CLANS coming to Mechwarrior 5 - Breaking LEAK

[Destraex]

So excited! But don't trust leaks .... be excited quietly.. shhhhh
I had hoped this would happen. Looking forward to some madcat madness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ3svOifDq4

[Destraex]

More than a leak now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2000890/MechWarrior_5_Clans/

[Grim.Reaper]

I am likely the only person that knows very little about Mechs and nothing about what CLANS are and why important:)

Looks like release in 2024, assuming it doesn't get delayed into the following year like all major games seem to nowadays:)

[Gusington]

^You're not.

[JasonPratt]

Clans have better tech, overall, than standard Battlemechs. Eventually (depending on the timeline of the game) their gear can be retrofitted to Inner Sphere mechs (or vice versa), and their mechs can be purchased and used by mercenary groups (i.e. the usual players in these games) so this adds a bunch of new chassis beloved by the fans.

Also the clans add their own distinct flavors to the political inferno of the game in the Inner Sphere, which helps generate campaigns better.

[Destraex]

So basically this is in point form what you need to know.

1) Mechwarrior is just the first person simulation of mechs (giant machines with legs piloted by humans) in the Battletech tabletop universe.

The lore:
2) Originally all planets came together in a new age called the starleague with the military under a guy called kerensky

3) This came to an end in some sort of great war that ended with giant houses taking over all the planets they could. A lot of technology was lost. Lostech.

4) Keresky reconquered the capital terra but on government being dysfunctional again decided to take the survivors of the starleague military beyond known space never to be seen again.

5) Generations later iirc Kerensky's "children" return to the "inner sphere" from whereever they were and invade. They are organised into clans rather than houses. What's more their mechs and tech retain more lostech and did not stagnate like the inner spheres original human planets tech did. Clanners are bred in iron wombs and do not have mothers and fathers but rather sibkos. Sibkos are groups that came from the same growing womb so to speak, the same batch.
Clanners have some wierd knightly sort of rules based combat system based on glory rather than winning. This is what offsets their tech advantage a lot of the time. Before attacking they "bid" each other down to see who will take the most glory by taking the smallest force to attack.
Clanners have a huge superiority complex in a lot of cases OR at least experience great shock and shame at being beaten by a "freebirth" born naturally. Great stigma is attached to being freebirth and this also breeds some interesting stories in the lore about trueborns (artificially bred clanners) having freebirth kids together. Another twist is of freebirths captured during war and taken as "bondsmen" who are basically then bound as servants or slaves rising through the ranks through clan challenge systems.

On the tabletop game of battletech, when the clans came out they were not allowed to field as many mechs because their tech was so powerful. So some players who were used to fighting for houses who were fairly equal in terms of tech and were now faced with a side who would always be more powerful on the field would sometimes get to hating the clans. Some love them and some hate them.

P.S. It should be noted that some treaty at some point in the inner sphere (original planets and houses) banned the use of warships for planetary bombardment. This was because of the loss of life and tech caused in the initial upheaval. This paved the way for more mech oriented warfare.

It should also be noted that their is an organisation called "comstar" who retained starleague era tech and are tasked with protecting planet to planet communications everywhere. They remained neutral throughout all wars I believe until the clans almost won.

[SirAndrewD]

Smoke Jaguars eh? Unique perspective playing as one of them rather than against them.

[SirAndrewD]

Clans are semi fascist genetically engineered Space Spartans with a strict caste system and high tech.

Unfortunately for them they got their asses kicked by these guys....

[Destraex]

Yeah I remember reading the 3 clans novels as a kid and being enthralled by the alien like culture of the clans. Each clanner is bred for a specific role and thus caste and grows up in their "batch" sibko.

It is also interesting to note that their were two factions within the clans, clans. The wardens who wanted to protect the inner sphere original houses\humanity and bring them back to the starleague days of peace and prosperity and the crusaders who basically believe the inner sphere must be taken by force. Thus their was a secret infiltration of the inner sphere by clan mercenaries before the invasion starts, clan wolf known in the inner sphere as wolfs dragoons comes to mind. These guys fought beside some of the inner sphere houses to preserve the inner sphere by taking mercenary contracts.

[GDS_Starfury]

 

[Destraex]

Were the black widows warden clandestine inner sphere contract mercenaries?

[SirAndrewD]

Were the black widows warden clandestine inner sphere contract mercenaries?

No, Wolf's Dragoons were, but The Black Widow was Natasha Kerensky, a Clan Wolf Mech Ace with Wolf's Dragoons and her company were all secret clanners.

[Destraex]

Kerensky kinda gives that away :)

[SirAndrewD]

Kerensky kinda gives that away :)

They actually addressed that in the lore.  Comstar's secret Police, ROM had strong suspicions that the Dragoons were remnants/descendants of the SLDF and that Natasha Kerensky was indeed proof of it, but they never got enough evidence.  Still it started Comstar down the path of actually investigating the possibility Kerensky's descendants survived and led them to eventually make first contact with the Clans in the periphery just prior to the Clan invasion.

As for the rest of the Inner Sphere, they just assumed she was either a distant relation or the name was a coincidence.  They were pretty busy hiring out the Dragoons to blow crap up for them and didn't honestly care that they came out of nowhere piloting cherry Star League Mechs and had a Kerensky in the ranks.    

[JasonPratt]

I laughed WAY too hard at that Comstar Commercial.