Build Challenge: "Triple T"

So I've started a build challenge over on the forums. It's called the "Triple T Challenge," and you must build a frame using no Travis bricks, Taps, or T-pieces. These three parts are extremely common in frame building and I thought it would be fun to see what everyone could come up with when they're forced to use other more interesting parts. Here's my build for the challenge: The RT-06 Bullfrog.

 Let's see what you can come up with! Start building and post your creation over on the challenge thread on the forums!

Happy building!

Down Periscope

In the next week and a half or so I'm going to be incredibly busy. I'm moving into a new house, getting things finalized for Denver Comic Con, and working 10+ hour shifts for the next nine days. So don't expect to see much of me in that time period. However, immediately after the nine day stretch I'll be running MFZ demos over at the Con, so expect to see plenty of stuff that weekend! I put up a poll to ask what you want to see out of my coverage of the con, so please let me know! In the mean time I'll leave you with the progress so far on the newest frame I've been working on, the Kimodo.

Custom Job

After discussing at length the idea on the forums and looking at the results of the poll, I've decided that doing a frame store in the typical sense just isn't viable. The time and money involved to put something together that would be efficient and desirable would not yield anywhere near enough profit to make it worth the large amount of time invested.

However, I am willing to take commissions for custom frames and companies. This is much more viable as I wouldn't have to keep frames on hand and I can design/build on a case by case basis determined by the budget of the buyer. Not only that but I feel it would be much more fun and rewarding for me to do something like this over a cookie cutter frame store.

If you're interested in a MittenNinja designed custom company (or individual frame) shoot me an email at MittenNinja@gmail.com. Let me know what you're looking for, what budget you're working with, and we can see what we can whip up!

The Grizzly: It's got fists for pummeling.

Builder Spotlight: A-Yates Industrials

A-Yates Industrials. If you haven't been over to his Flickr stream you need to go have a look. I've had a few of his builds on the blog in the past, but man, he has a lot more to offer.

His APF-90 frames (pictured left) are simple yet incredibly detailed. I absolutely love the feel these guys have. His MINX frames give off a burly vibe with their squat silhouettes. The Growlers ooze style, and builds like the Jak Ra33bit and the Goat have tons of personality. Keep up the good work man!

MFZ Dives to New Depths

There's just something about Chubs with flippers...

Onosendai2600 has done something absolutely incredible. He has built three MFZ companies all with an underwater theme. Above, you can see his "Aqua Chubs" hanging out around their underwater base. I absolutely love the look of these, as well as the idea behind them.

It's not hard to imagine frames taking positions on an aquatic world, fighting off aliens and monstrous sea creatures alike, but after seeing what he has put together, I can't wait to see what else he has in store for us.

If you check out his Flickr steam, you can see the other two companies, Team Crustacean, and Team Mollusk.

Comic Con Deployment

With the Denver Comic Con approaching on the weekend of June 15th, I've been putting the final touches on two of the three companies I will be bringing with to demo Mobile Frame Zero. The third is a company being built by Soren which is shaping up rather nicely if I say so myself!

The 31st Orion Militia Unit

I still may be tweaking the companies a bit here and there, but this is two thirds of what you can expect to see on the game table out at Con! Hope to see you there!

The Pit Vipers

Not Your Typical Iguana

The ST-09 Iguana is one of two standard issue frames in use with the serpent legion (the other being the ST-07SLC "Fat Snake" Chub). Being a common frame in the Legion, it needs to be adaptable to multiple battlefield situations, which means there are a number of "standard" variants of the Iguana being fielded. Below are two of those variants.

ST-09c Recon Iguana

 2d6Rd - Heavy Autocannon

2d6Rh - Flamethrower

2d6Y - Commlink and Laser Rangefinder

ST-09d Longbow Iguana

3d6Ra - Guided RPG Launcher

3d6Rd - Poseidon Heavy Machine Gun

1d6B - Composite Armor Plating 

Building the XF-13b Grand Naga

First off, I'd like to apologize for the inactivity here over the past week or so. A combination of work and starting the process of buying a new home took up my time for a bit. With that, I'm going to be starting a new thing over here. Instead of just giving you a single breakdown shot of some of my builds, I'm going to be putting together a detailed breakdown with some setting fluff on their origins and current use. We'll start things off with the XF-13b Grand Naga.


