Catastrophe Unlimited

[Frabby]

Part 1: Heir Apparent discussion thread
Part 2: Apparent Catastrophe discussion thread

Sooo... Catastrophe Unlimited, the third part of Stackpole's HBS BattleTech game novella, is out.
And it has some intriguing worldbuilding going on on the sidelines:

- First time mention of "ComStar Data Tiers" - ComStar doesn't treat all messages equal. Instead, they're sorted into certain tiers according to relevance. Top Tier is ComStar news, news from various capitals, and premium advertising. Tier Two is regional news, Solaris VII stuff, etc., and each successive tier gets more regional and slower in data dissemination - to the point where news traveling via JumpShip may overtake lower-tier ComStar HPG messages.
This makes a lot of sense (assuming ComStar simply doesn't use bandwidth to full capacity on purpose, to make you pay for higher tiers) and explains why messages seem to travel at the speed of plot. Stackpole's Successor Lords can basically communicate two-way in real-time while Joe Average's mail to his family on another world will take months to arrive.

- According to ComStar, "No one cares what the Riff Lords are up to" and the yearly rate for expediting news from the Periphery is about as expensive as purchasing a new DropShip. From the context, that may be literally true, or at least ballpark (and not just hyperbole).
Also, keep in mind that the periphery border pretty much seems to be defined by the extent of the HPG grid. (As in, when you're in receiving range of a HPG you're in the near Periphery, with a few class B, C or D stations sprinkled in, and otherwise you're in the deep periphery.)

- Gray Noton was already well known as of 3001 (when he was 16 years old). He came with his own 'Mech, bought himself a place in a stable, and "capped" (headcapped?) a contender in his second fight.
We know from Noton's bio from canonical products that he arrived on Solaris VII as a stowaway and had a quick career in a class 1 (i.e. small-time local) circuit. What's surprising about the new info is that he's already so well known by the age of 16. Plus, headcapping an opponent in this environment. Did he enter life-or-death gladiatorial combat while under-age? I know Solaris can be bad, but that's...  whoa.

- As far as our protagonists go, the lower-class 'Mech duels are fought with nerf guns and toy armor, i.e. vulcanized rubber bullets, smaller charges, colored flashbang missiles, powered-down "more light than heat" energy weapons, and cheap lightweight ceramic armor. Real enough for the games, but cheap enough to make the gladiatorial combat economically viable vis-a-vis the lostech struggle in this Succession Wars period.

[Wrangler]

How far disconnected is Stackpole from the franchise?  He help build the universe up to near the end of FASA.  He dabbled with couple novels in the Dark Age line, but i didn't think he was really connected with it aside from this commissioned stories from HBS.  These stories as it stands aren't full-on canon since CGL wasn't involved as far I am aware.

My point is, Mr. Stackpole adding couple wrinkles to the universe (like Noton showing up with mech, when he wasn't suppose to have one when he first arrived on Solaris.) that don't match up with current canon universe.

[Mendrugo]

My guess is that Stackpole referenced his legacy character notes for Gray Noton and Walter de Mesnil, but didn’t do exhaustive research on what other writers had come up with for his characters, so the conflict between the backstory in the Solaris VII box and this story was almost certainly unintentional.

The Solaris VII book says Gray stowed away to get to Solaris.  This says he arrived in possession of a ‘Mech, with merc experience, and killed a rising star in his first battle.

Not wholly incompatible, but requires a bit of handwavium.  Firstly, we see that all the managers want their fighters to have a hook.  Walter gets a fake backstory that he has amnesia.  I can see Gray arriving as a stowaway, proving his excellent skills to a stable master, and having the “boy merc with his own ‘Mech” storyline created from whole cloth after his upset win.  (‘Mech from the stable’s reserve, and merc history - and/or stowaway story - being a product of the marketing department)

Once he had a real rep in the minor leagues, I can see Gray’s sense of honor pushing him to make the legend real - leaving to work as a mercenary for five years and coming back with his own Rifleman.

The ComStar stuff makes sense, but...completely contradicts “The Sword and the Dagger,” wherein the ComStar acolyte on New Avalon says it will take over a week to deliver a message to Tharkad, because you can’t change the immutable laws of physics.

Granted, it’s easy to assume ComStar was just lying.  But if Walter knows all about premium packages for same-day delivery...how would Hanse not have known?  Is this like Bill Gates not knowing the price of macaroni, because it’s not something he buys for himself?

Stackpole featured non-lethal ‘Mech fights on Galatea in “Not the Way the Smart Money Bets,” though those used plexiglass armor, circa 3010.  Rather than acknowledging it as a smart compromise in service of showmanship, as it is here, it makes Morgan Kell sure that the Inner Sphere is heading towards technological regression and barbarism.

That being said, “Mabel” sounds like a fun kitbash project for someone with extra MWDA industrials on hand.

[skiltao]

The Noton stuff seems to be consistent with his bio in BattleTechnology #0203. I think the Solaris VII box is meant to be in the same "canon" as BT#0203, but more from the perspective of what people know or believe twenty years after the fact.

What exactly does the story say about this ComStar stuff? Do the "Tiers" refer to regular HPG service, or to how ComStar's own press service gathers and disseminates news? Because, on its face, it sounds like what we already know: the HPG station transmits when they accumulate a certain amount of messages, or when someone pays them to send their current amount sooner; and you have to pay for every relay your message passes through; and places without an HPG station may be visited by a franchised courier only twice a year.

I seem to recall that circuits with real-time capacity weren't established until sometime around the FCCW.

[Mendrugo]

Sophia shook her head. “No, but I’ve learned more about ComStar and rates and data tiers than I ever wanted to know. Your top tier—ComStar messages, news from the various capitals, and premium advertising—gets high-speed distribution everywhere. That’s why even in Rivergaard we’d hear about Ian Davion’s exploits, or about every time Katrina Steiner sneezed. We got to feel that we were part of the Inner Sphere. Tier two—all the regional news, fights from Solaris, other entertainment properties, and more advertising. It gets everywhere eventually. Each tier down goes a smaller distance and even more slowly.

The question is what, exactly, “high-speed distribution everywhere” means.  Perhaps “high speed” can be assumed to be a euphemism for Class A circuit delivery times, per the formulae laid out in the sourcebooks.

[skiltao]

Without context, the top tier sounds like standard HPG traffic, and the second tier sounds like stuff other sources have had merchant ships carry.