Art, New Music and the TRO Update..

Hello.

I would like to report a lot of things happening, but there hasn’t been that much going on this last week. However, we have made some progress on important stuff:

- Have not heard from Eric for a week at least. Our original layout man, James Devlin, has been silent as well, despite my sending a lot of stuff his way.

- Terrance Wong is working on colorizing and has already trotted out some nice preliminary work. We are probably going to lighten up the Battlemaster a bit, though.

- Paul Skowronek returned six writeups to me with quite a few notes attached. I have already completed the changes on five of them, with the last one to be done as the week wears on. Six down, one hundred and one to go. Seriously, I don’t think he will stick with us for that long – he is a very busy guy and to be honest, this sort of work can get boring pretty fast. But I will take whatever I can get.

Try to understand – Geoff and I thought these were ready to publish. But they’re not, and it shows only when Paul does his editing thing. I can’t see it until he points it out. I will bring one to this blog to illustrate what I mean. Meanwhile, I have sent another six to eight pieces to him, from the Capellan vehicles section.

- Ian Stead is working on the Tomahawk, though I have nothing to show for it just yet.

- Karl Olson has completed work on the San-Ku-Chu, which is really nice and is our blog post header for this week.

- Daniel Cherng is in Utah - he works on the Katana when he can.

- Chris Duke is working on the Panzerfaust and making progress. He has already made the changes I asked for, and is presently working on a black and white version.

- I have already commissioned, received and paid for the White Knight, but the more I look at it, the less happy I am with the overall quality of the work. Now you know I would normally go running to Eric for a quick fix, but he is working on an aero and a VTOL for me and is sick of BattleMechs. Even so, I might beg him to redo the White Knight. The ‘Mech is good – prdarkfox did a good job with the basic design – but it’s just a bit too stiff and uneven for me.

Tunes!

I posted some new music in the player this week. I am trying to stay away from the most recent stuff; if you want to listen to it, you can turn on the radio. Otherwise you’d be hearing Justin Beiber and Jaden Smith. I put some electronica from a band whose lead singer just up and killed himself. Charming, I know. But the tune is kinda catchy.

Another piece of electronica is by Daft Punk and sounds pretty ginchy. It’s called ‘The Prime Time of Your Life’. However, the video that goes with it is probably the creepiest thing this degraded planet has ever seen. I still get chills thinking about it. Thus, I thoughtfully provide you a link to it below. Be careful who watches it; it involves skeletons and while there is not a drop of blood in it, this video is definitely not for the young and impressionable.

I have a link here so you can go see for yourself, but remember: you were warned.

LINK: You were warned!

The Evolution of the San-Ku-Chu

(Click on the images to get a better look… hit the back button to return to this page)

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

A Mystery Man Reappears... along with some progress

Welcome back!

I would like to report a lot of things happening, but there hasn’t been that much going on this last week. However, we have made some progress on important stuff:

- Eric and I have been going over what the layout should look like. I was originally shooting for an older look and feel, but dropped that when I saw the company’s TRO:3075 about a year ago. The TRO:3085 looks about the same, so we are going to follow that format (for general looks, anyway).

- After a very long absence, our original layout man has responded to my emails. I cautiously included him in the work at hand, mostly because I do not know why he dropped out and do not know if it will happen again. He’s working on some pieces for layout consumption.

- I sent six black-and-white pieces to Terrance Wong for colorizing. They will cost a total of $78, which is something I can handle, but not just yet. More on that later.

- Geoffrey Butler has completed five re-writes of various Notables sections and polished another writeup that was curiously stilted. He is about to begin working on two more in a few days.

Unfortunately, there have been no updates on:

- Ian Stead, who should be working on the Tomahawk.

- Paul Skowronek, who has three writeups in hand.

- Chris Seymour is probably up for the Nemera commission, but I am not passing it over to him until I have paid off his previous work on the Montgomery II. It will be a few weeks, unfortunately.

- Karl Olson’s work on the San-Ku-Chu, which presumably is quite a ways along.

- Daniel Cherng’s tweaks on the Katana.

- Chris Duke’s progress on the Panzerfaust. I made a few suggestions for changes, but so far no response.

I will be pinging these guys tomorrow – hopefully there will be a response by the time this hits the blog.

Airsoft!

I bailed on the game. I had issues at home that required my full attention and so I begged off going with my buddy Bill. He understood. To be honest, it was hot as hell out there (mid-90s), the field was just as clogged with underbrush as before, and this time some kids brought their souped up guns – we’re talking about guns chrono-ing in the mid-400s for pellet speed.

Then those kids began shooting folks at close range, unloading at full auto from fifteen feet away. You can break the skin and draw blood at that range. They nearly did with Bill, who took something like seven shots, four to the face, before they stopped shooting him. He still has the welts. Man, he was pissed. It’s an unregulated field but I have a feeling that will change soon if they want us to continue playing there.

Broken Car!

