Planet Primer: Solaris VII - The Game World
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- Опубліковано 13 бер 2024
- Today, we visit the very calm and quiet backwater planet named Solaris VII.
References: Field Manual 3145, Liberation of Terra Vol 2, First Succession War, XTRO: Gladiators, XTRO: Royal Fantasy, Shrapnel #13, Shrapnel Year 1, Handbook: Steiner, J-h-d Final Reckoning, Shattered Fortress, Reunification Wars, Era Digest - Dark Age, Mechwarrior - Solaris VII Guide, Total Chaos, Solaris - The Reaches, Solaris VII - Player Guide, Solaris VII The Game Word - Game Master's Guide,
Thank you to Dwane Loose, Anthony Scroggins, Matt Plog, Bishop Steiner, Flying Debris, Alan Blackwell, Chris Lowry, Dale Eadeh, Harri Kallio, Loston Wallace, and all the other BattleTech artists that have brought the IP to life through their amazing work.
BattleTech imagery and mech info remains the property of Topps.
Concept Art from Mechwarrior Online and game art from MW5 is owned by Piranha Games.
Imagery from HBS BattleTech
Some imagery/video from Pixabay
Background Music: Purchased rights to use from Fanatical
#BattleTech #Mechwarrior #CatalystGameLabs #lore - Ігри
Ah yes. Solaris. Personally I’m a fan of the pair fights there, as you really both get to see the skills of the mechwarrior, and the team skills they have.
All sorts of options for the discerning tastes of the fans.
Also, it helps keep the “OH BOY ALL THE HEAVY WEAPONS” doom stacks from flowing, as you can see C3 and ECM come into play.
True that.
Agreed, the variability and playstyles really come to fruition. Cheers
And the club scene is top style
Freaky coincidence Mechy d Frog drops a Solaris vii vid the day a Solaris DLC comes out.
Dude the timing is uncanny!
nice work ma dude.
Funny how things work out some times...
Yeah he sure didnt know😏😁 I will funk up my Flea, Shadow Hawk, Marauder and Banshee for some hefty metal ripping and tearing! My fav IS mechs. Secondary roster? Raven, Vindicator( Werewolf if ever! ), Thundebolt and Nightstar
From my introduction to Solaris VII in The Warrior Trilogy, with Justin Allard winning the Championship, to his son Kai winning it, and all of the craziness of Main event, thank you Mech Frog for a trip down memory lane.
Glad I could provide at least an overview of all the wacky antics on the planet.
@@MechanicalFrog I will totally confess...as a very young BattleTech fan...I wrote several fanfics set on Solaris VII after reading Main Event. Definitely got me feeling happy and nostalgic today too!
Very Cool History Lesson, now, we need a video of THE GREAT URBANMECH UPRISING!! DUSTBINS UNITE!!
Yeh... I'll get right to work on that.
@@MechanicalFrog 🤣
Scorpion Seekers vs Wolf Cavalry in 3145 was the best show ever seen on Solaris 7. The winning Scorpions left with the content of local museum as a trophy which included the cockpit of Great Father Alexander's Orion battlemech 🎉
As someone who is more interested in the Lore and history site of Battletech I like your new planet Lore videos!
Thank you so much!
Thanks for giving it a go. I really want to remind people there's more to the IP than just the Battlemaster, Marauder, and other popular mechs.
Me too!
Solaris is my adopted home planet in the battletech universe. I got the solaris 7 box set for my 10th birthday. It started my road into gaming more than 30 years ago.
Unfortunately I had a summer birthday and had to wait until after Xmas to get the full rulebook. Meant i studdied that lore like crazy.
So much fun stuff in those old sourcebooks.
The planet where legends are made, and legends die. Welcome to the Lyran Commonwealth. Welcome to Solaris VII.
Well said.
Cool video about Battletech Vegas). Also attitude locals to clanners is very funny. It's like "We kicked mad space ComStar wizards out of our house before, so we gonna kick asses of those space Mary Sue with strange spiritual masks as well !"
Once you've fought cybernetic radioactive wizards, not much phases you.
