History Headscratchers / Battletech

** For lasers, continuous beams (though they last very, very briefly for safety reasons). PPCs fire what looks like lightning; one model deviates slightly by firing what appears to be "ball lightning", though there is no difference ascribed to this function over or under other examples of PPC. In general, ''[=MechWarrior=] 3'' is considered to have the closest look to what's described in the books.

** The Ares Conventions (which had in fact been suspended when the Star League was founded) were completely ignored during the first two Succession Wars (the two most savage conflicts in the game's timeline, a form of limited warfare based on the Conventions only came into play during the Third War) and one major loss was Jumpship production, in addition to the huge losses of existing vessels. The few factories that were left could only produce a dozen or so on a yearly basis at best and spare parts were rare; large scale colonizations of unknown territory would require a logistical capacity that had been destroyed. Plus the Successor States were focused on their neighbors from the Fall of the Star League until the Clan Invasion; they couldn't spare the funds, troops, and ships to establish new worlds because that would leave their borders undefended. Finally they would either have to choose to control these colonies very indirectly or make huge concessions to [=ComStar=] to set up Hyperpulse Generators so they can actually speak with the frontier. While colonization may have been possible after the discovery of the Helm Memory Core (probably what the House sourcebook was alluding to) and a ton of Lostech; the Clan Invasion, the FedCom Civil War and the Jihad (which all pretty much happened back to back to back) all provided a significant distraction.

* Okay, my last contact with TabletopGame/BattleTech was before they shut down WizKids, so please explain one thing. WHY DID DEVLIN STONE SABOTAGE THE SAME REPUBLIC HE'D INVENTED?!
** in-universe who knows... Out of Universe because you can't have peace in a *war*game.

** At first they generally knew it was all a show. The issue was later that eventually the people at the top started dying, retiring, what have you, and needed to be replaced. ComStar was forcibly pouring the kool-aid down the throats, and ROM was purging any heresy, and a lot of the lower ranks were true believers. When they were promoted they still believed. We don't really know how many 'generations' of leadership it took but pretty quickly they were all fervent believers.

* Here's one for the 2018 game; you start out puttering around in a ''Leopard'' dropship that carries six mechs, but you eventually upgrade to the ''[[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Argo_(DropShip_class) Argo]]''; a CoolStarship [[StarshipLuxurious Luxurious]] with onboard bays for eighteen mechs. The thing is, a key feature of the ''Argo'' is prototype Lostech that permits the dropship to "daisy chain"; link up with ''other'' dropships so a Jumpship can take the whole shebang through FTL in one swoop. How the heck do the mechs get from the ''Argo's'' mech bays to the ''Leopard's?'' Do dropships regularly link collars and transfer mechs between them?

** The cockpit is a pen and paper contrivance. If you look at several of the mechs, they actually do keep the head in the torso. The Urbanmech and Scorpion are two models. The Spider actually does keep the pilot in the chest due to size constraints, but the problem is as the troper above says: you can't eject from it and it has a reputation for being a deathtrap mech.

** This is basically how normally-secular organizations radicalize. Most such organizations start as seemingly sane and secular agencies until the next generation come sin and begins changing them. depending on how... driven the next generation is, they can begin enacting changes that break from the original vision. Over time, you see an ideological drift, especially as the lower ranks are promoted up, because often those who most fervently believe in something will also be the ones most driven to excel at promoting that thing, which feeds into their suitability to be promoted.

** At first, the rulers of the Inner Sphere were too busy beating each other senseless to care. After the Free Worlds League got interdicted due to blowing up a [=ComStar=] facility after finding out that the Captain-General's sister, a [=ComStar=] acolyte, was being used as a spy and was feeding the FWL bad info that put them on the back foot of a four way war, people realized that [=ComStar=] pretty much had their collective genitals in a vise if you didn't like their politics. It wasn't until 3052, when the Draconis Combine was able to get a mole into the First Circle, and Myndo Waterly got too big for her britches and developed an 'externally induced cerebral hemorrhage' that the whole religious thing started to wear off.

