27 replies to this topic

[Morquedeas]

First and foremost, Im interested in educating myself in clan speak, yet I have been unable to find any sort of comprehensive list of clan words with meanings. If anyone knows enough of the clan words or can provide me with a source from which I can learn all the clan words I would be very appreciative.


Secondly, Im wondering, simply put, whats with the "clan hate" some people exhibit here on the forums? I haven't seen anything recently but I have noticed that from time to time there are posts made that harbor obivous anit-clan sentiments. My debut in the battletech universe was with MW2 so I've always enjoyed the clans presence. Is there something about their culture or their arrival that caused this resent?


Thanks in advance for your answers I am very much looking forward to them.

Morquedeas

[Garuss Acine]

as for the langauge question, this should cover most of it : http://www.sarna.net.../Clans#Language

As for all the hate, there are many reasons, most saying their tech breaks the game, and etc. while I disagree with it as there are farmore broken elements to the game *cough* WOB tech *cough* as well as elements that break, or trash the setting *hint* the whole Dark Age*nudge*. tough there are plenty of people who enjoy these, and while I dn't it doesn't make them any less part of the setting.

[Jaroth Corbett]

I have never hid the fact that I give less than two flying freebirths about Sarna. Want to learn about Clan language? In the absence of Patrick's Battletech Archive (those of you in the BT universe for some time now would remember) you can go here:

http://ppc.warhawken...s/glossary.html

Regarding the hate, some people do not like us on a "moral" level because of how we operate, some because we have better training & tech, some because well hey haters gonna hate.

Edited by Jaroth Winson, 25 January 2012 - 04:36 AM.

[Strum Wealh]

Morquedeas, on 24 January 2012 - 09:45 PM, said:

First and foremost, Im interested in educating myself in clan speak, yet I have been unable to find any sort of comprehensive list of clan words with meanings. If anyone knows enough of the clan words or can provide me with a source from which I can learn all the clan words I would be very appreciative.

Secondly, I'm wondering, simply put, whats with the "clan hate" some people exhibit here on the forums? I haven't seen anything recently but I have noticed that from time to time there are posts made that harbor obivous anit-clan sentiments. My debut in the battletech universe was with MW2 so I've always enjoyed the clans presence. Is there something about their culture or their arrival that caused this resent?

Thanks in advance for your answers I am very much looking forward to them.

Morquedeas

Others have posted good suggestions and resources, so I'll add another:

The Legend of the Jade Phoenix Trilogy (composed of Way of the Clans, Bloodname, and Falcon Guard) by Robert Thurston.

The 3-in-1 Jade Phoenix book includes a glossary/index describing Clan (note the capital "C") military unit designations and structure, Clan vocabulary, and 'Mech specifications.
The rest is the story of the life, from the beginning of training as a child until death, of Mechwarrior Aidan (eventually Aidan Pryde) of Clan Jade Falcon.

P.S.: IIRC, Clanners generally frown at the use of contractions, such as "I'm" and "haven't"...

[CoffiNail]

Jaroth Winson, on 25 January 2012 - 04:12 AM, said:

In the absence of Patrick's Battletech Archive (those of you in the BT universe for some time now would remember) you can go here:

You need to use google more It is a archive of his archive
http://web.archive.o...ultraforce.org/

[Jaroth Corbett]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Coffinail if you were a female I would fly to the US & kiss you!!!!!!!


*HAPPY DANCE*

This brings back great memories! Playing MW3 as my first online game on GameSpy then MSN Zone back when I had 56k. This was the website I came to for all things Battletech/Mechwarrior related.

I have the day off tomorrow. I will be reinstalling MW:LL ovkhan!

*HAPPY DANCE*

Edited by Jaroth Winson, 25 January 2012 - 06:44 AM.

[CoffiNail]

Patrick's always one of my fav BT sites, I think it was one of the first I found as well.

