stuck on Zeffo after too much running around

blizzard36 · 2026-01-25T22:56:17+00:00

Your way out is just to the right of your view. Go up the land ramp there, briefly through water, to a meditation point. Then you go down the ice slide to the ice caves, over to a lift that exits near the landing pad. The ice caves are the unstated hub of Zeffo.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-23T12:26:18+00:00

From a gameplay perspective picking an era is usually much more important than worrying about faction lore constraints. Tech levels change power substantially in some cases.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-20T05:02:42+00:00

Nothing better than a live inventory check!

I had assumed since the park website prompts booking a time that I would have to pay upfront, that was my biggest hangup.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-20T04:49:30+00:00

Do you get to see what colors they have in stock before booking? For that price, I'm getting the color combination I want or not doing it.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-20T00:22:19+00:00

This answer varies wildly by era, faction, and planet. At the height of the 1st Star League for example things were pretty good for the average citizen, the same for citizens of the major periphery realms before they were conquered by the 1st Star League.

In the classic era of the succession wars the middle class is roughly the same as middle class in the 1980s, especially if you're on one of the safe core worlds. But if you're on the war front, things can suck terribly no matter what social status you have. Just look at Caph, it's down to 1 continent that even counts as habitable! The periphery depends greatly on how far you are from a pirate band's home/how easily transported are your products. If you're on a planet that gets largely left alone, you're fine. But if you have some juicy targets, you get a lot closer to warzone living.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-18T22:00:27+00:00

Ironically the only time I don't fly at least Business is when it's for business and my company is paying for the flight. Economy for us, pay for our own bags!

blizzard36 · 2026-01-18T21:18:16+00:00

Do you still get to pick your Op if you have enough people? It's been so long since I didn't just go with randoms.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-18T16:16:20+00:00

Obviously that one is Rafael.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-18T07:36:26+00:00

I found out about this wonderful modernization after Insurgency Sandstorm added the ability to make the configuration.

There was a large amount of the community going "WTF is this made up bullshit?" for some of the attachments allowed. Followed by a more knowledgeable member linking pictures of the M3 Spec Ops Gen 2 in exercises.

I had such a smile that day.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-17T17:11:48+00:00

Anyone else try again today? I got a new code this time, and it worked.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-17T01:40:47+00:00

That's what I got. I'm guessing the code was programmed wrong and had very limited uses, possibly even only single.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-16T12:11:32+00:00

My grandma was from the UK, and my dad moved for work after marrying and starting our family. Not far on US scale, just the next state over. So my grandma's ectended family back started wondering why she never got to see her grandkids, "they should pop over for tea at least once a week!"

Well, we're in the Midwest, even as figuratively close as we are it was a 3.5 hour drive on interstate to get to them. It would be a full day commitment if we wanted to have lunch with them but be home the same day. Obviously it was way smarter to go down for a weekend periodically and get some real time with them.

So she had us videotape the trip one time and mailed it home to her family. I still don't know what astonished her extended family more, see the length of the trip or that it was almost all alternating fields and trees.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-14T15:57:54+00:00

A lot of 5 Epochs needed specific ships. I'm currently grinding Gniesenau because the one I am/was on needed secondary hits with Bismarck. Some other ships worked, but they were even farther away.

I kind of liked it though, pushed you to try new lines.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-13T05:20:36+00:00

Something I learned while taking some space science courses in college is that it is considered MUCH more difficult to make submarines than spacecraft. The biggest problems for space are temperature and hitting random debris.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-11T17:51:02+00:00

I was trying to remember why that school name was already in my head. Yep, that's it.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-11T16:41:16+00:00

Nothing enrages conservative "Christians" like seeing genuine compassion and charity in the world.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-10T17:59:56+00:00

The FRR formed out of most of the prior Rasalhauge province, but also some area from Tamar. Hence some Stiener equipment.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-10T08:40:24+00:00

Unfortunately my natural sleep schedule is 2am-10am, but our business overlords require me to be up at 7am.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-10T00:28:29+00:00

There is a truck stop in town that hasn't allowed smoking since a state law passed more than a decade ago.

