While the Clan scum are not actually furries, I will still call them furies in order to be disrespectful to the tub-rats. Also, the furry connection is something that would possible to use for in-universe propaganda, including doctored photos. If fact you could write an entire story about a group of clanners who go AWOL in order to hunt down the vile degenerates who have been slandering them as furries.
I think calling them Murder Furries is amusing. But taking it too seriously and equating them with the actual furry kink subculture and furthermore equivocating things like animal facemasks, totemic/shamanistic fantasy and historical tropes and appreciation of anthropomorphic cartoons to being strong arguments of being members of a Furry Subculture, the more I think about it, is the kind of degeneration of values creep you see with other Woke attacks on the SciFi and Fantasy fandom.
Clanners are actually furries... they've been furries since the 90's, to me personally, is kind of the same line of thinking of when I see Michael Stackpole stating 'Battletech has always been woke because X series of book is actually antiracist' (I don't actually read or play much Battletech but I remember seeing him tweet that recently) or Star Trek writers stating, Star Trek has always been woke, haven't you seen this or that episode or story arc of Deep Space Nine? Star Wars is actually about 'White Supremacy,' because there are gay and lesbian characters in Fallout: New Vegas, its actually LGBTQIA+ supportive media and male friendships like Frodo & Sam aren't just gay as a joke (akin to Clanner Murder Furries) but actually a strong homosexual relationships and so Lord of the Rings has always been extremely queer friendly, gatekeep out the Right Wingers and Conservatards etc.
I'm almost certain that Leftards would use Furry subculture as another angle of attack to co-opt Battletech as their own and gatekeep out wrong thinkers... and furthermore use it as a springboard for other media as well.
So, getting away from the furry discussion where I've probably shitposted enough, a while back I noticed that the UrbanMech can be modified to replace it's main weapon with a Blazer and actually profit from it, despite the Blazer being one of the worst weapons in all of BattleTech.
I was pleased at this and I've spent some time since attempting to find other 'mechs I can mount Blazers on, as a challenge. My own self-imposed rules are:
Late Succession Wars tech only, no trying to shoehorn in double heatsinks or the like to make up for the Blazer's shortcomings.
The Blazers must actually be an improvement, though some tradeoffs are allowed it should generally have better performance than the original.
The 'mech needs to still fulfill a similar function, so no turning a missile boat into a Blazermech, nor taking a lightly armored 'mech and slabbing it to the gills, then the armor is doing the heavy lifting instead of the Blazer.
No special changes, the 'mech needs the same tonnage, general layout, etc. This is a thought experiment in periphery/pirate techs high on paint thinner trying to get more mileage out of spare parts and duct tape, not the design of a custom 'mech.
The first run, the UrbanMech BL that started my train of thought. Exactly 600 BV pleases me and the Blazer gives it a nifty 20% boost in overall firepower while it manages to mostly keep the heat under control, able to fire for around four turns before needing a break and if anything is hit four times by a Blazer and keeps coming, it's too big for an UrbanMech to handle.
UrbanMech UM-BL
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Weight: 30 tons BV: 600 Cost: 1,472,900 C-bills Source: A bad LSD Trip Role: Ambusher
Next, the Hoplite is a natural for a Blazer. As one of the most oversinked 'mechs ever made, it's one of the few that can handle the hideous strain produced by the weapon. Not only does it get a firepower boost at medium ranges, the Hoplite BL can afford to add a second LRM 5 for double the long-range pelting. It runs slightly hot on an Alpha Strike but still cooler than most Succession Wars 'mechs in that situation, and probably won't spam the missiles and Blazer constantly at the same time. The Blazer proves to be nothing but pure advantage for the Hoplite, granted the Hoplite is a terrible 'mech to begin with so improving it is low-hanging fruit.
Hoplite HOP-4C
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Weight: 55 tons BV: 1,149 Cost: 4,137,208 C-bills Source: I was drunk Role: Brawler
This one was genuinely a surprise to me. Given the heat issues, you'd think no vehicle could mount a Blazer but it turns out, two Blazers can slot into a Schrek pretty easily. Granted this one's not really an upgrade, PPCs are good weapons and it's hard to remove them and replace them with a turd like the Blazer and have anything decent. The Schrek loses a bit of range and a chunk of firepower in exchange for being a slightly better headcapper and having no minimum range, not a great trade but not completely terrible.
