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 Mmmpi wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:

 Mmmpi wrote:
Option c. You really helped them out, maybe passed on some info that really made a job easier, or helped out their families when they were in a bind. As thanks, they let you buy a couple of their more smashed up mechs. Similar to Barber's Mauraders II.

Only if you insist. It happens in some of the novels granted, but its just fiat. Use fiat if you must, but ignore it if you can.

This is the same answer as Join Wolfs Dragoons. You are talking about affiliated membership right here However mech givaways are rare, rare mech givaways more so.
Reviewing the consequences t also means you have heavy backup and aren't really a lone mechwarrior out on your own, its a Mary Sue of a backstory. "Knew Jaime Wolf, he showered me with mechs", I think we can do better than that.

Compared to "Be on one single planet on the exact day and time to salvage a specific rare mech"? I believe you doth protest too much.

Easy to do. Post battlefield looting is a common event in history. If there is a pressed advance or retreat it might not be possible to collect the salvage before someone beats you to it. Hesperus was a desperate battle fought over a large geographic area, when a fight moves on scavengers can move it and grab stuff.

Also the player chooses they want an Imp and a Shogun in the backstory, so the scenario must unfold along those lines; the battlefield wreckage happens to include a Shogun and an Imp, so tom make that even remotely likely Zeta battalion was fighting there, and were hard pressed so the battlefield was not consolidated by either side. This is also rare as assault mechs are prime salvage, however there is a larger picture here of the struggle for Defiance Industries compounds that makes the sacrifices and the need to press on feasible. The scavengers were not looking for specific mechs, had no 'list' just whatever they could find. For the findings to include those mechs Dragoon salvage is pretty much the only way you will get them. It is not unreasonable for a character to choose the mechs in their backstory, and rare mechs require a reasonable explanation.

Also you need not be there 'on the day' colossal engagement are not brief affairs, the Lyran Commonwealth had time to call in reinforcements, this rings the dinner bell for battlefield scavvies and primes the criminal underworld for a payday. Furthermore if you fight in more desperate terrain mechs can be lost and salvaged later. Wolf's Dragoons are known for using bad terrain to their advantage, mostly because they are not only skilled but willing to take losses for sttrategic objective. Natasha Kerensky crossed an 'impassible' swamp to take out Duncan Marik's stronghold. We dont know why the swamp was deemed impassible or how many mechs were lost crossing it. Scavvies might have been hunting for and digging up salvage mechs months or years later.

Much of the battle of Hesperus was fought over a major river. Might a damaged mech be lost underwater? Scavangers might dig up an Imp and a Shogun from a riverbed long after the battle is done.

The player characters need not the the original looters, but black market customers of theirs. Though to get two iconic Dragoon mechs likely means they were close to the source, the area was flooded with mercenaries, and not all salvage would be accounted for. Maybe a merc company found a fair bit of salvage which they were not contracted to be allowed to keep. Smuggled it onto their own dropships, this makes the Shogun and Imp more plausible, as part of a much larger haul of battlefield loot taken outside of employment terms. Common mech designs can be explained away, a salvaged Wolverine or Awesome could be passed off as one of their own, a Shogun or Imp are hot property and if caught with it the mercs might lose their rep with the Lyrans, so sell them off fast.

 Mmmpi wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
This is hilarious - with RRT dead, this is now becoming the “Battletech and other big,stomp robot” forum.

Hey! Heavy Gear is on here too!

They have medium stomp robots.

Until Robert has it his way, of course. Then it will all be GearStriders

I still need to convert some/one to have rollerskates...

Thanks for the ideas guys, I am probably going to go with the "shot down Dropship" one, it sounds really fun!

Progress on the armoured train is coming along nicely, it now has an engine plus 3 carriages under construction, 2 gun carriages (each with 2 turrets containing autocannons/lasers/PPC's) and a Cruise Missile/LRM car. I also have a couple of Artillery cars (thumper and Arrow) and some Infantry cars planned as well as some pursuit cars (flatbeds with ramps at either side capable of carrying and quickly deploying light to heavy combat vehicles) and a repair car for fixing Mechs and vehicles, plus a possible Railline Repair car.

