805 replies to this topic

[KursedVixen]

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 29 June 2025 - 06:52 PM, said:

A Tiefling Warlock used an Animate Dead scroll on it

I've heard one dude who likes to ham it up a bit for Steiner

That's it

And he gets hammy enough with it that it's funny

Really? Never knew IS players were like that.

Funny since I dislike steiner the most of all the Great houses due to a certain lady in lore...

Edited by KursedVixen, 29 June 2025 - 08:00 PM.

[Centauri78]

KursedVixen, on 29 June 2025 - 07:58 PM, said:

Really? Never knew IS players were like that.

Funny since I dislike steiner the most of all the Great houses due to a certain lady in lore...

I prefer Inner Sphere over Clans because the Inner Sphere were able to set aside their difference (mostly) long enough to defeat the Clans despite having inferior technology. Also, the Clans as a society are inherently corrupted because of Nicholas Kerensky's warped vision for his utopian (dystopian really) society of warrior elites.
And as I've gotten older, I have become much more of a fan of the Periphery nations who above all just wanted to be left alone, and wanted nothing to do with the Star League. It's not a coincidence that the beginning of the end of the Star League was the Reunification War.

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

KursedVixen, on 29 June 2025 - 07:58 PM, said:

Really? Never knew IS players were like that.

Funny since I dislike steiner the most of all the Great houses due to a certain lady in lore...

oh the one that became a Clanner you mean, that one

For Clan Wolf

That Steiner lady

Edited by a 5 year old with an Uzi, 29 June 2025 - 10:32 PM.

[Void Angel]

EVERYONE hates Katherine - she's one of the most hateable people in fiction, I think. And Steiner is one of the least-likeable Houses, thematically. Marik is Space Democracy Gone Wrong, Davion is Tactical Excellence, Kurita is Space Samurai, and Liao is Machiavellian Space China. Steiner's thing? They compensate for their general officers' incompetence with massive industrial power. The only less-likeable House is Liao, since their thing for much of the game's history is playing Stabbity McBackerson pretty much as a constant theme.

For the Clans... well, I used to like them well enough. I mean, they're the aggressors, and they're screwing up what would probably have been the end of the Succession Wars - with FedCom's dominance and the recovery of the Helm memory core, the Federated Commonwealth could overwhelm both its military opponents and ComStar's clandestine campaign to stop technological recovery. But they seemed cool, if a little constrained.

Then I took some political science in college.

The Clans are, literally, fascist space Mongols. All the components are there: authoritarian rule; violence as the means of choice to solve all problems; an entire cultural system geared for warfare; a harkening back to a (largely mythical) better time - and an enemy to fight and blame for the current state of things. They've even got racism, in a fictional universe where racism seems to have largely ceased to exist (sometimes replaced by political bigotry, but still.)

The worst thing that could have happened to mankind during the Clan invasion might well have been a quick, decisive win for the Clans. If they had somehow forced the Inner Sphere to capitulate and imposed Clan rule, the external enemy they relied on to justify the primacy of the Warrior Caste would be gone - but the Warrior Caste would still pursue warfare, because winning prestige in combat is the only reward their society allows. They'd start fighting amongst themselves, and with the mass uprisings that would start to happen once the common citizens of the Inner Sphere found out that the Clans were going to steal all their babies and raise them as child soldiers. Things would... fray: Zellbrigen, already weakened by combat with the Inner Sphere, would collapse; the toumans of the various Clans would be stretched to breaking with internecine conflict and popular resistance movements - and then the dominoes start to fall. The Clans would have to integrate Inner Sphere forces into their militaries, and the addition of forces not indoctrinated into Zellbrigen would further weaken the Clans' aversion to damaging infrastructure; the intersection of Clan frustration and widespread insurgencies would inevitably produce more Turtle Bays - and the hardline Clanners, increasingly desperate to enforce Clan culture, would eventually look around at the (relatively) abundant resources of the Inner Sphere and say, "you know what? We really can destroy this infrastructure, since that's the only way to take the planet for our Clan - after all, we can rebuild it later, with the superior knowledge of the Clan!"

