Author Topic: Aurigan Reach (Read 42814 times)

Elmoth · « **Reply #60 on:** 23 October 2018, 10:41:43 »

Actually the Reaches and the Aurigans do not share any planets. The fronc reaches and the aurigans could have existed side by side with no further fuss. If the Aurigans survived to the 3060s, that is, and it seems unlikely.

Kos · « **Reply #61 on:** 23 October 2018, 20:40:16 »

The assault mechs, or any mechs in the game, don't pose a cannon problem. They are literally the results of random assignment tables. I mean what you roll on RATs in any BT product don't actually affect or have to conform to cannon. Why apply this logic to a video game?

Dmon · « **Reply #62 on:** 26 October 2018, 17:11:59 »

Just scanning through Touring the Stars: Regis Roost and it looks like the Reach and the little bit of flavor text HBS did for the world have not been brought into canon.

The TTS in of itself is good but...

I really feel it needs saying that I am actually quite saddened to see CGL now proactively spitting in the face of the biggest marketing tool the BTU has had in something like 15 years. Personally if you are not going to make it canon at least steer clear of the parts of the universe it effects until it being a big thing has died down a bit.

No.. Lets take the fight right to them hordes of video game folk with all their money and purposefully contradict what their version of the universe says right off the bat!

Thatguybil · « **Reply #63 on:** 26 October 2018, 21:46:27 »

Quote from: Dmon on 26 October 2018, 17:11:59

Just scanning through Touring the Stars: Regis Roost and it looks like the Reach and the little bit of flavor text HBS did for the world have not been brought into canon.

The TTS in of itself is good but...

I really feel it needs saying that I am actually quite saddened to see CGL now proactively spitting in the face of the biggest marketing tool the BTU has had in something like 15 years. Personally if you are not going to make it canon at least steer clear of the parts of the universe it effects until it being a big thing has died down a bit.

No.. Lets take the fight right to them hordes of video game folk with all their money and purposefully contradict what their version of the universe says right off the bat!

HBS should be embraced.
Treat it like the cartoon was.
It happened, it just did not happen exactly how it happened in my game.

ANS Kamas P81 · « **Reply #64 on:** 26 October 2018, 22:20:50 »

Just gonna suggest we stop saying things like 'spitting in the face' and whatnot. And I'm going to suggest you guys look at who owns what before you level criticism, and consider that the Aurigan Reach is an entirely original thing made by the HBS guys...under the Microsoft license.

If you want CGL to get access to that, you might want to start ponying up a LOT of cash.

Icerose20 · « **Reply #65 on:** 26 October 2018, 22:21:20 »

I am not too worked up about Regis Roost not having mention of the Aurigan Coalition. I have no clue how much HBS and CGL were communicating about this, and to what level. I wanna say it was 2 years between the cartoon and the 1st Somerset Striker sourcebook was published. So, everyone, put down your pitchforks, and wait.

Dmon · « **Reply #66 on:** 27 October 2018, 04:40:53 »

Quote from: ANS Kamas P81 on 26 October 2018, 22:20:50

Just gonna suggest we stop saying things like 'spitting in the face' and whatnot. And I'm going to suggest you guys look at who owns what before you level criticism, and consider that the Aurigan Reach is an entirely original thing made by the HBS guys...under the Microsoft license.

If you want CGL to get access to that, you might want to start ponying up a LOT of cash.

I am fully aware of who owns what... But if that scares CGL the simple answer is to leave things be for a bit. The fluff in the TTS is great.. But could of easily been applied to a planet over the other side of the Concordat, or pretty much anywhere else on the Periphery rim. The fact that they are releasing a TTS for a world within the Aurigan Reach but not including even a nod to the HBS content says to me that the decision has been made to not only not include the HBS content but to pro-actively exclude it.

I throw money at every BT product CGL have ever released and was a HBS backer and have bought a season pass. As far as I am concerned I do throw a lot of money at them. BUT After how shoddy TRO:SW was, after a year long break in production and now pro-actively working against the HBS team (that includes the guy who created the damn universe in the first place).. I am very VERY close to boycotting all future CGL products due to extensive mismanagement of the property.

Colt Ward · « **Reply #67 on:** 27 October 2018, 10:50:49 »

You know . . . the product you are complaining about was probably complete or nearly so when the management team changed? I remember the announcement that they were interrupting the PDF pipeline to help highlight/coordinate with the revision of ilClan. So it likely means most of it was written before HBS released.

Gravedigger · « **Reply #68 on:** 27 October 2018, 11:10:14 »

As the writer of said product, I can confirm it was written far before HBS came out. More than three years ago in fact.
Aaron "Gravedigger" Pollyea

glitterboy2098 · « **Reply #69 on:** 27 October 2018, 11:20:24 »

Further, threatening a personal boycott is a largely ineffective tactic. Given their release schedules, an individual buyer is looking at maybe a hundred bucks a year. That seems like a big deal for the buyer, but catalyst operates at a level of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The effect of a single person boycotting them is pretty much the same as no boycott at all.

