BattleTech is a bad game -- don't buy it

I remember on my first Battletech boxset, it said "the funnest thing since the invention of dice"
I have the mechwarrior game too, 2nd and 3rd edition, and I am not a big fan of the rules.
Battletech can be fun however, there is alot more conflict in the inner sphere, which allows for more combat, which is what battletech is all about.
 
I thought it was about ten-meter tall war machines stomping around, and bold MechWarriors, and many exotic types of alcohol...

Why do we not discuss BattleMechs we like instead of this petty strife about rules?
 
I personally feel that the 'mechs before the whole reconstruction of the game were the best looking (this also includes various clan mechs as well). Marauder, Warhammer, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman. They were all visually cool looking. But then again, I suppose that could be because they were not created at FASA but by the folks who did the Macross saga (warped into Robotech in the US). As for the Clan units: Warhawk and the Summoner I consider to be visually impressive as well.

I have to admit, though, I kind of miss the old Battletech computer games (Crescent Hawks Inception and Revenge). Even the original Mechwarrior game was extremely fun (at least, I thought so) when I played it oh so many years ago.
 
Well Ein I thinked warped is a pretty strong word. Karl Macek and Harmony Gold simply bought the rights to Macross, Southern Cross and M.O.S.P.E.A.D.A (I think that is the original japanese name for invid invasion), three seperate anime movies. Revised them together into a cohesive story and released them as ROBOTECH, with Jack Mckinney writing novelizations (which are quite good). Unfortunatly the ROBOTECH saga didn't completly get put to animation, they cut short SENTINALS by about four books.

Oh and favorite Battletech mech, hmmmm, light I like the Stinger or the Wasp (or any clan mech), medium Shadowhawk (or again any clan mech), heavy is a good toss up, I liked the Wolverine the most but there are a few others like the Cataphract,(or again, any clan mech), assault I kind of have a thing for the Zues, but the grandaddy of innersphere mechs the Atlas, the gigantic jack o lantern of death (or any clan mech)

Clan mechs are simply superior to innersphere due to technology.
 
This thread is certified 100%...

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This reminds me of the infamous Privateer 3 thread with the guy that said he coudn't escape because the pirates flying stolen devil rays detonanted the super nuke under his impossible to find ship. :)


Also, look at Joshua's profile, does anyone belive his birthdate is "March 8, 1965"?

He gives Joshs around the world a bad name
 
BlackJack2063 said:
Revised them together into a cohesive story and released them as ROBOTECH, with Jack Mckinney writing novelizations (which are quite good).
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Saying Jack McKinney (two guys, actually a pen name) wrote good novelizations = instant loss of credibility with me. But I'll forgive you, since you might not know any better. Yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a rabid Robotech hater like some people. I actually continue to enjoy the series; some people just take their anime fandom too seriously. However, I find most fan fiction more enjoyable than McKinney's work; there are just too many jarring or repetitive situations. To be fair, I haven't really figured out a way to make combat sequences sound non-repetitive in writing, which is probably why they work better in a visual medium.

Incidentally, I don't think "warped" as used in Ein-7919's [post=198550]original post[/post] was meant as any sort of value judgement. He may have simply meant that it was changed from the original series it was based on, which it most certainly was. Nothing really wrong with saying that. Oh, sure, warped has a negative connotation, but I think that's reading too much into it, considering he didn't launch into any tirades.

Joshua said:
Just remember all the rules they could have written better but have deliberately refused to do so. They won't listen to good reliable balanced ideas when they're proven they'll work.
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Yes, such proven ideas as blackfuel-powered mechs. I remember when George Washington used his blackfuel-powered mechs to charge across the Delaware and surprise the Hessians at Trenton with a barrage of superpolymer glowbug SRMs, thus proving what reliable, balanced ideas such technologies were. He sure proved all the doubters wrong.
 
I thought he used Dragon's Dropping loaded Arrow IVs that homed in on the super polymer launched attractor dolphins from Star Adventure 1040.

As for 'Mechs, I personally have always liked the Marauder, Devastator, Pillager, BlackJack, and the Thunder Hawk.

