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Repostan'

Hey /btg/, I need some advice on my planned evolution of my ASF squadrons, as it stands I only have 2, but I'm hoping to upgrade to 4 with a command flight once I get some of that sweet, sweet clan salvage to resell, on top of the contract pay from the initial invasion.

Anyways, I'm wondering if I'm pants on head for the following breakdown:

Interceptor Squadron: 6x Royal Sabre
Light Fighter Squadron: 4x Spad-503, 2x Royal Zero
Heavy Fighter Squadron: 2x Royal Lightning, 4x Royal Eagle
Dropship/Strike Squadron: 4x Royal Ahab, 2x Royal Stuka.

Command flight I'm not sure on but will likely be either Eagles or Stukas.

As it stands I plan to retire the Ahabs as they get shot down, with Stukas. It's currently 3048, and I'm not really expecting to upgrade unless I capture omnifighters or until I can purchase IS designs.

>royals
>in a merc unit
>in 3048

Eh. With that level of canon fidelity, just introduce the Eisensturm really early and fill out your force with that.

So the lesson is, as modern america knows very,very well, a small force with disproportionately large amounts of fire support that the opposition cannot counter can defeat vastly larger eneny units
where the hell is this unit digging all those royal fighters up from in the thirty fucking fifties?

I worked for Comstar on retainer, for about 7 years, and refit a lot of units to the royal standard.

Most of those units aren't actually royals outside the Spads and Ahabs, just refit to the standard. And now that lostech is on the open market, I can refit everything without needing to suckle at the stars tits.

It always bothered me that a squadron in BT was six fighters. I think it's the same for Renegade Legion. Why didn't they keep the twelve unit structure for air units. Is this something common in real world air force units?

I have no idea why they did that, and it bugs the hell out of me, too

They modeled it after the dual system with a wingman. So an Aero Lance is two fighters. All the other structure stuff is copied straight off mechs. 3 lances to a company/squadron and on up the chain.

Yes and no.

The only real reason I can see for this is that transport size and development shaped actual unit organization, with the leopard CV conversion leading to a squadron being made of 3 wing pairs instead of whatever the old method was.

You see this repeated with the Overlord and other CV dropships.

>I worked for Comstar on retainer, for about 7 years, and refit a lot of units to the royal standard.

ComStar would not hand that shit out, user. Operation Holy Shroud was all about making sure nobody had that gear and they literally killed the guy who accidentally let the Dracs get maybe 36 machines with two or three pieces of normal SLDF tech on them each, tops.

Shit, in that era mercs shouldn't even have access to advanced tech beyond special snowflakes like the Kell Hounds, Wolf Dragoons, Snord's Irregulars and maybe GDL, even *with* the 3039 tech retcons.

Your force literally has a better upgrade rate than Hell's Black Aces in 3067, and they are notable for being Aero specialists with deep pockets and favouritism from the Capellans.

Your campaign so do what you want but it's not something that would logically follow from canon. From where you currently are the next logical step is upgrading anything that moves 6/9 or slower to the Eisensturm, that's just how it is.

Blame market generation because I only started on the road of sucking blakist dick because they left an alacorn on the market in the 3020s

>playing AtB
>thinking you've got an actual Merc unit

Anything done in ATB is like the Hobbit movie version. Stupid and asinine. Just look at our flagship Mary-Sue, Atleast Itsnot.

>Shit, in that era mercs shouldn't even have access to advanced tech beyond special snowflakes like the Kell Hounds, Wolf Dragoons, Snord's Irregulars and maybe GDL, even *with* the 3039 tech retcons.
Technically you should also include the Big MAC and the singular prototype Devastator they captured from the FedCom, but the basic point absolutely still stands

>

here again.

Any ideas guys?

or should I just roll with a few ideas and see what comes of it?

Run a dual between a rifleman and two Locust-1Ms in megamek, and then turn the battle into a story. It will be hilarious, guaranteed

No, the lesson modern america knows is PGMs are fucking OP. Like, there's a reason the big event that caused the RMA was the advent of modern PGMs.

Make some PAF-bugs(MGs/RLs only, final destination), then do a deathmatch. Write it up and post here.

>PAF-bugs
???

sorry, not good with acronyms.

In 3048 the NAIS has begun to experiment with the revolutionary idea of putting ferro-aluminium armour on an ASF.

I'm sorry dude, but if your merc unit is kitted out with better gear in 3048 than the pinnacle of innovation for the era can muster and what the most elite ASF-focused mercs could do almost 30 years from where you are it's gonna stick out.

