CLASSIC BATTLETECH CATALYST game labs

Dear diary, this week, it was more of the exact same stuff I did last week, plus the following:

* Interviewed for a new "day job" (actually a night job, but hey...)

* Helped a brother-in-law with a couple runs to the dump (so we could throw away the piles of junk we accumulated during our move too)...

* Made a desperate effort to catch up on projects.

* Blew off my nephew's eighteenth birthday *and* a trip to see Watchmen to get work done! Because I love this game and writing so much....

No. I'm not joking about any of that.

- Herb

For those who haven't read the chat transcript form Saturday's BattleChat...

Here's what I've/we've been up to:

* Every project slated for 2009 release is still underway or nearing completion.

* Jihad Hot Spots: 3076 (PDF), Jihad Turning Points: Tharkad (PDF-exclusive), and a few batches of gameplay markers went on-sale at the BattleShop

* I'm still strugglinhg to get the RPG moving, and it's fighting me every step of the way.

* I have maybe two more weeks of "freedom" before the new day job starts robbing me of my nights.

* I am integrating final fixes into he RPG Quick-Start Rules

* Oh, we dropped "Classic" from BattleTech's name. Some folks seem to see this as a big deal.

* I remain adamant: I don't like blogging; this is all you get from me (and my Twitter, and occasional remarks on Facebook...but no blogs!)

As of today, this thread had 1,428 views. Thanks for watching!

- Herb

Looks like another 600 or so reviewed this thread since my last post... And looks like I'm a couple days late...

This past week, let's see:

* I worked night shift at the new job. This is continuing for the foreseeable future (defined as: roughly three months from now). In the meantime, I'm *supposed* to be sleeping from 8 AM to 2 PM...

* I'm hardly sleeping 4-6 hours a day.

* BattleTech is still alive, and I have been busy with it, as have we all.

* The basement still fills with water, but now the gutters have been cleaned, and water flow off the house *should* be normal... 

* The strange object in the basement was likely an old wasp's nest...

* I'm tired, cranky, and generally depressed all the time. This is normal.

* I am contemplating starting a thread, but realizing that I may be doing so out of a sense of spite may indicate that it is a bad idea...

* I'm busy, damn it!

- Herb

Now at 3544 views, this thread is... So why are you STILL asking the same inane questions?

What I did this week:

* Night crew work. Which involves 8-9 hours of forklifts and heavy lifting, and less than 45 minutes of break time and lunch. At least one coworker got on my bad side and was rewarded with a 48-hour silent treatment. Never had anyone beg me to talk to them before...but I've resolved not to speak at the day job when the words I may say could cost me said day job.

* The day the first full paycheck arrived, the car needed half of it for repairs, and the wife's car is well overdue for a tune-up. I hate when paychecks come in already spent.

* There is now a strange burning rubber smell coming from somewhere in my foyer/office area, but apparently only *I* can smell it. Could be imagining it.

* I slept almost all of the remaining time of this week away, give or take answering work-related e-mails and maintaining a much more limited showing on Twitter and Facebook. I have all but stopped posting to the Catalyst Twitter; nothing I can say there my colleagues aren't already saying.

* If anyone's keeping track, my own writing work is suffering badly from the time crunch. Reducing the "day job" to part time status will be my priority if I maintain it after the end of my 89 day "temp" period (circa June 24).

* Randall and Dave attended GAMA.

* People continue to misuse the term "retcon" and presume BattleTech is dying because I'm not personally phoning them up to explain otherwise in meticulous detail. These people need to get a life. I'm serious. I never leave the house except to run errands and go to work, and even *I* seem to have a better grasp on reality than you.

* I learned my Myers-Briggs Rating is INTJ (Introversion-Intuition-Thinking-Judgment), according to a book a family friend brought over the other day. (Beckie's rating is INFJ [Introversion-Intuition-Feeling-Judgment], and apparently is compatible with mine. Who knew? Our "types" also represent less than 1% of the population each, per the book, though other sources put us closer to 2% each.) Furthermore, the book classes INTJ's as "Masterminds" and INFJ's as "Counselors". I'm thinking we should set up a government.