What follows is a repetition of history; a new version of the early Succession Wars, fought with technology centuries more advanced and far more destructive, and by people with little regard for the Ares Accords - or preserving Hyperpulse generators. The results would be catastrophic; it's unlikely that mankind would not survive - the vast breadth of its diaspora almost guarantees some survivors. But the collapse of interstellar economies would be devastating; and if we lose FTL altogether, unknown trillions would perish. Technology would be battered back even further than before, and climbing back might take so long that the Star League - or the Clans - are remembered only as embellished, irrelevant legends.

[Centauri78]

Void Angel, on 29 June 2025 - 11:04 PM, said:

EVERYONE hates Katherine - she's one of the most hateable people in fiction, I think. And Steiner is one of the least-likeable Houses, thematically. Marik is Space Democracy Gone Wrong, Davion is Tactical Excellence, Kurita is Space Samurai, and Liao is Machiavellian Space China. Steiner's thing? They compensate for their general officers' incompetence with massive industrial power. The only less-likeable House is Liao, since their thing for much of the game's history is playing Stabbity McBackerson pretty much as a constant theme.

Out of all the despicable things Katherine did, assassinating her mother and pinning the blame on her brother has to take the cake. When that storyline came out, it was shocking, because Steiner was considered to be one of the "good guys" as compared to the rest of the Great Houses.
But that's what is so great about BattleTech: there are no good guys. There are just people who are trying to survive and make life better for themselves. And if assassinations or war crimes have to occur so they can have better lives, then so be it.

[KursedVixen]

Centauri78, on 30 June 2025 - 10:04 AM, said:

Out of all the despicable things Katherine did, assassinating her mother and pinning the blame on her brother has to take the cake. When that storyline came out, it was shocking, because Steiner was considered to be one of the "good guys" as compared to the rest of the Great Houses.
But that's what is so great about BattleTech: there are no good guys. There are just people who are trying to survive and make life better for themselves. And if assassinations or war crimes have to occur so they can have better lives, then so be it.

I hate to admit it that her so called trueborn son did a good thing by getting rit of her, and honestly i'm more of an exil-wolf than anything else if anything I'm Warden, ive been thinking about switching my favorite clan to Ghost Bear now that wolf is crusader, especially since unlike wolf who died and was reborn as crusader Ghost bear pratically merged with house Rasaulhauge.

Edited by KursedVixen, 30 June 2025 - 11:21 AM.

[Lobster in Leggins]

Stormwolf, on 03 February 2013 - 03:52 AM, said:

TS isn't going to help since I need to buy a new mic. My cheap bargain bin mic surprisingly died on me.

this never gets old even in 2025
got NEW mic ever since?

[Centauri78]

KursedVixen, on 30 June 2025 - 11:20 AM, said:

I hate to admit it that her so called trueborn son did a good thing by getting rit of her, and honestly i'm more of an exil-wolf than anything else if anything I'm Warden, ive been thinking about switching my favorite clan to Ghost Bear now that wolf is crusader, especially since unlike wolf who died and was reborn as crusader Ghost bear pratically merged with house Rasaulhauge.

I've been learning a lot of lore from the Dark Age and ilClan eras from watching BigRed40Tech videos on YouTube. I'm not a huge fan of what has happened to the various factions since the Clan Invasion, but from what I have learned, out of all the remaining Clans, the Ghost Bears are the ones who seem to have adapted the best to living in the Inner Sphere. I'm a huge Inner Sphere fan, and I normally run IS forces in BattleTech tabletop and Alpha Strike, but If I were to make a Clan force for BattleTech tabletop, it would probably be the Ghost Bears.
I was a huge fan of the Wolves during the Clan Invasion, primarily because of Ulric actually being level headed and listening to his advisors, as well as not underestimating Focht and ComStar. Phelan Kell and Natasha Kerensky were also great characters, but like most BattleTech protagonists, can barely move because of all the plot armor they are wearing. But since Crazy Alaric and his Wolf Empire have become the ilClan, I'm not as interested in the story going forward.
I'm very much a fan of the Succession Wars era and OG BattleTech from the 80s. The Warrior Trilogy and Blood of Kerensky Trilogy have cemented the 3020s to the early 3050s as my preferred era to play BattleTech in and enjoy lore and fiction from.

