What Does the Terran System Look Like In BattleTech?

Today we take a little journey through the lore of the Terran system. Which planets were terraformed? Where are people living other than Terra? Let's find out.
Update: Apparently Mercury isn't tidally locked. I learned something new today. This is what I get for not updating my brain frequently.
Channel memberships are go, so that's now the best way to help support the creation of this and other videos on the channel. Thank you!
Some images obtained from NASA, some from Pixabay.
BattleTech imagery remains the property of Topps.
#Battletech #CatalystGameLabs #Lore #SciFi #Comstar

[@jjsheets330]

With Blake’s infinite wisdom and guiding light, the Terran system was kept from those savages of the Inner Sphere for over 250 years. Blessed be Blake

[@MechanicalFrog]

O_o

[@JohnnySmithWhite-wd4ey]

Except for that pesky Stephan Amiris.

[@jjsheets330]

@@JohnnySmithWhite-wd4ey The guiding light of Blake happened after Amaris was dead 😒

[@melvinlemay7366]

Indeed. Too bad about that savage house scion Anastasius Focht and his military coup. Fortunately his actions finally forced many of the order to step out in faith and truly act to bring about the glorious future foretold by our great prophet.

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

​​@@melvinlemay7366 Too bad that vision involved glassing worlds.

[@tancar2004]

Minor correction. It has recently been discovered that Mercury is not tidally locked with the Sun. it wasn't discovered until about 10 years ago when the Messenger probe started constant observation. Before that every picture we took of the notoriously hard to photograph planet just happened to be of the same side. So astronomer's thought it was tidally locked. Mercury rotates in a 3:2 resonance with it's orbit. Simply put 2 years = 3 days.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Thank you for the clarification!

[@KillerOrca]

Considering the Clanners also apparently recycle intensely, those plasma powered elemental seperators are going to see a LOT of use...

[@MechanicalFrog]

Lots of scrap after that IlClan trial...

[@jlokison]

During the systems control by Comstar, with their lack of care about anything not on Terra or Luna, I wonder if their was any extra Solar trade with the Belters. I know they have little others might want but if the Magistracy was trying to revitalize their biotechnology industries there would be interest. Getting to and from would not be easy due to the Capellans. FWL, and Federated Commonwealth, but there are a lot of uninhabited stars not on the maps that could be used to charge a jump drive. This might be easier during the years of the Republic of the Sphere and Trinity Alliance though, as it wouldn't have to be done covertly.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Once the KF drives were up and running, terraforming stopped being profitable. It's just ComStar working their numbers. Sad but logical.

[@jamesbeard5513]

I would say the failure on Mars Terraforming occurred sometime before ComStar/Word of Blake moved the main sect of ROM there. Nothing keeps nosy neighbors out like an unbreathable atmosphere.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Yeah it would be nice to get some clarification but obviously CGL has bigger fish to fry than some random piece of lore fluff.

[@terryhiggins5077]

Fantastic job Frog. I cant imagine how many sourcebooks and obscure tidbits you had to sort through. The Sol system definitely is one the most important systems in the sphere yet I couldnt even tell exactly what the differences are from the real one other than the titan yards, Mars being colonised, and Amaris killing Venus for want of a super laser.

[@MechanicalFrog]

I've been basically living in the Word of Blake era sourcebooks for the past week...

[@sharlin648]

Excellent stuff as always! And huzzah for Pluto, you might want to look into the Belters, they're an intersting bunch and managed to maintain the SLDF's level of medical tech and even advance upon it.

[@MechanicalFrog]

I do mention the Belters near the end. They seem to have figured out the key for long term happiness.

[@sharlin648]

@@MechanicalFrog Aye, but mebbe do a video on them, there's shenanigans going on in the belt :D

[@MechanicalFrog]

I'll have to do some more digging to see what info is out there beyond what I have already found.

[@MechanicalFrog]

@@sharlin648 If I can find enough info to make it happen.

[@captainbanjo1617]

@@MechanicalFrogin battletech, that key to happiness seems to be to have nothing to do with mechs or house politics :p

[@thomasrobson6370]

I forgot that mercury was tidally locked. It's a wonder why the writers didn't say that their work permit colonies and mining Asus around the ring where the temperature of Mercury was bearable

[@MechanicalFrog]

I think I was told by someone in these comments that it's actually not locked but has an incredibly slow turn.

[@MeWantFudgeSickle]

In regards to Mars, the planet has an extremely weak magnetic field. Any atmosphere you added to it would need constant upkeep to replace whatever had been sanded away by the solar winds.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Indeed. The constant cost of upkeep is what prompted ComStar to focus elsewhere. It was just cheaper and easier to get resources from outside the system by jumpship.

