User:S.gage

Hello,

I have been playing BattleTech since the early 90's. Except for a couple of hiatus, I have followed the story line through to the beginnings of the Dark Age. Like most BattleTech fans, I love the mecha. My favorite unseen BattleMech is the Marauder. I prefer Duane Loose's Marauder, but I also love is Chris Lewis's MAD-5R Marauder and his Marauder IIC 2. I guess the reason I love the Marauder so is my childhood - my first model set, constructed at the age of 5, happened to look very much like a Marauder. If I recall, it was named a Zenmaster-y Sargeant Pod, and was featured in the popular Japanese cartoon Robocross ;) . The Marauder has been good to my Mechwarriors, and it continues to be a favorite!

My favorite timeframe for BattleTech is the Succession Wars, but I also love pre-Invasion Clan homeworlds and the Deep Periphery as settings for adventures. I am a huge fan of Clan warfare, not for the zellbrigen or the munchkin-y rules (Clan vs. Inner Sphere), but for the pace of the games. In Clan warfare, the Timber Wolf is incredible, but the Storm Crow is so cool, I may have to change my thinking (consider, the Stormcrow has more firepower than an Awesome with no heat buildup, and is nearly twice as fast with nearly full armor!).

My favorite plots are set in the deep periphery, on lost worlds, and/or before 3025. I really 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 :) ). I'm also hoping for a TRO with more early Clan BattleMechs and 1st-2nd gen OmniMechs (the Coyotl and Lupus are really 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 was using a little of my free time to work on generating accurate extrapolated distances between systems for Phase 6 of the planet overhaul, but now I'm not so certain. The project may have generated some erroneous data, making all the jump distances erroneous, too. Nonetheless, all data will be kept until the pages are ready for the 6th stage (so far, 0 systems waiting). As there seems to be no rush, I focused on systems within the Periphery (my region of interest), and have completed several proto-states, pirate realms, Clan Space, MH/LL, TC/CP, MOC, and RWR systems c. 2750 (more than 600 total, or 20% of all published systems). I am intentionally delaying on realms that border DC and coreward-spinward Periphery states, because it will be impossible to complete these areas of space until Handbook: House Kurita is released.

These are the remaining factions: Inner Sphere - DC, FS, CC, FWL, LC, TH
Periphery - Chainelane Isles, OA, 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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