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 Charistoph wrote:
If they hadn't already announced the Vindicator as part of the Beginner Box, the Merlin would have fit in to replacing the Wolverine perfectly, being the traditional "this is how you build a 'Mech" example for a long time.

There was enough of a fight replacing the Wolverine with the Vindicator that replacing the Wolverine with the relatively uncommon Merlin was probably a fight that they didn't want to fight.

 Ghaz wrote:
Q : Have the Imp, Falcon and Hornet been updated yet?
A : They won’t be making the cut this time.

The KS built around Mercenaries isn't including the Imp? Poor form.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Mind you, this assumes that "political differences" were the actual reason for his dismissal, as opposed to "we don't want to continue to employ someone who is using our product line as a platform to springboard the launch of his own competing product".

Then just say that?

"You are actively competing against our products whilst still working for us" seems like a pretty legit reason to get rid of someone. No need to obfuscate that.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:
Q : Have the Imp, Falcon and Hornet been updated yet?
A : They won’t be making the cut this time.

The KS built around Mercenaries isn't including the Imp? Poor form.

There's only so many models they can have in the Kickstarter and I can see why a 'Mech which is on the edge of excintion may not be included. At least the Shogun is in the Kickstarter as it has been in production by Clan Sea Fox for the Dragoons since shortly after the Jihad.

The last KS had heaps of 'Mechs. This one doesn't appear to have as many, and has a bunch of basic vehicles in their place.

But you'd think that heavily Merc themed 'Mechs would be the first things to make the cut.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
The last KS had heaps of 'Mechs. This one doesn't appear to have as many, and has a bunch of basic vehicles in their place.

But you'd think that heavily Merc themed 'Mechs would be the first things to make the cut.

Yes, they've said that there will be less than the previous Kickstarter. And when it comes to cutting 'Mechs, you'll cut one that's almost extinct and only used be a single mercenary unit in favor of common 'Mechs that are used by mercenaries as well. The Dragoon's will still have eight of the eleven 'Mechs from their sourcebook available in plastic once the Kickstarter is over and that's no small feat.

Quick tip for any wannabe PR firm workers, when the s hits the fan, have one story and keep it straight. Pardoe managed to do just that in his explanation of the firing, while Catalyst's weak, pithy message did not. And far worse was the random shotgun of excuses from their stans on social media, where "ackshually he got fired because he is difficult, but also ackshually he got fired because his new book is too offensive, but ackshually he got fired because he supports the Confederacy, but ackshually he got fired because he wrote his own book involving robots, but ackshually he got fired because of his bigoted interaction with fans, but ackshually..."

Oh you're just desperately reaching around for any old reason you can think of because the real reason is unacceptable and you know it? Yeah, that's what liars do, liars do that. At least pick one unconvincing lie and stick with it.

With all the Kickstarter drama going on right now anyway, this makes their Mercenaries campaign seem more fraught. Tens of people on BT Facebook groups telling me that Razorfist's video with 70,000+ viewers (after one day) is all about a minor incident that no one with money actually cares about doesn't sound very connected with reality. I have money and I care that a popular author got fired because they have a clearly unstable stalker threatening their life and harassing the company, even if he is a right-wing crank.

All that being said, I'm not sure how much I'd be in for on the KS unless it had worthwhile savings for me over later retail. The thing about vehicles is they're just going to look like generic sci-fi vehicles, and I can print out any number of those myself.

What has made this new wave of products so appealing are those two art designers they have (sorry I never remember either name), and the fresh, really cool looks they bring to the mechs. As the previews have shown, those tanks aren't going to benefit in the same way, and the 4+ leg mechs are just goofy. So if picking up the six or so lance packs I'll probably really want doesn't come with a ton of extras, I'll just wait, especially with this situation unresolved.

 frankelee wrote:
The thing about vehicles is they're just going to look like generic sci-fi vehicles, and I can print out any number of those myself.

They're updating (and not replacing) 35-year-old designs while staying true to the originals. I'm not really sure what you would rather have them do and still keep them identifiable as the original vehicles.

About Pardoe, I can't take seriously anyone who rants about people being woke.

 Ghaz wrote:

 frankelee wrote:
The thing about vehicles is they're just going to look like generic sci-fi vehicles, and I can print out any number of those myself.

