Hello again, all! Please consider this an early Christmas present from me to everyone else here in deep gratitude for my having been made to feel so welcome here since I joined!
The .zip file which you can download by clicking on the download link at the bottom of this page contains a folder and its many sub-folders and sub-sub-folders which contain a compilation of ‘Mechs from my
Victor Victorious AU, which (as my .sig file says) you can find at
https://www.ourbattletech.com/forum/parallel-universes/victor-victorious-redux/.
This AU diverges from the canon timeline in 3055, when
both Melissa
and Katherine Steiner-Davion rather than just Melissa alone were assassinated at the instigation of Ryan Steiner. As a result the Federated Commonwealth never split apart and the FedCom Civil War never happened. Operation Guerrero still happened, but it was a total failure for the Free Worlds League and only a partial success for the Capellan Confederation. The St. Ives Compact retained its independence from the CC. From 3068 to 3070 the Successor States joined the Word of Blake in a campaign to drive the Invading Clans from the Inner Sphere. When the WoB subsequently launched a genocidal attack on the Clan Homeworlds without consulting the rest of the Inner Sphere, recriminations and mutual distrust spiraled into a brutal war not unlike the Jihad in the canon timeline, waged from 3072 to 3079.
Because the period from 3057 to 3067 was altogether less eventful in this timeline than it was in the canon timeline, nothing like the ferment of political and military upheaval that drove programs like Project Phoenix forward at breakneck pace in the canon timeline during that period happened here. As a result there was far more conservatism in ‘Mech design and nothing like Project Phoenix (or its Diamond Shark equivalent) ever happened either.
Although the Diamond Sharks (and later the Sea Foxes) still eventually made a great deal of profit selling Clantech ‘Mechs to the Successor States, they did it mostly by selling existing models that had already been in production for generations, because there was never a point in time where it was
unquestionably in the best interests of the Sharks for them to psych themselves up to make a break with the fundamental conservatism of the Clan mindset (by embracing technological innovation on a large scale) in order for them to be able to make even more money. As a result, few Clan second-line ‘Mechs introduced before the Clan Invasion of the Inner Sphere in 3050 have ever given rise to any new variants incorporating new tech. Such innovations in weapons technology as the Clans have made since the Clan Invasion have mostly benefitted only OmniMechs (because of course it’s much quicker and easier to experiment with new configurations for them) and second-line ‘Mechs introduced since the Clan Invasion.
There are numerous ‘Mechs from 3058 onwards in this timeline that have the same names and model numbers as ones from the canon timeline but have different weapons and equipment loadouts. There are also many more which are entirely original.
The original 'Mechs in this compilation are nearly all actually just variants of existing designs from the canon timeline. About half of these were created by me personally, while the rest were created by the other three members of our group. We never really bothered trying to keep track of who came up with which variant (and, in any case, my players don't like to advertise the fact that they play RPGs to other people because of all the tiresome mockery some other people will still direct their way on hearing it), so it's impossible to credit each variant to its creator individually. All of the tiny handful of entirely original designs in this compilation were created by me, albeit with most of my inspiration for them coming from one or more canon designs. Think of all of the original 'Mechs here as being "Created by Hominid Mk II and Associates." if you like.
There are
no new-look “Reseen” designs like those in
TRO: Project Phoenix or the ongoing Kickstarter event over at the CBT website in this timeline, either Inner Sphere or Clan. (Yes, this
is because we all hate them!) The
only 'Mechs which are called by an old name but have a new look are those which have a II, III or IV added to the end of the name, which are technically new designs.
All ‘Mech files in this collection are in BattleMech Designer text file (.txt) format, even though all of those incorporating equipment more advanced than Level 2 had to be at least partly typed out by hand. (So why did I go to that much trouble over them, you ask? I just like the format!)
Don’t try to open any of these particular files with BattleMech Designer if you have it installed on your computer – the program can’t load them properly. It may seize up and you may then have to restart your computer to clear it.
Please take the time to read the
whole of the
ReadMe file before trying to read anything else - it'll make the whole thing a lot easier to understand than it will be if you don't!