34 replies to this topic

[Johnep93]

I'm hear now what all i know is it involves mechs and destroying stuff I'm already sold there. I don't know ANYTHING about the lore or anything about these mechs in particular everything involving mechs does things differently so anyone out the mind explaining things to me? PLEASE.......

[Petroff Northrup]

In Mechwarrior/Battletech things are a bit closer to hard Sci-Fi than most universes involving mechs and far closer than Mecha like Gundam or Armored Core. I feel a fun spot to jump into the lore is actually around the FedCom civil war and early Jihad period, I know a lot of older fans do not like it but it is a nice spot to easily get into the lore at. A free game taking place in that time period is Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries so that can help give a bit of an understanding, though realize that the game far underpowers anything non-mech

[The1WithTheGun]

Download this:

http://www.battletec...erseGuide-1.pdf

This PDF should explain everything.

[Hayden]

Ok, I'll give you the super-abridged version...

Battletech is set hundreds of years in the future where mankind expands into space, colonizes hundreds of worlds (giving rise to dozens of various interstellar "nations") and is eventually unified under a single interstellar government called the Star Leauge, ruled by great house Cameron and five other great houses (Marik, Kurita, Steiner, Liao and Davion), of which house Cameron is first among equals. Things go swimmingly for a couple hundred years, then begin to fall apart when a man named Stefan Amaris overthrows and kills off First Lord Cameron and all possible successors. This sparks a civil war which results in the defeat of Amaris but leaves houses Marik, Kurita, Steiner, Liao and Davion fighting over who becomes the new First Lord (successor to the Camerons).

Things heat up politically and General Kerensky, the leader of the Star League's military, sees that things are heading for a civil war. Still popular but unwilling to attempt to take the title of First Lord for himself he decides to depart the Inner Sphere and invites the Star League Defense Force to come with him. The vast majority do, and in the vaccum he leaves the Succession Wars begin, a series of conflicts between the five great houses as they attempt to take power. The 4th Succession war ended in 3030, and now in the late 3040s the IS seems like it could be heading for a 5th Succession War.

That's my abridged history.

EDIT: The 'mechs in this universe are fairly unique. They still basically defy physics, but don't do a lot of things seen with other "big robot" franchises. There's no "roller skating", no flying through the air, cartwheels, or acrobatics. There are "jump jets" there is ablative armor... um... some people call it "more realistic", I'd call it " better capturing the feel of a 20-100 ton war machine". You should probably read the link above

Edited by Hayden, 18 December 2011 - 08:08 PM.

[Johnep93]

Thanks all of yall have been a big help so far.

[Hayden]

J Echo, on 18 December 2011 - 08:31 PM, said:

Well, this is how it is in the computer games, but a large majority (or very vocal minority) of the forum population wants most of those things which haven't been in the computer games but were in the table-top game from which Mechwarrior split off a couple of decades ago.

It's a MechWarrior Online forum, not a BattleTech forum. Besides, aside from flight (in the case of Land Air Mechs) nothing I mentioned is in the Table Top game.

[Brakkyn]

If I ever see an Atlas do a handstand, I will QUIT.

[Blackfire1]

Page 35... Ugliest woman ever. Or maybe Shman? (she-man)

[Pvt Dancer]

Actually J Echo, Mechwarrior is the role playing game expanded from Battletech which is effectively a miniature combat game. They followed the same path that another little game followed that was called Dungeons and Dragons. If it wasn't for Battletech, there would be no Mechwarrior, and on top of it Battletech is still a solid game that has effectively 'stood the test of time'... kinda like Monopoly. All Mechwarrior does is go from running multiple mechs to a single mech and a single pilot and expanding those rules, since in Battletech the pilot only scaled 3-5 in two categories with a average of 4 (obviously).

The First Mechwarrior video game was effectively a first person shooter since they wanted to go that route over a more strategic game. That is the difference between Battletech and Mechwarrior, IMO.

[juxstapo]

Lets see how far we can split this from the OP by spinning off on the favorite pet peeves and arguements for this site! Yay!

Although it has its roots deeply and firmly embedded in Japanese Anime, Battletech/MW developed a definate western flavor over the decades. Honestly the appeal of it for me focuses less around giant, stompy machines doing splody things (although those are cool), and leans more towards the politics and relationships in the story. Mechs are just a sweet spot of coolness. The fact that the various factions and powers in the BTech universe really have been around for a quarter of a century with various individual's contributing to their development and storytelling adds a great deal of depth and history. You actually feel the stirring of emotions when you read about (or game) and heroic charge or last stand by your favorite group.

[Kristov Kerensky]

In addition to that great link already provided..

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page

That provides more info on the BattleTech Universe, including information on Mechs and the equipment used in them.

And you can just ignore J Echo, he is, unfortunately, one of those people who discovered this genre of games without ever bothering to discover just what the video game he liked was based on. Oddly enough, he started with MW3, doesn't like MW4, and thinks MW3 was something new and radically different from MW2. The actual differences between MW2 and MW3 are the storyline and the fact that MW3 was released buggy as all hell

[Hayden]

Could please we just get back on OP's topic (lore and 'mechs) before we lose another thread to off topic ranting?

