OBT Forum
General BattleTech => Alternate Universe => Topic started by: SSJGohan3972 on November 20, 2011, 11:43:51 PM
-
I've been working on this for some time and I wanted to present it here in its first completed version (ie all the sections are now complete, I'm hoping to polish it up and make it more presentable but its basic form is there). I originally had more than 200 pages in mind but trimmed it down some when I found I wanted to keep some of the mysteries alive. This document builds off of my Alternate History (a small taste of it you might have read in the Ripple Effect short story on this site) and fleshes out the universe circa 3028, just before the 4th Succession War. Avid BattleTech readers will (hopefully) appreciate the sections and rundowns I pulled from various sourcebooks (heck the intro is ripped from FMU albeit slightly altered for the time).
Anyways let me know what you think, I'm quite excited that I finally have this finished (writing) and can move on to my other planned short stories (I have two other early clan ones planned along with a trilogy much like the Warrior trilogy in canon although short stories not full novels of course) and a TRO 3031 but those are all in the beginning stages.
Thanks, SSJGohan3972
Edit: I updated and cleaned up Field Manual AU: 3028 and posted it later in this thread, I will leave the original here but you can find the updated version here: http://ourbattletech.com/forum/parallel-universes/field-manual-au-3028/msg18012/#msg18012
-
I will look at it.
-
interesting stuff
-
Interesting changes.
-
Hmmmm The Ice Hellions Fallen Oh No My favorite Rivals and Moving targets gone
-
Hmmmm The Ice Hellions Fallen Oh No My favorite Rivals and Moving targets gone
I was so saddened.
Interesting ideas.
Did the Wolf's Dragoons go into the Periphery to complete their survey?
-
Hmmmm The Ice Hellions Fallen Oh No My favorite Rivals and Moving targets gone
I was so saddened.
Interesting ideas.
Did the Wolf's Dragoons go into the Periphery to complete their survey?
Yeah the Ice Hellions demise was precipitated by the damage they took in Op: KLONDIKE, my short story: Ripple Effect covers most of that. I'm starting another one that will cover the next year or so with the end of the Wolverines (and explain why they didn't become the Not-Named in my timeline more).
I had the Wolf's Dragoons head to the periphery for a couple reasons, but yes completing their survey was one of them (I didn't include it but I imagine they offered employment to the Outworlds Alliance but were turned down). I also thought working for the periphery nations would be a great way to reduce piracy and boost the collective economy and military power of the Inner Sphere, the reasoning being that they could have a larger effect in a "smaller pond" so to speak. The Wolf's Dragoons and the Mercenary Corps of Engineers idea is one of my main justifications for the changes to the inner sphere I have made, beyond how an altered Wolverine destruction would make a more powerful sect of ComStar later in the timeline.
My plan for them now is to sign on with the FedCom after the start of the 4th War, but participate in the Capellan side of the conflict and maybe foil a comstar plot or two ;D
-
Tagged - getting dragged out to go christmas shopping - again.
-
Not bad! Looking forward to reading more in the near future?
-
...Its impressive! I do have a couple notes, though.
For somebody unfamiliar with your AU, I think you might want to include a short explaination of your project. Explain the broad outline of events, so the reader is aware of the differences, probably before the 'Preparations' section.
...And you really need a front- and back cover. Art makes all the difference on a project like this. Its about the only thing I'd like to see added, it looks interesting, I can't wait to spend more time with it.
-
...Its impressive! I do have a couple notes, though.
For somebody unfamiliar with your AU, I think you might want to include a short explaination of your project. Explain the broad outline of events, so the reader is aware of the differences, probably before the 'Preparations' section.
...And you really need a front- and back cover. Art makes all the difference on a project like this. Its about the only thing I'd like to see added, it looks interesting, I can't wait to spend more time with it.
Kind of like the "How to Use this Book" Section in many canon sourcebooks but also to explain the difference from canon? I like that idea and will incorporate it in the revised edition (which I'm working on now).
Art is something that is far from my forte but I had started to see that it would be necessary and started to incorporate it more at the Mercenary section and later. As you can probably tell this is just a Microsoft Word document saved as a PDF. I'm looking for what I can use to make the document in a nicer and more aesthetically appealing format, cover art would be a large portion of this.
Thanks for the input!
Not bad! Looking forward to reading more in the near future?
