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The Battletech universe has always had some problems that made no sense, were just bad sci-fi or were in place just to make big robots cool.
I've delt with them/ignored them because well, big robots are cool. When FASA died and Fanpro took over I had hopes that the quality of the background would improve. Maybe hiring some real military guys to design the wars. Even a historian or two for plots and politics. Alas no, it looks like 15 year old munchkins are the driving force behind their universe development.
The final straw came with the Jihad. A small faction, of a semi-religious group of techs suddenly is able to take on all the successor states at once. In the 1st 5 years of the war more warships are lost than are produced, despite the fact that the states have just started to produce warships again they apparently use them like throw away items. A list of 60 that are destroyed exists on fanpros forums? 60? They had 0 warships 10 years ago. So the Innersphere went from from 0 to enough to lose 60 in 10 years?
So it has come to this a Reimaging of the universe. I'm going to try and maintain the stats of the mechs, and other machines and as much "faction" feel as possible but it needs to start over without the munchinism.
More realistic production of vehicles and weaponry. More like modern production. A few manufacturers for each Successor State, selling them to their own State primarily and their Successor States "allies" secondarily. Competing Successor States do not use each others stuff. Corporations to not cross national boundaries.
Start with Arms Industry
Consistency in naming from various factions. Lets say one faction uses Greek names for mechs, one uses names like Victor, Clint, another uses insects. I should be able to get a good idea whose stuff it is by the name.
More Successor States. 5 is to few and they are monolithic. Not enough closeness for the devastation supposedly caused by the Succession Wars.
Comstar needs to control spacecraft, particularly Jump Ships not communication. That way interdict means something. This also gives them control to stop orbital bombardment and force mostly ground combats. Comstar holds defense points at all zenith and nadirs.
Accurate starmaps with real places. 3-d Starmaps has out to 50 light years.
Real reason for mechs to be king of the battlefield. Better than tanks, better than aircraft.
- No orbital bombardment of any kind.
- Restrict Aerospace fighters to extra-atmosphere. Only conventional fighters in the atmo, so the defender always has the advantage, but having lost space to the invader has no satellite access.
- Aerospace fighter construction needs fixed majorly. It has always seemed broken that a heavier plane can mount more and more armor, and weapons until it becomes a flying tank. Yet the "fighters" the light stuff are supposed to take down these heavily armed and armored flying tanks. Part of the problem is there is not maneuverability factor.
- Drops from space allowed by mechs but only "down".
- Why can't tanks be built of mech componants?
Hammers Slammers: It is worth noting that no combat aircraft were seen over late 3rd Millennium battlefields. Sophisticated automatic detection and targeting systems coupled through AIs to heavy hypervelocity and light speed long-range weapons made an airman's lot a very unhappy one. Heavily protected hyperspeed aerospace fighters were used to deliver ordinance from low orbit but these are best considered to be a form of strategic artillery.
- F-22: 21 tons. 32 with arms and fuel. 20mm cannon, 6 Slammer (medium air to air missiles) 2 sidewinders (short air to air missiles), +2 to 4 tons of bombs. Mach 1.82 crusing. Mach 2.25 top end. Stealth. 65,000ft ceiling. combat range: 470mi
- B-2: 79 tons. 168 tons loaded. No air to air armament. 20 tons of bombs. (50 500lb or 16 2000lb/nuclear) Mach 0.85 cruise. Max Mach 0.95. Stealth. 50,000ft ceiling. 6,900 mi range.
History
Fusion Power
Mars
M1A2 Abrams
Tons: 69.54
Speed: 42mph (governed)
Arms:
1 120mm Cannon (Rheinmetal) 4.17 tons (4.7in)
42 rounds 120mm cannon ammo
1 .50 cal MG
1000 .50 ammo
2x 7.62 mm MG
10,800 7.62 ammo
24 smoke gernades
USS IOWA
Arms:
9 16in guns 134 tons ea -> 50 ft crater 20ft deep.
or 200 yard helicleared area. defoliate to 300yrds
rof 2/min
Ammo:
Tur 1: 387
Tur 2: 456
Tur 3: 367
78sec ond flight time to 37,000 yards
Problems
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