turned out quite decent if you ask me, I only hope MWO will be spared the power creep (I vote no Clan guns for IS mechs, and no easy Clan mechs either). 3060's, Dark Age and beyond's storylines and "new, revolutionary technologies" seem way, way worse.

to be honest the Clan weapons were powerful but carried soo much heat that that you couldn't overload with Clan Tech

[Threat Doc]

I absolutely hated the Clans in a real-world visceral way. But, then I began to read about them from the various BT authors, and I started to see them more as people, characters and, by about '96, I accepted them as part of the BattleTech universe. From a role-playing standpoint I still hate every last one of their filthy rotten test tube baby guts, tee-hee.

[Alex Wolfe]

Nitsua Asuka, on 08 December 2011 - 10:17 AM, said:

to be honest the Clan weapons were powerful but carried soo much heat that that you couldn't overload with Clan Tech

ER tech and lower weights more than make up for that, I believe there was a huge percentage of people who jumped on the Clan ship and never looked back, heat or not. Also, more heat is nothing that another serving of power creep cannot handle, I'm afraid.

Nowadays, and especially amongst people raised on Mechwarrior, Clan tech seems to be the only choice for everything but PPC. More weapons loaded, bigger ranges, faster kills, faster deaths... leaving the whole IS tech as obsolete trash even for the mass alone. Power creep is a sad thing, I really hope we'll be spared it this time around. It would be the first (and actually in compliance with the canon, yay!).

[Haeso]

More heat? I couldn't hear you over the sound of my double heat sinks.

[Skwisgaar Skwigelf]

Haeso, on 08 December 2011 - 10:49 AM, said:

More heat? I couldn't hear you over the sound of my double heat sinks.

This. Another feature that favored the Clans heavily.

[Amarus Cameron]

I cringe to post here but I find that I cannot stay away...

The clans were always meant to be involved, every book referenced General Kerensky disappearing with 80% of the SLDF, why do people assume that everything just dies and yeah that is a legend, never gonna matter. Anyone who was surprised by the clans was clearly not paying attention. I think they were doing great with them until cattytech had them go full retarded all over themselves.

[Obelus]

Here's part of why I liked the dark ages and not the clans. First I like the mystery of Kerensky. Return of the clans killed that. Simply put the mystery was more interesting than the reality. Kinda like how the force was cooler before Lucas introduced midi-chlorians (that *******).

But also in the Dark Ages of the inner sphere it was your house versus 4 others (or you could be a merc or even a mech pilot from the pirate kingdoms). It was messy, dark, fuedalistic, and dystopic. Nobody was really the good guys and everyone was basically starting on the same level. Everyone was struggling to hold on to the last bits of advanced tech. The lore made you feel like mechs were special and rare. Your mech was your birthright. It had been used in battles before you were born and had been maintained at enormous expense by your family over generations. Your mech was your steed and you were like a knight trying for glory in a failing universe, a place were you could live on a distant agricultural world and news from the capital world could take months to reach you. Basically things happened on a small scale. Stories were provincial not epic (this is a good thing).

Then the clans showed up and it became inner sphere versus clans. The earlier story elements were totally overshadowed. Like here's that lost tech you were looking for and it's kickin your ***! Oh and now it's everywhere. Thank you very much Mr. Kerensky. Mechs became like cars...common. At least that's how I felt about it. And then the clan culture was just annoying. Bio-engineering and the over the top "we are Sparta" mentality. For me those little jumper clan dudes in the armored suits were the last straw.

Edited by Obelus, 08 December 2011 - 11:05 AM.

[metro]

give it all you've got scotty!! dont let that core breach!

[Stormwolf]

My introduction to BT was MW2, I read all the fluff in the archive and became more curious about the novels and sourcebooks. So I really got the introduction from the Clan POV.

The Clans are the best thing that happend to the BT universe IMO. The BT universe was a eternal stalemate between the Successor States, this tends to make things boring after a while.

The coming of the Clans elevated the DC from designated bad guy state to neutral/good ally for the FC. This made all the factions more like shades of grey. Even the Capellans don't seem all that bad after the Smoke Jaguars started tearing up the DC.

I love the quantity vs quality struggle between the Clans and IS. The IS has the numbers, Clans have better equipment.