Thread 96793278

The /btg/ is dead! Long live the /btg/!

Red herring edition

Last Thread: >>96778602

================================
>BattleTech Introductory Guide & PDFs
https://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=400

>Overview of the Major Factions
https://bg.battletech.com/universe/great-houses
https://bg.battletech.com/universe/the-clans
https://bg.battletech.com/universe/other-powers

>Rookie Guides
https://tinyurl com/ydtr589e
https://pastebin.com/HZvGKuGx
https://files.catbox.moe/l1gjfi.jpg

>Sarna.net – BattleTech Wiki
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page

>Force Building & Unit Faction Guides
MUL
http://masterunitlist.info
Xotl's Random Assignment Tables
https://tinyurl com/fejwk5f2

>Unit Design Software
Solaris Skunkwerks
https://www.solarisskunkwerks.com
MegaMek Lab
https://megamek.org

>MegaMek – PC version of BT with bots & multiplayer!
https://megamek.org

>How to Play Against the Bot?
https://www.mediafire.com/file/l5mqjydrgndnndu/Against_the_Bot_v4.pdf
(Included in latest MekHQ docs)
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=56065.0
https://pastebin.com/pE2f7TR5
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/rkg2sl5ybr24k/Battletech_Portrait_Pack
https://www.mediafire.com/file/a3x576yflof0ca1/MekHQ_Fluff_art.rar

>Flechs Software – Digital record sheets & more!
https://flechs.net

>Instant Action – Play custom scenarios for tabletop!
https://victorypointproductions.neocities.org/instantaction

>PDF Trove
rebrand ly/CranstonSnord
rebrand ly/SnordsStoryTime
rebrand ly/CranstonLogFiles
rebrand ly/CranstonSnordDropBox

>Older Troves (2013-2020)
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/cj0tjpn9b3n1i/Battletech
https://tinyurl com/2p8p7cew
rebrand ly/BTmags

>/btg/’s own image board!
https://bgb.booru.org/index.php

>More /btg/ tidbits! (2020-05-17)
https://pastebin.com/uFwvhVhE

Favorite 100 tonner?

>>96793338
Yer mum

HONOR THE DRAGON

>>96793338
Iron Cheetah, still can't find a decent model for one with the old school chicken legs

>>96793712
Like a million years ago, I had a really fun Dragon with a Hatchet and LL. Some kind anon thought it was cool so he took that old picture of a Dragon kicking an Enforcers head off and photoshopped it with said hatchet and a Picklehelm since the campaign i was playing it was a rebuild Lyran salvage.

sometimes /btg/ has the nicest anons and brings me warmth. Thing was pretty great on table, if memory serves 2ml srm6 hatchet and a LL.

>>96793877
Damn that does sound like a cool build. You still got the edit?

>>96793929
maybe on a back up HDD, I'll hunt for it.

>>96793338
Top Picks:
Dire Wolf
Vanquisher
Kodiak
Marauder II
Amarok

Ol' Reliable:
Atlas

The One that started it all:
Mackie

Completely Overrated:
King Crab

Keep at it Buddy:
Imp

>>96793964
>Imp

The Imp was so idiotic for the Dragoons to bring. It wasn't even a Star League prototype like the Annihilator, it was just a straight-up post-Exodus

>>96793338
Based Total Annihilation enthusiast

>>96793964
>king crab
TT should never be used to judge how good a mech is, in MW5 every variant of King Crab is a fucking monster, with special mention to the Kaiju legendary, 4 UAC5's, 4 Heavy Rifles or 4 LBX10SLD fucking SHREAD.

>>96793929
the booru provides

>>96794019
It's absolutely insane how the Wolfs Dragoons were able to even operate in the Inner Sphere in reality they should have instantly been made and a bunch of nuke armed Royal SLDF ASF's or even a white painted Warship or two completely BTFO their little floatilla.

>>96794042
kek that's beautiful

>>96794051
The Great Houses were too eager to try and absorb them to ask questions, and the resources that ComStar would have needed to erase the Goons would have been impossible to hide while moving in an era that the ComGuards were still a secret.

