5 replies to this topic

[Duke Falcon]

Okay, I am a huge BT-fan.
Really.
Since I were a child I like it, the mechs, clans and the whole package! And I do know BT is old, wrinkled and so on... It's halcyon days and such, you know...
But what I accepted as a child now less plausible. BT forgot to change and evolve with the world and it seems not even CGL wants to address certain inconsistencies. Sure, they try their best to revive the franchise and fix what Microsoft f**ked so badly.
Basics or how it is said. Back to the basics. Not right when dinosaurs walked on Earth, just, well...
For example BT-verse need to revamp the technologies it features. Back when it made technology were far from nowadays bad decisions, nevertheless I doubt 1-tons computers were plausible and viable even in the 70's. BattleTech need to seriously re-weigth certain items, re-think their roles, values otherwise the new generations would but laugh on it. Who would accept even a half-ton computer from the 3000's what could less than a smartphone today? Apart from that it's not the phone smart but the use *khmmm*, well, it were a hidden stab the creators dubbed those "smartphones"...
Anyway, technological synchronisation must happen soon. Even some changes in canon\lore would be unavoidable. Things CGL must care and work on. The overweigthed items is just one thing from the many issues. Some part of timeline is also a bit hodge-podge at best. Like Clans - forgive me Grand Father! - and their tech-gap compared to the IS. What do I mean?
Kerensky led his troops off from the Inner Hell and took technology meant pinacle of his era (+ sure some experimental techs). The IS nuked itself back to bronze age but the clans started their development from a level considered 2-300 years superior than spheroid tech. So, if they really had another 2-300 years to develop it mean (considering the sudden advance the Helm Memory Core meant) about 400 years of technological advantage to the Clans. Yeah, timeframe between a matchlock-musket and an A-10 Warthog. So either need to re-write Clan history or someone need to explain a whole lot about Comstar itself.
And these examples are those what could be fixed relatively easily or with minor retcon...
But if we consider the map of the Inner Sphere... Oh, man, mental meltdown, hunh? Jumpships can jump 30 lightyears? So, Rasalhague is 47 lightyears from Earth. What?! And some other stars on the map also fallen to wrong coordinates (some not even has planets at all, and it were not secret even back the 80's, sorry!)... So, mess just grows, and despite all the love toward BT-verse, it is harder and harder to neglect such "big black holes". I know, why I get old? Because I have nothing better to do?
Well, that's just my few thoughts. My hopes are not high that any meaningfull revisions may ever happen. But maybe we just need to built a Stargate, heh?

You know, BT started as a hammer but stopped at the maul-level while there is just so much more!

I really hope though that it would develop, revive, rejuvenated and revigorated! I want a BTverse for a few more decades (if I live that long)!

[Horseman]

Duke Falcon, on 14 September 2023 - 08:29 AM, said:

Some part of timeline is also a bit hodge-podge at best. Like Clans - forgive me Grand Father! - and their tech-gap compared to the IS. What do I mean? Kerensky led his troops off from the Inner Hell and took technology meant pinacle of his era (+ sure some experimental techs). The IS nuked itself back to bronze age but the clans started their development from a level considered 2-300 years superior than spheroid tech. So, if they really had another 2-300 years to develop it mean (considering the sudden advance the Helm Memory Core meant) about 400 years of technological advantage to the Clans. Yeah, timeframe between a matchlock-musket and an A-10 Warthog. So either need to re-write Clan history or someone need to explain a whole lot about Comstar itself/

An easy explanation is that the Clans did not invest as much resources into developing new tech as you assume or perhaps its development focused on optimizing other aspects than raw combat potential.
Note how extremely ritualized Clan combat practices are, for one...
Further, despite Comstar meddling IS still recovered certain Star League technologies so the tech gap may not be as large as you believe.

Edited by Horseman, 19 September 2023 - 12:12 AM.

[Joanna Conners]

BT is a future from the 1980s. That's what it is. That's the identity. Nothing needs to "evolve". What you're suggesting is a new franchise, not BattleTech.

It doesn't matter if planets exist in certain star systems in fiction vs real-life because one of them is fiction. In the BT universe they exist. Just like in Star Trek the planet Vulcan exists in 40 Eridani, but we've not found any conclusive evidence of that system having planets.

Just because technology has advanced at a certain pace on Earth in the last 400 years doesn't mean that every bloc of 4 centuries has the same level of technological advancement. Obviously. For how many thousands of years did we use melee weapons with gradual development?

BattleTech is a more down to earth sci-fi grimdark. Things are stagnant. There's very little change or development. That's the point. That's the setting.

BattleTech doesn't need to erase what it is. Neither does any other IP. I'm trying to imagine your thoughts about Fallout saying what if transistors weren't invented. Do you just say, "But they were so synchronization must happen!"? This isn't our timeline.

Now call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure in our timeline Rudy Guliani was never president, the Soviet Union never reformed, Russia certainly never joined NATO, we haven't had fusion reactors since 2018, Japan isn't being blockaded, etc. We're certainly not going to be on Mars by '27.