[KursedVixen]

Centauri78, on 02 July 2025 - 09:44 AM, said:

I've been learning a lot of lore from the Dark Age and ilClan eras from watching BigRed40Tech videos on YouTube. I'm not a huge fan of what has happened to the various factions since the Clan Invasion, but from what I have learned, out of all the remaining Clans, the Ghost Bears are the ones who seem to have adapted the best to living in the Inner Sphere. I'm a huge Inner Sphere fan, and I normally run IS forces in BattleTech tabletop and Alpha Strike, but If I were to make a Clan force for BattleTech tabletop, it would probably be the Ghost Bears.
I was a huge fan of the Wolves during the Clan Invasion, primarily because of Ulric actually being level headed and listening to his advisors, as well as not underestimating Focht and ComStar. Phelan Kell and Natasha Kerensky were also great characters, but like most BattleTech protagonists, can barely move because of all the plot armor they are wearing. But since Crazy Alaric and his Wolf Empire have become the ilClan, I'm not as interested in the story going forward.
I'm very much a fan of the Succession Wars era and OG BattleTech from the 80s. The Warrior Trilogy and Blood of Kerensky Trilogy have cemented the 3020s to the early 3050s as my preferred era to play BattleTech in and enjoy lore and fiction from.

Clan Wolf-In-exile seemed to adapt fairly well to their new home.... Sea fox seems to have no problem dealing with the IS.

[Centauri78]

KursedVixen, on 02 July 2025 - 09:59 AM, said:

Clan Wolf-In-exile seemed to adapt fairly well to their new home.... Sea fox seems to have no problem dealing with the IS.

I don't know much about Wolf-In-Exile, but Sea Fox is on good terms with the Inner Sphere because they are willing to sell something the Inner Sphere desperately desires: Clan Mechs and technology. The last theing the Inner Sphere wants to do is piss off the Sea Foxes.

[KursedVixen]

Centauri78, on 02 July 2025 - 11:38 PM, said:

I don't know much about Wolf-In-Exile, but Sea Fox is on good terms with the Inner Sphere because they are willing to sell something the Inner Sphere desperately desires: Clan Mechs and technology. The last theing the Inner Sphere wants to do is piss off the Sea Foxes.

Wolf-in-exile settled down in Arc-Royal since their khan was the nephew of the Duke Morgan Kell (Phelen kell is the Khan)

[Mad Cow Kastor]

Clans seem a bit, good in theory, bad in execution.
"Science, Battle and Honor!" is a novel concept that could have worked really well. But too many of the specifics make you think "Well that's just stupidity, who the hell would do that?"

Same with their initial implementation under faulty BV. Logically yeah, there was no reason they couldn't be balanced well, but even BV 2 has faults that gives significant advatage to expensive mechs that are both fast and strong.

If you play the current version tabletop and adhere to current turn order rules, you'll find Clan and IS are resonably well balanced without quirks. The current turn order rules benfits the player with more mechs. While the BV system benefits the player with less more valuable mechs (Clans).

Call me a heretic if you will, but I feel the setting as a whole has got a bit long in the tooth. I'd love for someone to take another crack at the whole clan storyline. Keeping a lot of the broaders themes but making them more resonable and relatable as a faction.

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

the point of battletech is that nearly every major faction is a bunch of a$$holes because humans + power = a$$holes

The Clans are turbo-a$$holes at worst, patronizing weirdos at best

Jade Falcon are the ur-turbo-a$$holes, the prime case study in turbo-a$$holery
Smoke Jaguar are basically nuts and prone to warcrimes
Ghost Bear are designated not-so-bads except they basically cheat at football
Steel Viper are f**king stupid
Diamond Shark are an unholy fusion of 4chan troll, savvy salesman and youtube influencer
Hell's Horses are trying to fit square pegs into round holes constantly
Fire Mandrill because the Clans need a Marik expy I guess
Ice Hellion are the kids that were obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog. No not that one
Goliath Scorpions get stoned and wander around hallucinating I guess and it makes them l33t sniperz
Nova Cats are very in touch with the mystical nature of all things, maaaan
Blood Spirit want you to leave them the f**k alone because you are wrong and dumb so just go away
Coyote does SCIENCE
Wolverine got killed off for being too genuinely awesome and Minnesotan
Widowmaker are scheming jerks and also dead
Snow Raven are playing with air and space-naval superiority in a setting where giant robots dominate everything for REASONS.
Mongoose were so annoying they got slapped out of existence
Wolf are pretty generic golden children of the setting whenever a Clan centric plotline is in play usually, thanks Nicky Kerensky you stupid wolfaboo

They're all pretty dysfunctional (except Wolverine though dead is dysfunctional) especially after Nicholas Kerensky turned them into weird totemic Space Barbarian Hordes with space magic, eugenics, a caste system with governance that basically amounts to a fascist permanent military junta, and they're furries but not the fun ones, the ones that take it way too serious oh jeez what the heck is that Khan wearing.