It might be why Clan Wolf wasn't as 3140's Wolf in ruling over the world. The "Governor" knew what the wobbies did wasn't enough to cow the people, and the retaliation towards occupiers would be very suboptimal.
The old Solaris box set was one of my favorite additions to the game. The paper maps were really detailed and the custom mechs were a real change from what you would use in a Lance. Great video, brought back the memories.
Thanks for giving it a shot. The old Solaris stuff is great.
I still have mine - Books, Maps, the whole sha-bang. I am going to use it as part of my daughters TTBT introduction. soon... very soon...
This reminds me of the time when we got the Shroom and Swiss special from Zeke at The Grateful Burger in Silesia. Had we known those mushrooms were psychedelic, we may have waited to eat there until AFTER our match in the Jungle that night.
Fighting Team Banzai on Solaris? Pretty difficult. Doing it while on hallucinogens? It was a miracle we not only survived but won with those horrendous modifiers. The dice were on our side that night.
I can only imagine how things would be like within the Mechwarrior franchise if we could make our own Frankenmechs in the vein of Solaris VII. Would be fun as heck, but I bet keeping track of the numbers and keeping things balanced would be a howler of a struggle.
Thank you for another thoroughly entertaining chunk of planetary lore.
Thanks for coming by to enjoy it. Yeh there are some good reasons why many BT folk insist on only official variants. There's plenty of opportunity to cheese things up.
I enjoyed the insight to Solaris VII. Though not a fan of Death Games, this adds to how the BT Universe shows that yes life is cheap; Battlemechs are not.
Solaris. That’s some great memories from Double-blind (dead sensor) fights in the 90s
Good times had by all.
Fun hearing about all these close-combat oriented mechs on Stab Caesar Eve.
Et tu Rifleman?
Great lore drop on the Duelist World. Never gamed there, but it sounds like a fun place to visit. Something to see or do everywhere!
I do think Solaris arenas are PERFECT for Clanners batchalls and honor duels It dosent need to be about money but on neutral ground with curious inner spherers to watch honor duels unfold! 😁
@@odinulveson9101
We want use of your arenas for trials and training.
We want omnipods and to se-showcase the prowess of your warriors far and wide.
Done.
Done.
They are most easily satisfied..
Those saps've given us broadcast rights, now go 'n get the camera crews ready!
I’m going to make sure I get there on my next BT 2018 playthrough.
Brilliant video. Short & Sweet history and zeitgeist capture that any and all may enjoy, especially we forever players. Honestly and Sincerely, Thank You for the Great works!
100% agree, great BT Cannon luv!
Thank you!
Very nice. I’ll be looking up some more of your lore and history videos.
Thank you for coming by and giving them a chance.
I do enjoy these little bits of the Mechwarrior Universe. Thanks Frog.
Glad you like them!
Where they legalized murder and explored the concept of food on a stick.
They also beat the shit out of Clan Woof, so we can forgive them a few uncivilized things
I do like food on a stick...
I cast fireBALL!
"The great urban mech uprising of 3122 is not a string of words I would have ever expected to hear outside of a meme".
I then web searched it, and sure enough...
Can't cram that genie back into the bottle...
I see what you did there.
I approve😂
Funny how things work out.
Love the "Wreckoning" story. Actually made me want to run the Merlin.
Yeah it was solid.
Ah Solaris. The great arena planet shall come back into the welcoming arms of the purple bird.
Does Hallmark make a, "Sorry we glassed your planet. Come back to us?" card?
It was wild finding out that this was originally a Marik world from Sven. But it goes to show that how a place starts doesn't fully define their existence.
Yeah, there's basically nothing in the lore that I could find that tied them to Marik in any substantive way. Then once they glassed the place in the 1st Succession War, there was no going back.
@@MechanicalFrog I do feel like it being Marik space made it easier for a pluralistic neutral setting to develop. You wouldn't see an effectively neutral planet emerge from the Combine or Confederation, that's for sure.
