BattleCorps

Revision as of 06:55, 2 March 2014 by Frabby (talk | contribs)
This article is about the website. For the mercenary unit, see Battle Corps.
BattleCorps logo

BattleCorps is a subscription-based website that features new, original BattleTech fiction, game scenarios and "news" stories that add flavor to the fictional universe (including new units or variants), as well as product previews and other downloads. In this fashion, it is essentially a subscription-based online magazine. Its content is fully canonical for the BattleTech universe, except for certain individual pieces of fiction such as April Fools jokes.

Starting with The Corps in 2008, a print anthology is published every year containing selected stories that had published via BattleCorps roughly four years earlier (i.e. the stories from the first anthology in 2008 had mostly been published online in 2004).

Overview

BattleCorps is owned and run by InMediaRes Productions LLC, the parent company of Catalyst Game Labs. InMediaRes was founded in 2003 by Loren and Heather Coleman with the expressed purpose of licensing the right to publish new BattleTech fiction to the Internet from WizKids.[1] WizKids granted this license to IMR in the fall of 2003, which directly led to the creation of BattleCorps in August 2004.[2]

The current Managing Editor is Jason Schmetzer, having taken over from Loren Coleman in 2008.

BattleCorps provides most of its content in the form of PDF files for download. Individual special stories or other pieces of fiction aside, these files have a largely uniform layout. Until October 2012 they used to have a sidebar on the left, usually displaying the protagonist's House or unit crest; sometimes, artwork is also included. An alternate printer-friendly file is usually provided that is reduced to black-and-white text. This format had roughly 350 words per (full) page of text.

With the publication of the first part of The Eagle's Plunge on 04 October 2012, the layout was changed for new fiction, including ongoing serials (namely, The Nellus Academy Incident). The new format resembles the layout of BattleTech fiction in print in the various contemporary rulebooks and sourcebooks and features a full-color frame and appropriate BattleTech era logo, and double-column print. This new format has approximately twice the word count per page.

Subscribers automatically have access to all new files released for the duration of their subscription, including those from a previous subscription if an inactive account is reactivated. Blitzkrieg publications are also ported to BattleCorps (in PDF format) for subscribers shortly after publication.

The website also features a forum for subscribers.

BattleShop

InMediaRes maintains an online store known as the BattleShop as part of the BattleCorps website. It is not required to be a BattleCorps subscriber to buy from BattleShop, but BattleCorps subscribers automatically receive a flat 5% discount and some products, namely old BattleCorps fiction, are only for sale to current subscribers.

Besides selling current BattleTech and Shadowrun products, both print and PDF and some of them BattleCorps-exclusive, BattleShop carries numerous out-of-print products in the form of searchable PDF files generated from scans of the books. For legal reasons, unseen artwork was removed from the PDF files, in some cases including the product cover.

BattleCorps carries a number of free PDF products including game aids such as counters, and various April Fools publications.

New or returning BattleCorps members can also purchase BattleCorps publications that were published at a time when they were not subscribing; back fiction is only available to members with a current subscription however.

News section

Besides the fiction it provides, the BattleCorps site maintains a news page called Interstellar News Network (INN). The news section header reads "News from the frontlines".

The overview with the individual messages' headers and "want to know more?" links is not restricted, but most (although not all) newscasts are truncated when an unregistered user attempts to open them, with an invitation to join BattleCorps and purchase a subscription.

The news section is divided into six different "channels", with one of six channel logos attached to each news article accordingly, but the distinction is rather blurred. With the example of MilSpec, all channels contain a mixture of in-universe and out-of-universe news covering a broad range of topics. The channels are as follows:

General

General

The General channel, as the name implies, covers a broad range of topics both in-universe (politics, accidents and natural desasters, etc.) and out-of-universe (sourcebook previews, interviews, real-world articles loosely related to BattleTech or science fiction in general, and administrative issues of BattleCorps).

MilSpec

MilSpec

The MilSpec channel, also often referred to as the MilSpecs, introduces new variants of existing 'Mechs and vehicles. The MilSpec article section providing game stats is restricted to BattleCorps subscribers, and not freely accessible.

see also: List of MilSpecs articles

Arts and Leisure

Arts and Leisure

The Arts and Leisure channel contains a mix of in-universe and out-of-universe news.

The former category presents reviews of in-universe books, and in-universe "Art and Leisure" news attributed to in-universe news services such as Stellar Pulse Today, Savannah Guardian and Entertainment Daily.

The latter category is similar to the out-of-universe articles on the General channel.

ScandalVids

ScandalVids

The ScandalVids channel's content is similar to the in-character content under Arts and Leisure, but presented in a yellow-press fashion that renders much of the information doubtful from an in-universe viewpoint, in the fashion of Canon Rumors.

Solaris Broadcasting Co.

Solaris Broadcasting Co.

Up until 03 May 2006, news on the Solaris Broadcasting Co. channel were concerned exclusively with out-of-universe issues, including administrative issues and the "TRO Refresher" series where subscribers could submit unique variants of given 'Mech designs for consideration for official publication.

From 4 May 2006 onwards, the channel carried exclusively in-universe news about Solaris VII-centered issues and the Jihad in general.

Isle of the Blessed

Isle of the Blessed

Starting on 9 July 2006, altogether 13 entries on the Isle of the Blessed channel gave the personal logs of people involved in the fighting for New Avalon during the Jihad: Precentor Geoffrey Zucker, Corean Enterprises test pilot Robert Doucette, and an unnamed Word of Blake MechWarrior with the 44th Shadow Division.

Download section

The forum contains a download section with arts and previews. Like the news section, it is fully accessible to active subscribers, i.e. irrespective of whether or not a news item or downloadable artwork was published during their subscription.

Free teaser stories

Several stories are available from the site for free download to non-subscribers as a teaser. These include:

There is also a BattleCorps Fiction Sampler provided for free download from the main BattleTech website including three of the aforementioned teaser stories, as well as two others and the first chapter of a third.

The Battle Corps

Many BattleCorps subscribers take part in the BattleCorps Regiment, a group that posts pictures of painted miniatures and roleplays through the forum. This group was canonized as a mercenary unit, The Battle Corps.

See Also

References

External Links