Edited by a 5 year old with an Uzi, 03 July 2025 - 11:33 PM.

[KursedVixen]

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 03 July 2025 - 11:31 PM, said:

the point of battletech is that nearly every major faction is a bunch of a$$holes because humans + power = a$$holes

The Clans are turbo-a$$holes at worst, patronizing weirdos at best

Jade Falcon are the ur-turbo-a$$holes, the prime case study in turbo-a$$holery
Smoke Jaguar are basically nuts and prone to warcrimes
Ghost Bear are designated not-so-bads except they basically cheat at football
Steel Viper are f**king stupid
Diamond Shark are an unholy fusion of 4chan troll, savvy salesman and youtube influencer
Hell's Horses are trying to fit square pegs into round holes constantly
Fire Mandrill because the Clans need a Marik expy I guess
Ice Hellion are the kids that were obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog. No not that one
Goliath Scorpions get stoned and wander around hallucinating I guess and it makes them l33t sniperz
Nova Cats are very in touch with the mystical nature of all things, maaaan
Blood Spirit want you to leave them the f**k alone because you are wrong and dumb so just go away
Coyote does SCIENCE
Wolverine got killed off for being too genuinely awesome and Minnesotan
Widowmaker are scheming jerks and also dead
Snow Raven are playing with air and space-naval superiority in a setting where giant robots dominate everything for REASONS.
Mongoose were so annoying they got slapped out of existence
Wolf are pretty generic golden children of the setting whenever a Clan centric plotline is in play usually, thanks Nicky Kerensky you stupid wolfaboo

They're all pretty dysfunctional (except Wolverine though dead is dysfunctional) especially after Nicholas Kerensky turned them into weird totemic Space Barbarian Hordes with space magic, eugenics, a caste system with governance that basically amounts to a fascist permanent military junta, and they're furries but not the fun ones, the ones that take it way too serious oh jeez what the heck is that Khan wearing.

How is ghost bear cheating at football? you know cheating is dishonorable?
I'm pretty sure sea fox are better than most Inner sphere merchants.... i tthink you have them confused with Star treks Ferengi.

Edited by KursedVixen, 04 July 2025 - 01:15 AM.

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

KursedVixen, on 04 July 2025 - 01:14 AM, said:

How is ghost bear cheating at football? you know cheating is dishonorable?
I'm pretty sure sea fox are better than most Inner sphere merchants.... i tthink you have them confused with Star treks Ferengi.

Putting Elementals on a football field against standard phenotype humans is bulls#!t and even they knew it
Diamond Sharks are not only door to door munitions salesmen, they basically operate the Clan version of social media and one of their first khans was a journalist

Oh, Cloud Cobra, I forgot they existed, most people do. Cloud Cobra is the Clan that found Jes- I mean, "the Way"
bloody hell there are more WHY ARE THERE MORE
Star Adder, who are Bizarro Steel Viper meaning they are super competent and smart
Burrock, literally criminals
Stone Lion, I think that's the Nova Cats or Hell's Horses but in the far future idk
We've obviously touched on Sea Fox already

Edited by a 5 year old with an Uzi, 04 July 2025 - 10:04 PM.

[KursedVixen]

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 04 July 2025 - 07:17 PM, said:

Putting Elementals on a football field against standard phenotype humans is bulls#!t and even they knew it

That was an agreed upon contest, with the Draconis Combine i think, it was totally the combines fault for thinking "These invaders will have no idea what football is."

To be fair the ghost bears at least held to to deal and didn't decide to use actual combat...


TheDraconis combine practically asked giants to play football with them with the prize being the world they played on. it's sorely the fault of the Draconis combine it happened, you can blame the incomptence of the Draconis combineas the cause, it was not the ghost bears, The Ghost bears had the decency to accept the challenge instead of totally voiding it like Barbaric warmongers...