After the riots on Quall, the Union became increasingly concerned with engagements dealing with close quarters urban environments. The Serpent Legion made finding a weapons platform to fit within that situation a high priority because their pilots were being deployed in similar situations with increasing frequency. The Skunkworks began designing a mobile frame from the ground up to give Legion pilots an edge. The result was the Grand Naga.

The first of my "cheats" for this build.

First things first. There are two "cheats" in this build that involve disfiguring some parts. Purists may scoff. But hey, I think it looks sweet, so I'm going to do it. Also, this is a very travis brick heavy build. There's 12 of them if you include the one in the shotgun, so don't be surprised if you start running low after building a few of these.

Let's begin the build with the legs. This is where my first "cheat" comes in. As you can see I've cut one of the tires to wrap it around the rear travis brick, with the radar dishes on the side creating the illusion that the tire goes into the back of the heel of the foot. That travis brick connects to a headlight, and then another travis, creating the foot. The ankle is one of the sturdiest connections you'll find while maintaining a good amount of flexibility. The only downside is there is no horizontal movement.

Next, the torso. As you can see, the central core of this is from Squieu's brilliant mini-frame. The motor piece (#4595) at the center is a wonderful place to start for torsos due to the large amount of studs hanging off it and the fact that it is also a very common piece in my experience. Three more travis bricks make an appearance here as well as some plates, cheese slopes, and tiles to complete the look.

This section of the frame is also very, very solid. There is little to no wiggle anywhere and the only piece that feels like it may fall off in any means is the 1x2 hinge piece on the crotch.

The legs attach by plugging the taps into the travis brick at the bottom of the torso.

Next we move to the arms. The tire technique here is something I use quite frequently due to the fact that I absolutely love how the matte, rubberized black breaks up the look of the frame beautifully, while adding a rounded aesthetic that is rather hard to achieve with standard brick usage. The arm attaches to the tap via a 1x1 plate w/ ring. This technique is something I've used a number of times with frames like the MkII Meerkat.

 It's a sightlier fragile connection without being too flimsy, although it gives you a lot of options for posing the arms. That plate is attached to a headilght piece and a travis brick (bringing the count to 11 with both arms at this point). Then come the standard issue weapons. We have a Molecular Blade and a Tactical Shotgun (which can be seen in more detail here). The shotgun contains the 12th travis brick of the build and could easily be used as a grenade launcher or really any number of other weapons.

The second cheat.

Bringing it all together gives you a near complete Grand Naga. There is just one more piece missing, the top. This is where the second cheat comes in. It involves cutting the ring off of a 1x1 plate w/ring and placing them into the top of the motor piece of the torso. If you're against destroying a couple of pieces, you could use 1/4 pins, although the connection isn't anywhere near as solid, and there is a bit more of a gap between the torso and the top slope. Now you have a completed Grand Naga!

The XF-13b Grand Naga is currently in the field testing stage with the Black Adders, commanded by Captain Uri Reed on Orion 6. So far, they have been invaluable tools in subduing and eliminating the  Free Colonist Terrorist movement on the planet's surface. Assuming continued excellent performance, these Nagas may be seen on the field in standard production within the coming year.

Tactics, Company Composition, and Rules

Cpt. Angelo is the commanding officer of the 31st OMU. He likes guns and peaches.
In that order.

Over the past week or so, there has been some serious discussion over on the forums.

Thanks to Vincent (aka Lumpley) we have damn near all of the rules for MFZ. This post contains the rules for setting up the battlefield and getting things started, as well as links to all of the other discussions about the rules on the forums.

So what's left after knowing how to play? Building and setting up your company! There's a discussion on Company Builds, different Weapon Loadout Theories, and Battle Simulations. I highly suggest getting in there and reading up, not only can you jump in the discussion, but the guys who made the game are putting in their two cents too. Plus, they'll be using this feedback to help finish editing the rulebook.

Oh and NEW POLL.

Economy of War

The Atlas Labor frame is the primary labor frame used by the colonists of
Orion 6. Extremely durable and easy to maintain, this frame still sees
use as a makeshift combat frame by some resistance members.

As the Solar Union expands it's empire out into the galaxy, the Union needs to be pulling a profit to continue doing so. Joshua described how this all goes down recently in the Mobile Frame Hanger forums. Here is the segment where he goes into some detail:

Empires put a great deal of energy into their expansion. It gets harder and harder to expand but, of course, Every linear expansion of the empire brings an exponential increase in the costs. It's just not clear what those costs are. The Solar Union is a 20th century-style soft empire. The colonies don't technically have their goods stolen; they sell them to the SU. But the SU hasn't allowed them full participation, in that they're straight up poorer. So the SU sets a "fair market price" and will only pay that — or at least "recommends" it to the corporation in charge of a particular expedition. On Quall, that corporation backed up that price with force. It's a price the SU can't afford to exceed and the colonies can't afford to get because, locally, the value of those goods has skyrocketed as they exhaust them, either by using up rare resources of by being unable to produce more without further investment.

