BattleTech Race Style ?

[Stone Mill]

Well ok... I guess folks have strong opinions on Renegade Legion vs. Battletech, which I really can't comment on, but it sounds interesting.

Actually, earlier discussions were generated about throwing together an "anime" set using remnants of Robotech, Battletech, etc...

Just checking to see in anyone was inspired.

[Suicide Junkie]

I was really saddened that Battletech got all the glory over Renegade L. I thought the RL universe to be far more compelling and realistic than a nuclear reactor in a battlemech that didnt vape a city when the mech went boom boom.

Nuclear reactors just don't go up like that unless you're REALLY trying.
Think about it, why would you want to carry around a critical mass of uranium if its not intended to be a bomb? Rather, you just need a small very sub-critical pile, which will power you for years.

Nuclear submarines don't make mushroom clouds when they get torpedoed. They just leak, sink, and spread a little radioactive material at worst.

[dogscoff]

It's a fact, Giant robots are the coolest thing ever, although tanks are good, big stomping robots own.

Well, actually, the coolest thing ever is a big viking stomping robot.


As the evidence above clearly demonstrates, big stompy robots ownz tanks.

[ March 28, 2003, 15:39: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[gregebowman]

Actually, I had forgotten about Renegade Legion. I played BattleTech, Star Trek and FASA's cyberpunk game, but never did play RL. Too bad FASA folded. They put out some good products, and that meant you didn't have to play AD&D all of the time. The other game company I supported was Steve Jackson Games and their GURPS system. If no one has played it, give it a try. It's mostly a skill point system, but it so adaptable, you can play in almost genre that your imagination can take you.

[Desdinova]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

quote:

---

I was really saddened that Battletech got all the glory over Renegade L. I thought the RL universe to be far more compelling and realistic than a nuclear reactor in a battlemech that didnt vape a city when the mech went boom boom.

Nuclear reactors just don't go up like that unless you're REALLY trying.
Think about it, why would you want to carry around a critical mass of uranium if its not intended to be a bomb? Rather, you just need a small very sub-critical pile, which will power you for years.

Nuclear submarines don't make mushroom clouds when they get torpedoed. They just leak, sink, and spread a little radioactive material at worst.

---

i thought the reactors were fusion reactors not fission. from what i remember of the description of them they worked (scifi technobabble description of course) by shooting a deuterium pellet with lasers to the point of a fusion reaction that was contained in a magnetic bottle. it would seem to me that if the bottle was breached there would be an explosion, maybe not emough to take out a city but enough to take out the mech and everything in the immediate vicinity.

regarding renegade legion. there were two games for it that i remember the first was a old strategy game based upon the rules of the board game. it even did missions based upon the rules. as your characters advanced you gained points that you could use to customize your ships.
the second one was a flight sim called Renegade Legion: Battle for Jacobs Star. you were a young Plutarch who disobeyed a cowardly order to retreat and actually took out a squadron of Spiculums. as a result your were busted down in rank and shiped to the middle of nowhere just as a Tog offensive starts. if you lose you die and there were 3 levels of victory depending on your difficulty setting. it was a fun game also.

[ March 31, 2003, 01:18: Message edited by: desdinova ]

[Dawn Falcon]

Actually, for most of the things you need nuclear power, if you can lug the weight (it's not as efficient) and are worried about explosions, use a pebble bed reactor.

They CAN'T blow up. Sure, a direct hit will spray radioactive pebbles everywhere, but that's not nearly as bad as a meltdown.

Which CAN happen with a fission reactors. Fusion reactors like BT CAN explode..but ONLY if their shielding fails catastrophically. If there's time for the (hydrogen) feed to shut down, no boom.

But if there's a critical failure? boom.

[Suicide Junkie]

I thought the reactors were fusion reactors not fission. from what i remember of the description of them they worked (scifi technobabble description of course) by shooting a deuterium pellet with lasers to the point of a fusion reaction that was contained in a magnetic bottle.

Fusion via pellets is a pretty good design, and realistic given the beastly lasers you have available.

Magnetic bottles are just that; magnetic fields. They can't be "breached", though they could be distorted by an EMP (if not for the big metal faraday cage of a mech they're carried in) or the generator (big electromagnet?) could be disabled.

Fusion is hard to start, so you'd only get one of the pellets fusing during your explosion. (Ie: the one that was burning at the time.)
And since the reactor can handle these things going off steadily during combat, it certainly isn't going to be a city buster (Note that the magnetic bottle will hold charged particles, rather then neutral ones, so there will have to be a decent physical container too.)

[ March 31, 2003, 03:42: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Desdinova]

Originally posted by Dawn Falcon:
Fusion reactors like BT CAN explode..but ONLY if their shielding fails catastrophically. If there's time for the (hydrogen) feed to shut down, no boom.

But if there's a critical failure? boom.

like being hit by a PPC through the chest? (after you have lost all armor and stuff like that of course)

[Mephisto]

A fusion reactor will not explode IIRC. To keep the plasma at the required temperature of several million ° Celsius you have to keep up a high degree of pressure. The moment the magnetic fields are distorted the pressure is released and the fusion reaction ceases. The temperature of the plasma declines dramatically. You get no explosion whatsoever and only the plasma may damage the reactor and the vicinity. But as I already said, with the magnetic field gone the plasma cools down imminently to the point were it isn't harmful any more to the reactor.
The BT rule crew was even aware of it but kept the catastrophic damage event in the rules for “eye candy” (it’s written somewhere in the rules).

[RiTz21]

hehe It's interesting how the topic of the thread has evoled to the current Renegade Leagion/Fusion reactor discussion !!!

Hell, I do not even remember posting about a BattleTech shipset.. hehe How much information does one looses to memory loss !!? (oUPS another off subject topic.. hehehe)

RiTz21