OBT Forum

Where there are question marks we should wait for new products to point the way to what is correct.  But with everything else the SLSB should still be valid. Truthfully for all of the improved fact checking I found the new handbooks to be less informative then the original house books and periphery book.  I am disinclined to discount those details just because they are not in the new books.

Keep in mind that "fact checking" doesn't necessarily indicate fictional "fact," just that names, dates, places, etc. have consistent spelling and dates: one of the main problems with the older FASA books. It's something, that for the most part, I think CGL has done a good job of correcting & maintaining. 

The thing is, almost all (if not all) BattleTech products are universally written from an in-game perspective. They're subject to the same biases, lies, fabrications and subjectivity as any real news reporting, or work of factual history. With most of these sources written by pre-Schism ComStar, I'm inclined to disregard all of it as misinformation in light of, or lack of newer material.

TPTB have mentioned this on occasion (explaining the original BattleMechs from TRO 2750 comes immediately to mind), and while it is an explanation from a real world source to vindicate retcons it has an in-game application for the same reason.     

Again, the question of validity is a moot point when discussing fictional explanations from fictional sources, but fun to do nevertheless. It's all part of being a fan.