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Initial Thoughts You First Had With Anything Battletech.


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#1 Tordin

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Posted 13 March 2017 - 01:42 PM

This topic have been on my mind for a loooong time, so had to just get it of my shoulders.

Im curious, what did you first think and imagine about factions, camos, mechs, persons, storylines and such with anything first-hand Battletech you experienced?

I'll can start with my little BT story. Not too sure in which order these events were but gonna try.

First off. A notice.
I have never read any books, comics, not even seen the TV cartoon or played past MW game before the things I write below. Never have I played the boardgame either and read the technical readouts.

I played the Mech Commander demo ALOT! when I got my hands on it. But never got the money to buy the game in the local part video/ game/ snack shop, kiosk.
The music, the graphics, the challenge was immersive and darn fun. And I loved the in-game avatars of real actors and their one-liners, comments, that was truly something. The intensity of my damaged mechs and the pilots struggling to survive the onslaught of enemies. I really cared about them surviving.


Also remembering reading some norwegian gamers magazine in the early 2000, about an article regarding Mech Warrior 4 vengeance, a review I think (got an 8?). Alot of info and I read about it and dreamt about playing that game for a loooong time. I got to play it in school with 23 others in a computer classroom back in 2003/4. It was a blast! Though that was MW4 mercenaries, never got to paly the vanilla MW4 and Black Knight. Not even to this day, sadly.

Now to some other things. Short tidbits, regarding factions, story etc. With my first hand experiences and facta/ info bits from the above games and so on.

- In MC I never understood clearly who the enemies was. First now I know it was the Clan Smoke Jaguars.

- Since Kurita is portrayed as having a BIG territory and have a dragon as a symbol, thought. Surely that got to be a Chinese inspired faction. Oboy were I wrong, Japanese?? What? Liao, the Capellan Federation.. on the other hand, I thought were Japanese, due to that sword reminding me of a katana or something.

- I thought the Steiner were only german and nordic. But wait what is this Rasalhague faction?? Now thats people withnordic heritage.

- I thought the Clans were rebellous people living inside that big territory called Inner Sphere that have fought many wars with the other houses. Kinda the good guys, sonmehow gotten better tech to finally be able to strike back at the others. I imagined the Clan side were a growing big faction with different subgroups (Wolf, Jade Falcons) having different roles. I might not have been TOO far off, but still alot of speculation.

I truly didnt know anything aobut the succesion wars, Kerenskys exodus, the Pentagon worlds and so on.

I could add so much more. But for a later time.
Your turn to tell your experience with the Battletech universe Posted Image

Edited by Tordin, 13 March 2017 - 01:43 PM.


#2 Metus regem

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Posted 14 March 2017 - 08:00 AM

My first experience with anything BT related was playing Mech Warrior on my SNS, I had no idea of what was going on, other than "shoot the robots". My next real experience was with MW 2, 31st century combat, in other words the refusal war. I played both faction, but I preferred the Clan Wolf, as I liked orange more than green at that point. All that being said, I didn't really delve into the actual history of the universe until High School, grade 8 (1996... gods that was 20 years ago now), when a Buddy of mine introduced me to a TT gaming group during lunch period. The game that was being played was the Mech Warrior RPG (second edition). I remember flipping through the faction section and looking at the uniforms, only one really jumped out at me:

Posted Image Posted Image

The uniforms for Clan Ghost Bear, from there I went on to learn about that Clan, and I dropped the Flag of Clan Wolf for the Ghost Bear, they were more in tune with me. Branching out from Clan Ghost Bear I looked into IS factions, and as I grew older, I found that I liked the Federated Suns more. Less for the plot armour and white knight portrayal that they got, but more for the undertones that they have if you loot beyond the surface.

#3 Tordin

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Posted 14 March 2017 - 10:55 AM

Interesting backstory. At least you got a more fundamental start in the BT universe with such old games.
Nice uniforms. Regarding clans I like both Wolf and G-Bear. Both have nice ideals and the warden aspect and ideology (besides the wolf crusaders).
I've wanted to try MW3 for a long time. But alas, alack. Not only that it might not work under newer windows but to find the game legally... *sigh*

#4 Metus regem

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Posted 14 March 2017 - 02:16 PM

View PostTordin, on 14 March 2017 - 10:55 AM, said:

Interesting backstory. At least you got a more fundamental start in the BT universe with such old games.
Nice uniforms. Regarding clans I like both Wolf and G-Bear. Both have nice ideals and the warden aspect and ideology (besides the wolf crusaders).
I've wanted to try MW3 for a long time. But alas, alack. Not only that it might not work under newer windows but to find the game legally... *sigh*