I mentioned earlier that I was going to have to slow the commission schedule down a bit. Here is why: after 280,000 miles, my Cavalier’s transmission began singing its death song. This is my work car, mind you. It started out about six weeks back as a low whine that gradually grew rougher and louder. I took it in to a mechanic and he concurred. This is one reason why I have been avoiding the long trips to South Seattle lately for the monthly game – I was afraid I would be stranded on I-5.

After some hurried research, I located a replacement transmission at Eastside Auto Wrecking – 2000 Cavalier, automatic, 4 speed, 2.2L engine. There are a number of trannies that were used that year, and I was very lucky they had mine on hand. Only $246. No telling how many miles it has on it, but it can’t be any worse than the one I have now, and is probably much better. [It is. Mine was starting to shed bits of metal and the fluid was an ominous color when the technician took it out. The replacement transmission has clear bright fluid and no leaks – and went in like a charm].

I talked to the mechanic (who has a good rep) and he said he would do the job for $300, plus $50 for seals, etc. I went for the swap because a rebuild would cost over $2000, something I don’t have at the moment.

We were blessed again – my wife got an advance on her paycheck to cover what we did not have in savings. Thank God - no borrowing from the Man at 32% interest. I picked my car up this evening in better condition than I left it, but I am strapped for cash until the end of the month.

As you can see from the image below, it’s basic math:

I could continue to hand out commissions, but I already own folks about $280 as it is for existing pieces and works already in progress. Which leads us to basic math again:

Although it does have a rather nice dieselpunk feel to it, I am sure no one wants to see a cross between the Kalinin K-7 and a battleship in our TRO. So please, be patient while we recover from this temporary setback.

And yes, the swap went smoothly and my little car is in fighting trim again.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

Changes in the TRO:3063 Blog...

Hey hey!

Our updates have been progressively later and later with all the work slowing down. It is slowing down because (a) there are only a few pieces left to finish, (b) because we are working on the writing, which is not something I usually post to catch your eye and (c) paying the artists off is not only slow, but makes for dull reading. I really don’t want to make a blog entry without showing some progress so I hang on a few days until I can get confirmation.

From here on in, we will be posting approximately every ten days. I will provide content for those of you who like such natterings as I provide – for the other twenty two people following this blog, I will strive to keep events rolling.

To wit:

- Ian Stead is back from vacation and working on the Tomahawk tank.

- I have sent Paul three writeups. No word from him yet. Busy guy - but we should have something back within the next few days.

- Eric and I have been talking. So far I have been waiting on his work schedule, but plan to send him what we have generated for the layout ideas so far. No word one way or the other from Josh – we are trying to get whatever he’s accomplished from him so we can carry on, but I am not holding things up on his account. He has other problems. :-/

- I intend to ask Chris Seymour if he will accept the Nemera commission. He just finished the Montgomery II and did a very good job. I have to pay him for the Monty first, though!

- Karl Olson has made some serious advances on the San-Ku-Chu, a Capellan troop carrier. As you can see from the images, there has been some back and forth on the way to a good illustration. He even came up with an alternate action pose! I will have it finished, colorized and added to the color plates we already have.

Click on the image for a closer look.

- Speaking of color plates, I have reached a tentative agreement with Terrance Wong (ThePlasticOne over at the Company forums) to colorize some of the pieces we already have in black and white. I have already seen the Scorpion II and the Jenner X in color by another artist – pending an agreement with him, we should see those inside as well. The cost is $13 a piece and I am looking at six pieces minimum, so if you were thinking about hitting that PayPal button, now would be a good time.

- Daniel Cherng has contacted me on the Katana; he will be doing some tweaks in the next few days.

- David Eugene (daveCrypt) and Mike Sullivan (thedarkbanditking) are no longer with us – the first wants a bit too much money for his excellent work, and the other cannot produce anything after all due to employment and home issues.

- Chris Duke is hard at work on another tank, the Panzerfaust. We’ve hammered out the details, based on the writing and previous work, and I should have something to show you by the next blog update.

Airsoft!

The game is coming up… we’ll see how the weather looks for next weekend. Hope it is clear, but not too sunny. The last game was a hot one. John has reluctantly agreed to go again. It is funny how I bought the M-14 to accompany him when he went off to play with his M-4 Barret. Now I have to encourage him to go with me!

BattleTech!

I participated in a game this Saturday with my good friend Chris Snider. The game objective was interesting, all my friends were there and I was honest with my dice rolls. What more could a fellow ask for?

Rather than go over the game blow by blow, turn by turn, I will note some of the highlights and some odd things I noticed:

- First off, the game started on time! I did not get there until 1330, but it began at noon sharp.

- I was fashionably late because I thought things would start no earlier than 1300. But when I got there, it was Word of Blake and Kali Liao’s Thugees against the flower of the Inner Sphere and the boys were already mixing it up. Well, okay, we had WOB nutjobs and maniac killers versus a bunch of Capellans aided by their neighbors. There were reinforcements coming in on specific turns – Five and Eight, I believe – and I arrived just as they began Turn Four, with those crazy cyborg Blakists and gauss-rifle mad White Tigers ripping everyone on ‘my’ side a new asshole.