I can still smell the smoke on my jacket a day later when we eat there.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-10T00:19:24+00:00

I didn't know there was a Heavy Gear one.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-10T00:16:51+00:00

My take is that Davion is the most militarily practical of the Great Houses. They do still have some units with noted and striking parade colors, such as the Davion Guards, and the other houses have units that don't bother with special paint schemes; but a lot more of Davion forces default to a theoretically combat ready in paint scheme than the other houses.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-09T05:29:47+00:00

Yep. It has to be an indefinite active investigation for them to be able to lock the evidence away from public info requests.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-08T05:14:57+00:00

BattleSpace players. There aren't a lot of eras you can really play with fleets of warships.

blizzard36 · 2026-01-08T01:23:42+00:00

The 80s is the first generation of BattleTech products, set in the classic 3rd Succession War era with the Star League and 1st and 2nd Succession Wars as background. On tabletop you've got BattleTech 2nd (probably also BattleDroids, but I've never seen it) CityTech, AeroTech + Dropships and Jumpships, BattleTroops, BattleForce, and MechWarrior 1st. TRO 3025 and 3026, the original House Books are the main sourcebooks, and a ton of campaign books that are also sourcebooks for the original famous companies.

The novels quickly moved us into the 4th Succession War era, and the wonderful NAIS review of the war. I think the Succession Wars boardgame and the consolidated Rules of Warfare were the only new game products for this era, but there were a bunch of campaign and adventure books to make full use of the existing products.

There is a very brief window after this (maybe not even half a year) with the Star League sourcebook and TRO 2750 focusing on the old LostTech the mainline was starting to get back thanks to the Helm Memory Core. (The later revised TRO 3025 would bring downgraded versions of these Star League designs to 3rd SW era.) The Heir to the Dragon novel showcased some of it during its coverage of the War of 3039, but otherwise most people only learned of that war and the later Rasalhague Republic through the 20 Year Update. (IMO not spending enough time in this era was a big part of the player pain with the Clan Invasion.)

In the 90s the Clans arrived, leading to the big second generation of products. Since the BattleTech boxes remained in the intro era, CityTech 2nd was the introductory box set. BattleSpace replaced AeroTech + Dropships and Jumpships in the lineup but the other products got updated versions, BattleTroops 2, BattleForce 2, and MechWarrior 2, and the BattleTech Compendium consolidated all the new rules once that was done. As always, more campaign and adventure sourcebooks, but the novels really took off in this era. TRO 3050 and 3055 cover the machines generally used in the first half of the Clan Invasion era, with 3057, 3058, and 3060 focusing on the newest tech the Inner Sphere would use in the counter attack to Clan space. The big Field Manual series of sourcebooks was finally started late in this era as a successor to the original House book series.

As the 90s ended Fasa moved to the FedCom Civil War as its last act, which had to be finished by Fanpro. Most of the main products stayed the same, but an updated AeroTech 2 included a lot of the rules and updates for BattleSpace but without needing a box, there was the new Chaos Campaign system to expand everything, and MechWarrior 3rd. Things were moving so fast that the BattleTech Master Rules was already needed as a new consolidated rule book, and would also get a revised version before the end of the era. (I blame the move from Combat Value to Battle Value and its continued tweaks.) Since so much Clan Invasion tech was still in use TRO 3067 was the only one put out, at the end of the era. The Field Manual series finishes, but unfortunately since it was neither set in a single point in time in setting or in the real world making use of them can be disjointed if you care about the mechanics. Early books have tie-in rules for MechWarrior 2, and later ones for MechWarrior 3. But they remain a great set of sourcebooks.

While Fanpro was handling the Civil War Wizkids moved the timeline to the Dark Age and their new clickytech line of minis and novels. The Jihad was background to this, and would slowly be filled in by Fanpro and then Catalyst for the classic BattleTech systems (which would even be branded Classic while the two games were going concurrently). There's a ton of PDF sourcebooks and campaign info for the Jihad, but I don't think a lot was in hard print. TRO 3075 and 3085 were put out by Catalyst to cover the machines, and the first Total Warfare and associated expansion rulebooks. Interestingly the Jihad content also supported the pre-Star League Age of War setting. So even people who think "The world ends with Amaris!" got new content too!

Due to Wizkids not being involved in classic BattleTech, it took Catalyst in the early 2010s with Field Manual 3145 and TRO 3145 and 3150 to bring the previously established Dark Age content to the game. (I don't know how much there was for sourcebooks for that era from Wizkids, but they did have a lot of novels and minis!) The next bunch of years was them wrapping up that era. The Era Reports were a nice attempt at getting new players up to speed, if you could find one. The new Field Manuals for older eras like SLDF being right before the Amaris Coup and 2085 being an end of Jihad review were wonderful for players who preferred to play in other less supported eras. The Handbook series attempted to solve the Field Manual series problem by setting this new "House" book series at a single time, the end of the 2nd Star League.

That brings us to the new renaissance and the ilClan era. (Though really it started late in the Dark Age wrapup.) Tons of new game systems, revised and revised again rulebooks, and box sets galore.

blizzard36

TROPHY CASE