Bottom 5 Tank Ideas

This is the kind of tech talk I love. When I get into Battletech design, these are the little stories and details I like to hear and to generate. While I love the game's hundreds (thousands?) of weapon designs, the name/model number conventions clearly pull from conflicts where the number of different designs were much, much smaller. Maybe that's why my vision for Battletech has always had a little more focus on specific designs/technologies.

Battletech Missile Equations Part II

I'm still trying to unwind Battletech's various missile systems. I guess I haven't talked about my aims. I'd like to develop a Grand Unified Theory of Battletech Missiles to create missile racks of any damage per missile, range, and missiles per shot. 

I'd also accept a Pretty Close Unified Theory of Battletech Missiles.

The Intuitive Approach

MultiVersus

 

Couple thoughts:

I think that WB forgot that cartoon romance requires one unwilling participant because, problematic as it is, that's what separates cartoons from Rule 34.

I'm afraid that Harley and Taz might fuck.

Dean Pelton voice: Oh, Tom and Jerry are in this?

I forgot Steven Universe could be here.

I don't care about fighting games and I don't really buy shit just because [LIKABLE FRANCHISE] is on it. It's got the Smash Brothers problem where you're just manipulating digital action figures of those characters without any of the real qualities that make them interesting or likable.

It doesn't make you a little sick to make Superman fight The Iron Giant?

I might be interested if there's a story mode that uses the fighting skills in an interesting way with a story that's tailored to each character. I mean, I don't even play Dark Souls, but I'd totally play Dark Souls with Pearl.

 

Consider Phlebas

I've had a number of recommendations for Iain M. Banks' Culture Series. The gist I got was that it was a 201 level course to the 101 course of Star Trek's Federation. 

There are books better positioned to be the first read for the series, but I chose the first book written, Consider Phlebas. It lived up to expectations. Spoiler Warning.

How to Pick Up a Duck

Battletech Missile Equations, Pt I

A long time ago, I did some laser equations. I may have also done some work with AC equations. I forget. At the very least, I believe there's an old Battletech forum post desconstructing autocannons.

But I haven't seen/done that kind of work on missiles. For starters, missiles are stupid. Why only SRMs 2-6? Why not an LRM 25? And once you open up the cluster hits table to cover everything from 2 to 20, that question is even more pertinent. Multi-missile launchers run from 3 to 9 and launch either type of missile, so they certainly don't give a shit.

Then there's the tonnage issue. If an LRM 10 will drop about the same average damage as two LRM 5's, you have to justify why you'd take the LRM 10. That's especially hard when you save a ton by running two of the lighter systems.

There are so many of them! The unguided medium range missiles. The differently-guided rocket launchers. Enhanced LRMs which are abbreviated as NLRMs because Extended LRMs are the ELRMs. Streak systems which are more reliable, but no more precise and Thunderbolt launchers which are just one, big missile. Like an autocannon.

Did you know Arrow IV artillery systems were missiles? You probably did. I never use artillery. I thought they were all ballistic because as far as I know, artillery is always ballistic. Otherwise, it's just sparkling cruise missile.

Rocket Launchers above RL 10's. That's this paragraph's premise, point, and evidence.

The first analysis is per missile tube. Heat per tube, tons per tube, critical slots per tube, etc. The next is tons of damage and number of missiles to maybe "missile size." The final part of the preliminaries is an analysis of guidance systems (including minimum ranges).

Name       Tons/Missile* Heat/Missile* Crits/Missile*
LRM 5           0.4          0.4           0.2
LRM 10          0.5          0.4           0.2
LRM 15          0.467        0.333         0.2
LRM 20          0.5          0.3           0.25
SRM 2           0.5          1             0.5
SRM 4           0.5          0.75          0.25
SRM 6           0.5          0.667         0.333
NLRM 5          0.6          0.4           0.4
NLRM 10         0.6          0.4           0.4
NLRM 15         0.6          0.333         0.4
NLRM 20         0.6          0.3           0.45
ELRM 5          1.2          0.6           0.2
ELRM 10         0.8          0.6           0.4
ELRM 15         0.8          0.533         0.4
ELRM 20         0.9          0.6           0.4
MML 3           0.5          0.667         0.667
MML 5           0.6          0.6           0.6
MML 7           0.643        0.571         0.571
MML 9           0.667        0.556         0.556
MRM 10          0.3          0.4           0.2
MRM 20          0.35         0.3           0.15
MRM 30          0.333        0.333         0.167
MRM 40          0.3          0.3           0.175
SSRM 2          0.75         1             0.5
SSRM 4          0.75         0.75          0.25
SSRM 6          0.75         0.667         0.333
Thunderbolt 5   0.6          0.6           0.2
Thunderbolt 10  0.7          0.5           0.2
Thunderbolt 15  0.733        0.467         0.2
Thunderbolt 20  0.75         0.4           0.25
RL 10           0.05         0.3           0.1
RL 15           0.067        0.267         0.133
RL 20           0.075        0.25          0.15
           
*Thunderbolt stats are based on missile damage, not per missile.    