- Turn Five, I accepted a lance of Canopian (Magistracy of Canopus) ‘Mechs; three of the four had jump jets and the fourth was fast as hell. Now as some of you know, the Magistracy is a society where women have the upper hand – think of Amazons without the distaste for men. It’s a society where the byword is “It’s good to be Queen”. I nicknamed my four ‘The Grrls’ and got to work.

First turn I ran them in a porcupine ball up the table and opened up on the biggest ‘Mech I could see, a Blakist Seraph (‘Giraffe’) standing on a Level Two hill and using C3 to beat the crap out of my fellow units. The Grrls fired as a unit, pasting the Giraffe with a Heavy PPC and a few other shots and serving notice that the party had officially started.

- I took the other lance leaders aside and asked about their plan. There really wasn’t one, so we concocted something and got to work. Still in the porcupine ball, I ran The Grrls up the left side of the maps and the others began swinging to the right. Meanwhile, that Blakist Giraffe got off that hill in a hell of a rush, not eager to face my ball of feminine heavy metal headed his way with his name all over it.

And that was one of the points I made with my compadres – the battle was only partly decided by the weapons fired and the speed of the machines and the terrain. The rest, the lion’s share, would be decided by our tactics and overall strategy because it wasn’t our ‘Mechs against theirs so much as it was our players against theirs. And we had the advantage of experience. What counted wasn’t what weapons you shot, but where you were.

- The Grrls shot at an Ostroc on the sixth and seventh Turns, got into position on that vacated hill and took the Giraffe out on Turn Eight. On the same Turn, the White Tigers betrayed the Word of Blake and began shooting everything in sight. About that time our side took out one of their Gauss-zillas (a Cerebrus) and beat the hell out of their Thunderbolt. Only a scuffed Pillager left to their forces, but the Tiger player was game, I will give him that.

- Turn Nine The Grrls piled on a Word of Blake Raijin II, doing damage. They’d moved off the hill and were headed for the opposite map edge to make their exit. They were still in a porcupine ball and amazingly enough, not a mark on any of them!

- Turn Ten was the final turn, and The Grrls moved closer to the map edge as they took on another Raijin, destroying its big gun and hammering the snot out of it. It shot back for the only damage The Grrls would take in that game – ten points to the left torso of the Eyleuka.

What I Observed…

While I enjoyed the game, it was apparent that even with Chris officiating and doing nothing else, ten players was just too much to go very fast. Four turns in an hour and a half sounds good, right? But I was there from 1330 until 2215, when the game ended – nearly ten hours – and we only managed another six turns. I had been hoping for a turn an hour and while Chris rode everyone’s ass, it was of little use.

I think the biggest mistake Chris made was to hand control of six machines to a player who has trouble handling two. It slowed things down horribly, though it could have been worse. This player ran most of his machines off on a wild goose chase (literally) that worked better than I thought it would. I even told the player what we were doing and he still kept right on chasing. We used two very light damaged ‘Mechs as bait to tie down four fresh machines for five turns. Not bad, considering they could have been – should have been - backshooting all my compadres. But the best part was that they were all on that player’s side of the table and he was focusing them all on one mission. It kept things simple for him.

Unfortunately for the Blakists, he was also running two hovertanks with an LRM-15 each. Rather than position them and start pasting our forces with long range fire, this guy ran them right up into the middle of a huge furball. The two tanks were burning before they’d fired three shots.

My own side began to show fatigue – some of the guys didn’t have their firing solutions ready when called on, despite having plenty of time to do so. As for my Grrls and me?

With my numbers always ready, I took less than a minute to fire all the guns. Every turn. And with an hour (or more!) to consider each collective move, I knew exactly where I was going and took about two minutes or less to move all four units and put their markers down. Most times less. Every turn. I wish more players would follow that example, but what’re ya gonna do? I concentrated an entire lance’s movement and fire towards a single target each turn and hoped volume of fire would offset lousy numbers. If you weren’t standing still or had a pilot with VDNI, it was usually nines or more to hit anything that wasn’t immobile.

No special munitions, mostly direct fire weapons, no weather conditions, clear goals and a really sweet initiative setup – by lance, not individual unit – made the game go faster than I expected, but there were thirty two units on the table and what else could one expect? I stuck it out, though. Chris did the best he could, the best anyone could, and really put a lot of work in this. It showed. I hope he runs smaller games in the future, so we can wrap it up in six hours or less. But the organization was heaps better than it has been in the past.

I will be playing OpFor with Chris from now on, as I like a challenge and being one of the ‘bad guys’ appeals to me. Maybe I will be able to bring out the best in my friend’s play not by setting the example, but pasting them one when they make a mistake.