And before I close on this prattle, let's have some refreshing review of BattleTech's buzz concepts and discussions to date, shall we? Kind of a quasi-FAQ:

Buzz Concept: Anything that states something the fans don't want to believe or they can find no desireable explanation for is automatically considered a retcon. A retcon is something writers do when they are too lazy to make the faction work exactly the way the faction or character's most ardent fans want them to.
Reality: You are wrong (and possibly a fool). A "retcon" is shorthand for "retroactive continuity", and we like to stress the "continuity" part of that. Retcons are principally used to either fill in a gap of information to support present events, explain some of the more confusing past events, or to correct a fundamental flaw left unchecked for some time in print. The latter-most case, however, is very close to "errata", which is a correction of erroneous information, and still happens even in a universe 25 years old.

Buzz Concept: Taurians are backwards idiots. The FedSuns is taking stupid pills for not obliterating them.
Reality: You are wrong (and almost certainly a fool). The Taurians are misinformed and their intelligence agencies have been compromised for decades. They are acting on that information out of anger in a way that should be familiar to anyone with a working on knwoledge of the last eight years in the real world. They are NOT metagamers, and thus do not know what you, the reader, know by virtue of a broad selection of news articles and the hindsight of the Dark Age news sources (Note: Metagamers are players who use information gleaned from sourcebooks, novels, and other "cheat books"--knowledge that their character cannot possibly know--to determine how their characters will react to a development or situation in universe; prime example: when I was new to BattleTech, but had read all the literature surrounding the Clan invasion, I started as a player in a fellow gamer's BattleTech campaign. In our very first combat action as a group, we encountered a vanguard Clan invasion force in the year 3048. I erroneously metagamed by expecting the Clan Mad Cat barreling toward me to engage me in single combat--reminding the GM of this often, in fact--and proceeded to use that to keep the sucker tied up with a game of cat and mouse until my buddies were free to help me take him down. As another example, a few of our writers, presuming the Jihad was INTENDED to be launched as it was, actually wrote tantalizing "hints" that subsequently needed to be explained via "retcon"--see above--when it because clear to us that the Jihad was actually the result of a tragic series of circumstances.)
    Likewise, the FedSuns is not in a position to simply slap down the Taurians; they have a navy stretched thin and assigned to defensive roles in case the Word, Capellans, or Taurians target a capital, a military stretched thin on all fronts, a crumbling political structure caused by the breakdown of communications in the Outback, the Haseks early-Jihad efforts to re-liberate St. Ives, and enough rampant destruction of military industry to set back major reconstruction efforts a decade or more. For these reasons, plus a few others that are likely crossing the Princess Regent's mind and knowable only to her as a character, the FedSuns is playing it more defensively than before. Just because she's Hanse's daughter doesn't make her Hanse reborn, and she's lost a few more of the great generals along the way. (Oh, and the Davions don't get to metagame either.)

Buzz Concept: BattleTech is dying because Herb/Dave/Randall/Adam/Ben won't tell us exact details on the next product coming out on a daily basis and the economy is bad.
Reality: You are wrong (and you are almost certainly an idiot). It takes months to do even one project, and we run several projects at once, in various stages of development. We don't have the time to give detailed updates, nor do we like to give detailed updates lest anything go wrong behind the scenes (such as cost overruns, project cuts, bad rounds of playtesting, shipping SNAFUs, printing SNAFUs, arguments, or the unexpected eruption of a major nuclear offensive against an unsuspecting Third World country like Texas). We operate on street dates only, and a very limited number of our people are authorized to reveal any sneak peeks or status updates. Indeed, to be frank, I tend to get in trouble half the time I let something slip, and I'm getting rather sick of getting in trouble.
    Bottom line: BattleTech's fine. And it will remain fine until we tell you otherwise. Please stop trying burying us before we're gone.