I remember those halcyon days of fighting in the arena. Got drunk after a fight and accidentally told the media my last victory was in dedication to Katrina Steiner at the height of the FedCom CW. Boy that was embarrassing and didn't make me a fugitive in Victor's turf where I kept a warehouse full of C-bills and spare parts at all.
Mistakes were made.
@@MechanicalFrog Lessons learned, valuable Crab parts forfeited to whatever backwater marshal or scaver gang or repo team showed up to empty the warehouse after 23 months of missed payments.
Solaris is a very interesting world. I think the most interesting thing I learned is actually where it is in the inner sphere. Somehow I'd never thought about that.
How the fighters and stables work reminded me very much of Battlebots. In the arena they are mortal enemies, but while the pits teams will often help each other get ready for the next fight, often lending parts, labor, and expertise in repairing a bot. It also makes me wonder if there are any crowd favorites who didn't end up becoming champions and we just don't hear about them? There certainly is in battlebots, so why not solaris?
Thanks for the video! Again, it's glad to see history going from the Age of War to the ilClan era-so many people stop around the Clan Invasion
I'm being a sport in my old age and moving out of the comfort zone. Everyone else has to come with me.
Had a custom mech for a Solaris campaign I was in years ago. It had an LB10X with only cluster rounds and 3 SRM 6. I never punched through another mechs armor but I did kill a lot of pilots with repeated head hits. I called it The Aim High.
ow...ow...ow...ow...ow...
Quick astronomy tip: the V in K1V is actually a 5 in roman numerals, it's called the luminosity class and indicates the planet is a main sequence star.
Aff.
Games come and go, but Battletech endures and it is because of the extensive lore involved in my opinion. You simply feel more emotionally involved in games with deep lore, or at least I do. And Solaris is a huge part of the lore that gets new players thinking about their mechs as more than mere game pieces.
My introduction to Battletech (tabletop) was not as a mercenary commander or a House unit with dozens of mechs but as a Solaris VII pilot forming a new stable from the ground up. I started with a single lance of salvaged light mechs, which I had to keep operational and profitable each game session.
If you are bringing your children or friends into the Mechwarrior / Battletech universe I highly recommend this approach. Keep the game simple til they learn the basics, and then expand slowly.
Well put.
I'm greatly enjoying this series and look forward to other planetary histories in this big, crazy galaxy of BattleTech.
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Excellent series MechFrog. I'm not sure if there is a single other planet in the setting that features so prominently in the games and novels, so its quite a feat to condense all that history down here.
Controversial opinion maybe, but Solaris is a part of the setting that really doesn't interest me. I think it's because so many sourcebooks have written about it in excruciating detail. When you're a weirdo like me who wants to read every sourcebook, reading page after page after page about the cost of a hotel room in the Davion quarter or popular drinking spots in the Liao region drags like nothing else. Great for a DM, but just a colossal waste of time when you're only interested in learning about the major events of the era or wider political landscape of the Inner Sphere.
That said, one of my favourite novels "Assumption of Risk" takes place almost exclusively on Solaris, so its not all bad.
Thanks, Sven. It was a bit of a chore to condense things down to just the main crucial bits. Solaris is very much the opposite problem from most planets where there isn't nearly enough info. Multiple sourcebooks, novels, etc...
I hope I did it justice.
All the real weirdos are on galatea
Thank you again for all of the work you put into this video! I hugely enjoyed it and seeing Solaris VII detailed brought a huge smile to face! I’m also really glad that the series of planet primers is continuing.
So yeah, I’ve always loved the story and lore about Solaris VII as the pseudo independent Las Vegas in space with mech arenas. One of my favorite campaigns of Battletech roleplay was set on the game world and the character I played in that campaign has become one of my favorites, she was a native of Solaris VIi II born and raised as well as blooded in the arena. I’m actually hoping to resurrect her if we can get a destiny group together!
Also thanks for the heads up on the dlc!
Solaris is such a strange and fascinating idea. Like the basic of "Place with Gladiator mech fight" isnt anything to write home about but all the subbtle politicking and diplomatic plays on top of a really welldone world building with the poor aprts etc
Lots of stories to tell, and have been told on a place where most anything is possible.
