My Life As A Gamer: A Reminder That Big Game Is Not OnmiGame

Leave it to the Black Pants Legion to use a shitpost to make a point.

This was not their intent. Tex in particular is on record with preferring BattleTech "Giant Robot as Walking Dreadnought" paradigm where play resembles a shooting match between Bismark and Hood (i.e. beating on the armor until it breaks or you get a lucky hit, as naval warfare of the era actually played out).

What it does point out is how particular the game is about what it does, and that in turn shapes the setting.

I like Land-Air 'Mechs, and dislike how the Clan Invasion was used as an excuse to excise them from the game. (The last LAM factory got destroyed, and no one bothered to build new ones).

Powered Armors are still janky, such that they get a subgame to attempt to handle them, but still pop like tin cans being peppered by Boy Scouts using rimfire rifles in real games so the Armored Trooper comparison hit well there.

Beam Sabers, Head Hawks/Rods, and similar weapons? Absent, despite House Weeb being right there complete with 'Mech designs that use melee weapons. Despite that the Hatchetman and Axeman exist, and other melee-ready 'Mechs. Cockpits that aren't in the head? Still not the norm.

Let's not forget the stupidity of ignoring hand-held guns or other weapons pods until recently, or user-detactable external things like fuel tanks or armor sets (so you could, infact, properly replicate the Armored Valkyrie or the FAST Packs of the late war instead of making them seperate 'Mech designs). "It's just cosmetic, bro!" Even then, the rules are just stupid; Mekton Zeta and Silhouette (via Jovian Chronicles) do all of this far better than BattleTech.

Oh, and that joke about the camoflage? That's straight from Dougram, where the technology was part of the plot in an episode. Until recently, not even an attempt to try for such things. Nope, you just adjusted your paint job if you had the time and hoped they didn't have thermal imaging of any sort.

The point here is that BattleTech is very much its own thing. It cannot be appreciated and enjoyed if you come into it expecting it to be something that it is not- and it is not Macross, Gundam, VOTOMS, Dougram or any other mecha property made into a wargame. It's Age of Battleship naval combat as a stompy robot game set against a Feudal Future that Dune minus Arakis and all that, with a few subgames for those interested in dogfighting, being the sad footpounders dodging murderbots, naval combat, being Someone That Matters, or commanding armies without taking a weekend to do one battle.

If you don't like this, play something else. R. Tal, DP9, Palladium (believe it or not), and others have their own mecha games or licenes for those shows you like. Try those instead.