Current mood:	tired
Current music:	"Mechanical Man"

Battletech: A lot of good memories, with more to come.
One of the science fiction universes that I've held in high regard for perhaps the longest time would be the Battletech/Mechwarrior universe. The entire series takes place in the 31st century (disregarding the Dark Age universe for the moment), in which humanity has colonized almost 1000 worlds. These worlds are controlled by 1 of 5 great houses, who continuously fight one another for control of the galaxy.

Their weapons of war are massive 2 to 3 story tall war machines known as Battlemechs. Battlemechs are basically walking tanks, either bipedal or quadrepedal, armed with enough weaponry to take down a city block by themselves.

The universe has the usual trappings of science fiction. Mercenaries, nobles, bandits, etc. but it also had The Clans; decendants of a group of humans who left the known universe in the 28th century. They have technology rivaling those in the Inner Sphere (where the great houses are)

I've played almost every single video game involving battletech. From Mechwarrior II to MW4 Mercenaries and Mech Commander 2.

But I'm not going to talk about them right now. Instead I'm going to talk about my new slow transition into the original method of playing a game in the Battletech universe, the method of playing it that invovled pencil, paper, a board, and custom painted figurines.

Haven't reached that point yet. But I'm getting there.

I'm currently in an RP on the Nuklear Power Forums that utilizes the original battletech rules and 3050 technology. This means we're just prior to when the clans show up, so we're fighting with very "archaic" technology. But this isn't really going to bother me, because

A. This is 3050, so we may just go merc and start hunting Clanners.

B. We're competing on Solaris VII, the game world. Imagine Rome meets Las Vegas on a planet. Basically, Gladitorial Combat with mechs.

And rather than all the players competing against each other, we're working together in team competitions. Not really that out of place at all.

Plus, I got lucky with mech selection. The WHM-7M Warhammer heavy mech. A mech that got FASA sued for being exactly the same in appearance as the Destroids from Robotech.


Warhammer on left, Destroid on Right. Separated at birth? Discuss.

And of course, my oddly enterprising mind thought "this could potentially make a good machinima film"

Machinima is the term given to the method of making a movie utilizing a video game's engine and technology.

Unfortunately, there's a problem with that idea.

The last Mechwarrior game to have all the mechs that are being used in our RP was Mechwarrior II Mercenaries. The game had over 40 mechs from the Inner Sphere, and over 40 Clan Mechs. It was the largest mech library of any Mechwarrior game to date.

Unfortunately, the thing is a graphical nightmare compared to today's games. No real damage texturing save for limbs getting blown off. And don't even get me started on the PPC

the PPC is supposed to be a powerful blue beam of ELECTRIC DEATH unleashed upon your enemies. Here though, it's a slow moving ball. And when it hits somehting, it just exudes blue flame. Even in MW2 it was better, it at least EXPLODED.

Fortunately, there are groups at work creating new mechs for Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries. Right now 6 new mechs, including the Warhammer, are being worked on by a group of mod engineers.

So, I may just be able to realize my idea in years to come.

Unless they make a new Mechwarrior that has the massive mech selection again.