181 replies to this topic

[CaveMan]

Alex Wolfe, on 12 December 2011 - 05:58 AM, said:

"Only the rulebook necessary"? If your opponent lets you steamroll him by using matchboxes and Lego as count-as Mad Cats, be my guest, but that's not what all the cool new Clanner kids were sweeping tables with back in the day. Like Habokku said above, the idea is nice, but the execution quite messed up. And yes, it IS power creep - especially in later games. I doubt anyone could find arguments to the contrary.

Seriously? Your group enforced "gotta have the right minis" rules?

Dude, we played with legos, matchbooks, dice, spare scraps of paper, whatever. Minis were for collecting, painting and putting on a shelf. The only official stuff we ever put on the board were the paper tokens that came with 3rd/4th ED and CityTech.

BattleTech NEVER required anything other than the core book, and they updated the core book every couple years to include the material from new sourcebooks. If you got conned into thinking you had to buy a bunch of minis and 50 different rulebooks to be competitive, you got scammed hard. It sounds to me like you're butthurt over the Clans because you had a bad gaming group.

Actually, this is probably part of what killed FASA. Unlike Games Workshop and Wizards of the Coast, they didn't have an unlimited money making machine requiring players to spend their entire disposeable income to remain competitive.

[Alex Wolfe]

CaveMan, on 12 December 2011 - 10:59 AM, said:

Actually, this is probably part of what killed FASA. Unlike Games Workshop and Wizards of the Coast, they didn't have an unlimited money making machine requiring players to spend their entire disposeable income to remain competitive.

That's possible, but do you honestly think they didn't try to repeat Warhammer's success by introducing what's essentially the Battletech's Space Marines? Do you think wargaming companies print new rules for lulz, and pay their authors, printers and illustrators with gratitude? If a product is put out, it's expected to sell. If an entire new line comes out with an accompanying line of minis, then it's expected to sell well. Wait, if my theory of profit-oriented actions is wrong, what is it you think companies make new supplements for their systems for, again?

It worked with the Clans (relatively, since it's Battletech after all), and they have a huge and dedicated fanbase, but it's worth noting that even the Warhammer's Space Marines are toned down where the gameplay environment requires it, and there doesn't seem to be a huge clamor that "they are supposed to be superior, make each worth a hundred men in-game like in canon!". However, for Clans, it's somehow seen as perfectly fine to utterly unbalance every game with their tech because they were written like that.

CaveMan, on 12 December 2011 - 10:59 AM, said:

BattleTech NEVER required anything other than the core book, and they updated the core book every couple years to include the material from new sourcebooks. If you got conned into thinking you had to buy a bunch of minis and 50 different rulebooks to be competitive, you got scammed hard. It sounds to me like you're butthurt over the Clans because you had a bad gaming group.

I could turn it around just as well and say "you're bent on this because you have a hard nostalgia trip over good memories from years before", you know.

And no, I'm not "butthurt over the Clans because I had a bad gaming group". I'm more of a Warhammer guy myself and gaming group was fine, thank you. I'm "butthurt" because blind adherence to TT rules in this particular case has ruined a good chunk of four PC games already (Mechwarrior 3, 4, MechCommander 1, 2 and their expansions), like this PC game in the making rather than TT games where Clans may have been "fine as long as munchkins didn't get their hands on them" (which translates to "not fine"); turning their balance to shreds when Clan weapons enter the scene, and making a gigantic part of the inventory into obsolete, useless junk right off the bat. I'm sick and tired of "Clan tech or bust". Find me another case where, for a video game, the developers can admit with clear conscience: "there's 100 weapons in the game, 80 of them is junk and you won't want to use them, entirely inferior". With this reboot I'd rather find the way for the devs to make AC20 or SRM4 actually worth their weight for the first time in computer gaming, rather than reverting to the old, tired song and dance of "boat C/ER LL and C/Gauss or C/LBX, sprinkle with C/Streak SRM6; jettison everything else".