The "abandonment" phase comes when a colony's resources have become worthless on the market because other, newer colonies are better at producing those resources. That means older colonies can't trade the goods they have for the goods they need. The Free Colonies have started setting up a parallel economy, the existence of which is a direct threat to the SU's power structure. It will have (is having? How's this going on Orion 6?) the effect of increasing the prices of the goods the SU needs because there are other buyers — other colonies. That's a direct threat to the SU's ability to continue to feed its people.

The Ijad factor into this because the only thing stopping them from being like the SU is an ethic that hasn't been challenged for millennia. The last time they had an emperor-like entity, it went very badly and they learned the lesson. No one has been able to succeed at such a venture since due to their religious prohibitions that just keep such ideas from ever catching on — until the colonists showed up on their doorstep. Let's see how long their resolve lasts. What they want is to be as big a pressure on the SU as the SU is on them so it simply goes elsewhere. That means establishing colonies in other solar systems...

Transit gates are like little colonies, yeah. Think of them as port towns; reliant on shipping for all of their goods but those produced by their immediate neighbors. When you use a transit gate to send matter or data to another solar system, it's pretty imprecise. You probably don't exactly hit orbit. And you sure don't want to try to get so precise that you lit atmosphere because who knows what your incoming velocity will be. So you go for moon distance and see what you get. Having another transit gate at the other end makes it far, far more precise. A solar system with a transit gate can bring in materials bound for any body in that system. They take years to build, yes. When a colony is established, it's the first thing a colony has to pay for. They have to feed and equip themselves, too. So they start off in debt, but with the promise of riches of their newfound colony. They start producing to get out of debt, then find the value of their output dropping, and still have to support the colony, its expensive transit gate, populated and operated by locals but policed/defended by the Terran Transit Marines. I'm sure some colonies are now considering scrapping their transit gates for the resources they contain, which furthermore makes attack less practical, but eventually those colonies will be lost to history, unable to even communicate between the stars.

To answer the question of how this is going on Orion 6: Things are getting messy. The sheer number of valuable resources on the planet has kept the cost of maintaining a Union presence within acceptable levels, while the abundance of materials that the colonists can trade to the newly formed Federation is high enough where they can get the supplies they need to fight for their independence without too much trouble.  

I haven't gotten too much into how the Ijad fit into all of this yet. Let's just say they have a more subtle influence on the events on this barren world...

MFZ has been officially kickstarted!

The Kickstarter has finished with a final count of $82,499! First off, congrats to Josh, Soren, and Vincent for putting together such a wonderful game that has gathered so much support from this exploding community that is developing! I'm happy to be a part of it. Secondly, There has been a recent avalanche of cool stuff being put together as backers are now getting those pick-a-brick and bricklink orders in. Let me take a moment to give you a quick mid-week rundown of some of the cool stuff that's been popping up.

Sagethe13th has put together a pair of really badass frames with racecar inspirations.

Micah Bauer is still at it with his brilliant C6 system. His latest creation being a bit larger and more detailed.

MacLane's tiny little missile bot is one hell of an artillery frame.

A Yates's Badger has a really badass torso, and LOOK AT THAT GUN.

And Malcom Craig yet again puts together a phenomenal frame.

Joshua also spilled the beans on the Serpent Legion's Special Custom Chub in his last update. The ST-07SLC "Fat Snake" designed by Soren. Soren is designing a few more of the Serpent Legion's frames and I'm excited to see what he comes up with. I'll be sure to post them here when they're finished!

The ST-09 Iguana

Here's the rundown on my latest addition to the Serpent Legion's war assets. I built this guy using the core of a Squieu Mini-Frame and and the torso is inspired by Malcom Craig's Lansen. I've been keeping with my tire kick by working them into the guns on the arms. 

The ST-09 Iguana

Stats

Twin Heavy Autocannons 2d6+d8 Rd

Linked Anti-Infantry Machine Guns 2d6Rh

Composite Armor Plating 1d6B

And here's a breakdown.

