Upcoming Releases Volume XIII: Unlucky Release Edition

[Weirdo]

Wait, is THAT the 3025r thing people were mentioning as getting folks in a tizzy?! Really? People were complaining about getting more mechs to play with? ???

Huh. Well, like I said before, no product is going to please everyone. If it's not your bowl of cheese, just wait around and something you like will come along in due time.

[Colt Ward]

I love that bit.

The problem with fictional geopolitics is that we hold the participants to ideal forms and expect them to behave logically - when real history is full of unpredictable and accidental events, and leaders who make horrible decisions. The plot twists of history would be panned and ridiculous contrivances if presented as fiction.

One of my favorite quotations is from Mark Twain- 'Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.'

I love trotting out the IRL turns of fate that have altered the course of history.

Adrian . . . ugh Legends.  The wife just rolls her eyes with SW . . . kept getting told to shut up when I would whisper 'it does not work that way.'

Personally I am a fan of having more 3025 mechs running around since it lets forces be a bit more unique- its why I love the Age of War introductions.  I hate dealing with the Po being 3030s when we would have had a plain AC/10 tank earlier IMO and since its supposed to be representative . . . granted we did get the Marsden I or was it II with the AC/10?  I know the IIa has the LBX.

[ActionButler]

I, too, was wondering what the 3025 revision was referring to.

[Adrian Gideon]

This is exactly my point. Most people are happy with that retcon, because ultimately it adds to the universe and the game. I don’t like it, but I didn’t drop dead. This will be a fine.

Besides, that was over two decades ago—this too shall pass.

[Weirdo]

Besides, that was over two decades ago—this two shall pass.

You're saying that retcons are the Taco Bell of Battletech? :)

[LightGuard]

You're saying that retcons are the Taco Bell of Battletech? :)

*Pinches his nose* ****** Weirdo.

I didn't realize it'd been that long since 3025r. I just turned turned 36 and that was 22 years ago now. What have I been doing with my life??

Also, love the Aurigan Reach idea. Can't wait to get my mitts on it. (Just don't tell my wife... :-X)

[Adrian Gideon]

You're saying that retcons are the Taco Bell of Battletech? :)

Yup.
Most people love it. It gives others the runs.

[Kit deSummersville]

Yup.
Most people love it. It gives others the runs.

Or both!

[Liam's Ghost]

Nobody is saying this.
I criticize the game all the time. 
Alllllllllll the time.

I'm still bitter over royal mechs.

[Weirdo]

I'm still bitter about the idea that nations with access to the resources of hundreds of solar systems can't scrape up enough metal to cobble together a couple gross of spacecraft that are each only a kilometer or two long.

Eh, I'm dealing with it.

[Colt Ward]

Now to open another can of worms . . .

Since the Aurigan PDF will not be available for Christmas . . . any idea where the ship is with those wonderful boxes?

[Liam's Ghost]

I'm still bitter about the idea that nations with access to the resources of hundreds of solar systems can't scrape up enough metal to cobble together a couple gross of spacecraft that are each only a kilometer or two long.

Eh, I'm dealing with it.

Oh man, "big universe, tiny military" is another one for me. I've built entire AUs around working out my grudges against that.

[Sartris]

Now to open another can of worms . . .

Since the Aurigan PDF will not be available for Christmas . . . any idea where the ship is with those wonderful boxes?

Extended shore leave in Hawaii

[Elmoth]

Bottom of Pearl harbor? Would explain the delay

[Wrangler]

Well only thing scheduled that was announced was

Touring the Stars: Tortuga Prime
Release Date: 7 December 2018

Spotlight On: Nakayama's Blood
Release Date: 21 December 2018

They seem to be interesting. Pirates and Clan something-something

[skiltao]

Exactly, and it's why I suggest people look up things like:

canon is not sacrosanct and should be adjusted as the need arises. after all it's the fake history of an impossible future. it's not that deep.