The Dawn of War Space Marine is different from the Novel Space Marine, who's akin to the Space Marine (game) protagonist, who's different from the tabletop Space Marine - and they are all fine games, and fans seem to be mostly understanding of different challenges and balancing. They are still recognizable, strong, dedicated, but the degree of "strength" and the scope of difference between them and other factions' units vary from game to game, depending on its balancing needs. Clans too would still have their identity, even with a few tweaks here and there. Yet so many people are clamoring for strict Clan superiority without any kind of tuning whatsoever, because the rulebook said so years ago. This is supposed to be a competitive, online game - adding a faction that basically says "you can play these here superior in every aspect guys with cool names and speech, or these here normal dudes with poop gear", or "you can mount less of the inferior gear, or MORE of the superior gear (that's theoretically more expensive but realistically nobody cares)" is a recipe for disaster. Proof: the aforementioned 4 games. And pretty much the entirety of competitive online gaming.

Edited by Alex Wolfe, 12 December 2011 - 12:05 PM.

[Evgeny Bear]

In Gamesworkshop stores I always get crucified because I like Dawn of war and its not like TT, good you mention it.
But dawn of war always had balancing problems, always mentioned by the community.
Relic did a good job but they always got their critics because they always wanted to either be more TT
or do more balance work. DOW I first version was crap because you could spam units and Eldar were far more
than imbalanced (prism tank spam -.-)
Marines always were a good allarounder but somewhat weak, and in dawn of war 2 they have a penalty on their
unit cap and also amouth of units in a squad (like clans)


hmm off topic...

[Alex Wolfe]

Really? Wow. Tough crowd, maybe the guys just don't like games, but rather complaining?

Anyway, if you like DoW, now imagine the same game with tank shock, rolling morale to shoot a target besides the closest one ("I cannot let you do that, Dave"), instant death mechanics, and Marines and Dreadnoughts ripping entire squads by their lonesome (they do hurt like they should, but don't wipe you out as you retreat, do they). And losing control over broken squads and making them beeline for the map edge, and being unable to reform under half strength. And a ton, literally hundred of other stuff "because Thus Spake Rulebook, oh no my immersion".

All things considered, it was a very atmospheric, very well-received and very well-reviewed game, despite those things some die-hard fans may say are not exactly as they remember. It's a bit off-topic, but I'm just making a point - sometimes a bit of respectful change is good. I'm not asking for the Clans to be stomped into the ground and reduced to poop-flinging cavemen, but don't leave their weapons like they were in games till now, because they just make everything else useless to the point where it's not even worth programming into the game. Quite literally, previous Mechwarriors could as well just have those weapons I mentioned, C/LRM20's, some medium lasers, C/machine guns (noticed a trend yet?) and the rest might as well not exist, and you'd have a nearly complete metagame. TT didn't turn out like this? Excellent, but that's what computer games with similar balancing were reduced to so far. It's really not fine.

Turn a cog here and there, drop something that doesn't quite stick with the thing you're making. Sure it's not exactly, 100% as one may remember. It worked quite well for Warhammer, why not for Battletech?


EDIT: huh, only after I've made the metaphor I noticed the top poster's name. No offense intended!

Edited by Alex Wolfe, 12 December 2011 - 12:35 PM.

[Evgeny Bear]

Well I don't have much TT expierence as I never tire to say.

Only thing I have in mind when I see such emotional "please nerf them" posts is what I saw in other games (mostly MMO's)
Where the fans whined so long that they nerfed the certain XY class down to a meager joke and my fun.
(as I said solo player mostly)
And after that group of class XY player started to cry because they blame class ZZ player to caused the nerf.
(recent example... the hatred between Artillery and normal Tank player in World of Tanks)

In the end balance was a total mess and no one had fun anymore.
or good players left and the remaining where those egomanic idiots much MMOs have.
whith flame in global channel and no community.

maybe I you know what I mean.

so I am always a bit negative towards "changing the status quo", always seen at gamers perspetive

never played any TT
(too expensive in general -.- and always hard core die hard fans who blame a newbie to be a newbie)

Edited by Andar89, 12 December 2011 - 12:43 PM.