Weekly Rundown 4/9/12

Another week and another poll down! It looks like you guys want to see more frames and I am going to deliver! As you've probably noticed, I've been putting together a number of frames over the past week. I'm going to try and keep up a similar pace for a while as well as pointing out some of the exceptional builds popping up throughout the MFZ community. Speaking of...

Micah Bauer has thrown together a few more awesome C6 frames, the Heavy Ordnance Tactical (HOT) Frame, the Combat Armored Biped (CAB), and the Quad Legged Armored Walker (QLAW). He has also been kind enough to put together a very cool looking list of all the C6 pieces.

Zeekhotep has a bunch of really cool builds going for his Crimson Commandos on his blog.

Ironsniper has put together what I think is a stunning little frame with a frog on it's head.

Tetrajak has put together a stellar frame with some really cool joint work.

And DrWatsman is up to his old tricks again.

MFZ was at PAX East over the holiday weekend. MantisKing has a brief rundown of the MFZ related events that transpired on his blog.

Also, the Kickstarter project is about to hit $70k!! Congrats to the entire MFZ team!

New poll is up!

The Hunchback

Since the arrival of the Serpent Legion on Orion 6, the usual converted labor frames and makeshift weapons were not enough for the resistance militia to hold their own. A group of engineers came together to create Orion Heavy Industries in the hopes of building mobile frames for the militia to push the Solar Union's forces out of the Orion system. After reworking the Meerkat that had been used by the Trident in the initial battles with the UMFL, they began working on a completely original design, the Hunchback.

The militia had a dire need for a front line combat frame with solid firepower, durability, and the ability to coordinate attacks with it's squad. Orion Heavy Industries delivered. The OHI-04 Hunchback is an extremely durable and reliable frame that uses parts from mining labor frames at it's core. On the outside however, is a plethora of composite armor plates, two high velocity, high rate-of-fire sub-machine guns, and a communications uplink to give other militia members a bird's eye view of the surrounding battlefield. 

Stats:

Akimbo Spectre SMGs: 2d6+d8Rd

Composite Armor Plating: 1d6B

Communications Uplink: 1d6Y

Structure of the Serpent

The XF-13b Grand Naga is a deadly foe in close-
quarters and urban environments.

The Hierarchy of the Serpent Legion
The Legion is not your typical UMFL division for a number of reasons. The largest reason being that it technically has no ties to the UMFL whatsoever. As it is privately funded, the Serpent Legion is the known galaxy's largest PMC. Who funds such a high-tech, elite army? No one knows his real name, but he is known as the King Cobra.

The King controls the Legion from the shadows, issuing orders to his three Division Generals who are in command of Python, Viper, and Rattler Divisions. Each division is in command of roughly 750 mobile frames, 6,000 infantry troops, and 150 armored vehicles, although generally most of those forces are stationed within the Sol system. Much smaller numbers have been deployed to the colonies. In fact, there are only about 500 known Serpent Legion frames outside of Sol.

Most needs of the Union are met in the colonies by the UMFL. In the rarer cases when the UMFL is not suited to deal with the task at hand, an appropriate number of Serpent Legion personnel and assets are requisitioned to achieve results. As one would imagine, forces like these do not come cheap. It is commonplace for the Serpent Legion to set up a forward production facility on planets where lengthy operations are to take place. The Legion prefers to construct a majority of their assets onsite to avoid the costs of transport. Experimental and Prototype frames (like the Grand Naga, pictured above) are psychically sent through the gates to avoid the potential threat of their schematics being stolen by resistance members.

Even if someone other than the UMFL could afford their prices, it's very unlikely an agreement would be made. The King Cobra keeps himself and his organization closely allied with the UMFL as much politically as militarily. The Serpent is devout in it's desire to eliminate the terrorist threat of the Federation and the similar minded Free Colony Resistance Cells. Very little else is known about the going-ons within the organization and it is widely suspected that there are a number of shady deals being done by the King Cobra behind closed doors. But since no one knows who he is, it makes it hard to do anything about it.

----------------------------------

With all-terrain wheels and a light composite construction,
The XF-13b Grand Naga is much more agile that it's
size would suggest.

During initial operations on Orion 6, the Legion suffered higher than expected losses within the urban city centers where the colonists had not only better knowledge of the area, but were able to blend into the civilian population as well. Serpent pilots were being lost in quick, close-quarters engagements which needed to be addressed due to the expense (in time and money) of training each cadet. No expense was spared to create a mobile frame that would bring survival rates back into acceptable levels. The result was the XF-13b Grand Naga.

