Editing Talk:Phantom 'Mech

=Line Developer ruling (archived for reference)=
On 05 October, 2009, 04:38:49 am, [[Line Developer|BattleTech Line Developer]] [[Herbert A. Beas]] (as user "HABEAS2") posted the following in a thread on the CBT forum (retrieved for reference from the [http://www.classicbattletech.com/forumarchive/index.php?topic=58410.msg1397686#msg1397686 forum archive]):<br />'''(Begin quote)'''
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:''Quote from: Cray on 05 Oct, 2009, 03:49:29 am<br />There are no "true" energy shields in BattleTech. BT is generally grounded either in real science or even lower tech than the real world. Star Trekkian stuff like shields are out.<br />The closest match is the ultra-strong magnetic field of the "Blue Shield" system, which slightly reduces the damage of PPCs (and PPCs only) at the expense of greatly increased maintenance caused by sucking any slightly magnetic item or dust into the magnetic coils.''

This would clearly be the point in our program where I remind the people asking such questions that even though a "Yellow Star" (PTB) has answered the question,  the fact that he is not me, Ben Rome, or Randall Bills--AND because he did so outside of the official Fan Interaction boards--that he is not necessarily telling you the truth. In fact, it's a well known fact that Cray's a big, fat liar when he wants to be.

...But not here. The video and computer game renditions of BattleTech have all strayed from canon in one manner or another, be it in subtle ways like a totally unrelated combat and construction system, to wildly off-tech ways like coming up with energy shields. In fact, there is no such thing as an energy shield system in BattleTech. Never was. The Blue Shield system is, in essence, a particle field dampener that disperses the charged particles of an incoming PPC, diffusing it before impact to negate some--but never quite all--of its effect. The "shields" in CHI were (to my mind) likely more like a charged fence-line that was well and good as long as you were playing "by the rules" to stay inside, used to control Mech trainees as long as the academy was in control of the machines they were using--like an invisible fence for Mechs. The "shields" in MW2 were patently wrong.

The Steiner Coliseum was a Blue Shield system writ large and backed by walls of mesh-reinforced ferroglass (a clear, anti-ballistic material akin to what's used in BattleMech cockpits). The screens detonated missiles prematurely and could deflect or absorb full-power laser and energy blasts with some resiliency while active. But as we learned at the dawn of the Civil War, this giant bit of Lostech was easily destroyed once the power grid went down.

In fact, the following technologies DO NOT EXIST in BattleTech:

Artificial gravity/Antigravity (other than through acceleration/rotational force)<br />
Warp Drive (KF-style jumping and HPGs are more of a hyperpsace wormhole effect)<br />
Anti-Matter (You want a big boom, you're stuck with nukes)<br />
Singularity/Black Hole power sources (No, No, and ****** no)<br />
Energy Shields (Oh, wait; we mentioned that, didn't we?)<br />
Nanotechnology (If we had nanotech, would BattleMechs still weigh in the tens of tons? I don't think so!)<br />
Time Travel (NO, the Manassass does not count)<br />
Tractor Beams (Unless you wanna call a harpoon a tractor beam...)<br />
Replicators/Holosuites (If I have to explain why to you, do me a favor and kick YOURSELF in the crotch)<br />
Teleporters/energy-matter transporters (Seriously, see above)<br />
Trans-dimensional travel (The BattleTech universe is one timeline, not a Marvel comic multiverse)<br />
Sentient AIs (Skynet is depressed; it had plans for the Atlas)<br />
Lightsabers (There is no "try". There is only "do not")<br />
Star-killing super weapons (Right...)<br />

Other things not in BattleTech:<br />
Magic (some strange shit happens, yes, but most of these can be played off as near-death experiences and hallucinations)<br />
Telepathy/telekinesis/clairvoyance (Face it guys, the Nova Cats just smoke some weird shit, and those Nekakami guys just have fun bags of tricks)<br />
Sentient aliens (Sorry; we remain committed to a strictly man-vs-man universe, at least as far as everyone can tell)

Someone probably will wat to bookmark this....

- Herb
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'''(End quote)''' [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] 22:10, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

=Talk page=
==Kell Hounds sourcebook==
Hi everybody, this is my first post and I hope i am doing it right. If not, please let me know. The Phantom mech ability was mentioned in the vintage Kell Hounds Scenario Pack (early 90ties I think) and this Book had Rules about it but no explanation how it works. I do own the Book, but saddly do not know where I stored it. Ps As you might have noticed, English is not my first language. So please let my know if I make some serious mistakes! Mad Hatter 11:19 GST 17 September 2008
::Hi, first off, welcome to the BattleTechWiki! Regarding the Kell Hounds sourcebook, I have it (although only the German edition). Its content has already been worked into the article as far as I can tell. You are of course invited and encouraged to be bold and add any improvements to the text that you feel are appropriate. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] 16:34, 18 September 2008 (CDT) (Btw I took the liberty to add headers to this talk page to improve readability.)

