Author Topic: The *literally* Never-Seen  (Read 156871 times)

SD501st

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #30 on: 05 September 2018, 07:53:22 »
I think I´m glad I´ll never know what would have happened. A healthy mind can only take so much horror, you know?  :o

The Francesca mostly bothered me because for years I had no idea that it was originally the Tomahawk, or what the name meant. Took me even longer to make the connection to the axe because I´d known that as "Franziska".

The whole renaming thing was all over the place, anyway - why leave the original names for the Valkyrie, Cicada and Centurion, for example?

German novels had an obsession with translating EVERYTHING at the time. Even names, which took an already confusing issue, the different Clan Mech names for the Clans and the IS, and turned it up to 11! In the german novels that weren't from the perspective of a Clan character, you had to remember 4(!) different names for some Mechs, some of which made almost no sense, to correctly identify one. Only later did I realize which Mech was which.

I vividly remember being a fan of the Timberwolf/Mad Cat at the time, which I guess pretty much everyone who was introduced to BT via the Blood of Kerensky trilogy was, and wondering why I NEVER heard about one in the "Twilight of the Clans" series. But there were a variety of Mech names I didn't recognize, like the "Galeere"(english Galley)... which turned out to be the Man'o'War... and the "Katamaran"(Catamaran). Can you guess what Mech the KataMaran is?

« Last Edit: 05 September 2018, 17:14:29 by SD501st »

Elmoth

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #31 on: 05 September 2018, 08:04:39 »
Lol. Now I will have to put a katamaran in front of my players just to see their puzzled faces. It will be battling a PhoenixJaveWorth.
« Last Edit: 05 September 2018, 08:06:15 by Elmoth »

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #32 on: 05 September 2018, 10:18:57 »
It worked well while there was still a manageable number of 'Mechs. But after TRO:3055 (at the latest) the FanPro approach of translating unit names (and by extension, even the alphanumericals: LCT-1V Locust became the HSR-1V Heuschreck, and that's an easy one) became a real problem.
Fun fact: The UM-R50 was apparently retroactively named by translating its alphanumeric designation back from the German TRO 3025 which had been the first to name this UrbanMech variant (German: ST-K50 Stadtkoloß).  ::)

Ulisses officially abandoned the German names and switched to using the original names exclusively at some point, which was a smart decision but came way too late. (And they're not exactly pushing BattleTech these days.)

I like to believe that FanPro's German names for all kinds of stuff exist somewhere in Steiner space in-universe.  8)
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brother elf

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #33 on: 05 September 2018, 11:09:02 »
I vividly remember being a fan of the Timberwolf/Mad Cat at the time, which I guess pretty much everyone who was introduced to BT via the Blood of Kerensky trilogy was, and wondering why I NEVER heard about one in the "Twilight of the Clans" series. But there were a variety of Mech names I didn't recognize, like the "Galeere"(english Galley)... which turned out to be the Man'o'War... and the "Katamaran"(Catamaran). Can you guess what Mech the KataMar is?

In their defense, there is the rather long sequence in the novels where the warbook's ID jumps back and forth from Marauder to Catapult (and I was amused when I realized that in the english original, it would have literally jumped from MAD to CAT and back), so they kind of had to make something up from MAR and KAT.

With the man o'war, I think they took the name to be derived from the jellyfish-like creature, which is indeed called Galeere in german.

Colt Ward

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #34 on: 05 September 2018, 11:59:37 »
Yeah, but Man O'War . . . was also what you called a warship at one point.
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #35 on: 05 September 2018, 12:07:57 »
That was what the cniderian takes its name from, in fact.  Presumably the translator got confused because of how many of the Clan mechs use animal names.
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Colt Ward

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #36 on: 05 September 2018, 13:26:22 »
The one I am looking forward to is the Storm Giant, just because I always liked the Scylla . . . and I swear, now that the mini has been built (thanks faithless) after 15 years (ugh, feel old) I AM going to get it on the table- even with that JJ BV penalty!

