/btg/ BattleTech General

...

That's not even BT art, is it? It's too good to be. Too closely reminiscent of Studio Nue.

Mein crackah.

It cosplays as wolverine on the werkend. The G is arguably the best variant.

It's the back cover to CityTech, so yes it's BT.

Is this some kind of joke? Jim Holloway is THE Battletech cover artist of the 80's. Read the old stuff, it's a ton of fun.

Well why isn't he anymore? This stuff is unbelievable for BattleTech art. Almost makes the setting appealing even.

He did battletech stuff for like ten years straight, all the original stuff the grogs know and love from the scenario books to Citytech to Mechwarrior 1st Edition.

He's famous in old school DnD as well.

>Well why isn't he anymore?
He hasn't been super visible in the RPG biz in general since like 1994.

If I had to guess, FASA fuccking him over, not paying and him spending his time elsehwhere.

>You ain't gonna get an argument from me there.

same with me, and it makes sense- when so many inner sphere worlds have regular jumpship meets and basic civilian droppers everywhere, why not go to some other planet?

>Is this some kind of joke? Jim Holloway is THE Battletech cover artist of the 80's. Read the old stuff, it's a ton of fun.
Some of the best 20 bucks I ever spent was a copy of "The Tales of the Black Widow". True Mad Max in Space there, really has soul.

>Selp me on the ghost bears without shitposting
If you want to play clan in the 3050s and not be dicks, or if you want to downplay the obviously stupid clan "economies" Ghost Bear has you covered. Compared to the rest of the invaders, the Bears were arguably the kindest and best to the citizenry of the worlds they captured.

>Compared to the rest of the invaders, the Bears were arguably the kindest and best to the citizenry of the worlds they captured.
only after the retcon. originally were almost as bad as the jags

This. They didn't get the whole carebear reputation until later. And that was based on the fact that they were the only clan not to completely kill the family structure in their warrior class.

>Too closely reminiscent of Studio Nue.

>Has a nickname "Hanzo".
>Clearly shows the rocket pods on Warhammer.
>Mega RPG nerd.

He was a weeb, wasn't he?

All the FASA boys were weebs. You didn't even get access to most anime in those days if you weren't.

Internet-spoiled numbnuts chanting about "weebs" have no idea of the immense, thankless hard work and masturbation the western anime scene is built upon. The tears-of-frustration-inducingly degraded VHS recordings, copied with video boxes of the time to infinity to reach the many grasping hands, the furtive secrecy, the terrible personas that had to be suffered in order to spread the evangelion in smelly corners of comic and game cons, the living of double-identities necessitated by the hobby and the understanding that non-infected people could never, ever understand or forgive the practice...

The last clause reminds me of some of the old gang. I got my first copy of patlabor from an actual police officer. He used to doodle comics about arriving to work in one. The poor bastard had the drawing skills of a thalidomide child on too much red bull.

That just introduces a different continuity problem. People don't leave behind everything they know for the hazards and discomforts of colonial life (especially in alien biospheres) when room and resources are plentiful at home. An Inner Sphere full of 1/100th settle worlds doesn't make sense unless they're all populated by Finns and Canadians.

Is there ever a reason to equip machine guns instead of small lasers on mechs?

>) when room and resources are plentiful at home. An Inner Sphere full of 1/100th settle worlds doesn't make sense unless they're all populated by Finns and Canadians.

That's literally how the colonization of Battletech is already written. It's modeled after the western expansion of the US where many first settlers fucked off to the reaches the more government encroached on their homes. The 2300's are full of people just loading up and fucking off as far from the TH as they can.

And most battletech worlds with even billions of people only have like one continent on the planet settled with the rest of the place wild and untouched.

So, no. It doesn't introduce any kind of continuity problem. That's how the universe is already written.

Machines that already ride the heatcurve hard and killerizing infantry. Plus they're more flexible when you play with the option rapid fire.

Status: No Country For TOLD Men

Small lasers do not have anti-infantry ability.

