/btg/ BattleTech General

>The paint scheme - which, again is still hugely a WIP - is intended to evoke the look of a 1990's-era Taco Bell.

Your tone is quasi-facetious, John Spartan.

>We just like saying it's name.

It's on the list!

youtube.com/watch?v=RJxdL0pH9pw

Actual code names written in Star League Standard English that aren't the doofy urbleburbles they pick nowadays for folks like the Caps or the Elsies. That's my only condition. Maybe double down on the bell puns like Carillon.

I'm surprise my suggestions for Mexi-Mechs caught on so much.

We like having fun sometimes. We're only angry grogs 99% of the time, after all.

user asking about setting images in megamek last thread here. Just to clarify for the mechs name do I just use the chassis name or chassis plus model? ex: exact "Scarabus (J) SCB-9A (J)"
Also, for writing the file directory should I start at the drive or just the mech folder?
Thank you for the help guys

>The paint scheme - which, again is still hugely a WIP - is intended to evoke the look of a 1990's-era Taco Bell.

That totally came through and I love it.

Here's my attempt.

Tacquito = "Talos" ("Tacitus" is good too but doesn't really fit)
Siesta = "Seer" (or from that, "Oracle"? it fits the design)
Quesadilla = "Qilin" (works well for a Quad Mech, guess it could be Cappie)
Meximelt = "Melter" (it is energy heavy)
Gordita = "Gorgon" (but that's taken, "Medusa" instead?)
Gordita Supreme = "[whatever you named the Gordita] Supreme"? "Super [Gordita]"? Or, if you went with above, "Euryale"?
Cholupa = "Chollima" (or "Chupacabra")
Burrito = "Brontosaurus"
Bellgrande = "Belgrano"

I tried, judge me harshly.

Also, forgot the Empanada. "Elephant"? "Empousa"?

Nevermind I got it working, just did exactly as you guys described.
Cheers anons, now I can truhly experience immersion

"Talos" is taken too, user - it was a Taurian medium during the Reunification War. Sorry. (FWIW, p.208 of H:RW tells us it was a 4/6/0 50-tonner with an AC/10, 2 LRM/5s and an SRM/6.)

And the Talos is actually decent on the table, if unexciting and ammo dependent. It's a solid trooper for its era.

Dang, I remembered it being one of the non-canon mechs in MW4 but didn't know they'd used the name somewhere else.

I suppose you could call it the "Tengu", and it would fit the mech pretty well (especially if you painted it red.)

Not a mech, but there is a Tengu battle armor, from the 3070s.

I think you can have a little leeway for things having the same name if they're far enough apart. See the Centurion ASF.

About human scale robotics and AI in BT... how possible is it to infiltrate the Combine with AI robot dolls to sing in groups all across dragon space and take over?

Not at all. Three logistic concerns.

1. There's no true AI in Battletech. It's just a massive wad of 'If this then' programming statements. But they have cracked the object identification problem which is the number one robotics problem in real life.
2. The tech is not small or independent. You need massive computer mainframes to run the bots via remote. The humanoid bodies are puppets with terminal connections to the main CPU.
3. The tech is not inseparable from real fleshy humans. Synthflesh for all its medicinal and sexbot uses does not look or feel quite like real flesh and is identifiable at a glance.

So that means no smartness and no infiltration. You could certainly have a bunch of bots on stage do a perfect choreographed stage show or concert and even take them backstage for an orgy or give them an order to pop miniguns out of their tits and mow down the entire attending crowd. However, they won't be able to get out of range of the main controller. Their connection to the main controller is easily fucked by military ECM units. And people will know from the very beginning that they're a bot show just from looking at them up close.

For actually having them in the Combine, the Combine doesn't make them and has a ban on imports of just about civilian everything, so the only way you'd see them is likely a Yak run deal somewhere like Corsica Nueva.

Shoot. So I guess no making an AI in Davion, having it imported into the Combine and "unintentionally" go from robot girls to combine mechs to cause them to run wild.

Patlabor 1 realization will have to wait for another time...

Technically the CASPAR series were entry level AI, but they're all dead.

>Shoot. So I guess no making an AI in Davion, having it imported into the Combine and "unintentionally" go from robot girls to combine mechs to cause them to run wild.

Pretty sure the computer systems in Battlemechs are too self-contained for that anyway, robot hookers aside.

>1. There's no true AI in Battletech.
Not *technically* true. The Broken was a thing and was closer to true AI than anything else. It's probably fair to call it true AI, just heavily handicapped by madness. But, your general point is good, so this is just nitpicking.

