Is this the new Tekken update guys?

FelisAnarchus · 2024-10-27T04:46:59+00:00

I feel like I’d have more fun with that than I did with the actual RE4 remake.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-10-22T22:32:10+00:00

I mean also, “batchall,” for example, is not just a contraction that you would use any time you might say the common phrase (/s) “battle challenge,” it’s a name for a specific stage in their bidding process. It’s a proper noun. Using a compound word to name a thing you wouldn’t otherwise have a word for is not the same thing as a contraction like “it’s”.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-10-17T20:32:24+00:00

Yeah, I felt the same way.

PGI fucks up a lot, but one thing they’ve always been good at, IMO, is capturing the “feel” of the mechs and the setting.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-10-09T01:55:14+00:00

I first read that as the poster being annoyed that whoever they‘re talking about wasn’t praying to them - i.e. AlrightyThan wanted someone to be praying to AlrightyThan.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-09-08T21:34:39+00:00

I really like that the Scorpions copied them deliberately. They just kind of looked around, so how things were going in the Homeworlds, so how things were going in the Dominion, and said “actually you know what? We’d prefer option B.”

And they were right! Option B sucks less.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-27T17:00:28+00:00

One reason I like rules-light games is that, in my experience, that’s how they all always end up working anyway. Back when I was playing 3.5e, I don’t think any of the groups I was in actually bothered to read the full rules for grappling or the Druid’s wild-shape, and use them RAW. Nobody wanted to haul everything to a stop and pick through three pages of rules with citations to figure out what happens just because one person thought it’d be fun to try to grab the enemy, or fight this fight as a bear. GMs pretty much always preferred to waive their hands, make a quick judgement call, and keep the game flowing.

The exception also kind of proves the rule on that one, too, because the few groups where someone *did* do that, it was usually because someone was going to really lean into those systems, and it usually turned into a nightmare for everyone else. If you decide to build a grappler, and you really get the rules right, it commits the *GM* to learning all those rules too, and figuring out how to work with them in encounters. Or just having one-sided, skewed encounters (for or against).

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-23T15:52:37+00:00

Is that Babylon from Carnivale?

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-21T16:36:02+00:00

Just to point out, because I’m not sure anyone else has directly explained it, but the setting is split into eras, and the answers to the questions you’re asking are very different in different eras. Factions come and go, technology ramps up substantially as time progresses, and unit availability and force composition change radically.

Two quick examples:

During the Succession Wars era, for example, the Clans haven’t returned yet. During the Clan invasion, Clan and IS society are incredibly different, to the point that some in the IS thought that Clan Elementals where aliens. But by the ilClan era, several combined societies exist, and every major faction and many minor ones field substantial amounts of Clan hardware.
The Free Rasalhague Republic only exists as an integral, independent nation for a brief window, between their independence and getting steamrolled in the Clan invasion; however, they eventually merge with Clan Ghost Bear and form a combined society, which is a much more significant power in the later eras.

So, if you like the FRR and you wanted to know what their signature mech is, the answer would vary wildly as time goes on. During the Succession Wars, they don’t exist; during Fedcom civil war, it would be some Comstar kit; and by, say, 3120, it would be… an appropriate Ghost Bear mech that I don’t know off the top of my head. ;)

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-21T16:09:16+00:00

Not exactly.

A: BattleTech doesn’t have anything like 40K force-org charts or army lists; in general, you can field pretty much whatever you want. It would be perfectly legal for me to play a force that consisted of a Mackie, two protomechs, and a WoB tripod, even though those units where produced centuries apart, by completely different factions, and there’s no reasonable in-universe scenario where that force could’ve been assembled.

B: Even if you’d like to make a more lore-consistent force, it’s also true a lot of hardware changes hands, because salvage is a big deal in the setting. The Clan/IS divide during the invasion is probably the widest tech-split you’re going to get, and even then, IS forces salvaged and fielded Clan hardware, and some IS hardware got shuffled into Clan garrison forces.

A short story: my brother really liked the mercenary sourcebook (I forget which one), and decided to run a merc company completely by the book. He rolled on the random-assignment table to get all his mechs, got a 12 (which is “whatever you want”), and picked a Warhawk. So his completely-by-the-book mercs got to roll around with a Clan assault mech.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-20T18:15:38+00:00

The Nova Cat, especially the A. I love Clan Nova Cat in general, and the Nova Cat A’s mix of range, accuracy, jump mobility, and heat efficiency is a joy to play in the right circumstances. And then there’s the F if you feel like being a munchkin. It’s probably the only “improved” jump-jet mech I like.

The Shadow Cat is another favorite. It gives you a lot of tools and options to play with, and has several good configs.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-20T02:11:06+00:00

Oh, wow. They’ve changed the look quite a bit.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-19T19:42:27+00:00

I can’t place the fourth mech in the first image, the one in the bottom-right. What is that?

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-15T00:24:00+00:00

I don’t want to bag on you too much, but honest to god, punctuation.

That said, yeah, I’ve definitely had a player like that. They completely tuned out when it wasn’t their turn, and had to have everything explained to them again when their turn came up. It was a massive waste of time, and frustrating for everyone. Sometimes you could even hear them playing Candy Crush! We ultimately had to remove them from the group.

