25 replies to this topic

[Dee Eight]

were clearly taken from Canadian maps... or whoever did the coding for the map was from this area.

down in Marik territory, bottom of the map... we have Kanata with Deschenes next to it. Coincidently... Kanata is a suburb of Ottawa, and right next to it in the Ottawa river is Lac Deschenes. Across the river from Kanata is Aylmer. Manotick is to the south of Ottawa. Hazeldean is the name of a road that cuts across Kanata.

Along the Marik and Lyran borders are a bunch of names taken from movies. Nestor is a character from Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars, Arcadia is from Space Pirate Harlock, Amity is the island community in Jaws.

[slide]

There are a lot of names and areas in the IS map that reflect other franchises and place, I think it was an omage to the sci fi genre in general. If you look in Steiner space you will find Vulcan and also a planet called Botany Bay, both clearly Star Trek references.

If you look at a suburb called Elizabeth East in Adelaide South Australia you will find a whole bunch of streets named after Admirals, Captains and Ships that were involved in the battle of Midway (US ships). We have Halsey Rd, Kinkaid Rd, Northhampton Cresent (heavy Cruiser), Enterprise, Hornet and Saratoga Rds. Yorktown Road is a fairly major road in the area. To cap it off we have a Midway road too. Just to name a few of the top of my head.

I think it's pretty cool and common for people to name stuff after what they are familiar with. It would be interesting if there were other areas of towns and cities on the IS map.

[Koniving]

Dee Eight, on 15 December 2019 - 07:18 PM, said:

were clearly taken from Canadian maps... or whoever did the coding for the map was from this area.

down in Marik territory, bottom of the map... we have Kanata with Deschenes next to it. Coincidently... Kanata is a suburb of Ottawa, and right next to it in the Ottawa river is Lac Deschenes. Across the river from Kanata is Aylmer. Manotick is to the south of Ottawa. Hazeldean is the name of a road that cuts across Kanata.

Along the Marik and Lyran borders are a bunch of names taken from movies. Nestor is a character from Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars, Arcadia is from Space Pirate Harlock, Amity is the island community in Jaws.

Possible, but I think this is coincidence more than PGI.

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Deschenes

Also fun fact about BT, many real life companies are in universe.
Diverse Optics which started up in 1987 in real life makes lasers.
Another company in laser studies, Lockheed Martin, is represented by Lockheed and Martell... though originally Lockheed and the other were separate in real life before a merger, as such Lockheed only makes aerotech fighters and other aircraft while Martell makes the lasers. Lockheed-Martin is studying how to overcome atmospheric defraction which is what is standing in the way of laser weapons on aircraft fired in any direction other than directly in front.

Krupp Armament Works and Krupp Intersteller is based on the real life manufacturer best renown for its barrels and "Krupp steel" in real life. What's funny is every Krupp laser in the BT universe before 1995 is depicted with a long barrel, especially medium and large lasers.

Brinks the security company is also in the BT universe, but only in artwork.
General Motors should sound familiar.
Lots of things are there.

Edited by Koniving, 15 December 2019 - 08:29 PM.

[JediPanther]

Unicron,Arus, Hoth, and Cybertron would be nice add ons.

[Karl Streiger]

Guys, lots of those names were created in the 80s, maybe FASza even made a kind of competition.
Doesn't matter tomorrow I have a job interview in a town named after a planet on the BT map, it's in Steiner area near the FWL border.

[Subhntr]

Just wait until you find Bob. (edit: aww man, looks like it's not there...makes sense, though, as it was removed from the in-universe maps in 2805)

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Bob

(scroll down and read the Notes section )

Edited by Subhntr, 16 December 2019 - 03:17 AM.

[Dee Eight]

Well ok maybe it was someone at FASA who is/was from this area as the earliest published record cited for deschenes is from 1988. I didn't actually say it was PGI who was responsible though perhaps because of poor choice of wording using "coding" instead of "naming" in my original post some of you may have assumed that was my intent (since its popular to blame PGI for everything). I did have a neighbor in the late 1970s who wrote an adventure that made it into official canon print for the Traveller RPG in one of those little adventure/module books they used to publsh for the game.

Edited by Dee Eight, 16 December 2019 - 04:01 AM.