Another would be the early Clan warships . . . I remember the speculation on their setup and I was in the Falcons made the Peregrine pew-pew to the detriment of everything else which was why it was retired- too many problems keeping it in service compared to the old SL ships.
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #37 on: 05 September 2018, 15:01:43 »
That was what the cniderian takes its name from, in fact.  Presumably the translator got confused because of how many of the Clan mechs use animal names.

It could have been from a horse or a wall of sonic fury....
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SD501st

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #38 on: 05 September 2018, 17:38:50 »
The german IS "Galeere" name for the Gargoyle/Man O'War was definitely because of Man O'War(or Man-of-War) being the expression the british Royal Navy used as a catch-all name for all ships that were commonly used in the line of battle during the age of sail. So they used a name for a warship as the german name. The problem is that they used a name describing a much older oar and sail driven warship type that was very uncommon in the age of sail. A better name would have been "Fregatte"(Frigate), because the larger frigates were actually called a Man O'War/Man-of-war.

And the Katamaran example also makes sense... it still sounds ridiculous as a Mech name to a native german speaker.  Oh and fyi, there is a town named Markat in Albania... xp

And as others have pointed out, Galeere and Katamaran actually were two of the least bad examples!  :D

Funny thing, the translation compulsion only extended to english names. Some of the Clan Omni's that the Smoke Jaguars used the most during the Invasion - Mist Lynx/Koshi, Stormcrow/Ryoken, Warhawk/Masakari and Dire Wolf/Daishi - got off easy. Their codenames were japanese instead of english, and weren't changed at all!

Oh, and the name "Stadtkoloß" for the Urbanmech was either nothing short of ludicrous OR a meme worthy in-joke for the Urbie... because Stadtkoloß would translate to "Colossus/Giant/Juggernaut of the City"!  ;D
« Last Edit: 05 September 2018, 17:45:38 by SD501st »

Colt Ward

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #39 on: 05 September 2018, 19:04:43 »
So how did they translate the Verfolger . . . or was that after the period?
Colt Ward
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"We come in peace, please ignore the bloodstains."

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Crimson Dawn

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #40 on: 05 September 2018, 19:31:52 »
Did it get weirder whenever a story used German in it for the talk about the Lyran military?

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #41 on: 05 September 2018, 19:56:50 »
So how did they translate the Verfolger . . . or was that after the period?

What about the Hetzer?
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SD501st

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #42 on: 05 September 2018, 21:40:05 »
German names were just left as is, since they weren't in english.

And no, it didn't get any weirder when the story talked about the Lyran military in german.

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #43 on: 05 September 2018, 23:32:00 »
anyone remember the wild cat tanker?

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #44 on: 06 September 2018, 05:22:42 »
And yet... the BattleTechnology 'Mechs hold a special place because the magazine was fully canonical back in the day. They were canon once. Randall Bills even expressly confirmed that in an official ruling during his (first) tenure as BT Line Developer. It was only on Herb Beas' watch that BattleTechnology was expressly relegated to apocryphal material. By that time, several of the 'Mechs (like the CGR-SB) had already been published in other canonical sources and thus remained canonical.

IIRC, those are cases where either the original design was done while Battletechnology was a FASA publication, or where the original author could be contacted. I don't belive that Brett has yet overturned Herb's stance on the issue.
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Sir Chaos

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #45 on: 06 September 2018, 08:46:38 »
In "Wolf Pack", there´s a light hover vehicle designed to carry a point of elementals, that´s being used in the Dragoon civil war. Did we ever get stats for that? Or even a name?
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #46 on: 06 September 2018, 09:29:58 »
In "Wolf Pack", there´s a light hover vehicle designed to carry a point of elementals, that´s being used in the Dragoon civil war. Did we ever get stats for that? Or even a name?


I remember them calling it a "Zoomer". No stats though.
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beachhead1985

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #47 on: 06 September 2018, 13:33:50 »
anyone remember the wild cat tanker?

Yes! And we need a canon AeroTanker, don't we? Something that works in space, i mean. Added!

In "Wolf Pack", there´s a light hover vehicle designed to carry a point of elementals, that´s being used in the Dragoon civil war. Did we ever get stats for that? Or even a name?