Buzz Concept: Herb hates the Clans, WarShips, and LAMs, and is out to destroy both as a "retcon".
Reality: You're only partly right. I dislike WarShips and LAMs. I find their use in the game rather superfluous, and in some cases outright against the universe's core aesthetics. Retconning them away is against even MY ethics, though, and I have targeted plans for all of the above describing their evolution over the next few years of BattleTech progress. In fact, it may amuse some of you to know that I was one of the advocates for bringing LAMs back in future "on-radar" projects, if only to finalize them to TW standards. I have also made steps to identify which WarShips *must* survive the Jihad, and which we can cull (I'd also point out that it was my brainstorm to bring the Invincible back, when there was technically no real need to do so; of all the WarShips in the universe, I wanted to bring THAT ONE back purely for fanboy reasons). And the Clans? Sorry, but I don't hate them. They have a pre-defined destiny, however, and it's one that was established as far back as my first days with FASA.
    Oh, and once again, it's not a "retcon" if it happens in the current story progression, because the changes aren't retroactive. To fully understand the term "retcon", please look up both "retroactive" and "continuity" and imagine what would happen if you stopped using the shorthand term and wrote the whole thing out.

Buzz Concept: The writers/Herb are our bitch, and owe us an explanation for everything that happens that we dislike.
Reality: You're wrong, and you're a moron. We aren't, and we don't. Explanations--if any are to be given--will come in the fullness of time, and not a moment before. To explain the hows and whys of everything as we go is boring and bad storytelling. Read a few storybooks, your favorites will do, and try to identify how many things you don't know the full hows and whys of when they occur, but get to see only at the story's end. Then, for ha-has, imagine if the story was designed to be told over the course of over 25 YEARS in real time. (Harry Potter fans--if any are here--how much of the first book foreshadowed the last?)

Buzz Concept: Herb is angry and miserable.
Reality: Not all the time.... 

Buzz Concept: "Breaking" Herb is a great way to find out stuff about the universe or get answers about my pet peeve/favorite faction.
Reality: No. You folks need to realize that it is wiser to remain silent and be thought an idiot, than to type out a post on these forums and remove all doubt.

Buzz Concept: Catalyst Game Labs doesn't care about me; only my money.
Reality: We care about both, or we couldn't be here.

Buzz Concept: The new BattleTech writers don't know what they're doing.
Reality: I said STOP posting to remove all doubt. Most of us have been here for the last 8 years or longer. We're not new and we know what we're doing.

Buzz Concept: Herb is ignoring my post because he doesn't like me.
Reality: Maybe. Alternatively, Herb is not answering because he doesn't know and/or the topic is so far from an area he's personally worked on that he wouldn't feel comfortable even offering an answer, especially since he suspects you're just asking so you can win some argument you're having in some side thread, and as soon as he makes an answer you happen to like, your opponent will be PMing him to argue his case, thereby roping him into a debate he doesn't want any part of. Leave me out of your disputes, please.
    I'm also not fond of long and rambling posts with questions asked indirectly or mishmashed across multiple topics at once. I am a poor time budgeter, and if I answer something like that, I can chew up HOURS of more productive writing time. The RPG development has suffered rather badly from these delays of late.

Buzz Concept: Herb's Standard Answers are a joke/lazy solution to dodeg questions with.
Reality: Partly. The Standard Answers were devised because, one way or another, folks are asking the same questions over and over. The answers are serious answers, though they may be executed at humorous moments. See, I realize that to many of you folks, this is still supposed to be a fun and entertaining pastime, and getting bogged down in arguments and recriminations wastes everyone's time. If one of us invokes a Standard Answer, it's because you asked one of these overused question types.

Buzz Concept: Herb has poor typing skills and is therefore a moron.
Reality: Yes I do, especially when rushed, over-tired, or when working on certain keyboards. My fingers are fat and I'm rather clumsy. Get used to it. Also, Herb's Standard Theory of Humanity (Part 2), clearly identifies me as belonging to the "Stupid" gender. Get used to both; they won't change.

FAQ: What are Herb's Standard Answers again?
Answer: I'm starting by assuming you turned off your sig lines, or I'd have to call you the "I" word again. From there, I will give you the shorthand:
          Herb's Standard Answer #1: If it works for your game table, the answer you seek is whatever you wish it to be.
          Herb's Standard Answer #2: It is what it is because we said so, that's why! (In the event of rules disputes with tournament judges or disputes about what's canon and what's not)
          Herb's Standard Answer #3: If we haven't published the info you seek, we cannot TELL you the info you seek.
          Herb's Standard Answer #4: The product will be ready when it's done, and not a moment before.
          Herb's Standard Answer #5: We apologize for the inconvenience.
          Herb's Standard Answer #6 (Apocryphal): The character you asked about likely died by slipping on soap in the shower. <-- That one actually comes from Dave McCulloch. Credit where it's due.