Up to you how you want to proceed but a lot of ASF refits will be from the 3050s or later and fielded exclusively by the Houses for a while by canon.

So either dial it way, way back or ramp it up to the next level, which is the Eisensturm. Nothing about it is particularly revolutionary, after all. It just didn't exist until the new design philosophy with XL engines came through IRL.

>No. If you're playing a campaign and you've earned the regiment, then that isn't Mary Sue whatsoever.
Pretty much. Back when I started ATB it was year 3000 and I had 12 mechs, 12 mechwarriors and about 20 support staff. My first contract was pirate hunting and I quickly lost two of my starting mechs in as many weeks to ammo detonations. My first combat death happened in the first month when my heavy lance leader got headshot out of his warhammer. But it earned me cash and salvage, which I used to expand.

It's been several years of campaigning since then, I now have just under 50 mechs in the hangar. However I only have 27 mechwarriors and I plan to sell the spare mechs. I already have just over 30 million cbills in the bank and my hope is that I can save up enough to buy a Leopard before the decade is out.

Well they can counter the aerospace at least. Every time my aeros take any damage at all they seem to have at least a 50% chance of lawn darting into the ground, even with veteran pilots. Riflemen are fairly common in this era and particularly deadly for obvious reasons. So for now I only use Sabres, they're light and cheap and easily replaceable.

What makes combined arms so powerful is that things that aren't mechs and aeros are dirt cheap. In my last fight I headcapped a phoenix hawk with a PPC. I also have another one I salvaged with a dead engine. If I part out the broken one to make it functional again I can sell the mech for enough money to buy THREE mobile long tom carriers or two more Sabre aeros. That's why I have so many support assets, they're cheap, easy to salvage and highly effective. I couldn't have made my company into a regiment without them.

It skews the BV sometimes if choose to over-deploy, but no one is paying me to fight fair, bringing my people home alive is my highest priority. ATB is the next best thing to Mechcommander 3 for me and I am playing it as such.

Starting with 12 mechs in 3000 is mary sue in and of itself.

Oh God it's this guy again. Don't respond to anything he says

Periphery-As-Fuck. It used to be a big thing, faded away because it's kinda boring (unless you're a hardcore man who fears no heat and uses burst-fire MGs)

oh, so cheap, frankenmechs with outdated gear sort of thing?

So I asked this question last thread, didn't get a response.

What's the rules regarding fuel and conventional fighters? Supposedly they're more fuel efficient, but I'm wondering where the rules are on that. Can someone enlighten me, either by explaining it or giving a page ref?

Basically, yeah. ICE and MG refits, RL10s, SHS, 5 tons of ammo with no CASE, ect.

P. 186, Tech Manual. They get 160 Fuel points per ton compared to the 80 of ASFs.

>Are there any scenario books that include them? Like typical force composition?

The only one I'm aware of is The Dragon Roars. Elements of the 1st Canopian Cuirassiers fighting the Smoke Jaguars as part of the SLDF. Their first company is as follows:

Command Lance
>BNC-5S Banshee
>CGR-1A1 Charger
>CN9-A Centurion
>VND-1R Vindicator
Assault Lance
>FLS-8K Flashman
>WHM-7H Warhammer
>ARC-2R Archer
>GHR-5H Grasshopper
Pursuit Lance
>QKD-4G Quickdraw
>WFT-1 Wolftrap
>HER-1A Hermes
>PNT-9R Panther

So not the worst selection ever... but not really too highspeed.

They get some better gear from the Capellans later on, but as befitting a Periphery state they're always a technological stepchild.

>PaF
Did someone say PaF? I love me some PaF.

You can look at a field manual I suppose for starters on regiments and such.

That's it? So just like the old Master Rules, then...

>BNC-5S Banshee

Wasn't aware the Lyrans sold to the Canopians.

>Banshee 5S
>Flashman
>Wolftrap
I would have never assumed the MoC could have this kind of shit in the Invasion era. Especially the Flashman. Huh.

Somebody better let the MUL guys know, I guess.

Yeah but at the rate you go through fuel in atmosphere that can be pretty significant.

Or could be, I guess, if ASFs didn't usually go faster than conventionals with better armour and guns.

So what the hell, have the current roster. I can't expand much currently because I've only got 400 million after buying a Texas, and I'm still working on a contract.

With the price mods, Clan mechs are expensive. Like 50 million for a Mad Cat expensive.

What price mods are you using?

