Battletech Welcome to the Jungle

[Speaker4thesilent]

Which begs the question, how will our Archon get them to accept the CAC producing the Sarissa, a FWL mech.

Some of this has already been addressed, but the Sarissa was a Primitive design, and CAC is vastly changing up the internals. The result is more a Mech inspired by the Sarissa than a copy. All they’re really taking is the general layout and a name that hasn’t been used in literally centuries. Sarissa is an Age of War ‘Mech.

Trying to manufacture a Stingray, or a Stingray-alike would be quite clearly copying a design already in production. Besides, the Stingray is an extremely distinctive design. Nothing else looks quite like it. It would be obvious, and thus really extraordinarily dumb.

Then question for Speaker then would changing the Commonwealth’s copyright laws be enough to satisfy Com. I doubt they would allow it as that sets a precedent for the others to change theirs when they want a design the other side made.

As outlined above, yes. Of course, they would point out to the other Successor States that there is now no bar to them modifying similar laws. It’s much more difficult to object to a change in a sovereign nation’s laws than it is to cases of industrial espionage. And if the change favors the LCAF more than the other militaries, then that isn’t COM*’s problem.

 

[Simonbob]

"This change will stop the spiral down that we of the Inner Sphere have been suffering! Innovation will allow us to improve all!"

I can just see the ComStar leadership having trouble with that, but not being able to say it.

 

[bobnik]

Are there still companies that operate in more than one nation? I could see that as an influence towards obeying copyright laws across borders.

 

[PsihoKekec]

Quickscell, Earthwerks, and Starcorps come to mind.

 

[Speaker4thesilent]

Are there still companies that operate in more than one nation? I could see that as an influence towards obeying copyright laws across borders.

They tend to have subdivided by this point. They may technically still be the same company on paper, but in fact they have been split up so long that they are as much competitors as anything else.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Mind you once the LCAF see what you can put in a 60 ton ASF I mean sure they might not be able to make the Stingray but oh boy will the R@D money flow to ensure that a new design with similar or near identical capabilities is made. Well that and get their hands on as many Stingrays as possible via both salvage and proxies like what the Dracs where doing with the Demolisher

 

[Dreth]

As outlined above, yes. Of course, they would point out to the other Successor States that there is now no bar to them modifying similar laws. It’s much more difficult to object to a change in a sovereign nation’s laws than it is to cases of industrial espionage. And if the change favors the LCAF more than the other militaries, then that isn’t COM*’s problem.

I have to wonder how others will perceive the reason for the law changes. The first and obvious one is to prevent patent trolling, no one is admitting to selling LosTech for over a century, so we don't care if it is "obviously infringing on your ERLL patent" you haven't made it in living memory- and probably still can't.

The other reason I can see is being part of Katrina's anti corruption crusade. Anything you claim to your name is/has been recently in use and useful. None of this getting benefits from something that hasn't been used for hundreds of years. It can't be hurting you bottom line if you haven't sold it sense the fall of the Star League after all.

 

[Atarlost]

Mind you once the LCAF see what you can put in a 60 ton ASF I mean sure they might not be able to make the Stingray but oh boy will the R@D money flow to ensure that a new design with similar or near identical capabilities is made. Well that and get their hands on as many Stingrays as possible via both salvage and proxies like what the Dracs where doing with the Demolisher

Lockheed-CBM makes Hellcats which are the same size and flight profile as Stingrays. They just selling them to independent operators before the LCAF for some reason.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Lockheed-CBM makes Hellcats which are the same size and flight profile as Stingrays. They just selling them to independent operators before the LCAF for some reason.

Production of new Hellcats is as per the story basically spoken for a decade or more ahead of time. Mind you all those Lucifer lines do need to be retooled to make something more useful

 

[bobnik]

Doesn't the LC make a stupid Chippewa variant? It is, after all, refit kit o'clock.

 

[Speaker4thesilent]

Lockheed-CBM makes Hellcats which are the same size and flight profile as Stingrays. They just selling them to independent operators before the LCAF for some reason.

Don’t know what the canon reason for that is, but for the purposes of WttJ, the LCAF simply doesn’t like them.

In a sane universe, it would be because they wallow like pigs in an atmospheric dogfight, reducing their utility badly as they suffer a penalty effectively reducing their engine rating by one step.

In the one that exists, it is because the Social Generals think they’re ugly looking.

Doesn't the LC make a stupid Chippewa variant? It is, after all, refit kit o'clock.

Yes. If you try to fire all the forward-facing guns on a -W5 there is a better than even chance that you instantly explode from heat build-up.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Yes. If you try to fire all the forward-facing guns on a -W5 there is a better than even chance that you instantly explode from heat build-up.

And the thing still has heat problems even if you add double heat Sinks.

 

[cawest]

It isn’t produced in the Lyran Commonwealth in this era, so no, I haven’t looked at a refit for it.

the MUL has the Rim Worlds Republic Terra corps. thought it was all Rim Worlds had them . its your AU but Sarna has them Defiance Industries making them on Furillo.

 

[Speaker4thesilent]

the MUL has the Rim Worlds Republic Terra corps. thought it was all Rim Worlds had them . its your AU but Sarna has them Defiance Industries making them on Furillo.

Don’t blindly trust sarna.

And they may well make them ... in the Jihad era, or the Clan era. They do not make them in 3025, or if they do, there is no source that identifies them as currently in production.