This is just the 1st full draft of this document, I will be polishing it up but yes I am also starting work on another short story (really part 2 of a trilogy with my original short story: http://ourbattletech.com/forum/parallel-universes/battletech-au-ripple-effect/ (http://ourbattletech.com/forum/parallel-universes/battletech-au-ripple-effect/)) and have my notes for several more short stories, a TRO 3031 (not a full TRO mind you but I'm trying :) ) and a Historical: 4th Succession War. My original plan was to do a Historical: Brush Wars and Historical:3039 but as that is a lot of stuff and I can't hope to compete with the awesomeness that is the canon versions of these sourcebooks, I may do the three historicals as mini-sourcebooks (maybe 50-75 pages dealing mostly with the changes from canon) before moving onto the Clan Invasion, if my TRO 3031 goes well I'll probably want to do another dealing with new stuff from the 3030's-3040's before the Clan Invasion. I have the 4th Sucession War and the period after to about 3037 almost completely fleshed out (and a murky timeline up until 3050) but the Clan Invasion (and even if it happens!) is at this point further out than I'm looking yet.
Anyways I kinda started to ramble there but yes you can expect more in the future (near may be a relative term)
Tagged - getting dragged out to go christmas shopping - again.
I look forward to your input and have "fun" shopping :)
-
Also tagged.
I had problems downloading it for some reason. I'm checking the server now.
-
Also tagged.
I had problems downloading it for some reason. I'm checking the server now.
I'm betting the size might cause issues. When I originally made it into a PDF on my PC it came out as 17 GBs, just utilizing the PDF printer on my Mac cut that by 10 GBs (apparently the one I have installed on my PC sucks), but I had to deal with a bunch of formatting issues between Office 2010 and Office 2011 of course :) (just a few but still you'd think they'd work together)
-
Kind of like the "How to Use this Book" Section in many canon sourcebooks but also to explain the difference from canon? I like that idea and will incorporate it in the revised edition (which I'm working on now).
Art is something that is far from my forte but I had started to see that it would be necessary and started to incorporate it more at the Mercenary section and later. As you can probably tell this is just a Microsoft Word document saved as a PDF. I'm looking for what I can use to make the document in a nicer and more aesthetically appealing format, cover art would be a large portion of this.
Thanks for the input!
...Gimp is fairly easy to use, and you can alter the art from the official website. That's all I did for my prospecive cover.
Now - SPECIFIC art - a volunteer may offer to help, but actually having it FINISHED - is a bitch to find. I'm still considering going against my wife's wishes and paying some art studet from the local University to do it.
-
I have GIMP and I don't really have an issue editing individual pieces or work (the quality of my work is another matter). My real issue is finding a program to compile the work in, as I said I just have this in a Word document but its not very friendly for making something of this scale. Off the suggestions of a friend and co-worker of mine I tried a website editor (iWeb) because you can print to PDF. I tinkered around but have abandoned it because I can't find a way to get multiple pages in the PDF document to line up correctly (pixels don't line up with whatever adobe uses in PDFs apparently) so unless I can find a way to merge multiple PDF files into one I'll have to find another program to utilize, I attached the beginnings of what I was tinkering with (most of Clan Fire Mandrill) I liked it because it looked fairly decent imo (pulled the borders from Reunification War) and would reduce the size of the document.
-
I have GIMP and I don't really have an issue editing individual pieces or work (the quality of my work is another matter). My real issue is finding a program to compile the work in, as I said I just have this in a Word document but its not very friendly for making something of this scale. Off the suggestions of a friend and co-worker of mine I tried a website editor (iWeb) because you can print to PDF. I tinkered around but have abandoned it because I can't find a way to get multiple pages in the PDF document to line up correctly (pixels don't line up with whatever adobe uses in PDFs apparently) so unless I can find a way to merge multiple PDF files into one I'll have to find another program to utilize, I attached the beginnings of what I was tinkering with (most of Clan Fire Mandrill) I liked it because it looked fairly decent imo (pulled the borders from Reunification War) and would reduce the size of the document.
...Uh-oh - sounds like that's going to impact my project too. I have multiple word files, kept separate to prevent accidents, and was going to turn them in to one MASSIVE file before saving as .PDF. Would that work for you?
Because my copy of Word won't save as .PDF, somebody mentioned Openoffice.org(?) for me to add margin art and sidebars. ...Maybe ask Knightmare to look at the problem. After all, they've done some pretty impressive fanbooks here - somebody did something right!
-
Open Office is like Microsoft Office (well almost as it changes a couple of things but nothing important).
And to make pdf out of Word, just install PDF Creator.
And if you want some editing work to be done, mail it to me and say what you want and I will see what I can do.
-
...'pdf creater'... More info, please.
-
...Actually, I just finished the book, and it is very well done... But I did notice the individual Clans and their information is split onto 2 pages. Perhaps there's some way for it to be shrunk onto one page? Perhaps a smaller font?
-
For the next level of layout etc. you can always try Scribus, a freeware version of InDesign.
-
...'pdf creater'... More info, please.