FAQ: Wait. What's the difference between Herb's Standard Answers and Herb's Grand Theory of Humanity.
Answer: One is the set of answers given when you ask me overused questions about BattleTech product and projects. The other is how I explain how the sentient people on Earth work, using a flippant theory that is disturbingly accurate and based on the single premise: "Everyone has at least ONE hard-wired flaw".

FAQ: Do people really ask you this stuff all the time?
Answer: You'd be surprised.

FAQ: Do you really think people are that stupid?
Answer: You'd be REALLY surprised....

Standard Answer #5

- Herb

The following is NOT the formal end to my "radio silence", but merely a public service announcement being repeated here for those who don't like to range too far from one or two threads:

Folks,

I apologize if this comes across as something of a surprise at this point, but given what appears to have been some kind of confusion over the chat, and what amounted to a failure of this last Saturday's chat, I am calling the experiment to run them at alternating time schedules a failure at this time.

As a very real problem with scheduling persists (which had prompted the change in schedule), I am also pre-emptively announcing that there will be NO BattleChat for the month of June at this time. Frankly, I think we need to re-examine the chat schedule, and at this time many of the writers and myself are rather swamped. We want to work out a chat schedule that's both as accessible and as reliable as possible, but recent events have thrown too many monkey wrenches into the process for me to honestly consider the present standards sustainable.

Thank you.

- Herb

5,971 views by now, since the last actual update. Good to see folks still paying atention.

May is over, but my projects still are not, so I will be irregular on my weekly updates for a while longer. You've been warned.

That said, though, a very interesting discussion recently came up which I felt would make a PERFECT update for this thread as my semi-return:

The question arose from a discussion on the Celestial Record Sheets and seemed to mutate (as such things often do) to ask why we can't have a variety of projects some people want. My initial response reflected the fact that there are MANY projects we'd LOVE to do, but ultimately cannot because of the expense in terms of money, manpower, and time. The response from one poster was:


He meant well, really. I mean, I recall actually having a site set up for my "Divergent Sphere" game-line, complete with a mini TRO of new Mech designs and such intended to reflect the alernate reality of my game sessions, where everything went kind of sideways at 3058. (I even drew all the Mechs!) It was fun, and I was doing it even as I started as a professional BattleTech writer under FASA. But eventually, time and resources ate away at it, and the project ended unfinished, still languishing in the dusty annals of forgetten web-spaces.

My response to the poster was thus:


So, there you have it: Why we don't crank out product as fast as some of you generate fanfic. These things take time from many people that has to be divvied up among many projects, and the need to recompense those who are professionally committed to the work means that there really is no such thing as "cost free" production.

Even these weekly status updates are costly, when you think about it; in the time it has taken me to write this post and the one that I derived it from, I spent about an hour's time choosing my words here. That's an hour that four chapters of the RPG I'm personally holding up have not gone forward (or an hour that I've done nothing about the lingering stench of cat pee in the house, or bringing the food my wife forgot to take with her to work to her, or putting the dogs out as they whine at me for release...). And remember: Time is money!

So on that happy note, I leave you for a week (or so)! Adieu!

- Herb

Hehehe. 6,666 views now (including this one):

Special "sneak peak" at the RPG via the actual character generation of.... the Line Developer. Accomplished using the "Life Modules" system:

Character Name: Herbert A. Beas II
Age: 37
XP Spent: 5,000
Modules Used:
    Stage 0: Affiliation - Terran/Terran Citizen
    Stage 1: Blue Collar
    Stage 2: High School
    Stage 3: Trade School - (Basic: General Studies; Advanced: Journalism)
    Stage 4: Civilian Job (x2)
    Stage 4: Ne'er-Do-Well
Module Costs (Total): 3,615 XP (66 XP rebated)

Results:


