Edit: Why did this get placed under this reply? I swore I replied to the main thread.

------
Oh God, it was me. I was the grognard all along.

I messed around with that for a while a few years ago (during that brief window when it was legit abandonware); couldn't get it to work at the time. Aspect ratios and whatnot, probably something to do with video drivers. I might give it another try once I'm finished with the colossal bibliography I'm on the hook for to finish off this ill-starred semester. For now, the new game will suffice.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Mechwarrior 5 is due out this year. That might scratch the itch without needing to do any archaeology at all.

-Merc
Keep Rat

Maybe. Given that one of the things I miss is the Solaris arc, though, it's probably not going to be the same.

(And yes, I know Solaris is in MechWarrior Online now. That's really not the same.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

We all miss Duncan Fisher.

>(And yes, I know Solaris is in MechWarrior Online now. That's
>really not the same.)

MWO is okay, but it can't really DO what a structured single player campaign can.

-Merc
Keep Rat

He's on the MWO Solaris and he's not lost a step......

Craig

I've had an SRM carrier ignore a perfectly open medium's back, that it could have hit without moving, to take a full move so it could unload its entire load into a then undamaged scout 'Mech's front, just because Dekker was driving it.

Well you know, mercenaries wonder around, and make debts doing so.

Debts must be paid after all. Or Maybe Dekker's been sleeping with all of the younger sisters of every MechWarrior across the galaxy?

Apparently saving Private Kowalski has become something of a cottage industry among the subset of players who like a self-imposed honor challenge, along with faux ironman runs and, hell, I don't know, probably somebody out there is trying to beat it without ever using lasers or some damn thing, gamers are feckin weird.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Sure, she claims that she just keeps taking cockpit hits, but clearly she's just headbanging and whacks her neurohelmet against the back of the couch until she's concussed.

(Also Ringo may be clinically depressed. Or Russian... it's hard to tell sometimes.)

"If you are tired of Ukrainian hard house, you are tired of life."

Also: MacCrofton Industries just did the "unearth the Argo" mission, and I'm sad that we had to wreck the pirate's Quickdraw so bad we couldn't get it working again this time. Where the hell am I ever going to find two more cut-receiver Yugo Quickdraw parts kits way the hell out here?

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

------
Oh God, it was me. I was the grognard all along.

It's been a long time since I played the pencil-and-paper version, but I remember wanting a lance of two specialists and two generalists so I could switch tactics on the fly.

Actually? No.

The original game didn't have hardpoints. Like, at all, in any capacity. You could put almost anything anywhere (I think literally the only restriction might have been "jump jets cannot go in the arms;" aside from that, free for all) as long as there was space for it; you were only limited by the number of slots in any given location. You could even fiddle around with stuff like "I can get more slots in my arms by taking off the hands," and some equipment can spread from the arms into the torso."

But you could go nuts. LRM10s in your legs? Sure, if that floats your boat. REAR-MOUNTED LRM10s in your legs? Hey man, they wouldn't judge.

This is actually something of a bone of contention in the fanbase of the new game; some people are all "fuck hardpoints, I want to be able to work up a mech from scratch using a blank paper doll" and others are all "you can sit and spin, I don't want to deal with the kind of broke-ass shit that custom mech designers could bring to the tabletop."

Anyway.

The reason the OmniMech concept seemed cheaty is because it very specifically allowed you to reconfigure your mechs (to a degree; stuff like engine size and whatnot were fixed) before any given battle with them. That's a big deal if you're playing in, oh, say, a scenario or a tournament where you have to take the same lance into battle multiple times in a row, or where you're unaware of the mission specifics until just before go time.

In the context of the new game... imagine if, after arriving in orbit and getting your mission briefing, that Yang could just dismount the equipment pods off your mechs and install new ones with different loadouts in like thirty minutes instead of thirty days. You could swap back and forth between your AC/10 and AC/5 variants of the Shadow Hawk quickly and easily.