[@Fryepod3628]

70 million during peak extraction?! That early on? Holy smokes. I mean.. industrial eras be like that. 😅 But those are some straggering numbers for the larger Battletech universe all around, that's some interesting stuff.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Pretty interesting how much time, money, and effort was put into terraforming before the KF drives made it not worth it.

[@franksmedley7372]

As Frog said, before the invention of the K-F Drive, it was actually 'worth it' to invest heavily into terraforming the planet. After? Not so much. Which is why Com Star never really felt the need to re-invest in Venus or Mars. Oh, and a population of 70 million, compared to Earth's 15 Billion? That's roughly 5 thousandths of one percent of Terra's population... insignificant, really.

[@mathewkelly9968]

23:13 considering BattleTech was written BEFORE we discovered any planets outside the solar system they did an amazingly good job ......... The major problems are planets around 'big' stars like Betelgeuse and Arcturus , and planets around white hot and shortlived stars like Sirius ......... But no one knew that then and not many know it now

[@MechanicalFrog]

Yeah, I think it's important that when we look at the system map of the Inner Sphere, there are lots of systems that aren't shown because they don't have any habitable or rocky planets.

[@davidgrunt]

The Belters are the truly free humans

[@MechanicalFrog]

Apparently.

[@jollyjakelovell6822]

A bit of gratitude is due you as well Mechanical Frog, for illustrating and expounding the rich lore that is BattleTech's. Thank you.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Thank you. Just doing my part to boost BattleTech so that new people can discover it and old farts like us can appreciate things that we might have missed along the way.

[@jollyjakelovell6822]

@@MechanicalFrog You are most welcome.

[@mathewkelly9968]

13:20 interesting partial wings only work in an atmosphere

[@vana.johnson8845]

Wow from Big Red 40K live stream to My Guy Mechanical Frog posting a few hours later. This in-depth interesting very well researched.

[@MechanicalFrog]

We're working hard to keep the BT content flowing.

[@yourseatatthetable]

Great video, but you've plenty of folks telling you thus. That you've covered a topic that few have to date is awesome. Personally, it would be nice to have an 'official' sourcebook dedicated to the Sol System and Terra as a whole.

[@MechanicalFrog]

That would be pretty neat. I'm really curious what makes it into the Universe book because there's just so much info out there. Most of it is going to be cut.

[@yourseatatthetable]

@@MechanicalFrog I image that a lot won't make it, otherwise the Universe book would be volumes. The obvious said, what doesn't make it might find it's way into other sourcebooks.

[@Darthsabi]

Thumbs up for the Pluto love

[@MechanicalFrog]

Pluto +++++

[@iller3]

_In your FACE, Neal!_

[@derekburge5294]

Huh?! Sorry, I was distracted thinking about that shining jewel, Terra.

[@MechanicalFrog]

I hear ya.

[@Bluehairedgirl89]

(Thank you for all the work you put into this video, it was great. Now I want to play a Terran character in the Battletech roleplay game.) Speaking as a periphery brat, it’s a really weird feeling listening to all this. A lot of people who talk about Terra treat it almost like a religion or at least holy ground for humanity. But it’s just so ordinary, maybe a bit more suited to humanity than most systems but it’s just so ordinary and kinda underwhelming. Also part of me is screaming about all the wasted potential, two terraformable planets in the system and you let them dry up and blow away. It’s pure waste especially when out here you often have to scrape by trying to make some uninhabitable rock your home just to survive because every terraformable world is precious. Sorry that got me worked up.

[@MechanicalFrog]

From a purely logical and financial POV, abandoning the terraforming processes makes sense once you have KF drives and can just jump to a new system where there are already habitable planets waiting. We have a fondness for our home turf so it's sad to see Mars and Venus as viable places for people to live.

[@Bluehairedgirl89]

@@MechanicalFrog Yeap yeap but Terra is right there, a center of industry and finance usually with like all the money. And those planets are next door neighbors in the same star system. I’ve seen colonists and refugees desperate try to make a go of it on worlds just as bad out in the periphery because they had no choice with way less resources. It just annoys me is all…

[@franksmedley7372]

Most solar systems, both in the Inner Sphere, and in the Periphery, if 'developed' could easily, over the course of centuries of investment and development, end up like Terra. Provided no one came in and destroyed everything before it could be em-placed and up and running.

[@thomascraiker6449]

You get the like, because Pluto is a planet!

[@MechanicalFrog]

Absolutely!