Currently 1.75x for Clan gear because I'm sitting on/in the Clan OZs, and it's 3058. In 3050 I had it as high as 2.75x.

Doing some MM test runs with all the TW stuff enabled using 5 Locust 1Ms. Any suggestions for fun opponents?

Pic related.

But that's already been done.

Can someone explain the actual strategy this guy was trying to push? Like I get that's it's just a fat quad full of streaks, but what was the actual point of making it?

What are the average sizes for mercenary groups per era? I know after the tech level goes up and older stuff becomes obsolete, owning your own battlemech becomes trickier.

Given that the vast majority of merc units are this, in all eras, it'd likely be company size.

Essentially, it boils down to the guy saying "NUH UH" whenever you brought up a counter. Out range the paltry 9 hex radius of IS Streaks? We're fighting on Heavy Woods the map. Infernos and flamers to burn the woods down? Artillery fire. Manage to catch the mech by itself? It's not alone, there are a company of perfect counters to your own units. Oh and these are all used by the Otomo and Izanagi Warriors, because fuck you.

Company sized for most of the setting's history to a battalion from the mid CI to the Jihad is about right. Excluding the Regiment sized units in the Hidden War and the 1SW, which are outliers.

Having one 'Mech company at least available to do a specific job.

Any deficiencies in his designs would be covered by another company of units intended just for that role, and any deficiencies in them by another company, and so on and so forth.

Turles all the way down, basically.

I forget the specifics of his actual notions, but in practice they all boiled down to "You can only fight this in the way that benefits it the most, any other way is wrong".

So it's basically a super shitty design that was backed up by a REE-ING autist? Wow, I don't know why I expected anything better from a dude who writes fluff for his custom designs.

>Wow, I don't know why I expected anything better from a dude who writes fluff for his custom designs.
That hurts, really. Overall, Dermezel/DirewolfV/Painted Wolf is BattleTech's most recent Chris-Chan, rivaled only by HeroChip.

OTOH that said REEEing autist was still able to smack down Alex Knight when they played, and Knight had the Manei Domini half of the Opacus Venatori with their implants and custom 'Mechs.

Alex is now part of the dev team, so where is your god now, user?

I think there've been enough conversations on /btg/ as to the competency of the dev team.
No offense intended. But you have to admit that is a long backstory for a wannabe Mary Sue mech.

There there, CA. It's okay to be a flufffag. I too enjoy pouring over source material to figure out where my LRM5 came from and what brand it has to be to make sense.

Probably got specially equipped to fight the Jags

>HeroChip

Who?

Honestly pretty much all of them make sense. The Wolf Trap and maybe the Grasshopper are the only ones that stand out as WTF, and if not for the presence of the Archer and Warhammer I'd just chalk it up to the whole Unseen thing.

He could have beaten god, it doesn't keep a 3/5 quad 100 ton SRM boat from being stupid as hell.

It's 26.5 million c-bills and 27 hundred BV for something that brings less firepower to the table then a 2 million c-bill, 800 BV SRM carrier.

That fact is a knock at AK rather than suggesting any real value to this guy's stuff. Puts stuff like AK's whole adamant defense of RE lasers as totally the best thing for punching through specialty armors and that anyone saying otherwise being wrong in further perspective.

Weren't the Dracs flogging Wolf Traps off to anyone with enough C-bills in the period after finding them... inadequate?

Likely re-equipped as part of the SLDF effort. As First Lord Sun-Tzu did have authority over SLDF logistics.

So they just get a bunch of free advanced-tech Mechs with absolutely no valid in-game justification? That's complete bullshit. Fucking Canopians are the /trash/ faction.

Wait what? Wouldn't the justification be that they're part of the SLDF getting ready to fight the Clans and can't do that with Periphery gear?
Plus the First Lord, who it is established is in charge of logistics coordination, would probably swing some decent gear towards his allies?

Not sure if you're being sarcastic but while I hate "sueism" and related issues in BT, this one looks pretty legit.

>Wouldn't the justification be that they're part of the SLDF getting ready to fight the Clans and can't do that with Periphery gear?

That's a justification made up after the fact to cover up for the writer's blatant fiat/favoritism.

If the writers didn't want it to have happened, then it wouldn't have happened. Since it did happen, then it's clearly a case of writer fiat and therefore, bullshit.

If the Goliath was originally designed and built by Brigadier Corporation, a FWL company, what modern fighting tank should I base the chassis' looks on? Abrams? No way in fuck am I using the terrible project phoenix dog/gorilla reseen.

I'm really not sure if this is sarcasm.

It would almost certainly be an old -3E that they got a kit for during bulldog prep
>Especially the Flashman.
The SLDF lost a lotta mechs in the periphery, a few downgrsdes showing up here and there makes perfect sense to me

Why would it be? The same argument applies to the Cappies, the Suns, and the Burrs as well. It's bullshit and it needs to stop. Lay out the justifications in prior product, and then write what happens in future product as a result of those justifications, not "what you want to happen in the plot next."

What actually happens is that CGL says, "what do we want to happen next", and then they figure out a way to justify it. That's the definition of fiat.

Since the original (red: good) Goliath was based on the Crab Gunner from Fang of the Sun Dougram, I would guess it came from a futuristic view of possibly a WWII tank. I would possibly suggest some kraut Tiger tank from that era.
In Dougram, the Crab Gunner was an older design and being supplanted by newer forces even early on in this show's run. So again, possibly a WWII tank?

Nah, if going retro I'd say if going retro at least go with something from the 50s or 60s. And BT already has the Hetzer for WW2 vehicle based things. Maybe go with a Leopard 1, or bridge the ww2-modern gap at least go with the T-55 or Centurion.

The atb xls posted in the main page is outdate. New version is 2.31.xls

Ok

Genuinely mentally ill dude who's been posting off and on to BT forums since the late 90s. He has some .. questionable understandings of scientific principles.

>I designed a new kind of bioweapon to be simulated with the BattleTech & MechWarrior games -- similar to the killer bees of the late 20th century, this bioweapon is comprised of wasps that's aggressiveness has been genetically increased. These wasps are designed to sting people by injecting sea krate
poison into the victims' bloodstreams. The poison kills instantly. The wasps can be deployed in fighter bombs or in Gauss rifle shells. Once bomb/shell explodes, the wasps escape and attack any unarmored (infantry armor will protect the soldier) target (friend or foe) in a 120 meter radius. The number of people that can die is equal to the damage the bomb/shell could normally inflict times 60. For example, a Light Gauss Rifle filled with a wasp bioweapon could kill 480 people (8*60=480).

>bee-based railgun superweapon
Are we sure this isn't just kojima?

Here's a great summary post:

>Later HeroChip posts included the Bop Drive (a space movement drive based on, in essence, punching the starship forward from inside of it), Rage Potions (ammo for ballistic weapons that fired steroid clouds at friendly units), the PistonBallStick (a mech pogo stick), the LightningBolt MineBomb (a mine that acts as a turret that shoots lightning bolts), Weather Bombs, Poison Ivy Bombs, Tornado Bombs, the use of asteroids as tele-operated missiles in Battlespace (using the Bop drive to move), boarding large interstellar vessels by having very small interstellar vessels jumping inside of them, Mole Tanks, inflatable LRM ammo, the Overheater (Battlespace-scale weapon that amounts to a giant magnifying glass to burn starships), sticky grenades and - my personal favorite - the Shocktgun, which uses electricity to, and I quote, "As with voltage, this weapon will knock a person down ninety degrees and unconsciously out of phase with reality."

He was basically the Wile E. Coyote of BattleTech.

>this bioweapon is comprised of wasps that's aggressiveness has been genetically increased

Poor Glimmer!

youtube.com/watch?v=XI3bnkWD0Fg

Most of that sounds like something out of 40K. Why do people try to constantly cross genres like that? If you like that genre, play it, don't try and poison another one by bringing the content over to it.

That's just it: he's not crossing any genres in his mind. As far as he's concerned, everything he proposes would work because it operates on perfectly logical, standard scientific methodology. This is how Chip actually thinks the laws of reality operate.

Excellent Ideas gentlemen, thank you

>the Bop Drive

Now I have this image in my head of a spaceship that goes faster the harder you punch a forward-facing bulkhead.

>Stoker Wilson, get angrier! We're still at only 1.2 G acceleration!

They forgot to note that he also calls LAMs WingsTubes, because his mental image of one is basically a cylinder with wings strapped on.

There is a theoretical jump/acceleration drive using a similar principle: a fulcrum drive. Generating micro-gravity bubbles in front of the ship, each one stronger and stronger, basically accelerating the ship with the pull of gravity.

Of course, the practicality of that in BT would be virtually nil, there's no anti-grav or any kind of gravity control. All of the gravity experienced in zero-G is induced by thrust/acceleration, or by proximity to a large celestial body.