[Prototelis]

^ok boomer

[Vellron2005]

Dee Eight, on 15 December 2019 - 07:18 PM, said:

were clearly taken from Canadian maps... or whoever did the coding for the map was from this area.

down in Marik territory, bottom of the map... we have Kanata with Deschenes next to it. Coincidently... Kanata is a suburb of Ottawa, and right next to it in the Ottawa river is Lac Deschenes. Across the river from Kanata is Aylmer. Manotick is to the south of Ottawa. Hazeldean is the name of a road that cuts across Kanata.

Along the Marik and Lyran borders are a bunch of names taken from movies. Nestor is a character from Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars, Arcadia is from Space Pirate Harlock, Amity is the island community in Jaws.

Since I know that during the battle of Tukayyid, the two contested cities' names were "Brzo" and "Skupo", which are Croatian words for "fast" and "expensive" (literal translations), and those towns end up being won over fast and expensive, yeah..

Battletech names are strange and simple.. just roll with it..

[Horseman]

Dee Eight, on 15 December 2019 - 07:18 PM, said:

Arcadia is from Space Pirate Harlock,

Not necessarily

Quote

Amity is the island community in Jaws.

... and some fifteen different towns and cities in the USA

[Karl Streiger]

love this the most,
or this:



See McAffe

Edited by Karl Streiger, 16 December 2019 - 06:03 AM.

[Ssamout]

Quite normal when creating a large world and you need a ton of names to just go with stuff from your neighbourhood and popular culture. I know I've done it a lot with rpg's and the hundreds if not thousands of names one has to make up. Trying to be unique all the time starts to be a chore after a while.

[Mark Nicholson]

yes, all of these planet names have been around for a long LONG time, and yes, some are more interesting than others.

[Nesutizale]

I would love to have a search filter to find some of the names that I remember from the novels or other sources. You seam to have done a pretty good job with the map and finding all the places and names.

[Karl Streiger]

Nesutizale, on 16 December 2019 - 03:03 PM, said:

I would love to have a search filter to find some of the names that I remember from the novels or other sources. You seam to have done a pretty good job with the map and finding all the places and names.

There was a project - IS Atlas or similar including jump distance, but I can not remember were to find it, otherwise:

alternative: https://www.sarna.ne...ategory:Planets

[Burning2nd]

Oh shiteeeeetttt! "clinton".... i wouldn't go there.. you'll end up epstein'd

[Grimlock Magnus]

As someone who has virtually all the lore books at home (including a huge inner sphere map) and who personally put in most of the hundreds of planetary systems for the old Mechwarriorleagues (meaning names and coordinates), I can confirm this is old-school battletech lore and not something PGI made up (as if that really needs confirmation).

It's actually quite rewarding for me in a weird way that I can 'visit' every planet in the Inner Sphere, after having to put them in manually. I also feel sorry for whoever person it was that had to put this map together (been there done that).

[jss78]

Yup the names are old.

And most notably, for much of the IS there's a strong sense that someone at the FASA office just opened an atlas and started taking down names. There tend to be nearby systems with names for relatively nearby Earth localities. Sometimes surprisingly small towns.

[Dee Eight]

Mark Nicholson, on 16 December 2019 - 09:13 AM, said:

yes, all of these planet names have been around for a long LONG time, and yes, some are more interesting than others.

By the way, why is Hesperus...the most famous mech factory system in all of battletech canon...NOT designated as an Industrial hub ?!? Are the planets that get that feature determined randomly every time you start a campaign or is it fixed across every game ?

[Bowelhacker]

slide, on 15 December 2019 - 08:20 PM, said:

There are a lot of names and areas in the IS map that reflect other franchises and place, I think it was an omage to the sci fi genre in general. If you look in Steiner space you will find Vulcan and also a planet called Botany Bay, both clearly Star Trek references.

If you look at a suburb called Elizabeth East in Adelaide South Australia you will find a whole bunch of streets named after Admirals, Captains and Ships that were involved in the battle of Midway (US ships). We have Halsey Rd, Kinkaid Rd, Northhampton Cresent (heavy Cruiser), Enterprise, Hornet and Saratoga Rds. Yorktown Road is a fairly major road in the area. To cap it off we have a Midway road too. Just to name a few of the top of my head.

I think it's pretty cool and common for people to name stuff after what they are familiar with. It would be interesting if there were other areas of towns and cities on the IS map.

There's a place in Queensland that has streets named after characters in Lord of the Rings...