Basically you install a pdf printer (in the this case he suggests the one named pdf creator) there are several free ones on the internet. Installing them will install a program along with a printer object on the computer. Then when you want to "save" something as a pdf you go to print and select the pdf printer as your printer object. It will "print" it to a pdf file (after asking you for the name, location, etc.). This is the incredibly confusing way free pdf file creation works (ie those of use who don't have bunches of money for adobe acrobat) and the mac os has one built in (just go to print on a mac and save to pdf is an option, you have to kinda look around a bit though but there is a "PDF" button with a down arrow)
I will look into this pdf creator though, maybe its better than the one I have on my PC (hopefully) and I'm hoping to find some program to merge pdf files (if I can do that I'll have a way to make this document look really good, basically by doing it one page at a time and merging the PDFs)
...Actually, I just finished the book, and it is very well done... But I did notice the individual Clans and their information is split onto 2 pages. Perhaps there's some way for it to be shrunk onto one page? Perhaps a smaller font?
Thanks, glad you like it.
Yes that is something I was tackling. I had several clans reduced to 1-2 pages instead of the 2-3 they are now but the formatting started to mess with eachother (as I said Word is not useful for projects this size) and I would setup one section only to see it mess with sections 20 pages away even though there were several full page breaks between. There are also several instances of similar wastes of space throughout the IS, Mercenary and Periphery sections that I hope to trim down in editing once I figure out what program I want to use.
For the next level of layout etc. you can always try Scribus, a freeware version of InDesign.
Awesome, I'll look into that, Thanks!
-
For the next level of layout etc. you can always try Scribus, a freeware version of InDesign.
Bang! That's your best bet. InDesign is really the best option, but unless you're wiling to shell out the cash for the Adobe Suite there's very little for advanced publication layout.
We use InDesign for EVERYTHING. Magazine layout, newsletters, the works.
You can use Adobe Pro to merge multiple PDF documents into a single file and then reduce its size. I'm not sure if the free Reader works it. I might have a copy of Adobe CS2 for PC somewhere and Mac CS4, but I'm not sure I still have a valid license key.
-
Oh! Cent13 is working with Indesign for TRO:3063 - Scribus. Sounds interesting.
On the other hand, apparently the later versions of Windows offers the print to .PDF option. I wonder if I take multiple .PDFs to Staples if they can do something about putting them together.
-
also, for something to keep your words straight
http://www.editorium.com/threetools.htm
, something I am about to invest in for my company and myself.
-
Oh! Cent13 is working with Indesign for TRO:3063 - Scribus. Sounds interesting.
On the other hand, apparently the later versions of Windows offers the print to .PDF option. I wonder if I take multiple .PDFs to Staples if they can do something about putting them together.
Maybe, but it'll cost ya. You're probably better off seeing your local print company store. They'll have the layout software on hand (if they offer design services.) It'll still cost a penny, but if might be higher quality.
-
also, for something to keep your words straight http://www.editorium.com/threetools.htm
, something I am about to invest in for my company and myself.
We utilized similar software at the university to teach and help students. It's not 100% fool proof, but super helpful when grading 125 papers per week or running through large research proposals. Still, nothing beats Eyeballs Mk. 1 and a copy of the AP Style guide.
-
I agree, but having these tools do most of the repetitive stuff, means you can proof read more than copy edit.
-
I use inDesign for my work, but it's my wife copy, and takes some getting use to.
There's a program called Scribus at http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus which is open source and very well supported.
What I have been doing for my AU is writing the files in Open Office and saving them, then copying them into InDesign and making what changes need to be made there. Scribus will print directly to .pdf as well IIRC.
Davout
-
I took the suggestions here (most notably using Scribus) and have labored to make a more presentable version of my Field Manual.
I'm hoping to take what I've learned in doing this and crank out a few historicals to advance my storyline so if anyone's interested you can look forward to those.
PS. If anyone has used Scribus and can help me with making it look better I'd be very appreciative. I notice especially when looking from a more zoomed out perspective that the writing seems to be randomly bolded when its not supposed to be and harder to read in some sections which is werid because its all the same font except for a few words bolded or italicized (not whole lines as it can appear).
-
Looks good and quite a solid amount of detail there. A few formatting and textual errors, but they can always be picked up for v.2.
-
PS. If anyone has used Scribus and can help me with making it look better I'd be very appreciative. I notice especially when looking from a more zoomed out perspective that the writing seems to be randomly bolded when its not supposed to be and harder to read in some sections which is werid because its all the same font except for a few words bolded or italicized (not whole lines as it can appear).
That's just a rendering issue that has to do with the zoom level and the display, if you go to normal view, or 100% view, and it looks fine, it will print out fine. I've run into the same thing in the past.
Scribus also has a pretty good forum as well....
Davout
-
Very Nice Interesting