Dissing the Lowly IndustrialMech…

I probably waxed eloquent enough in the last blog, especially down in the comments section, on what I think of AgroMechs and their ilk in the old game of MechWarrior:Dark Age (MW:DA). I like them, I really do. Back when the game was just starting out, you could field an AgroMech Mod A and do reasonably well. That changed pretty quickly when all the new rules and expansions appeared. MW:DA was also sold like a collectible card game and that meant that some - indeed, many - of the boosters had common and uncommon machines in them which were not very good even by the standards of the early game.

I once wrote some fiction that involved a ForestryMech in a flashback. The year was 3115. It seemed like a good way for a country boy to get his start in a field where BattleMechs had not been in common use for fifty years. So I began a follow-up tale, one where the young boy encountered in the first story was now nearing eighteen and wondering what to do with his life – and especially his skill at working a ‘Mech. It isn’t as common an ability as you might think. And it isn’t very useful outside that narrow field.

The story (still under construction) takes place on a planet at the edge of the Periphery. It has pretty girls, pirates and several encounters where a ‘weaponized’ ForestryMech (a big one, used on redwoods and other first-growth forests) takes on tanks and troops, a small BattleMech and eventually, the pirates themselves. There are other machines there - mostly VTOLs, tanks and troop carriers. The ForestryMech, along with another like it, work together to stop the pirate raid. The pirate’s goal is a hidden cache of ‘Mech weapons and parts which have not been in production for decades – and, of course, the town’s young women.

The story is outlined (about twenty thousand words so far) and I am working on it between bouts with the TRO. No telling if anyone will want to read it, but hey, our hero has two girls with their sights on him and I think the setting is believable and entertaining.

The point is the whole thing began with me trying to write a scenario around a ForestryMech just to see if such a thing could be done in the regular BattleTech setting. It can be done, but it’s anyone’s guess whether or not folks will want to play it.

Painting Up Armies

While I was overseas and missing my son, I decided to take the MW:DA miniatures we’d accumulated while in Perth and create several ‘armies’ which I could use to play with my son when I got home. Many delightful hours passed while I painted those miniatures in four basic color schemes – red, blue, green and yellow. The Yellow army was reserved for my son and we cobbled together rules which mixed a bit of BattleTech with many of the rules used in MW:DA.

When I was done painting, I still had another three months to go. So I began arranging the armies in set battle scenes, taking pictures of them and then adding text which described the action. I collected these ‘battles’ into black-and-white booklets that were several pages long and mailed them to my son, who enjoyed them very much.

I have no hard feelings for the IndustrialMech. Below are some pics of ‘Mechs from the Yellow army. We still have all the armies, but it has been many years since John and I played a game with them. His desire to do such things faded over the years, but I still have my memories.

Click on the image for a closer look.

Some Advice…

One word of advice for you BattleTech players out there – the best way, the only sure-fire tactic that will negate an opponent’s advantage when he’s using C3 - is NOT ECM (though it is nice).

What is it?

Simple: close with him until you are up in his grill and then kick him in the nuts – hard. The same goes for an opponent with better gunnery skills. At close range, you and he both need, as my son would say, ‘freakishly low numbers’ to hit the other guy and at that point, it doesn’t matter if he needs a three and you need a four. Low numbers are low numbers. It’s infighting skills, short-range blasting and healthy kicks that will get the job done.

Come to think of it, that’s how I deal with Clanners, too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

Progress in Art and Ranting...

Hello…

More good work to report:

- Ian Stead is working on the Tomahawk tank, a cheap design with an internal combustion engine and a big gun; intended for garrisons and militias in the outlying provinces. He has had some computer issues but has resolved them. After taking a vacation next week, he should be back on the job.

- I have sent Paul three more writeups. He will take them on as time permits. Apparently I just keep sending them until he’s had enough. Hey, works for me.

- Our alternate layout man (Eric) has responded. It is my sad duty to announce that Josh will not be able to perform the layout tasks due to illness. He simply has too many other things to think about and his situation is not really improving. I have asked Adam Jury for a lead on a fellow who could perform the task – as some of you may know, Adam originally worked for Catalyst Game Labs as their layout artist. I haven’t a hope in hell of hiring the man – he does this for a living, after all - but perhaps he can steer me in the right direction.

- Chris Seymour’s Mongomery II is complete – some of you might already have caught a glimpse of it on the forums or over at deviantArt.

Here is the evolution of this design's artwork:

- Karl Olson has completed the Panzer X – look below for the final version.

He is now at work on the San-Ku-Chu, a moderately armed Capellan troop carrier.

- I have pinged Mike Sullivan, who originally promised something by the weekend. No mention of anything so far – I have assigned him the Urugan atmospheric fighter as he has a proven track record of really nice aircraft. [Update: Mike has begged off this one due to other commitments - I am currently fishing for other artists as you read this.]

- Daniel Cherng has done a wonderful Katana; there were a few issues I would like to clear up, but if it is in final form (and I hope not), then I may have to work the writeup instead.

- David Eugene (daveCrypt) has rejected the changes I requested as part of the Nemera commission for a price of $30. He does great work but wants $200 and this is well out of my range financially. I will be shopping this commission out to another artist in the meanwhile. Too rich for my budget.

