Payn;s Ponderings@ Battletech General Discussions

[aramis erak]

WHAT!? Battletech by Hairbrained schemes is amazing. MW5 is not bad if you like FPS mech sim.

I was on a mac until the pandemic. I've owned 5 macs since 1992... Color Classic, PB650c, DVSE, MBP 2008, MBA mid-2012.
Before that, Apple IIe and Laser 128EX. prior to 2021, my last intel based non-mac was the kaypro II (running CP/M)...
So, most computer videogames were no-go.
My consoles of choice were always Nintendo - simply because I can actually play the games for it. I'm no fan of shootern videogames. So, the videogames (all of the ones I've seen are 1st person in cockpit or 3rd person behind the mech, and just not what I want to play.

 

[payn]

I was on a mac until the pandemic. I've owned 5 macs since 1992... Color Classic, PB650c, DVSE, MBP 2008, MBA mid-2012.
Before that, Apple IIe and Laser 128EX. prior to 2021, my last intel based non-mac was the kaypro II (running CP/M)...
So, most computer videogames were no-go.
My consoles of choice were always Nintendo - simply because I can actually play the games for it. I'm no fan of shootern videogames. So, the videogames (all of the ones I've seen are 1st person in cockpit or 3rd person behind the mech, and just not what I want to play.

You can bootcamp WIn and play vids on a Mac. Though, its your lucky day, BT HBS has a mac version on steam I hear.

 

[MGibster]

I was hit by a wave of nostalgia, and picked up the BattleTech boxed set from Catalyst Games. Looks pretty much like I remember the game to be, but the boxed set also came with a $20 coupon for Catalyst's website. Cool! When I log onto their website, holy cow, it's hard to navigate. If I ever want to expand my BattleTech collection this website is almost of no help. Just figuring out what's a rulebook and what's fiction isn't easy.

 

[payn]

I was hit by a wave of nostalgia, and picked up the BattleTech boxed set from Catalyst Games. Looks pretty much like I remember the game to be, but the boxed set also came with a $20 coupon for Catalyst's website. Cool! When I log onto their website, holy cow, it's hard to navigate. If I ever want to expand my BattleTech collection this website is almost of no help. Just figuring out what's a rulebook and what's fiction isn't easy.

I know what you mean. I think there is a guide to the rulebooks somewhere, but its not as easy as it should be to find.

 

[aramis erak]

You can bootcamp WIn and play vids on a Mac. Though, its your lucky day, BT HBS has a mac version on steam I hear.

Bootcamp on mac sucked.

The macs I had, only one (the air) was intel. It's got a bad hard drive controller. So it won't. I've had to (due to finances) go with a budget windows laptop. I'll not buy an HP again... It's gotten more shop time than all 5 macs AND the kaypro AND the apple II and Laser combined.
Hell, my TS-1000 was more reliable.

The machine I'm on, win 11, cannot run Civ V nor VI smoothly. Hell, it doesn't even like Binding of Isaac.

 

[ephemeron]

I know what you mean. I think there is a guide to the rulebooks somewhere, but its not as easy as it should be to find.

If you're thinking of this section of Catalyst's website, it's out of date! Kind of disappointing.

Somebody on Reddit posted this guide to the boxed sets and rulebooks much more recently but it doesn't address Technical Readouts or any of the setting material (game sourcebooks or fiction).

I also understand the Mac gaming problem -- so few games ever get Mac versions, and a lot of the ones that do end up broken by various combinations of OS upgrades and hardware transitions. I haven't tried running HBS Battletech on my current Mac laptop but I've heard that it doesn't run properly on M1-based Macs.

I played Mechwarrior 2 on a Power Mac 6100/66, then some years later got Mechwarrior 3 to just barely run on a G4 iBook using emulation software that I can't remember the name of now. Eventually I broke down and got a Windows computer just to play games on.

 

[MGibster]

I remember playing around 1989-1990 with the only guy we knew who owned all the BT stuff at the time. He was playing a Phoenix Hawk (I think), a mech with jump jets, and he had a peculiar strategy. Starting next to an enemy mech, he would jump 6 spaces but wouldn't actually displace any hexes. i.e. He starts his turn directly behind my mech, "jumps" and moves his mech a totally of 6 spaces, but ends his movement phase right back where he started directly behind my mech claiming any penalties to hit him based on having jumped and moved 6 spaces. It's been more than thirty years and that %##@% is fresh in my mind.

 

[payn]

I remember playing around 1989-1990 with the only guy we knew who owned all the BT stuff at the time. He was playing a Phoenix Hawk (I think), a mech with jump jets, and he had a peculiar strategy. Starting next to an enemy mech, he would jump 6 spaces but wouldn't actually displace any hexes. i.e. He starts his turn directly behind my mech, "jumps" and moves his mech a totally of 6 spaces, but ends his movement phase right back where he started directly behind my mech claiming any penalties to hit him based on having jumped and moved 6 spaces. It's been more than thirty years and that %##@% is fresh in my mind.

Thats when you just walk up and punch his mech in the cockpit.

 

[Jagga Spikes]

I remember playing around 1989-1990 with the only guy we knew who owned all the BT stuff at the time. He was playing a Phoenix Hawk (I think), a mech with jump jets, and he had a peculiar strategy. Starting next to an enemy mech, he would jump 6 spaces but wouldn't actually displace any hexes. i.e. He starts his turn directly behind my mech, "jumps" and moves his mech a totally of 6 spaces, but ends his movement phase right back where he started directly behind my mech claiming any penalties to hit him based on having jumped and moved 6 spaces. It's been more than thirty years and that %##@% is fresh in my mind.

Well, that's not allowed any more, if it ever was.

 

[aramis erak]

Well, that's not allowed any more, if it ever was.

It was, but at hefty penalties, in earlier editions. With a LAM, you had the much more likely to hit the head Death from Above... before they erratta'd LAMs to (ISTR 50 Tons), anything up to 90 tons was ripe for a LAM conversion...

But Battlemaster LAMs were WAY too deadly.