Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[Balr0g]

there is a funny note about Comstar in one of the Dark Age novels. Tucker is on Wyatt to restart the HPG and in a conversation he talks about the music he is listening too. it is Comstar's old chanting. but they are not simple prayers they are actually the instructions to work the HPg. they are literally chanting the

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

I'm having way too much fun with mixing 3D files... Anyone care for an Atlas with a Pickelhaube?

 

[Corn Flakes]

BT's Semi-Firm sci-fi take is a good part of what I like about it. There's just not as much weird wizardry that isn't understandable. Like yeah there's the Comstar 'religion' that started as a pseudo religion but you can at least see why. Historical stories and anecdotes have gained near mythical status in less than a century, so in a titanically large galaxy I can see the ancient Southwestern Bell agents gaining some mystique. Especially when they go out of their way to act mysterious and inscrutable.

The most important part of it is that while it's a religion/cult/conspiracy, nothing about it is supernatural. ComStar still follows the rules of the setting with everything they do. If they don't have assets stationed near or at wherever trouble pops up, they still need to stuff their agents into a dropship, send that dropship up into space, burn to a jumpship, get to the target system, undock, burn to the planet, land the dropship, unload their agents, and then finally get to the goon shit they wanted to do.

The biggest break from established limitations and rules I can remember is The Wall, and even that was a technology with an extremely high cost to operate, and it only interacted with the side of the setting no one really explored (with good reason): hyperspace physics.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

The most important part of it is that while it's a religion/cult/conspiracy, nothing about it is supernatural. ComStar still follows the rules of the setting with everything they do. If they don't have assets stationed near or at wherever trouble pops up, they still need to stuff their agents into a dropship, send that dropship up into space, burn to a jumpship, get to the target system, undock, burn to the planet, land the dropship, unload their agents, and then finally get to the goon shit they wanted to do.

The biggest break from established limitations and rules I can remember is The Wall, and even that was a technology with an extremely high cost to operate, and it only interacted with the side of the setting no one really explored (with good reason): hyperspace physics.

Well, there is that one instant, where Morgan Kell (I think) was at pointblank range of an enemy trying to blow him up and all shots just missed, cause his mech kinda vanished from the sensors of the attacking mech.

It was the one time some fluff mentioned something that might be supernatural and the fans disliked it so much, it was never brought up again and is now treated as some freak incident. I think, if fans had liked that, we might have gotten something Jedi-like in BT.

Though there is something else rather magical in BT's setting.
I am, of course, talking about female Clan Elementals working in Canopus as Catgirl maids.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Well, there is that one instant, where Morgan Kell (I think) was at pointblank range of an enemy trying to blow him up and all shots just missed, cause his mech kinda vanished from the sensors of the attacking mech.

It was the one time some fluff mentioned something that might be supernatural and the fans disliked it so much, it was never brought up again and is now treated as some freak incident. I think, if fans had liked that, we might have gotten something Jedi-like in BT.

Yeah, that got retconned right out of the setting. Since everything in the fluff is done through an in-universe narrator, all those weird things that happened early in the game's development got patched out so the setting is entirely, 100% mundane. No supernatural elements allowed, and if they look like they're there it's someone's intel agency fucking with you. After all, when it comes to the fluff you believe in what you want, everything else is ComStar's lies.

Though there is something else rather magical in BT's setting.
I am, of course, talking about female Clan Elementals working in Canopus as Catgirl maids.

That's not magic, you silly goose.

It's the sheer power of capitalism.

The Sharks/Foxes are still kicking themselves over not being the first to think of Elemental Catgirl Maid Cafes.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

It's the sheer power of capitalism.

But capitalism is magic.

 

[I'mma real anime gurl]

Got both Mad Cats

 

[Snekposter]

I'm having way too much fun with mixing 3D files... Anyone care for an Atlas with a Pickelhaube?
View attachment 3688924

You need to send that shit to Tex. Nothing quite like a Tactical Helmet to protect your cockpit while engaging in scouting missions. Useful against everything from lasers to swarms of bees.

I am, of course, talking about female Clan Elementals working in Canopus as Catgirl maids.

You better believe I've got that shit saved. Its Canopus too, so there's pretty good chances so those are actual, rubbable cat ears (if you can find a stepladder that is) and not just a headband.

 

[BlackDragoons]

I'm a filthy heathen, that got into all of this via Mechwarrior 3 and MechCommander. No matter what caught your attention, as long as you made it to the best Hard Sci-Fi setting featuring stompy robots out there.

I'm a filthy heathen that got into this game because of the 1995 video game release on the Sega Genesis.