[ODBGB]

If this game is to be true to the Battletech Universe that we all follow, it must stay true to the board game. We can't go about changing things just because we don't like them. If your a clanner or a inner sphere pilot, you must adapt to your adversary. If we try and level the playing field so to speak; we will lose the the history of the game. The clans invaded, they must be stopped, so rise to the challenge if you are i IS MW, or if you prefer the clans, don't get complacent because of your weaponary. The IS caught up pretty quick. It also leads to epic battles that are fought to the bitter end, with the IS MW fighting my the seat of there pants and the clan MW fighting with arrogance and superior weapons. Lets fight it out!!

[Kodiak Jorgensson]

Alex Wolfe, on 12 December 2011 - 05:27 AM, said:

Obsoleting the whole inventory of one faction isn't "dynamic", it's "gamebreaking power creep".

really? i guess thats why the clan stats havent changed in years becuase there balanced. the games not even out yet and these threads are getting pritty old and todays gamers are basicly "cant cope wont cope", ill go whine until its "fixed"

obsoleting the I.S inventory i dont think so not like your gunna be stuck with a large lasers now is it? just gotta deal with it, just like us clan fans will have to deal with w.e nerf (if any) the dev team throw at us. we want the clans as they are not just another clone faction...

[Alex Wolfe]

RZeus, on 12 December 2011 - 12:43 PM, said:

If this game is to be true to the Battletech Universe that we all follow, it must stay true to the board game.

That's a rather broad brush, to put it lightly. What exactly is it that we all follow? Canon for me is the feel and the setting that makes itself distinguishable from others, not how many dice one rolls per which gun and how many hexes can you move in one turn.

Kodiak Jorgensson, on 12 December 2011 - 12:51 PM, said:

really? i guess thats why the clan stats havent changed in years becuase there balanced. the games not even out yet and these threads are getting pritty old and todays gamers are basicly "cant cope wont cope", ill go whine until its "fixed"

obsoleting the I.S inventory i dont think so not like your gunna be stuck with a large lasers now is it? just gotta deal with it, just like us clan fans will have to deal with w.e nerf (if any) the dev team throw at us. we want the clans as they are not just another clone faction...

You say it works for the tabletop game. Now if you could address the point of the computer games' balance, because up till now it's been rather horrid and I hear there's another computer game in the making.

Are you saying that power creep is fine as long as everyone is getting powerful? If they are to become the new "standard", then what's the point of even introducing the more powerful weapons in the first place? Why not standardize them from the start? Besides, canon-wise, the Inner Sphere IS indeed "stuck with large lasers". So your proposal to balance the game is introducing canon Clan weapons to canon Inner Sphere, which breaks the canon, with the net power balance change of nothing whatsoever. Where to go now with this paradox?

Clans would still be Clans, with their mechs, culture, language, honor, prevalence of ER weapons and streaks and large Ultra bore... even with a small weight rebalance. Clans are more than just awesome guns... at least, to me. Do you just like the guns?

What I'm postulating is precisely that the developers deal with the problem before it rears its ugly head again, like it did before.

Edited by Alex Wolfe, 12 December 2011 - 01:06 PM.

[Kudzu]

Alex Wolfe, on 12 December 2011 - 11:47 AM, said:

And no, I'm not "butthurt over the Clans because I had a bad gaming group". I'm more of a Warhammer guy myself and gaming group was fine, thank you. I'm "butthurt" because blind adherence to TT rules in this particular case has ruined a good chunk of four PC games already (Mechwarrior 3, 4, MechCommander 1, 2 and their expansions), like this PC game in the making rather than TT games where Clans may have been "fine as long as munchkins didn't get their hands on them" (which translates to "not fine"); turning their balance to shreds when Clan weapons enter the scene, and making a gigantic part of the inventory into obsolete, useless junk right off the bat. I'm sick and tired of "Clan tech or bust". Find me another case where, for a video game, the developers can admit with clear conscience: "there's 100 weapons in the game, 80 of them is junk and you won't want to use them, entirely inferior". With this reboot I'd rather find the way for the devs to make AC20 or SRM4 actually worth their weight for the first time in computer gaming, rather than reverting to the old, tired song and dance of "boat C/ER LL and C/Gauss or C/LBX, sprinkle with C/Streak SRM6; jettison everything else".