Game Stats:
Attributes     Condition Monitor
STR     5         Standard Damage:    OOOOOO
BOD     3         Fatigue Damage:     OOOOOOOOOOOO
RFL     3         Stun:               O
DEX     4
INT     7         Movement (Meters per Turn)
WIL     6         Walk:     8
CHA     5         Run:      19
EDG     5         Sprint:   38

Traits
Animal Empathy: Character is rather good with animals
Compulsion/Distrust of non-Terrans (–2): Really can’t stand those ETs.
Connections (1): Got some friends out there…
Dependent/Wife (Beckie) (–1): You’re married…
Enemy/Disgruntled fans (–1): Disillusioned members of the fanbase not fond of all these nukes…
Equipped (2): May choose D/C/C rated equipment
Extra Income (1): Extra 250 C-bills per month. Yay.
Impatient: You want it your way RIGHT AWAY!
Reputation (1): Every once in a while, someone recognizes you…

Relevant Skills
Skill                     TN / C     Links     Level
Acting                    8 / CB     CHA         +1
Administration            7 / SA     INT+WIL     +4
Animal Handling           6 / SB     WIL         +2
Appraisal                 8 / CB     INT         +0
Art/Cooking               8 / CB     DEX         +1
Art/Drawing               8 / CB     DEX         +2
Art/Writing               9 / CA     DEX+INT     +4 (+20 XP)
Career/Journalist         6 / SB     INT         +2
Career/Writing            6 / SB     INT         +5 (+20 XP)
Computers                 9 / CA     DEX+INT     +5
Driving/Ground            7 / SA     RFL+DEX     +4
Escape Artist             9 / CA     STR+DEX     +1
Interest/Film             8 / CB     INT         +3
Interest/Literature       8 / CB     INT         +2
Interest/Science Fiction  9 / CA     INT+WIL     +5
Interest/Terran History   8 / CB     INT         +2
Investigation             9 / CA     INT+WIL     +2
Language/English          7 / SA     INT+CHA     +3
Language/German           7 / SA     INT+CHA     NA (+15 XP)
Language/Spanish          7 / SA     INT+CHA     +0
Leadership                7 / SA     WIL+CHA     +3
Martial Arts              6 / SB     RFL         +0
Negotiation               8 / CB     CHA         +3
Perception                6 / SB     INT         +3
Prestidigitation          6 / SB     DEX         +0
Protocol/Terran           9 / CA     WIL+CHA     +4
Running                   6 / SB     RFL         +1
Science/Physics           9 / CA     INT + WIL   +0
Science/Chemistry         9 / CA     INT + WIL   +0
Streetwise/Terran         8 / CB     CHA         +1
Survival/Woods            9 / CA     BOD + INT   +1
Swimming                  6 / SB     STR         +1
Technician/Electronic     9 / CA     DEX + INT   +0
Technician/Mechanical     9 / CA     DEX + INT   +1


Equipment: Not purchased. Seriously, who cares about by 2001 Ford Taurus, a laptop, a Pratt & Whitney surplus computer, and a bunch of Transformers toys?

- Herb

Up to 8,121 views! Nice!

I don't have much to say today, as I am teh sick.

But I set up a new poll in the Fan Input area. Go check it out. And tell your friends...

- Herb

9,231 views as of today... And I'm almost two weeks behind schedule. Oh, well.

The poll continues, with 947 votes cast as of now, and 16 days to go. If you've not already voted for your favorite faction in the 3140s setting, go do so now! No vote, no voice.

In other news, I'll just repeat what I said on my Facebook:

What's the hold up? The absolute certainty I feel that many of you will read these rules and say they're incomplete.

- Herb

10,273 views as of now. Once more, about 500 since last. Good to see I'm consistent.

Big announcements today:

* The RPG is still being written. I have 1.3 chapters to go before working in review comments. Sorry for the delay, but, yeah. That happens.
* The "Yellow Star Hiatus" has been formally lifted for the time being, but I will call any writer who tries to give an official answer outside of the Fan Input boards a big fat liar. They've been warned.
* Today, I say farewell to one of the Herblets: Rest in Peace Merlin Cash Beas (1998-2009). Daddy will miss you.