THAT'S OmniMechs. It wasn't about the hardpoints, it was about being able to back up a semi with an equipment pod and a cable hoist to your mechs in the field and do an in-place refit without needing a full-on mech bay and hundreds of man-hours.

-Merc
Keep Rat

I suspected as much, but I haven't got a copy of the original core rulebook handy, and for some reason 'Mech construction rules don't seem to be in the Compendium, so I couldn't check.

I seem to recall that one of my colleagues in our high school campaign built...

... OK, you remember the Missile Boat from TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire? Like that, but with Small Lasers.

Like, all the Small Lasers that would fit on an Awesome.

In case any of you were wondering, that is a fuckton of Small Lasers. He could basically annihilate anything that came within three hexes of him. He'd just roll his dice over and over and over again and the enemy unit would just... go away.

But he couldn't harm anything four or more hexes away from him in any way.

>This is actually something of a bone of contention in the fanbase of
>the new game; some people are all "fuck hardpoints, I want to be able
>to work up a mech from scratch using a blank paper doll" and others
>are all "you can sit and spin, I don't want to deal with the kind of
>broke-ass shit that custom mech designers could bring to the
>tabletop."

Yeah, no, not with online multiplayer being a thing.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

(I know there has to have been something like above in a movie or tv show at SOME point but I'm tired and can't think of anything off the top of my head.)

"Oh, keep laughing you little punk. You WILL make a mistake. I WILL catch up to you and then I will *OWN* you."

>Like, all the Small Lasers that would fit on an Awesome.

>In case any of you were wondering, that is a fuckton of Small Lasers.
>He could basically annihilate anything that came within three hexes of him.
>He'd just roll his dice over and over and over again and the enemy unit would just... go away.

That's why MechWarrior Online introduced both hardpoints and ghost heat to the game (if you fire too many of the same weapon type simultaneously, you would gain additional heat above and beyond the heat the weapons generated individually.) Of course this was gamed in a number of different ways, including mounting just one of whatever short of what would cause ghost heat, or stagger-firing with one less weapon and firing the other set of weapons while the first cooled off.

That being said, the hardpoints do fit in lore-wise, as most 'Mechs have only relatively minor variations in the same tech era. (Or at least all the officially documented variants.)

Craig
(I also designed a Mech for the Solaris VII Ishiyama battleground that had an AC/20 firing forward and another that fired to the rear.....)

Remember the MechWarrior pods?

I used to have a bunch of friends who'd visit NYC and we'd go to the MW stage just off Times Square, and blow each other the hell up.

One time for the shits of it, I went with a Blackjack. And one of the guys started chasing me in his big ol' mech, and I realized...

My Blackjack has rear-mounted lasers.

Sure, I was taking some damage, but boy was he surprised when I kneecapped his mech.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Damn, I wish that place was still there.

Say, Geoff, was it Josh and I who introduced you to it, or you who introduced us? I can't remember -- all I recall is that the three of us took a break from the anime convention we were attending at the Marriott Marquis to spend a couple hours there. (That was the convention where Zoner ran a fanfic panel...)

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

New favorite Medusa line, at the start of a mission on a polar map:

"Should've brought a coat..."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Wasn't really needed either, given the events of the tutorial mission.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Mm. It feels like someone decided, "We need to make absolutely sure this is personal," but, well, they already did that, unless you're playing it as a stone-cold money-is-all-that-matters mercenary, in which case, this development still won't.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I thought it was, until I stopped trying to not blow up any of the ammo dumps.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

I wouldn't mind that, but nobody ever stands in the damn blast range hexes!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Hunh. I dropped the panther and the catapult and some other POS with like two mlaser shots before they were able to get properly on the field.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

------
Oh God, it was me. I was the grognard all along.

Then of course there's the unicornCataphract . . .

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

No, seriously, look forward to it - the in-game models in this game are fairly direct ports of the MWO ones, so once the copyright trolls lose their leg to stand on, we can look forward to DLC.