And you skipped over my point that none of those games ever used the BV system from TT that was the actual balancing mechanism used to keep things even. So yeah, introducing equipment that is superior without having it balanced causes major problems, but that fault lies with the laziness or incompetence of the previous video game producers rather than with the introduction of clan tech itself.

[Alex Wolfe]

Kudzu, on 12 December 2011 - 01:08 PM, said:

And you skipped over my point that none of those games ever used the BV system from TT that was the actual balancing mechanism used to keep things even. So yeah, introducing equipment that is superior without having it balanced causes major problems, but that fault lies with the laziness or incompetence of the previous video game producers rather than with the introduction of clan tech itself.

Apparently, that I did, sorry about that. As long as it's balanced, and balanced hard, and not by distributing Clan gear to IS like in the abominable past, I'm fine with it.

I don't have an Axeman to grind with Clans as a whole, only with the way this whole mess has been handled in the past and treating the rulebook like it's the Word of Blake himself, refusing any compromises.

Edited by Alex Wolfe, 12 December 2011 - 01:13 PM.

[Trogusaur]

Habokku, on 12 December 2011 - 04:22 AM, said:

I can see your stance, and do agree to an extent.. but you made my point rather succinctly with what you said in your (very well written may I say!) response. The LRM's are the semi-primary weapon of the design.

That's part of the reason why clan 'mechs are so effective as a stand alone single chassis vs. their I.S. counterparts. They all have several 'semi-primary' weapon systems on them. Few I.S. 'mechs can claim that. They specialize and focus on one particular element of their arsenal and have secondary weapons as support. An excellent example of this is the Trebuchet. Two LRM 15's, and a couple (or trio depending on variant) of medium lasers. Even the heavier versions of LRM platforms such as the venerable Archer can only claim a bevvy of four medium lasers to back up it's paired LRM 20's and it's a scant five tons lighter than the Timberwolf/Madcat.

The Timberwolf/Madcat has paired ER Large lasers. That is very respectable firepower, and it's backed up by a pair of ER Medium lasers, and a Medium Pulse Laser, plus a pair of Machine guns. This is a withering ammount of firepower for a heavy 'mech, compared to most any heavy I.S. 'mech available, and the kicker is it can fire the vast majority of this firepower and not overheat terribly badly thanks to the phenominal heat dissipation that the clan double heatsink provides. Now you mate this withering firepower to not one, but two LRM 20 launchers and even I.S. Assaults start to shake in their proverbial boots, and they should! Only a scant handfull of only the most powerful I.S. assault 'mechs could even hope to match this kind of firepower.

Clan tech Should make I.S. pilots poop their collective pants! That's part of what makes the clans what they are, the boogie man, the great adversary, powerful and frightening, but not insurmountable.

I'm not talking about a drastic reduction in effectiveness on the Clan Omnimechs part, far from it! I'm merely suggesting leveling the playing field where it counts, and trying to at least show you can have a Madcat that is still terrifying to behold that has paired LRM 10's or LRM 15's that are more accurate (with the inclusion of built-in Artemis IV), versus paired LRM 20's. Sure you may have to sacrifice the medium pulse laser, or drop a machine gun as well to make up the weight difference, but the overall spirit and weapons payload will remain the same, and in the grand scheme it makes the fight not quite so one sided once the I.S. Tech catches up.

Well thought out point, and thank you kindly for making it! I look forwards to seeing what else you, and others might have to add to the topic.

