Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 26 May 2016 - 06:42 AM, said:
Um... Robotech was not really that popular in the USA when BattleTech came out. In fact Robotech had only just been released in the USA when BattleTech was made. The Robotech series was released in the USA in 1984-5. BattleTech came out in 1984. Robotech was NOT popular in the USA when BattleTech came about.
That's why I said "Some people might know them" and "most people just didn't know them"
Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 26 May 2016 - 06:42 AM, said:
The reason our planets are named after Greek Gods is because THE GREEKS AND ROMANS ARE THE ONES WHO NAMED THE PLANETS. And at the time those planets corresponded with a religion that was very much believed and wide spread.
What about Uranus, Neptune and Pluto? They were identified well after the Roman period, why use names stemming from some pagan polyethistic religion instead of using names that corresponded with the time period? Oh wait, a pattern had been established and people just continued, basically following popular culture of the time.
Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io were discovered in 1610? Why necessarily name them after lovers of Zeus?
The moons of Uranus (first 2 found late 18th century) are named for characters from Shakespeare and Pope.
Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 26 May 2016 - 06:42 AM, said:
BattleTech's naming system of "take names from anything sciency or mythology sounding" makes no sense.
I'd say it makes totally sense! See my remarks about naming the planets and moons not discovered before or during the Roman period. While giving a star a number and any discovered planets simply a number corresponding to it's orbit related to its sun makes perfect sense for cataloging, it's just not a very catchy name. I mean, who wants to live on Kepler-452b? People would decide on a name they'd like, and they'd take it from something they know. Otherwise, what would you call it instead? Just mash up some syllables like 'hokaphimur' in the order of originality? (disclaimer, I do not know if 'hokaphimur' might mean anything in any language, I just made it up).
And thus the BattleTech names make perfect sense, planets named after objects, qualities, people and also earth cities, in a throwback to the originality of names given to towns during the golden ago of exploration.

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 26 May 2016 - 06:42 AM, said:
Um... last i checked current technology did not allow for pure cognitive control of artificial devices. I know we had just begun experimenting with that stuff but... yeah we are nowhere near the level of tech that I had in mind. We are only just to the place where our Neural technology can lead to a few basic functions in a prosthetic.
Hence why your idea can be considered unoriginal, it's merely the extrapolation of current high tech, like the comparison I drew between then high tech flight helmet interfaces and neurohelmets. As you consider neurohelmets to be unoriginal your own idea is likely to be unoriginal in 30 years time as well, if you follow such a train of thought. But like I said in my previous post I consider such thinking to be too broad, originality in Sci-Fi is a product of the time it was created in, and should not be held accountable to human advancements made since then.
Oh, and I'll totally give you the cool mech designs they made after the first RoboTech designs. My remark about '10 years' was way too long a time period and mainly inspired by the continuation of the minor drawings they had in source books back then, many of whom are just hideous (though the quality varies all the way up to great).
While in retrospect licensing those RoboTech designs was not a smart move (especially considering the rights turned out to be not valid), I can totally understand why a small start up company might do such a thing. Once again also consider the time, directly being able to communicate with the Japanese parent company would have been rather difficult in that time with language barriers and all.
Just to draw a comparison, not even 15 years ago my father was working in China for a year, in a partnership with a local small (by Chinese standards, only a few thousand employees) shipyard. Know who the most important person was after the director? His secretary, because she knew English, which made her vital for any and all contact with parties outside China. Outside partners actually considered her more important than the director, but they never voiced that opinion to them of course.

One last comparison. Why would a starting video game company use another party's game engine? Because it would be very time consuming and expensive to make ones own, two things you do not need as a vulnerable start up. Only when you're established does it become viable to make your own engine that's completely suited to your needs. Or at least that's how it works for the majority of them. So I totally get why Fasa did it, wasn't smart in retrospect, but I totally get it.