User:S.gage

Hello,

I have been playing BattleTech since the early 90's, and I have followed a lot of the story line. I got out of the game for a couple of years (while I studied in graduate school, I did not know anyone who played, and had precious little free time). Now that I have my degree, I live close to where I grew up, I have gotten back into the game.

Like most BattleTech fans, I love the mecha - I have a copy of every Technical Readout (save the "revised"). My favorite BattleMech is the Marauder class - illustrated by Duane Loose, of course ;) (No offense to Kevin Long, his Marauder is fantastic, too, though I am a much bigger fan of his Marauder IIC). Just something about this 'Mech; aesthetically appealing and tough - I've never had even a MAD-3R shot out from under my MechWarrior (luck? or maybe my opponents don't appreciate the Marauder). The Timber Wolf is quite appealing for Clan confrontations, but I am becoming increasingly more fond of the Storm Crow.

As for plotline, my interests are the deep periphery, lost worlds, history of the Inner Sphere, and pre-invasion Clan history. I enjoyed Historical: Operation Klondike (recommended for Clan enthusiasts) and Era Digest: Golden Century, and I hope Catalyst intends on releasing more supplements (ex: Battle of Tokasha, or a "Brush Wars" style Clan sourcebook :) ) and a TRO with more early Clan BattleMechs and 1st-2nd gen OmniMechs (the Coyotl and Lupus are pretty cool - FM: Warden Clans mentions 1 design in each weight class - the light and assault first-generation Omnis designed by Clan Coyote would also be awesome to have :) ). These supplements would make second line Clan units more interesting and be really useful for desperate frontline units embroiled in an all-or-nothing war Clan War, and are really cool background.

Recent Stuff

I've been busy sprucing up the Reunification War, Rim Worlds Republic, House Amaris and Amaris Civil War, and most recently I've been adding sections and links to the LAAF and AFFS sections, and tactfully remerging the various Lyran Commonwealth and Lyran Alliance pages. During my down time, I have also been working on several ongoing projects, including adding representative images (taken from various Field Manuals) depicting war materiel in parade/field colors.

Also, finally got around to adding some of the Clan retrofits of classic IS BattleMechs from The Battle for Twycross. I also completed family trees for each of the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere last week. Should have some more stuff coming down the pipeline.

Project Planets

I'm using a little of my free time to work on generating accurate extrapolated distances between systems for Phase 6 of the planet overhaul. All data is being kept until the pages are ready for the 6th stage (so far, 0 systems waiting). As there is no rush for the time being, I've focused on systems within the Periphery (my region of interest), and have completed several proto-states, pirate realms, Clan Space, MH/LL and the MOC (~250 systems, or 9% of all published systems). My next 2 planned realms are TC/CP and then RWR. I am intentionally delaying on realms that border DC and coreward-spinward Periphery states, because I fear I may have to repeat some of these planets when the next Handbook is released.

Using the table on p. 86 of Combat Operations, I am dividing the remaining work between these factions: Inner Sphere - DC, FS, CC, FWL, LC, TH (2750 using the 2822 maps with previous borders) Periphery - RWR, OA, TC/CP, Jarnfolk, and Independents/Colonies

These classifications cover nearly all of the worlds in the Human Sphere.

Absence

Again, lots to report. I have accepted an offer to study calcium signalling in kidney failure, starting within the month. My manuscript was accepted (though I gave up first authorship to allow my co-worker to get it done), and should be published in the near future in The Journal of General Physiology. Things also ended with my girlfriend, but otherwise I am optomistic. Thank you for your understanding - sickness set me back, but I am finally getting my life back.--S.gage 04:35, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Long time since my last post. My page is getting a little cluttered, so I just got rid of some of this old news.

The paper (previous post) was published in June. Also since June, I've been working (a lot) researching calcium signaling, and a small part of my work is in review and being considered for publication. More details if it gets in press. BT-wise, not much to report, except that I am waiting for hardcopies of 'Historical: Operation Klondike' and 'Technical Readout: 3085'. S.gage must be a very boring guy. I have not made a useful post in a little while, but I'm still around if anyone needs me.--S.gage 02:53, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

I just completed my first round of treatments for lymphoma. Pretty tired, but still holding strong and the docs say they caught it very early. Wish me luck!--S.gage

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