>>96794101
>secret
>oh no who tf has warships and sldf stuff?
>local telecom company
>idk lol, pay your bills fucko
The Great Houses would be too busy blaming each other or shitting themselves to suspect Comstar, the Great Houses didn't even know about ComGuards much less about nukes or WarShips.

>>96794051
>or even a white painted Warship or two

The Dragoons brought WarShips with them, they just left them hidden after they realized that mercenaries with WarShips was fucking insane.

>>96794135
The Houses were already suspecting that ComStar was less benevolent than they claimed.

I need the best 5/8/5 55t.

>>96794173
Griffin

>>96794177
I said best.

>>96794173
Wolverine 7K. (Remember to bring one tonne of infernos)

>>96793338
>>96794023
>Annihilation enthusiast
Annihilation you say?!

>>96794190
Eh. if I were going to use an XL engine, I'd step up to 60t. I'm staying at 55 specifically for the half ton JJ.

>>96794025
The king crab fucking sucks in MW5. Having a huge head hitbox and arms that stick out low means you take worse part damage than any other mech and you can't shoot over low terrain or hills.

>>96794173
gauntlet 10B

>>96794204
>head hit box
You do know that only one of the windows is the cockpit right?
>low arms
Literally not a problem.
>worse part damage
That's why you drop the LRM 15 to a 10 and max the armor. Two AC20 SS is enough to kill ANY cockpit in the game, use the large laser to probe and the AC20's to blow out the cockpit. If you need salvage you can kneecap assaults before they can react.

In BT, is that they are unable/incapable of creating AI? Or just not making one for some reason?

>>96793712
Is there any 3D print for mech sized melee weapon+hand bits?

>>96794272
Hyperspace makes AIs go crazier than Skynet after talking with AM. There was an experimental one in Necromo Nightmare, but it wasn't exactly stable, either, even for staying on planet (and if the planet has an HPG, who knows how they'd be affected).

>>96794240
coolant pods are busted as fuck, god damn. If I understand the rules correctly, you get +1 dissipation per heatsink every turn for 1 ton. For the tradeoff that it does a 10 damage internal explosion if hit.

>>96794272
>incapable
There's an AI on Necromo. And all it wants to do is upload itself to a spacefaring craft. Which would have immediate disastrous effects for humanity. It's possible the Black Marauder is actually a renegade AI.

There's thinking computers everywhere, they're just not what people think of when they say AI nowadays. Targeting, motion, mech interface, etc. They're more realistic optimization routines and query processors like Star Trek's "computer" and less like Master Chiefs "cortana"

>>96794324
>coolant pods are busted
Yeah, in MW3 and 4 coolant flushing allowed you to pull some bullshit.

>>96794373
I don't think coolant pods operate that way. Seems like an active effect. It's either aligned or not. Just a giant reservoir of freon. I don't know what part actively enables coolant purge. If Coolant Pods are available, then you'd be silly not to take one and double your dissipation.

>>96794324
Coolant pods only work once each. Radical Heat Sinks are the broken option since do the same thing but are usable every turn with an increasing risk of breaking if you use them on consecutive turns. If they blow up then you generate a little extra heat every turn.

>>96794324
>>96794377

>Man discovers old Forever 67 tech mounted on a DA mech.
Just wait until you discover Radical Heat Sinks.

>>96794272
Incapable.

Remember that BattleTech's computers are much worse than ours. References in novels make it clear that they're 1970s-1980s level.

>>96794388
Is that heat sinks that ride skateboards?

>>96794377
>freon
Jfc do Battletech writers even know how basic thermodynamics works? Freon is a terrible choice for cooling things, it's used as a refrigerant, not as a coolant.

>>96794394
Nope, but they certainly make you say "Dude, sweet!"

>>96794381
>>96794388
>radical heat sinks
That's a tiny minority of heat sinks, most are moderate heat sinks.

>>96794393
But built like brick shithouses with absolutely insane levels of storage.