No, but since the Lyrans and MoC make them and sell them to the Fedcom, and Mech DI's are stupid good, you could make an avatar for your Batttlemech that wants to snuggle at night and kill people with PPC's in the morning.

Patlabor 1 was Windows Vista Upgrades the Movie anyhow. Not a real thinking AI rampage.

It's a developer statement going back years. AI in Battletech are autonomous, not intelligent. This includes the CASPAR II's and stuff. Of course, this was back when Necromo Nightmare was just a joke product and not canon.

But the old 3 not Battletech rulebreakers are
1. True AI
2. Spacefaring aliens
3. Solar scale megastructures (dyson sphere's etc.)

Wait, mixed up number 3. 3 should be nanobots.

Like I said, I was nitpicking, I know the big rules.

>no spacefaring aliens

They'll get to space soon, user!

You Old Kentucky Sasquatches get back to making bourbon and quit shitposting on the extranet. A 33kb photo attachment is over 3 Cbills alone.

But they've got their own Battlemechs, made in their image!

Tetatae are the ilClan.

>spoiler
I'd pay an exorbitant amount of money for that to be true.

How much? Put in a good enough counterbid to Topps and it might be.

>Oracle
Good name. Gave me an idea for a beefier scout with all the bells and whistles.

What mechs were made with mercenaries in mind, other than the bandersnatch?

>and that's how some Veeky Forums assholes bought the BT license

Why does this question keep getting bought up every few threads?

It's just the Bandersnatch. Blackwell designs only qualify because they supplied the Dragoons. Other than that, nothing.

>What mechs were made with mercenaries in mind, other than the bandersnatch?
There's the Jackal, Battle Hawk, Cronus, Cerberus, and most of the Solaris 'Mechs, and that's just in TRO 3055.

Blackwell made the Gallowglas, Battle Hawk, and several other designs for sale to mercs who >weren't< the 'Goons.

In addition, Lineholder.
However, it is unavoidable that the Toaster heads used Lineholder more.

By the way, OF is dead?

Also the Cossack, Black Watch, and Arctic Fox. Still not all the way through the Jihad, but there's a small dedicated merc market. A lot of it seems to be based off of giving existing chasses a heavy makeover, or one-off prototypes that a merc command has the cash to get mass-produced. Ish.

>Lineholder

hey, I remember making a doodle drawing of that thing.

>By the way, OF is dead?
That happens a lot. Either they got another DDoS driveby from some rando faggot, or Randall spent the bandwidth money on licensing Battle Cattle again.

Nice, I like the Griffin nods in the chassis.

>taurian AND moc heraldry

>absolute heresy

black lanner yay or nay never seen this thing before

>He doesn't know about the Marshals

Hey all, new to the whole universe. Looking for a good vidya. MWO any good? Or should I just play the battletech game that's coming out?

mwo isnt really representative of the the rest of the games it takes its name from but you may like it give mechwarrior living legends a try or the older games they still hold up imo

Can anybody give me a quick rundown on the successor states? Most importantly, what is life like in each of them? Mostly for the average citizen, but military personnel too. How are mech pilots treated in each?

Jackal and Cerberus were just made with no specific customer in mind, and Defiance was pushing the Battle Hawk hard with the AFFC, it just ended up being popular with mercs. Also you mention the Battle Hawk twice with Blackwell, sure you aren't thinking of the War Dog? Since that's 3055 Blackwell and it has the conflict synonym+animal name thing going on. Though getting picky the War Dog wasn't originally made for mercs either, since it's an old SLDF design that never reached production back in the day.

Cossack was made for St Ives, just named for some mercs who got the first ones.

Mech pilots are adored in every single one. You don't get to be the one in fifty million people driving the single most romanticized war machine in human space without being loved by the public.

Different states have different levels of living conditions and whatnot depending on how rich you are, the location (planet, local substate), your last name, so on. It's complicated. Everybody has their good and bad. In general, the Dracs and Capellans are the most oppressive and everyone else is pretty free if doesn't have a say in their state's politics.

Not him but this is pretty typical. Most things aren't made for mercs. They just happen to be popular with mercs. Mostly because companies either sell to everyone and their dog or have state exclusive designs. People making something and not selling it to the states on purpose is rare as sin.

As far as popular stuff though, a ton of the Project Phoenix mechs were said to be very popular with mercs though we know a lot of that was a front for WoB snatching up huge chunks of production

Then there's all the Space Jew and other DA merc stuff.

