HABeas2

[roosterboy]

If it is Battlecorps-only it is not really open; only those who pay for their membership have the opportunity of participating

That is true. But if that contest was difficult to manage, what makes you think an open contest with many more times the number of participants would be a good idea?

and the rest of us won't even hear about it because "what happens in battlecorps stays in battlecorps".

Unless you read the announcement that was posted here when it was released or happen to see it listed on the BattleShop while perusing for other goodies to buy.

[JadeHellbringer]

Don't do it.  I poked Ben enough and ended up wearing a Pens jersey...

I won't even go into what happened with Hellbie.  *shudder*

I still have the photo of you in the Bruins jersey and viking helmet at Historicon on my phone. I WILL post it if need be.  ;)

[ANS Kamas P81]

I still have the photo of you in the Bruins jersey and viking helmet at Historicon on my phone. I WILL post it if need be.  ;)

Please tell me he was wearing anything else.

[ItsTehPope]

Please tell me he was wearing anything else.

Having seen the picture in question, I can assure you, he was wearing pants.

[Paul]

Please tell me he was wearing anything else.

He was also wearing a smile.

Having seen the picture in question, I can assure you, he was wearing pants.

... Fine, and pants. Party pooper.

Paul

[Dave Talley]

Stranger things have happened.  Like....um....hmmmmm.   Marisa Tomei beat Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Vanessa Redgrave and Judy Davis for Best Supporting Actress in 1993 for My Cousin Vinnie.  So there you go.

hey she did a good job and looked much hotter than the rest did :-)
granted she was a newyawk italian playing a newyawk italian, not a huge stretch

[cavingjan]

He was also wearing a smile.


... Fine, and pants. Party pooper.

Paul

Slade =/ Apollyon

(doesn't drink enough Fresca and Coconut Rum)

[Mechwarriorfreak]

hey she did a good job and looked much hotter than the rest did :-)
granted she was a newyawk italian playing a newyawk italian, not a huge stretch

I find it kind of funny that we're talking about celebrity chicks in the 90s under a HABeas2 topic.  ;D

[Slade, The Grey Fox]

He was also wearing a smile.

Paul

Of course I was smiling.  My son kneecapped Redshirt, cored Hellbie and teamed up with Julie to savage the Crabs Jan was driving all while slinging dice in a Yahtzee cup.

[Paul]

Of course I was smiling.  My son kneecapped Redshirt, cored Hellbie and teamed up with Julie to savage the Crabs Jan was driving all while slinging dice in a Yahtzee cup.

It was a pretty good day, even if the players kept 1-turn-killing the big beasties... =)

Paul

[Talz]

I find it kind of funny that we're talking about celebrity chicks in the 90s under a HABeas2 topic.  ;D

Thread drift on these boards knows no bounds.

[Lyran Archer]

Every time Herb posts with his HABeas2 username, I think of habeas corpus, Latin for "you may have the body", and I wonder who Herb just killed.

[Sid]

Every time Herb posts with his HABeas2 username, I think of habeas corpus, Latin for "you may have the body", and I wonder who Herb just killed.

Habeas1 of course.

[HikageMaru]

Every time Herb posts with his HABeas2 username, I think of habeas corpus, Latin for "you may have the body", and I wonder who Herb just killed.

When I hear habeas corpus, I think of releasing someone from unlawful imprisonment.  Maybe one can file a writ of habeas corpus with Herb's cat.

[monbvol]

I will add though sometimes there is close enough canonization that happens by most likely accident or coincidence.

I've seen a few things that were close to various items I've posted to the boards before the great crash crop up in a few books here and there and like I said I am willing to accept it as either entirely coincidental or a completely accidental honor.

Then there are other ways you can contribute to the universe and have fun.  My skills with Excel have helped a few people with character generation for A Time of War and landed me a GM spot for the Fan Councils.

So while I or anything I've designed will probably never be formally canonized or have anything of mine become an official product I am still rather happy with the knowledge that I still have helped people have fun and will likely continue to do so for a long time.

[joechummer]

To emphasize what roosterboy said about trying to get your own designs published:

...if you do submit stuff to BC, it should be because you have stories you want to tell, not because you have a killer awesome 'Mech design you want to see in print. Doing so with that goal will, I'm afraid, more likely end in heartbreak than not.

