Just some musings about potential dropship and space station incompatibilities in AeroTech 2/BattleSpace. I'm sure somewhere this has been discussed before or even clarified. I guess it's just the aerospace engineer in me looking at it with an eye towards what's involved in creating spacecraft.
I was perusing my old Technical Readout: 3057 the other day looking over the assorted dropships, jumpships, space stations, and other assorted craft when reading through the Bastion class station I noted a potential problem regarding that station's pressurized repair bay versus the size of certain dropships.
The problem:
A Bastion class station is essentially a 345 meter diameter sphere.
The ship that stood out at me as potentially problematic as to fitting within one of the Bastion's pressurized bays is the Vengeance class dropship. A Vengeance height and width are okay, it's the length of 234 meters. That's basically a leeway of 111 meters between the two spacecraft.
From a realistic perspective that takes into account all of Bastion space station's systems (engine, fuel, grav deck, life support, et al) and especially the required space for the two separate pressurized bays it could be argued that Vengeance class dropships should be prevented from docking inside Bastions on the ground of their immense length.
A similar problem for the obsolete version of the Vengeance exists with Small Pressurized Shipyards (SPS). The SPS is only 300 meters long making it likely incapable of accepting a Vengeance into its bay even though the dropship otherwise meets the weight requirements (barely!). The updated Vengeance isn't a concern since it's beyind an SPS's weight capability in anycase.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
RinCon '09
My friend DR (who prefer the handle Viper; no relation to my BT merc unit of the same name) let me know RinCon '09 is this weekend down in Tucson, AZ. Unfortunately even if I had known about it sooner, I still couldn't afford to attend. (Damned bad economy.) They're supposed to be having a small Kurita v Davion shootout Friday. Michael Stackpole apparently will also be in attendance (the convention, not the shootout).
Maybe DR will attend and be able to make a report.
As an aside: Sunday is an event for the Battlestar Galactica boardgame.
Maybe DR will attend and be able to make a report.
As an aside: Sunday is an event for the Battlestar Galactica boardgame.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Catalyst Game Releases
I went browsing over at Catalyst Game Labs to see what Battletech items are scheduled to be released soon. Apparently Masters & Minions as well as 25 Years of Art and Fiction are scheduled for October 13, 2009.
I naturally wandered over to the Classic Battletech website to check things out as well. I'm interested in their work on the new solar system generation rules. They did a decent job with the quick and dirty rules written in Explorer Corps. I don't have Tactical Operations (yet!) to see how those rules work out. But overall it should be interesting to see.
When my gaming group got into creating new worlds and such we played it some house type rules. I think they might have been from the old Battletechnology magazines, but don't quote me on that. (Note to self: find stored Battletechnology 'zines.) I know later we got more technical, deciding to base it more on science but even then kept it pretty light. Makes me curious to look up the general area of these colonies on a star map and see if they fit their regions or not.
I naturally wandered over to the Classic Battletech website to check things out as well. I'm interested in their work on the new solar system generation rules. They did a decent job with the quick and dirty rules written in Explorer Corps. I don't have Tactical Operations (yet!) to see how those rules work out. But overall it should be interesting to see.
When my gaming group got into creating new worlds and such we played it some house type rules. I think they might have been from the old Battletechnology magazines, but don't quote me on that. (Note to self: find stored Battletechnology 'zines.) I know later we got more technical, deciding to base it more on science but even then kept it pretty light. Makes me curious to look up the general area of these colonies on a star map and see if they fit their regions or not.
BattleTraxx Update
Gore and I have been busy working on the BattleTraxx site. It looks like at this rate we'll have it up and running by the end of October. Finally figured out the problem with one of the Ajax scripts and so happily on our way again.
It looks like we'll be starting off with a pretty good number of designs from Aerospace Fighters to Warships as well as some optional rules, opinions, units, and maybe even some downloads in the mix.
Gore has finished reworking his drawing of the Ballistas Battlemech. It looks a lot better than his original concept sketch from a decade ago. The concept art for the Wyrm Scout Tank also looks good, though I still don't like that resembles a Savannah Master. We did have ourselves a good laugh over the original sketches for the Dahak Omnimech and Ramora dropship. The reworked Dahak is looking quite sweet in my opinion. As for the Ramora, Gore hasn't found his final sketch, which was pretty nice looking.
It looks like we'll be starting off with a pretty good number of designs from Aerospace Fighters to Warships as well as some optional rules, opinions, units, and maybe even some downloads in the mix.
Gore has finished reworking his drawing of the Ballistas Battlemech. It looks a lot better than his original concept sketch from a decade ago. The concept art for the Wyrm Scout Tank also looks good, though I still don't like that resembles a Savannah Master. We did have ourselves a good laugh over the original sketches for the Dahak Omnimech and Ramora dropship. The reworked Dahak is looking quite sweet in my opinion. As for the Ramora, Gore hasn't found his final sketch, which was pretty nice looking.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Battletech Art: Warhammer
For something different I decided to post a piece of Battletech artwork I did a short time ago. Really I was just messing around trying out some techniques in Gimp but I thought the result was decent.