We've been told for years that the Periphery is full of minor powers that haven't been discussed in detail so including the Aurigans is a minimal change at best <snip> certainly a much smaller change to the game than the introduction of new technology. <snip> It would be silly for CGL not to at least attempt to integrate SOMETHING from the game into the tabletop.

Yes and no.

We've been told for years that the Periphery has another forty or so nations smaller than the Marians, Circinians and Oberons, because growing larger takes time and the shattered remnants of Inner Sphere regiments are constantly fleeing into the periphery to found new kingdoms. There's an ecology linking strength and territory, the pace of warfare, and how much unclaimed/undefended space is available for players to conquer. The Periphery, the Inner Sphere, and even the Clans are governed by this ecology.

Getting the scope right is important in any story, and getting it wrong damages the long-term enjoyability and usefulness of a setting. It's natural and to be expected that consumers would have concerns over the manner in which something like this gets implemented, and how that might change their relationship with the product line.

this too shall pass.

Nihilism doesn't strike me as the optimal outlook for a commercial enterprise. ;D

I didn't realize it'd been that long since 3025r. I just turned turned 36 and that was 22 years ago now.

Heh. Even Dark Age is a decade or two old now, too.

[Sartris]

Let me put it another way. Invaliding paragraphs or pages in thirty year old books is not an issue. I don’t want to be held hostage by sources thirty years out of print. It’s a pox on the setting

[Bedwyr]

Oh man, "big universe, tiny military" is another one for me. I've built entire AUs around working out my grudges against that.

My head canon multiplies all TOEs by 10 or more. It's not a bad shortcut.

[skiltao]

Let me put it another way. Invaliding paragraphs or pages in thirty year old books is not an issue. I don’t want to be held hostage by sources thirty years out of print. It’s a pox on the setting

Then put your mind at ease. What I've described are merely the basic principles by which the whole thirty years of BattleTech hold together, through to the present day; and you are not being "held hostage" because it is not necessary to make the Aurigans big enough to violate those principles.

[Sartris]

The Cult of ‘87 certainly does hold the IP hostage. The obsession with the bloody unseen issue alone has almost capsized us multiple times. I’m all for any retcons that loosen the grip of the early fasa days on the franchise.

I’ve begun to take the opinion that longevity without serious adaptation isn’t necessarily a virtue.

[Colt Ward]

The Cult of ‘87 certainly does hold the IP hostage.

I think that is another score . . .

You know, for the folks that are against it nothing is forcing them to use the Aurigan book.  Its not going to be universe shifting, its a PDF product after all.

[Liam's Ghost]

I think it's a bit simplistic and divisive to try to use terms like the "cult of '87" and suggest that it's a monolithic group somehow holding the IP hostage.

[skiltao]

You know, for the folks that are against it nothing is forcing them to use the Aurigan book.  Its not going to be universe shifting, its a PDF product after all.

Perhaps. But at the same time, nothing is lost by keeping them down to a certain size, and nothing is gained by making them larger.

The Cult of ‘87 certainly does hold the IP hostage. The obsession with the bloody unseen issue alone has almost capsized us multiple times. I’m all for any retcons that loosen the grip of the early fasa days on the franchise.

I’ve begun to take the opinion that longevity without serious adaptation isn’t necessarily a virtue.

If the obsession with "fixing" a dead era is a mistake which almost capsized us multiple times, then:

• instead of trying to "fix" a dead era, we should just make sure the "live" era works how we want; and
• instead of letting obsession make us impulsive, we should make sure we plan those workings carefully.

Right? ???

[Sartris]

I think it's a bit simplistic and divisive to try to use terms like the "cult of '87" and suggest that it's a monolithic group somehow holding the IP hostage.

Must have totally imagined it. My bad

If the obsession with "fixing" a dead era is a mistake which almost capsized us multiple times, then:

• instead of trying to "fix" a dead era, we should just make sure the "live" era works how we want; and
• instead of letting obsession make us impulsive, we should make sure we plan those workings carefully.

Right? ???

