The Solaris 7 Website Community

Unfortunately we had a lull in our campaign as we had a member work, another one moving, and MadCap was working on Battletech stuff for Catalyst.  Needless to say, I was sad, but hopefully we'll be playing a make up game next weekend.  So in lue of my semi-monthly after action report, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite online communities over at http://www.solaris7.com/ (which I will call S7 from here on out).

S7 is a website that allows members to post up their 'Mech, vehicle, battle armor, and aerospace designs for review and analysis.  By using software such as Heavymetal Pro or Solaris Skunkwerks, you can import your custom designs for evaluation.  Another great thing is that nearly all of the canon designs have been posted up so if you need a more detailed TRO than what http://www.sarna.net/ can provide, they're just a few clicks away.

The active membership base is very knowledgeable about 'Mech design and they nearly always provide great advice for things to consider and tips to improve your design.  They also emphasize fluff, and will always give prop's for funny or well constructed fluff behind your design.  Once you post up a design, below  is room for S7 members to post comments on your design and grade it on a 1-5 scale (with an abstain option as well).  This allows the poster/designer to easily identify the analysis of their design right along side the TRO you've posted. 

I have become pretty attached to S7 because I believe it was very instrumental in my development as a player through the analysis of my 'Mech designs.  When I was first getting back into the game and was in the process of joining the campaign group I am in, I started hanging around S7.  By having the S7 community members review and analyze my designs, I was able to very quickly learn the strengths and weaknesses of various equipment, speeds, engines, etc.  I would argue that though the feedback obtain here, I learned more about unit selection and how to counter opposing units on S7 than playing Megamek (which I highly recommend).

So if you're like 99% of Battletech player and have a crap load of home brew designs, probably should check out our little community and post your stuff up, have it immortalized forever on the internet.  Hope to see you posting up some of your designs up soon!