[@lexington476]

5:39 now that would be cool to work at or visit.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Absolutely.

[@franksmedley7372]

Most of the 'workers' would be 'old people', old enough to be in 'mortal' danger if they lived in a full 1G environment. On Luna's 1/6th G? They would live longer, having it far easier to move themselves and lift things when they are 6 times lighter.

[@keebbles]

To hammer home the losses in war I had a group run salvage and rescue in the Sol belt. They thought they were the good guys getting awesome pay and salvage bonuses. Only to turn around and find Blakists segregating belters, putting them to the question and outright execution of most that weren't in demand for low g comfort bays used by their troops. Those who refused conversion and had skills Blakists needed were given lobotomies or worse. Cat and mouse operations to save Belters and transport them to defended hubs while still turning in corpses, ore, refined metals, etc. Eventually, Blakists dropped pretenses and put political/religious officers on their ships. About that time I had Clan Wolf scouts hit system and clash heavily with WoB. They managed to introduce the armored sec team on ship and political officers to vacuum. Then bypass security overrides on their ships and a near derelict jumpship (merchant class). And get out filled with refugees and loot. As the point of the minicampaign was to drive those points home and show how neglect cost humanity Venus and most of Mars as well as a good portion of the belt and that power and religion do not mix. Ended campaign on the shakey jump and the vision of a bird and a wolf fighting over ancient bones of a dead giant. My next campaign was a periphery world, agrarian mostly, and co-star offering to protect them from pirates. They eschewed co-star as they still could taste WoB evil and they, the players, knew co-star gave birth to WoB. So they played stubborn farmers, miners, and ranchers. Industrial mech were converted and vehicles up armored. Their first raid was to take a pirate dropship right after their raiding parties departed to loot the nearby industry, food processing plants, and brewery complex. After that, it was 3 months of guerrilla war with pirates before they could really say they had a dropship of their own and mechs that were mechs. Though the roughnecks got upgraded and made into the unit's heavies. They hated the fact that they didn't get a chance to take pirate jumpship as Comstar stepped in before they got a chance. So instead, they disguised themselves as remnants of the pirates and hit comstar caches and port. Comstar even hired them and another unit to hunt down the guerrilla pirate unit. But refused to tell them all that was stolen. 😊

[@captainteutonica5474]

Ah the noble birthplace of humanity, sacred seat of the hallowed phone company. These were good times.

[@MechanicalFrog]

It was the best of times...it was the most expensive of times...

[@franksmedley7372]

