20 replies to this topic

[Alejandro Emmanuel Mirandus]

The Clans were once the feared group of the Inner Sphere.

What I want to know are your thoughts about the people, tech, battlemechs, tactics, and how might house Davion react to them.

Although we have seen them in action in the games, books, and the cartoon, but in this game they havent made an apperance yet.

What are your thoughts about the Clans?

[Kenyon Burguess]

the lore is quite specific about how the clans deal with anyone in their way. Davion fights with everything it has to avoid destruction.
for those that have questions: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Clans

[Hagetaka]

Davion doesn't do much of the dying, Steiner does. Which would be such an obvious plot point to lead to the FedCom Civil War (instead of HAHAHA I AM MEGALOMANIACAL KATHERINE) if it were any author better than Mike Stackpole.

[Diomedesbc]

I like the 4th Succession War, so much fun. When they brought the clans in I thought it was pretty retarded and always avoided that era. But I have no choice now.

[Raphael DuLoch]

One of the issues when it came to clan tech, (a specially for those of us who were playing the game from the beginning), people stopped wanting to play Inner Sphere units because in most situations Clan tech outstripped anything the Inner Sphere had so it unbalanced the game play. How it will affect on-line play here, that is dependent on the programmers.

[frankyes]

Well clan tech was always more expensive. In single player you'd always use it because it was lighter, more powerful than the IS counterpart.

But in this game I believe that it would cost you a hole in your pocket just to throw down on some say, Clan L X-Pulse lasers.

But IS always had the exotic weapons such as the Heavy Guass Rifle, Long Tom Cannon, or Artemis IV missiles.


Edit: Don't forget Thunderbolt.

Edited by Arthas Latstrong, 04 June 2012 - 10:02 AM.

[dukeofrugby]

I have to agree that clan tech is going to force a change in the way we play. I believe we will need to employ more of a covert assault just like in the books rather than a head on battle. If the want to keep it real then at first clan tech will be costly and strong but the prices will need to come down eventually to make sure it is everywhere.
In short at some point it will no longer be an issue.
Jade Falcon for life.

[rilianv]

Up until Operation Bulldog, there was no real effective way to fight the clans.
Guerrilla warfare seemed the best bet and even then, it usually ended with a costly clan victory.
until the inner sphere tech catches up, the only real method of winning would be a 3:1 ratio in the inner spheres favor.
i'd like to see how the handle the elemental battle armor of the clans

[Donovan Jenks]

The clan tech could be balanced with a forced comat system for clan pilots. The better they do the better the mech they can pilot, for the glory of the the clan!

The martial culture of the clans is what seperates them for Davion, Steiner, and Marik houses. Kurita shares similarities with the samurai code of Bushido and Cappellan society shares their communistic/caste society but in the clans money means very little. So naturally the capitalist libeal scoety of Davion and Steiner have little in common. So making the clan tech cost more money would not be motivating to a clanner. Their currency is victory and superior combat on the field of battle. The washouts of the warrior cast are relegated to serving the greater good of the clan in supports roles for the military and science.

the addition of your genetic code into the bloodline was one of the highest honors a clanner could achieve.

[Qin]

Maybe they would need to have some bidding system.

The Clan commander sees what he is up against and the less force he uses to defeat the IS opponent the more "points/honour" they gather, also defeating an opponent 1 on 1 gets you more points. Which enables you to buy/maintain mechs.

So for instance if the clan side all takes heavy/assaults and beats a mixed IS company they would practically get no points, while taking less mechs/lighter mechs and defeating the IS side you gain a greater amount of points.

No points then no repair no ammo etc. That way those clan groups that use mass instead of class will be ground down when damage accumulates and points to repair and rearm dwindle to nothing.


***

Sidenote:

Quote

Davion doesn't do much of the dying, Steiner does. Which would be such an obvious plot point to lead to the FedCom Civil War (instead of HAHAHA I AM MEGALOMANIACAL KATHERINE) if it were any author better than Mike Stackpole.

It may cause a split, but for civil war there would have need to be a big enough faction on the Davion side that would feel we let down the Steiner side down so much that they would rebel against the rest. Not going to happen. Then again we got Melissa on the throne and everybody likes her.

Also we would still have Melissa on the throne, and Victor not joining Comstar, probably no double for Jushua. No sarna march stuff so you would not get your planets back. Well you can see where it all is going.

Edited by Qin, 07 June 2012 - 11:20 PM.

[Josh Davion]

What are "Clans?" Is that like the Tribes of old Terra? Nomadic people who roam the peripheries, perhaps? I've never heard of a "Clan" before.