Obviously this is an old school Warhammer, one of my favorite Mechs to play. In this case this is supposed to be a Warhammer on Kentares IV during the FedCom civil war. At least that's what I envisioned when making the scene.
Obviously this is an old school Warhammer, one of my favorite Mechs to play. In this case this is supposed to be a Warhammer on Kentares IV during the FedCom civil war. At least that's what I envisioned when making the scene.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
MechWarrior Movie 'in development'?
It seems rumors of a MechWarrior film is being developed (Joystiq article), though I'm sure many of us remember the last time we heard such tantalizing words. But even as word comes around on this, problems may arise with Harmony Gold's recent activities against the latest MechWarrior game.
Now putting all the extraneous legal maneuvering and what not, a movie might prove interesting if done correctly. By correctly, I mean a film that doesn't emphasize the "robot" aspect of MechWarrior and Battletech but the people, e.g. characters. Well written, character driven stories regardless of setting are what makes a good movie. Add on some nifty effects that aren't glaringly cheesy and you'll generally have a winner.
I remember when Robot Jox came out. It was a rather simplistic movie with meh-worthy effects and pretty bad writing, even back then. Sadly it was also probably the only half serious attempt at a "Mecha" based movie outside of anime. I felt rather bad for the actors having to put out the schlock they did. Looking back on it does have a nice comedic note to it, enough to make some epic Mystery Science Theater 3000 like puns.
Now putting all the extraneous legal maneuvering and what not, a movie might prove interesting if done correctly. By correctly, I mean a film that doesn't emphasize the "robot" aspect of MechWarrior and Battletech but the people, e.g. characters. Well written, character driven stories regardless of setting are what makes a good movie. Add on some nifty effects that aren't glaringly cheesy and you'll generally have a winner.
I remember when Robot Jox came out. It was a rather simplistic movie with meh-worthy effects and pretty bad writing, even back then. Sadly it was also probably the only half serious attempt at a "Mecha" based movie outside of anime. I felt rather bad for the actors having to put out the schlock they did. Looking back on it does have a nice comedic note to it, enough to make some epic Mystery Science Theater 3000 like puns.
BattleTraxx: Incoming
So what to expect on BattleTraxx?
Right now I'm planning on the following:
-Gray
Right now I'm planning on the following:
- Technical readouts for a number of designs for 'mechs, aerospace fighters, aircraft, vehicles, dropships, jumpships, and warships created over the years.
- Homage pages to assorted units created over the years, both mercenary and House. The largest will be that of a mercenary unit my brother and I ran since we started playing the game ad just kept going since then.
- Some assorted artwork, fiction, and 3d model projects I've been working on or have made over the years.
- A small forum for those who may want to comment on different sections of the webpage.
- Some downloads, likely to include the AT2 fighter and Battlespace editors I'm working on.
- Articles and commentary on Battletech ranging from products to optional rules.
-Gray
BattleTraxx
After a couple of years since the last time I played Battletech, I find myself getting interested in the game once more. Recently I came across a lot of my old Battletech stuff and decided to go ahead and make an homage site to CBT. The recent news of Mechwarrior 5 has also added to my rekindled interest. So with all that comes an easy way to update the forthcoming BattleTraxx page: a blog.
I first started playing Battletech back in 1986 with my brother. I even remember seeing the old Battledroids box before either of us got into actually trying the game out. Yes, I'm ancient to some of you young pups getting into the game now. Pretty much got into every aspect of the game from the Mechwarrior RPG to the computer games and miniatures. Even got the patches. Heh. My interest started to wane as it got more difficult to find local sellers and I admittedly took a instant dislike to Mechwarrior: Dark Age. Perhaps more on that another time. I even got into the online Mechwarrior games for a little bit but finally gave up on that more due to my terrible internet connection than anything else at the time. Met lots of nice folks though.
So why BattleTraxx? I was working on an AeroTech 2 editor as a personal project to get back into programming and my brother suggested creating a vehicle editor. I jokingly made the comment that I'd call it BattleTraxx, which we both liked. While the vehicle editor has one by the wayside of other projects I decided to adopt the name as my Battletech webpage. So as soon as I start posting things at the site, I'll post the link here.
I first started playing Battletech back in 1986 with my brother. I even remember seeing the old Battledroids box before either of us got into actually trying the game out. Yes, I'm ancient to some of you young pups getting into the game now. Pretty much got into every aspect of the game from the Mechwarrior RPG to the computer games and miniatures. Even got the patches. Heh. My interest started to wane as it got more difficult to find local sellers and I admittedly took a instant dislike to Mechwarrior: Dark Age. Perhaps more on that another time. I even got into the online Mechwarrior games for a little bit but finally gave up on that more due to my terrible internet connection than anything else at the time. Met lots of nice folks though.
So why BattleTraxx? I was working on an AeroTech 2 editor as a personal project to get back into programming and my brother suggested creating a vehicle editor. I jokingly made the comment that I'd call it BattleTraxx, which we both liked. While the vehicle editor has one by the wayside of other projects I decided to adopt the name as my Battletech webpage. So as soon as I start posting things at the site, I'll post the link here.
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