>>96794381
>one time use
Where is that stated? According to the TA and the BM Manual, it says you can only trigger one per turn. But it doesn't say it's expended anywhere I'm aware of.

>>96794399
Freon was a brand of refrigerant. But no. Battletech coolant is actual coolant like a vehicle radiator. It's not glycol-based and is poisonous, though.

>>96794410
Coolant pods are 1 turn use like an M-pod.

>>96794410
Nevermind, found it. Though it should be in other spots, imo. This is the only mention of coolant pods being one-shot anywhere.

>>96794409
80s computers with tapes had effectively unlimited storage. We still use that tech for ultra-long term backups.

>>96794414
>and is poisonous, though.
Not the Clans'!

>>96794414
Yeah, even water would be a better option than Freon. Water is actually a fantastic choice as a cooling medium as it's boiling point is high and therefore the amount of heat it can carry away is high. Freon and liquid nitrogen would instantly boil away and stop carrying away heat.

>>96794422
Water also has a ridiculous specific heat so it heats slow and carries heat well in smaller amounts.

>>96794421
>things with external storage have infinite storage!
No shit.

>>96794419
Any time you see the term "pod" in the game, it indicates one-time use. Well, weapon names, not omni-pods.

>>96794425
How many Rocket Launchers can you fit in an Omni-pod?

>>96794410
The rules in my copy of Tacops says "Each Coolant Pod can only be used once per battle." In the rules box.

>>96794419
Like most things, you need to go back to the original description. This is why the OG Housebooks are more detailed in the history than the later Handbooks, because they don't have to cover as much shit.

p.72 of Unbound says it super clearly.

>>96794435
Everything that fits in the crits of the chassis. That's the beauty of omni-pods. Though, I imagine plugging a deathcordian into the side of an Executioner will have limited other chassis that will use it.

After reading trough Clan lore on Sarna and playing Mechwarrior 5 Clans I have come to the conclusion that clan society is fucking retarded and makes no god damn sense.
For example, the whole trial of position shit, how in the fuck do they even possess enough mechwarriors in the first place if every one of them has to fight and potentially fucking kill an existing mech warrior in a trial of combat? It makes no fucking sense.

>>96794480
>For example, the whole trial of position shit, how in the fuck do they even possess enough mechwarriors in the first place if every one of them has to fight and potentially fucking kill an existing mech warrior in a trial of combat? It makes no fucking sense.
At least that's done as a replacement measure; New Warrior replaces the Old, as the Clans want to keep their fighting force in peak condition.

Now imagine how the fuck these fuckers didn't simply starve to death, but somehow ADVANCE technology lightyears ahead of everyone else!

>>96794480
The clans are just the same "Life is cheap, Battlemechs aren't" as everyone else.

The difference is they make child soldiers in iron wombs in bulk and WANT to fail out both the garbage and the old. Those sibbies have like a 95% failout rate. 1/20 gets to be a mechwarrior, and that's still more than they need. You test them with the old trainers on their way to solahma, and keep cycling motherfuckers through. Personnel isn't a problem even in a hellhole like the Kluster.You only get off the meatgrinder conveyor if you can land a bloodname. Otherwise, you aren't worth shit.

Now, they are maximum tard, but more in their hypocrisy and fursuits and stuff.

>>96794503
They sure as shit don't seem to treat battlemechs as that much of a precious resource if they are willing to waste them in trials of position etc.

>>96794509
Clanners have a hard on for "You must do this for real" for ranking up.

Only the Bears shirk this in the DA with sim combat, but they're faggots so that's to be expected.

>>96794503
>fursuits and stuff.
Come on now, we've all seen the HeMan shit the Airforce does for Officer Swords...

That's practically the most believable thing about the Clans!

>>96794424
No, they're also very high data density as well, comparable to modern disk drives!

But they're just much much slower to read and write from. The fanciest modern tape drives can hit up to about 15 MB/s read/write. Disk harddrives do 500+, and SSDs can easily exceed 10,000.

