The BattleTech Multi-verse?

[Daemion]

No seriously, the " aliens " must be under in a bio-suit at all times or covered in green slime so as to not dry out in standard warm temp. ( Think translucence green... or a lightly armored spacesuit )

Or the Last Human at the end of the world on Dr. Who.  - "Moisturize me!"

[Daemion]

Converting BattleArmor.

Y'know, while the idea of Cyclones are neat, I'd actually love to see the suit from MechAssault 2 the basis for a significant army, and not a one-off prototype.

[RifleMech]

Y'know, while the idea of Cyclones are neat, I'd actually love to see the suit from MechAssault 2 the basis for a significant army, and not a one-off prototype.

I wasn't just thinking of cyclones though. There's the bikes from Bubble Gum Crisis.  I've also seen suits that turn into fighters and suits that turn into ATVs.

[Major Headcase]

I wasn't just thinking of cyclones though. There's the bikes from Bubble Gum Crisis.  I've also seen suits that turn into fighters and suits that turn into ATVs.

I'm totally  behind this idea...
I want a platoon of Death Commandos in these....  :drool:

[Maingunnery]

There's the bikes from Bubble Gum Crisis.

Those are called MotoSlaves, they are great.

[RifleMech]

I'm totally  behind this idea...
I want a platoon of Death Commandos in these....  :drool:

Sweet! :drool:

Those are called MotoSlaves, they are great.

Thanks. My mind totally blanked on me and I agree. :)  :thumbsup:

[DOC_Agren]

Y'know, while the idea of Cyclones are neat, I'd actually love to see the suit from MechAssault 2 the basis for a significant army, and not a one-off prototype.

drawing a blank here what suit?

[haesslich]

drawing a blank here what suit?

Probably the suit that let you hijack mechs..

[Wrangler]

drawing a blank here what suit?

The suit has no name, just called "The Battle Armor".  It pretty op as battle armor goes.

[Caedis Animus]

The suit has no name, just called "The Battle Armor".  It pretty op as battle armor goes.

Not really. You could probably hack a battlemech with an Elemental.

Hack the pilot of the Battlemech to pieces with a Battleclaw, that is.

[Wrangler]

Not really. You could probably hack a battlemech with an Elemental.

Hack the pilot of the Battlemech to pieces with a Battleclaw, that is.

Elemental armor woudn't not be able to re-write security codes via a touching link. 
Battletech has never had (even with Clans) that kind of level of technology.

[massey]

How about a universe where the Phantom Mech Ability is a bona fide supernatural thing.

You mean the real Battletech universe.  ;)

[Darzoni]

An alt-u that occurred to me this morning was one where Kerensky decided to stay and very publically condemns the House Lords for their inaction during the Amaris Civil War, accusing them of being as guilty of Amaris' atrocities through their inaction as Stefan himself.  In essence a stunt to get the public riled up against their lords and give the SLDF and the Terran Hegemony just enough time to rebuild and refortify before the House armies come to try and batter them into pieces.

Unfortunately for them, the Hegemony contains some of the most hardened elite military formations in the Inner Sphere at that point, not the RWR units crushed in spite of the advanced Hegemony defenses.  I imagine it would be called the Second Age of War by the time it was done.  There'd be a bit of a brain-drain issue as the rump SL state (the Hegemony really) recalled all personnel home, leaving behind little but hollowed shells of facilities and burnt-out databases to spite the Great Houses.  I think the SLDF would execute some version of the canon Operation HOLY SHROUD in order to preserve the technological edge of the Hegemony and SLDF, making them false flag operations in order to drive wedges between the Great Houses.  Between the newly formed ComStar controlling communications and SL command quietly allowing a bunch of SLDF regulars be 'recruited' by the houses, this seems plausible.

I don't know where I'd go from there though. :D  Perhaps have events similar to Operation SCORPION, the HPG blackout, and the Fortress Republic eventually happening much earlier than the canon timeline?

[Elmoth]

I doubt the HPG network would remain unified for long in that scenario. It would not be a neutral partner, so each house would seize the HPGs and staff them with their own (and Comstar ex-workers that would be getting a choice between a much better wage or being moved somewhere unpleasant like a gallows).

[Darzoni]

I doubt the HPG network would remain unified for long in that scenario. It would not be a neutral partner, so each house would seize the HPGs and staff them with their own (and Comstar ex-workers that would be getting a choice between a much better wage or being moved somewhere unpleasant like a gallows).

Would it?  I mean... canon timeline has the House Lords of the era pretty much telling Blake "Do whatever, I got a war to plan." and then he raises the rates to covertly fund the reconstruction efforts.  So all ComStar would have to do is merely appear neutral and just nudge things here and there.  Much like they do in the canon timeline.  It would raise the possibility of an interesting... disagreement of politics if ComStar grew apart from the Hegemony/rump SL state.

[massey]

Would it?  I mean... canon timeline has the House Lords of the era pretty much telling Blake "Do whatever, I got a war to plan." and then he raises the rates to covertly fund the reconstruction efforts.  So all ComStar would have to do is merely appear neutral and just nudge things here and there.  Much like they do in the canon timeline.  It would raise the possibility of an interesting... disagreement of politics if ComStar grew apart from the Hegemony/rump SL state.

But in your scenario, the Star League/Terran Hegemony is still trying to exist in some form, standing against the House Lords.  ComStar would be seen as closely associated with that.  In the normal timeline, the old order completely crumbled.  ComStar was the last vestige of the Star League, and they jump out immediately talking like a bunch of hippy peaceniks, saying how they'll be neutral and need to preserve blah blah blah.  But if Kerensky is waging war on the Houses, I don't see how they don't get lumped in with him.

