605 replies to this topic

[Alexander Steel]

If he also had a timberwolf using an ER PPC would have destroyed your mech's head without needing to roll.

9 armor + 3 internals vs a 15 point damage weapon. It's why Gauss Rifles, Clan ER PPCs, and AC20's are so scary on the tabletop they all have the 1 in 36 chance of insta-gibbing whatever mech they hit with the weapon.

[Furniture]

Nobody really says they like the Clans because "oh they have the best tech and the best armies blah blah blah." You know what it really comes down to? Aesthetics. People love the look of a lot of the Clan designs, which tend to have a completely different appearance to IS designs. That's really the most fundamental reason people are initially attracted to the Clans. They warm to the lore of them afterwards, but the initial draw is the appearance of their machines, especially the 3050 "Sweet 16" iconic Omnimechs and the appearance of the Elemental Battle Armor infantry.

As for fluff, that's a big reason why a lot of people don't like the Clans. The Clans use cloning and genetic engineering to produce their frontline soldiers - subjects which are taboo to many more conservative fans IRL. Their trueborn warriors are trained and raised from birth to be soldiers and fight in the role selected for them by their genetics (mechwarrior, aerospace pilot, elemental infantry, tank crewman, etc) and their success or failure in becoming a warrior is based on brutal and sometimes fatal meritocracy - another political reason some would hate them. Their society revolves around warfare - the soldiers are the focus and all other professions, be it technician, scientist, or even a cook exist to directly or indirectly support the war effort. A scientist might have a hobby as an artist or a musician, and so could a warrior in Clan society, but their main purpose is war and the support of it - one designs machines/technology/infrastructure while the other trains and fights for the Clan.

This kind of society is, quite frankly, not relatable to many fans, whose perspective is from our IRL society. So they dislike the Clans as a faction. On the other hand, the IS factions are all loosely based on IRL countries/cultures/people. Davion and Steiner are future Space America and Europe, Kurita is space feudal Japan, House Liao is future Space Soviet Russia and China, etc. Their people talk the same way as we do, do the same jobs as we do, even have the same religions that we do. So for fans that are uncomfortable with the science fiction, alien unfamiliarity of Clan culture, the IS lore gives them a warm, friendly, relatable faction to identify with for many potential reasons.

[Alexander Steel]

Furniture, on 14 February 2015 - 10:13 AM, said:

Nobody really says they like the Clans because "oh they have the best tech and the best armies blah blah blah."

Nobody really says they buy Playboy because they like looking at naked women with big hooties either.

Edited by Alexander Steel, 14 February 2015 - 10:39 AM.

[kka]

The arrival of the clan abruptly unbalanced the game by bringing in way better mechs than the IS. PGI has tried to balance this by quirks. There has been some success, but much is to be done.

Clan mechs are quite balanced among other clan mechs. There is a great variety of good builds and chassis. However, IS is unbalanced among IS, because the quirks (caused by the clan) are not balanced.

The clan disturbed the balance of the game substantially. It will take a long time to fix this. This is why I dislike clan.

[Beik Ross Norst]

for me it goes back to the late '80's when they were first introduced into the board game, it unbalanced everything until lostech. And I liked the old almost dark age feel of the game before clans, you wouldn't risk losing that mech if it was the only one you had and it kept you out of the trenches. Clans turned the board game into death match (eh like MWO) where mechs were more like jet fighters than armour handed down from father to son. So personally I just have a dislike of everything clan / lostech.

[KursedVixen]

it seems to me that it comes mainly from the reasons that have been stated ,though I actually enjoy the clans and hate the inner spher aside from a select few items.

But i think the main reason is

1. clans were introduced into the actual game later and ruined the purist game as stated before

2.clans invaded, and despite the fact that they are essnetially the star league reborn not many people seem to see what they came from and just see them as invaders.

I honestly have no idea why people hate the clans it's like hating the star league for existing since that's kinda what they are.

I'd just would like to note that people seem to not understand the diffrence between the indiviual clans like people treat all people of a certain trait the same.... But really people should look into the lore and understand the Crusader and Warden politics and the later Agressor and bastion politics.....

Also i feel people completely ignore the major contributions some clans have made to the inner sphere, without the invasion many inner sphere technologies would likely not exist. Also Comstar was perfectly fine with Clans invading untill a certain Clan Wolf Khan told them "hey we want Terra."

Edited by KursedVixen, 19 August 2022 - 07:19 PM.