Hmm, how would it look if we compared them in three categories:
the basic Prime configuration, a cost-effective variant, and the highest-performance variant regardless of cost efficiency?
I thought the Inner Sphere–born freeborn warriors of the Inner Sphere–migrated Clans were all sent off to solahma units once they got older.
After looking it up, it turns out there is an event called the Great Reavings, where Bloodnamed houses raid each other every year, or where freeborn warriors and Bloodnamed warriors from the Homeworld Clans can undergo a Trial to create a new house.
Since there were no large-scale wars during the Republic of the Sphere era, this looks like a Clan-style solution for gaining honor.
after the fall of Terra, there is a mention in the ilClan Recognition Guide: Kingfisher entry that an exiled Wolf MechWarrior won during the Great Reavings.
Come to think of it, I guess it’s now confirmed that there won’t be a Rising Sun flag paint scheme.
As a Korean, I really hated that idea, so I’m honestly relieved.
To be honest, I don’t really know whether that paint scheme was part of the original design, or whether MechWarrior Online just went way too far with it.
I started with the ilClan era, then read the Dark Age and Clan Invasion novels, so I’m thinking of trying the Civil War novels this time.
I managed to get the Archer Christifori series, so I’m considering reading it. How is it generally regarded?
It’s by the same author as Hour of the Wolf, so I’m wondering if I should just skip it.
Hour of the Wolf was so awful that if this is the same type of novel, I’d rather not read it. Also, I’m Korean, so if it contains positive Confederate allegory or something like that, it may be hard for me to recognize.
I did enjoy No Substitute for Victory, though, so I don’t want to skip it just because of the author.
It is a version using the BTAU mod, though. I laughed for quite a while.
Well, it gives the impression that when dueling a Clan, all you need to do is choose the battlefield properly.
If they had a problem with it, they should have brought equipment capable of detonating the rockets.
I’ve recently been talking with a friend about how low technological recovery and production levels were after the First and Second Succession Wars.
My argument was that, with the Clans, they only look limited because they deliberately control the number of warriors. Their actual BattleMech production being absurdly high should be normal.
The Inner Sphere, on the other hand, suffered such severe technological damage that, aside from the final surviving production facilities, they had even lost things like artificial diamond production technology. So I said maybe they were never really able to return to that earlier level.
Roughly speaking, are there any novels that clearly show how civilization had declined between the aftermath of the First and Second Succession Wars and the Third Succession War era?
I heard that if you already know who the characters are, the most fun way to read the trilogy is backwards, so I’m reading it in reverse order. Now that I’m reading the first encounter with the Clans, I’m really enjoying it.
Phelan Kell struggling against the absurdly powerful Timber Wolf, Anastasius Focht seriously arguing that the Clans are an alien invasion force, and scenes like that have been a lot of fun to read. Even though I’m reading the trilogy in reverse order, now that I’ve reached the beginning of the Clan Invasion, I think Lethal Heritage might be the most interesting one.
I got interested in BattleTech: Gothic because I heard its art design was cool and that it had monster-like things in it, so I looked it up, but it seems like the changes are all too safe...
I think I was probably expecting something more like the horror monsters, such as the Black Marauder, or that part in the novel Lethal Heritage where Anastasius Focht seriously argues that the Clans are aliens who have invaded to harvest humanity’s genes.
BattleTech: Gothic just looks like a safe side story made out of things that could already plausibly exist in regular BattleTech. Am I just missing something because I haven’t dug deeply enough into the setting?
Still, I do think the miniatures look cool, so I do want to buy them. Sometimes I want to make a freelance mercenary who likes this kind of design.
I just read the setting for the Crosscut IIC SolahmaMech.
By the Dark Age, even the Clans are using IndustrialMechs?!?! That is a shocking piece of lore.
I knew the Dark Age was that kind of era, but the idea of a Clan warrior learning how to pilot an IndustrialMech is just too shocking.
Among Clan military formations, the Supernova formation is my favorite.
Honestly, I do not remember where I saw it, but I think it was probably in a novel. There was a scene where 25 BA. jumped out from the two Stars of OmniMechs in a Supernova formation, and it left a strong impression on me.
That is probably why the Supernova formation became my favorite.
Of course, the Black Hawk is not a bad ’Mech, but there is an out-of-universe point that, with the same design, making it as a BattleMech is actually more efficient than making it as an OmniMech. This ’Mech makes it feel like the Clans are admitting that, so I just cannot bring myself to like it...
Separate from that, there is also the fact that this thing is the third Black Hawk, lol.
For mercenaries, Star League-era Royal ’Mechs or data cores would obviously be great finds, but what kind of LosTech would the people sponsoring an expedition actually want to possess in the ilClan era?
Something like terraforming technology?
In the case of the Inner Sphere-settled Clans, can warriors who have reached the age where they would be assigned to solahma choose to simply retire?
In A Question of Survival, there is a scene where a Bloodnamed warrior like Emilio Hall is preparing retirement plans.
When a Clan warrior reaches the age where they would be relegated to solahma, are there no other options?
rather than fighting as solahma infantry, it would not be better for them to retire or transfer to a local militia, if that option is available.
Honestly, even when TRO: 3075 said it had a Japanese-style design, I thought, “Really?”