And that aside, it is relatively easy to "game" machineguns by equipping a few powerful energy weapons that overwhelm your heatsinks, then spend the leftover tonnage on machineguns that are basically free fire on that. Treat it as zero range critseeking, like SRMs without the heat.

What does /btg/ think of FJ4's CGI artwork?

Reminds me of the original DA art and that makes me both rationally and violently angry.

How so?

Reminds me of Pavel's work from the 90s.

So when is Veeky Forums going to kickstart a class action lawsuit against harmony gold for fraudulent IP infringement claims?

Yes, that makes the Terran Alliance makes sense (people wanting to leave an overcrowded, overexploited Earth). But then unless Terra just keeps spewing people into the void, enough to populate all space, it doesn't work beyond that. It also doesn't explain why people keep going to different all-new worlds over and over when there's a host of underpopulated, underexploited ones out there, because again, there's very real costs and risks in choosing a new world over one that's already been partially settled and has some infrastructure and the like. You need a compelling reason to ignore that. In some cases it could be a persecuted or fanatical religion or political movement that has to be alone, but beyond that it doesn't make much sense.

Because 3DCG has no place on the cover of any Battletech product but a video game. And DA stuck that shit front and center for 8 years straight instead of any decent traditional painted art, even on novels.

The best mech in the game is the Arcas, not the Karhu.

It looks like mid 90s cg, and of middling quality at that. Overall, not great.

Heard you talkin' shit like I wouldn't hear you.

Have you seen all the proto states of the inner sphere? That's exactly what they did. Everybody out trying to make a stake and then spreading out a little to the surrounding worlds as their primary colony became established. It's the Morman response.

Oh man, the Shads look awful.

When it also means we can get the IP into the hands of someone more competent than CGL.

So MM just gave me a QUA -51T

Its(at least to my newbie eyes) fairly good. Its gonna cost me 226,400 cbills to swap out all the industrial armour and structure and up gun it a bit, to give me what you see

This is so worth it right. There isn't some rule i haven't heard of that will make this a shit investment

Are you using the industrial cockpit with advanced fire controls that it came with, or are you upgrading to a full military cockpit?

It's a factory level refit to upgrade it, and it still isn't an actual BattleMech, so you're still driving a piece of garbage.

it came with a Standard cockpit so i was going to leave it

But does the piece of shit act like a normal mech post upgrade?

Yes, I get that. But I'm talking about beyond the initial stage. It's no coincidence that the great migrations of history occur with shortages of food, land, or raw materials, invading enemies, or an unexpected burst of fresh resources. In modern times, people generally left well-tamed areas because there wasn't enough food or land--Irish famine, English non-firstborn sons due to the practice of primogeniture, non-English Europeans with family landholds too small to support families after being divided between sons over and over. In a universe where every world is underpopulated and flush with materials, the basic, initial colonization drive still works (Azami need to Azami someplace else; Hindus want to collectivize over yonder; I found some germanium over here), but falls apart when trying to explain why, having made that settlement, why everyone leaves it to go found a series of other underpopulated worlds again and again. You can't at once say people leave comfy home to go be with fellow like-minded individuals, but at the first opportunity screw off and leave them for the rigors of parts unknown.

Wait turns out i have an extra 4.5 tones of space as i dont need ES

Any suggestions on stuff to add?

>But does the piece of shit act like a normal mech post upgrade?
Not really, no. Besides that, you've done so many mods it's not really a Quasit anymore.

>again and again

They didn't. Look at the colony dates. Almost the entire Inner Sphere was settled over the span of a hundred years. The only people interested in colonizing after that were the periphery powers like the Rimworlds as a way to acquire more resources. The original settlers moved out to a surrounding four or five worlds generally to be able to support the infrastructure for an interstellar state.

Sorry for the blog post.

Just found out the guy who introduced me to tabletop BT and roleplaying in general died a couple months ago. He was in his mid 50's so it wasnt too surprising. We hadnt really talked in about two years, but its still weird to think about.