<S>

-Havoc
A.K.A. Habokku

Again, you raise another valid argument for your case over missles. However, I do see a dilemma coming in the next few centuries in the game. If I recall correctly, some Clan mechs eventually come equipped with Artemis built in anyway (according to BT). What happens to all the oldies like the Timberwolf or Mad Dog when these other mechs already come naturally equipped with this system? Secondly, (this is more user preference than anything) I don't really like the idea of stripping off the 'Wolf's signature weapons in place of a pair of super accurate missles that would otherwise be used on the primary Summoner's much smaller missle loadout.

[CaveMan]

Alex Wolfe, on 12 December 2011 - 12:25 PM, said:

EDIT: huh, only after I've made the metaphor I noticed the top poster's name. No offense intended!

[Aaron DeChavilier]

Kudzu, on 12 December 2011 - 01:08 PM, said:

And you skipped over my point that none of those games ever used the BV system from TT that was the actual balancing mechanism used to keep things even. So yeah, introducing equipment that is superior without having it balanced causes major problems, but that fault lies with the laziness or incompetence of the previous video game producers rather than with the introduction of clan tech itself.

aye but I believe we covered this over in the tabletop fora about BV and
how it is at best a stop-gap and at worse a terrible solution.
My question to clan players is why is it so hard to accept just one stat drop:
choose - Range/Damage/Heat/Weight/Space to help rebalance the
system for the better. Many of us have laid out the issues with clantech;


at this point I'll sound like a j e r k*; prove that clan tech isn't just powercreep
and munchkinism

*(take that you censor!)

Edited by Aaron DeChavilier, 12 December 2011 - 01:21 PM.

[CaveMan]

Clan tech works in TT because it's supposed to be one Clan 'Mech vs an IS lance, going for death or glory.

I don't know how you integrate that into a non-roleplaying, PvP video game without either A) numerically limiting Clan players or nerfing Clan gear.

The Clans without their ubertech would be paper tigers though. Their 'Mechs tend to go light on armor (with a few exceptions), have poor heat balance (still not as bad as 3025 IS though), use XL engines, and they won't use "dirty" advantages like artillery that the IS is happy to spam against them.

[Kudzu]

Aaron DeChavilier, on 12 December 2011 - 01:21 PM, said:

aye but I believe we covered this over in the tabletop fora about BV and
how it is at best a stop-gap and at worse a terrible solution.

While I agree it can be done better than BV2 (which isn't nearly as broken as you make it sound, btw), the devs have the option to do on-the-fly adjusting to the formulas that the TT cannot do-- which nullifies your issues with it. If certain combo's are more powerful than the current BV calculations show, you can go in and change the calculation at the breaking point.

Having it all done by computers also means the calculations can be a lot more complex than they are for the TT (which are designed to be used by people with basic math skills and a pocket calculator), this means we can get a much more accurate points cost.

Quote

My question to clan players is why is it so hard to accept just one stat drop:
choose - Range/Damage/Heat/Weight/Space to help rebalance the
system for the better. Many of us have laid out the issues with clantech;
at this point I'll sound like a j e r k*; prove that clan tech isn't just powercreep
and munchkinism

*(take that you censor!)

Every time you move directly away from the TT when there are better ways to balance it to the new format while sticking to the BTU is one more reason you shouldn't use the BTU at all.

[Aaron DeChavilier]

Kudzu, on 12 December 2011 - 01:30 PM, said:

While I agree it can be done better than BV2 (which isn't nearly as broken as you make it sound, btw), the devs have the option to do on-the-fly adjusting to the formulas that the TT cannot do-- which nullifies your issues with it. If certain combo's are more powerful than the current BV calculations show, you can go in and change the calculation at the breaking point.

Having it all done by computers also means the calculations can be a lot more complex than they are for the TT (which are designed to be used by people with basic math skills and a pocket calculator), this means we can get a much more accurate points cost.