Schrek Blazer Carrier (Stupid)
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Weight: 80 tons BV: 916 Cost: 3,490,200 C-bills Source: Mistakes were Made
Movement: 3/5 (Tracked) Engine: 240 Fusion
Internal: 40 Armor: 136
Internal
Armor
Front
8
34
Right
8
27
Left
8
27
Rear
8
21
Turret
8
27
Weapons
Loc
Heat
Binary Laser (Blazer) Cannon
TU
16
Binary Laser (Blazer) Cannon
TU
16
I'm not 100% satisfied with the JagerMech. It actually does a pretty bang-up job of ruining any ASF's day (Blazers are really good against fighters due to how damage interacts with their armor, a blazer will get a through-armor-critical on nearly anything). However it sacrifices a lot of range from the AC/2s and even with 25 heatsinks, mounting two blazers makes it run terribly hot. However at least a JagerMech won't expect to repeatedly fire for several turns straight so while a lemon, this one can be at least expected to be functional, and nobody's going to think sending a Javelin around to attack it alone is a good idea.
It says something about what a true lemon the Chippewa is that adding Blazers made it run better. Replacing the missile launchers and large lasers with blazers gives it a devastating punch that will crit through the armor of all comers. It's now a rather nasty dropper-chopper as well. The actual problem is that the Blazers made ittoo good. This build is four tons underweight because adding more heatsinks would remove the Chippewa's chronic overheating problems (it already runs much, much cooler than the canon Chippie) and adding more armor would make it significantly tougher than the foil-wrapped turkey it is in the game. I have to intentionally leave it underweight to not ruin the flavor of pure badness that is the Chippewa. I suppose it could use some more medium lasers or something, that would both soak weight and make it hotter. Weird that it became so much better.
Chippewa CHP-BL
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Weight: 90 tons BV: 1,608 Cost: 4,747,880 C-bills Source: When I woke up it was just like this. Role: Attack Fighter
This one's cheating just a touch to be sure. The Screamer LAM has double heatsinks by default so I won't be removing them, just swapping out the ER PPC. This increases its firepower by about 20% at the cost of a bomb bay and a bit of armor. This 'mech is calculated to make the clans incandescent with rage like no other, it's a LAM, an Amaris 'mech, and its normal strategy is going to be to fly in, backstab somebody, and fly back out of range laughing as it's Blazer tears through their feeble back armor.
Screamer LAM SCR-BL-LAM
Base Tech Level: Experimental (IS)
I just find the joke funny. it may not be accurate, but you could goad them into declaring a trial of grievance over it once you explain what a furry is to them.
I'm not sure I'd go that far. It's inefficient and outclassed by other other weapons, but I wouldn't say it's bad on it's own merits (as judging by that metric most IS weapons are bad). Just niche, and battletech has lots of niche weapons.
Though I was wondering what the statline of a properly working Blazer would be, then I remembered that heavy lasers exist.
Binary Laser. presumably some particularly bright drunk engineering student duct taped two large lasers together and stuck it in a Zeus. or maybe it was a particularly drunk bright student. one of those things.
9 Tons
4 Crits
12 Damage
a blistering 16 Heat
220 BV
Same range as a large laser or AC/10: 5/10/15
Edit: Worth noting they also make Infantry versions, which are really good. The Blazer pistol is straight up the best laser pistol in the game, outside of niche situations I'd say the best pistol period. The Blazer rifle is towards the top but beaten out by the Mauser family of laser rifles. It loses in damage to things like the generic auto-rifle and a few named slugthrower rifles but beats them in range so not a completely awful tradeoff, unlike the 'mech scale blazer.
Hey all, Friendly neighborhood mod here. As much as I have had a serious case of the giggles at the arguments about "Clanners, Murder Furries? Or Just Into Murder?" I just want to make sure everyone keeps it civil. So far it's been good. Credit to you all, but I think the argument, however funny (and damn, it is) is reaching an impasse.
So let's get back to arguing on whether or not Capellans are actually people. I am sure this will break new ground for the shitposters in the audience.
Well looked at logically, the Capellans are undeniably the best faction, and the most human of all. That is to say, they're the least furry of course.