Jackal is made for the FWLM, and they made a point of stiffing everyone else until RS: U gave the AFFS a version to directly contradict the original fluff.

Battle Hawk was made for the AFFC and then had its good name tarnished by a social general who blamed his failures on it.

Cronus wasn't made for anyone in particular and the heaviest customer was the FWLM any way.

Cerberus was made for the Dracs, who exported some to the FWL. Mercs only get it thanks to Sandra Barclay, it was never intended for them.

Solaris is Solaris, those were intended for the duelling circuit first and foremost. Not mercs.

Arctic Fox and Mangonel get the same technically made for mercs thing because they were made for the Kell Hounds rather than the merc market more specifically.

Literally just the Bandersnatch. Even the Gallowglas is a Dragoons design they deign to share with others.

FedSuns: Space America. Best tech, best military, best quality of life unless you live in their shit district, but even that's better than the equivalents of other nations.
CapCon: Space Communist China. Military capability flip-flops wildly depending on the era. Sometimes it's a great place to live thanks to the living god-chancellor, sometimes you gonna get purged.
Lyrans: Space Germans and Space Scots. Incompetent military, not a bad place to live if you're rich.
Dracs: Space WW2 Japs, replete with war crimes and thought police. Military exists in a Schroedinger zone where it is simultaneously meant to be a credible threat to the Suns yet literally cannot do a single thing right. Worst place to live overall unless you're part of the .01% nobility.

>It's complicated
Alright, so simplify it as much as you can then. I know the general bits about each of them, but before I dip really deeply into any single successor state I want to be sold on them. Generally speaking, Draconis and Capellan are considered the bad guys, right? While Steiner and Davion are the good guys, with FWL being mostly neutral?

Are Dracs really just space samurai that oppress the peasants and follow bushido, or is there more to them?

Are Caps really just space commies that think china number wan?

I was going to go for a meta-joke by "forgetting" the FWL, but any way.

FWL: Space Balkans. Spend all their time getting ignored except for one plot arc where they get wiped out any way.

>Are Dracs really just space samurai that oppress the peasants and follow bushido, or is there more to them?
According to their HB, yes.
>Are Caps really just space commies that think china number wan?
According to their HB, no.

When people give those explanations it's usually just because getting the broad strokes across is the most important thing and they've had the discussions a million times before. All factions except the Dracs are more nuanced than "Space X" but since the "Space X" stuff conveys the general tone of each faction well enough it's what gets thrown around.

Especially since the stuff that isn't just "Space X" tends to only get developed in SB fluff and has far less impact on the faction than the predominant tone.

>Jackal is made for the FWLM, and they made a point of stiffing everyone else until RS: U gave the AFFS a version to directly contradict the original fluff.
They shared it with the Capellans from the get go. It was the AFFC they seemed to be stiffing.

>FedSuns

>According to their HB, no.
You mean Handbook, which is post Xin Sheng where the Capellans become Dracs with a chinese coat of paint and no crippling black dragon problem.

Old House Book they are definitely the commies.

What do you think HB is short for?

Fair, but the general point about it not being made for mercs stands. Other user seems to be arguing that if mercs bought it, it was made for them.

I've seen people use HB for both House Book and Handbook.

Handbooks are bad for general overview because they randomly drop you into 3067. They got nice maps though and some hilarious illustrations.

Why are the Taurians so popular? What do they bring to the table that the other Periphery states don't?

the ability to trigger stormfury and deadboarder

I think it's just that they were the largest realm with the strongest military and did the best at holding off the SLDF back in the day.

If you're going to throw in with the Periphery, might as well throw in with the strongest state.

They also didn't have fluff about being run by pacifistic space Amish or a matriarchy, and those were your other options for a major Periphery state.

what was stormfury's deal?

Who are these...people?

Image upload not working for anyone else? I wanted to share my Black Knight design.

Posters in the official forums who tripfag shitposted here.

OF posters... oooooh.
Well I knew I felt a disturbance in the farts.

Capellans were originally the 'Red Scare' faction, being largely Imperial/Soviet Chinese and Russian inspired. An interesting social system where 10% of the population is permanently blamed for everything and are treated as criminal chattel. The other 90% live idyllic (according to internal propaganda), if socially restricted lives. Know your roll to fit in, pass your exams and don't make waves. The scrappy underdog villain who relies on dirty tricks and wave tactics to win.
And then Xin Sheng happened. Goodbye, Russian influences, hello modern China and regiments of DA BEST EVER battlemechs appearing from thin air. Lots of wasted potential, just-as-planned and ancestral incest.
Pity that their symbol is so awful, or I'd like them more.