It's abandoned ware now... getting it to work is tricky though...

http://www.myabandon...chwarrior-3-7pg
http://www.myabandon...rate-s-moon-7ph

#5 HimseIf

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Posted 17 March 2017 - 05:31 PM

An old, old computer bought for what a new one would cost (it was the old days and computers were rare in my country).
Came with MW2. I was impressed with the damage modeling and sophistication that has been unmatched in any experience i have had before or since.
As you win from mission to mission there was little slices of text. "Who would write all this?" i wondered to myself, there must have been more backstory or something as it wouldn't make sense otherwise... Digging around in the 'Readme' files revealed that it had descended from not just one prior game but many board games and books.

Also remember wondering how such huge machines would move so fast and stay upright even with a gyro.

#6 Stelio Kontos

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Posted 19 March 2017 - 03:50 PM

My initial introduction was a bit later with Mech 4. I'd initially gotten into mechs watching Robotech as a kid, which led me to becoming a huge fan of the Earthsiege series. Eventually I saw Mechwarrior 4 on the shelf. I figured "what the hell" and that it might be a good substitute for the then defunct Sierra studios.

It was better done than I expected. The plot was scoped in enough to feel a bit hokey but the subsequent games in the series that I played (all the way back to Mech 2) did a good enough job of exploiting the setting to make me like. Not that it took much convincing since I enjoy both military tactics (eventually becoming a real life artillery officer in an armored brigade) and mechs.

My intro to the board game came when another kid at my high school played and told me where to get started. My little brother also helped because he was more into the fluff than I was and bought a selection of the books.

That said none of the factions really clicked for me like the falcons, and to a lesser extent the bears, have. I couldn't ever tell you why but I suspect that it is the same personality quirks that made me like the idea of a society heavily based on testing one's own skill and the same reason that I ended up attending a military college which was extremely conservative and traditional in a manner similar to how the falcons are portrayed.

#7 Metus regem

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Posted 19 March 2017 - 06:42 PM

View PostLamp erouge, on 19 March 2017 - 03:50 PM, said:

It was better done than I expected. The plot was scoped in enough to feel a bit hokey but the subsequent games in the series that I played (all the way back to Mech 2) did a good enough job of exploiting the setting to make me like. Not that it took much convincing since I enjoy both military tactics (eventually becoming a real life artillery officer in an armored brigade) and mechs.

That said none of the factions really clicked for me like the falcons, and to a lesser extent the bears, have. I couldn't ever tell you why but I suspect that it is the same personality quirks that made me like the idea of a society heavily based on testing one's own skill and the same reason that I ended up attending a military college which was extremely conservative and traditional in a manner similar to how the falcons are portrayed.


Being both a Robotech/Macross fan and former AH-64 pilot, I totally here where you're coming from.

#8 Davegt27

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Posted 01 April 2017 - 04:22 AM

The big thing I remember was the game MW2

Basically you can put ammo all over the Mech with out any ammo feed system lol
Seemed crazy to me

I now call it super sifi mojo lol

#9 CMDR Sunset Shimmer

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Posted 01 April 2017 - 07:56 AM

My first true experience with Battletech goes back to 1995, after meeting my father for the first time, he lived in San Diego and at the time the Virtual World Battletech Centers were still around, you know, the actual BattleTech Simulation pods. At ten years old, I got my first taste of piloting a 65 ton Clan Loki. and I was hooked.

He had Mech2 at the house, with a full HOTAS and Pedal setup for practicing at home... and I spent the next week playing Mechwarrior 2, and piloting in the sim pods.

It's the best memory I have of my father, he was a drug dealer, and overall a ****** human being... but I still count his introducing me to Battletech, as an important part of my life.

#10 Jay Leon Hart

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Posted 01 April 2017 - 01:53 PM

My first BT memories are of the cartoon. so my earliest thoughts were "Maulers are great!" and "Clan Jade Falcon are mean stupid-heads! (But Thors are great!)"