That is all.

- Herb

And a happy birthday shout out goes to my assistant LD, Ben Rome. I'm gradually turning him into me, though, so he's probably going to get surly about this halfway through today...

- Herb

P.S.: By the way, for the folks who have been offering condolences, I think I need to clarify that Merlin was a cat. Beckie and I made a conscious decision to never have children, so cats and a dog have become proxies. Merlin's loss leaves four cats in House Beas (not counting the two visiting cats from New York...)

12,730 views. Hrm.

I should be more enthusiastic than I am here, but last night I finally sent the last chapter of A Time of War: The BattleTech RPG into editing. Perhaps it would be easier if I wasn't being nagged by the possibility that the combat system is too lethal. For that reason, I placed a poll on the subject for all who have had the chance to test the QSRs we demoed at GenCon. The poll is right here, and has a brutally short 8-day deadline. Please, everyone who has had a chance to test the system for themselves, offer up your votes and tell me what you think while there remains a slim window for us to make a mechanical change.

That said, I'm back to work; there are corrections and additions that still need to be made on the other chapters, in the hopes that we will actually have a sublime and sexy BattleTech RPG system for all of you to play before 2010...

- Herb

13,891 views. Up another 340.... Slow week.

And for your reward:

Posted another poll in Fan Input.

And Randall blogged about the last chapter I finally handed in for A Time of War.

Back to proofing...

- Herb

P.S.: Though I had to lock the thread because someone ignored the rules, it turns out voting remains functional, so if you think it's a dead issue, go check out the Favorite Era poll anyway and cast a vote. And remember that I don't pass laws I don't plan to enforce.

Been almost a month and as of today there were 16,093 views here. A thousand views. Folks are starting to tune out.

Ah well.

Anyway, this will be a short one. The last two months have been a different shade of hectic that normal, but at least the BULK of what made me miserable and crazy is behind me. I'm still batty, but at least I'm able to make some time here and there to get stuff done....

Sort of.

Today, I continue digging through 17 pages of errata. I'm already down to 10 pages. Fortunately, most of the fixes are easy; folks spotting typos the editor missed or which somehow cropped up between edit and layout (likely because of some "last minute tweak"), but others are not so much. The possibility of repagination exists, which will make the task a little longer once the errata is done, but for now, the highlights:

* By far, the most extensive changes are happening in the character creation ection, specifically the life modules. Most of it is simple math issues, but there, a math issue can snowball quickly, so changes are tending to cascade through the section.

* After lengthy consideration, the base TNs are being changed. A Time of War uses a whopping 6 Action Check TNs; of these, 4 are being tweaked, with two going up and two going down. The Simple Skills are being raised to make starting character results more in line with TW effects (so it will be possible to make Green MechWarriors with bad Skills), while Attribute Checks are being lowered (so an average character at least has a shot at playing through a game of basketball)...

* Because of the above, I am expecting the real work to be examples and sample characters. Thus, it's the last thing I'm going to tackle in this process.

Apart from that, still on my plate are Historicals: Operation Klondike and Handbook: House Liao. Both are in the final writing and fact-checking stages, just waiting on that to end before they hit an editor. Then I start tearing apart the next batch of projects, including Era Report: 3052 and Jihad: Terra.

Yup. That's the news, and I'm outta here.

- Herb

17,084 views. About 400 curious onlookers in the past week; not too shabby....

Summit's done. Beginning the return trip now. And then back to the grind of finishing AToW errata. So far, all on-line comments are in and credits for input have been identified. All that remains is ensuring the deeper changes (new TNs; new sample character/NPC stats; new Burst-Fire rules; new weapon stats) are worked in throughout the text. Oh, and choosing two seeds to install.

Piece of cake! (Time-consuming, but then I never was a master chef...)

- Herb

18,464 views as of today.

And a brief note: The "Yellow 'Mechs" are once more on hiatus until further notice. The only authors who may post outside of the Fan Interaction and Off-Topic boards are myself, Ben Rome, Randall Bills, Dave Stansel-Garner, and Adam Jury. I might allow Jason Schmetzer to venture into the open, but only for a little bit; he's got work to do...

- Herb