A handful of these advanced frames are currently being used by the Black Adders, a company within Viper Division led by Sgt. Uri Reed, a three year veteran with the Serpent Legion.

Stats:

High Capacity Tactical Shotgun: 2d6Rd

Molecular Blade: 2d6Rh

Composite Armor Plating: 1d6B

All-Terrain Wheeled Drive System (ATWD): 1d6G

Secret Weapons of the Serpent Legion

"You know what the best part of being part of the Serpent Legion is? You get to use all the cool new toys." - Specialist Jacob Hines, Diamondback Platoon


Aside from modifying existing mobile frames in production, the Legion also has it's own mobile frame R&D division with a state of the art research facility on the Jovian moon of Poseidon. These "skunk works" produce and develop new weapons, defensive technologies, mobile frames, and pretty much anything else that can help the Serpent Legion get the edge.

Pictured right is one of their most recent prototypes, the XF-13 Sand Naga. The Legion had found a need for a highly mobile artillery platform since their arrival on Orion 6. Equipped with a HE railgun and a superior drive system, the Sand Naga can get into advantageous positions quickly and dish out the punishment once it gets there.

Resistance reports also indicate there is a stealth frame in use by the Legion. No photos of the frame have been captured and the engagements with the frame have been at extreme range with no visual contact. Is it thought that these frames may be equipped with some form of optical camouflage. Luckily, there have only been a small handful of encounters with this frame, which means it is likely present in very small numbers.

MFZ Stats as pictured: 2d6+d8Ra, 1d6B, 1d6G, 2x SSR

Stickers, Landmarks, and Fancy Frames

Today, Joshua unveiled the decals that will be included with a number of backer levels and as you can see below, they look sweet.

He also started taking suggestions for additional decals to include. Lots of great suggestions, including battle damage and faction icons But if you want to see something, make sure your voice is heard over there.

But the bigger news at hand, is that the project has reached $50,000. What does that mean? It means that Joshua is going to also write up and release MFZ roleplaying game rules. I love that Josh and the gang are continuing to pull more awesomeness out of their bag of tricks as they continue to exceed their new goals. 

In other Kickstarter related news, one of the $400 level backers backed out yesterday, which means there is a Joshua AC Newman custom company still up for grabs. After seeing some of the ideas that have been tossed around for these custom groups, I highly suggest doing it if you're able to afford it. UPDATE: that backer reward has now been claimed.

Speaking of custom builds, I recently pulled together a prototype of something I plan on using.

A nice little scout to cruise through the badlands with don't you think?

Weapons of the Resistance

A little frame design to get you through the weekend:

When members of the Trident want to rain death from afar, they get behind the muscle cylinders of one of these bad boys. Many a chub have fallen to it's long range cannons and it's heavy armor plating have made it a very difficult asset to remove from the situation.

Then when you want to get up close a personal, you hop in one of these:


Both of these guys are based off of Squieu's awesome mini-frame.

Framework of a Company

My Pick-A-Brick order finally arrived in the mail, and as you can see I went with some of Squieu's mini-frames. These guys are so much better than I had hoped! the build is really solid and there is so much detail in such a small space. If you're trying to decide on what kind of frames you want for your own squad, I really can't recommend these frames enough.

I'm going to be customizing and equipping these guys over the next few days. I'll post the results once I have them!

Under the Hood Pt.2

The second installment of "Under the Hood" has a few more frames to have some fun with.

Mini-Frame by Sqeuieu

This is my favorite frame at the moment. Nearly every piece on the thing can be expanded, changed out, or used for some detailing. It's poseable, looks sweet, and is sturdy to boot.

Sqeuieu has some cool variations in his brickshelf gallery, and (please excuse the self-promotion) I've got a few designs as well. The only real downside to this frame that I can see is that it requires 7 of those four stud 1x1 bricks, which are some of the pricier pieces to buy in large amounts. There is an LDraw file of this guy available on Divnull as well.

Hi-Leg by Joshua AC Newman

These guys are pretty sweet. A very well built and unique frame compared to most of the other guys around. I love the reverse legs and all the potential the torso has. Here's a variation by Jed September that I absolutely love, and here's a company of hi-leg badboys with a commisar by Soren. Aaaaaaand here's the breakdown shot of the torso for all you would be Hi-leggers.

WRH-102 Warhorse by triple_ought

While this one is quite new, I really love how it has the feel of a commisar on steroids. Triple-ought has a few variants as well as a breakdown shot of his build. I can't wait to see what the rest of the community does with this guy.