I think those 2 (3) points are still true, at least for me Posted Image

#11 Tarl Cabot

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Posted 01 April 2017 - 02:14 PM

1990 - Was giving a copy of the original Mechwarrior but no book with the codes. I was DETERMINED so I started picking up the Tech Readouts, sourcebooks then novels then one day found it the code words were the military alphabet...Took me 2 days running different iterations before I found one that worked then found a week later on a BBS and news server all the codes that could be used. Got the other games Crescent Hawk's Inception & Revenge, Mechcommanders, etc.

https://en.wikipedia...1989_video_game)

After that I had the boardgame and started collecting minis. Found Kesmai's EGA MPBT 3025 (91-96) on the GEnie network and joined up as a Davion in 1991. Learned a new word... Credit Card burn out... :) $6hr non-prime time (6pm to 8am local time) and $18 primetime (business hours). I played the first year or two but afterwards... I was in my twenties and having a good time :)

From there SVGA MPBT 3025 on AOL but the actual Community Warfare did not pan out and AOL changed up how it handled games after going to a flat monthly fee to access the internet, and the changes in its game section screwed Kesmai. When I joined MPBT on AOL, people who presented themselves as Davions were, aholes... Lets just say I ran into a person who was creating his own unit and checking out each House and we ended up hooking up with the DCMS, House Kurita, whom most people heavily RP the Japanese mechwarrior.

That became MPBT Solaris (95-2000?) and Kesmai moved 99% of the population to Gamestorm. AOL still had MPBT but it was primarily European players as they had no change to play, or very little. From there EA purchased Kesmai (EA was in a buying frenzy, taking in other gaming companies to mass produce games, stripping out assets and tossing the rest. Beta MPBT 3025, which the combat engine was a MW4 clone /shudders, which was in beta for a short time in 2001, the CW portion that was active was a temp setup, before EA canned most of the 3rd party games they had bought up, which included MPBT and Airwarrior.

During some of that time I had joined a local gaming group for the boardgame, visited the VW centers in Dallas a few times, taken my nephews a few times (it was a 6 hour drive to Dallas) and had gone to GENCON a few times for BT/MPBT.

#12 ChapeL

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Posted 01 April 2017 - 02:20 PM

My first thought upon seeing anything Battletech/Mechwarrior related was when my eyes fell upon the box for MW2 at Futureshop all those years ago. As I looked at the Timber Wolf ( I didnèt know its name) on the cover I thought : "That thing would tip over so hard... or break a leg if hit by a stiff cross wind."

#13 Pariah Devalis

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Posted 01 April 2017 - 09:42 PM

My first experience and thoughts with battletech? My mom found a copy of Lethal Heritage at, of all places, a grocery store, while on a family trip to the west coast of Florida. I remember reading that book, and instantly falling in love with the concept of bipedal tanks, nations pitted against one another, and the concept of not-aliens-but-other-humans from across the stars. From there, I started digging deep into the book series, following, whenever possible, the back covers that would indicate what the next book in the series would be. I also highly appreciated the hard sci-fi aspects. It wasn't science fantasy but science fiction, where things seemed, at least superficially, plausible.

I ended up reading all of the books up to the first couple having to do with the Dark Ages, when the quality and writing took a sharp nosedive. Bit of an understatement to say I just read through the books, though. More like devoured them. To the point where I was tearing through books faster than my parents would be willing to let me buy more books.

Somewhere in between that first book and my continued perusal of the novels, I saw MECHWARRIOR 2: 31 CENTURY COMBAT listed in a magazine for Apple software. I recognized what I saw, and realized it was based on the novel series which, at that time, was all I thought it was. My dad ordered it for me, and I played the hell out of that game. I never actually personally owned MW2: Mercs or Ghost Bear's Legacy, though I played it at a friend's house back in middle school. The gameplay was insane for the time, and having to manage your heat, leg to torso orientation, ammo, and individual body parts blew me away, though I didn't fully understand the complexities of the mechlab in the MW2 series of games.

The rest of the story is history. History that can be seen below, actually. :P

Spoiler

Edited by Pariah Devalis, 01 April 2017 - 09:54 PM.


#14 zeta44

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Posted 12 April 2017 - 07:09 PM

Earliest I can remember is playing mechassault against my dad in split screen, didn't know what any of the mechs were so I just picked the atlas, you can probably imagine how I felt when I the game loaded and I saw I had this huge skull faced mech and all my dad had was the cougar, thought he had no chance.

Spoiler alert, he ran circles around me and tore my atlas to pieces. Young me and his atlas didn't stand a chance

#15 Xiellify

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Posted 19 April 2017 - 12:05 PM

My first experience (along with my brothers) with BattleTech was their card game. We were around maybe 8-10 years old? Pretty sure we didn't play it right but we still had fun anyway. Posted Image Brother's actually trying to find if we still have them so he can show it off to our teammates (unfortunately, he only found his basketball and pokemon collection so far). Haha.