I am pretty certain the Eldingar is supposed to be a hommage or a best-we-can-do for that design, but in specific; no. I will add that as well, as the "Zoomer"
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truetanker

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #48 on: 06 September 2018, 13:46:19 »
In "Wolf Pack", there´s a light hover vehicle designed to carry a point of elementals, that´s being used in the Dragoon civil war. Did we ever get stats for that? Or even a name?

This could be retconed as the Bandit C, non-omni hover. Stats are just like the Bandit omnitank, except it does offer a 5 ton Infantry bay unlike it's IS counterpart of 4 tons. And 50 tons is considered " light " for transport purposes. Zoomer might be a Tank name or an earlier clan class...

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Fat Guy

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #49 on: 06 September 2018, 13:50:58 »
Actually, no it couldn't. The Zoomer was described as completely armorless and weaponless. Basically a frame, engine and skirt with room for a driver and five Elementals
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #50 on: 06 September 2018, 13:59:28 »
Skimmer then? Just make it a non-Omni?

After dropping the Flamer and SL, along with the .5 Armor of 8, and possible XLing the Engine, could be? Someone want to check the math, you'd need about 3 more tons.

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #51 on: 06 September 2018, 14:34:11 »
Here is another one, but I am at a loss for a name!

An old battlecorps story featured a Clan (JF?) Scientist running a test pilot through his paces in a heavily modified protomech...I think an Erinyes or Siren variant.

Anyone else recall other details?
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #52 on: 06 September 2018, 20:15:51 »
IIRC, those are cases where either the original design was done while Battletechnology was a FASA publication, or where the original author could be contacted. I don't belive that Brett has yet overturned Herb's stance on the issue.

Heh. Just assume he will.

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Tyler Jorgensson

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #53 on: 06 September 2018, 23:11:42 »
Did the original proto in the Twilight of the Clans series ever get a name and stats?

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #54 on: 06 September 2018, 23:18:33 »
Harpy.

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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #55 on: 07 September 2018, 01:14:10 »
Skimmer then? Just make it a non-Omni?

Actually, the easiest way to do it would probably be to make it an omnivehicle, so you could make a tiny vehicle that could still have a point of elementals ride it (at least that's how I did it when I made my attempt. A three ton omnivehicle with no pod space).

When Wolf Pack was originally written, a point of infantry only took up a ton of cargo space. Which would have made it easier to pull off.
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #56 on: 07 September 2018, 08:11:11 »
Actually, the easiest way to do it would probably be to make it an omnivehicle, so you could make a tiny vehicle that could still have a point of elementals ride it (at least that's how I did it when I made my attempt. A three ton omnivehicle with no pod space).

When Wolf Pack was originally written, a point of infantry only took up a ton of cargo space. Which would have made it easier to pull off.

A point of Battle Armour Infantry toon up only one ton?
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These, in the day when heaven was falling,      Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
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Followed their mercenary calling,               What God abandoned, these defended,
And took their wages, and are dead.             And saved the sum of things for pay.
     
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #57 on: 07 September 2018, 15:58:27 »
Up until Master Rules was released, yes. The revisions section in the back of the book mentions that they changed it because one ton for a point didn't make any sense.
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #58 on: 08 September 2018, 16:53:32 »
Well, I'll be dipped!
Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

These, in the day when heaven was falling,      Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
The hour when earth's foundations fled,         They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
Followed their mercenary calling,               What God abandoned, these defended,
And took their wages, and are dead.             And saved the sum of things for pay.
     
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Re: The *literally* Never-Seen
« Reply #59 on: 30 September 2018, 11:50:52 »
just got myself sorted on the BONA-Venture-R issue.

So there is of course the BONAventure-class. I do not think there is a Venture or Ventura-class, but WOB did have a prototype Venture-r-class destroyed by Regulans over Loyalty in 3076.
Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

These, in the day when heaven was falling,      Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
The hour when earth's foundations fled,         They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
Followed their mercenary calling,               What God abandoned, these defended,
And took their wages, and are dead.             And saved the sum of things for pay.
     
A.E. Housman