[rilianv]

The Clans are the offspring of a group of people who fled the Inner Sphere before the succession wars started.
during the year 3050 they return to the inner sphere to try and conquer it with their main goal being terra. the first clan to take terra becomes the leader of all clans.
they have superior tech and mechs that give them a huge lead over the inner sphere forces whose tech has fallen due to the destruction of certain industries thru out all the succession wars.

[OperationExodus]

Specifically, they are a warrior society that originated from members of the Star League Defense Force who fled the inner sphere under the guidance of a man named Alexandr Kerensky, who had predicted the succession wars that would tear apart the Star League. They went into exile with the plan to come back after the fighting had ended, conquer everybody, and reinstate the star league. Unfortunately, they had some infighting of their own, and their societies changed to be very different from those of the Star League they evolved from.

for more information:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Clans

it's a good read

[Faceless Priest]

I do think the cannon does well in that their starting feelings are denial & thinking they are aliens.

Edited by Faceless Priest, 08 June 2012 - 11:35 AM.

[Raphael DuLoch]

Arthas Latstrong, on 04 June 2012 - 10:00 AM, said:

Well clan tech was always more expensive. In single player you'd always use it because it was lighter, more powerful than the IS counterpart.

But in this game I believe that it would cost you a hole in your pocket just to throw down on some say, Clan L X-Pulse lasers.

But IS always had the exotic weapons such as the Heavy Guass Rifle, Long Tom Cannon, or Artemis IV missiles.


Edit: Don't forget Thunderbolt.

Higher cost can limit a great deal of the imbalance, where my concern lies is with the what I like to call the 'credit card cowboys'. They buy with cash what they couldn't earn in battle and then proceed to only battle those lower than them because they don't have actual battle experience and then make snide remarks about what you don't have. (Big Point is full of these type of players).

I think one way to solve that problem is to make clan tech, strictly battlefield salvage (and make it none tradeable to other players). It would at least keep everyone on equal footing to a degree as well as making sure whoever had clan tech got it in an honest,

[Codius Dakanius]

All of the weapons that are in that list minus the Heavy Gauss are artillery pieces. And the clans hate artillery, most mechs that carry Arrow IV's, namely the Naga, are considered a punishment detail. Artillery, minefields, traps and mech to mech Melee are all considered taboo methods of fighting. Any Intelligent IS commander will soften Clan formations with artillery and then overwhelm them with massed numbers... and upclose dirty fighting.

[Richtor]

I think part of the point is that the clans did cause an inbalance. And it is hard to make a game fallow a story thread like that. One big thing I noticed was how new players thought that standard tech was worthless after having clan tech, I had plenty of gmaes using my head and standard tech, or star leauge tech the ended in victory.

[Jad Ivask]

Felix Davion, on 08 June 2012 - 11:28 AM, said:

Specifically, they are a warrior society that originated from members of the Star League Defense Force who fled the inner sphere under the guidance of a man named Alexandr Kerensky, who had predicted the succession wars that would tear apart the Star League. They went into exile with the plan to come back after the fighting had ended, conquer everybody, and reinstate the star league. Unfortunately, they had some infighting of their own, and their societies changed to be very different from those of the Star League they evolved from.

for more information:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Clans

it's a good read

Better definition: They're "warrior elites" that are descended from an army of liars, deserters, traitors and theives that abandoned their posts, broke their oaths, and left with the majoruty of their gear to follow a charasmatic war crimminal. After leaving countless billions of people they had sworn to defend to die in wars they didn't start, they decided to found their own so-called society based entirely around brutality, domination and warfare. They have a skewed sense of honor, practice slavery and serlization on conqured populations, and consider themselves to be the saviors of mankind.

In short, they're little more than deranged sociopaths with a tech edge.

[Damocles]

You know there is an entire subforum for "The Clans"

[The Jade Phoenix]

Raphael DuLoch, on 03 June 2012 - 04:39 PM, said:

One of the issues when it came to clan tech, (a specially for those of us who were playing the game from the beginning), people stopped wanting to play Inner Sphere units because in most situations Clan tech outstripped anything the Inner Sphere had so it unbalanced the game play. How it will affect on-line play here, that is dependent on the programmers.

That is why later editions of the game used the build value instead of the 3 to 5 ton ration from the introduction of the clans. In the pre-invasion days you could get away with tonnage based forces (ie my 500 tons against your 500 tons) but Clan Tech could be so easily abused. Nothing like a 40 ton speeding bullet running up behind you and letting loose with eight or ten medium lasers in the back to show how broken things could get.

Just hope the developers make the clans VERY well balanced or better yet make them raid style encounters with salvage as loot.