Elmoth · « **Reply #70 on:** 27 October 2018, 11:58:37 »

The fact that there are several live center owners is certainly a bad thing when it comes to canon consistency. Tough luck for us all. Not a big thing in any case, and maybe they will make mmends in a few years time. That would not be a big thing either. I like the Reach in any case, so I hope it gets tangentially introduced in Canon, but I will not think this affects much the rest of the universe if it is not. In my use of the BT universe for RPGs it will certainly exist. And other things like the lousy word of Blake children tantrum crusade will not. No big thing outside my head or my gaming group

Daemion · « **Reply #71 on:** 27 October 2018, 15:43:44 »

So, all of this begs a question from me: Do the events of the HBS game have to be solely applied to a periphery realm?

(Feel free to move this though to another thread, if it's too derailing.)

Let's look at it - you have small factions fighting over a single world which does eventually spread to others. However, I can see these events applied to any given BT world as a form of planetary civil war. While the broad, sweeping space opera is interesting and fun in its own right, each BT world is an island with its own hierarchy and minor powers.

I've long been looking for an honest glimpse into the machinations of nobles and world powers on the planetary, or even regional level. If nothing else, it brings more action to the merc market, especially for the small start-up looking for missions to cut their teeth on.

The conflict of the Auriga Reaches, or even the newly named Freedom from MechCommander 2, are nice examples of this, but they're only one-shots for something that probably should be a little more common.

I, for one, would love to see it nodded at in some fashion for that very reason.

Elmoth · « **Reply #72 on:** 27 October 2018, 17:58:00 »

There are a few books where this happens.

Initiation To war is Epsilon Eridani. 2 local powers in amoos intensity war while the federal planetary government does nothing. It is the story of he build up of the 2 powers and how they resolve the situation

In double blind you can see astrokaszy as having several competing emirs and desert tribes. Each with between 1 and 8 mechs max and vying for power.

I am sure there are others, but I am not that knowledgeable about the BT novels

Dmon · « **Reply #73 on:** 27 October 2018, 18:21:32 »

Quote from: Colt Ward on 27 October 2018, 10:50:49

You know . . . the product you are complaining about was probably complete or nearly so when the management team changed? I remember the announcement that they were interrupting the PDF pipeline to help highlight/coordinate with the revision of ilClan. So it likely means most of it was written before HBS released.

Quote from: Gravedigger on 27 October 2018, 11:10:14

As the writer of said product, I can confirm it was written far before HBS came out. More than three years ago in fact.
Aaron "Gravedigger" Pollyea

Wow... ok yeah to a degree I retract my statement, but on the other hand I have to ask just how inefficient is CGL? I have never worked in the games development industry but I have worked for a decade in the events industry, so I am not completely ignorant to the difficulties of bringing a product to market on an international scale. (booking a full European tour for a touring package the number of things that can go wrong is mind-boggling and that is before you add in the sex, drugs and rock n roll. so looking ahead for potential problems is the done thing) Is it normal for three years to be too short a time to deal with a problem or are relations with HBS that bad/non-existent that nobody has sat down and said "we have this bit of fluff here currently unreleased, do us a favor and work with it", The Aurigan Reach presents a bigger problem but even the description of the planets biome in game is totally different. Basic stuff like this is avoidable I would think, maybe an afternoons work for somebody to edit some text?

Quote from: glitterboy2098 on 27 October 2018, 11:20:24

Further, threatening a personal boycott is a largely ineffective tactic. Given their release schedules, an individual buyer is looking at maybe a hundred bucks a year. That seems like a big deal for the buyer, but catalyst operates at a level of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The effect of a single person boycotting them is pretty much the same as no boycott at all.

I know, but it is not like there is a complaints department I can contact and demand a refund for TRO:SW or even truly express my concern that a fan like Michael "Sigil" Todd produced a higher quality TRO that fills pretty much the same purpose at around the same time for free!!

I care about BT, as good or bad as it is it is a major part of my life (Closing on 22,000 edits on Sarna!) so my wallet is the only weapon I have in trying to make sure it is in safe hands who will not mess things up.

Sartris · « **Reply #74 on:** 27 October 2018, 19:38:07 »

Your assumption rests on the notion that anyone would pick up the IP for Topps' asking price. There is a decent chance that the alternative to cgl is the abyss

ThePW · « **Reply #75 on:** 27 October 2018, 20:39:40 »

Maybe it's a good time to lock this (since it's pointless now) thread?

Liam's Ghost · « **Reply #76 on:** 27 October 2018, 21:09:49 »

It's not entirely pointless. Whether or not the Aurigan Reach will become canon in some form is still up in the air.

All that's been established is that it won't be in the form it is in the game.

Icerose20 · « **Reply #77 on:** 27 October 2018, 22:34:33 »

As long as everyone is civil, no discussion is pointless.