They're updating (and not replacing) 35-year-old designs while staying true to the originals. I'm not really sure what you would rather have them do and still keep them identifiable as the original vehicles.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not blaming them for it. That is the reality of what they're trying to sell, super generic little vehicles I can print for 30 cents apiece.

 TheWaspinator wrote:
About Pardoe, I can't take seriously anyone who rants about people being woke.

Good riddance to him.

 TheWaspinator wrote:
About Pardoe, I can't take seriously anyone who rants about people being woke.

That's a you problem. Firing someone at the behest of someone that threatened you enough to be granted a protective order is pretty jacked up, but you can't see past loyalty to your side, got it.

Can we leave the real-world political commentary out of the situation please.

This thread is about stompy robots doing battle in a universe that did "Game of Thrones" before George Martin.

Let's stick to the politics of Davion, Kurita, Steiner, Liao, Marik, Magnusson, Ward, Kerensky, and Hazen.

Jerram wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:
About Pardoe, I can't take seriously anyone who rants about people being woke.

That's a you problem. Firing someone at the behest of someone that threatened you enough to be granted a protective order is pretty jacked up, but you can't see past loyalty to your side, got it.

People who rant about wokeness are literally stripping the rights of people like me IRL right now. I'm not going to pretend they're ok.

Jerram wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:
About Pardoe, I can't take seriously anyone who rants about people being woke.

That's a you problem. Firing someone at the behest of someone that threatened you enough to be granted a protective order is pretty jacked up, but you can't see past loyalty to your side, got it.

Maybe they just checked the numbers and decided to err based on the market segment.

 TheWaspinator wrote:
People who rant about wokeness are literally stripping the rights of people like me IRL right now.

No they aren't. Don't conflate two separate issues.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:
People who rant about wokeness are literally stripping the rights of people like me IRL right now.

No they aren't. Don't conflate two separate issues.

Yes, they are. Complaints about wokeness are just code for wanting to oppress minorities.

 Charistoph wrote:
Can we leave the real-world political commentary out of the situation please.

This thread is about stompy robots doing battle in a universe that did "Game of Thrones" before George Martin.

Let's stick to the politics of Davion, Kurita, Steiner, Liao, Marik, Magnusson, Ward, Kerensky, and Hazen.

Notice once again which side of the aisle keeps injecting their politics.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 TheWaspinator wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:
People who rant about wokeness are literally stripping the rights of people like me IRL right now.

No they aren't. Don't conflate two separate issues.

Yes, they are. Complaints about wokeness are just code for wanting to oppress minorties.

BS, you read peoples minds badly

Why are you supporting the violent guy who had a restraining order served instead of his victim ?

Who said I was? It's perfectly possible for them both to be horrible people.

 TheWaspinator wrote:
Who said I was? It's perfectly possible for them both to be horrible people.

Attacking the victim and being happy the violent guy got his way says pretty much everything.

No, I'm happy a blatant bigot got fired. Everything I'm reading by on Pardoe's blog makes him look like an donkey-cave.

EDIT: Not worth it.

Again, please remember Rule 1 & 2.

Be Polite, it doesn't take much for real-world politics to turn in to flame wars very quickly.

Stay on Topic, while there may be a place to talk about the situation between an author, problems they may have had, and a company they wrote for, this thread is about Battletech and how awesome it is.

Wasn't Pardoe responsible for the return of the Clan Smoked Jaguars? I'm very out of touch with Dark Age timelines.

M.

 Miguelsan wrote:
Wasn't Pardoe responsible for the return of the Clan Smoked Jaguars? I'm very out of touch with Dark Age timelines.

M.

No CGL was responsible for the return of CSJ, CGL isn't black library they at least try and keep their novel authors and sourcebook writers on the same page.

No more talk about wokeness (one way or the other) ITT, thanks.

So in other news...i just ordered a tempest, i am thinking about making a themed stompy of stompiest mechs lance AKA skobel mech works like designs. so far the grand crusader and cerberus are in the running to add to the tempest.

Removed

While we wait to see the updated Long Tom tomorrow, 250 internet points for the first poster to identify the latest sketch ...

hover tank... boom, there ya go.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
hover tank... boom, there ya go.

And exactly which hover tank?