Great work again Frog , these planet guides really flesh the universe out more than any amount of Mech guides ............ Keep it up ............ Hope you get to Galtor III , Dieron , Northwind , Tikonov ......... Oh who am I kidding I got a huge list
Thanks, will do!
Solaris is to Battletech as Seattle is to Shadowrun. Makes sense they'd have similar climates. It is the setting for BT TTRPGs, and it gets real cyberpunk real fast.
Duncan Fisher approved!
Read this in his voice.
So, Solaris VII had its own ",I am Spartacus" moment against the Blakists. Nice.
The Chancellor approves of a future Capellan Occupation 👍🏽.
I knew he would... A bit out of the way but, who knows how things will go in the IlClan era...
For the Confederation !!! Solaris Commonality has a nice ring to it citizen
Will watch as soon as I have some time.
Thanks! Hope you enjoy it.
32:25 omg the Gravedigger such a good mech ....... My Mercs (Kelly's Bushrangers) are two battalions plus a command company ........ The Gravedigger is still my commanders ride
Definitely a fun one.
Keep 'em coming MechFrog. This was pretty sweet. I'm actually really interested in this as I haven't really found a lot of novels in this space. I appreciate your use of references as it gives me someplace to start. Solaris is an interesting place for sure! Not sure I'd want to live there.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am really enjoying these planet lore videos, more please!
Will do.
I'd love to see a video on frankenmechs!
DDDUUUUUNNNNCCCCAAAAANNNN FFFIIIIIISSSHHHHHEEEEERRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Always a fun place to set campaigns....i ran a shadowrun/mechwarrior campaign on Solaris VII
(Sill have the Original Solaris VII books and maps. so much fun to toss in an arena match when time is short.
Lots of opportunity for adventures on Solaris VII
Solaris what now? Never heard of it. Never started with a beat up Wasp in the Reaches and ended up with a small mercenary unit in my very own, shiny new Albatross. I'll have to look into this. 🧐
Haha, very good video, Frog!!!
I should really start picking planets people have heard of before...
This was good. I had been looking for a good overview of what Solaris 7 is like and this is exactly what I needed.
I really like these planet breakdowns. Goodjob
Thanks. I'm glad to be able to do them.
Thank you for yet another excellent lore video!
Glad you enjoy it!
Hooray, more Planet Primers!
Woo.
Still weird to think that it's effectively canon Solaris VII has basically kept itself nominally allied to House Steiner, but in actuality fairly independent by essentially getting every other faction in the setting to agree to put on pay per view mech fight events instead. Like seriously, most of the clans, all the great houses, even a fair number of the periphiary states canonically sponsor Solaris VII mech teams.
Yeah it's pretty cool that it ran this international planet status for so long.
I know I'm always up for being razzled and/or dazzled.
Solaris VII seems a more interesting topic since reading "Warrior: En Garde".
It's a pretty fun setting for all sort of shenanigans.
Thanks for adding this to your channel! Many of the planets in the game have rich histories! Could you do the planet of Coventry at some point sir?
While it wouldn't have been the biggest tourist destination, I could see the natural biomes being reasonably conducive to hospitality industries for those just wanting quiet getting away from it all to relax. Rainy forests make for good rental cabin complexes and the odd mansion for nobles and elites to just sit back, read, play some board games, and just listen to the rain knowing that their troubles are lightyears away. A quiet steady revenue stream for the planet.
But I'm sure there are other planets for that niche after Solaris found its soul of carnage, charisma, and cash.
Personally, I love the idea of a rainy mountain retreat.
@@MechanicalFrog As do I, though snowy mountain retreats are also nice as vacation destinations.
Always loved solaris. Glad to see it getting some love both in mechwarrior and by youtubers. Great video as always frog! Youve been killing it the past few months! Always improving! 🐸 🐸 🐸
Thanks a lot. I try to do at least one thing better than last time.
Well timed and well done.
Glad you enjoyed it
Solaris.. a mini-me version of the inner sphere. Where a mechwarrior down on their luck can make it big... but also more likely end up on the trashheap. Gotta love the Las Vegas vibe and the stark contrast between the big stars and the has- and wannabes having to exist in the dregs of illegal arena fights.
