What is the weakest or most unbelievable aspect of the BT Universe?

[RifleMech]

Concerning Bombs, I liked the old rules were there was more than one bomb size. I wouldn't mind going back them or something similar. There should be more than just one size. Aircraft have been dropping various sized bombs since WWI and while Battletech may not be a simulation game, one size fits all doesn't work that well either.

I'm not sure this has been mentioned or not either but if a LAM's bomb bay (1 ton) can carry a drop tank with half a ton of fuel. If the internal drop mechanisms are of similar weight to External Stores Hardpoints (.2 tons), that mean the external casing of a drop tank is .3 tons. Wouldn't that also mean the external casing of a bomb is .3 tons?

[TheoLehman]

Scarce resources are only about politics and power where they're actually scarce... 

The raiders had a lot of water, but did their targets?  I'm genuinely asking, I haven't read the story in question.
Raiding isn't always about taking what you need, sometimes it's about taking what your enemy needs.

[Daryk]

That's... what I said? 

[TheoLehman]

Oh, I thought you were saying the water raid didn't make sense because the raiders already had water.  So that's my mistake.

[Daryk]

No worries... asynchronous communication is harder than the other kind...

[marauder648]

Water raids only make sense on an intra-planetary scale where you're hopping over to a location a few hundred kilometers away to steal from your neighbor's filtration plant.

I'd also guess that this is because of the time its written in too. We now know that you could probably harvest asteroids and get water ice from them, they may not have known about it when writing this in the very early 80's.

See also the laughable stats/fluff for the guns in the early books, very clearly written by people who didn't know much about guns.

[SteelRaven]

I'd also guess that this is because of the time its written in too. We now know that you could probably harvest asteroids and get water ice from them, they may not have known about it when writing this in the very early 80's.

See also the laughable stats/fluff for the guns in the early books, very clearly written by people who didn't know much about guns.

Not to be mean to the og writers but it's abundantly clear there was allot they needed to read up on.

[Suboptimal]

Research standards are higher now, specifically for subject matter off the main focus of the work (in this case, a fun game and not guns). The increased adoption and utility of the internet has made a huge difference in the cost:benefit ratio for getting tangential details right.

[Aotrs Commander]

Research standards are higher now, specifically for subject matter off the main focus of the work (in this case, a fun game and not guns). The increased adoption and utility of the internet has made a huge difference in the cost:benefit ratio for getting tangential details right.

It was a lot harder to do research, even twenty years ago, when the internet was still in the early stages of wider use. As it was then "library, have bought the book or nowt." Google and the like, plus wikipedia (and wikis spawning from it) have made SO much easier, it's not even funny. So you do kind of have to give people writing 30, 40 years ago a bit of slack.

(Hell, I LITERALLY could not do the moderns-armour side of my day job without stuff like wiki, google image search and fansites of all stripes.)

Nowadays, though? There are ZERO excuses for being lazy about it.

[Cannonshop]

I'd also guess that this is because of the time its written in too. We now know that you could probably harvest asteroids and get water ice from them, they may not have known about it when writing this in the very early 80's.

People knew about that back in the late fifties and sixties.  Larry Niven created 'belters' in his fiction in the mid sixties, and cometary/asteroidal ice was a major plot point in a lot of his stories from that time.  (So it was well known to be common knowledge for non-professional-scientists even THEN.)

I suspect it was more influenced by the sci-fi spoof "Ice Pirates" (released in 1984) and "V" (the original NBC miniseries in the early eighties.  I remember my mom mocking that one while we were watching it.  My family was weird.)

See also the laughable stats/fluff for the guns in the early books, very clearly written by people who didn't know much about guns.

lol, indeed? Ya Think??  Creatives still don't get those right more often than not, not just with Battletech, but with armies of other media including television, movies, comic books...

[Daryk]

Ice Pirates was hilarious, though I don't think I've seen it since the '80s...   

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I remember in Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, there was a contract to guard a comet that was being brought to a planet for water.

The final mission on that contract was glitched and would crash the game as soon as you tried to start it.

[Daryk]

Bummer!  That would have been a cool mission to see the result of...   

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

It was just shooting some ASFs, followed by a dropship delivering a few mechs, apparently.  The real problem is that if you selected Career Mode, where you sign on with Hansen's Roughriders and consequently didn't have a budget to worry about, you were forced to take that contract.

[Daryk]

Ouch... that's quite the bait and switch: sign here and no worries about your budget... SORRY! Game crash! 

[Ruger]

Ice Pirates was hilarious, though I don't think I've seen it since the '80s...   

I have it on DVD. 

Ruger

[Daryk]

I'm jealous! 

[pokefan548]

Look up the Belters sometime. I don't remember if they do any ice mining, but there is actually a sizeable population of asteroid belt miners in the Sol system and across the Inner Sphere.

[Daryk]

I'm all in on Belters (and the non-Sol system Rockjacks)... check my sig block...