Hello Frog. First off, let me assure you that I am no physicist. Nor am I a Chemical Engineer, or basically any kind of 'expert' with diplomas all over my walls. No, I am an educated lay-man, and a sci-fi geek since the age of 8 (I am currently 63). I have read extensively about just about every topic one can associate with Science Fiction, and writing in general. I have written extensive articles for various fan magazines in several game worlds... Star Trek, Battletech, Star Wars, and many others. One of my fondest memories is the time I spent in Chicago (33 years), and the Playing Group (we never named ourselves), a few members of which actually had degrees in physics, chemistry, astrophysics, etc. My own experiences in the USMC, as an Enlisted Weapons Instructor, gave me an extensive knowledge of weaponry of all sorts. Now, on to the topic: Fusion Powered Plasma Elemental Separators. From the name alone, we can infer that a Fusion Power source is the primary driver of the technology. Using the Plasma of the reactor, the device reduces any material down to its Elemental states... In other words, the plasma breaks down the molecular composition of the item into its constituent atomic elements. From there, I would 'assume' that each element is extracted from the plasma cloud and allowed to 'condense' into the atomic element(s) for that stage of extraction. So, first off, you'd get Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, etc... then progress to gradually heavier and heavier elements in stages. Ending with the most massive elements near the end of the periodic table of elements. Other than being an extremely high energy process, and a bit 'wasteful' on the power consumed to perform these staged separations of elements, it is an almost 'lossless' method of extracting as much from the material broken down by the plasma as possible. The plasma from the reactor is used to break up the material fed into it, and convert it into a plasma cloud, that is slowly cooled to allow various elements to condense out of the cloud of plasma and collected to be used in industry. Terra had to have developed this technology to reclaim things like radioactive materials buried long ago in deep vaults under the surface, as well as reclaim various sites around the surface of the planet. Concrete, for example, would be rendered to its constituent atoms, and those used to 'build' various molecules into useful materials for industry. The ancient Land Fills would be 'mined' for everything that could be extracted from them, plastics, metals of all kinds, and the 'organics' would be rendered into their basic elements... carbon, oxygen, etc. This is a technology that could be done, if we had sufficient power to do so today. But, even the world's total energy production in modern times would be only sufficient to extract the lightest of elements. Wasting the potential of the rest of the material that was 'dissolved' with plasma. Also, keep in mind that with Fusion Reactors powering Drop Ships, the Solar System is your oyster. There would be 'dense' fields of solar panels orbiting the Sun inside the orbit of Venus (Literally billions and billions of such large solar arrays). Collecting Solar Energy, both as photons, and direct Solar heat (yes this is currently possible with today's tech... reference the RTGs used in various planetary probes and how they convert heat into electricity), and converting that into something like UV Lasers to be beamed to polar satellites that would redirect the energy to antenna farms on the surface, where the UV would be converted into electrical potential to power the planet. Any losses due to beam spread, conversion, etc., would be very, very, very minor in comparison to the total output of the system as a whole. Luna, the Moon, would be extensively colonized, especially as an 'old age home' for the oldest citizens, where they could live in 1/6th G and live even longer than on Earth's 1 full G. It would be extensively mined for 'rare earth' elements and materials. The Asteroid Belt, many moons, and other planets would be extensively mined, as well as the Kuiper Belt for large water asteroids. Just get there with a fusion powered craft, build a massive reactor on it, add piping for melting the ice as needed, run water into the reactor to create high pressure, high temperature steam, and use the steam as your 'fuel' to maneuver the multiple mile wide body into the inner System. 'Park' it into orbit around anything and 'mine' it over time for literal 'oceans' worth of water. Of course, while you are doing that, you are also 'filtering' said water for H-3, aka: Deuterium to fuel your reactors. You can run a fusion reactor with 'standard' Hydrogen, but you get more 'bang for the buck' out of Heavy Hydrogen, aka: H-3, Deuterium. The amounts of anything on the periodic table available in the Solar System are almost incalculable. There is enough out in the Solar System, that every Human that has ever lived, those alive now, and those to be born for the next million years, could all live like Saudi Princes for their entire lives, and still not use up what is available. So, although Earth is 'mined out' of the readily available resources in even the deepest mines, the Solar System is an almost inexhaustible source of materials for the next several millions of years... long enough, that the Sun would burn out before Mankind could even put a real 'dent' into the available supply. Even though someone would invade the Terran System, they would NOT attack the sources of supply, of either materials or energy in the Solar System. They would, instead, concentrate on military targets. Like HPG stations, Space Stations, Armed Stations, Jump Point Defensive stations, orbital military installations, etc. Venus would be extensively 'mined' for its atmosphere, until the planet cooled enough to make surface mining (probably strip mining) possible. Meanwhile, Mars would be extensively mined and colonized, and defended. Many of the existing moons of Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune, would be mined as well. Even Pluto and Charon would have mines for various materials desired and needed. So, as you can see, a 'developed' Solar System, is a 'treasure house' of wealth.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Good times had by all...

[@franksmedley7372]