Still not as degenerate as the canopians though XD
Good times had by all in a healthy and morally upstanding manner. :D
@@MechanicalFrog Afterall its all consensual right? XD
Great video! Im really enjoying the more lore heavy videos
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
I enjoy all ofMechanical Frog videos
Thank you so much for the support. The nonsense must flow.
Raise your hand if you fought here back in the day in those eight-man free for alls. Shout out to Virtual World where we paid 10 bucks to climb into connpods and fight our friends for 10 minutes.
My personal best was 8 kills to 1 loss in a Loki V3, ER PPC and medium lasers
We'd hop into my friend's car and head down to Seattle to empty our wallets for it.
top video mate
MW4 mercs and doing solaris and here Mr fisher calling the game
Thanks a lot!
Every once in a while, I'll be browsing mech stats on Sarna or something, and come across a design that makes me say "Wait... what the hell is this? This is dumb! Who the hell would... oh, its a Solaris mech. Yeah, that actually might work."
Gems, they are.
Whooeee! Its Solaris time folks, the MW5 dlc is a BLAST!
I have several points regarding Solaris in general::❗️1: The areas around Solaris City were/ is heavily populated by Rasalhaguan and Clan folks. Heck the FRR have STILL a museum dedicated and in honor to the pre-Clan Invasion and Rasalhague Dominion hybrid state!
2: I call total BS on the Werewolf not be good outside Solaris! I would modify it with either XL or Standard engine to mimic the beasts toughness. I would have had either 3 x machine guns or 3 x pulse laser in EACH arm with a hardpoint that could fit a medium pulse laser in the cockkpit. No chest weapons for MY variant again to mimic the real beasts of legends. I do would have uptonned the WW to 55 tons!
3: Specter from MW4m does canonically NOT win the grand championship. However he could have come as far as the finals in my head canon. And would LOVE to have Reyana, Castle, Jake Mason and Specter meet and greet, even fight in the arena. Mason would be older than Specter though. Also Duncan I bet would be extatic!! To meet them all together for a friendly fight😂
The Werewolf is fine so long as you are sneaky with it and don't run out into an open battlefield.
Thank you for making this.
My pleasure!
Every time I hear Solaris's environment and weather described, I cant help but think;
"Ah, yes, the Pacific Northwest but its an ENTIRE PLANET"
I blame FASA being from the northwest and poking fun at their home for that.
I wonder if they based Solaris itself on Vegas or the rougher parts of Bellevue and Redmond.
Ahh one of my favourite places in the sphere :-) fought in too many solaris bouts to remember but have always enjoyed my time there :-) just remember what happens on solaris stays on solaris
Good times had by all.
I absolutely adore the frankenmech and irregular design aspects of the Solaris games.
But it's not my home away from home; I'm too much of a field operative.
It's definitely a fun and unique setting.
Love your work man. Thanks.
Glad you enjoy it! Have a great weekend!
You forgot to mention Snow White has 7 "Dwarves" made of Gnome battle armor.
love your work
Thank you so much 😀
Very cool! Thanks for video :)
Glad you liked it!
So the Oversinking of Solaris mechs comes from the rules for Solaris. Essentially they beeak rounds into 4 , and weapons can fire back more frequently than nomal, but have cooldown times. So aomething like the Werewolf can fire MG's and SPL every sub-round, while building heat with each shot.
Good to know.
Really enjoyed this video man. Love vids that aren't mech centric. Do you plan on doing more vids that focus on a particular planet ?
EDIT fixed incomplete sentence 😐
Thank you so much. I am definitely going to keep visiting planets in the future on a fairly regular basis.
Decided to restart the MW5 campaign with the new dlc, and a lot of good stuff was added. I found out the hard way what a PPC-X is though.
Glad to hear it. I haven't had a chance to play it beyond the first mission so far.
Nice work thanks
Thank you!
Food on sticks is underrated
Truth.
Just in time for the dlc. Excellent work.