>>96794509
Not every trial ends with a destroyed mech. Plenty of things can preclude total destruction. There may be a lucky shot to a core every now and then, but you gotta think in the grand scheme, one in 1000 mechs is lost in these things. More often the pilot is vaporized and they just repair the mech.

>>96794526
>tfw still using SATA connections that top out at 50Mb/s

>>96794509
Trials are very limited in scope. Most Trials seem to be Cluster-sized at best, and in fluff we see a lot of Star- and Trinary-scale ones.

>>96794272
>In BT, is that they are unable/incapable of creating AI?
No. It is Sam Altman who failed.

BT has multiple AI systems that can perform useful jobs, the least of which being the expert systems that interpret pilot brain wave readings and micro control the robot's limbs during maneuver.
It's just that BT is anti-transhumanist, so there rarely are full borgs, gene mods or AI that can make sensible long-term plans and put them into action.

>>96794435
>>96794468
After the Rocket Accordion meme became popular, the rules were changed to hard cap how many of them could be stuffed into a handheld.

>>96794561
>rocket accordion
elaborate

>>96794561
The Rocket Accordion meme started here. God, I love how we break shit when new rules come out.

>>96794480
>>96794499
Warriors are like 1% of the population, no? It's like Elon Musk forcing his loin spawns to murder Trump's children and grandchildren for his entertainment. It doesn't matter to society at all.

As for how they deal with it in terms of numbers - they decant a lot of kids every generation, most of them will wash out and be added to the general population.

>>96794574
0.01%.

>>96794565
The "Remove Kebab" guy was fused with "Let me play you the song of my people.", I understand. The result was an Atlas carrying a box approximately the proportions of an accordion, made out of rocket launchers. Being a 100 tonner, that used to be enough rockets to delete anything.

>>96794584
and keep in mind that's all the Clans added together.

for to-hit.

do you hit if you roll the number, or if you beat the number?

>gator resolves to 7
Hit on 7+ or hit on 8+

>>96794641
you roll the number or higher

>>96794641
In perhaps the only real similarity there is to 40k (and various other wargames) you are rolling to try and get the calculated number or higher.

Colloquially that would be why people will say they are, for example, in your case 'looking for 7s' or '7-ups'.

It is worth noting however that unlike 40k, you can calculate an impossible value (a 13) and have shots that you can never hit.

>>96794673
>impossible values you can never hit

>>96794584
Which book & what year is this?

>>96794679
Rounding fractions down:
2 is 100%
3 is 97%
4 is 91%
5 is 83%
6 is 72%
7 is 58%
8 is 41%
9 is 27%
10 is 16%
11 is 8%
12 is 2%
To-hit of 9 is where decision making starts to blend logic and mysticism.

>>96794641
Meets it beats it. Gator says 7 is a 7 or higher.

>>96794718
Warrior of Kerensky.

Late 90s?

>>96794637
Seriously? I know because of the way bidding works that conflicts in Clanner Space usually use very small forces, but how the fuck did they think conquering the Inner Sphere was going to be possible with those numbers? That's like what, ten or twenty guys for each habitable planet? Even if that number doesn't count Sohlama units, that's insane. It would be a stretch even if every single Clan only had 110,500 warriors, come to that.

>>96794019

A pity it may be extinct now since the GM factory in Outreach is gone because of the Jihad and that Clan Jade Falcon may have also ended Arc-Royal Mechworks, which also built the Imp. It was the only proof you can apply the spherical body used with the UrbanMech for anything heavier than the UrbanMech.

>>96795073
Clan Civilians are apparently incredibly docile. The idiot Warriors assumed IS folks would be the same.

>>96795076
>Flashman: am I a joke to you?

>>96795085

First of, the Flashman isn't that spherical. Second, regardless of depiction, Flashman has "chicken legs", which isn't the case for the UrbanMech and Imp.

>>96794918
Oh, what I was asking was what year (like, 3050, 3058, etc) that population was based on.