Every time you move directly away from the TT when there are better ways to balance it to the new format while sticking to the BTU is one more reason you shouldn't use the BTU at all.

but musn't things change over time? how does the very earliest editions of Rogue Trader
compare to Warhammer40k: 5th ed?



as Wolfe already points out on a smaller scale;
"Clans would still be Clans, with their mechs, culture, language, honor, prevalence of ER weapons and streaks and large Ultra bore... even with a small weight rebalance. Clans are more than just awesome guns... at least, to me. Do you just like the guns?"

well you seem to be proving a point here; if the clans were the ones being invaded
and the IS were the ones with the uber tech would you complain? Or would you
be an IS player? continuity of universe != rules of games

the clans make for compelling fiction, but even the space marines rules
have begun to bend to the demands of game design

and I will reiterate, why is only a decrease of one stat so
unacceptable?

Edited by Aaron DeChavilier, 12 December 2011 - 01:41 PM.

[Alex Wolfe]

Kudzu, on 12 December 2011 - 01:30 PM, said:

Every time you move directly away from the TT when there are better ways to balance it to the new format while sticking to the BTU is one more reason you shouldn't use the BTU at all.

That's the approach I've been talking about. I've been playing games for years, tabletop, PnP, video and otherwise, including many adaptations, but rarely do I see such adamant beliefs that the rules of the source game must be obeyed to the letter for adaptations as much as when it comes to Battletech. Sometimes I wonder if it's because the game itself is so far past its golden years that everyone is just submerged in blissful nostalgia and feels compelled to yell at others to get off his lawn and that "this scum isn't good enough for my little girl"? Who is it that even made that "rule"? Why would you even say that?

Universe and system are different things. They're not inseparable, and there are many people who arrived at BTU through other media, which should be proof enough that those two are not strictly inseparable and as worthless without each other as you seem to claim ("take everything or leave everything"). The whole debate is about finding a "better way". Nobody got it right yet, but so many people are willing to shut the discussions down with "it's not how you should do it" without any reason other than "because".

Even leaving behind Warhammer (although I find it a decent comparison because of its age and fanbase), there's so many games that do a splendid job of representing the universe while only giving a nod to the base work's rules. Vampire: Bloodlines (RPG to cRPG), Knights of the Old Republic (movies to RPG to cRPG), Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (RPG to FPS)... they don't run on d10, d6/d20 (rules changed within the universe for the source game itself here, even) and Cthulhu, they don't represent the mechanics and a Shoggoth may not exactly have as many hit points as in the rulebook, yet the universe is represented with care and respect, without a doubt - immersive and instanty recognizable. It can be done. Why such a strict, negative attitude towards Battletech adaptations?

Edited by Alex Wolfe, 12 December 2011 - 02:52 PM.

[CaveMan]

Changing weight or space would make it impossible to field the canon configs of some Clan 'Mechs. No deal. I want my OmniMech the way it is in the books, no exceptions.

Changing range or damage would obliterate the "feel" of Clan weapons as being super-advanced. No deal.

That leaves heat, and recycle times. I'd be okay with altering either or both to bring Clan equipment down a notch. If Clan and IS have about the same DPS but Clan gives you a bit of a range edge at the expense of being really hot, that'd be about right.

[Alex Wolfe]

CaveMan, on 12 December 2011 - 01:53 PM, said:

That leaves heat, and recycle times. I'd be okay with altering either or both to bring Clan equipment down a notch. If Clan and IS have about the same DPS but Clan gives you a bit of a range edge at the expense of being really hot, that'd be about right.

Ooh, an olive branch? May not be a mistletoe wreath, but I'll take whatever the good Star Grandpa Kerensky brings me this early into December!

I wouldn't mind more weapons getting something similar to ye olde PPC - C/ER PPC treatment myself, especially if heat actually matters in this game. Those were one of the very few weapons that each had its own feel, but each having its own "niche" within MW4 rather than one becoming completely replaced by the other. Clan had the range and punch, IS had more manageable firing rate and heat efficiency. Good call, and definitely a more "solid" options than simply balancing by BV (which would end up with IS players clamoring for the superior Clan weapons anyway no matter the cost, I bet).