 

[White Devil]

I got into it with MechWarrior 2. My dad bought our first personal computer in the early 90s, a serial port joystick, and some games like Air Warrior, TIE Fighter, and MW2. That pretty much sealed my fate. Ironically though I grew up to fucking hate the Clans.

 

[Snekposter]

I got into it with MechWarrior 2. My dad bought our first personal computer in the early 90s, a serial port joystick, and some games like Air Warrior, TIE Fighter, and MW2. That pretty much sealed my fate. Ironically though I grew up to fucking hate the Clans.

To be fair the Clans make even the worst successor states like the Cappies look sane and reasonable. For all of the atrocities the Succession Wars had "systematically vaporizing an entire city from orbit out of spite at some guys breaking out of prison" was not one of them, and said atrocities were primarily geared towards strategic targets like industrial centers, R&D complexes, and troop concentrations with the cities and civilians around them being collateral damage.

 

[Corn Flakes]

To be fair the Clans make even the worst successor states like the Cappies look sane and reasonable. For all of the atrocities the Succession Wars had "systematically vaporizing an entire city from orbit out of spite at some guys breaking out of prison" was not one of them, and said atrocities were primarily geared towards strategic targets like industrial centers, R&D complexes, and troop concentrations with the cities and civilians around them being collateral damage.

In fairness, even the other Clans looked at the Jaguars (and later on the Falcons) and went "dude, WTF?!". The Turtle Bay massacre was the first step in the Jaguars' downfall, and Malvina Hazen's Mongol Doctrine fucked the Falcons so hard they're basically the Wolves' pets until they can regain their honor.

The Clans are absolutely batshit, but even they have their limits. And then there's Kwamashu. If there are any Republic of the Sphere fanboys out there (I'm sure there must be at least one misguided soul like that), just throw that article in their face.

 

[Snekposter]

In fairness, even the other Clans looked at the Jaguars (and later on the Falcons) and went "dude, WTF?!". The Turtle Bay massacre was the first step in the Jaguars' downfall, and Malvina Hazen's Mongol Doctrine fucked the Falcons so hard they're basically the Wolves' pets until they can regain their honor.

The Clans are absolutely batshit, but even they have their limits. And then there's Kwamashu. If there are any Republic of the Sphere fanboys out there (I'm sure there must be at least one misguided soul like that), just throw that article in their face.

Turtle Bay specifically and the Jaguars in general aside, the Falcons were engaging in mass deportation of their brand new civilian castes for use as labor back in the Homeworlds. "No no, you're isorla, you get no say in what we do to and with you." Keep in mind that Jaguars aside, it was the sanest clans that wound up in the Inner Sphere, mostly because the insane ones were too incompetent and weak to win the Trials to participate. The Fire Mandrills chimp out at everyone and everything not in their Kindraa like the primates they worship, the Coyotes wound up backing the Society, the Steel Vipers who started the Wars of Reaving got stepped on due to their own taint, and the Horses, Scorps, and Ravens went "fuck this shit" and bailed once the Wars of Reaving kicked off.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

I would also like to note that Turtle Bay underwent a full-on uprising (to help cover Hohiro Kurita escaping). This is NOT something the Clans have a track record of tolerating.

And it still became a major black mark against the Smoke Jaguars when they leveled Turtle Bay with their warships.

There's a rather grim bit from Lethal Heritage, where Clan warriors begin systematically flattening buildings in the ghetto because they tracked a saboteur back there. They only stop when a Buddhist monk takes responsibility for it -- but they just shoot him and walk off. It never occurs to them that he might've been lying (to stop them from killing more people).

(Incidentially, the real saboteur, a member of tha yakuza resistance, gets told by his oyabun (boss) to take a knife and chop off a couple of his own fingers for letting civilians and a Buddhist monk take the blame.)

But it was very indicative that the Clans, early on, had no idea how to handle the Inner Sphere people they were collecting along with the planets.

 

[BlackDragoons]

I would also like to note that Turtle Bay underwent a full-on uprising (to help cover Hohiro Kurita escaping). This is NOT something the Clans have a track record of tolerating.

And it still became a major black mark against the Smoke Jaguars when they leveled Turtle Bay with their warships.

There's a rather grim bit from Lethal Heritage, where Clan warriors begin systematically flattening buildings in the ghetto because they tracked a saboteur back there. They only stop when a Buddhist monk takes responsibility for it -- but they just shoot him and walk off. It never occurs to them that he might've been lying (to stop them from killing more people).

(Incidentially, the real saboteur, a member of tha yakuza resistance, gets told by his oyabun (boss) to take a knife and chop off a couple of his own fingers for letting civilians and a Buddhist monk take the blame.)

