3...2...1... Liftoff!

I Screwed Up...

I will keep this brief:

   Despite our attempts to bring the best product to you, we released flawed versions.

-  Bad or missing data in the Record Sheets.

- Internal structure dots don't show up in the Vehicle Record Sheets.

- The images in the TRO have degraded over time due to multiple printings to PDF format.  We caught it on the covers, but the interior art slipped by us (we rarely zoom in on it).

- Other stuff.

The Current Status of the Fix...
(1pm PST, Saturday 1 September 2012)

The old Record Sheets

The NEW Record Sheets

           Please Click on the Images and LOOK!

- As you can see, we have made some changes in the RS book.  The internal structure dots are back, we added data to the Quick Selector bar on the left and there is now a time/date stamp at the upper left of each record sheet... so you can keep all this shit straight if we have to 'fix' anything again. We are working through what appear to be tonnage issues - a good part of it is simply me not keeping my buddy Bad Syntax up to date with changes, and part of it is design software that has not kept up with changes in the actual design formulae.

Time: 1345.  Our hard-working  Bad Syntax has now been hugged.  But he is not my 'entourage', he is a working partner!  I take a definite back seat when it comes to what he is doing - in fact, I decide things only after he has educated me to the point where I know what I am deciding *on*.   I am lucky if I get to ride on the bumper - the last programming I did was in COBOL back in 1988.

- I am 60% finished with replacing the degraded  images in the TRO.  The damage was not as bad as I expected.  

- I have made the necessary corrections in the TRO text and data as Bad Syntax makes corrections in the RS files.

- I have not yet checked the Art of the TRO for image degradation as well.  I will get on that after I drop my wife and son off at work, vacuum the house, clean the bathroom and start the laundry.

- We now have Lords of the Battlefield, BattleTech Universe and OurBattleTech as download sources, and will update all of them by this evening.

-  PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING UNTIL I POST THE ALL-CLEAR HERE ON THIS BLOG.  

Issue date for the Revised TRO files:

Evening - 1 September 2012

Again, please accept my apologies....

Steve

Back on Track... GenCon Release?

Free Worlds League Bengal (draft)

Art by Stephen Huda and Karl Olson

As many of the folks who would be setting up distribution of this fan-made TRO are *at* GenCon, the answer is: probably not.

Hi,

We are debugging the RS, it looks good but there is some polishing left to do.

We have located the anachronisms, repaired them, rewritten the entries and edited same.  Thanks to John Baker and Eric for their hard work!

One piece of art is unsat, for various reasons.  It did not come to light until we had to rewrite the entry.  It is currently being redone by Stephen Huda, though we are keeping Karl Olson's background.  The rough draft is at the head of this post.

I am trying very hard to have this ready by Saturday morning, 18 August 2012.  My work schedule (and that of Bad Syntax) is not helping things, but that's just the breaks.  I will use tomorrow morning (after the dump run) to begin going through the TRO and updating the BVs.  Everything else seems to be in order, though Eric did spot some errors (they are fixed) and we may have missed others....

We still have the time, but as mentioned above, the folks we need to coordinate with for the release are simply away for the weekend.  We can't make it available for download even if we get it done by deadline.

In other news:

Bad Syntax has an online reference, a sort of Super MUL consisting of every machine ever made for BattleTech.  It has a LOT of data.  Some of that is the fan-made TRO:3063.  I will list it here when I get the address.

Thanks for your patience and for stopping by.

Steve

Houston, We Have Anachronisms...

Eric brought it to my attention that several technologies featured in the fan-made TRO:3063 are anachronisms.  I knew that, but thought we could cover our arses with heaps of handwavium - 'experimental' and 'prototype' waved like majestic fronds...

Well, even with Quirks inserted from Strategic Operations, we can't really justify the appearance of weapons so long before their 'official' intro date.  SO - no HPPCs, no LPPCs, no LACs, no SNPPCs, etc.

But we have Blazers.  Yersh we do.  And ERPPC capacitors.  We already have fixes for most of the, er, issues on a roster.  Intro dates are changing.  But I am going to be one writing SOB for the next week.

I still think Rocket Launchers should be available in 3063, and comparing notes with my sources, find that The Powers That Be might have made a mistake on the intro date.  Erg.  BLEH.

I don't want to turn this book into an XTRO.  IMHO, the XTRO machines were so many McGuffins, never intended for players.  Ours are meant to see action.  So the Quirks, while popular with some, are thus far a no-go.  But what do you, the BattleTech reader, think?  Keep the Quirks?  Leave a note and tell me.  

But do hurry.  After tomorrow, I am gonna be up to my ass in textual alligators and draining the swamp is not going to be easy....

After all this, we are still on schedule!  It's just that we have very little time to effect these changes.  Please stand by....

Thanks for stopping in.

Steve