@@MechanicalFrog I created an article on the FPES system you talked about in the video. Having rewatched it and then was 'inspired' to write up 'something' at least plausible, given the kind of 'tech' available to the Star League era of technology. Below is that 'article'. I hope it helps a bit. Fusion Plasma Elemental Separators. As the name suggests, the FPES system uses the Plasma from a Fusion power source to separate elements from each other. This is done carefully, since the energy needed to perform the task is so great that if an 'accident' occurs, it would be the equivalent of a major sized nuclear explosion (but without all the high level radiation of such an event). Fusion is a 'relatively' clean energy source in the Battletech Universe. One that most think is the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. Although that may have been true for the first such reactors, more advanced fusion reactors use Deuterium (basically, Helium atoms with an 'extra' neutron in the core). One can fuse Deuterium atoms together to get 'power', but mostly, the best reactors use a combination of Hydrogen and Deuterium to fuse Lithium. Meanwhile, the plasma generated by the fusion process can, and is, tapped off to superheat materials to break them down into a slightly cooler form of plasma. This 'dematerialized' plasma is allowed to cool in stages. Allowing the plasma cloud to precipitate out each element, in turn, as the temperature lowers to allow the atom to 'exist' again, even though very 'hot'. These atoms tend to 'stick' to anything cooler than themselves, except for the very lightest elements, which remain in a gaseous state, no matter how relatively cool the reactor becomes. This allows one to 'vaporize' all sorts of materials and gain 'elemental' materials from whatever was vaporized by the plasma of the extractor mechanism. Thus, you can 'precipitate' out each element by its atomic weight, in turn... gaining you 'pure' materials to be re-used to make alloys, and other materials. The FPES is the 'ultimate' in recycling, but it takes a LOT of power and fuel for the system to produce useful quantities of elemental materials. The Fusion Reactor is kept continuously online for months at a time, to provide the high temperature plasma needed to break down the materials to be recycled. So, a 'common' facility would have at least three large Fusion Reactors. One working at full operational tempo, one running on 'stand by' to swap in for the currently working reactor should some issue occur, or when the current reactor is due to be shut down for repairs. The third reactor is the one currently under repair, and will become the 'stand by' reactor for a time, before being used as the primary reactor in turn. The facility also has six to a dozen 'precipitator' reactors, which are filled with the heated plasma from the 'working' Fusion Reactor, and then gradually 'cooled' over time to precipitate out each element out of the cloud of 'vaporized' material that was fed into it when the precipitator received its working load of plasma from the primary reactor. The precipitator looks a lot like the old Tokamak Reactor cores, excepting for the 'precipitation' rods that can be extended to allow elements to 'condense' upon their surfaces. Coating them in 'pure' elemental material. Once the precipitator cools enough, all rods are retracted, cleaned of the precipitated materials, serviced, and the interior of the precipitator is serviced, cleaned, and readied for its next 'cycle' of use. The 'condensed' elemental materials are basically 'scraped' from the rods, ground into a fine powder, and shipped off to become the basic materials needed to form alloys, polymers, etc by various manufacturing plants and specialty forges. It should be noted that this process is not available to any but the most advanced worlds of the Inner Sphere, and even then, is too costly to run and maintain, that most of the Great Houses rely upon shipments of raw ores mined from outside the solar systems of their primary manufacturing hubs. Only Terra is known to use this energy intensive, dangerous, and barely sufficient recycling process as a matter of course. Terra developed this technology to 'recycle' materials when the various mines ran out, or became too deep and difficult to mine efficiently, or even at all. It also was developed to deal with long term radioactive materials dumped into 'hazardous waste' sites all over the planet by ancient governments and corporations. Any materials gathered from nuclear strikes upon the surface of the planet can be fed into the FPES 'system' and allow for the extraction of non-radioactive, 'pure' elements from the 'waste' fed into the system. This last statement being true, all the radioactively 'tainted' soils, rocks, cement, asphalt, etc that was bulldozed up from the Amaris Coup period's nuclear strikes, was fully 'processed' by the FPES system and usable elemental materials were extracted from the nuclear waste of those strikes. So far as is known, only Terra has the ability to build FPES systems, and does not export them across the Inner Sphere, or the Periphery. It is too costly, and would take a decade or more to construct the needed structures, fuel storage tanks, and materials processing plants needed to make an FPES a 'worthwhile' endeavor for any other star nation. Although not 'actively' exported, it can be assumed that there are at least a few dozen such facilities on highly industrialized worlds within 100 Light Years of Terra. It is doubtful, though, that any House has such a facility within its borders. F.J. Smedley. Chief Archivist, Hellsport Mech Museum, Stygian Compact, Sheol [Stygia 3b] - (Hel). Circa 3162.

[@franksmedley7372]