I mean, to me the origins of ComStar is still one of the least believable parts of the normal timeline.  But I'm kinda willing to suspend disbelief there because it's necessary to the setting.  But an alternate history that pokes around at the origins and makes it less believable will get scrutinized because of it.

[RifleMech]

Comstar didn't come into existence until after the SLDF left. It was the Department of Communications for the Star League. As such it would have continued to answer to the Star League. If the Star League and the Houses go to war, the Houses would have taken over the HPGs in the realms to secure their communications. Now if Kerensky were to just put himself in charge of the Terran Hegemony, Communications could have stayed neutral. Or as neutral as it was.

[Caedis Animus]

Elemental armor woudn't not be able to re-write security codes via a touching link. 
Battletech has never had (even with Clans) that kind of level of technology.

I think you missed the joke, Wrangler.

[massey]

There was a game out for a while called CthulhuTech.  It combined anime giant robots with Lovecraftian forces.  I flipped through it at the game store and skimmed over the background, but at the time my gaming friends had moved away and so I didn't buy it.

The basic idea is that human scientists have been working to understand the sort of sanity-rending "secrets man was not meant to know" type of science.  And with large corporations and legions of researchers, they manage to do it.  Each scientist works for maybe a few months on a tiny piece of the puzzle, until they start to show signs of insanity.  Then they go into years of therapy until they're ready to take another crack at it.  When you've got an Apple or a Google putting their weight behind this type of research, you make real progress.  No one person can comprehend the technology that comes out of this without going immediately mad, but with tens of thousands of people working on it in little bits and pieces, you start to get the type of futuristic technology you'd see in anime.  Think the opening to Macross with the discovery of the crashed Zentraedi ship, except with the Necronomicon instead.

At the low end, you've got laser pistols, household appliances that never run out of power, rocket packs, etc.  Everything is fueled by extradimensional energies.  At the mid-tier, you've got Battlemechs and powered armor.  At the high end, you have Evangelions.

Anyway, various Lovecraftian races who are in the solar system suddenly realize that humanity has cracked the code, and they weren't supposed to.  No servant/prey race has ever figured out the science before.  So Earth gets invaded by hostile aliens who also use giant robot suits, or sometimes are just huge Shoggoths or other terrible monster forms.

It's a Lovecraft meets Godzilla meets Shadowrun meets Robotech meets Evangelion type thing.  Very cool as a setting but I'm not sure what sort of adventures you'd play in it.  But it seems perfect for a very AU type of Battletech setting.

[Matti]

It's a Lovecraft meets Godzilla meets Shadowrun meets Robotech meets Evangelion type thing.  Very cool as a setting but I'm not sure what sort of adventures you'd play in it.  But it seems perfect for a very AU type of Battletech setting.

To me a lot of it sounds like Doom from 2016. I so wish it had 'Mechs too, but I'm content with battle armor.

[Daryk]

Many computers ago, I had an "Aliens" mod of Doom that had the exoskeleton in it.  It was kind of like the chainsaw, but cooler.

[guardiandashi]

I have a magazine I think it was an old white wolf issue, that had I think they called it crittertech where you could create monsters to go up against battletech units and vice versa the cheapest example critter was a giant ant at 3 points, that was effectively a melee only battlearmor or PAL and pretty weak, of course if you ran into a hive of dozens of them (or thousands) you could still be very dead, the worst examples would be something like Godzilla or a Cthulhu isk monster that you would need something like a warship to fight because you really don't want to get anywhere near it. and nukes would definitely need to be on the table.

[RifleMech]

There is a spoof of BattleTech called Crittertek. It's a pretty good alternative universe really.

[Matti]

Critter-TEK

APPROVED BY
FASA
OR AT LEAST THEY PROMISED NOT TO SUE!

[Major Headcase]

   I would love to see an Alternative Timeline where Amaris won the war and killed Kerensky. Absorbing as much of the SLDF survivors as he could bribe or threaten, and then turned his power against the Great Houses, political and military. After a couple centuries  of bribery, assassination, and numerous  "wars of liberation", 3050 finds most of the Inner Sphere consumed by the Terran Hegemony, ruled by the all-powerful Amaris dynasty, with the broken and exiled House Lords (at least those who's lines weren't wiped out in the last two centuries  or those who made deals to become vassals of the Throne on Earth) leading a war of resistance  against  the "modern" SLDF; Jack-booted despots with advanced tech (clan omnimechs) since the Hegemony has maintained a stranglehold  on tech research since the coup.
   I'd play that setting.  :thumbsup:

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Sounds like we all will be playing in that setting come 3250 anyway... of course with some name changes.  IlClan instead of Amaris...

[RifleMech]

Critter-TEK

That's the one!  ;D :thumbsup:

[Major Headcase]

Sounds like we all will be playing in that setting come 3250 anyway... of course with some name changes.  IlClan instead of Amaris...

Sort of. But I'm more interested in an alternative reality erases the Clans from Battletech history.  ;)  but keeps around a high tech enemy that is actually  cool instead.  :thumbsup:

[Daemion]

The suit has no name, just called "The Battle Armor".  It pretty op as battle armor goes.

Yup. You, as the Commander, run around as in a Battle Armor suit that can fit into Mech cockpits and hijack them by ejecting their pilots, if they have any.

I personally am thinking of an army of Battle Armor suits that work inside Mech Cockpits, so that if a Mech goes down, the pilot can survive and even carry on the fight in groups if need be. No hijacking necessary.

[ANS Kamas P81]

I personally am thinking of an army of Battle Armor suits that work inside Mech Cockpits, so that if a Mech goes down, the pilot can survive and even carry on the fight in groups if need be. No hijacking necessary.

Good old interface cockpits.