I thought this shit was wild before. The LRMs and SRMs mostly work. Larger racks are more heat efficient than the smaller ones. That's a reason to use them over banked smaller ones...a little bit. Their crits get worse, which is weird and it's obvious the LRM 5 and LRM 15 should weigh an extra half ton, especially when NLRMs keep a consistent set of curves without tonnage inconsistencies. But I guess fractions are for machine guns.

The MMLs are great. Their heat and crit efficiency increase as the rack size goes up, even if the gross tonnage efficiency drops. That's so great. Big racks are better for heavier 'mechs with more heat and fewer crits. Three MML 3's weigh has much as an MML 7, but they generate more heat and have more crits than an MML 9. Not much more, but a little more. 

It feels like the MMLs were crafted in a way that, say, MRMs were not. MRMs go home; you are drunk. MRM 10 and 40 have the same tonnage efficiency, which is better than the 20 and 30. MRM 20 and 40 have the same heat efficiency, which is better than the 10 and 30. The MRM 10 is, relatively speaking, a crit-hog, the MRM 20 is the most crit-efficient, and the line trends down to the MRM 30 and MRM 40.

There's no real rule to them. I don't get it at all. Look: The crit and heat efficiencies of the MML 9 are pathetic in a game where weight is usually the number that matters. Was the goal to counter any intuitive understanding of efficiency and just make players use an MRM 40 where they needed an MRM 40?

Are MRM's trolling us? 

The extended LRMs follow a set pattern, except for the ELRM 5, which is way off the curve. The ELRM 15's bizarre 8 heat (instead of 9) also begs some questions. Just one question. "Why is the the ELRM's heat not 9 instead of 8?".

Streak SRMs are just extensions of SRMs and even Thunderbolts are logical and linear, with efficiency of the Thunderbolt 20 bottoming out because it's a fucking AC/20 with the range of a PPC.

Rocket Launchers are on crack. You'd have to be hard-up for crits to choose a RL 15 or RL 20 ever. I have no idea how their range gets worse, especially when Rocket Launchers let you individually shoot smaller volleys.

There's no Clan equipment here, because this is already a big enough mess. If there is a grand unifying theory of missiles, it won't include them.

Next time, I'm going to logically asses the reasonable factors behind what makes missiles act the way they do (fuel, payload, sensors, reload requirements, and 'blast containment') and why we should probably throw it all out the window.

Mobile Structure: Olestro

I guess I like Battletech.

Someone suggested an incredible loadout of basically everything, as if each of our first Level 2 'mechs didn't do that already. The only way to carry all of that would be on a 'mech which was large enough it didn't need to.

So I made my first mobile structure and probably made it too big.

Definitely too big. It has enough cargo space to mount capital weapons. Small capital weapons, but capital weapons. 

It's hard to pick my favorite feature:

The non-converging NLRMs. 

The iNARC on an assault loadout is good too. Who is this guy spotting for?

I especially love that I put the active probe in the center hex. I mean, this design was not quite a troll, but that Bloodhound Probe weighs heavily enough on the word "not" that it might asphyxiate it. 

That they're NLRM 5's is an arbitrary stroke of restraint. Let's not go wild here guys.

The tantalizing question: Could I add a supercharger? Dare I? What about a blue shield system?

Enhanced ERPPCs were requested even though we're also using full-on Clan ER Pulse Lasers. They're the prototype Clan ERPPC They were either requested because they sounded cool or as another misguided desire to tone the whole thing down.

Honestly, I wouldn't fill that cargo space up with nuclear missile launchers. I'd even resist the urge to create a tank-sized targeting computer to guide hundreds of AC/2's. If I were to take this cursed chassis and refit it, I think it'd be artillery from hell to breakfast at one hex high. A platform that turns hexes into craters.

Book Club on the Edge of Forever - Piranesi

A few of us decided to start a book club for genre fiction (science fiction/fantasy). And while we were discussing, we thought we'd record it. The podcast is called The Book Club on the Edge of Forever.

The first months selections?

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (18 points) - "In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by  Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid, a self-award SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth."

Hard Magic by Larry Correia (13 points) - The story follows Jake Sullivan, a "Heavy" who has the ability control and manipulate gravity, density and mass. During a routine operation to take down a fellow "active", Sullivan becomes caught up with a secret society of "actives" called The Grimnoir as they try to save the world.