1994: A fistfight on the Salyut-8 space station, is the first recorded space conflict. Start of Space Defense Initiative (SDI), later renamed the Western Orbital Defense Network.
1997: Overthrow of the reformist Russian government, beginning of Second Cold War.
2000: Salvage Arm and Manipulator Arm are first developed on Terra.
2002: Jessica Cameron accepts the Nobel Prize. Pyotr Tikonov is born.
2003: Nicholas Tikonov is born.
2004: Oleg Tikonov comes to power as Premier of the second Soviet Union.
2005: Crippen Station put into low Earth orbit, The Second Cold War ends.
2007: Crippen Station is upgraded, becomes the central command for the Western Orbital Defense Network
2010: The nation of Australia states it will be neutral in all conflicts. A crew member of Crippen Station is fatally stabbed with a utility knife, the first recorded murder to occur off Terra.
2011: Tikonov Accords signed, Oleg Tikonov assassinated, Second Soviet Civil War begins
2013: Battle of Moscow, Rudolph Giuliani is inaugurated as President of the United States of America
2014: Second Soviet Civil War ends, Western Alliance formed, Takayoshi Fuchida leaves Kyoto University, Kearny and Fuchida begin working together on a prototype fusion reactor.
2015: Western Alliance World Parliament formed
2016: Alliance Space Command is formed, Alliance Space Command moves from Crippen Station to its new lunar base
2017: First interplanetary transport, AS Altair, is launched, AS Procyon is sent to Mars.
2018: Takayoshi Fuchida and Thomas Kearny begin publishing papers on hyperdimensional motion, AS Columbia launches, first prototype prototype fusion reactor
2019: Einstein's theory: The Cooked and the Raw is published by Kearny and Fuchida
2020: First full-scale fusion reactor completed
2021: First commercially available fusion power plant developed
2022: Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere formed
2023: Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere naval blockade of Japan

I'm not trying to be mean here so I do apologize if I'm coming across harshly. It's not intended. But what you're asking is to gut the franchise of what makes it the franchise and totally reboot it into something else. I'm sorry, but I've had enough of that with other franchises. I'm pretty sure I actually do speak for most BattleTech fans here when I say you can have our BattleTech when you pry it from our cold dead fingers.

[Duke Falcon]

@Horseman
Could be. But Clans are all about "better tech" for war to minimize their losses.

@Joanna
As I mentioned I also a BT fan. Could deal with it albeit my logical self try to scream against certain things.
But if I try to introduce someone "new&fresh" for BT they usually pinpoint how "silly" or "dumb" the awkward techs it features (not to mention when they pinpoint stellar realities and asks "how could people live on vacuum?"). If noone new may not come then BT would extinct with us. I not want to pry anything from "our" cold dead fingers just noted that BT needs some extra explanation or certain changes. I would dislike the opportunity that WH40k may survive BT in the future because I personally like BT much more.

[Joanna Conners]

Duke Falcon, on 07 October 2023 - 11:50 AM, said:

@Horseman
Could be. But Clans are all about "better tech" for war to minimize their losses.

@Joanna
As I mentioned I also a BT fan. Could deal with it albeit my logical self try to scream against certain things.
But if I try to introduce someone "new&fresh" for BT they usually pinpoint how "silly" or "dumb" the awkward techs it features (not to mention when they pinpoint stellar realities and asks "how could people live on vacuum?"). If noone new may not come then BT would extinct with us. I not want to pry anything from "our" cold dead fingers just noted that BT needs some extra explanation or certain changes. I would dislike the opportunity that WH40k may survive BT in the future because I personally like BT much more.

I get that, but 40k survived because it's theme hasn't changed either. No one wants 40k to be more technologically realistic or scaled to real-life. Neither should they with BT. If someone doesn't get that some IPs are set in a certain aesthetic and theme then it's just not for them. It's no loss to the community because we want people that do get it and want to share the same interests as us. Again it's just like not liking the retro-futuristic vibe of Fallout. BattleTech™ is also a retro-futuristic vibe. It didn't set out to be, true, but it is. Just like Star Wars vibes in the 1970s. I mean does that make sense? Maybe try explaining that to them? It's worked with some folks I've shared it with.

"Why do people pilot mechs in speedos?"

"It's hot."

"Awesome!"

It's sexy, it's fun, it's don't put too much thought into it. Lots of franchises like that. Why do Conan the Barbarian or John Carter of Mars go shirtless and have scantily clad women? It's hot out, okay.

It's the 80s. Everything was wild. Everyone was doing lines. Everything was bigger, badder, sexier than ever before. It doesn't need to make perfect sense in 2023 as long as it's still fun!

[Duke Falcon]

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"Why do people pilot mechs in speedos?"

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their local ComStar representatives!"

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It's sexy, it's fun, it's don't put too much thought into it. Lots of franchises like that. Why do Conan the Barbarian or John Carter of Mars go shirtless and have scantily clad women? It's hot out, okay.

Big, beefy girls go shortless... Oooh, waiiit! I totally could deal with that! And have scantily clad them..?
I think now we're talking!

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It's the 80s. Everything was wild. Everyone was doing lines. Everything was bigger, badder, sexier than ever before. It doesn't need to make perfect sense in 2023 as long as it's still fun!

And we boldly go where not even Stranger Things go before...

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I get that, but 40k survived because it's theme hasn't changed either.

Do you hear the faint voice from the Void: "Just as I planned!"
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