Edited by Alex Wolfe, 12 December 2011 - 02:49 PM.

[Strum Wealh]

Habokku, on 12 December 2011 - 03:09 AM, said:

~sniped for brevity~

Interesting ideas, OP!

However, I respectfully disagree with parts of the opening post.

While the SLDF-in-Exile (and, subsequently, the Clan society born from that group) would have retained the blueprints for and many working examples of Star League tech, they were also given to innovation.

Consider the history of the airplane - just over a century ago, the airplane was little more than an oversized, overbuilt, glorified kite with a motor strapped to it (I speak, of course, of the 1903 Wright Flyer).
Less than a half century later, airplanes were exceeding the speed of sound in level, controlled flight (the Bell X-1 in 1947).
Less than 20 years after that, they were kissing the edge of space (the X-15 in 1963; I'm not counting the capsules used by the US and Soviet space programs as "airplanes").

Similar arguments could be made for the automobile - their development from from a French-made steam-powered tricycle in the mid-1700s to modern F1 racers and supercars is about the same turnaround as the SLDF's departure and the Clans' return (~260 years).

As such, it makes sense to assume that, as they had always intended to return (see the Hidden Hope Doctrine and the Voice of Kerensky transmission) that the SLDF-in-Exile and later the Clans (even more so the latter, given the additional pressures of their culture of warfare) would not only preserve the Star League's technologies, but further improve upon them - if for no other reason than to be prepared for a less-than-warm reception.
(They even continue to do so after the invasion - examples include Heavy Lasers, ATMs, and HAGs.)

Meanwhile, the IS was mostly busy not-so-happily bombing itself back into a relative Stone Age (with the Helm Memory Core and the subsequent rediscovery and spread of Star League era "LosTech" bringing about a rapid ascendance to a relative Iron Age).

-----

Which brings us, finally, to my point:

It does make sense, in its own way, that Clan tech at the time of the invasion/"Operation Revival" would be number of aspects than that available to the IS at the time - Kerensky spent the better part of three years (2781-2784) gathering most of the best people (~6 million), the supplies to support them (foodstuffs and medicines, prefabricated buildings, and such) and military stuff (documents and working equipment) and shoving it into ~6700 ships... and left, floating around for about two years before finding the Pentagon Worlds.

The Clans, by the time of the invasion, had about two-and-a-half centuries to innovate, and they started with the best of what was available before they left.
The IS powers had about two-and-a-half decades to try to re-invent their tech to the point at which the Clans started - there simply wasn't time for the IS to completely catch-up.

My personal theory is that the Clan equipment represents what the Star League would have developed had it not fallen apart... and what the IS-as-we-know-it would likely have eventually developed in another two-and-a-quarter centuries if the Clans hadn't invaded.

My counter-proposal would be to make Clan tech and IS tech incompatible (easily explained in-game as both the hardware (overall dimensions, types of connectors used, and such) and software (all the extra data and auto-loading applications needed to make OmniMechs and OmniVehicles work) not being compatible), so that tech salvaged from Clan OmniMechs/OmniVehicles cannot be used on IS 'Mechs (and vice versa) - if one wants to use Clan tech, one would have to basically capture a Clan 'Mech completely intact.
(Or figure out a way to get behind Clan lines, raid an armory guarded by Clan warriors on a Clan-conquered/controlled world, steal some non-OmniMech stuff (which should still have a much-less-than-100% chance of working on an IS 'Mech - see IS-vs-Clan incompatibility, above), and get back with the stuff and oneself intact - not a task to be undertaken easily or lightly...)

Granted, one could still be salvage it and sell off for profit... but, if one can't use it (effectively, if at all), the main problem (munchkin players running around in Clan or hybrid 'Mechs) is effectively solved without having to break the canon (too much) and/or completely (not just visually) redesign every Clan 'Mech to accommodate IS weapons.

Your thoughts?