Also, it is possible to mock up a Marauder layout using an Orion, but the result kind of sucks due to the differences in the way heat works and the ruthless way the AI zeroes in on your most weakly armored units.

-----
Iä! Iä! Moe fthagn!

Those 'Mechs were already redesigned for another currently-extant game, though, as were the Archer and the Phoenix Hawk. And the names were never overlapping in the first place.

I guess I was thrown off by the fact that some of the other Reseen 'Mechs are in here, but upon reflection, they're all the Sun Fang Dougram ones. (Well, and the Locust was originally from, what, Crusher Joe, I think, along with the Galleon tank.)

Still, I was under the evidently mistaken impression that that had already been sorted out. I guess I should have known by now that as long as there's another nickel lying around someplace that one or the other side's lawyers haven't picked up yet, it'll never be.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

About three days before the game came out, Harmony Gold lost yet another court case, and it looks like it's gone as badly for them as their clash with Hasbro over Jetfire a few years back. It wouldn't surprise me if rest of the Reseen show up in a patch or DLC very soon.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

I already owned a copy of the first revision of Technical Readout 3025, the one where they dropped all the Land/Air and the first round of copyrighted images, but this is an interesting addition even if I don't play much BattleTech.

Yup, that's right.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Two words: Harmony Gold.

I won't go into deep comments about it, but HBS part of the case has been dismissed with prejudiced, and the case now hinges on whether or not HG has the IP rights to the Robotech/Battletech images. All I know for sure is there's a lot of paperwork being generated as both side do not look to be backing down...

Craig

This should help explain the situation as it now stands....

Craig

Yeah, also with the Demolisher and the SRM carrier.....

Craig

I haven't seen a Demolisher yet, but SRM Carriers can fuck right off.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

SRMCarrier.vid

https://giant.gfycat.com/LimpingWanAmericanbittern.mp4

------
Oh God, it was me. I was the grognard all along.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was making that face. "It's still shooting. It won't stop shooting. HOW IS IT STILL SHOOTING?!"

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

The first time I targeted one, and I saw the weapon list on the righthand side of the target info screen...

SRM6
SRM6
SRM6
SRM6
SRM6
SRM6
SRM6
SRM6
SRM6
SRM6

I knew at least one of my guys was about to have a rough day at the office.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Well that and it's
LRM20
LRM20
LRM20
brother who was hiding over a hill and using the rest of the units on the map as spotters.

Two Assault missile carriers, their two Heavy spotters, and then their backup of SRM Locus pack were just two much for my team of mid-tier mediums. Two of my 'mech were straight up stripped of all parts but the head when they fell over and another was injury killed thanks to a head shot, losing a side torso, and then falling over.

Edit: Incidentally, what video was the clip pulled from, I'd love to hear that one with sound.

CohhCarnage let's play BattleTech pre-release, video nr 22, 24 minutes and 40 seconds in, approximately(yes, I went to find out).

Or, to make it easier, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69FIsIIj5CQ&t=1480s

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

To quote X from The Revolution Will Be Televised, "When I get up, I'm gonna throw you a beating."

Yeah, Cohn. Watched him play the whole story game through. After that, SRM carriers became "Kill it with fire!" targets......

Craig

A what? <grin>

-- Bob
(Who doesn't see his last name in very many non-ogre contexts these days)
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

It's a tank with three particle cannons. Quite a nasty customer, even with the BT system's strong bias against vehicles.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I don't remember Dragon ever doing anything with BattleTech. It was an in-house TSR publication in those days, so it would have been a bit odd for them to be spotlighting a FASA product. The Schrek might've debuted in BattleTechnology, which was a similar sort of magazine for BattleTech back then, but we didn't have a reliable source for BattleTechnology in my circle (ISTR its publication was pretty irregular compared with , which our regular DM had a subscription to), so I couldn't swear to it.