- The artist (Chris Duke) who was to do the Urugan has been switched over to do another tank, the Panzerfaust. I have seen his work and it is suitable for this particular commission. A pity I have no room for starships, because he does a very good job on them as well!

- Eric Ou has completed the Isometrus, featured at the top of this blog entry and probably the last piece we will get from him. He is very close to going back to school again. Some of you may have spotted his work in the official TRO:3085 which just hit the streets. Well, the internet, anyway, as it is only in PDF format for now.

Airsoft!

I got my Glock AEP back from the repair shop on Friday. The technician does not know what is wrong with it, but he replaced several broken gaskets and lubed the gun; it appears to work fine in full auto, so I guess it will have to do for now. We are scheduled for another woodsy combat on the 14th of August, same location as last time. Maybe this time I will be able to work with my friend Bill instead of finding him in my sights over and over. He has a lot to teach me, and his G-36K is working again

Catalyst Games

August 9th approaches. What more can I say? Let’s see what happens. [What happens is that the sneaky bastards get it pushed back some more, to October 12th. Let's hope it was the prosecution and not the defense which requested that...]

The TRO:3085 is okay. Very big (bigger than our TRO:3063 by seventy pages, in fact), covers a lot of ground, but as it is a jump of ten years from the previous major TRO (3075) I expected no less. This is the first time I have seen a TRO appear that is ahead of the current events in the game (we are in the year 3078, I think). A lot of art is by David White (yay!) and a couple of pieces are by Eric Ou (double yay!) and of course, there are pieces by Alex Iglesias (dude!).

This jump is accompanied by a rumor (I have no exact source) that when the Jihad winds down, the… wonderful people at CGL are going to jump past Devlin Stone’s ‘peace’ and land in the 3130s. I think it’s because they just can’t make a good story around IndustrialMechs, and that may very well be the reason. It would have been nice if they’d published a Record Sheet Annex for the TRO:3085, however. Eh, maybe they will save that for GenCon. [Actually, it appears they did publish the record sheets for this TRO in a separate PDF. Good move, guys!]

MicroRant:MWDA

I know why I dropped MechWarrior:Dark age. I became aware of it only in 2002, mind you. Never could figure out what the hell we were supposed to do with the AgroMechs, even the upgunned versions.

Then I realized these were the equivalent of common cards in Magic: The Gathering and not all of them were going to be good.

That is when I fell away from the game. I can understand dedicating a piece of laminated paper to the mundane purpose of representing a crappy card no one will ever use. But the idea that someone would design a miniature, someone else would manufacture it and still someone else - probably a pretty overworked Chinese girl - would sit there and burn her eyes out slapping paint on it....

Then another guy or gal would assemble the parts and package them. Then it would get to the Yew-nited States where a guy could exercise his God-given right to free trade and plunk down his ten bucks - open the box - and promptly throw that miniature into a landfill because, in the game he plays, it's junk.

I am no tree hugger but really - what a freaking waste from beginning to end. Really torqued me off when I thought about it. No offense to you guys who liked the game, but I am glad it's dead.

I can live with conspicuous consumption - it's mindless consumption I can't stand.

Back to the TRO:3085!

Is it me or does the Heavy PPC seem to be the new gauss rifle?

There are some good machines, some so-so designs and the usual clunkers. The art overall is pretty good – like our TRO, they have the good, the bad and the unmentionable. I think Matthew Plog really tried on this one, and it shows, but the man needs to work on another way to do shading. It spoiled a lot of otherwise-standout pieces. At least he isn’t doing ‘organic’ and ‘blisters’ so much. Brent Evans… his art leaves me feeling ‘meh’ all the way. Hey, at least he got published. He’s pretty good at running a stable of artists from what I have heard.

Here is hoping the artists and writers see a paycheck. They earned it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

Progress, Picture by Picture...

Greetings!

Progress this past week has been incremental but steady.

Thus far…

- Ian Stead is holding on to the finished Roland image and is having another fellow do some background art on it.

- Geoffrey Butler is working on still more Notables, both ‘Mechs and Vehicles.

- Daniel Cherng is working on the Katana... and making good progress.

- Paul has given the three writing samples I sent a clean bill of health. I am awaiting his decision to tackle more text in the near future.

- No word at all from our layout man. I have been sending an email once a week or so but have received nothing from him since late June. The Curse of 3063 appears to be doing its work – I will contact his understudy to see if anything has been done as a team.

I have pinged Karl Olson, Chris Seymour, Mike Sullivan and DaveCrypt. They are all due for updates.

- Chris ‘Kurbound Seth’ Seymour’s Mongomery II has passed to the secondary sketch stage; there are several issue with perspective but the overall design is promising, as is the level of detail even on the sketch.

- Karl Olson is working on the Panzer X and has submitted a rough draft that looks very good. He has firmly established the scale and will include additional troops and scenery around the tank, which is a very nice design.

- Mike Sullivan has scheduled a rough draft by Monday. However, he is very busy with work and long hours as well as wrapping up other projects and caring for his son. He is one of our more talented artists so the wait should be worth it.