@@MechanicalFrog I created an article on the FPES system you talked about in the video. Having rewatched it and then was 'inspired' to write up 'something' at least plausible, given the kind of 'tech' available to the Star League era of technology. Below is that 'article'. I hope it helps a bit. Fusion Plasma Elemental Separators. As the name suggests, the FPES system uses the Plasma from a Fusion power source to separate elements from each other. This is done carefully, since the energy needed to perform the task is so great that if an 'accident' occurs, it would be the equivalent of a major sized nuclear explosion (but without all the high level radiation of such an event). Fusion is a 'relatively' clean energy source in the Battletech Universe. One that most think is the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. Although that may have been true for the first such reactors, more advanced fusion reactors use Deuterium (basically, Helium atoms with an 'extra' neutron in the core). One can fuse Deuterium atoms together to get 'power', but mostly, the best reactors use a combination of Hydrogen and Deuterium to fuse Lithium. Meanwhile, the plasma generated by the fusion process can, and is, tapped off to superheat materials to break them down into a slightly cooler form of plasma. This 'dematerialized' plasma is allowed to cool in stages. Allowing the plasma cloud to precipitate out each element, in turn, as the temperature lowers to allow the atom to 'exist' again, even though very 'hot'. These atoms tend to 'stick' to anything cooler than themselves, except for the very lightest elements, which remain in a gaseous state, no matter how relatively cool the reactor becomes. This allows one to 'vaporize' all sorts of materials and gain 'elemental' materials from whatever was vaporized by the plasma of the extractor mechanism. Thus, you can 'precipitate' out each element by its atomic weight, in turn... gaining you 'pure' materials to be re-used to make alloys, and other materials. The FPES is the 'ultimate' in recycling, but it takes a LOT of power and fuel for the system to produce useful quantities of elemental materials. The Fusion Reactor is kept continuously online for months at a time, to provide the high temperature plasma needed to break down the materials to be recycled. So, a 'common' facility would have at least three large Fusion Reactors. One working at full operational tempo, one running on 'stand by' to swap in for the currently working reactor should some issue occur, or when the current reactor is due to be shut down for repairs. The third reactor is the one currently under repair, and will become the 'stand by' reactor for a time, before being used as the primary reactor in turn. The facility also has six to a dozen 'precipitator' reactors, which are filled with the heated plasma from the 'working' Fusion Reactor, and then gradually 'cooled' over time to precipitate out each element out of the cloud of 'vaporized' material that was fed into it when the precipitator received its working load of plasma from the primary reactor. The precipitator looks a lot like the old Tokamak Reactor cores, excepting for the 'precipitation' rods that can be extended to allow elements to 'condense' upon their surfaces. Coating them in 'pure' elemental material. Once the precipitator cools enough, all rods are retracted, cleaned of the precipitated materials, serviced, and the interior of the precipitator is serviced, cleaned, and readied for its next 'cycle' of use. The 'condensed' elemental materials are basically 'scraped' from the rods, ground into a fine powder, and shipped off to become the basic materials needed to form alloys, polymers, etc by various manufacturing plants and specialty forges. It should be noted that this process is not available to any but the most advanced worlds of the Inner Sphere, and even then, is too costly to run and maintain, that most of the Great Houses rely upon shipments of raw ores mined from outside the solar systems of their primary manufacturing hubs. Only Terra is known to use this energy intensive, dangerous, and barely sufficient recycling process as a matter of course. Terra developed this technology to 'recycle' materials when the various mines ran out, or became too deep and difficult to mine efficiently, or even at all. It also was developed to deal with long term radioactive materials dumped into 'hazardous waste' sites all over the planet by ancient governments and corporations. Any materials gathered from nuclear strikes upon the surface of the planet can be fed into the FPES 'system' and allow for the extraction of non-radioactive, 'pure' elements from the 'waste' fed into the system. This last statement being true, all the radioactively 'tainted' soils, rocks, cement, asphalt, etc that was bulldozed up from the Amaris Coup period's nuclear strikes, was fully 'processed' by the FPES system and usable elemental materials were extracted from the nuclear waste of those strikes. So far as is known, only Terra has the ability to build FPES systems, and does not export them across the Inner Sphere, or the Periphery. It is too costly, and would take a decade or more to construct the needed structures, fuel storage tanks, and materials processing plants needed to make an FPES a 'worthwhile' endeavor for any other star nation. Although not 'actively' exported, it can be assumed that there are at least a few dozen such facilities on highly industrialized worlds within 100 Light Years of Terra. It is doubtful, though, that any House has such a facility within its borders. F.J. Smedley. Chief Archivist, Hellsport Mech Museum, Stygian Compact, Sheol [Stygia 3b] - (Hel). Circa 3162.

[@harvestblades]

Fantastic timing on this as I've been trying to work through some novels & dig into sourcebooks it has really made me wonder about the Terran system and especially Terra. I am really curious to know what cities & regions on Terra are in the lore as I've seen references to places like Yakima as well as a large battle in the Pugent Sound area during the ACW were I believe the Black Watch faced the forces of Amaris. One of tge things I have also enjoyed is seeing the Terran corporations that were/are instrumental in giving us this wonderful grimdark universe.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Serendipity.

[@tiggytheimpaler5483]

My guess is thay the domes were at 1 atmosphere and then the sudden shock is what killed so many people, especially after those living their long term were dealing with a hell of a lot of health problems just from living on mars. For refernce the loweat oxygen level considred breathable is just under 15% where as we live with 21.9% on the regular, and even then at the top of mount everest its about 7%. The climb up everest is slow not because of how hard it is (there is actaully a guided path and tour available now believe it or not) but if you go too fast youll experince mountain sickness and die. It actually technically takes a month to acclimatize to the top of everest and thats fir people who live at sea level just living in nepal for a few weeks to get adapted to their lower oxygen level. Since the best they ever achieved on Mars was a good enough level (about 15 percent with forced air assistance in order not die over a long period of time) my guess is that it deterioted to the 7% average that is the bare minimum people can survive and thats whit proper training, the eight genetics, proper physical fitness and being used to lower OL Basically it makes more sense that people died if they needed envirodomes to survive and then boom! Not only do you have to adjust you also just had your lungs catastrophically expand and your diet of space potato chips and 1/3 earths gravity just came back to bite you in the ass