As for superiority, one must always judge a 'mech by its pilot, not by technology. For Example, Morgan Kell in his Archer versus the Nova Cat advance, with Morgan Kell wiping the floor with Nova Cats due to his superior skills in a BattleMech, or the Gray Death Legion on Pandora.

Part of the Clan Lethality in their BattleMechs is due to their high level of training. Remember, from the moment Clan trueborn children arrive at a sibko, they are trained for their specialty (MechWarrior, Elemental, AeroJock). Also remember that the trueborns are bred from combinations designed to produce the best 'MechWarriors. And remember that only the best actually survive the sibko, ensuring that a Clan green MechWarrior has a higher level of experience than the average Leftenant straight out of NAIS CMS. (Formerly NAMA)
 
I, personally, prefer to file the Star Adventure 1040EZ - it's a quicker solution to the annual Star Adventure nightmare!
 
One half of McKinney is dead, the other has gotten a great deal of success writing Star Wars.
I kinda felt sorry for Jack in writing Robotech, the story was already done, the dialogue was already written, and since Robotech was already adult oriented when it was released, he didn't have alot of leeway.
Matter of fact he didn't get to write actual stories until the Sentinels (which were a little weird), and Zentradie Rebellion (been so long I can't remember how to spell it), Masters Gambit, and Before the Invid Storm (these books were not all that good, Rebellion was alright but not great)
Not saying that the couldn't found a different author, but McKinney did make a great deal of money and was a best seller on nearly all those novels.
ROBOTECH is one of the only things I can probably say with confidance that I am an expert of, I lived and breathed it for a long time.
 
I suppose I should cut the guys some slack because they basically had to follow a set script, and couldn't really branch out without alienating those folks who wanted novelized versions of everything exactly as it happened. I can't really do so, though; there are bits and pieces where they feel more comfortable branching out into unknown events are much more pleasing, and it really adds some character to the writing. They should have done a lot more, and maybe compressed the battle sequences further. The fact that the books which don't have any canonical backup being even worse is probably a good sign that the project was doomed.
 
The project was doomed? I would hardly call ROBOTECH a doomed project, 21 novels, one of the best selling roleplaying games of all time, soundtracks, and a video game, not to mention the DVD sales are not to shoddy, even the official page is doing pretty well (or at least last time I checked).
Hell there is even some rumors floating around that they might be interested in turning into a movie, after the Mechwarrior flick gets out (if it does).
 
I don't really care what medium they use.

The only thing I do care about is that the plot is excellent, the dialogue believable, and that they use real BattleMechs and not stupid Dorkage AgroMechs to battle it out.
 
Er...you know I was refering to your statement pertaining to the rumors of a Robotech movie...right?

As for the Battletech universe...I can only hope that Microsoft and/or FASA will produce a 5th game (and that the 'mech designs go back to what Mechwarrior 3 had).
 
I read something about a MechWarrior movie, try to reverse the damage done by RobotJox, and RobotWars, from what I heard it is going to be a live action movie with CGI mechs.
Hopefully ROBOTECH will follow, it has a cult following in the US, sorta like us WC fans.
Unfortunatly this movie might take a great while to come out, expect to see them hit pre production after the Transformers movie that I have heard about.
 
I wouldn't really call Robotech's following a cult following, except perhaps in the sense that it has a dedicated fan base which is still following it decades later. A lot of people in the US have seen (and liked) Robotech. It introduced many people in the US to anime for the first time, and thus had an important impact (even if many anime fans came to have different opinions of the series later on in life). The popularity of the RT Web site is a testament to that.

Contrast that with Wing Commander, which, while being one of the most well-known series in the gaming industry, and perhaps one that introduced many of us to gaming, doesn't really have the same vast mainstream appeal. I mean, contrast the success of the RT TV series to the WC TV series. :) Then again, a lot of people recognized the CIC folks at the DragonCon thingy as pilots in the WCP uniform (did that many people really play WCP?), so maybe I'm wrong about this.

I'm satisfied with DYRL as a Macross movie. The animation quality is stunning, and probably much higher than anything that would be produced today. I wouldn't mind buying a remastered (and subbed, I guess) DVD, but that's apparently a little tricky legally. I suppose a Hollywood-produced live action/CGI movie could be made, but I'd expect the folks in charge to bungle it.
 
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