Well, after borrowing a copy of the Battletech Compendium and looking things over a bit, I've reached a few conclusions:
1) Comparing it to Mekton by damage per ton of armor drastically underestimates the BT side, to the point that three Mekton character hit points would equal one BT damage point. Obviously, this is not anywhere near accurate. Comparing them by weapon damage and applying a scaling factor to make them fit against the standard MZ weapons list puts them at about 15-18 hits per BT damage point, versus 25h per Mekton Kill. This is still enough to kill any but the toughest normal humans in a single blow, so probably good enough, though doubling the hp-relative value of both sides is a possibility. It does mean that even Standard BT armor has five or six times the damage sponge per ton, but (most) Mekton armor lasts for multiple hits where BT burns away 1:1 with damage hitting it, so hopefully that should even out overall. Being closer to parity makes for a more interesting conflict anyway.
In that light, the pirates' LAM will probably be able to use AirMech mode as well as Aerospace, which on the VF-1 probably means the complicated double joint and sliding plate to switch the central torso between "long" and "tall" is stuck in long mode, and/or the bits that let the hips swing down to the nose of the jet from being in the middle.
2) it is really not obvious what tech is invented, stolen, lost, found, or hidden at what time in-continuity, like at all. Everything seems to be written on the assumption that you'll be playing during the Clans invasion with anything available if you've got the (fixed and universal amounts of) cash, decades later than the time period that the recent fics have drawn interest to. I'm sure someone has compiled a listing of this somewhere, but I have no idea where to even begin to look.
3) this setting is way too complicated to come at cold and get a grip on. I knew I wasn't going to want to try to deal with the wider universe, but damn, son. Valles and Acyl, you must be old hands at the game, because you make it look easy. Aiming to keep it short and contained on the one planet is only barely warding off my sense of drowning in details. I've actually been trying to construct it around that "perfect 6000 word pulp action outline" one of our members posted in the Writer's Tools thread recently, but eh, we'll see.
4) I still don't want to play the actual BT wargame. The system and several of its arbitrary limitations are frustrating just to read about...
Aside from that, I've also been poking my Mekton books and build spreadsheet, and great stars have I found more entries to add to the MTS Abuse Catalog. Not that I'll let that stop me from using them this time, but after getting the fun out of them they're definitely getting submitted. Also, my Bunnies multiply even faster than expected, which is another reason to toughen the BT side interpretation up.
1) Comparing it to Mekton by damage per ton of armor drastically underestimates the BT side, to the point that three Mekton character hit points would equal one BT damage point. Obviously, this is not anywhere near accurate. Comparing them by weapon damage and applying a scaling factor to make them fit against the standard MZ weapons list puts them at about 15-18 hits per BT damage point, versus 25h per Mekton Kill. This is still enough to kill any but the toughest normal humans in a single blow, so probably good enough, though doubling the hp-relative value of both sides is a possibility. It does mean that even Standard BT armor has five or six times the damage sponge per ton, but (most) Mekton armor lasts for multiple hits where BT burns away 1:1 with damage hitting it, so hopefully that should even out overall. Being closer to parity makes for a more interesting conflict anyway.
In that light, the pirates' LAM will probably be able to use AirMech mode as well as Aerospace, which on the VF-1 probably means the complicated double joint and sliding plate to switch the central torso between "long" and "tall" is stuck in long mode, and/or the bits that let the hips swing down to the nose of the jet from being in the middle.
2) it is really not obvious what tech is invented, stolen, lost, found, or hidden at what time in-continuity, like at all. Everything seems to be written on the assumption that you'll be playing during the Clans invasion with anything available if you've got the (fixed and universal amounts of) cash, decades later than the time period that the recent fics have drawn interest to. I'm sure someone has compiled a listing of this somewhere, but I have no idea where to even begin to look.
3) this setting is way too complicated to come at cold and get a grip on. I knew I wasn't going to want to try to deal with the wider universe, but damn, son. Valles and Acyl, you must be old hands at the game, because you make it look easy. Aiming to keep it short and contained on the one planet is only barely warding off my sense of drowning in details. I've actually been trying to construct it around that "perfect 6000 word pulp action outline" one of our members posted in the Writer's Tools thread recently, but eh, we'll see.
4) I still don't want to play the actual BT wargame. The system and several of its arbitrary limitations are frustrating just to read about...
Aside from that, I've also been poking my Mekton books and build spreadsheet, and great stars have I found more entries to add to the MTS Abuse Catalog. Not that I'll let that stop me from using them this time, but after getting the fun out of them they're definitely getting submitted. Also, my Bunnies multiply even faster than expected, which is another reason to toughen the BT side interpretation up.
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‎noli esse culus
‎noli esse culus