Karagin
05/13/02 02:45 PM
63.173.170.230
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How can a group of Pirates have the skills and the factory to make endo steel???
I can see them at some point finding away to get a mech built, and maybe, just maybe having someone fianace their group via a mech factory, but having them being able to make endosteel and other HIGH tech items is a nuts.
Anyone else feel this way?
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Cray
05/13/02 03:07 PM
204.245.128.3
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I'll repeat my CBT answer here:
I don't find the idea of pirates getting endosteel hard to believe.
I do find the idea of pirates being able to form raw endosteel into internal structures, let alone building entire mechs from scratch, quite dubious.
However, that's an uninformed opinion as I lack a TR with the Brigand in it.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Greyslayer
05/13/02 04:41 PM
137.172.211.9
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I don't find it impossible for endo-steel. Pirates of the time spend most of their time in near zero-g. The main requirement for endo-steel is a zero-g facility, something not foreign to them. Remember there was a pirate group in Kuritan space that were one of the few groups actually able to repair Jump Ships pre-3050.
I do agree with Cray though, to fashion the endo-steel into mech structure, create the myomers and other equipment and process the rare radioactives to go into the mech's engine.
Then again they probably have that 'insta-mech' powder that everyone else has in 3067 where all they need is water and 'presto' a top-of-the-line fighting machine  .
Greyslayer
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KamikazeJohnson
05/13/02 04:49 PM
209.202.47.12
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OTOH, it depends how long-standing and successful the pirates are...it isn't inconceivable for pirates to capture 'Mechs and 'Mech parts, from which it's a small step to being able to repair them...if the pirates are rich enough..why not a 'Mech factory? It's unlikely, since the Houses would make a concentrated effort to wipe out any pirates that seemed even close to becoming that successful, but still...unlikely, yes. Impossible, no.
Peace is that glorious moment in history when everyone stands around reloading.
--Thomas Jefferson
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Greyslayer
05/13/02 06:19 PM
137.172.211.9
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Actually its closer to impossible than unlikely. Just by their simple methods pirates do not build things in the battletech universe except bounties on their heads and infamy gained by their acts. They take from those less able to defend against their forces and take what they can. Nearly all their equipment is salvaged or exchanged with a unscrupulous merchant for goods. If in the past the pirates came across say an old mech factory do you think they would have the presence of mind to mothball or keep the parts associated with the factory or sell them for immediate gain and just use the facility as a base of operations.
A counter point could be that Davion Command believed the Outworld's Alliance were a band of pirates and the Alliance had several mech facilities during this period. For a player though (unless blindingly supporting Davion Command decisions) Outworld's Alliance is just the Outworld's Alliance and a pirate is called a pirate, there is a distinction since the books are written for the 'third person'.
I could understand to a lesser extent if like Morrison's Extractors the Pirate band found a large cache of mechs (and considering the Star League practice of using lots of the same mechs in large groups then just refitting those mechs with weapons common to the district might be a better description), still Morrison's extractors had no way of maintaining their units for a couple of decades at least.
Greyslayer
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