3145 Inner Sphere at War Technology Ratings

[Vulp]

Second Succession Wars (pg 126 - 128) has rules for Technology Ratings in ISAW.

What would these ratings be for the Great Houses in 3145?

In 3025, they are typically rated in BattleTech / ComTech / TransporTech / IndustryTech as 3/1/1/3 or 3/3/1/3 for the future FedCom houses.

In 3145, would the typical rating be something like 8/0/4/8?

These would correspond to the following:

BattleTech 8: May build F-rated units at 3x cost
ComTech 0: well.. no more HPG net
TransportTech 4: May build Capital Grade Weapons (but not WarShips, which is level 5)
IndustryTech 8: Arbitrary, this is the 2.0 RP multiplier, represents the general advanced industrial output of the era. Should this be lower?

[Onion2112]

The DC and FS/LC had the FAX or black box in production in 3067 and I can’t recall if the New Dallas memory core gave other factions this technology but I’d expect them to have the basic tech by 3130.

So for the ComTech rating I’d be inclined to give everyone at least a 3 rating, maybe even 6 for the Lyrans & Federated Suns (this is 2nd generation FAX; I was thinking this as the latest FAX model mentioned in the FS handbook (3067) is considerably more advanced than the earlier models).

I couldn’t see why their production would have ceased into the republic/dark age era

With Transport Tech I would’ve thought Lithium Fusion units were still built so you could assign even level 8 there. You could argue that everyone (or at least most factions) still know how to build warships but they cost too much, plus the construction infrastructure in most cases needs to be rebuilt. My thought is it’d be a bit like building a battleship in the modern real world era - the blueprints to build them are around but no one wants to do it (and few nations would have the infrastructure).

Then again assigning a transport tech level 4 here in the game would be a good way to make Dark Age  warship construction that bit more extra difficult for players.

[Vulp]

Thanks for pointing out that black boxes continue to work in the Dark Age.   I had not realized that the FAX systems were unaffected by the blackout.  Looks like the source of this may be the short story "Crisis Mode" in the start of Era Digest Dark Age, in which a group of Republic knights and paladins receive a fax updating them to the extent of the blackout.

With that info I'd go with 8/6/4/8 for the Lyran Commonwealth and the FedSuns, and 8/3/4/8 for others (assuming that the DC has allowed the tech to proliferate to other powers by that stage).

[Onion2112]

Just reviving this old thread - but I thought it relevant to mention.

According the below thread in Ask the developers as commented by Adrian Gideon.

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/ask-the-lead-developers/black-box-fax-machines/

Black Boxes are not a thing in the Dark Age.

So that would mean ComTech would be 0

[Stormlion1]

Just reviving this old thread - but I thought it relevant to mention.

According the below thread in Ask the developers as commented by Adrian Gideon.

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/ask-the-lead-developers/black-box-fax-machines/

Black Boxes are not a thing in the Dark Age.

So that would mean ComTech would be 0

Which means between Era Digest and 3150 the Black Boxes have dwindled in numbers.

[ThePW]

Which means between Era Digest and 3150 the Black Boxes have dwindled in numbers.

that would make sense. Control of those BB's were under FEDCOM Standard Operating Procedures, rules that the nascent Lyran Alliance changed once Kathy took advantage of Operation GURERRO (The War of 3057). That splits your assets right there. The Jihad does the rest with the destruction of commands known to have had a box at one time or another... What little remained in the inventory of either former FEDCOM house was probably small enough to make it only vaguely useful (especially for the Lyrans who probably couldn't regain manufacturing rights after the end of the FCCW).