- DaveCrypt has gotten back my version of the Nemera with several suggestions. I have just heard from him and am waiting to see whether he can make the changes that I requested.

- I have located an artist (thank you, Ian) to do the Urugan, an atmospheric fighter. I have not seen his work yet but Ian assures me he is capable and willing. We are in the midst of discussing the commission; I will let you all know if it pans out. Meanwhile, I am looking around for another artist to take the remaining commissions for various vehicles (I believe there are only two left).

[Update: Looks like Karl will step up to do the San-Ku-Chu LMTV and some others...).

- Vlad posted $50 to the PayPal button! Thanks, buddy! I have already sent it to David Dryburgh. Only $120 left to go!

The Evolution of an Illustration...

This is the original submission for the Panzer X.

Note the big black side guard, something I sketched

in to illustrate what I wanted.

This is the first of three prototypes. Note

the cannon is nearly pointed at the viewer.

The second prototype shows a bit of turret

rotation, but the barrel is still foreshortened.

Now we have the barrel with a better side

view, but it is too simple and tapered. Not

what I would expect to see unless I was

looking at something from the 1930s.

Mmm... better. The barrel has lost its

taper and has something of a modern

feel to it with the sleeve.

Now for some scale. Soldiers in a winter setting.

However, the tracks are too smooth...

Here they have been roughed up a bit,

much better for getting through the snow.

This is the feedback I gave to Karl, the final

touches. Extend the track guard back a bit

and move that soldier out of the line of the

main gun to balance the picture. Center the

tank in the frame, delete some space from

the right and add a bit of scenery on the left

and hey! presto.

Airsoft!

Our battle in Seabeck was mixed. I got to use my M-14 in combat (at last!), and scored at least four kills. However, the playing field was very small for twenty people; most of them hunkered down and waited for someone to wander by. My son was quite frustrated. He has a good gun and lots of determination, but the woods were an unending wall of green broken by very few trails. Walking a trail was a great way to catch a pellet. Forging through the woods merely announced to the world where you were. There were a lot of deadfalls and dry branches, blackberry thickets and so on. But our host was very accommodating and overall, we had fun.

My friend Bill had his work cut out for him – his G-36K did not operate and all he had left was a sniper rifle and a pistol. He still had fun, though, which just goes to show how much a good attitude has to do with enjoying the game. He pegged me once – but I nailed him twice! I gotta get some black tape to put over that orange muzzle cap on my rifle….

The organizer held a target-shooting contest – out of a possible score of 50, I got 45, but was beat out at the last moment by a fellow with a 47. However, he used a fence to brace his gun while I fired from a kneeling position, so I don’t feel too bad about getting second place.

Catalyst Games

Not much is happening on the CGL front, at least in a legal sense. It appears they have an extension on the license which will carry them through GenCon (in August, I believe) and allow them to publish a few more books. One of these is the TRO:3085, which has illustrations provided by many of the talented artists you will find in the TRO:3063! That is one reason our art has slowed a bit. I have seen a few of the smaller PDFs they have been selling – a lot of it seems thrown together and not really intended for general use. On the other hand, CGL really has little choice if they are to raise the funds to actually print books for sale.

August 9th they will go back to court. I don’t have high hopes – Coleman is dealing with others of his kind and knows his way around them very well, I’m sure. But who knows?

Rumor has it they have pulled fan writers into working on the new TRO. The results can’t be any worse than what they’ve done in the past. Hope CGL paid them up front!

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

A Day in the Life...

Greetings!

Progress this past week has been incremental but steady.

Thus far…

- Eric Ou is still working on the Isometrus and is about halfway finished.

- Ian Stead has some money in his account and I expect the finished Roland image within a few days.

- Geoffrey Butler is still busy re-writing certain Notables sections; the most recent are the Fafnir and the Panzerfaust. They look good. Not only do they reflect events current in 3063, they are more focused on battle accomplishments. Several of our Notables sections have concentrated on quirky personal characteristics and this is NOT Geoff’s fault, as I instigated several of them and approved of them on a wide scale.

However, Paul Skowronek (Skiltao) over at Skiltao’s Xanga (http://skiltao.xanga.com/) pointed out that the Notables sections should be about the pilot/Mechwarrior’s ability as it directly related to combat and represent a pilot one might actually meet in the field. Any quirks included were fine, so long as the major thrust of that section was combat-oriented. So Geoff has a new direction and I have learned a valuable lesson BEFORE the TRO goes to print!

- Karl Olson has been hard at work on the Lyran Panzer X. He has been beating away at it, intent on a masterpiece and I can only hope he does not get sick of it before it is done. This has happened with a few of the other artists – the commission has been returned for correction so many times, they are heartily sick of seeing it when it is finished.

- Chris Seymour is working on the Lyran Mongomery II. He submitted three prototype designs and I selected the one I felt held the most promise, added several suggestions and sent it back. Doing tanks is not easy!