I remember the Schrek first from the old Technical Readout: 3026. I can't remember offhand if it's in CityTech (which originally introduced non-'Mech fighting vehicles to BattleTech, IIRC), but it wouldn't shock me.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I've got the Dragon Magazine CD Archive; I looked up when I got home from work last night.

I remember this especially because of the following: "Notable Armor Units and Crews:
A private in the heavy armor unit of Halsten’s Brigade, Frederick
“"Sniper"” Jones earned his nickname by his skill in making
incredible shots. On at least three occasions when his Shreck has
been battling overwhelming ‘Mech forces, Jones has picked out a
commander and made a kill with a PPC shot to the head."

I never had a Dragon subscription back in the day. I remember borrowing this from my gaming cousin for a weekend at a cabin w/o power or water. I remember the sniper. I remember the three-barrel illustration. It was my only exposure to Battletech. That was over 30 years ago. How do I still remember that?

Huh! Weird. Well, I stand corrected, then.

>I remember the sniper. I remember the three-barrel
>illustration. It was my only exposure to Battletech. That was over
>30 years ago. How do I still remember that?

That kind of memory fragment is weird. I still have bizarrely clear memories of obscure science fiction stories I read about that long ago in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, to which my mother got me a subscription when I was 12 in the mistaken belief that magazine-caliber sci-fi was all-ages. The most prominent one I remember was George Alec Effinger's novelette Unferno, which is about a man who is mistakenly sent to Hell when he dies, and ends up in charge of the place because his happening to arrive at the exact moment a repentant Lucifer was leaving caused a fault in the automated bureaucracy.

Come to think of it, there may be an echo or two of this in the way the NXE movie played out.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Very weird. Research turns up http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Dragon_Magazine, which shows 6 total BT Dragon articles, including campaign rules. Maybe light lunch reading today.

>>How do I still remember that?
>
>That kind of memory fragment is weird. I still have bizarrely clear
>memories of obscure science fiction stories I read about that long ago
>in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, to which my mother got me
>a subscription when I was 12 in the mistaken belief that
>magazine-caliber sci-fi was all-ages. The most prominent one I
>remember was George Alec Effinger's novelette Unferno, which is
>about a man who is mistakenly sent to Hell when he dies, and ends up
>in charge of the place because his happening to arrive at the exact
>moment a repentant Lucifer was leaving caused a fault in the automated
>bureaucracy.

You're not kidding about weird. I have a psych degree; I *know* how tricky memory can be. And it still surprises me. (Full Disclosure: Said degree is almost 25 years old. I am not, nor have I ever been, in practice. I have not, am not, and will not be performing any analysis on anybody, anywhere, anytime. I'm just tired of the looks I get when this inevitably comes out.)

I've got the same memories of Analog stories I read while rousting through my Pa's boxes of reading material in the basement. Amazing how many stories from the 70s and 80s stick with us.

>Come to think of it, there may be an echo or two of this in the way
>the NXE movie played out.

Heh. That makes some sense.

For even MORE sillyness (and tying in to the whole HG thing only tangentally) I've been having fun with the whole Argo part of the storyline since the American dub (back when they thought that anime needed to be 'cleaned' to be acceptable to American audiences) of Space Battleship Yamato, "Star Blazers" was one of my first exposures to the Genre. The one where they renamed Yamato... "ARGO"

So, I did find myself breaking out into the American version of the OP theme when I completed that mission; and, have been having sort of several related snippets running through my head.

"Sailing for the distant Star, of the Planet Cormandar,"
"Your pronouncing it wrong, Darius"
"It Rymes better this way, Muckraker"
"Oh?... Fighting Battles far and near, all to retake Coromandir"
"Chasing C-Bills far and Wide, Who knows what salvage we'll find?"
"Your a lousy composer, but a Darn good XO, Darius."

Star, if you were having problems with the CAPTCHA, we got that straightened out some weeks back. If it was something else, please email me so we can fix it.

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.