[@tiggytheimpaler5483]

For reference, the highest human settlement on earth is in Peru and its name is LA rinconada and it sits at 5000 meters above sea level. The oxygen level there hovers at 11% and the people their have adapted to that environment and they still have a hard time going just a few meters higher without suffering from AMS

[@MechanicalFrog]

Interesting food for thought.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

By the way in modern astronomy any star with habitle planets around it is an sun... But I believe the better definition is an sun is any star with life around it. Regardles great video! Which yeah the domes being needed at the end of the world of blake is odd like how fast did the people who wrote that thought Mars would lose it's atmosphere/Build domes?

[@MechanicalFrog]

Good times had by all.

[@osh69]

man i misread the title and thought you were going to talk about terrain systems for game play lol

[@MechanicalFrog]

D'oh!

[@kithran]

I was about to mention that the question of mars' atmosphere not being breathable had been brought up on this weeks AMA but I'd missed it was actually you who'd asked the question. I have a feeling I have seen the question asked somewhere on the forums as well but I couldn't find it for the life of me when I looked just now.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Good times had by all.

[@michaelkimberling7307]

3:20 sounds like the Phased Disassembler arrays from Homeworld.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Oh?

[@michaelkimberling7307]

@@MechanicalFrog yea they use a series of fusion torches (hand wavy space magic) to break down materials into its constituent elements.

[@MechanicalFrog]

@@michaelkimberling7307 A neat tool to have.

[@TAVAAR7]

Whether you use metric, imperial or both, one thing we can all agree on is that charcoal chicken tendies are less than ideal. 😆

[@MechanicalFrog]

I prefer beer batter fried but... tendies are tendies.

[@cm3291]

I always think I can’t learn any new facts about this universe until I watch these videos.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Glad I can be helpful in that regard. Can't stop a teacher from teaching.

[@punishedfink]

Glad I gave this a second watch I missed more then I thought on the first watch.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Just imagine what you will learn on the 40th watch...

[@Raist474]

I hope the Venus terraforming gets expanded upon and perhaps started again. It is an interesting planet, and BattleTech is one of the few Sci-Fi settings were any real terraforming is attempted on it.

[@MechanicalFrog]

It would be fun if Venus had a role to play in the future.

[@Raist474]

@@MechanicalFrog One of the least believable things about BattleTech is all these planets being abandoned and no one bothering to try and reclaim them for a military edge, resources, or geopolitics. Especially after the Helm Memory core and Clan invasion when technology in general is on the rise. The HMC in particular was noted to have blueprints and stuff on terraforming, and everyone in the Sphere has access to what was on the core. Empires regularly rebuilt forts, cities, and even geographical features because the advantage in logistics, trade, military clout, or just the status of having them was too big to ignore the cost and time of reestablishing them. More systems under a Successor Lord is more power in the long term.

[@broccanmacronain457]

2015 and 2016 huh I think we are a bit behind.

[@MechanicalFrog]

A little bit.

[@ADobbin1]

How did the terraforming of Venus deal with the sulphuric acid rain and clouds?

[@MechanicalFrog]

"Future Tech"

[@ThugShakers4Christ]

The more I hear about Klan Wolf, the less interested in returning to the series I become

[@MechanicalFrog]

There are lots of other stories out there and opportunity for future stories that don't have to revolve around the IlClan.

[@ThugShakers4Christ]

@@MechanicalFrog I never got much into the Republic of the Sphere era, but I've heard good stuff about the WoBJ so I'm going to try picking it up there again.

[@death2all79zx]

There. Are. NINE. PLANETS!

[@MechanicalFrog]

Pluto is ma boi.

[@melvinlemay7366]

Hey, kids can enjoy luna's low gravity entertainment too! ... ... ... Just imagine those bouncy castles.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Epic.

[@franksmedley7372]

On the Moon, you don't need bouncy castles. The entire moon is a 'bouncy castle'. The Moon's gravity is sufficiently light enough that with carbon fiber 'wings', you could actually fly. Although, the wings would still have to be fairly large. Reference: 'The Menace from Earth' short story by Robert Heinlein.

[@beskar66]

Hmmmm whats this unexpected thing i see

[@MechanicalFrog]

Working hard to bring you a steady stream of BT goodness.