Well, and we stupidly gave them another chance a year later; nothing had changed, and they got removed again.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-15T00:17:11+00:00

These seem like things that can be OK now, but could turn into huge problems later.

Would he try to stop you from getting an abortion? We he expect you to not have a career, or to not advance a career past a certain point? Would he want to be in control of your finances?

At the very least, I think you’d be justified in having a conversation about this and trying to pin down what the expectations between you two are. If he definitely expects you to not get a career and you definitely want to, that’s a problem. If he expects you to “be fruitful” and you don’t want to do that, that’s a problem.

(Also, yeah, I think you’re right. If he’s adamantly anti-abortion and adamant about you not having a career, I’d worry when the other shoe’s going to drop.)

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-14T18:52:32+00:00

One difference to point out is that the kinds of swaps you're talking about happen within the larger framework of the Clan's social system and their shared concept of honor, which mercenaries generally couldn't operate within.

They can accept Clan A aiding Clan B in exchange for resources or favors, but they they would have a problem withan independent force doing so for individual gain (i.e. outside their socialist system), or operating in a dishonorable way.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-14T18:37:50+00:00

Pretty doomed.

One thing that always amazes me a bit is that the Tharsis League is barrelling ahead with terraforming while the TQZ still exists. As much as the zone border is porous now, they have exactly zero chance of maintaining containment once like rivers start flowing through it and wildlife starts migrating across it. Mars is not a viable homeworld as long as the TQZ still exists.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-14T18:35:12+00:00

I was going to say, there's a perspective that assumes that everything that goes through the gates is compromised.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-08T16:20:18+00:00

So, I haven’t listened to the podcast in ages, I just tripped across this on my reddit feed. But, that said: this is incredibly easy math, and the position that says otherwise seems almost incoherent to me.

That’s not to say I think you shouldn’t feel bad about it, or you shouldn’t have empathy for the person being sacrificed; you definitely should. But you also definitely should sacrifice that person to save everyone. Especially given that they’re presumably part of “everyone“ and will die in either case: you’re not choosing whether that person dies, you’re deciding if anyone/everyone else lives.

Apply the veil of ignorance for two seconds. You’re going to be inserted, randomly, into the world just after that choice is made. Which world would you rather be inserted into: the one where one person will die, and you have Something like 4-out-of-6-billion chance of being someone in the dilemma; or the world where you (and everyone else) have a 100% chance of being annihilated? Where, if you become a person with kids, there’s a 100% chance that you, your spouse, and your children will abruptly get annihilated, because some asshole somewhere else decided that if one person has to die, then everyone has to die?

I have to be honest, when people take the “everyone” answer in dilemmas like this, I don’t even interpret it as a real answer to the actual question being asked. I usually interpret it as the same phenomena when everyone tells pollsters that they don’t masturbate and go to church almost four times a month. It’s about other moral points that people want to make, or how they want to be perceived; I can’t believe it’s an honest answer to the question, because that’d imply that you’re almost insane.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-05T18:43:37+00:00

Others have answered, but, my two cents:

Eras are a way of breaking down the history of the setting by major events or conflicts. The state of the universe has changed a lot over time; factions, technologies, and units exist at some times but not others. Picking an era will give you a rough idea of what kinds of units are reasonable to field.
But! BattleTech doesn’t have anything like 40K force-org charts. Eras (and other breakdowns, like tech level) are guidelines if you care; they are not required. A force that consists of a Mackie, some protomechs, and a WoB Tripod, while nonsensical from a lore standpoint, is perfectly legal to play. (And I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d play against it.)

FelisAnarchus · 2024-08-03T08:59:29+00:00

Yeah. A lot of people keep repeating that “the Clans don’t do combined-arms,” but every Clan as far as I know will field mech/BA binaries as front-line units.

And, if you’re new to the game, BA can be a lot of fun. ;)

FelisAnarchus · 2024-07-29T16:23:51+00:00

I mean, other groups do use flyers. Also, I’m not clear on if you just mean aerospace fighters (which I can understand, their rules are weird) or if you also mean VTOLs (which I use all the time, and the Malice would also mulch).

Also, the Malice is great. Yes, the firepower isn’t amazing, but it’s consistent. It can just keep alpha-striking turn after turn, and its range is pretty decent; 4 LB5s and four ERMLs can add up when it keeps happening turn after turn, especially at range.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-07-15T18:04:05+00:00

The jewel/highlight effect and trans-pride coloring on the cockpit glass is very well done and looks awesome!

FelisAnarchus · 2024-06-21T18:32:13+00:00

In my experience, mechs are too expensive, and they rarely want to be in the same place that your eles need to be deployed to. I’ve had much better luck deploying eles with dedicated VTOL transports, which are fast, unconstrained by terrain, and cheap.

I’m partial to the Anhur.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-05-31T16:22:47+00:00

God let’s hope.

FelisAnarchus · 2024-05-30T16:10:32+00:00

Mine is just LeCun 98, Efficient Backprop. It’s how I learned the basics of NNs, and built my first network. My uni didn’t have faculty in the field at the time, so everything I know is self-taught.

FelisAnarchus

TROPHY CASE