==Category==
Guys, I could only find snippets of this across the Internet. Does anyone have the supposed rules supplement this came from? Also, does anyone think a Category for "moves" like [[Alpha Strike (tactic)|Alpha strike]], [[Death from Above]], and this one is a good idea? [[User:Haruspex|Haruspex]] 03:40, 13 February 2008 (CST)
:Although I also remeber that a "Phantom Mech" ability was mentioned somewhere I could not find it. I have taken the liberty to rewrite the article as the issue should be treated as an enigmatic event rather than an established combat maneuver. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] 05:44, 13 February 2008 (CST)
:Fair enough. I have no evidence to support it's existence as a skill anyhow except one site, but that was very likely third-person. Maybe FASA didn't want to encourage this kind of thing (supernatural skills). Though MW:DA might bring it back if they haven't already.[[User:Haruspex|Haruspex]] 06:02, 13 February 2008 (CST)
::There are no rules for this. It was in the Warrior trilogy novels, but no game supplements. --[[User:Scaletail|Scaletail]] 16:31, 13 February 2008 (CST)
::And we already started discussing how to group these together on [[Talk:alpha strike]]. --[[User:Scaletail|Scaletail]] 16:32, 13 February 2008 (CST)

== Wizkid Clickytech ==

I'm not an old CBT player, but I am familar with some of the universe because of the wizkids tabletop game Mechwarrior Age of Destruction (Clickytech).  I don't know if this exists inside CBT, but in the Clickytech world, the Word of Blake had this powerful "Nullsig" system that would render the mech equipped invisible to all sensors.  I have also seen this present in the MechAssualt videogames.  Inside Clickytech houses have struggled to find a broken W.o.B. mech so that the can acquire this technology.

http://www.warrenborn.com/Unit.php?ID=AN-G-069
this is a link to an online copy of the Clickytech rules for Nullsig

http://www.warrenborn.com/Unit.php?ID=FI086 
this is a link to an online copy of a unit that according to cannon has a half functioning nullsig. {{unsigned|65.1.235.251|on August 5, 2008}}
:The [[Null Signature System]] is an experimental technology in [[CBT]], and so is not tournament legal. --[[User:Scaletail|Scaletail]] 18:22, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

== IR Spike ==

I vaguely remember these events from reading the Warrior Trilogy.  It is cool background material.  I am curious about the IR signature of [[Patrick Kell|Patrick Kell's]] ''[[Victor]]''.  Though never formally explained, if [[BattleMech]] armor has an [[w:emissivity|emissivity]] 0 < ε < 1, a large temperature spike caused by impact of a pair of [[PPC]] blasts should result in a concurrent IR spike; perhaps this may be the foundation of a non-mystical explanation for these events (though even with IR spikes, there are leaps of faith with this explanation).  I plan on adding this alternative explanation to the entry.--[[User:S.gage|S.gage]] 20:03, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I think this maybe a case of retro-con. Current Writers didn't like supernatural or ESP possiblities that Michael Stackpole's early books suggested.  Its too bad they didn't combine what Stackpole was doing with that uber ablity that the Kells and Yorinaga Kurita suppose to have.  I looking forward to your alternate explaination.  Personally i like the having touch of supernatural in BT as long its not out of control. -- [[User:Wrangler|Wrangler]] 20:07, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

In-novel first-person accounts state that a mechwarrior with this ability has his mech show up visually but not on heat or mag sensors. The weapon systems of other mechs are also unable to register a foe and lock on. Additionally, Yorinaga Kurtia only obtained this ability after the initial confrontation with Morgan Kell, spending years in mediation to gain it. If a battlemech is at least partially controlled by a pilot's brainwaves, could a possible theory be that the mech is broadcasting a signal generated by a certain brainwave pattern? This would then tell other battlemechs not to register that machine as a target. [[User:Khansemus|Khansemus]] 05:48, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

== Far Country ==
:''moved comment to own section''
So, where does this leave [[Far Country]]? ;) --[[User:Peregry|Peregry]] 07:25, 9 December 2011 (UTC)
:Canonical, but (luckily) still irrelevant for BattleTech. Line Developer Herb Beas stated in a chat that while ''Far Country'' remains canon, the authors and developers try very hard to ignore the Tetatae to death. I have added a Canonicity section to the ''Far Country'' article to clarify. The difference between PMA and ''Far Country'' is that the former was arguably retconned out by a combination of omitting the rules from the ''Kell Hounds'' scenario book in later products (which in itself would be insufficient to de-canonize them) ''and'' stating that "magic" etc. is not part of the BT rules and world concept. At least not anymore than in the real world. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] 09:04, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

== HBS Battletech appearance of Morgan Kell ==

There is an event that can occur in the HBS PC game where your ship engineer is contracted by Morgan Kell to work on LosTech items. One of the options the player is given is to supply the ship engineer with time and money to assist Kell in his efforts. The response from Kell to this option is to thank you with LosTech and to mention "if you come across any phantom mech rumors, don't discount them".