Shout out to my main man Whispers, we go way back

>Image upload not working for anyone else?

It's not just you, user. Looks like our favourite Laotian Underwater Basketweaving Board is having technical difficulties this morning.

Cronus

Gilmour's initial target with the Cronus was the local militia and FWLM.

Does the Cronus suck? If not I'm not really sure it's cut out for the FWLM.

It's a sidegrade to the Wolverine-6M in its original incarnation. The upgraded models are a bit meh.

All of the suggested 'Mechs aside from the Bandersnatch and output of Blackwell or Arc-Royal MechsWorks were meant for someone else. Blackwell and Arc-Royal still carry the caveat of building stuff for their merc owners first and foremost, with the general merc market a side project for them.

Even in the rare cases where merc trade eventually outpaces the original target it's like arguing Coca-Cola was invented for the Mexican market. It just ended up that way through happenstance.

Taurians are popular simply for the reason that the CC was popular pre-Xin Sheng. Being underdogs for whom shit goes terribly but they hang on regardless.

Also, as mentioned, the frontier Periphery ascetic is cool, and Taurians tend to do it better than the other options. The OA has barely any battlemechs, the MoC... well, see the Xin Sheng thing above, the Marian Hegemony is neat but are way overstated in power level (they struggle to beat Circinus and get BTFO by the Lothians) and all other Periphery states are just too small to get much notice.

Also the Toro is cute.

This.

Prior to the Jihad fuck ups they were a periphery power with *seven* mech factories that included classics like the Marauder, Warhammer, Archer and Griffin.
Plus dropships and multiple aerospace fighter types.

They were badass, and this was in a state denigrated from its former status as the unofficial seventh great house. Pre-Xin Sheng the next best Periphery powers built some bugs, Shads and Merlins.

It would be nice to see them return to even their 3060s level.

I'm curious - I looked up some info on the Concordat and it says that the most widespread languages are English, Spanish and French - but I notice a good amount of South-East Asian names in their fluff. Is the idea with that and the French language to give them some Vietnamese flavour? (and with their max innawoods?)

I guess that's another reason people like Taurians - people like the really gritty, innawoods factions. Its the reason the Blood Spirits are always seen as top clan here too.

This is the ironic thing for me.

Taurian fans are basically the FedSuns fans of the periphery. Biggest, bestest, most badass and technologically adept faction that gets passed over in the story thanks to Xin Sheng.

And yet the /fukken hate/ Suns fans, with a passion. At least IME.

There's this great phrase in I think Urdu which translates roughly as "the kind of hate you can only feel for a cousin", which about sums up the relationship between those fan groups

>Taurian fans are basically the FedSuns fans of the periphery.

So, the least contrarian contrarians.

Iunno as a Taurian fan I dislike the Cappellans more than the FedSuns. Getting involved with the stupid Cappellan storyline was the absolute worst.

And being FedSuns of the Periphery doesn't really amount to much at all when the only other one in the running is the MoC.

>And yet the /fukken hate/ Suns fans, with a passion. At least IME.
Speaking as a Taurian fan most of us seem to hate the Cappies and mildly dislike the Canopians more than the Feddies.

Nah, as a proud Taurian fan with a full extended company of Taurian mechs, i can tell you that I don't really hate the Suns, I hate the Cappies and the Canopians for constantly holding us back. The Suns are dicks but they're honest about it and I can respect that.

Oh hey, what color scheme did you use for your mechs?

The Taurians are written as hating the Suns, but actual human fans know that being Capellean allies worked out for Taskforce Serpent and .......

but at least they aren’t the Combine assuming the Combine would ever be allies with anyone. Heh

Taurian Guard.

Well its more that the Taurians were written as hating the Suns, then their leadership en masse was warming up to the Suns enough to boot out a Protector...

And then suddenly they hate the Suns so much again they ally with the Cappellans who they have also historically hated.

Its frustrating because the Cappellans were shown to be able to remove incompetent leadership and recover shockingly fast, while the Taurians are caught in the same loop from basically 3060-3140

Oh neat, a classic. Any pics?

Pic upload is broken currently, so no. Also, I'm not a good painter and don't have a lightbox or anything to take pics in.

Take a hint from /wip/, place mechs in your refrigerator, it becomes a lightbox servicable for even a shitty phone camera.

Huh. That's not a terrible idea. I might just do that next time I mechpost.

>Now this 'Mech is really cool...