But it was very indicative that the Clans, early on, had no idea how to handle the Inner Sphere people they were collecting along with the planets.

I need to finish Heir to the Dragon so I can start reading the Blood of Kerensky trilogy.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I would also like to note that Turtle Bay underwent a full-on uprising (to help cover Hohiro Kurita escaping). This is NOT something the Clans have a track record of tolerating.

And it still became a major black mark against the Smoke Jaguars when they leveled Turtle Bay with their warships.

There's a rather grim bit from Lethal Heritage, where Clan warriors begin systematically flattening buildings in the ghetto because they tracked a saboteur back there. They only stop when a Buddhist monk takes responsibility for it -- but they just shoot him and walk off. It never occurs to them that he might've been lying (to stop them from killing more people).

(Incidentially, the real saboteur, a member of tha yakuza resistance, gets told by his oyabun (boss) to take a knife and chop off a couple of his own fingers for letting civilians and a Buddhist monk take the blame.)

But it was very indicative that the Clans, early on, had no idea how to handle the Inner Sphere people they were collecting along with the planets.

And that's why they essentially just contracted ComStar to manage the planets in their occupation zones. After all, ComStar was the successor to the Department of Communications of the Star League, surely the Clans could trust them. Jerome Blake even helped Aleksandr Kerensky with Operation EXODUS. What could possibly go wrong?!

Man, was that a miscalculation.

 

[Snekposter]

There's a rather grim bit from Lethal Heritage, where Clan warriors begin systematically flattening buildings in the ghetto because they tracked a saboteur back there. They only stop when a Buddhist monk takes responsibility for it -- but they just shoot him and walk off. It never occurs to them that he might've been lying (to stop them from killing more people).

Na, they don't walk off. They finish the job on all the buildings they said they were going to level if nobody came forwards because that's what a bunch of weaklings too cowardly to defend themselves deserve.

Yes, that's hilariously contradictory, but the Jaguars viewed killing civilians as a perk of the job. A bunch of Elementals on garrison duty gunning down random villages for fun whenever bombs went off, and laughing about how them gunning down random villages made more bombers and so more excuses to gun down entire random villages is what finally broke Trent and convinced him his Clan was a lost cause.

And that's why they essentially just contracted ComStar to manage the planets in their occupation zones. After all, ComStar was the successor to the Department of Communications of the Star League, surely the Clans could trust them. Jerome Blake even helped Aleksandr Kerensky with Operation EXODUS. What could possibly go wrong?!

Man, was that a miscalculation.

Man, if only someone could have warned them that ComStar couldn't be trusted. And not even the Successor States. I'm pretty sure Natasha told everyone at some point that ComStar were up to no good. After all, the Wolves very conspicuously didn't deliver their messages to the Successor Lords to go meet up on Outreach through HPG or invite ComStar, something Justin Allard pointed out to Hanse while they were there. Sharilar Mori leaking SCORPION to the Combine probably just confirmed what everyone knew and was already expecting. Its not like the DMI were the only ones who could put two and two together about the Death Commandos being in two places at once, after all.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Man, if only someone could have warned them that ComStar couldn't be trusted. And not even the Successor States. I'm pretty sure Natasha told everyone at some point that ComStar were up to no good. After all, the Wolves very conspicuously didn't deliver their messages to the Successor Lords to go meet up on Outreach through HPG or invite ComStar, something Justin Allard pointed out to Hanse while they were there. Sharilar Mori leaking SCORPION to the Combine probably just confirmed what everyone knew and was already expecting. Its not like the DMI were the only ones who could put two and two together about the Death Commandos being in two places at once, after all.

Probably because inter-Clan cooperation is hilariously rare, and Clan Wolf put Natasha through another Trial of Position because they didn't believe her record.

Yes, short-sighted, but that's the Clans for you circa 3050.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Re: the Smoke Jaguars. There's a damn good reason other Clans weren't weeping when they got Annihilated. You know you fucked up when a fellow Clan defects just to fuck you over like the Nova Cats did.

Probably because inter-Clan cooperation is hilariously rare, and Clan Wolf put Natasha through another Trial of Position because they didn't believe her record.

Yes, short-sighted, but that's the Clans for you circa 3050.

Between inter-Clan cooperation being shit (most of the time they only shared information through the Grand Council or through their Merchants), and their individual intelligence services being a dangerous combination of incompetent and overconfident, they were just fucked. A Clan Watch that's specialized in spying on other Clans, no matter how good at it it is, won't stand a chance against ComStar... and they won't even know it.

 

[not william stenchever]