** The Ares Conventions (which had in fact been suspended when the Star League was founded) were completely ignored during the first two Succession Wars (the two most savage conflicts in the game's timeline, a form of limited warfare based on the Conventions only came into play during the Third War) and one major loss was Jumpship production, in addition to the huge losses of existing vessels. The few factories that were left could only produce a dozen or so on a yearly basis at best and spare parts were rare; large scale colonizations of unknown territory would require a logistical capacity that had been destroyed. Plus the Successor States were focused on their neighbors from the Fall of the Star League until the Clan Invasion; they couldn't spare the funds, troops, and ships to establish new worlds because that would leave their borders undefended. Finally they would either have to choose to control these colonies very indirectly or make huge concessions to Comstar to set up Hyperpulse Generators so they can actually speak with the frontier. While colonization may have been possible after the discovery of the Helm Memory Core (probably what the House sourcebook was alluding to) and a ton of Lostech; the Clan Invasion, the FedCom Civil War and the Jihad (which all pretty much happened back to back to back) all provided a significant distraction.

* ComStar. So Blake founded ComStar to preserve humanity's progress since the creation of the Star League, Toyama takes over, and suddenly you have what is basically the Medieval Catholic Church in space. So, how much of ComStar was a maskirovka? Did the people at the top understand that they were just putting on a show or did all of ComStar after Toyama really think there was some kind of mystic element to their actions? Did the entire Inner Sphere nobility understand it was all an act and just decided to go along with it? And the Word of Blake, were they true believers in some kind of religious dogma or did they just fear losing their base of power?

** At first, the rulers of the Inner Sphere were too busy beating each other senseless to care. After the Free Worlds League got interdicted due to blowing up a ComStar facility after finding out that the Captain-General's sister, a ComStar acolyte, was being used as a spy and was feeding the FWL bad info that put them on the back foot of a four way war, people realized that ComStar pretty much had their collective genitals in a vise if you didn't like their politics. It wasn't until 3052, when the Draconis Combine was able to get a mole into the First Circle, and Myndo Waterly got too big for her britches and developed an 'externally induced cerebral hemorrhage' that the whole religious thing started to wear off.

** At first, the rulers of the Inner Sphere were too busy beating each other senseless to care. After the Free Worlds League got interdicted due to blowing up a ComStar facility after finding out that the Captain-General's sister, a ComStar acolyte, was being used as a spy and was feeding the FWL bad info that put them on the back foot of a four way war, people realized that ComStar pretty much had their collective genitals in a vise if you didn't like their politics. It wasn't until 3052, when the Draconis Combine was able to get a mole into the First Circle, and Myndo Waterly got too big for her britches and developed an 'externally induced cerebral hemorrhage that the whole religious thing started to wear off.

** At first they generally knew it was all a show. The issue was later that eventually the people at the top started dying, retiring, what have you, and needed to be replaced. ComStar was forcibly pouring the kool-aid down the throats, and ROM was purging any heresy, and a lot of the lower ranks were true believers. When they were promoted they still believed. We don't really know how many 'generations' of leadership it took but pretty quickly they were all fervent believers.

** Probably through training and just getting used to it; not everyone in real life suffers from motion sickness and it is possible to get over it. Even the most rudimentary Mechwarrior training programs last about 2 years, if you can't get over it by than you will probably have to wash out or switch your branch of service. According to TheOtherWiki motion sickness is triggered by the ears telling the brain one thing (you are moving) and your eyes tell it another (you are not moving). You get sick because the brain assumes that one of them is hallucinating and vomiting gets induced to remove any toxins that might be affecting your sensory organs. Now keep in mind that Mechwarriors have to have (at least) above average motor control and reflexes (making it easier to compensate for the fact that they can't "see" the Mech walking) and that they use neurohelmets to do all fine motor skills like walking. Between all these things it probably isn't that much of a problem.