Funny how things turn out... ;D
Would be great if catalyst make Solaris 7 book with all the rules, maps and campaigns.
I am hoping there will be an updated Solaris VII sourcebook in the future.
By any chance that there is a Santa mech in Solaris VII.
According to legend on ancient Terra, he rides around the world giving two types of presents. If you are a good child, you will get the best present out there. If you are naughty, you will get a bomb in your present ready to explode.
I love the planet video
Thanks for giving it a try.
Hey its that destroid from macross :D
Nice timing on this one,
Are you planning to cover Kai Allard-Liao in his own video at some point?
Given his fairly legendary life.
Maybe.
Honestly I think Solaris is where the idea for the movie "Robotjox".
Maybe.
Yay more please.
The nonsense must flow.
This is cool,
Thank you!
A funny note I read about the Wobbies and Solaris: the Omega, the Word of Blake's signature superheavy, is reportedly in use by DCMS. Im not 100% if thats accurate, but itd be neat if true, that a place which hates the WoB so much would have one of its signature weapons.
huh...
@MechanicalFrog according to Sarna's citations, the info is on pages 29-30 of the Royal Fantasy XTRO.
Yeah. The last of the original spec Omegas lives in a Kuritan stable. The Republic of the Sphere also fielded their own (arguably) lesser version, but the last of the original brood is kept by the Dragon.
And man oh man, would it be hilarious to see it disappear into someone else's R&D division.
Solaris Mechs with usable battlefield variants : Koto , Copperhead , Flashfire , Mantis , Longshot , Tsunami , Werewolf , Daedalus , Bombard , Ronin , Morpheus , Onslaught , Sasquatch , Juggernaut , Colossus and Great Turtle ......... I exclude the others because of silly things like XXL Engines or daft weapon choices , but the above lot can do work
Quite a few are silly, but in a fun way.
Aaah, Solaris
World of dreams
dreams and often an uncomfortable crash into reality.
I'll never understand the people who say Solaris is overrated.
Lots of nonsense going on.
30:33 is this where the lyran scout lance performed shakespear in the park?
god id pay to see that irl. ya think for hamlet theyd use the weapons for the killings?
If I'm fighting in Solaris during clan time I'm definitely using a wolverine full can tech swap. Because ya know wolverine soft spot
I support this.
Ah yes using a fucked up old rifleman to fight my way through and finishing off with my big black and red Warhammer on emulator was Hella fun, I just wish I hadn't overheard some of the horror stories from Solaris from guys on Tex server that slightly put me off....like the urban mech uprising...
Just remember the Canopus Coke is for before the match
My legal team has suggested I make no comment concerning the consumption of such substances.
@@MechanicalFrog what happens on Solaris stays on Solaris.
As you got to the end there i was like Empire Alone didnt go anywhere near enough this planet needs be out of the clutches of Clan Wolf ......... Dont worry i spit my drink when Wolf Empire captured Simpson Desert (An Australian Planet) ........ Feel i have to move Kelly's Bushrangers from Australia to Kosciosko (Another Australian planet sorry Poles) and right this in a campaign .
Yeah we'll see what happens... Maybe Alaric has yet another thing up his sleeve.
@@MechanicalFrogknow he does
I'm God damn Duncan Fisher.
This a Spartacus situation?
+1 for big stompy carnage.
What's not to love?
@@MechanicalFrogExactly!
So if that’s what Tuesdays at Zelda’s House of Scorn is like, I’m assuming Wednesdays are half price burgers?
All you can eat chicken wings and dances are 40% off.
@@MechanicalFrog it truly is a magical place.
3:43 is that a polite way of saying the Phoenix Hawk mopped the floor with the Sentinel 😊. I mean come on, we know that's what happened 😀.
Yeah, but both designs ended up being purchased by the SLDF anyway, so everyone wins!
If you think Solaris is cool, you should see the colleseums in Marian space.
If you come to Marian space now, we even offer lifetime one hundred percent employment opportunities.
Having stood in the Colosseum in Rome and the one in Pompeii, I'm ready to try my luck.