Here's an example of my experience:

I had a piece published on BattleCorps not long ago where the story needed a piece of hardware that didn't exist, and I couldn't use an existing canon design (Those of you who have read the story know why 8)). So I had to drum up something that satisfied what the story required, and I purposely did not min-max anything: I just picked a weight, some random equipment, and that was pretty much it. The STORY came first, and the hardware was made simply to fill in a necessary gap. I didn't playtest the design, and honestly, I didn't even really want to run the actual construction numbers, but I felt I should solely for the purpose of remaining true to the game rules while writing the story. Furthermore, the stats I came up with aren't published in any official context like, for example, the TRO-style write-up for the Dragonfire aerospace fighter chassis featured in Jason Schmetzer's story "The Spider Dances."

When it comes down to it, I am first and foremost a storyteller, not a unit designer.

[cray]

Can't some of us approach his superiors with the idea of developing a TEAM of people who can approve of the designs? Herb could lead it, but the load of work could be shared.

Keep some perspective: up until...geez, the middle of these short little XTROs...technical readouts were filled out by such committees of writers. The developers (primarily Herb) gave an outline like:

20-ton Davion 'Mech
30-ton Clan 'Mech
40-ton Kuritan tank
50-ton Steiner 'Mech
etc.

Basically, the table of contents was drafted and then the developer(s) said, "Send me your solicitations!" to the writer pool.

Then writers sent in short synopses on how they'd make cool 'Mechs out of the list provided.

Then the developers would say, "Okay. Joel, your idea for the 20-ton Davion 'Mech was coolest, so you get it. Nick, your solicitation for the 30-ton Clan 'Mech was awesomest, so you write it. Mike, your idea for the 40-ton Kuritan 'Mech was coolest, you write it."

The individual assignments would be written and sent back to the developer (by which I mean the poor bastard assistant developers who then had no time to edit, fix, and review the writings before having to make them look presentable by 3 weeks in the past) so they could be reviewed by fact checkers for continuity and conformance with rules.

Then the book would be published.

However, something invisible to me - and I was assistant developer on a couple of TRO:Upgrades - was that there was apparently conflict between artists and writers. Artists took a long time to draw things, while writing came in quickly, and maybe reading differently than the artists had been told to draw to. I did see some fallout in the errata forums: "But, oh great Herb, why does the Mechajuggernaut have 3 gun barrels on its left wrist when the stats clearly show it only has 2 medium lasers there?" Errata'ing artwork is nigh impossible.

So, recently, Herb has taken to providing all stats in advance to make artists happy. This worked out quite well in TRO:Prototypes, since he was basing things on previously published XTROs and just needed to publish slight tweaks. Mind you, writers still write: Herb offered writing slots as described above, and writers filled in the blanks. For example, I wrote XTRO:Marik front to back in the old school style - Herb offered the whole XTRO and I got it with my solicitation. In TRO:Prototypes, new style, I wrote the text accompanying the majority of the XTRO:Marik designs that re-appeared (tweaked by Herb) there.

Herb's new system just handles stats, and those are almost unimportant matters. I mean, virtually every combination of 'Mech weapons and stats have been tried on internet forums and ye olde newsgroups like rec.games.mecha. What brings units alive is the fluff supplied by the writers. If you're concerned about awesome stats, you're missing what captures readers' eyes.

BattleCorps, which is in the business of moving fiction, just puts more emphasis on the fluff: submitting kewl mecha is missing the point. Do that here, on the public fan forums.

[Lyran Archer]

When I hear habeas corpus, I think of releasing someone from unlawful imprisonment.  Maybe one can file a writ of habeas corpus with Herb's cat.

Yeah, I can see Herb allowing a happy moment of freedom like that, but only after a catgirl has died, an angel loses its wings, a much beloved character is whacked, a beautiful planet is nuked, and a favourite faction has been repeated kicked in the crotch.

To keep the fiction interesting, every silver lining must have a cloud - a city-devestating thermo-nuclear mushroom cloud of catastrophic death. 

[joechummer]

Oh.  :-[ I see. So like, if I wanted a story or a mech to become canon, I'd have to go through him?

Your best bet if you want a story to become canon is to write a good, character-oriented short story set in the BattleTech universe and submit it—after putting it in proper manuscript format and proofreading*—to Battlecorps.com. This page should be very helpful.

The worst they can do is say no.

Aside from short-story fiction, BattleCorps also publishes scenarios and unit/ship profiles, so that's another creative avenue to explore, if you're interested.

*This whole part is necessary to prevent our esteemed (and very busy) Managing Editor from having a conniption.

[Kit deSummersville]

Habeas1 of course.

Herb's grandpa died of natural causes as I recall.

[Revanche]

Herb's grandpa died of natural causes as I recall.

...and the name skipped to the Herb we all know and fear?

[Mechwarriorfreak]

...and the name skipped to the Herb we all know and fear?

Hey! I thought he was a nice man!  ???

[Joskney]

He once was, then he started working in this place.  ;D

[worktroll]

Herb's got the heart of a small child. He keeps it in a jar, on his desk, for his cats to play with ;)

(Btw, that's a joke. The internet meme that Herb is basically our very own Dark Lord and Lord of Nukes has been enthusiastically embraced here)

W.

[Atlas3060]

He's like a nuke missile; awe inspiring at times, cool, sometimes mentioned in hushed whispers, but never ever press a button because it will hurt.  ;D

[Doug Glendower]

Herb's got the heart of a small child. He keeps it in a jar, on his desk, for his cats to play with ;)

(Btw, that's a joke. The internet meme that Herb is basically our very own Dark Lord and Lord of Nukes has been enthusiastically embraced here)

W.

My wife sees him as a gentle man in his mid 30s who is nothing more than Mr. Cat, feline prophet

[SteelRaven]

Hey! I thought he was a nice man!  ???

Herb is a fellow fan and there for a friend to Mechwarriors everywhere but sense he was at the helm during the Jihad, he's also the guy technically responsible nuking a good number of planets and killing off some of your favorite characters. The Black Thorns? Yeah, I guess I killed those guy, sorry }:)

[StCptMara]

Personally, I think with the upcoming change to TROs of "One per Year", they could do a GenCon tournement,
with the requirement of designs being made on the spot, with a series of requirements(Like, for example
"IS 75 Tonner, 5/8 with MASC, and mounting an Class 10 Autocannon") that the winner of the tournement
would get their design canonized. But with the lack of an up-to-date HMPro(the Official 'Mech design program),
I am sure they wouldn't be able to pull off the logistics of it

[SteveRestless]

WHY?????? My designs a freakin awesome! I'm not saying that to say that Herbs designs are bad, I'm just saying that I've got something to prove. But if he's not interested, he's not interested.

I'm going to venture a wild guess here, because most of us go through this stage in one way or another, some stay there, some depart it to one degree or another... But, I'm guessing that you're seeing how a lot of the canon designs are sub-optimal in this way or that, and maybe starting from scratch, or maybe starting with an existing mech and tweaking it, you want to see them done better, more effective. more PPCs and Medium Lasers.

But, If you stop and think, the game's rules have been around for quite some time, and haven't changed THAT much. But we're still seeing designs that have some odd things about them that make them less than their "full potential." But, that they've been around so long, and that we're still seeing designs along those lines, doesn't that say to you that these choices are intentional? That they want the canon mechs this way?

Don't get me wrong, some mechs beg for a change, and theres some designs that I just can't use some of the canon configs for (Gargoyle Prime, Certain Linebackers, I'm looking at you) and some that I like making a bit of a change for personal preference, but there's no need to get them into the official books just to use them. Plenty of us are willing to play with reasonable customs.

Me, I wouldn't want to be part of the official "powers that be" around here. I don't want to be constrained by the limitations they find themselves under. I doubt you'd want to be either.

[Orin J.]

Herb is a fellow fan and there for a friend to Mechwarriors everywhere but sense he was at the helm during the Jihad, he's also the guy technically responsible nuking a good number of planets and killing off some of your favorite characters. The Black Thorns? Yeah, I guess I killed those guy, sorry }:)

Herb didn't do in the Thorns, that was a organizational oversight. have to nuke enough planets in a short time frame and eventually you'll get one with something nice by accident.

or you could blame caffine maybe. although thinking the well being of the inner sphere depends on CGL's staff being relaxed and well rested frightens me.....