Unless its about anyone calling my Comguards the same as those Robes that killed half the Inner Sphere, then them fighting words. :P

Frabby · « **Reply #78 on:** 28 October 2018, 01:20:02 »

Perhaps the argument should be turned around to say HBS dropped the ball on factchecking on a few points.

Only, HBS didn't so much drop the ball as throw it away deliberately because they wanted to do their own thing unrestrained from established canon. There's an established team of volunteer factcheckers that HBS never bothered to make use of, nor did HBS try to set up their own from the fanbase. The Argo is just the most egregious case where fans pointed out the problems early on, only be told that HBS was hellbent on using their cool ship anyways, because.
Sarna, much as I love it, doesn't qualify as proper factchecking. Not alone, anyways.
And let's face it, Jordan Weisman has been out of the loop on BT canon for 20 or maybe even 30 years.

hf22 · « **Reply #79 on:** 28 October 2018, 23:04:32 »

I am not sure I see any great point in introducing the Aurigan Reach into the Canon, even from the point of view of new fans of the HBS game.

I mean, as a fan of the new faction, you come across to the official lore to find … the events of the video game’s story were fruitless and the Aurigan Restoration disappeared from the Universe long before the “present day” of 3145? Not really a big draw card.

And even HBS seems to have got bored of the Aurigan Reach as a faction – It has already been announced that it will not be getting a faction-specific “flashpoint” in the new expansion (these have only been made available for the Great Houses).

Icerose20 · « **Reply #80 on:** 29 October 2018, 01:35:53 »

They did not get bored with it they always intended a sandbox play, just listen and read their Dev reports. The idea of the story mode, that gave the player the feel of the lore of Battletech, and to help guide those that aren't steeped in the knowledge of the Blessed Order of Roselle. :)

And we dont know if the events of the restoration was fruitless, now do we? Just like we don't know everything that has happened with the Clans left back home.

Greatclub · « **Reply #81 on:** 29 October 2018, 02:34:26 »

HBS. Jordan Weisman. The guy who did Clickytech.

The man obviously feels free to take creative liberties in the course of telling stories. His universe, he's the GM.

And I'm OK(ish) with that.

ActionButler · « **Reply #82 on:** 29 October 2018, 07:50:55 »

If the HBS game is the jumping on point for enough people, it makes sense to add the Aurigan Reach to the official canon.

NeonKnight · « **Reply #83 on:** 29 October 2018, 08:29:54 »

Quote from: ActionButler on 29 October 2018, 07:50:55

If the HBS game is the jumping on point for enough people, it makes sense to add the Aurigan Reach to the official canon.

Gul-DARN IT we need a LIKE BUTTON! :beer:

Sir Chaos · « **Reply #84 on:** 29 October 2018, 15:17:02 »

Quote from: Frabby on 28 October 2018, 01:20:02

And let's face it, Jordan Weisman has been out of the loop on BT canon for 20 or maybe even 30 years.

On the other hand, since he´s the guy who invented the whole thing, one could say that canon has been out of the loop on Jordan Weisman for 20 or 30 years...

Sartris · « **Reply #85 on:** 29 October 2018, 15:22:53 »

Quote from: Sir Chaos on 29 October 2018, 15:17:02

On the other hand, since he´s the guy who invented the whole thing, one could say that canon has been out of the loop on Jordan Weisman for 20 or 30 years...

one tends to forfeit the right to give input on such things when they walk away

Colt Ward · « **Reply #86 on:** 29 October 2018, 15:49:35 »

While Weisman's involvement in the over all franchise can be debated (MWDA after all) he was not the only one putting out the story. IIRC, Randall Bills and a few others still with the property was involved in developing the fluff.

monbvol · « **Reply #87 on:** 29 October 2018, 18:05:52 »

Keep in mind HBS and Jordan didn't have to work with anyone at CGL at all and really we need to be thankful CGL had as much involvement as it did.

Plus I do think it is very wrong to accuse HBS of dropping any balls or that they need to be the ones to accomodate CGL's interpretation of events.

After all if we get objective about the status of CGL, HBS, and Battletech the game, thus HBS by extension, is very much the senior partner in this equation.

Even then how much of a retcon is even really needed to include it? I feel like it would be fairly minor at most.

Valerius · « **Reply #88 on:** 29 October 2018, 18:28:06 »

I do not understand why everyone is so adamant about the story being canonized. Would making the story canon really change how you feel about the franchise?
For the argument that it will bring in new players, that is complete nonsense.
Having a new box set, or even free starter pdfs with print out mechs as well as catalyst demo team holding and advertising public games, would bring in new and keep existing players.
I highly doubt that the battletech video game has brought any new players to the table top game because the table top game has no advertisement.

Maingunnery · « **Reply #89 on:** 29 October 2018, 18:30:20 »

Indeed none of the PC games so far have been fully canon, while also bringing in a lot of people.
So there is no need to make it fully canon.