[Garuss Acine]

Jaroth Winson, on 25 January 2012 - 04:12 AM, said:

I have never hid the fact that I give less than two flying freebirths about Sarna. Want to learn about Clan language? In the absence of Patrick's Battletech Archive (those of you in the BT universe for some time now would remember) you can go here:

http://ppc.warhawken...s/glossary.html

Regarding the hate, some people do not like us on a "moral" level because of how we operate, some because we have better training & tech, some because well hey haters gonna hate.

well that is just up to personal taste I guess, I find sarna to be robust, and all the information it holds is far from useless. I had found Warhawk PPC before Sarna(a Looong while) and while it is a good site for older intel on the Clans, it does not truely get into the meat of 3060+. another site that liked was the Chaos March, but from the last time I checked them,that site was dying off and i really lacked on the more filler stuff, centering more on the mechs, the more conventional warmachines and the time year they came off the production line.

[CoffiNail]

Sarna is good for things aside from mechs, on mechs it gives you just a in a nutshell, so you still need to acquire the TROs

[Aaron DeChavilier]

let me see if I can articulate this.

Most of the clan hate does in fact come from their game breaking tech. Now 15 yrs later, and many new pieces of the universe written, the clans don't stand out as that broken anymore. However at the time of their release, they were broken, and more importantly for the time period of their utmost importance - the clan invasion - they are indeed overpowered. One can argue Dark Age, and WoB but any old schooler of CBT knows these two arguments ring hollow, to them (and myself) the opinion that Dark Age/ WoB is bad is unanimous and for obvious reason.

To me the clan 'hate' has always stemmed from dissapointment, that the clans can have some really cool backstory, designs, and characters but then turn around and be marred by poorly play-tested rulesets and shoddily written RP elements that try to 'patch' the poor rulesets. Zell* is stated by definition in the Total Warfare book to be ancillary (Read:optional) to any game of btech. I won't bore with details, and the opinions are vast, varied, and passionate but I felt necessary to try explain this rationale (read: 'hate') from one who would fall into that simplistic idea.

@coffin: ty for Patrick's site, I missed that awesome executioner picture - takes me back to high school and poring study hall into reading everything there

as for sarna, I've enjoyed it thoroughly and find its supply of out-of-universe info to be inexhaustible, stuff like which mechs are in what TROs, little known variants of mechs, people profiles, lines of succession etc.

*zellbriggen: clan code of 'honor' aka tying one hand behind back for no other reason than to try and justify weapons like Clan Large Pulse Laser, and no minimum range on LRMS

Edited by Aaron DeChavilier, 25 January 2012 - 09:51 AM.

[Jaroth Corbett]

Look what I found using your web archive magic CoffiNail, not sure if you were familiar with this site but I discovered it a bit after PBA & it was my main BT site after PBA went down.

http://web.archive.o...ain.php?lang=de

N.B. Click the little American flag to change the language from German to English.

Edited by Jaroth Winson, 26 January 2012 - 03:58 AM.

[CoffiNail]

OH I was a avid MW fan back in the day, Yep I knew that one as well. I always loved that sites style. Wonder what other gems that internet archive site has

Anyone remember a website around 2004ish that had a HUGE gallery of mostly user made Mechs in 3d art, but there were hundreds of images, also had a lot of the sourcebook artwork as well. Sadly the site is no more, but I used it for many a art project.

[Spunkmeyer]

CoffiNail, on 26 January 2012 - 06:08 AM, said:

Anyone remember a website around 2004ish that had a HUGE gallery of mostly user made Mechs in 3d art, but there were hundreds of images, also had a lot of the sourcebook artwork as well. Sadly the site is no more, but I used it for many a art project.

I think I may remember that site... did it have a bunch of animated .gifs on it?

[SovietKoshka]

HA REASONS TO HATE THE CLAN................................................. HOW ABOUT BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO TAKE OVER THE INNERSPHERE

[CoffiNail]

SovietKoshka, on 28 January 2012 - 07:53 PM, said:

HA REASONS TO HATE THE CLAN................................................. HOW ABOUT BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO TAKE OVER THE INNERSPHERE

By your logic... The Inner Sphere has been trying to take itself over for 300 years

[Zimm Kotare]

Personally, I always struggle to understand why people like the Inner Sphere so much, the whole background of the clans is much more intruiging to me. Plus, as I always saw it, the IS was just a squabbling mess, though I have a lot of time for Comstar.