Edit: Yeah, I just went to the page and looked. The source it quotes is Objectives: Lyran Alliance. That is Civil War era.

 

[Bear Ribs]

the MUL has the Rim Worlds Republic Terra corps. thought it was all Rim Worlds had them . its your AU but Sarna has them Defiance Industries making them on Furillo.

The MUL will tell you who has access to a 'mech but not who makes it. The Magistracy, f'rex, only manufactures the bugmech trio and Shadowhawks (Or Phoenix Hawk? I tend to confuse the two at times but I think it was the Shadow). They have Clints on their MUL list in the era because there're scads of old Clints in the periphery but they can't make them.

As I understand it nobody is producing the Clint at this time, the factory that made them was razed to the bedrock in 2812 and even the blueprints were burned up. That will continue for some time into the future.

Then inevitably, in 3055, they decided to build a new factory in exactly the same spot as the old factory because they always build a factory in the same spot where a previous one was.

 

[cawest]

The MUL will tell you who has access to a 'mech but not who makes it. The Magistracy, f'rex, only manufactures the bugmech trio and Shadowhawks (Or Phoenix Hawk? I tend to confuse the two at times but I think it was the Shadow). They have Clints on their MUL list in the era because there're scads of old Clints in the periphery but they can't make them.

As I understand it nobody is producing the Clint at this time, the factory that made them was razed to the bedrock in 2812 and even the blueprints were burned up. That will continue for some time into the future.

Then inevitably, in 3055, they decided to build a new factory in exactly the same spot as the old factory because they always build a factory in the same spot where a previous one was.

seems like a good mech to make without any legal issues.

 

[Bear Ribs]

seems like a good mech to make without any legal issues.

The Clint is an example of the “your ride was built by the lowest bidder” concept as Andoran undercut every other competitor to get the contract from the Star League. To make matters worse, the Clint uses very few standard components, requiring specific replacements when a part breaks down. This was a terrible burden on new Clints as the shoddy parts often didn’t last a year, though it allowed Andoran to recoup the low sales price in the form of hefty service contracts. Particularly hard to replace is the gyroscope for the Clint. On the current market, the mechanisms are literally worth their weight in gold. -Technical Readout 3039, pg 120

The Clint's pretty effective in tabletop where you don't have to pay anything but BV for your stuff and don't have to maintain it, but a hangar queen and complete lemon in-universe.

Of 'mechs that don't have a patent on them, I'm not sure there's any way to know as that's not normally something written down in the TROs. It's a fair bet the Bugmech trio are open season given everybody and their dog manufactures them, but then you're also making bugmechs so bleg on that.

The Archer and Marauder are manufactured by over half a dozen corporations each so most likely they're in the public domain else they'd be more limited. The Warhammer and Thunderbolt are similar but Olivetti makes those, and going into competition with them would be a bad look, to say the least.

 

[Speaker4thesilent]

seems like a good mech to make without any legal issues.

The Clint is an example of the “your ride was built by the lowest bidder” concept as Andoran undercut every other competitor to get the contract from the Star League. To make matters worse, the Clint uses very few standard components, requiring specific replacements when a part breaks down. This was a terrible burden on new Clints as the shoddy parts often didn’t last a year, though it allowed Andoran to recoup the low sales price in the form of hefty service contracts. Particularly hard to replace is the gyroscope for the Clint. On the current market, the mechanisms are literally worth their weight in gold. -Technical Readout 3039, pg 120

The Clint's pretty effective in tabletop where you don't have to pay anything but BV for your stuff and don't have to maintain it, but a hangar queen and complete lemon in-universe.

Of 'mechs that don't have a patent on them, I'm not sure there's any way to know as that's not normally something written down in the TROs. It's a fair bet the Bugmech trio are open season given everybody and their dog manufactures them, but then you're also making bugmechs so bleg on that.

The Archer and Marauder are manufactured by over half a dozen corporations each so most likely they're in the public domain else they'd be more limited. The Warhammer and Thunderbolt are similar but Olivetti makes those, and going into competition with them would be a bad look, to say the least.

Honestly, there are several things in play here. First, is that CAC has their construction priorities for the near-to-mid term already locked in. They went very ambitious to get the pair of lines they are already building set up and producing. They have a bunch of other things they need to do in the medium term rather than build more Battlemechs.

Besides, other people get to have agency too.

As for widely produced ‘Mechs, I’ve always assumed it was either a situation like the Eagle, where they were licensed widely in order to make money, or that the SLDF wanted so many of them that one factory simply wasn’t enough so the SLDF made sure that they were produced everywhere so that they could get their fix no matter what Successor State a particular army happened to be stationed in.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

mind you the Lyrans do need a bunch of fast mediums so I get the impression that the CAC might make its long term goal to make more copies of its two existing lines. Well and make that Vulcan derived design on the ASF side of things

 

[PsihoKekec]

At their size, it's the best course of action they can take, find a market niche and take it over, along with some basic diversification. It goes well with the fact that Katrina wants to make LAAF more manoeuvrable, the fact that they are Foundtech machines lessening the resistance to the reforms.

''Mediums? We don't need stinkin mediums, give us proper Lyran mech like Banshee, Zeus and Atlas.''
''It's a Lostech machine.''
''''
''You will have to enact some doctrine changes though.''
''What doctrine changes? Our ways...''
''[Dangles shiny]''
''Is there a manual?''