Really my deepest wish - burning the whole thing down and building from the ground up - isn’t a viable option. That’s really the only way to do it “right”

Ultimately it’s a lot of constipation over a product virtually none of us have even seen

[SteelRaven]

Why this topic wears me out as a fan;

Fans: "I'm disappointed that CGL hasn't done anything to integrate the HBS game into the Table Top, it's really popular."

CGL: "We are creating a book to help integrate elements from the HBS game into the BTU."

Fans: "I'm disappointing that CGL is trying to integrate the HBS game into the table top, no body asked for this."

Me:  .... wut 

Honestly; if your going to get angry about the PTB adding stuff to to established lore, hop in a time machine and yell at FASA for creating the Somerset Strikers source book. Talking about the stuff in older books as if it's some sort of sacred text is why a washed my hands of the comic book community years ago.   

[Tyler Jorgensson]

To echo this: sometimes burning everything doesn't actually work... just look at what happened with Star Wars ... but that's my two cents...

Anyways we should be talking about all the new PDF's (that I can afford!) and like widespread distribution of Shattered Fortress and box sets (?) so that way I can bug my local gaming establishments to buy half a dozen copies !

[Weirdo]

Fans: "I'm disappointed that CGL hasn't done anything to integrate the HBS game into the Table Top, it's really popular."

CGL: "We are creating a book to help integrate elements from the HBS game into the BTU."

Fans: "I'm disappointing that CGL is trying to integrate the HBS game into the table top, no body asked for this."

Me:  .... wut 

Nihilism may not be an optimal outlook, but you certainly can't call it a surprising one...

[Greatclub]

The Cult of ‘87 certainly does hold the IP hostage. The obsession with the bloody unseen issue alone has almost capsized us multiple times. I’m all for any retcons that loosen the grip of the early fasa days on the franchise.

You're forgetting the cult of '00, who remember just how rough the transition from FASA to Wizkids was, and the bodyblow the player base took from it.

And the cult of '94, who remember having to deal with the severely under-costed tarcomp/cLPL mechs of the time and point system.

I think poeple are afraid of things being done poorly. As for me, I'm fairly unlikely to get the PDF, but I'm all for letting the players of each group find out which timeline is true, and which is ridiculous comstar/government propaganda. 

"Don't you believe the cow patties from the movie, it wasn't a Highlander from a star league cache, it was a second succession war Vindicator from a crashed Liao dropship. What do you mean you don't believe me, I was there and they shot my mech was shot out from under me."

00000

As for moving the timeline forward, I wouldn't mind the focus of the setting moving away from the inner sphere and the charlie-foxtrot that is the dork ages.

[SteelRaven]

... just look at what happened with Star Wars ... but that's my two cents...

I rather stay away from using another franchise as a example, especially considering it's the constant fan outrage since Jar Jar Binks that has made me walk away from that particular example.  *Though I have ironically been using Hermit Skywalker as a example of bitter fans in general ;) *   

[Orwell84]

My head canon multiplies all TOEs by 10 or more. It's not a bad shortcut.

Likewise. my pet example: Kerensky's 800 seem to me a ridiculously small number of soldiers with which to subdue five entire Earth-sized planets. So sometimes in my head canon the 800 bloodnamed are the mechwarriors and pilots, plus token exceptions to round out the skills base, and another 7200 soldiers serve as armor and infantry for various dirty jobs and garrison duty. The former became the trueborn elite of the Clans, the latter became the ancestors of the freeborn police, garrison clusters, WarShip crews, etc.

The Cult of ‘87 certainly does hold the IP hostage. The obsession with the bloody unseen issue alone has almost capsized us multiple times. I’m all for any retcons that loosen the grip of the early fasa days on the franchise.

I’ve begun to take the opinion that longevity without serious adaptation isn’t necessarily a virtue.

Agreed. I'd support a reboot of the game setting if it meant keeping the best of FASA and ditching the worst or wildly implausible. Like any fan I wouldn't like all the changes, but as long as the major players and characters remained in some form it would still be recognizably Battletech.

Arguments over canon and Auriga aside, I'm just pleased that we're getting new products  :)