[Alaric Wolf Kerensky]

I have to agree. The Inner Sphere is largely a collection of whining bureaucratic stravag who achieve nothing more than destruction, and do not get anywhere as a result. The Houses are completely incapable of overtaking each other even given almost 300 years to do so. Unlike the Clans, who strive to limit the waste of combat and still manage to conquer nearly everything in their path, only limited from the rest because of their adherence to Zellbrigen. Add in the fact that Clan society and history is far more interesting to me, and the Inner Sphere becomes something I only view as a large sandbox for the Clans to claim as their own

Edited by Alaric Wolf Kerensky, 29 January 2012 - 11:42 AM.

[Xavier Truscott]

I think that the IS and the clans both had good stories and characters in the books, it just happens that the clans had the technological advantages. People in general are drawn to the shiny weapons and accept the fact that the clans also have very limited free will in their society. People in the IS were mostly free to choose their path in life, in a clan, you are born either from a vat or from natural birth each with it's own disadvantages. If you didn't cut it when born from a test tube, you either died during training or were put in a "lower" caste where there is no real way to improve your position. If you were freeborn, your best aspiration would be to end up as fodder in a battle or a life of garrison duty on backwater planets. They promote elitism, which also appeals to people who play video or really any games with a desire to be the best of the best, as the stories told are often of how great the character is. The people in the stories are generally exceptions, not the normal ones, and because of the challenges set by plotlines and the desired outcome of the story, they become "heroes". I mean, honestly, how interesting would the clans be if they only stories written were of politicians and technicians. We read the books to dream of warriors, and overcoming adversity, and the clan novels provided that in spades. The IS novels, on the other hand, generally had alot more intrigue and while many of the main characters were mech pilots, they usually had a plethora of other interesting characters to support them. Both sides have appeal, but i find that in general, people are drawn to the clans for the technological advantage much more then for the storied history. Kerensky led his exodus out into the unknown to die there, and deny the warring factions of the IS the equipment and warriors of the SLDF. His son had the dream of returning to the IS, or perhaps it was warped by time. He never intended to return to conquer or guard the IS until the warring houses had stopped their fighting.

"To all citizens of the Inner Sphere do I, Aleksandr Kerensky, send greetings.
Know that I have taken the remnant of the Star League Defense Force which has remained true to its purpose beyond the boundaries of the Inner Sphere, beyond the Periphery. I have done this, neither out of disappointment with those whom we leave behind, nor out of spite or disdain, as some will say. No, we have left the Inner Sphere because we love it too much to see it destroyed. In the wake of the Usurper's coup, and the long, bitter fighting that came with it, I fear that my forces would do incalculable, possibly irreparable, harm to our society. We are sworn to ward the Star League and its subjects, not destroy it.
Thus, we have left the only homes we have ever known to place the destructive capability of this armada beyond the reach of those who would use it, not for defense, but for conquest. Perhaps, with the might of our 'Mechs and ships out of reach, the leaders who now grapple with one another will relinquish their dreams of subjugating their neighbors and learn to live in peace with them.
Perhaps, one day, should mankind step back from the brink of the abyss, we, our children, or our children's children will return, to once more serve and protect and guide the Star League in mankind's quest for the stars.
Farewell."

[Zimm Kotare]

Xavier, that's actually a really interesting take. I would imagine in many cases its spot on too.

Personally I would normally find myself aggresively against caste systems, & granted, my preference is for Clan Mechs (unless I can have a Bushwacker, love those things), but something about what the Inner Sphere becomes after the collapse of the Star League is to me... well, I guess I'd have been happily off to the periphery! Though I'm not a big fan of what the clans became, your quote kind of encapsulates all that far more eloquently!

It's kind of a convoluted relationship too, I remember the clans fondly because they were such an excellent quality of enemy, they're not some random alien race of greater power or so on, but something that has instant depth by their original purpose alone.

In some respects, actually being a part of a clan would rob you of the chance to experience what makes them such an awesome enemy.

[MikeIshVard]

THE CLANS ARE DEAD GO BIG OR GO HOME TO YOUR MOMMY CLAN BABY'S