Boy you just can't be satisfied can you? CGL releases three products - THREE! - and you're still complaining that it's not enough? You ungrateful sod.
Well.... I am a Sea Fox.
I like the Free Worlds League. I like the Star League, but until Interstellar Ops comes out and there is a more grand strategic game to play there are not any stories that I wish to tell in that period currently. The Gunslingers book is a fun product and has a selection of mechs for an era that I am currently not crafting stories for anybody in.
The Era Digest on the other hand is a wonderful product for most players. But you have to understand, I have read most of the Dark Age novels at this point. I have also used the wayback machine to go and look at the old Dark Ages site. So the majority of the book for me is a more convenient reference since I don't have to dig through old pdf's and artifact websites.
The roleplaying rules, the descriptions of the clusters help me greatly and I appreciate them.
But the product doesn't advance the storyline any for me. Other than the roleplaying rules it is far more helpful to other players and is a great reference for them. It did not change my knowledge or my understanding of the setting very much.
So here I am, with my Sea Foxes and Julian Davion cruising across the galaxy. Everyone elses faction in the crucible. 'Waiting'.
I moved about two years ago from a place I've lived my whole life to the heart of dishonesty in America. Became isolated from my friends and the playerbase that I built back home knowing that the most important component of maintaining a relationship is proximity. Got a job, the things that I value about myself are loyalty and honesty and learned a lesson that your character, the thing that you are, and your reputation, the thing that you are perceived to be, are two different things. As it turns out if you are honest in a place where everyone is dishonest that 'you' are the problem.
So I was isolated and stressed and fell back into an old love. At least, I fell into this community. I have always supported battletech... and I was fortunate, because the Era Report 3145 came out. So it was an exciting time to be a battletech player. That was a year ago.
So life has moved on. Things at work are not so insane. I have made new friends to supplement my deteriorating friendships and my significant other has been diagnosed with cancer.
I have had the pleasure of meeting several developers. Ben Rome has handily defaced the credits page of my copy of Wars of Reaving. I actually pay attention to the credits of the books. I look into who wrote, who developed and who drew for them.
I am acutely aware of how hard Adrian Gideon works. Taking an unofficial role of informing the community of whats going on behind the scenes while we wait. As well as doing the layout for CGL's products.
and I try to tell them frequently how much I appreciate that work.
I've been doing this battletech thing for over two decades. I am thirty one so Battletech is one of those things that I 'have been' longer than almost anything else that I ever have been. Life is very demanding of me right now and I have to focus quite a bit of attention to it. But I am managing with a little bit of escapism.
I have stories to tell and daydreams to dream. I have chosen to do it with you all in mechs and warships... and I am waiting to know where my mechs and my warships are going. That I may have to wait four more months, or longer is not particularly pleasant. Even if I understand why it will take that long that does not mean that I want to see that product any less. I spend a lot of time on these forums, the developers are all very kind to spend time with us. Even kinder since quite a few fans like to make attacks on their identity.
If you attack someones work and they identify themselves with that work you might as well be insulting them directly. I empathize with this and I hate it, dearly, when it happens. I am quite aware that all of the people that work on this setting are 'People'. Like I said, I've met a few of them. I seem to like them all.
If that seems ungrateful to you, I apologize.