== The Phantom 'Mech Ability IS canon ==

With respect, I think Herb Beas overstepped his mandate in declaring after the fact certain things as non-canon, specifically addressing in this comment the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon and other supernatural occurrences.  Prior to Beas taking the helm, BattleTech acknowledged from the beginning things that could not be explained rationally, i.e. Ki abilities, the Black Pearl incident, Jonathan Cameron's prophecies, Gaffa's Ghost, AND the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon - to name just a few. All such things were written with a balance of belief and skepticism, which reinforced the air of mystery around them and contributed to the enrichment of the BattleTech universe. One in particular however as written defies any rational explanation, the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon.  Explanations of otherwise unheard of cloaking technology or mistaken witnesses just do not hold up against what has been written.  Such claims in the context of the stories in which the phenomena occur break the narrative of those stories.  Many hardened MechWarriors witness to the phenomena share the same delusion/malfunction?  Morgan Kell shares his special technology with Yorinaga Kurita after Mallory's World, but it requires that they both go into self exile for over a decade?  And he doesn't share it with his own brother until 3027,and what? Does he mail the device to Patrick in time for the Silver Eagle incident? A mass delusion or technological explanation, considering the circumstances and characters as written, fail to be a more likely explanation in BattleTech.  A supernatural explanation is what was intended in the novels and acknowledged in two otherwise canon publications.  To say in defense of the exclusion of things supernatural that BattleTech is a hard science universe is a hard sell considering the suspension of disbelief necessary to accept the existence of big, stompy, piloted robots.  If we are okay with that conceit, why not also a little bit of the supernatural?  It adds to the universe, and to exclude it diminishes BattleTech.
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	== The Phantom 'Mech Ability IS canon ==		== The Phantom 'Mech Ability IS canon ==

−	With respect, I think Herb Beas overstepped his mandate in declaring after the fact certain things as non-canon, specifically addressing in this comment the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon and other supernatural occurrences. Prior to Beas taking the helm, BattleTech acknowledged from the beginning things that could not be explained rationally, i.e. Ki abilities, the Black Pearl incident, Jonathan Cameron's prophecies, Gaffa's Ghost, AND the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon - to name just a few. All such things were written with a balance of belief and skepticism, which reinforced the air of mystery around them and contributed to the enrichment of the BattleTech universe. One in particular however as written defies any rational explanation, the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon. Explanations of otherwise unheard of cloaking technology or mistaken witnesses just do not hold up against what has been written. Such claims in the context of the stories in which the phenomena occur break the narrative of those stories. Many hardened MechWarriors witness to the phenomena share the same delusion/malfunction? Morgan Kell shares his special technology with Yorinaga Kurita after Mallory's World, but it requires that they both go into self exile for over a decade? And he doesn't share it with his own brother until 3027,and what? Does he mail the device to Patrick in time for the Silver Eagle incident? A mass delusion or technological explanation, considering the circumstances and characters as written, fail to be a more likely explanation in BattleTech. A supernatural explanation is what was intended in the novels and acknowledged in two otherwise canon publications. To say in defense of the exclusion of things supernatural that BattleTech is a hard science universe is a hard sell considering the suspension of disbelief necessary to accept the existence of big, stompy, piloted robots. If we are okay with that conceit, why not also a little bit of the supernatural? It adds to the universe, and to exclude it diminishes ~~the heroic Sci Fi that is~~ BattleTech.	+	With respect, I think Herb Beas overstepped his mandate in declaring after the fact certain things as non-canon, specifically addressing in this comment the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon and other supernatural occurrences. Prior to Beas taking the helm, BattleTech acknowledged from the beginning things that could not be explained rationally, i.e. Ki abilities, the Black Pearl incident, Jonathan Cameron's prophecies, Gaffa's Ghost, AND the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon - to name just a few. All such things were written with a balance of belief and skepticism, which reinforced the air of mystery around them and contributed to the enrichment of the BattleTech universe. One in particular however as written defies any rational explanation, the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon. Explanations of otherwise unheard of cloaking technology or mistaken witnesses just do not hold up against what has been written. Such claims in the context of the stories in which the phenomena occur break the narrative of those stories. Many hardened MechWarriors witness to the phenomena share the same delusion/malfunction? Morgan Kell shares his special technology with Yorinaga Kurita after Mallory's World, but it requires that they both go into self exile for over a decade? And he doesn't share it with his own brother until 3027,and what? Does he mail the device to Patrick in time for the Silver Eagle incident? A mass delusion or technological explanation, considering the circumstances and characters as written, fail to be a more likely explanation in BattleTech. A supernatural explanation is what was intended in the novels and acknowledged in two otherwise canon publications. To say in defense of the exclusion of things supernatural that BattleTech is a hard science universe is a hard sell considering the suspension of disbelief necessary to accept the existence of big, stompy, piloted robots. If we are okay with that conceit, why not also a little bit of the supernatural? It adds to the universe, and to exclude it diminishes BattleTech.