First off, I would like to apologise to the players of this game for ghosting them. After Marcus decided to leave I was immediately overwhelmed by the workload and then had some RL stuff going on to add further anxiety and to my shame I chose to just vanish for awhile. Sorry again.
Point #1: I cannot state highly enough that unless you are a VERY dedicated GM with a lot of time on your hands, you are going to want 2-3 guys to run this game. Not just for sharing the workload of the NPC factions but also to bounce ideas of each other for writing and to do an initial sniff test.
Marcus and I had a bunch of stuff in a google drive folder so we could both check up on what rules we had nailed down here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nYtVORJ6m4BNNX5lPbIt0kn4gw2-Bqez?usp=drive_link.
The Map: I don't remember where I acquired a blank map of the Inner Sphere but I edited it with Paint.net, very useful free program that let me add multiple layers to the map, so much easier to adjust borders.
I believe from memory the main reason we didn't do much with colonies was that you were playing as the Chief Naval Officer of your nation, not the House Leader, and we thought that that sort of expansion was more on the civilian side of the nations leadership.
I would be more than happy to play again, but beyond the occasional combat write-up for factions far from me or keeping the Great Big Spreadsheet of Everyone's Stuff up to date it's probably best I don't GM.
Things I would do differently, but didn't do this game because we either didn't know how to adjust the spreadsheet correctly or didnt want to do major rule changes mid game -
1) Change max SI: It has always bugged me that SI limits were determined by speed rather than by any other factor. I propose instead that SI and thrust are in no way related, but instead maximum SI starts at say 30 + (tonnage/10,000) and can be improved with tech like armour does. Improved Construction Techniques or some such name for it.
2) Research: about 2-3 turns in I thought it might have been better if tech development was a little bit more random and considered changing it to an Extended Test of sorts. Essentially 1% of your nations budget buys you a die to roll for gaining X technology, multiple die can be purchased of course. Each 5+ rolled is a success, and you would need 3-4 successes to gain that technology - so the average expenditure would still be roughly 9-12% of budget like it was here, but those successes needn't be in the same turn.
Optionally each neighbour of yours (within 1 jump range say) with a tech you don't have gives you a free die each turn to gain said technology to represent the slow spread of tech across the Inner Sphere. May also give a free die if every Great House except you has it.