Free Worlds League: I'm not entirely sure they really exist, but if they did, the eagle avatar indicates they're bird-themed furries.
Taurians: Cow-themed furries.
Rim World's Republic: Shark-themed furries
Magistracy: Commonly associated with catgirl furries.
Draconis Combine: Dragon-themed otherkin, even worse than furries.
Lyran Commonwealth: Why they may appear not to be furries at a glance, they employ the furry Kell Hounds as their most prominent Mercenary group, so Furry-adjacent
Federated Suns: Hypocritical furries, they employ any number of fox-themed units indicating a furry bias but use a sun avatar to try to hide their shame from everybody else.
Escorpion Imperium: Scorpion-themed furries.
Oberon Confederation: Fairy-themed otherkin, even worse than furries.
By process of elimination, we can see that most of the Inner Sphere are vile furries, and only a few factions remain:
Outworlds Alliance: Hippies
Circinus Federation: Pirate Cosplayers
Marian Hegemony: Roman Empire Cosplayers
Niops: Nerds
However, the Capellans stand out as far beyond the others, not only do they avoid distasteful furry-adjacent hobbies like cosplaying, when the St. Ives Compact broke away during the second succession war, they promptly embraced the furry lifestyle and put up some kinda alpaca on their flag, probably due to corruption from furries from the Federated Suns. St. Ives then abandoned furrydom once they rejoined the Capellan Confederation.
This indicates that not only are the Capellans not furry, they're actually anti-furries who cause closet furries to become normal people just by association. Thus, we can conclude that the Capellans are the most moral and desirable faction in the game.
So let's get back to arguing on whether or not Capellans are actually people. I am sure this will break new ground for the shitposters in the audience.
Well as I pointed out upthread, Comstar can be considered generally meritorious anti-furries for their stern stance in preventing the clans from importing furry culture. The Word of Blake is even more morally upright for attempting to genocide the entire Inner Sphere, which as noted are almost entirely furries and therefore killing everybody can only be considered a moral good. However, Comstar does not have a record of turning furries into normal humans the way the Capellans do, so they rate as slightly less effective.
Belters are only quasi-canon in the first place and don't really do anything to stop furries, at best they can be considered neutral since they neither promote nor destroy furry culture.
I'm finding myself deeply irritated with BattleTech WarShip sizes.
Specifically, I started trying to model several WarShips with the plan in mind of 3D printing them and having myself a nice fleet for a scenario I cooked up.
The problem is how whack the sizes are. Yes, BattleTech has always been bad at scale but this one issue is getting to me specifically right now. The McKenna class is 1405 meters long and masses 1.9 million tons. It's among the biggest of battleships. The Monsoon, meanwhile, is an old obsolete battleship that's only 1.3 million tons but also 1400 meters long. The Monsoon is clearly the underdog in this fight.
The problem is that the Monsoon is also portrayed as quite wide and beefy in the artwork while the McKenna is fairly spindly. I'm finding it impossible to model them in their canon sizes without the Monsoon appearing to be the supreme alpha in the fight instead of the smaller, weaker ship. I can scale the Monsoon as being shorter and regain that, but then the lengths don't match the canon descriptions. Irritating.
I'm finding myself deeply irritated with BattleTech WarShip sizes.
Specifically, I started trying to model several WarShips with the plan in mind of 3D printing them and having myself a nice fleet for a scenario I cooked up.
The problem is how whack the sizes are. Yes, BattleTech has always been bad at scale but this one issue is getting to me specifically right now. The McKenna class is 1405 meters long and masses 1.9 million tons. It's among the biggest of battleships. The Monsoon, meanwhile, is an old obsolete battleship that's only 1.3 million tons but also 1400 meters long. The Monsoon is clearly the underdog in this fight.
The problem is that the Monsoon is also portrayed as quite wide and beefy in the artwork while the McKenna is fairly spindly. I'm finding it impossible to model them in their canon sizes without the Monsoon appearing to be the supreme alpha in the fight instead of the smaller, weaker ship. I can scale the Monsoon as being shorter and regain that, but then the lengths don't match the canon descriptions. Irritating.
This is why I think they updated the artwork for the McKenna (and other warships) in the Dropship, Jumpship, and Warship TRO. If you go with the later artwork the McKenna ends up looking a lot more beefy than the old art that made it look like a slightly thicker jumpship.