- Mike Sullivan has some personal issues to resolve but is meanwhile hard at work on the Draconis Combine’s Katana. No firm date from him as to when he will finish it, but he has promised a prototype in the next few days. Good going, Mike! Stay with it, buddy!

- DaveCrypt did the original art for the Draconis Combine’s Nemera, and has expressed interest in selling the piece. I am sending him some changes to his original that will hopefully not be too hard to implement. He may just decide to sell the rights to the image and let us work with what we have. I hope not, as he has done very good work on the original.

- Speaking of Paul Skowronek, he responded a couple of days ago and said that while doing reviews on a commission basis had not occurred to him, he was not sure he could manage 107 writups! He suggested that I send him three samples and he would see what was involved before committing himself in any capacity. I obliged with two ‘Mechs and a Vehicle. He is a busy man with many irons in the fire, but last night he sent me an email giving those three pieces a clean bill of health. I can only hope he will consider taking on more. We write well, but our organization could use some polish.

Spit and Polish

For those of you who are not writers, let me elaborate: it is not just getting words on paper, though that is the first step. We have to write stuff which is interesting, informative, not redundant and which does not violate most canon (the enormous established body of work which already exists for the BattleTech universe). Once all of this is attended to, we also have to make sure we get the right information into the right sections of the entry.

When I finished the original introductions, I submitted them to Geoff, then made corrections and sent them to another proofreader, who added his stuff. I was pretty happy with the result. Then Paul got hold of it and the next thing I knew, I was hammering away at a truckload of corrections I had never even considered. I don’t know – maybe I just don’t have the trained eye. But I could tell from each correction that Paul had a point, it was a good one, and that the only appropriate response was to make the change and fast, before I lost his attention.

As a consequence, the introductions are as good as, or even better than, the kind which come from the game company itself. To be honest, I expect similar results with the individual writeups but look forward to any changes Paul suggests. I wish he were working for Catalyst Games, because he has an exceptionally clear eye when it comes to structured writing - which is the essence of a good TRO.

There are a few other Vees that still await art commissions. I have not had the time to get out and nail down more artists, but would frankly prefer to pay down the ones that are in the works before starting on the final pieces. Meanwhile, Daniel Cherng has submitted a choice in tanks for the replacement of the Katana.....

Airsoft!

We are going out on Saturday morning to battle over in Seabeck with about twenty other players. This will not be the massive multi-day gathering we are accustomed to, but a more comfortable scale which should last four or five hours. I have decided to replace the new M-120 spring in my M-14 (*sniff*) because it makes the gun too hot for play in the big groups. 427 fps with .20 pellets may sound great, but over 400 and you can’t legally shoot anyone closer than 100 feet. And my M-14 is not a sniper rifle.

With an M-110 spring, I should drop to about 380 feet per second, but keeping the .26 pellets will ensure that while I do not have the range, I will still retain the accuracy of my long rifle and can use it in close quarters. I will not change the spring until after this Saturday, however, as their rules do not include checking the gun for speed.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

The Fourth Brings Some TRO:3063 Fireworks!

Greetings!

Progress during the week leading up to Independence Day has been good.

- Our layout man has contacted his assistant. I have asked for clarification as to what, exactly, the plan is for the layout. Having seen first-hand the complexity of planning the TRO itself, I feel safe in suggesting the layout will be no less complex. Here are some typical questions to which I have no answer:

- What will be the basic background for each page?

- How will the PDF and print versions vary? I know what I have in mind – what has the layout man decided? It makes a difference, as some art will transfer from color to black and white with no problem while others…

- Will the page numbers be centered? To the outside edge of each page?

- Will the introduction to each section require House-oriented art? How much? How big?

- Will weight class categorize each entry? Will this require more art to distinguish one weight class from another?

- Some art comes with two ‘poses’ for the same vee from different perspectives. Will we have room for both? Or just choose one and get the biggest illustration possible in there?

As you can see, there are a lot of things still undecided. Yes, we have prototypes from the previous layout man, but there were simple proportion issues even then which had not been resolved before he dropped from sight. A lot of the answers are going to depend on our new layout man and his assistant, who have the vision and the art talent to bring it off. I can’t dictate until I have something to work on, and so far nothing has been forthcoming.

Not that we are laying fallow while waiting for Josh to heal….

So Far…

- Eric Ou has finished a preliminary sketch for the Isometrus and it looks quite good. I have asked him to ink it and have sent his payment.

- Ian from Merry Olde England has begun putting the finishing touches on the Roland Omnitank. It has already appeared on several BT-related forums, but the final version dispenses with the open launcher and short main gun barrel and opts for a longer barrel and an armored missile rack. I think it is the bee’s knees. Ian is now working on the markings and other details that will bring it firmly into the Federated Commonwealth fold (or what’s left of it).

- The Capellan Battleaxe writeup is done and is ready to go. The art is already in place.