I was part of his group for about 5 years in my middle-late teens in the mid 2000's, around that time we did build up to and then initial clan invasion, plus a few fun deep periphery gallivanting campaigns.

He had been running a 'playthrough' of BT starting from late 3SW until when we last talked PCs were coming back from Bulldog, it was somewhat AU because his players could affect the universe and have lasting consequences.

I'm mostly writing this because I dont have any contact details for any other people in his group, so I figured I'd share my sadness, I was really hoping to see how the Civil War went.

...aight ill buy that

If you have the tonnage, drop a Mlas for a Large laser and another HS or some armor?

How does this look. I really am just guessing.

Also why the large laser over just more mediums?

You'll outrange most of the light's you'll run into with a large laser.

>Internet-spoiled numbnuts chanting about "weebs" have no idea of the immense, thankless hard work and masturbation the western anime scene is built upon.

You mean the American scene.
Here in Europe, Japanese cartoons didn't have a problem with getting aired on TV, with numerous co-productions happening. Europe still is the world's biggest foreign consumer of manga, ahead of all of Asia.

The more the merrier, though.

It's like those autist deviantart accounts.
Where they're horrible and get even worse as time goes by, but relentlessly continue doing it.

Screen it out and pretend he doesn't exist is probably the best course of action. No hurt feelings on one side and no need to cringe even more on the other.

When we can prove that we have been financially impacted on by HG, which you need to do for class action suits.

If you mean donate to a defence fund for, remember that the legal eagle for CGL is Loren Coleman. Do you trust Loren with a potentially large sum of money placed directly in his hands to be used for the theoretical betterment of BT after what happened the last time they did that?

Not to mention that they're fucked for the case any way since they have a binding agreement saying they wouldn't infringe, made a bunch of new designs that weren't infringing, and then as soon as HG stopped breathing down their necks pumped out a bunch of designs that were intentionally created to look as much like the source ones as possible. Regardless of what we may think of HG's business ethics, that shit ain't gonna fly in court and is exactly why CGL accepted summary judgement in default against them on all points raised by HG.

The thing about him is his stuff really reminds me of HD Mechwarrior 2 stuff. While there is a certain quality to that, that stuff was low-poly for a reason. Sticking so close to it is kinda like an HD Minecraft skin.

Also, since nobody seems to have done it yet, Plogdump.

Starting with his new takes on the Protos. First the Siren.

Roc.

Gorgon.

Minotaur.

Cecerops.

These are pretty sick, i like yhem better than the original art for protos.

What's the meme here with the Vulpes exactly?

Makes me think of a cross between the mech from District 9 and a Titan from Titanfall.

Erineyes.

Delphine.

What Clan is that?

Minotaur P2.

Last Plog for now, not sure what this is. It kinda looks like a Kodiak, but then, I'm old and don't do much Dark Age.

Don't know if this was posted here either, but it's Bishop and we can't have enough of that.

Ever see Plogs version of the warships? Those are gorgeous also.

It looks nothing like Kodiak, this is clearly a battle armor

Feddie players bitch that it is totally like the worst 'Mech EVER and is symptomatic of the shit that constantly gets shovelled on them.

Non-Feddie players point out that it is shit easy to spam massive TMMs with it, that it kites like a mofo thanks to the twin Clan ER LLs, that the Stealth Armour on it actually saves you BV, and that, get this, you don't actually have to tape down the firing buttons because heat management is a thing.

Ogre BA?

I thought so but does the Ogre have that many weapons? I recall it only having battle claws and an SRM2. It looks a bit like that brawler BA in the /btg/TRO too, but if I recall that's lightly armed too.

>you don't actually have to tape down the firing buttons
But muh alpha strikes!

Tell me about your player characters, /btg/.

For me the most ironic thing is that they spent years saying they wanted a Grand Dragon or similar of their own and that any complaints about Drac/Cap/Burd machines were green saltybutt from players who couldn't into actual tactics, and when they finally get something that requires skill to use the sky is fucking falling all of a sudden.

My campaign died. Thanks for the reminder. It died for a stupid reason too, which sucks all the more.

RPG characters, tabletop wargame characters, AtB characters...what?

He was a SAFE operative. In true SAFE fashion, pretty much everyone had him figured out within a few days.

Replace the SRM-4 with a second LRM-5 and a third ML for a net gain in firepower. I would also recommend replacing the MG with a SPL for your anti-personnel needs.

Swap out the LRM-5 for a second SRM-4. Either replace a ton of ammo with a heat sink, or keep it and fill it with infernos.

Well that's because in Europe they didn't have companies like Harmony Gold shooting the legal exports in the leg.

Pretty much this and what's worth the Terran Alliance that was in place at the time when the major colonisation effort happened was really really shitty that I can understand people leaving in droves.

saves you BV, but costs a lot more to repair in a roleplaying setting.

*Sounds of Freedom*

>let me find something else to bitch about

The Vulpes would be welcomed with open arms by any non-Clan faction, and even some Clan factions. That you have to reach so far for something to complain about indicates what the real problem is.

I'm very sorry that CGL didn't cater to you with Boosted C3, Clan-tech Devastator like you expected but maybe after four fucking years you could get over your anal annhilation.

AFAIK Harmony Gold at least claims world-wide rights to Robotech/Macross. They only seem to be exerting those rights in the US, but whether that's because that's the only place they've had trouble or is all they care about I don't know.

It's a yet unnamed melee heavy. He does original art occasionally; this is one of those pieces.

IIRC, they only actually 'hold' rights within the US, though they could possibly control it elsewhere. There was a case years back in Japan that turned over the rights of the series to the original studio, Studio Nue, so right now HG only holds the rights of the series through US law because Studio Nue doesn't give a fuck about the American market. If they really wanted to they could punt HG out, but until that time HG is hellbent on holding what little they still possess.

However, between dubious legal distinctions, earlier lawsuits, and the fact that HG only really exists as a real-estate group now, their hold on the designs is tenuous at best. The only thing really keeping them on it is whatever the 'secret agreement' was between them and FASA. Some people speculate that in the current case the judge is trying to maneuver things to force that agreement into light.

There has been a lot of speculation about that court case, especially with ideas like HG over-reaching and HBS/PGI being onto a sure-fire winner. I can't see that.

What I can see is that HG has always gotten the shits when people infringe on IP they view as their own and have used the agreement with Jordan and FASA to torpedo stuff before. CGL know they're fucked unless HBS/PGI pull out an unlikely win and didn't even bother filing a defence.

HBS/PGI are arguing that HG doesn't own the rights, which *may* be correct but would require the Jap studios to sign onto the case to really push, which isn't going to happen. HBS/PGI have to defend though because if (or, more likely, when) they're found to be infringing they could be liable for damages to HG *and* will have to change the models of the Unseen, which will be extra work for them and probably piss the players off because all of a sudden they'll have the looks changed, and that's assuming PGI will have a ready replacement instead of putting them on the shelf until new art can be worked out.

The world-wide rights aren't super relevant, anything that gets bought to the west from Japan gets localised through the US any way so US rights basically means world-wide rights in effect if not in law.

lol you sound extremely butthurt, fuckboi

>They only seem to be exerting those rights in the US

That's not true.
Newer Macross shows are released ONLY in Japan merely with English subtitles for the other Asians nations who all have to import it.

Likewise, they cucked us out of any Super Robot Wars English translations for very much the same reason. Most SRW games have Macross in them and after a lawsuit with Harmony Gold, they simply gave up on releasing the game outside of Japan for a good number of years.

The newest one is the first one with an official translation and an international (as in other Asian nations) release precisely because it's the first mainline SRW game to have no Macross in it.

What are some good Davion-built light mechs?

Putting together a Davion Light Guard lance.

4x DVS-X10 MUSE EARTH