Depending on the timeline and the group building/operating the train, you could also have scratch built turrets, made from the top half of battlemechs. Basically salvage missing legs, with the torso rotating on the roof.

For those who have been following along, PGI announced a resolution in regards to the Harmony Gold lawsuit.

PGI wrote:As many of you know for more than a year Piranha has been a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Harmony Gold. Very recently that lawsuit has been resolved.. The details on the resolution of the lawsuit are confidential and I am limited to this agreed upon language between HG and PGI.

Harmony Gold and Piranha Games are delighted to announce that they have ended their dispute. Piranha Games will continue to use the “classic” BattleTech designs and Harmony Gold and Piranha Games look forward to continuing to serve their respective fans and customers.

Many of you will have follow up questions but I must abstain from getting into a conversation on the matter.

At Piranha Games we thank you for your support during the process.

Russ

Someone else found a docket agreement which would have the case fully dismissed with prejudice, leaving all legal costs to those who called for them.

That should mean that Catalyst is off the hook for using the new redesigns of the classic 'Mechs like the Warhammer, Marauder, Phoenix Hawk, etc.

Not necessarily, Catalyst are NOT part of the lawsuit defence. So summary judgement is still possible. Harmony Gold will press for tight terms that Catalyst cannot afford. Catalyst has always been economically short sighted, hence rehashing old second rate mechs for the new boxset rather than doing what new companies do and modernising the tooling. Everything is on th cheap, including legal representation and that can hurt long term.

We also do not know the terms Harebrained settled for.

I would love to see those classic designs continue into new properties, but I will not want false hopes.

 Orlanth wrote:
Not necessarily, Catalyst are NOT part of the lawsuit defence. So summary judgement is still possible. Harmony Gold will press for tight terms that Catalyst cannot afford. Catalyst has always been economically short sighted, hence rehashing old second rate mechs for the new boxset rather than doing what new companies do and modernising the tooling. Everything is on th cheap, including legal representation and that can hurt long term.

We also do not know the terms Harebrained settled for.

I would love to see those classic designs continue into new properties, but I will not want false hopes.

The company that owns CGL, InMediaRes Productions, LLC (IMR), is one of the defendants, which is why they were included in the lawsuit.

This docket entry indicates that it will be for all defendants, including the ones in default. IMR is in default in this case due to a lack of response that both HBS and PGI gave. If it clears the Judge, then IMR would be included.

You are correct that we don't know the terms Harebrained settled for, but as this part of the board is for the miniatures, what HBS and PGI get involved in are only side-related to what CGL does unless it directly affects them (as that docket linked above would if cleared). Concern for HBS and PGI should be filed under the Computer Games part of the board.

Now, part of the miniature concern is that there are people who want to take some of the "Unseen" redesigns that both PGI and HBS have provided and make models from them. There have been pictures of some of the early models and they look fantastic. So far they have been on hold from release (and possibly even production), partly (assumed) because of this lawsuit. CGL has been cagey about responding on the Battletech forum about any information regarding this.

But it should make things easier to expand on the new boxes they are planning to release later this year, and that makes me giddy. That Warhammer looked awesome, and the Thunderbolt in the new box has me itchy.

This is as good a legal win as the Battletech community could get. With the addition of CGL and IMR by PGI in the settlement, it makes me believe the the Battletech side was dictating the settlement to HG, not the other way around. If you were losing that argument, why would you include others? Only if you were getting what you were after would you want to add in other parties.

 Charistoph wrote:
If it clears the Judge,...

It has cleared the judge: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=61621.msg1423287#msg1423287

***Civil Case Terminated per parties'127 Stipulation of Dismissal with Prejudice. (PM)

Oh man, dare I hope.

We don't know the terms, items may have been withdrawn in return for NFA.

Looks like it may indeed still be waiting for Judge Zilly's signature

About time HG got the boot from Battletech. I am glad to see the classic designs returning, they have been sorely missed.

 master of ordinance wrote:
About time HG got the boot from Battletech. I am glad to see the classic designs returning, they have been sorely missed.