- My partner in writing, Geoffrey Butler, is even now reviewing the writeups for certain Draconis Combine ‘Mechs and Vehicles to ensure they are in keeping with the rest of the writeups and the general history of the Inner Sphere in 3063. I have absolutely no doubts that he will improve the final product – he just seems to know when an element of fluff conflicts with something we’ve written or which is canon. I am sure there will be more to follow – and eagerly await the chance to send them for review.

- The White Knight art has been cleaned up and now needs a background. I am contemplating which artist to commission the work.

- We received an enormous PayPal donation from Bruno in France (!), $200, and I promptly sent it off to David Dryburgh, Eric Ou, Ian Stead and Chris Seymour. We are down to $170 owed to David and $50 to Eric. Thank you, Bruno. That makes a grand total of $300 you have donated and I appreciate it far more than mere words can express.

- As noted in the previous blog post, Alex Iglesias has graciously provided a new Percival illustration in black and white at no charge, replacing the original piece we got from Vlad.

- Karl Olson has just accepted a commission to produce new art for the Lyran Panzer X. He did a stand-up job on the Panzer IX and the Cobra BattleMech, so this should be more of the same, only better.

- I have offered a commission to Chris Seymour for another tank, the Lyran Montgomery II. I have not seen his work on tanks yet; some people are good at them and some are not, so we’ll see.

- I have offered a commission to Mike Sullivan to re-do the Draconis Combine’s Katana. No firm date from him as to when he will do it, so crossed fingers, everyone! Mike dropped off our artist rolls late last year due to personal issues, but as you can see from the Crinos I on our banner, he knows what he is doing and does it very well indeed. I am very glad to have him back on the payroll, as it were.

- I approached Paul Skowronek (‘skiltao’ over at the forums) and suggested our writeups could only improve under his withering editorial gaze, but the request was done in a skewed, half-assed fashion. Some of you may know him – he is the fellow who essentially re-wrote the House, Vee and ‘Mech introductions. We went through three drafts before he was happy with the result, and I have to admit I learned a lot. However, it may not have been enough.

Paul, if you are reading this blog post, 107 entries is a lot but we could sure use your critical eye. Ever think about taking a commission to proofread/edit these pieces? You could charge on a per-piece basis and stop whenever you like. I cannot offer more than about a dollar per piece, but you only have to correct really egregious errors, such as bits in the Deployment section which belong in the Configuration section – stuff like that.

There are a few Vees awaiting art commissions. We still have the Tomahawk, the Urugan and the San-Ku-Chu. All of the current art is warmed-over versions of modern military machines.

The TOC, Index and Page Count have been updated to reflect our new machines. I have consolidated some folders as well as sundry other paperwork tasks (like DVD backups). After reviewing the new ‘Mechs, I installed PDF record sheets of each type as well as sheets for any applicable variant in the Record Sheet Annex.

The Battleaxe variant BKX-8IF is particularly interesting, as it features no less than ten LRM-5 launchers backed by four ER medium lasers and five tons of ammunition. Very good at deploying minefields, let me tell you. I shudder to think of the effect it will have at long range plinking.

Fourth of July!

Where to start? I got a line on a butcher who would sell me fifteen inch-and-a-half thick rib eye steaks for $70. I asked the boy if he had some friends who would like to spend the 4th at our house. I got some killer potato salad at the deli across from my workplace. Rustled up some romaine lettuce and dressing and the invitations went out. $150 worth of reservation fireworks, several walk-ins with huge fireworks packages and eight boys later, we had a pretty good celebration.

These boys (all about my son’s age of 15) shot off all manner of loud fireworks from 2pm to 6pm, when we broke for a big dinner. Around 7pm they were stuffed, so we cleared the table and resumed. Having shot off all the loud stuff by 8:30 and not wanting to waste the pretty stuff until darkness had fallen, we retired to the front yard where my son refurbished two boffers (foam padded ‘swords’) with packing tape. The usual scenario was that each kid would beat the hell out of his opponent, but I had run out of tape and we didn’t want to worry about ‘warrior madness’, so we tried something from back in my SCA days.

A marshal watched each match. You tag your opponent’s leg, the marshal calls halt, your opponent drops to one knee and keeps fighting. This sort of play – losing your arm and having to shift to the other before resuming the match – was easier on the boys, the boffers and much, much more of a challenge. Strength and speed were only a part of the fight. A good time was had by all, and some surprising plays emerged. I even got a few licks in, though my son is much faster than I.

Darkness fell and we went in to get Momma. She and I sat outside as the boys put on their light show, with mortars and rockets and fountains. I was honored when my son, who had save the best for last, offered all six of the last mortars to me for lighting off. What a great show! The boys, being boys, could not resist playing ‘Jack jumped over the candlestick’ with the fireworks fountains. One of the mothers of a guest showed up to watch with Momma and me – she alternated between taking pictures and biting her hand at some of the antics these young men got up to.

What she did not see were these same eight boys all industriously sweeping up the street and sidewalk every three hours to keep the trash, paper and used fireworks under control. They did a stand up job and I was quite proud of them all. Thanks, guys! We all had a safe and very enjoyable 4th! And we still got to blow shit up!

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve