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Butte status?
Held
>>94637025Fucked
Clenched even
>>94637004The fucks wrong with her eyes, is that AI?
the fuck’s wring with your eyes
>just randomly find an Uller in the jungle and become a merc captainis it really that easy
I’m guessing Arkee is the top and Evan is the bottom or is that too heteronormative?
>>94637041Man, clanners lack of toilets in their mechs really backfired huh
>>94637047>dare you enter my magical pisscockpit?
>>94637039Broken orbital from a carcrash when i was little. Now answer the question
>>94637050For a free clan omni? Shit yeah i would
>>94637052>shows vulnerabilitycome to my arms for a brotherly embraceand nothing is wrong with her eyes
>>94637047>>94637050>SATISFYING cleaning of a TRUEBORN GHOST BEAR ELEMENTAL cockpit.aviNow trending on chatterweb file sharing services.
>>94637025I got it.
>>94637041her just finding the mech as the apparent result of wishing for it so hard is the magical, fairytale aspect of the story but the rest is plausible enoughkeep in mind the usual beginning for these stories is also pretty standard fairytale stuff (noble who inherits his station or should have)
>>94637060I know shes not looking dead-on, but even taking her facing into account, they seem misaligned
>>94637041>>94637075What kind of Uller
>>94637039>>94637033It's HRT. That's Brian Young's self insert tranny lance commander. What's wrong is that you're clocking that character as the male he is.
>>94637082just the prime. old Kellhounds one still with the pilot remains left inside.
>>94637067>Powerwash simulator Battletech edition>take your powerwasher and clean iconic mechs such as the Thunderbolt, Atlas, MadCat, and.... an Elemental?Would unironically pay money for a Battletech DLC for PWS
>>94637084Explains the 5-head
>>94637087>not the ARip
>>94637106Can't gave a character a good config to start with, gotta leave space to progress. Like how Grayson goes from no mech to a Locust to a Shadow Hawk in book 1 and only gets his Marauder in book 2.
>>94637109Eh, all configs are viable in the novels anyway
>>94637075Which book does this happen in?
>>94637114the first fox patrol story.
>>94637084since when is Katie trans?
>>94637116Anyone i dislike is.
>>94637114it’s in the first Fox Patrol short story “Secret Fox” from Shrapnel 3all the stories were recently republished in an anthology
>>94637092Ngl, that does sound nice
>>94637081I don’t see it >>94637119that is quite a super power
>>94637092this is a great idea anon good work brother
>>94636951>balanced gameplay suitable for tournamentsHARAM!>>94636954>>94636999Indeed. I like the fact that some people simply have subpar equipment as a standard, depending on era, as it gives verisimilutude to fights to make them more simulations and reenactmnets than pvp balanced game and that is most pleasing to my autism.
I am not thrilled with Katie being a lesbian but it would really suck if she turned out to be a transbian
Re: The Industrialmech centric shrapnel story i was posting about last night. After cranking out 3300 words in one sitting last night, I've made no progress tonight on account of sleeping badly and also having to work at my job for once. I'll try to finish up the first draft tomorrow night, and then its polish time. Sadly I probably won't be able to get any BT games in till the new year. My group is doing a game tomorrow (today now I guess) that I'll miss because night shift, and I'll be working during our usual Monday night games. But we'll be starting up the Hinterlands campaign in January, so I'll have a steady stream of games there. Also I hate my coworkers.
>>94637151how do you get started writing a BT short story?I mean mostly in terms of feeling comfortable that you have a good grasp on the setting at a character-level
>>94637130>>94637092>>94637124Is it Lyran power hour already?
>>94637161what does this mean
>>94637145THE FIRST RULE OF JOINING THE FOX PATROL IS NO STRAIGHTS
>>94637167I take it to be a reference to the stereotype of Germans as working in some kind of meticulous and precise job and coming home to relax by playing a video game where you have to be meticulous and precise.
>>94637181are Dexter and Rhiannon some variant of LGB?also how about having a straight trans woman that would be nice>>94637186ziss is der harmful schtereotype ja?
>>94637116
>>94637196I don’t know what this means
>>94637158So, a basic rule of writing in any established setting is to find open space and unbit plot hooks. This is as important for fanfiction as licensed fiction(since it's the same thing)In the case of Battletech, there's lots of open space. About a third of all planets on the map have never had anything happen there at all, giving you plenty of room to come up with stuff. Picking up plot hooks is a bit tougher, but in Battletech's case, it's easiest to take a big, political event from the sourcebooks and look at implications. Doing stuff from the most recent era lets you tread new ground. The withdrawal of the Jade Falcon Touman, the recapture of the Dragon's Tongue, the FWL invasion of the Wolf Empire, and of course the dissolution of the Republic are all going to have massive effects on the setting. Showing how societies and people deal with these is good ground for a storyBut the real bastard is the word cap. A novel has sixty to three hundred thousand words to introduce characters, set up a plot, execute the plot, resolve the plot, and conclude the story. A shrapnel submission has to do this in five thousand words. You want to lean on character archetypes and cultural traits when you can. You don't have space to do much with characterization, but you want to do something. Your main character needs to have agency and be the one making the crucial decisions, or you've chosen the wrong main character. You also need to read all the time. You should read lots of Battletech stuff, but you should also read lots of non Battletech stuff too. No. Stop. Put the David Weber books down. At least half your reading should be outside your genre, so do not stick to military sci fi, or even to sci fi/fantasy in general. Read some romance, some history, some mystery, and some political thrillers.
>>94637200good, cause i don't either
>>94637203I appreciate the effort you put into this post it certainly seems like good advice at a high level But to further clarify, I’m asking more about how you feel confident that your story feels like it is set in the BattleTech universe?Let’s say for example that you had some rules like you cannot name drop factions or mechs and so forth; how do you convey this is a BattleTech story as opposed to anything else? Or do you think this isn’t necessary?
>>94637212I don’t know what this means either jeez are these thread drama references or something
>>94637222Battletech is about war, politics, mechs, overly detailed charts, and people getting sweaty in their underwear. If you can cover three of those five, you're probably set.
>>94637047dumb clanners
>>94637233>economic use of hammer space.
>>94637228I recently read The Nellus Academy Incident, the first work by YA author Jennifer Brozek for the BT setting>featuring students rather than mechwarriors>minimal name dropping in terms of IS politics >just about no mech combat or mech talk generallyregardless of all of those points I really enjoyed this bookeven so I’m not sure what made it a BattleTech novel other than a few references to BattleTech IP here and there
>>94637282Established authors and longer works get more room to mess with that sort of thing than a short story by a Literally Who. If you're bringing in someone who's known outside BT, makes sense for them to open with something fairly light to ease in the readers who follow them from whatever else they've written.
>>94637247I'm pretty sure Highlander's head is bigger than my old apartment
>>94637289I think in her case (based on her Sarna interviews) she was prob asked to write for BT specifically because she is a YA authorTo me, that was an especially interesting proposition because she knew very little about BT before she started writing the novel I liked it a lot but I think it was even more generic than BT generally isBy contrast, I also recently read “Secret Fox”’by Bryan Young and that felt more “BattleTechnological” despite being a short story and I think it cane down to the protagonist constantly thinking about being a mechwarrior
>>94637282Honestly I like the idea of stories that look into the other parts of the BT setting away from the skirmishes and wars, to give us an example of how day to day life in different parts of the IS and Periphery look like. Though I'm not sure how interested I'd be in a school setting desu.
>>94637331Just to be clear, The Nellus Academy Incident is barely about school life; instead it is really about students finding themselves in a “live fire” situationI would REALLY recommend it; it’s a quick read and gets really interesting after the exposition But yes to your point, I would like to read something like a crime novel set in the world of BTMaybe there is something already like that?
>>94637361>Just to be clear, The Nellus Academy Incident is barely about school life; instead it is really about students finding themselves in a “live fire” situation>I would REALLY recommend it; it’s a quick read and gets really interesting after the expositionI mean, that's fair. I shouldn't judge a story I haven't even looked at. I'll give it a read later. >But yes to your point, I would like to read something like a crime novel set in the world of BT>Maybe there is something already like that?Funny enough I was thinking the same thing. It'd be neat if it was set on one of the more advanced FWL worlds where cybernetics is available, and the MC detective has to investigate a murder that leads him down a rabbit hole of the controversy around cyborgs, the drama around the victim before their death, etc etc. and maybe the MC, getting far enough into the conspiracy around the murder to find the real culprits, takes a bullet to the back of a head by a ROM agent.It kinda got away from me, but yeah a crime story would be cool.
>>94637308"Detective noir story set on the factory floor of Luthien Armor Works" is absolutely on my list of ideas the right. The pollution, overt asian influences, moody environment, totalitarian government, conspicuous wealth side by side with crushing poverty, and the way a mech factory would absolutely dwarf the people in it, all perfect for a noir story.
>>94637222I know it's not nearly the same thing, but for my Battle Reports, I just basically have the idea of a story I want to tell ("They're about to nuke a facility and there's a game around it", then look for a planet where nothing happened during the time period, and then come up with the rest in a way that atleast seems somewhat plausible.For me personally, the big thing is making stuff that matters for the players and their forces without affecting the Big Picture, to keep things relatable.Also my newest Battle report is done, reposting from the previous thread for those who didn't see it yet. Jihad-era scenario with a Davion and Mercenary Lance attempting a high-risk extraction on a WoB facility on the dead world of Lockdale, defended by a C3i Level II.
>>94637386>"By Blake, they were bootlegging the CHARGER!!!!"
>>94637389That image of Adept Cain.. It looks like he says "Shazbot" very frequently
>>94637443VGS VGS VGS
>>94637378I like the idea of showing a more advanced planetary civilization>>94637386This is a really good idea and it has built-in BattleTech brand with being able to reference mechs without mech combat and being entrenched in Kuritan ambienceSimilarly, I have a vague idea of a story about a Raven Alliance solhama mechwarrior’s perspective on the strong contrast between his own Clanner culture and the surrounding Outworlder culture
>>94637386>"Detective noir story set on the factory floor of Luthien Armor Works" is absolutely on my list of ideas the right."Kill the chicken to scare the monkey" is apparently a legit japanese policing strategy. As in they figure that they'd scare the perp into mending his crooked ways by making an example of somebody else.Plus interstellar companies in BT are feudal institutions of their own, with militas, police and private prisons, more likely than not.
are there trans Clanners? or is that only an IS thing?
>>94637537clanners don't give a fuck about gender.
>>94637540is that a yes or no
>>94637553No. You were fucking decanted as intended from the iron womb. If you are mental weak enough to question that you won't make it past sibko.Such frailties as thinking your body is not fit for function as made is a problem only filthy freebirths could have.
>>94637553NoA warrior that has a mental breakdown about having a peepee or vagene is going to be filtered out of the program on the first occurrence of that mutation. They are abject failures and likely ceased to have more than a 0% chance of occurring after the first handful of batches.
>>94637537It's a setting where catgirls canonically exist. Flesh-sculpting to that level is absolutely possible. But acting like modern people do about it today is just fucking dumb so please stop.
>>94637537solahma units
>>94637537Clanner society is conformist to a level that would make Elizabethan England blush. They have loose mores around sex, but that's not really related to gender expression. What is relevant is that Clan society sees self expression as intrinsically bad and wrong because you are only relevant so far as you serve the Clan. Between of this, free gender expression is probably Not The Way Of The Clans. Odds are gender studies just don't exist in the Homeworlds in any capacity, so clanners wouldn't even have the terminology to describe being trans.
>>94637564seems like you are saying the Clans would not culturally tolerate trans people?>>94637566so the Clans eugenically eliminated “trans genes”?
>>94637578Being trans has no genetic component. Culturally, it wouldn't be tolerated because it's nonconformist.
The clans place absolutely zero thought into gender as an "Issue" and it's pathetic that it's trying to be pushed into a plot point now.
>>94637583It's not. You're getting baited. Extremely easily.
>>94637569Sure Spheroids prob have access to gender reassignment peocedures but my question was about the Clans>>94637572wdym>>94637574that’s an interesting point: being trans could be considered chalcasWonder if you could have a trial of gender but like you say the Clanner way probably doesn’t have any terminology for experiencing dysphoriaGuess those who experience it just suffer in confusion/repression
>>94637583>it's trying to be pushed into a plot point nowlike in an official novel or short story?
>>94637586solahma units are suicide units
>>94637590sure but can you further explain the connection you’re suggesting?
>>94637578The Clans are politically heterosexual to the extreme. They're not a place for the gay lifestyle or for people who think they can deny the Clan the use of their reproductive organs based on the intensive and heavy feels they're feeling.The only solance probably is that neither sex or gender are political categories, so it don't matter that you fuck people of your own sex or that you identify as a lumberjack as long as you are living up to caste standards and do your part in the breeding program.
>>94637586So here's a fun thing. Protomechs get introduced eventually. Because they use a neural control system where the mech feels like the pilot's body, some protomech pilots are noted to get dysmorphia regarding their human body, seeing the mech as their true, comfortable shape. Given the Erinyes looks like picrel, it must be especially bad for men assigned to pilot them. But yes, anyone who is dysphoric about their gender in Clan society probably just suffers without the terms to really understand why, before dying at age 29 to a completely curable case of pneumonia brought on by overwork in poor conditions and the lack of even elementary medicine for the laborer caste. Clan space is a horrible place for pretty much everyone.
>>94637601>They're not a place for the gay lifestyleThey have severed the sex act and reproduction entirelyThey could hardly get any more gay
>>94637581Yes there would be. It's caused by a defect in the brain structure and accompanying support systems (ie hormones) that cause:1. not having a natural binding attachment to the body as it is, up to having feeling of rejection towards it, and2. a driving need to attention whore, enough to commit to bodily mutilation and humiliation.You can put down external factors such as chemicals and contaminants in food and water causing damage to either a developing child or grown adult, but the fact remains that the majority of real people do not suffer from this problem despite living in the same environment. Therefore it is a problem with individuals, and the primary determining factor for the above traits are their genes. So therefore; if you are able to identify the various points in their genetic code that could cause this malfunction and correct them, trannies will cease to exist because all the normal functioning children will just look at you funny for suggesting such an idea to them, the concept will simply not take hold.
>>94637605>transexual X>transmech :)
>>94637605That’s such a fascinating example of BT-specific dysphoriaThank you for posting it!
>94637616>environmental factors don't confirm my bias, thus they can't be the cause
>>94637605The Clans LITERALLY invented a machine that transes your gender.
>>94637640perhaps unwittingly* but seems so*then again did the Society have anything to do with developing Protomechs??
>>94637590Mainly garrison units retard. Yeah they hope to go out in a blaze of glory but nine times out of ten they get to do police duties in the backwaters
>>94637643Probably not. The Scientist Caste were involved, of course, but the Protomechs were first developed by Clan Smoke Jaguar.
>>94637651They do police duties? That must require driving a car. So Bussy isn't even qualified for Solahma duty.
>>94637628Retard, the cause is the vulnerability in the first place. Patch it and the bugs stop happening.
>>94637664>washes out of mech training>put in salami unit>washes out of drivers' ed>gets bullied by the other washoutssome things would never change
>94637674Ah yes, the standard "genetics works exactly like computers" idiocy loved by basement dwellers who haven't studied genetics. Anyway, this is no longer battletech, so here's a BT question: Whats everyone's favorite Inner Sphere Omnimech? I like the Avatar.
>>94637605>i sexually identify as an attack helicopter- er, a giant robot.
>>94637686How can there be any possible other answer? He smoking a fucking cigar.
>>94637615The modern gay lifestlye is based on the three ideas that society is better off when people have the personal right to engage in wildly deviant lifestlyes, that sexuality is the paramout expression of your personality and that homosexuality and heterosexuality are equal in all matters.None of that applies to the Clans.
>>94637601>ugh, not only do i have to fuck my Scientist-assigned partner, she's a fucking woman. I guess I'll just have to close my eyes and think of that Pilot twink I saw last week.
>>94637695he will rise again, and overthrow the false regent installed as a clan puppet
>>94637692The IS probably has people who fetishize certain mechs as their equivalent of furries, including conventions where they dress up in mech costumes. The Clans reintroducing actual furries probably caused niche chatterweb flame wars the likes of which had never been seen before. >>94637696There are gay clanners in the novels, secondary. >but I don't like those nove-You're still a secondary. Demanding Battletech canon change to suit you is disgusting and pathetic behavior for alpha strike "players". Either accept the novels as the highest form of canon or get out.
>>94637711the clans fear the chad cigar-smoking inner sphere omni
>>94637664you seem genuinely upset i'm not a car cuck like you.did you ever actually have to replace breaks, or tires, belts for the engine, brrak fluid, windshield whiper fluid, or spark plugs.
Far be it for me to interrupt this scintillating conversation, but I have a question: do we know the Phenotype of Scary Bird Granny? She's a Raven so we assume Pilot, but she's a member of a general Bloodname, and she's said to be small for her sibko. Being small for a Pilot would be she's approximately the size of a corgi, so it seems excessive.
>>9463759941% of solahma units do not survive the old age of 25.>>94637651garrison units that are still suicide units faggio.
>>9463773635, but close enough.
>>94637731Given her head looks normal sized proportional to her body, she's probably a Mechwarrior phenotype. Weirdly big head and weirdly short stature are the main features of the pilot phenotype.
>>94637717>Either accept the novels as the highest form of canon or get out.I will never accept anything that disagrees with my opinion. If that's what the novels say then the novels aren't canon. KYS.
>>94637743Alpha Strike "player" detected.
>>94637741Her head looks kinda weirdly big in this, the only other picture we have of her. Though her eyes look normal.
>>94637759Looks pretty normal to me.
>>94637686Yes, they work exactly like computers. Pseudo intellectual imbeciles trying to make it more complicated than it sounds will say something as stupid as "actually it can randomly do something its not capable of doing". I know the weasel words you might come up with to try to refute this, but you may still try.
>>94637727ye, did you?oh
>>94637717>he IS probably has people who fetishize certain mechs as their equivalent of furries, including conventions where they dress up in mech costumes.Yes, but the IS didn't have direct neutral interfaces combined with people going crazy so that they develop body dysmorphia and literally begin to identify as an actual, literal giant robot.
>>94637773>furfaggotry vs. furfaggotry IIC
>>94637727Oh yeah, I replace brrak fluid all the time. One of the most easiest things to do. I've seen ten-year olds do it
>>94637741They're not always consistent with this in art. Picrel is a Pilot.
>>94637605>So here's a fun thing. Protomechs get introduced eventually. Because they use a neural control system where the mech feels like the pilot's body, some protomech pilots are noted to get dysmorphia regarding their human body, seeing the mech as their true, comfortable shape. Given the Erinyes looks like picrel, it must be especially bad for men assigned to pilot them.Holy shit that's actually a really good point, and kinda horrifying desu.
>>94637686I'm thinking of converting my plastic Bushwacker into a Gauntlet since I got a metal Bushwacker too, I'm not ordering from IWM till next year probably.
>>94637640It goes beyond gender, anon. Imagine being piloting a protomech for a few weeks and suddenly you're a Transmechzilla. You suddenly feel weird outside of your large, draconic body, it feeling more comfortable then your awkward, tiny, naked primate meatsuit. Imagine a rival warrior purposely bumping into you to provoke you, so you instinctively try to bathe him in star fire with your Flamer breath, but you're not actually in your protomech so you're just awkwardly breathing on the guy.
>>94637865I've done this in real life
>>94637865>why won't my shoulder missiles fire? Am I out of ammo?
>>94637873Do you have green face tattoos M
>>94637865At this point we're just going full cyberpunk. Honestly just do what Adam Smasher did, cut off your useless meat bits and hardwire yourself into the Protomech. In fact I'm pretty sure the WoB did exactly that during the Jihad, though I don't remember for sure.
>>94637921They did, though it didn't work great.
>>94637692>>94637717DNI systems don't make you identify as an attack helicopter.Once again, Blake clearly protects.
>>94637601Why the fuck would a clan give a shit who a trueborn warrior has sex with? That's not even how thry reproduce.
>>94637937They don't. They have problems with people who don't fit into bat little boxes, and those who think that their body is anything aside from a pinnacle of science.
>>94637727Okay. I'm genuinely curious how you think this is a comeback?
>>94637921>In fact I'm pretty sure the WoB did exactly that during the Jihad, though I don't remember for sure.That's pretty much what WoB's Tau Zombies are. They've got all their muscles replaced with myomer and armor plates inserted under their skin.
>>94637944>>94637937>>94637578>>94637569>>94637566>>94637564Can we please not inject an absolute minority political opinion of basically the anglosphere and relatives into everything? Just ask five friends not from English speaking countries about this that are not Germanic. I give it 90 odds that the answer will shock you.
>>94637977also their protomech techs never figured out the EI cockpits, so to meet the space requirements instead they chopped the pilots into nuggets and wired them in manuallyI assume they got robo limbs too when not in a mech, but those stay off for sex
>94637537Low quality B8
>>94637081CGL spent years stiffing artists to the point where they had to be sued in order to pay out. Nobody who isn't a retard or a fan wants to work for them. >>94638100The WoB had VDNI, which was better than EI. They nuggeted their pilots to save space for the bulkier IS components.
>>94638049What would there opinions be on the sexual mores of the clans?Plus, English is the official language of the clans.
>>94637813>seen 10 yearvolds do it.CHING CHING! PING PONG!grory to za dragunalso you don't change your break fluid all the time, you must be dogshit ar replacing breaks if you fucked up that bad.>>94637967because when i come, it's usually on yourback.>>94637769stay mad, kerensklaus needs somewhere to drop coal
