Hello, everyone.
It's been nine months since my last post. My apologies for the silence.
- The German translation has bogged down, with the translator having other things to do in the Real World. I am not sure when he will be able to work on it again... we may never see a German translation of the book, but that's life. It was a great idea and started out very promising. But it's 350+ pages and there's only one guy doing the work. I will keep you updated if things change.
- The 3063 Upgrade had funding at one point, but prices have gone up and keeping my son in college takes priority. The folks who were to assist me in providing new machines had other projects in the works, and I was busy this summer with several non-BT projects of my own. I did get a lot of work done on weeding out bad ideas, 'improvements' that were not really worth the effort, and the like through various reviews of the TRO found online. The denizens of 4Chan seemed more concerned with factionalism, 'realism', flippancy and the like, so I have abandoned that venue as a source of input.
The Upgrade is NOT abandoned, but merely on the back burner for now; as soon as I clear the decks (November), I will begin working on the list of machines that will appear. I am currently entertaining about 12 Mechs and 20 Vees, all to be Inner Sphere technology and placed in the year 3069. I plan to have the writing and so forth finished by Spring of 2016, in time for the art to be laid down.
- The Infantry Primer remains on hiatus, as I wait for the shuffling over at CGL to die down. It has been nearly three years and with IO Beta, things appear to still be in flux. Jon Morford has, in the last year, greatly impressed me with the potential for Vees and infantry in combat. He has handed me my ass in at least two games - I doff my hat at these opportunities to improve my game!
There is a lot to be done with the 'squishies' on a BT battlefield, as they are far more effective now than they ever were in my mind. My only complaint has been, and remains, that the rules for bombing, running infantry and so on are scattered across several books. I want infantry and vees to be at least as easy to assess, assemble and play as Mechs. Combined arms deployment should not have such a steep learning curve! So in the next few months, I will confer with Jon and others and see if the scene has stabilized enough to get the ball rolling again.
- My son is going off to France for school in a few days. Wish him luck! He will be over there for four months and we will miss him terribly. This will be the first Christmas he has not been home in twenty years.
- Bad Syntax is hard at work on a new BT unit generator, and by that, I mean something that uses the new rules to create just about any unit you care to have. In his own words...
"This program will be an all-encompassing battletech support utility. But mostly it'll be a build-everything production, you can build everything in the game with it. This includes things never supported before like buildings, mobile structure, support vehicles, and infantry platoons. However, I'll have lots of other stuff implemented in there too like random tables, star maps, system generators, and whatever else I can think of.
It would be nice to get something stable like HMP that can be easily modified for new units in the coming years.
Thank you for stopping by.
Regards,
Steve
8 comments:
Good to see you've not given up on BT.
A long time ago I played with a bunch of serious BT players and every time we introduce we kicked the mechs butts clear off the table. So my opinion about infantry and conventional vehicles in BT remains the same – I want a game that centers on the mechs and has an in universe reason for why they are the superior choice. However, YMMV.
@Ashley: I agree with you about the Mech's need to dominate. I am not sure that skewing the rules is necessarily the answer, but in any event, the presence of troops and trucks and tankies raises the need for rules.
The trouble for me isn't that the rules make these units weaker (they do, and rightfully so in a game based on the allure of giant stompy robots) but that they are scattered across three books. I don't mind that they must be used carefully and in combination with each other to overcome Mechs - I just wish it were as easy to use infantry and associated vehicles and weapons as it is to pick out a BattleMech.
Plenty of folks have done analysis on Mecha combat in the BT universe. I've only seen a few guides published for effective infantry / vee use. Part of it is that few people play these units in a Mecha game. But part of it is that, being a simulation of the real world, you can't simply lift Sun Tzu and apply it. The game mechanics demand that you modify the old standbys governing actual warfare.
On the other hand, people are people and your opponent is a people. He or she can be counted on to react in certain ways if skilled, and other ways if not. To tease out and separate the bits that remain the same, and address them, and the bits that are different due to its being a simulation?
I have not seen it done. It would be great if I could pull that odd. Naturally, I would not be alone. But your comment leads me to wonder just how many actually pick up BT expecting to play Squad Leader? Perhaps I am reading too much into the supporting material?
Ah, well. Only one way to know for sure!
Steve
Vehicles in Battletech were not overly powerful under the Master rules, but were still fun to play. Vehicles have been nerfed in Total War, and I think a large part of Battletech cannon is now being mostly ignored as a result. I recommend ignoring the "7" critical on the sides, and only apply the single worst piloting modifier (rather than accumulating the total).
Vehicles in Battletech were not overly powerful under the Master rules, but were still fun to play. Vehicles have been nerfed in Total War, and I think a large part of Battletech cannon is now being mostly ignored as a result. I recommend ignoring the "7" critical on the sides, and only apply the single worst piloting modifier (rather than accumulating the total).
Regarding the translation, how far along was/is it?
We had begun translating the Draconis Combine Vehicles and Mechs. No idea how far he got.
I just wanted to say I love your TRO and thanks for creating this!! I hope to see more but if things don't pan out what you've done is great!!
Post a Comment