* ComStar. So Blake founded ComStar to preserve humanity's progress since the creation of the Star League, Toyama takes over, and suddenly you have what is basically the Medieval Catholic Church in space. So, how much of ComStar was a maskirovka? Did the people at the top understand that they were just putting on a show or did all of ComStar after Toyama really think there was some kind of mystic element to their actions? Did the entire Inner Sphere nobility understand it was all an act and just decided to go along with it? And the Word of Blake, were they true believers in some kind of religious dogma or did they just fear losing their base of power?

* Forgive me if this question is explained somewhere in the TabletopGame/BattleTech 'verse, since my familiarity with the setting begins and ends with ''{{MechWarrior}} 2'', but how do [=MechWarriors=] deal with motion sickness? (This question applies to any setting with [[WalkingTank Walking Tanks]], really)

* ''{{MechWarrior}} 2'' depicts energy weapons as bolts. ''{{MechWarrior}} 3'' and beyond depict them as continuous beams of light. Which is canon?
** For lasers, continuous beams (though they last very, very briefly for safety reasons). PPCs fire what looks like lightning; one model deviates slightly by firing what appears to be "ball lightning", though there is no difference ascribed to this function over or under other examples of PPC. In general, MechWarrior 3 is considered to have the closest look to what's described in the books.

** in-universe who knows... Out of Universe because you can't have peace in a *war*game.

** A Star Colonel of 'Mechs is in fact getting very close the highest promotional rank (as opposed to elected) in the universe. Only a Galaxy Commander would outrank you. Military forces in BattleTech are significantly smaller than today because they pack significantly more firepower, so it's not unreasonable.

** Well, you do have a few heavily armed pals shooting up the other side of the base which is kind of a distraction. Maybe every one in the buildings was busy watching that, or they were all hiding in bomb shelters in the basement or whatever the BattleTech equivalent is and couldn't hear you. Besides you had your radar switched off and could paint your mechs in colours that camouflage you better so maybe they did not spot you.

** Part of that is that it's a computer game. The appeal is, for most of the fanbase, doing everything in a mech. Yes, a swiftwind makes more actual sense, but it's hardly "fun". Remember allso, BattleTech sensors are generally crap, as they have to, among other things, overpower the local interference from jamming devices, be those attatched to a mech or other vehicles or the just plain massive fusion powerplant running the base-to-be-scanned.

* How did the clans, who's collective military forces number around 110,500 (Citation Battletech: Warriors of Kerensky) men manage to hold onto numerous occupied planets. That number is not enough to hold onto Iraq on Earth, and replacing losses is not easy for the clans.

** The forces required for garrisons in BattleTech are vanishingly small. In 3020, a backwater world of only a million or less inhabitants was considered fully garrisoned by a company of 12 mechs. Even in the 3050s, a Full Regimental Combat team was considered enough to garrison a major world...consisiting of 104 mechs, 210 tanks, and about 2000 infantrymen.
* Forgive me if this question is explained somewhere in the BattleTech 'verse, since my familiarity with the setting begins and ends with ''{{MechWarrior}} 2'', but how do [=MechWarriors=] deal with motion sickness? (This question applies to any setting with [[WalkingTank Walking Tanks]], really)

* Okay, my last contact with Battletech was before they shut down WizKids, so please explain one thing. WHY DID DEVLIN STONE SABOTAGE THE SAME REPUBLIC HE'D INVENTED?!

* Clansmen shun the use of contractions, yet they are perfectly fine with combining words in other ways, such as quiaff (Query Affirmative) and quineg (Query Negative). Is this a DoubleStandard?

* Okay, my last contact with Battletech was before they shut down WizKids, so please explain one thing. WHY DID DEVLIN STONE SABOTAGE THE SAME REPUBLIC HE'D INVENTED?!