If anything we should commend Ghost bear for allowing the contest in the first place, the world called for that contest not the Ghost bears.

there was absolutly zero cheating, the contest was called for by the defenders, they asked for it, at least they were no longer under the oppressive rule of the combine.

Edited by KursedVixen, 04 July 2025 - 10:32 PM.

[Khosumi]

because people are humans, and humans attach their emotions to the strangest of things.

I prefer clan tech because of the flexibility they offer.
I couldn't care any less about the lore. It's irrelevant to my gameplay. It's all fiction. Getting into fights with eachother over fake lore is certainly a gamer's way.

Edited by Khosumi, 05 July 2025 - 04:27 AM.

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

If you peel away the lore entirely the introduction of the Clans was part of a shift towards play that some TT players disliked. To be perfectly honest a single Warhawk-C in an advantageous position is completely and utterly bonkers. The proliferation of Lostech, Clantech, etc. could trivialize things that some players felt were important. In video game iterations it matters less until PvP and locked tech bases are on the table, requiring balance considerations.

[Will9761]

Khosumi, on 05 July 2025 - 04:26 AM, said:

because people are humans, and humans attach their emotions to the strangest of things.

I prefer clan tech because of the flexibility they offer.
I couldn't care any less about the lore. It's irrelevant to my gameplay. It's all fiction. Getting into fights with eachother over fake lore is certainly a gamer's way.

That's an oddly negative way of putting it. I wouldn't try to judge others because they like other factions as long as they are not taking it seriously and are having fun. However, you are not wrong on that.

There are rabid fans from both the IS and Clan side who do take their loyalties very seriously and to an extreme level. I have heard stories of people who would boot others out of their Teamspeak or Discord servers because they came from a rival faction. Or fanatics who whine and moan about how, "They don't want Clanner Crap because anything past 3025 is the devil!" or "The Inner Sphere has more things than the Clans, so the Clan's can't have nice things."

That's what I loved and miss about the old MWO, if you didn't care about the lore, then you had Quick Play to fool around with and have fun in. If you did love the RP elements, trashtalk, and lore, then you had Community Warfare. Unfortunately for me, Fail Play killed whatever enthusiasm I had for MWO. The only things that interest me now for this game are the content and events.

[Will9761]

If I had to give my own reasons for why people do like The Clans it would be for 3 reasons:
1. TableTop - In the the TableTop, the Clans have been known for their advance tech and strength. They could take less tonnage and crit slots then their IS counterparts and do way more damage with less heat. Now I get what the creators were going for; Clan Tech was made as an improvement to LosTech since they brought the Star League equipment with them, as on the other side of the coin, the Spheroids had destroyed so much technology, that they nearly nuked themselves back to the Stone Ages. It was only thanks to the Gray Death Legion that the Spheroids were able to restart the resurrection of LosTech. But for Clan Weapons they were ridiculously overpowered. For example an ER PPC Warhawk could do 60 Damage than an Awesome doing 30 damage, but with lesser heat. That strength would be translated to the computer games later on.

2. The "Evil Empire" Troupe - The Clans were created to be hated. Their lack of morals, their superiority complex, the "conquer the world" schtick. When you remove the trial trappings, they are no different than a stereotypical empire like the Galactic Empire, Brotherhood of Nod or The Enclave. Therefore it feels so cathartic to seeing a villain that you are rooting to fail against the hero fall in such a fitting manner. Going back to the Galactic Empire for example, seeing a group like the Rebel Alliance overcome a technological advanced enemy without outdated tech and smarts is like a "David vs Goliath" scenario. But instead of the Battle of Endor, we had the Battle of Tukayyid.

3. Rabid Fanbases - As where most people who like their factions know that this is a game and don't take it seriously, unfortunately their are some who do and they take that pride to the grave. Like I said above, their are people from both the IS and Clan Side who take their factionalism to an extreme level. For the rabid IS fanatics, they don't want, "Clanner Crap" and would whine about it in the forums or cry about clan related content. Instead of seeing it as a fun little challenge with RP, they would pick fights with anyone who disagrees with them or likes the clans. Some of them have the wild belief that 3025 was the best era and anything past that is the devil and should be ignored.

Edited by Will9761, 07 July 2025 - 12:32 AM.