EDIT: I'm with stupid? You wound me, Mason.

Edited by Hayden, 18 December 2011 - 11:04 PM.

[Mason Grimm]

Oh pipe down Hayden, I changed it LOL I couldn't find with "I'm with AWESOME"

Edited by Mason Grimm, 18 December 2011 - 11:18 PM.

[Mavek]

One thing the OP has to realize that some of us have around 25 years of experience with this universe. While all of us like the big, stompy mechs, I think most of us are still here for the characters and the story line. We are here to immerse ourselves into a world of heros and villains and have a part in the ultimate outcome of the Inner Sphere...even though the outcome has already been written. XD

[CeeKay Boques]

Won't that mostly happen in our head though, and on the news feed? I think they game will be mostly war, with little story, the story happens with the news feed and out actions and responses to each other. However, perhaps Victor D will show up as a forum character or a bust in the MFD giving instructions. I wonder...

Mavek, on 19 December 2011 - 12:39 AM, said:

One thing the OP has to realize that some of us have around 25 years of experience with this universe. While all of us like the big, stompy mechs, I think most of us are still here for the characters and the story line. We are here to immerse ourselves into a world of heros and villains and have a part in the ultimate outcome of the Inner Sphere...even though the outcome has already been written. XD

[Johnep93]

Wow didn't realize there was the scale of MW/BT universes. I've gotten the jists of the lore can y'all start tellin more about the mechs a little bit what makes these what they are with out all the ranting and trailing off that insued last night? And if any of y'all could use chrome hounds as a reference point though it may be like comparin apples and oranges reference points are nice.

Mavek, on 19 December 2011 - 12:39 AM, said:

One thing the OP has to realize that some of us have around 25 years of experience with this universe. While all of us like the big, stompy mechs, I think most of us are still here for the characters and the story line. We are here to immerse ourselves into a world of heros and villains and have a part in the ultimate outcome of the Inner Sphere...even though the outcome has already been written. XD

Doesn't help that i haven't exactly been around that long yet...... wish I'd found this sooner though it does appeal to me a great deal especially the lore looks like i found a new uiverse with books to read.

[Mechteric]

As far as how the Mechs behave compared to Chromehounds, they're generally faster (depending on the size of the mech) but basically the same scale as far as how much they tower over the landscape I think. They also generally have more weapon systems to choose from. Unlike chromehounds you can't really mix and match legs, torsos and arms, but weapon customization is usually pretty extensive.


As some mentioned, if you want to get your feet wet, you can give Mechwarrior 4 a try, since its free. But keep in mind its regarded as the weakest mechwarrior interpretation. Get it at http://mektek.net


Also, if you happen to have Crysis Wars and a computer thats fairly recent, you can try the free mod Mechwarrior Living Legends which I think it pretty close to the best mechwarrioir interpretation to date even though its only in beta. It doesn't (yet) have weapon customization, but they already have a pretty decent base of configurations to choose from. Get it at http://mechlivinglegends.net

Edited by CapperDeluxe, 19 December 2011 - 06:35 AM.

[Barantor]

Another idea is to get the books and give those a run through.

I had never read the novels before and recently started with "The Warrior Trilogy" and have loved it and plan on buying more books. You can get the trilogy for fairly cheap on Amazon and they are in Kindle format if you have that device. If not then you can download a kindle viewer for your computer on Amazon and still buy/read the books that way.

http://www.amazon.co...k/dp/B003K16NX4

Although some folks don't like Stackpole's description of how mechs get cored and do the blue explode thing, the books do give a sense of both lore and how the flow of combat can be.

[Starne]

A couple things that I have'nt seen brought up, but really should be, with regards to the Mechverse.

Yes, Mechs are the backbone of the house armies of the Inner Sphere, yes, the Mech is 'the king of battlefield' but Mechs are not unstoppable gods of war. There are plenty of tanks that can give a Mech in their same weight class a run for it's money, and they're much cheaper. Even dug-in infantry attacking from hiding with SRMs and other (cheap) weapons can give Mechs a run for their money.

That being said, by the time MWO is set has rolled around, not only have massed formations of Mechs pretty much disappeared, but the houses have learned(the hard way, in some cases) that Mechs are best deployed as part of a combined-arms unit. Sadly, this is something I don't think we'll be seeing much of in MWO.

One other thing to keep in mind is that, while things have started to change in the Inner Sphere by the time MWO rolls around, Mechs are still extremely valuable, in fact, popular wisdom is that a Mech, even a cheap light Mech, is more valuable that it's pilot. This is especially true out in the Periphery. Many Mechs are effectively irreplacable, for some designs, it's extremely hard to find even the replacement parts to keep a Mech in running condition, much less repair battle damage.

Often, Mechs are family heirlooms, ancestral weapons, passed down from parent to child over generations. Often enough, the same rule applies to the Techs and support crews that keep the Mechs running. In some Merc bands, it's not unheard of for the company's Mechs to be maintained and cared for by generations of the same family.

[Atlas3060]

Another thread here also brings summary to the Universe.
http://mwomercs.com/..._5868#entry5868