My Mercenaries kickstarter box is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I bought in at the Battalion level and added on a bit so I'd have plenty of vehicle minis (including some VTOLs) to go with the mechs I already have.

I like buying the newest BattleTech minis, but I'm not interested in the Clans or anything later. 

I tend to stick to just 3025 era.

Is the Mercenary stuff mostly Clans?  3060?

I was hoping to get minis of the "OST" series of mechs now that there is good art for them.

I'm not hating on those later eras of play.  It's just I prefer to keep it simple.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on July 16, 2024, 05:42:09 PMI like buying the newest BattleTech minis, but I'm not interested in the Clans or anything later. 

I tend to stick to just 3025 era.

Is the Mercenary stuff mostly Clans?  3060?

I was hoping to get minis of the "OST" series of mechs now that there is good art for them.

I'm not hating on those later eras of play.  It's just I prefer to keep it simple.

Mercenaries will give you the Ostsol in the main box. It's a good-looking solid mech. The others show up in some of the associated boosters.

There are no Clan mechs in the main Mercenaries box, but Mercenaries boosters do include some Clan stuff along with some Inner Sphere stuff that never showed up before the Clans (like Inner Sphere Battle Armor).

However, the big thing that Mercenaries brings is combat vehicles--tanks, missile carriers, personnel carriers, VTOLs, and the like. Most of these have both early (3025 or even earlier) versions as well as upgraded (Clan Invasion and beyond) versions.

The defaults for the included map of the Inner Sphere are 3058 (late Clan Invasion era) and 3151 (eve of the ilClan era), but this is just a poster, not a game piece. The included tactical maps are great and era-neutral.

I played a little battletech in the late 90's early 2000's, got back into it about 2-3 years ago when I saw it at a convention.  I had heard of previous catalyst battletech things but they had shitty plastic miniatures, the minis actually look nice now, its too bad they have hired so many marxists to run their community events and they have chosen to demonize many people who kept battletech alive when it was dead, I know I wasn't one of the people who kept it alive, but I've re-discovered the cartoon show, and a bunch of older stuff too.
Catalyst is such a small company it really only takes a few dedicated evil people to totally twist the company towards their crazy ideas, and now that author they have flagshipping the franchize is a totally knob.

Actually, the standard "Mini" for BattleTech has been the card stock Standee with a color picture of the mech on the front and back.

We used to draw our own by cutting up old cereal or soda can boxes into 1x4 inch strips.  Then fold it in half to make a 1x2 standee with the brown and blank side outwards.  Just add a little cross foot with half a notch on the foot and half a notch on the bottom of the standee. Then draw your mech.

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on July 17, 2024, 09:56:35 AMthat author they have flagshipping the franchize is a totally knob

Which author?

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 18, 2024, 02:17:44 AM

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on July 17, 2024, 09:56:35 AMthat author they have flagshipping the franchize is a totally knob

Which author?

This man seems like he's the new "flagship" author of battletech.  https://www.sarna.net/news/answering-questions-an-interview-with-author-bryan-young/

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on July 19, 2024, 03:11:11 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 18, 2024, 02:17:44 AM

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on July 17, 2024, 09:56:35 AMthat author they have flagshipping the franchize is a totally knob

Which author?

This man seems like he's the new "flagship" author of battletech.  https://www.sarna.net/news/answering-questions-an-interview-with-author-bryan-young/

He's certainly leading the way in writing about the Jade Falcons in the current era, but I don't think calling him the "flagship" author is justified. Battletech has always had numerous authors that collectively create the fiction to follow and support the game materials as directed by Catalyst.

I've read two of his novels and a few of his shorter pieces. None were outstanding, being neither fantastic nor terrible. His work is about what I expect from gaming fiction.

As far as his being "a totally [sic] knob," I don't really see any issues showing up in his writing, so I'm not going to condemn BatteTech for having him around. OTOH, if he ever goes forward with putting a Jar-Jar Binks character into BattleTech...

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on May 14, 2024, 12:36:27 PM"Reboots alienate too many people" is a silly argument. There's plenty of reboots that were good,

And ten times as many that were fucking god awful.

But yes. Reboots, new editions lose you about 50% if your fan/customer base. EVERY TIME.

Quote from: Omega on July 19, 2024, 07:02:53 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on May 14, 2024, 12:36:27 PM"Reboots alienate too many people" is a silly argument. There's plenty of reboots that were good,

And ten times as many that were fucking god awful.

But yes. Reboots, new editions lose you about 50% if your fan/customer base. EVERY TIME.

That's still a poor excuse. Everything worthwhile in life isn't guaranteed success. None of the decades old lore that nerds obsess over would exist if people didn't come up with new stories. These IPs didn't spring fully formed from the ether, they were created piecemeal over years. They don't deserve to be worshipped like religions, they're fiction. But because corpos and nerds alike now refuse to make or patronize new stories, pop culture has turned into a giant ingrown toenail full of blood and pus.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 19, 2024, 09:08:42 PM

Quote from: Omega on July 19, 2024, 07:02:53 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on May 14, 2024, 12:36:27 PM"Reboots alienate too many people" is a silly argument. There's plenty of reboots that were good,

And ten times as many that were fucking god awful.