I don't think he started that one until he made it to the OF. He loves weirdo portmanteau terminology; he called anyone who made official rules "rulestypists" for a while.

Schizophrenia is a hell of a drug.

based Israel

Are there any prominent Jewish regiments or worlds in BT?

There's Zion in the FWL. Even the planetary flag shows a menorah and the capital's Beersheba.

Oh boy, I got that thanatos piece completed. Now to start on more stuff.

>An unfucked Lobo

Such a thing should not be possible

>the LightningBolt MineBomb (a mine that acts as a turret that shoots lightning bolts)
Okay, I can kind of see that in use as an infantry deterrent. Doesnt sound as abd as fucking bee bombs.

> the use of asteroids as tele-operated missiles in Battlespace

Considering the destructive power something that large could be capable of at a sufficient speed, I like this idea.

>(using the Bop Drive)
> ...the Bop Drive (a space movement drive based on, in essence, punching the starship forward from inside of it).

I dont think this would work.

> boarding large interstellar vessels by having very small interstellar vessels jumping inside of them

that's dumb

> inflatable LRM ammo
that's really dumb

> the Overheater (Battlespace-scale weapon that amounts to a giant magnifying glass to burn starships)
Stupid as fuck name, but I can see it... Actually no, that is astoundingly retarded.

>Sticky grenades
Well, that's so common in scifi that I dont see the problem with it

>Mole Tanks
Could work?

> Rage Potions
>the PistonBallStick

wad da fuggg

>Okay, I can kind of see that in use as an infantry deterrent. Doesnt sound as abd as fucking bee bombs.
It sounds neat, but how would you make it work? The energy reqs would mean you'd be better off just using laser weapons.

>Considering the destructive power something that large could be capable of at a sufficient speed, I like this idea.
It would be a planet-killer. That's about all it would be useful for, really. If you accelerated it too fast, it would be sheared apart by tidal forces and would skip off the atmosphere of whatever it hit. To actually have it reach impact velocity, it'd need to be going slow enough to not instantly burn up or ricochet off. At that point, not going to hit any Aero assets unless you hit a ship where everyone's not paying attention.

>that's dumb
And impossible under existing rules. KF drives obliterate other ships nearby when they exit jump.

>Well, that's so common in scifi that I dont see the problem with it
There are limpet mines and more, using magnetics and adhesives to stick to surfaces. So scaling it down to grenade size shouldn't be too hard or impractical.

Fantastic job on the Lobo as said. Avatar will also be nice after some clean up. Will definitely be using these for reference in my sprite endeavors.

Sexy tank. Would commit run over traffic cones and fire hydrants with.

>Now I have this image in my head of a spaceship that goes faster the harder you punch a forward-facing bulkhead.
Battletech needs One Punch Man?

Was the Sabre the only aerospace fighter being produced by the Canopians before the Trinity Alliance?

>inflatable LRM ammo

I've completely fucking lost it at the mental image of a mech unleashing a hail of balloons at the enemy

> the use of asteroids as tele-operated missiles in Battlespace

>Considering the destructive power something that large could be capable of at a sufficient speed, I like this idea.

Battletech's retarded cousin version of a Gundam Colony Drop?

> inflatable LRM ammo
>that's really dumb

Not in a Hideo Kojima world! The LRMs would inflate into blow up dolls to distract enemy soldiers with nearsightedness and give you several turns to shoot at them before they respond.

>Mole Tanks
>Could work?
Only if they call it the Naruto.

If Alex's designs are supposed to be the de-facto standard face of Battletech from now on, why does almost no one draw fan art of them?

M60!

Plethora of reasons.

1) Intricate designs. They're chock full of details.

2) MWO isn't all THAT popular.

3) The vast majority of battletech fans love the older designs more than they love the newer ones.

>3) The vast majority of battletech fans love the older designs more than they love the newer ones.

Even back in 2012, all you need to do was look at a Catapult and be convinced that the FD designs are superior and a brighter future for Battletech.

There's a mech perfect for it too.

Point 3 is basically that old fans like old things better, and most of the fans are old. I have never seen normal people liking the older aesthetics better than the new one

Yes. And even after the trinity alliance, their ENTIRE MILITARY had about 100 fighters total, though a moderate number are probably imported thunderbirds and the other one the TC makes

I mean 100 fighters is pretty good for a periphery realm that has a military industrial complex so small most of what they make for mechs are bugs.

True, but they were operating something like 25 mech regiments at the time. Guess xin sheng forgets about aerospace, too