I also remember playing a game on the PC but I'm not sure if it was related to BattleTech or not.

Edited by Xiellify, 19 April 2017 - 12:06 PM.


#16 Khobai

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Posted 20 April 2017 - 08:30 AM

my initial thoughts were that the artwork was really bad, especially the clan artwork

#17 Karl Streiger

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Posted 20 April 2017 - 09:49 AM

Must have been around ten or eleven when my brother gave me the novels Falcon Guard and Wolfpack (German)
I thouht that MadCat and Timberwolf are two different kinds of Mechs.
I liked Falcon Guard more - although Wolpack is still a fav and i own a copy in English



#18 ocular tb

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Posted 23 April 2017 - 03:34 PM

Hello all. First time posting but been lurking the forums for a loooooooooooong time.

My first impressions were from MW2: 31st Century Combat that came with our first home computer back in the 90's and I remember how awesome I thought it was. But I also remember thinking how hard it was and wondered why I sucked at it. That was my obsession throughout much of grade school. Everyday my friend and I would talk about it. I think what really did it for me was the music. I think it was the combination of the gameplay, the environments, sounds, and sense of mystery and intrigue that left a lasting impression on me.

Eventually I found MW4 a few years later but never could play it because I didn't have a computer good enough to run it and so after that I kind of forgot about Mechwarrior. Fast forward to about August 2013 and a friend from work found out about MWO and one night at his place we gave it a go. I thought it was great to just be able to get back into mechwarrior so I downloaded it myself and been playing ever since. This is also the first game I've ever played online and is still pretty much the only online game I play.

I'm glad that PGI made this game. I have my complaints, but with this game and all the members here that post on the forums I've been introduced to a part of the Battletech universe than I had ever known and it's been worth it. I've been getting into more than just this game, including reading some of the books, watching TT games, and buying into the new Battletech game. So for that I say thanks to PGI and to all you here that helped make this possible.

#19 X Grunt

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Posted 24 April 2017 - 12:48 AM

Jeez,

Where to start on this. I bought the original table top game in 1984 for my 14th Birthday. I had my neighbor with me and his Birthday was 10 days before mine. My father was taking me to buy my first weight bench as a Birthday present and asked the neighbor kid to go with us. We loaded up in the car and went to the mall to get my bench.

We stopped at an insurance agency and my father went in to pay for his insurance and talk to his Vietnam buddy. My neighbor said lets go next door to the hobby shop and look around. I said "Nah, you go ahead". So my neighbor left and went next door. I was mad that my dad was shooting the **** with his Army buddy and I wanted to get my bench ASAP. My dad turned towards me and saw my pissy expression and pointed towards the door and said "go"! I walked outside and moped around for a minute and then walked inside the hobby shop.

I looked around and saw this was a Nerd heaven. My buddy was looking through D&D books and was really excited to be in the place. Me, not so much. I wandered around and came across the Battletech boxed set and two corresponding modules about Hanse Davion's unit and the Natasha Kerensky and the Wolf Dragoons. I was interested by the Mechs and artwork. My neighbor looked at it and said Damn I wish I had not bought this D&D modules or I would have bought that. So I for whatever reason decided I would buy it and if it was stupid, I would give it to him as a belated birthday present. I bought all three and we went and sat in the car reading through the game. It was hook, line, and sinker.

I learned that Nerds were great people compared to my current group of knuckle dragging friends. We played 100's of hours of this game. 2-12 of us on weekends. I had school and work out time during the week, plus a clingy girlfriend. At least one day out of the weekend was for conquering the galaxy. Most of my new friends were FS, LA, or DC fanatics. I choose the Dark Side and went full bore Cappie and part time FWL. I quit playing after I joined the Army. Being a Grunt I had no time for myself with the unit I was in and didn't pick Battletech up again, until I got out of active duty in 1997. But I have played every version of Battletech that was ever made.

But I just cannot play this one. I played Beta it was cool and I thought awesome they will progress through the timeline starting with 3020 Mechs and we will fight House vs House. Eventually we will see Clan Mechs and more modern IS Mechs but instead we got this game. I guess we needed something. So I am happy that Battletech still lives.

#20 v4skunk

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Posted 24 April 2017 - 05:19 PM

I can't remember if it was Mechwarrior2 or the Battletech cartoon.
I can't wait for Mechwarrior5 Mercs.





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