But yes. Reboots, new editions lose you about 50% if your fan/customer base. EVERY TIME.

That's still a poor excuse. Everything worthwhile in life isn't guaranteed success. None of the decades old lore that nerds obsess over would exist if people didn't come up with new stories. These IPs didn't spring fully formed from the ether, they were created piecemeal over years. They don't deserve to be worshipped like religions, they're fiction. But because corpos and nerds alike now refuse to make or patronize new stories, pop culture has turned into a giant ingrown toenail full of blood and pus.

The thing about being a one-note musician is that you have to make sure that one note is a good one.  Conflating people developing new IP and people getting irritated with a company because it invalidates everything you've previously bought via the edition treadmill is just stupid.  Be better.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 19, 2024, 09:08:42 PM

Quote from: Omega on July 19, 2024, 07:02:53 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on May 14, 2024, 12:36:27 PM"Reboots alienate too many people" is a silly argument. There's plenty of reboots that were good,

And ten times as many that were fucking god awful.

But yes. Reboots, new editions lose you about 50% if your fan/customer base. EVERY TIME.

That's still a poor excuse. Everything worthwhile in life isn't guaranteed success. None of the decades old lore that nerds obsess over would exist if people didn't come up with new stories. These IPs didn't spring fully formed from the ether, they were created piecemeal over years. They don't deserve to be worshipped like religions, they're fiction. But because corpos and nerds alike now refuse to make or patronize new stories, pop culture has turned into a giant ingrown toenail full of blood and pus.

Love him or Hate him but Rippa created new IP and the "nerds" (geeks actually) supported it to the tune of about 5 million dollars IIRC.

Be the change you want to see, either by creating new stuff, supporting it or promoting it.

Lot's of new stuff is created constantly, but dies because it's hard to reach the people.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on July 20, 2024, 12:33:29 AMLove him or Hate him but Rippa created new IP and the "nerds" (geeks actually) supported it to the tune of about 5 million dollars IIRC.

Be the change you want to see, either by creating new stuff, supporting it or promoting it.

Lot's of new stuff is created constantly, but dies because it's hard to reach the people.

We need more people with balls like Rippa has. Regardless of what anyone thinks of his work, he is at least trying. Which is more than I can say for most complainers.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on July 19, 2024, 10:30:00 PMThe thing about being a one-note musician is that you have to make sure that one note is a good one.  Conflating people developing new IP and people getting irritated with a company because it invalidates everything you've previously bought via the edition treadmill is just stupid.  Be better.

Companies don't have a choice. They have to keep making new editions, including reboots, or they'll go out of business. Reboots are made for financial reasons more than anything else. Long running lore gets obtuse and intimidating after a while, for both customers and writers. You should see how comic books handle it. Batman used to have a pair of revolvers!

Complaining about the edition treadmill, reboots, etc is complaining that capitalism, storytelling, and entropy exist. If you're upset about a company rebooting something you liked, then make your own thing to your specifications. Like Rippa or One Page Rules. Amateur publishing is easier than ever.

To use Battletech as an example, I would love a universal mech game that gave you multiple different settings to play with. I wish that existed and had a community. Maybe someday...

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 20, 2024, 08:36:20 AMCompanies don't have a choice. They have to keep making new editions, including reboots, or they'll go out of business.

Business-wise, BattleTech seems to be doing just fine these days without a reboot. They're doing well by making new (and far more visually appealing) minis and successfully using Kickstarter to launch them in bulk at lower risk. However, the momentum of that plan may start falling off as many of their whales (myself included) now have damn near every mini I will ever need. OK, perhaps there are a few more I should buy...

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 20, 2024, 10:45:39 AM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 20, 2024, 08:36:20 AMCompanies don't have a choice. They have to keep making new editions, including reboots, or they'll go out of business.

Business-wise, BattleTech seems to be doing just fine these days without a reboot. They're doing well by making new (and far more visually appealing) minis and successfully using Kickstarter to launch them in bulk at lower risk. However, the momentum of that plan may start falling off as many of their whales (myself included) now have damn near every mini I will ever need. OK, perhaps there are a few more I should buy...

Rebooting doesn't make the previous continuities stop having been written. It's this damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. They've written all the original material they could ever write and are now just repackaging the same thing over and over with minor variations. It's stagnant. I wouldn't mind if there were alternatives, but they hold a de facto monopoly on the mech genre in the Anglosphere. If you're bored of or not interested in Battletech, then you're fucked. Same for every other genre: it's de facto socialism.

This creates a vicious cycle. Corpos inevitably drive their IPs into the ground when they have no competition to drive improvements, and almost nobody wants to invest the effort in making new IPs, ultimately leaving consumers with nothing. Copyright only worsens the issue by legally barring fans from preserving and recycling abandonware.

There are so many abandoned IPs that I'd love to get my hands on.