* Why does so much material from novels to games feature fusion reactors blowing up? The source material has made it clear again and again that a breached reactor ''shuts down'' - not as a failsafe, but because the reaction can no longer be sustained. If writers want StuffBlowingUp they can get the same dramatic effect from ammo explosions, which ARE an established danger in the source material and game rules.

** It mostly ''is'' a game balance issue. Since fusion engines always come with ten free heat sinks regardless of type, any fusion-powered combat vehicle with double heat sink technology would have a free dissipation of twenty heat points per turn right off the bat -- and it still would only need to track heat for its ''energy'' weapons, so unlike for 'Mechs any missile or ballistic systems it also carried wouldn't even have to come out of that. Definitely edging into GameBreaker territory there. As for in-universe reasons, well, the ''[=TechManual=]'' vaguely blames their "increased bulk and other factors" for making them unsuitable for vehicular use...

* Why can't vehicles use double heat sinks? Is there an in-universe explanation for this that can handwave Game Balance Issues?

* What's with the inconsistency in the size of 'Mech to cockpit ratios? The 75 ton ''Timber Wolf'' has a cockpit that looks like it fills most of the center torso, while the 50 ton ''Hunchback'' has a cockpit that looks relatively small compared to the rest of the 'Mech, meaning the lighter ''Hunchback'' appears to be ''larger'' than the ''Timber Wolf''. And that's just one example. Compare this ''[[http://mwomercs.com/media/artwork/1-battlemechs/5-commando-concept Commando]]'' with this ''[[http://mwomercs.com/media/artwork/1-battlemechs/1-catapult-concept Catapult]]''. The ''Catapult'' should be larger, but the ''Commando'''s cockpit takes up less space than the ''Catapult'', indicating that the ''Commando'' should be larger. I'm sure there are other examples, but these two are the only ones that I can think of right now.

** The games (Mechwarrior 2 in particular, 3 and 4 were generally better) had a tendency to be inconsistent regarding Clan speech. The explanation for why contractions are not allowed but combinations (and inventing entirely new words, usually borrowed from Russian) are fine is that the former demonstrates laziness while the latter was done to fill gaps in the English language. I believe that quiaff/quineg were brought in to remove any ambiguity from their speech or at least that's what the sourcebooks said.

** And speaking of which, the Clan pilot in the ''VideoGame/{{MechWarrior}} 2'' intro video uses contractions over and over and over again.

* Clansmen shun the use of contractions, yet they are perfectly fine with combining words in other ways, such as quiaff (Query Affirmative) and quineg (Query Negative). Is this a DoubleStandard?

** The Ares Conventions (which had in fact been suspended when the Star League was founded) were completely ignored during the first two Succession Wars (the two most savage conflicts in the game's timeline, a form of limited warfare based on the Conventions only came into play during the Third War) and one major loss was Jumpship production, in addition to the huge losses of existing vessels. The few factories that were left could only produce a dozen or so on a yearly basis at best and spare parts were rare; large scale colonizations of unknown territory would require a logistical capacity that had been destroyed. Plus the Successor States were focused on their neighbors from the Fall of the Star League until the Clan Invasion; they couldn't spare the funds, troops, and ships to establish new worlds because that would leave their borders undefended. Finally they would either have to choose to control these colonies very indirectly or make huge concessions to Comstar to set up Hyperpulse Generators so they can actually speak with the frontier. While colonization may have been possible after the discovery of the Helm Memory Core (probably what the House sourcebook was alluding to) and a ton of Lostech; the Clan Invasion, the FedCom Civil War and the Jihad (which all pretty much happened back to back to back) all provided a significant distraction.

* Why hasn't the Inner Sphere expanded in the centuries since the Exodus? It's not like the constant warfare decimated civilian populations, what with the Ares Conventions and all, and the Word of Blake Jihad only happened towards the end of the current timeline. In fact, the House Davion sourcebook even hints that the growing population of the Inner Sphere may necessitate expansion in the future (the book was written during the Succession Wars). What happened to that?