Don't expect to see the classic designs, but they can actually get a lot closer than they have in decades.

Kind of like:
classic design:


Phoenix relaunch:


New redesign:


(Images linked from the Thunderbolt page of Sarna.net)

We will never have the original Unseen in Battletech again. They have been removed from the universe. Retconned that look from the universe.

The Newseen redesign is what "was always there" until Project Phoenix redesigned them in the 3060s.

In the Battletech universe the Officer's Pod Marauder never existed now. That was not part of this lawsuit, and CGL put the nail in that coffin with the redesign. But that's okay, because the redesigns look way better than the Unseen did. Hell a lot of the Reseen look better than the originals, but nostalgia is strong.

'Cept the Warhammer.

That thing was the best.

 Charistoph wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:
About time HG got the boot from Battletech. I am glad to see the classic designs returning, they have been sorely missed.

Don't expect to see the classic designs, but they can actually get a lot closer than they have in decades.

I prefer the current redesigns, Marauder excepted. The most important thing is we can now have them.

I miss Stingers, not good mechs by any stretch, but they were the workhorse mech of the Inner Sphere. They have been entirely absent for so long while you weren't supposed to get onto a 21st century battlefield without tripping over one.

I hope Piranha games make a nice Stinger and Phoenix Hawk sculpt, i.e nothing like the abominations from MWA.

 Orlanth wrote:

 Charistoph wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:
About time HG got the boot from Battletech. I am glad to see the classic designs returning, they have been sorely missed.

Don't expect to see the classic designs, but they can actually get a lot closer than they have in decades.

I prefer the current redesigns, Marauder excepted. The most important thing is we can now have them.

I miss Stingers, not good mechs by any stretch, but they were the workhorse mech of the Inner Sphere. They have been entirely absent for so long while you weren't supposed to get onto a 21st century battlefield without tripping over one.

I hope Piranha games make a nice Stinger and Phoenix Hawk sculpt, i.e nothing like the abominations from MWA.

I enjoy Piranha Game's work on redesigning the Unseen to keep them reasonably close to the original work, but also putting enough "realism" and even a little blockiness to the design to still make it feel original and keeping with the style of the original FASA work.

Yeah, Stingers were quite common. I think only the Archer really competed for numbers. It's firepower isn't that impressive, but great for a scout mech that might have to engage infantry.

There's actually a Phoenix Hawk design in MWO already:



...weel, not with that skin, of course, but still

That's really cool.

 Charistoph wrote:

Yeah, Stingers were quite common. I think only the Archer really competed for numbers. It's firepower isn't that impressive, but great for a scout mech that might have to engage infantry.

You mean the Locust. The Archer is a 70 ton heavy, ostensibly a missile support mech, but actually its a near perfect all rounder, and unlike Locusts and Stingers they are not ubiquitous. UrbanMechs were also massed produced, but only two factions went in for them in any numbers, but they would deploy them in waves. Funnily enough the Wasp was much rarer.

The Locust had a role, its a scout, the Stinger also had a role, its a placeholder. In the canon company books Stingers were in every one, even the assault companies like Rolling Thunder, it means something readily available to pilot after you had to eject from your real mech until we can find a new proper mech.

At one part of the timeline Stingers account for 1:6 of known mechs in the Inner Sphere, and Locusts 1:18. Though these were FASA statistics, and FASA never really thought through the numbers in their games.

I've always seen stingers and wasps as what would be a trooper mech, if you could do that with 20 tons. Fast, but not that fast, decent armor (for 20 tons), and a bit of extra mobility with the jumpjets.

 Orlanth wrote:
You mean the Locust. The Archer is a 70 ton heavy, ostensibly a missile support mech, but actually its a near perfect all rounder, and unlike Locusts and Stingers they are not ubiquitous. UrbanMechs were also massed produced, but only two factions went in for them in any numbers, but they would deploy them in waves. Funnily enough the Wasp was much rarer.

As far as I know they very much are...