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (19 points) - Story is about a fellow named Miles, the son of a lord of Barrayar, who due to some physical issues wasn't able to get into the military academy like he was expected to. So while feeling down he finds himself stumbling into trouble, and after some escalation finds himself leading a mercenary group sort of by accident. Part of a series, but none of the other books before or after are necessary to enjoy as its the first to focus on Miles (previous one featured him not quite born yet).

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (20 points) - Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house―a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

The point values were the books' final points in a ranked voting system. I find ranked voting works great for small numbers of people with a submission for each one. The numbers rarely ever land evenly.

My first vote was for All Systems Red, which was my submission. It was a light, informal book that typifies trends I've noticed in 'modern' fiction. "Informal" is the best word I can think of for it. It's one of those things I don't hate, but I'm not used to. 

When a book isn't too worried about presenting itself as not a book, I find it's hard for me to get engrossed in it, as though I'm not reading an overly long pamphlet, or breathless recounting of an TTRPG campaign or round of video gaming. The value it lacks is "pretentiousness" and I missed that when reading.

But it was still fun. I've read it before and enjoyed it quite a bit. Because of its unpretentiousness I was constantly aware of the tropes and shortcuts and plot points that became inevitable.

Sometimes when I read a good book, I'll put it down and savor the tension. Ask myself what might happen next. Absorb a plot twist. I tore though ASR and figured the structure out while taking a piss and eating dinner. It was an okay book at best, but that's not faint praise after two seasons of Star Trek: Picard.

Piranesi was my next choice. It seemed unique. A high concept speaking in the language of stories told around campfires, whether they were told about Zeus or hook-handed convicts. Piranesi didn't disappoint. It falters a bit at the end, but it's hard to keep the excitement up after the mystery is revealed. 

I teared up at the end because the story and characters had earned it, but the final act was 'merely' a well-told story in an exotic location. The climax lacked the mystery of the first half of the book and the emotional gut-punch of the wrap-up. 

A good book, and one I recommend.

The Warrior's Apprentice sounded like a typical story of an atypical hero being thrust into heroism. That it was a book in a fantasy series did whatever the opposite of "excite" is. It "cold water to the junk"-ed me.

But if TWA was cold water to the junk, Hard Magic was a jet of North Atlantic seawater shot into my pants until my testicles were test-icicles. My favorite part of HM's pitch was the conjunctions. If I was a vampire my crucifixes would be phrases like "secret society," "the ability to control," and "during a routine operation," along with any proper noun which literally has the word "grim" it.

Add to that that implication of some boorish magic system, and I practically bared my pens at it and hissed the title of Poe story before recoiling into the shadows of a nearby writers circle.

You can find The Book Club at the Edge of Forever here: https://bookclubontheedgeofforever.podbean.com/

Tuesday Video: "Things That Could be Said" by Omnisoul/Crash Motive

This is the first Tuesday Video I ever put up on June 4th, 2011. Technically, it was a "Weekend Music," but it's the same idea. Even when I shifted away from Blogspot, I still kept posting these on my Twitter. It's the one thing I've done that I assume no one is as into as I am. Oh well.

Man-o-man

You'd think that with The Beige and The Bold and Papa Picard: Captain of the Subscription Service Enterprise being done forever, that I'd have so much free time.

I kind of do, to be honest. I mean, I still make the once-a-month podcast for The Bookclub on the Edge of Forever, but editing that has been so slow, it's been easy to miss. 

I'm also trying to get back into the swing of Minecraft News for Adults enough to officially write it off and start the ninth (tenth?) series of little YouTube tab-clearing I do from time to time.

Relapsing into Battletech a little bit, toying around with Mechwarrior 5 mods, waiting for the next Stellaris update to get patched back from the hell every Stellaris update casts the game into. 

Mostly the problem is just finding someone to do shit with. I mean, folks can hang and play games and record themselves talking, but there's a je ne sais qoi to making something together that's always hard to find. The best one was when I worked with Derek on TBnTB, but even then that was a somewhat unequal balance of work. It only worked because that work was just some lazy editing. 

I mean, if I want to say something, I should just say it. It shouldn't be that hard, should it?

All Good Things

Derek and I made a good episode here.

This has been The Beige and The Bold.

Remember Rand.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/All-Good-Things-e1gt5hi

Hmmm

 Had a heated gamer moment and deleted my Paramount+ subscription.

Preemptive Strike

I'm here with Joie from The Jump and Shoot podcast. We're watching the last episode of Ro Laren with you all.

Ro has grown a lot and now she's learning about her own culture during a mission to infiltrate the Maquis. I won't ask if you can think of a reason for a man and woman to talk privately in a bar; I'll ask how many reasons you can think of for a man and woman to talk privately in a bar. 7? 47?

You can find Joe on twitter at: https://twitter.com/podcastjump

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Preemptive-Strike-e1gt56e