But after seeing the colored design in MechWarrior: Technology of Destruction, I thought, “I see,” and it made sense.
>VARIANTS
Most known variants of the Incubus make good use of the archaic modular weaponry technology. Its oldest versions permitted commanders to choose between the accuracy of a pulse laser and the brute force of a PPC. Other versions that equip an autocannon or even an LRM rack, if the mission calls for it, continue to be used to this day. A rarer variant improves the torso lasers to pulse models by freeing up mass with a switch to Streak missiles in the arm. This version is of considerable interest to mercenaries even today. As much of the Inner Sphere is still willing to pay the decades-old early adopter prices for XXL engines, we will develop an XXL variant, permitting the usual “deep discounts” without significantly affecting our profit margins. Upgrading the Incubus’ weaponry and armor further amplifies the profit potential, and permits multiple sales channels even without any demandcreation activities.
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 7 - INCUBUS (VIXEN)
Looking at the INCUBUS (VIXEN) entry in Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 7, it says that many people in the Inner Sphere are still willing to pay the decades-old early adopter prices for XXL engines, so even with heavy discounts, there is still plenty of profit left.
That pretty much confirms that the actual price of an XXL engine is not really twenty times that of a standard engine.
So, in-universe, would it be reasonable to think of the listed C-bill prices as the price tag a mercenary unit with no connections and an ordinary reputation would be charged when buying a ’Mech in cash?
In other eras, overheating is described as something that makes you worry about the MechWarrior’s body or about shutdown.
But in this era, overheating is portrayed as overheating = ammo explosion, and that is really scary.
How do people in this era even use missiles?
It is such an enjoyable story, with battle scenes so good that I almost forgot it was a short story, and even scenes that make excellent use of the character being transgender.
Well, there are people everywhere who hate certain subjects, and getting stuck with a superior like that is just one of those unlucky things that can happen, so I was able to accept it pretty naturally.
Honestly, I have seen even worse superiors in real life.
But after I finished reading it, something felt a little strange, so I read it again, and then I understood why.
There is a scene where Vivian Matsumoto is talking with a fellow technician, and she becomes very flustered when she realizes that her colleague knows she is transgender.
>She raised a finger in protest. “Lott, I can explain—”
That reaction is what I did not like.
Well, the technician had no issue with her being transgender and was basically telling her not to worry about a stupid superior. It was a scene where the protagonist overreacted.
If this were a real-life situation, there would be no problem.
Unfortunately, many transgender people have experienced being hurt by prejudice or ignorance, even when the other person has no malicious intent.
But this is the BattleTech universe.
Why does the protagonist shrink back like that?
Leaving aside the Clans’ almost monkey-level sexual culture, isn’t the Inner Sphere usually fairly permissive when it comes to sexuality and related matters?
I think prejudiced people like her superior are not the norm.
So her reacting as if the other person knowing she is transgender would lead to something negative, or as if she was about to be hurt, felt a little strange to me.
How should I put it? It feels like, “Why do tanks have to pay more weight for fusion engines than ’Mechs?” —> “Because this is BattleMech, not BattleTank.”
If Vivian Matsumoto had grown up in a family or community that was hostile toward transgender people, then I could understand it, but I cannot know that from this short story alone.
Honestly, it was probably just a scene where Vivian Matsumoto overreacted a little because she had been dealing with a prejudiced superior. But I wish they had added just a few words to make that clearer.
I’m Korean, so my English is limited. Please let me know if there is anything strange about my grammar or word choice.
재미있는 소설을 읽을수 있어서 감사합니다.
As far as I know, according to the lore written on the miniature box, the Urbie LAM is a ’Mech that appears in a popular movie, even if it is not very accurate to the setting.
I thought Ace Darwin and the Flying Pig was an unofficial April Fools’ story, but apparently it is not actually an April Fools’ story?
Does that mean this really happened in-universe?
>The Ghost Bears would soon be summoned before the Council and questioned. The reason was that Karl Bourjon’s fall from power had been handled internally within the Clan. Under Clan rules, a vote of no confidence against a Khan had to be conducted before the Council, with other Clans present as witnesses. In that sense, the Ghost Bears’ internal vote of no confidence could be seen as ignoring the other Clans and acting unilaterally. But because the Ghost Bears rushed to remove Karl Bourjon, they had handed the others a strong pretext.
>At that point, the Ghost Bears were ordered to halt their invasion. But Leo Showers, the ilKhan, went even further and suddenly pulled out the extreme option of a Trial of Annihilation. For Leo Showers, who had been regarded as “politically skilled for a Smoke Jaguar,” this was an incomprehensible and excessive move. The Ghost Bears fiercely objected, saying, “How does something like this justify going as far as a Trial of Annihilation?” The other Clans also reacted negatively, saying, “Why go all the way to a Trial of Annihilation over something like this?” and did not agree unanimously.
This is lore that has been circulating in Korean BattleTech communities for a long time, but when I tried to find the source now, I could not find it.
In Korea, BattleTech communities only really started functioning properly as small communities that interacted with each other around the MechWarrior Online era. So with older lore, there are cases where someone’s fanfiction or lore from another sci-fi setting was mistaken for official material.
Older lore is hard to trust, so I want to look for the source, and if there is no source, I want to say that there is none.