More than 100,000 Archers were produced between its introduction and the start of the First Succession War, with tens of thousands of its variant models produced over the centuries. Though many were destroyed or dismantled for spare parts, they remained a common sight in the Great House armies, with six different factories producing new Archers throughout the Succession Wars

As to the Wasp, what I knew was:

The modern WSP-1A Wasp began production in 2471. Centuries later, it is still considered a valued asset for recon work and is one of the most numerous 'Mech in existence

 Orlanth wrote:

 Charistoph wrote:

Yeah, Stingers were quite common. I think only the Archer really competed for numbers. It's firepower isn't that impressive, but great for a scout mech that might have to engage infantry.

You mean the Locust. The Archer is a 70 ton heavy, ostensibly a missile support mech, but actually its a near perfect all rounder, and unlike Locusts and Stingers they are not ubiquitous. UrbanMechs were also massed produced, but only two factions went in for them in any numbers, but they would deploy them in waves. Funnily enough the Wasp was much rarer.

The Locust had a role, its a scout, the Stinger also had a role, its a placeholder. In the canon company books Stingers were in every one, even the assault companies like Rolling Thunder, it means something readily available to pilot after you had to eject from your real mech until we can find a new proper mech.

At one part of the timeline Stingers account for 1:6 of known mechs in the Inner Sphere, and Locusts 1:18. Though these were FASA statistics, and FASA never really thought through the numbers in their games.

No, I meant the Archer. The Archer was the most produced and avilable Heavy Mech. That isn't to state that the Locust and the Wasp weren't heavily mass produced, because they were, I just remembered that the Archer was so mass produced.

The Stinger is such a light mech was never meant to be a placeholder, it's just that they were so common and readily available that it was sometimes shoved in to it. A med laser and 2 MG are nothing and easily overpowered by the Medium Mechs that can match its movement profile, and piss in the wind compared to what a Panther can do.

I think I honestly prefer the Project Phoenix versions of the Phoenix Hawk and Crusader, compared to anything that's come since. PP Archer ain't bad either.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I think I honestly prefer the Project Phoenix versions of the Phoenix Hawk and Crusader, compared to anything that's come since. PP Archer ain't bad either.

I must admit that out of those three, the Archer is the one I don't really mind. I don't quite like neither the PHawk nor the Crusader.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I think I honestly prefer the Project Phoenix versions of the Phoenix Hawk and Crusader, compared to anything that's come since. PP Archer ain't bad either.

I wasn't a fan of the PP Crusader Hands and head, but liked the rest of it. The Archer was good. The Thunderbolt was fantastic, also the mini was a pain to assemble. The Marauder II may have been the best of them.

I picked up the Project Phoenix Warhammer, Warhammer IIC and Phoenix Hawk.

The PH is decent and whilst I didn't appreciate it when I bought it, I love the IIC now - it's going to fit into my Jade Falcon Omega Galaxy nicely.

The Warhammer got bought because of my Warhammer nostalgia, but it's hideous and a pain in the bum to build. That thing is never going to see a tabletop, ever.

Yeah, it suffers badly from "poseablility." Except it isn't that poseable, it's just a metric crap ton of pieces. Same with the Thunderbolt.

I'd really love the Warhammer IIC mini if it was 20% shorter.


And addendum to my previous post. The Marauder IIC is the best of Project Phoenix. Can't believe I forgot that one.

 Mattlov wrote:
Yeah, it suffers badly from "poseablility." Except it isn't that poseable, it's just a metric crap ton of pieces. Same with the Thunderbolt.

I'd really love the Warhammer IIC mini if it was 20% shorter.


And addendum to my previous post. The Marauder IIC is the best of Project Phoenix. Can't believe I forgot that one.

The height of the Warhammer IIC is what put me off originally, but now that I've got some MWO derived models, it looks really good next to my Summoner and Hellbringer (they're even the same height as the couple of plastic ones from that boxed set). Ditched the ATMs that it came with and stuck the SRM6 from the PP Warhammer on it to make a good, old fashioned IIC (none of this Warhammer IIC 56 business for me, I'm sticking with the O.G.).