[@captainbanjo1617]

Lol. Low gravity entertainment 😂. In all honesty, I can 100% that being a thing.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Never underestimate the ability of people to find interesting new ways to be...entertainted.

[@franksmedley7372]

Although tourists would be of all ages, the 'workers' would mostly be 'old people', who would not be able to survive in a full 1G environment. Things being 6 times lighter on the Moon, would make things far easier to deal with, and a person could live longer in such reduced gravity stress.

[@captainbanjo1617]

@@franksmedley7372 that actually makes a lot of sense, plus, if you’re not likely to be having kids, you wouldn’t need to worry about low g impact on a foetus’ development.

[@sim.frischh9781]

There are rumors about a 10th planet that has yet to be found. So better be careful with throwing around numbers. Still, nice jab.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Heh, thanks!

[@fredlandry6170]

Comstar you have no choice!

[@MechanicalFrog]

They know what's good for you.

[@jamesricker3997]

Venus is one of the WOBs hidden worlds

[@MechanicalFrog]

The plot thickens. And by plot I mean atmosphere.

[@RecklessFables]

PLUTO LIVES!

[@MechanicalFrog]

Yes!

[@DapperRaccoon]

#PlutoLove

[@MechanicalFrog]

Always.

[@cliffcampbell8827]

I thought it had 10 planets with Eris being the tenth.

[@MechanicalFrog]

If we count all the dwarf planets, I think it's 16.

[@cliffcampbell8827]

@@MechanicalFrog upon further investigation, the latest number from NASA (2023) brings us to a grand total of 13, five of which are dwarf with one being in the astroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. I find it difficult to classify that ball floating around in the astroid belt as a dwarf planet but I guess that's why the people at NASA make a lot more than I do.

[@paypercutts]

Would love to hear more stories or info of what life is like in the Sol system 2100 onwards, if you can find or know of anymore etc.. Like the first documented test of the Mackie was performed on Terra, right? I'm sure there's more out there. It's like a good grounding root from later being able to piece together the history and human expansion throughout the galaxy, right up to the year 3000

[@MechanicalFrog]

There is more out there. Especially on the military development of the battlemech.

[@paypercutts]

@@MechanicalFrog But hearing it from you in your presentation style is way better than reading off Sarna 😁

[@MechanicalFrog]

@@paypercutts If only it was as easy as just reading it off of Sarna... It's a good place to start research. I would hope that most wouldn't end there.

[@paypercutts]

@@MechanicalFrog True! Sorry if my comment sounded like I think your vids are easy to make, which I know from experience that they aren't. Was just meaning that it's far more interesting hearing you read it out loud in a well thought out presentation, than researching it and reading the text my self.😁

[@MechanicalFrog]

@@paypercutts No problem at all. I just wouldn't want people to think I'm reading off a wiki.

[@luxordeathbed]

Breathable air on mars? My question is how high up or down were the domes? Higher, thinner atmosphere.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Info is short, unfortunately. I gave you all I had on Venus.

[@franksmedley7372]

Luxor: Probably 'breathable' in the deepest valleys, but far from it in places like the slopes of Olympus Mons.

[@charlesballiet7074]

ill never understand the battletech population numbers. a world should support a population of billions not millions. I mean in less than 100 years north america went from wilderness to colonial super power with over a million people and that was 1700's. just seems like population growth when your a settler or pioneer is not accounted for

[@MechanicalFrog]

I think that it might be a mixture of social trends, people have fewer kids in more advanced societies, and the generally tougher lives settlers have.

[@ZombieSexmachine]

Man Comstar did a really shit job of overseeing the system. Not sure if it was truly because the didnt care or if they just didnt have the resources to help after the Star League civil war.

[@StressmanFIN]

They own(ed) the HPG network, pretty sure "lack of resources" wasn't the reason. Too busy hoarding Lostech possibly.

[@MechanicalFrog]

I think it boils down to the fact that with interstellar travel, there's really no point in spending billions of C-bills on terraforming projects. ComStar could just import food rather than keeping Venus running. Importing ore from Mars didn't require a lush green planet.

[@ZombieSexmachine]

@@MechanicalFrog would think when the only system you control is the Sol system you'd invest in it. In comparison WoB improved the lives of the Sol system vastly more than Comstar did.

[@bthsr7113]

I do think they could have done better, but I imagine cleaning up after the SLDF had to pry Earth from Amaris' grip was also a costly endeavor, and they also had to rebuild the planetary defense capability to ensure the Great Houses wouldn't be able to act on crazy ideas. Mind you, that wouldn't require the entire time between the SLDF exodus and the Clan Invasion.