>>96794272
It's not Smart AI or "real" AI, but they got pretty close. Herb in his weirdo crusade to give to the Blakist Remnants ALL THE TOYS gave them a functional "dumb" AI, and what we see is simply the prototype for a much larger system.
Of course the Blakists fucked off beyond Davion space so we'll never see them again, but dumb AI are completely possible in the BTech universe.

>>96794480
>how in the fuck do they even possess enough mechwarriors in the first place if every one of them has to fight and potentially fucking kill an existing mech warrior in a trial of combat?
"Potentially" is doing a LOT of heavy lifting here. Actual fatalities in Trials of Position appear to be pretty damn rare, AND the many of warriors in the TOPs are "warriors" who are aging out anyway. We have blow by blows of several love fire TOPs in all the novels, and there's very few fatalities among the opfor. IIRC, none of the warriors faced by Aidan, Marthe, Phelan, or Natasha died in their Trial. I don't Alaric or Katrina killed anyone, and while I'm 100% sure that CrazyTits Hazen did she was also a confirmed psychopath and tried to kill basically anyone who she could fuck regardless of situation, so I feel she's an outlier to be discarded.

You don't have to kill the enemy, remember. You have to defeat them. Blowing out the legs or torso of a Mech, or critting out it's engine or gyro, all qualify. There's lots of ways to kill a Mech without the pilot dying in the bargain. This isn't the vidya where killing the Mech also automatically kills the driver.

>>96794847
>8 is 41%
To-hit number required to shoot at trannies and Canopians is finally confirmed.

>>96794042
oh wow you beat me to it and thank you so much!!!
Any time I get grouchy when people are fighting here I think of this and all the other good memories.
Plus that mech was a hoot.

>>96795081
>Clan Civilians are apparently incredibly docile. The idiot Warriors assumed IS folks would be the same.
Which they are based on everything that happened post invasion with the occupation zones.

>>96795073
Technicians help pad out their ship crews but yeah the numbers are retarded. At the time of the Clan invasion there was something like only a billion Clanners in total in existence. When it comes to the Clans there's not just author fiat there's the whole goddamn fiat dealership.
>>96795081
Even with some of the worlds where the Clans were greeted as liberators the ones where they were not should have grind the invasion to a halt before Tukayyid.

>>96794393
Modern computers do exist, but they're not much use to a spacefaring civilization because of how vulnerable they are to cosmic ray damage snd hyperspace corruption. Only very urbanized/industrialized worlds have the infrastructure to build and maintain them on-site.

>>96795196
I don't know, there were considerable resources needed to garrison new conquered worlds. To the point Protomechs got accepted despite being dezgra.

>>96795103
From book implied to be 3062. Also makes comparisons to the Hindu caste system. Shitpost about that as you will.

>>96795136
I temember Alaric's trial well. He pounded a Cougar or Adder into scrap as his first kill and already aimed at the Mad Dog that would be his second, and fired as soon as the first mech's still living pilot deactivated its targeting system, thus signaling combat ineffective.

The Mad Dog then instantly ate an ERPPC to the canopy.

Alaric's final kill was his sibmate who tried to murk him from behind. Also dead. Then Alaric switched off his own targeting before his final opponent, a Jupiter, could cut his carreer short.

So yeah, deaths in the TOPs are accepted, but by no means obligatory. You have to render your opponent ineffective, and either side can signal surrender and count as kill.

>>96795267
Explains why clan mechs don't have toilets and IS ones do.

>>96795103
Oh lol.

305X. Don't remember the exact year.

It also gives planet-by-planet populations and IIRC growth rates by Clan.

1 billion is pretty reasonable BTW. The Exodus Fleet was 6 million, and over 270 years that cones out to slightly before 2%. Considering the Pentagon Civil War and that many Clan worlds are barely habitable, it's not bad. It would be about 50th on the world by modern standards, way above every developed country. Lots life expectancy seems to be offset by fairly large families.

>>96795296
I kek'd and an note picturing Vlan Esrriors in fishnet body stockings pooping in fields.

>>96795302
No more phoneposting in bed