Im fine with the clans in broad strokes but it would have been neater if they came in later after the IS has reached technical parity and the strength of their offensive comes from tactics and timing.
Lets you have a terrifying clan invasion without just making their stuff straight better
I could be wrong here, it's been a while since I've done a deep dive into Battletech Lore, but would that parity have ever happened?
From what I remember, the IS had been in technological decline for decades (maybe centuries) before the clans showed up. The infighting devastated the tech base and manufacturing capabilities of the IS, causing them to losetheir best designs, lose old technology and continue to fall behind their neighbors. That forced them to start up a fight on new planets in an effort to capture their manufacturing/tech resources, inevitably destroying some of them by accident, further decreasing the collective resources of the IS. That was kind of the whole point of LosTech, that old shit was straight up better than what could be made today.
It was only the clans showing up and giving the IS a single foe to unite against that allowed the IS to turn this steady decline around. Another few decades of the political infighting would have reduced most of the IS to solitary planets with limited to no FTL travel or communication.
But, as I said, it's been a while since I fell into that particular wiki hole, so I could be remembering incorrectly, or just thinking my head-canon was more than just head-canon.
By the time the Clans had shown up the IS had long since more or less gotten its warring sufficiently under control that large scale technological loss was no longer a threat.
If we were reworking lore to create technical parity you would have to do more than push back the invasion date, but not a ton more. The IS caught up in large part because of salvaged Clan tech, but not wholly because of it. The Helm Memory Core for instance. If you give them a few more decades of natural technological development and a couple more previously hidden Star League depots you could credibly have them catch up with the Clan.
Im fine with the clans in broad strokes but it would have been neater if they came in later after the IS has reached technical parity and the strength of their offensive comes from tactics and timing.
Lets you have a terrifying clan invasion without just making their stuff straight better
I could be wrong here, it's been a while since I've done a deep dive into Battletech Lore, but would that parity have ever happened?
From what I remember, the IS had been in technological decline for decades (maybe centuries) before the clans showed up. The infighting devastated the tech base and manufacturing capabilities of the IS, causing them to losetheir best designs, lose old technology and continue to fall behind their neighbors. That forced them to start up a fight on new planets in an effort to capture their manufacturing/tech resources, inevitably destroying some of them by accident, further decreasing the collective resources of the IS. That was kind of the whole point of LosTech, that old shit was straight up better than what could be made today.
It was only the clans showing up and giving the IS a single foe to unite against that allowed the IS to turn this steady decline around. Another few decades of the political infighting would have reduced most of the IS to solitary planets with limited to no FTL travel or communication.
But, as I said, it's been a while since I fell into that particular wiki hole, so I could be remembering incorrectly, or just thinking my head-canon was more than just head-canon.
To be fair, ComStar was also sabotaging all of the houses. Factories that may have otherwise been captured were slagged to the ground and a few scientists and technicians had mysterious accidents.
Hanse was the first one to realize that ComStar was playing them and set plans in motion to counter them. Hence why they were able to keep the NAIS running and were able to survive the Interdiction during the 4th war.
Im fine with the clans in broad strokes but it would have been neater if they came in later after the IS has reached technical parity and the strength of their offensive comes from tactics and timing.
Lets you have a terrifying clan invasion without just making their stuff straight better
I could be wrong here, it's been a while since I've done a deep dive into Battletech Lore, but would that parity have ever happened?
From what I remember, the IS had been in technological decline for decades (maybe centuries) before the clans showed up. The infighting devastated the tech base and manufacturing capabilities of the IS, causing them to losetheir best designs, lose old technology and continue to fall behind their neighbors. That forced them to start up a fight on new planets in an effort to capture their manufacturing/tech resources, inevitably destroying some of them by accident, further decreasing the collective resources of the IS. That was kind of the whole point of LosTech, that old shit was straight up better than what could be made today.
It was only the clans showing up and giving the IS a single foe to unite against that allowed the IS to turn this steady decline around. Another few decades of the political infighting would have reduced most of the IS to solitary planets with limited to no FTL travel or communication.
But, as I said, it's been a while since I fell into that particular wiki hole, so I could be remembering incorrectly, or just thinking my head-canon was more than just head-canon.
By the time the Clans had shown up the IS had long since more or less gotten its warring sufficiently under control that large scale technological loss was no longer a threat.
If we were reworking lore to create technical parity you would have to do more than push back the invasion date, but not a ton more. The IS caught up in large part because of salvaged Clan tech, but not wholly because of it. The Helm Memory Core for instance. If you give them a few more decades of natural technological development and a couple more previously hidden Star League depots you could credibly have them catch up with the Clan.
Pretty much this. The IS was already on the technological upswing. The Clans invading just changed the timetable.
Yeah in the situation of a reboot, it wouldn’t matter because you could change the story to “buff” IS to the point where it would make sense they could just fight the clans.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Prior to the Invasion, the Grey Death Legion had already found the Helm Memory Core (a Star League Era tech database), and began spreading its knowledge around to everyone. In 3028, thirty years before the Invasion.
Like SS and chasm said, the IS were already digging themselves out of their tech deficit.
Man, I don't know how to feel about trying to reboot Battletech to "fix" the clan invasion. Any more than I'd feel about rebooting it to "fix" the Fedcom Civil War, or "fix" the Jihad.
I mean, the mechanics are the mechanics and those can be the flawed, certainly. You pretty consistently see assorted patchwork efforts to weight the battle values of clan mechs against IS mechs in tabletop. The way MWO handled it is probably about mediocre. I actually really enjoyed the way Mechwarrior 2 Mercs handled it, with a good mix of ambush and overwhelming numbers scenarios that played to what worked in the lore.
I think a part of what makes a reboot with a delayed clan invasion attractive is the relative dearth of pre-clan invasion fiction. You have about 10 books. Which sprints over about 30 years of history? After that the lore digs down into ever more granular events and the timeline slows way down. You have almost 30 books between the start of the Clan Invasion and Operation Bulldog/Taskforce Serpent. And that single event is 8 books. Then you have 19 more books slowly meandering through the Fedcom Civil War and the second Star League.
I wanted to spend more time with Hanse Davion. Or any time at all in the Free Worlds League.
Some of this was retroactively helped with assorted Battlecorps stories that focus more on the early 3000's era. Anthology collections and a few one offs.
So I guess I'd just like more lore in that period rather than a reboot. It's already been done. The decisions have been made. Trying to redo them just feels weird. Catalyst Game Labs is leaving Battletech to rot on the vine anyways. So who cares if the tabletop balance is borked trying to play in a strictly 3050 setting?
I would like to see HBS get us to the Clans, and do some interesting things with them. What they've done with Flashpoints and reputation seems like a harbinger of what they might do with Batchalls and Honor. Let us negotiate the terms of the fight into something we think we can win. And then let us break the living shit out of it and ambush those filthy clanners. And then have the clan we dicked over remember it. A single player experience also lets you do a lot to curate exactly how IS and Clan confront each other in a way that feels fair to the player. Like MW2: Mercs wasn't terrible about.
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Catalyst Game Labs is leaving Battletech to rot on the vine anyways.
This is patently, provably wrong. In fact, CGL has released in the last several years a number of products that cater to your desire to flesh out the Pre-Invasion eras! The First Succession War sourcebook was released in 2016, followed by the Second Succesion War sourcebook in 2017 alongside TRO: Succession Wars. In addition, CGL released the Battletech Manual, updating and collating all of the 'Mech-only tabletop rules into a single source. Last year saw the release of Shattered Fortress, which caters to the other end of the spectrum: those of us that want to see the timeline keep moving. And all of this is print-only, not including any PDF-only worldbuilding splatbooks they've released over that timeframe; I count 28 releases over that same period.
Oh, also, BATTLETECH came out. It may have been driven by the passion and hard work of the folks at HBS, but it absolutely leveraged the folks at CGL to build a harmonized bit of lore-space to work in. In fact, House Arano is getting its own tabletop PDF splatbook in March to square the circle with the PC game.
CGL's not a big production house, and they juggle a number of IPs and 3rd party work. As a fan of BT, I'd love to see more, more regularly, but it's definitely not dead.
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
Catalyst Game Labs is leaving Battletech to rot on the vine anyways.
This is patently, provably wrong. In fact, CGL has released in the last several years a number of products that cater to your desire to flesh out the Pre-Invasion eras! The First Succession War sourcebook was released in 2016, followed by the Second Succesion War sourcebook in 2017 alongside TRO: Succession Wars. In addition, CGL released the Battletech Manual, updating and collating all of the 'Mech-only tabletop rules into a single source. Last year saw the release of Shattered Fortress, which caters to the other end of the spectrum: those of us that want to see the timeline keep moving. And all of this is print-only, not including any PDF-only worldbuilding splatbooks they've released over that timeframe; I count 28 releases over that same period.
Oh, also, BATTLETECH came out. It may have been driven by the passion and hard work of the folks at HBS, but it absolutely leveraged the folks at CGL to build a harmonized bit of lore-space to work in. In fact, House Arano is getting its own tabletop PDF splatbook in March to square the circle with the PC game.
CGL's not a big production house, and they juggle a number of IPs and 3rd party work. As a fan of BT, I'd love to see more, more regularly, but it's definitely not dead.
Everything but a starter box, which as of now still hasn't made it to retail. Also, many of those print releases went out of stock, never to be reprinted. Increasingly their print runs feel like limited time offers as opposed to a product you can reliably get your hands on. I'm still waiting on them to release the 6th Battlecorps anthology which as of now has only had a limited Gencon release.
But you're right. Them finally releasing Shattered fortress and a pair of I think novellas as accompanied lore is promising. And a starter box finally making it to retail is promising too. But I'll only give them credit if it's actually still in stock when Mechwarrior 5 comes out. If it turns out to be what might as well have been a limited run like a lot of their other print products, I'll be utterly underwhelmed.
I'm not accusing them of literally killing Battletech. I'm accusing them of neglect.
I guess I could also accuse them of embezzlement and not paying their artist and authors too... but that's a separate issue.
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
I did not
Yeah today the clan tech only advantage is tonnage and crit slots. Oh and the fact that you can run an XL and lose a torso. But weapons and Light engines have taken a bit of the sting out of the differences at least.
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
I did not
Yeah today the clan tech only advantage is tonnage and crit slots. Oh and the fact that you can run an XL and lose a torso. But weapons and Light engines have taken a bit of the sting out of the differences at least.
I miss buttcleft/Padre Ballistque ranting about the clans. I will always support clan hate wherever I see it. His looking down on the black knight however was not!
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
I did not
Yeah today the clan tech only advantage is tonnage and crit slots. Oh and the fact that you can run an XL and lose a torso. But weapons and Light engines have taken a bit of the sting out of the differences at least.
Well, cERML still hits a little harder (so it's more like an IS medium laser+)...but it's not anywhere near the 8 damage it used to do.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
I did not
I wanted to apologise for perhaps sounding like jerk replying to your comments about balance in MWO. My only purpose was to let you know where the complaints about Clan tech came from. There are much more but you can get the idea from my other response.
But now I only play in Quick Play so don't care that there is any differences between the two technologies.
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
I did not
Yeah today the clan tech only advantage is tonnage and crit slots. Oh and the fact that you can run an XL and lose a torso. But weapons and Light engines have taken a bit of the sting out of the differences at least.
Well, cERML still hits a little harder (so it's more like an IS medium laser+)...but it's not anywhere near the 8 damage it used to do.
Well, yes, but it's more that you can stack Clan Large Pulse on top of that for another 24 damage, or Large Heavies for 28 damage and add ER Mediums to round out a truly massive alpha. Additionally, while PGI nerfed Clans, they reduced IS laser damage as well, so its a bit of a moot point.
Large Pulse Lasers, arguably the only good laser IS really had, are down to 10 damage, so spending the 21 tons to max out your alpha only gives you 30 damage. "Lighter" 15 tons worth of Large Lasers got duration increased to 1.1s and ERLL are nearly 1:1 heat to damage. Rounding out an IS laser alpha is a hard choice between hot, short ranged ER Mediums or even shorter ranged, regular Mediums. Then you need to squeeze in 3 slot DHS's, where you can...
LFE's and Light FF made builds more even on paper, but quirk reductions, the new Skill Tree and Weapon balance passes have ensured the gap is as wide as ever.
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KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
Obliterating an Piranha with one MRM80 volley feels pretty good.
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
Yeah, it was Conquest on... whichever big snow map is mostly plains and gullys as opposed to the huge mountains (Polar Highlands?), and I spotted the Piranha attempting to circle around behind us to cap the points we'd just taken. I just vectored to intersect before it got there, and after caressing me gently with ERSLs, it turned away to run.
So I unloaded 80 missiles into its back. It went away~
Then I just sauntered back to the glob and picked my targets. Only did about 500 damage, but got 5 kills, so it can't be that bad. I think I like MRMs a lot.
Yeah I mean its just all idle speculation of course. I don't play tabletop games, but obviously clan balance isn't a problem in single player games. Only place it really comes up for me is in MWO, but even there I think people generally overstate the comparative strength of clan tech.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
No argument. It's taken PGI a long time to get things balanced.
IS and Clan balance feels pretty decent at the moment. It's certainly much, much better than the crazy broken balance when the Clans were first introduced. Good Lord, Clans were busted.
I'd still favor reducing IS quirks in favor of more baseline tech balance to make IS mechs less reliant on quirks to be viable.
But the quirks are easier to tweak to individual variants. They also make the skill tree more varied between variants. None of my Fafnirs are running the same trees aside from the Survival one.
Ended up running into Kanajashi in a few matches tonight. One time I got to see somebody else on our team start whining about him running an LRM boat (it was a SNV, and he almost won the match for us). Kinda curious if that ended up on his stream or if it's going in a youtube video.
But the quirks are easier to tweak to individual variants. They also make the skill tree more varied between variants. None of my Fafnirs are running the same trees aside from the Survival one.
I'm not saying dump all quirks or anything like that. The problem with relying on quirks for all IS v Clan balance is that it makes IS v Clan balance more complicated. Quirks should be for buffing bad mechs relative to their peers in their tech base, or for adding flavor.
In other news, MW5 pre-order get! I have no idea what I'll do with 60k MC though.
My problem with quirks is that you can't switch them around, so when the balancing and meta change over time, whoops, your fully skilled out variant is now garbage tier.
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KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
What's the build there? I'm having trouble getting more than 4-5 tons of ammo while running at a reasonable pace, and that looks like it wants 8-10 tons.
Edit: Also, I have this Hero Roughneck sitting in my stable, that I have never used. Does it have any decent builds going for it?
Ran a 2LB10X Hunchback 4G all night and that was fun. I think I'm starting to knock the rust off and figure out the new maps.. not dropping in a billboard of a heavy has improved my longevity. Also, it seems like lights have all the fun, had a couple matches where the last spider or a locust mopped up the rest of the enemy team.
It's weird coming back to the game after a couple of years and having 73 mechs sitting around with various builds that I'm trying to figure out if I was being serious or silly with. "2 shotguns on a hunchie with no backup lasers?! .. yeah, lets drop in that"
All this talk is what makes me the saddest re-Clans, IS and Mechwarrior... because i believe it'll make the Dev's delay Clans being introduced into BATTLETECH until maybe even 'BATTLETECH 2'... Said it before but i *much* prefer Clan Mech design over IS design... I'm not fussed about the 'Lore' or anything like that, Literally just re-skin IS mechs as Clan mechs or vice-versa for all i care, Just give me those Sleek, Sharp edged, (mostly) Bird-like designs Any day.
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KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
I play HBS BattleTech and not MWO, but that a single player MechWarrior definitely interests me.
That being said... the giant stompy robots don't look nearly stompy enough in that footage. They should be smashing and cracking pavement when they walk on it and throwing up divots and leaving huge footprints on unpaved ground. They move like they're weightless.
Man, they just barely relearned inverse kinematics so the feet actually settle on the terrain correctly instead of clipping through anything uneven, and you want them to have realistic terrain deformation based on movement? Who do you think they are, Volition circa 2002?
But the quirks are easier to tweak to individual variants. They also make the skill tree more varied between variants. None of my Fafnirs are running the same trees aside from the Survival one.
I'm not saying dump all quirks or anything like that. The problem with relying on quirks for all IS v Clan balance is that it makes IS v Clan balance more complicated. Quirks should be for buffing bad mechs relative to their peers in their tech base, or for adding flavor.
In other news, MW5 pre-order get! I have no idea what I'll do with 60k MC though.
Lots and lots of Mechbays for all the Hero mechs available.
I'm still on the fence for some dumb reason... Why can't I pull the trigger?
'Cause preorder culture is consumer poison. Not that I'm casting shade on the consumers, that shit is designed to be insidious and you're often penalised for not participating.
Ended up running into Kanajashi in a few matches tonight. One time I got to see somebody else on our team start whining about him running an LRM boat (it was a SNV, and he almost won the match for us). Kinda curious if that ended up on his stream or if it's going in a youtube video.
Here it is, you can watch me die in my Roughneck in the last battle. Also watch the guy with all the salt in chat.
Posts
By the time the Clans had shown up the IS had long since more or less gotten its warring sufficiently under control that large scale technological loss was no longer a threat.
If we were reworking lore to create technical parity you would have to do more than push back the invasion date, but not a ton more. The IS caught up in large part because of salvaged Clan tech, but not wholly because of it. The Helm Memory Core for instance. If you give them a few more decades of natural technological development and a couple more previously hidden Star League depots you could credibly have them catch up with the Clan.
To be fair, ComStar was also sabotaging all of the houses. Factories that may have otherwise been captured were slagged to the ground and a few scientists and technicians had mysterious accidents.
Hanse was the first one to realize that ComStar was playing them and set plans in motion to counter them. Hence why they were able to keep the NAIS running and were able to survive the Interdiction during the 4th war.
Pretty much this. The IS was already on the technological upswing. The Clans invading just changed the timetable.
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
Prior to the Invasion, the Grey Death Legion had already found the Helm Memory Core (a Star League Era tech database), and began spreading its knowledge around to everyone. In 3028, thirty years before the Invasion.
Like SS and chasm said, the IS were already digging themselves out of their tech deficit.
I mean, the mechanics are the mechanics and those can be the flawed, certainly. You pretty consistently see assorted patchwork efforts to weight the battle values of clan mechs against IS mechs in tabletop. The way MWO handled it is probably about mediocre. I actually really enjoyed the way Mechwarrior 2 Mercs handled it, with a good mix of ambush and overwhelming numbers scenarios that played to what worked in the lore.
I think a part of what makes a reboot with a delayed clan invasion attractive is the relative dearth of pre-clan invasion fiction. You have about 10 books. Which sprints over about 30 years of history? After that the lore digs down into ever more granular events and the timeline slows way down. You have almost 30 books between the start of the Clan Invasion and Operation Bulldog/Taskforce Serpent. And that single event is 8 books. Then you have 19 more books slowly meandering through the Fedcom Civil War and the second Star League.
I wanted to spend more time with Hanse Davion. Or any time at all in the Free Worlds League.
Some of this was retroactively helped with assorted Battlecorps stories that focus more on the early 3000's era. Anthology collections and a few one offs.
So I guess I'd just like more lore in that period rather than a reboot. It's already been done. The decisions have been made. Trying to redo them just feels weird. Catalyst Game Labs is leaving Battletech to rot on the vine anyways. So who cares if the tabletop balance is borked trying to play in a strictly 3050 setting?
I would like to see HBS get us to the Clans, and do some interesting things with them. What they've done with Flashpoints and reputation seems like a harbinger of what they might do with Batchalls and Honor. Let us negotiate the terms of the fight into something we think we can win. And then let us break the living shit out of it and ambush those filthy clanners. And then have the clan we dicked over remember it. A single player experience also lets you do a lot to curate exactly how IS and Clan confront each other in a way that feels fair to the player. Like MW2: Mercs wasn't terrible about.
This is patently, provably wrong. In fact, CGL has released in the last several years a number of products that cater to your desire to flesh out the Pre-Invasion eras! The First Succession War sourcebook was released in 2016, followed by the Second Succesion War sourcebook in 2017 alongside TRO: Succession Wars. In addition, CGL released the Battletech Manual, updating and collating all of the 'Mech-only tabletop rules into a single source. Last year saw the release of Shattered Fortress, which caters to the other end of the spectrum: those of us that want to see the timeline keep moving. And all of this is print-only, not including any PDF-only worldbuilding splatbooks they've released over that timeframe; I count 28 releases over that same period.
Oh, also, BATTLETECH came out. It may have been driven by the passion and hard work of the folks at HBS, but it absolutely leveraged the folks at CGL to build a harmonized bit of lore-space to work in. In fact, House Arano is getting its own tabletop PDF splatbook in March to square the circle with the PC game.
CGL's not a big production house, and they juggle a number of IPs and 3rd party work. As a fan of BT, I'd love to see more, more regularly, but it's definitely not dead.
Not sure if you played the game back before the new tech and the sort of nerfs... Was it about 2 years ago? I can't remember... But back then there was a technology gap between Clan tech and IS tech. Heck cERML had the distance of an IS LL but with the advantages of a ML heat and the clan DHS. It was really nasty back then...
Steam: betsuni7
I did not
Everything but a starter box, which as of now still hasn't made it to retail. Also, many of those print releases went out of stock, never to be reprinted. Increasingly their print runs feel like limited time offers as opposed to a product you can reliably get your hands on. I'm still waiting on them to release the 6th Battlecorps anthology which as of now has only had a limited Gencon release.
But you're right. Them finally releasing Shattered fortress and a pair of I think novellas as accompanied lore is promising. And a starter box finally making it to retail is promising too. But I'll only give them credit if it's actually still in stock when Mechwarrior 5 comes out. If it turns out to be what might as well have been a limited run like a lot of their other print products, I'll be utterly underwhelmed.
I'm not accusing them of literally killing Battletech. I'm accusing them of neglect.
I guess I could also accuse them of embezzlement and not paying their artist and authors too... but that's a separate issue.
Yeah today the clan tech only advantage is tonnage and crit slots. Oh and the fact that you can run an XL and lose a torso. But weapons and Light engines have taken a bit of the sting out of the differences at least.
Steam: betsuni7
I miss buttcleft/Padre Ballistque ranting about the clans. I will always support clan hate wherever I see it. His looking down on the black knight however was not!
Well, cERML still hits a little harder (so it's more like an IS medium laser+)...but it's not anywhere near the 8 damage it used to do.
I wanted to apologise for perhaps sounding like jerk replying to your comments about balance in MWO. My only purpose was to let you know where the complaints about Clan tech came from. There are much more but you can get the idea from my other response.
But now I only play in Quick Play so don't care that there is any differences between the two technologies.
Steam: betsuni7
Well, yes, but it's more that you can stack Clan Large Pulse on top of that for another 24 damage, or Large Heavies for 28 damage and add ER Mediums to round out a truly massive alpha. Additionally, while PGI nerfed Clans, they reduced IS laser damage as well, so its a bit of a moot point.
Large Pulse Lasers, arguably the only good laser IS really had, are down to 10 damage, so spending the 21 tons to max out your alpha only gives you 30 damage. "Lighter" 15 tons worth of Large Lasers got duration increased to 1.1s and ERLL are nearly 1:1 heat to damage. Rounding out an IS laser alpha is a hard choice between hot, short ranged ER Mediums or even shorter ranged, regular Mediums. Then you need to squeeze in 3 slot DHS's, where you can...
LFE's and Light FF made builds more even on paper, but quirk reductions, the new Skill Tree and Weapon balance passes have ensured the gap is as wide as ever.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
So I unloaded 80 missiles into its back. It went away~
Then I just sauntered back to the glob and picked my targets. Only did about 500 damage, but got 5 kills, so it can't be that bad. I think I like MRMs a lot.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
Steam: betsuni7
No argument. It's taken PGI a long time to get things balanced.
I'd still favor reducing IS quirks in favor of more baseline tech balance to make IS mechs less reliant on quirks to be viable.
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
Anyway, still got it bby
Steam: betsuni7
I'm not saying dump all quirks or anything like that. The problem with relying on quirks for all IS v Clan balance is that it makes IS v Clan balance more complicated. Quirks should be for buffing bad mechs relative to their peers in their tech base, or for adding flavor.
In other news, MW5 pre-order get! I have no idea what I'll do with 60k MC though.
What's the build there? I'm having trouble getting more than 4-5 tons of ammo while running at a reasonable pace, and that looks like it wants 8-10 tons.
Edit: Also, I have this Hero Roughneck sitting in my stable, that I have never used. Does it have any decent builds going for it?
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
It's weird coming back to the game after a couple of years and having 73 mechs sitting around with various builds that I'm trying to figure out if I was being serious or silly with. "2 shotguns on a hunchie with no backup lasers?! .. yeah, lets drop in that"
There are a ton of IS mechs with that sort of look, but it's true that they're more prevalent among the clans, I think.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Man, they just barely relearned inverse kinematics so the feet actually settle on the terrain correctly instead of clipping through anything uneven, and you want them to have realistic terrain deformation based on movement? Who do you think they are, Volition circa 2002?
Lots and lots of Mechbays for all the Hero mechs available.
I'm still on the fence for some dumb reason... Why can't I pull the trigger?
Steam: betsuni7
Here it is, you can watch me die in my Roughneck in the last battle. Also watch the guy with all the salt in chat.