>>14778764The people who prefer 3025 era to the point of never touching anything else are quite frankly a minority of Battletech players.
I don't mean to disparage them too much, but I find they usually stick to 3025 because they can't handle adapting to, and figuring out, the new equipment and mechs.
I remember a guy coming over from 3025 who'd never touched anything past that era, I threw a Mad Dog E into my army and he threw a fit about the 30 points of damage each gun did. Told me it was overpowered shit like that which ruined Battletech. [Nevermind that it's not as good as two LRM15's, nevermind that the Mad Dog E only gets 4 shots.] He only looked at it on the surface, went "what the fuck" and hated it.
On the flipside though, my first experience with 3025 on the mekwars server was absolutely terrible. My opponent brought units like the spider and stalking spider, and just set hexes on fire, then jumped into trees, heavy woods, or smoke for the rest of the game plinking on 11's. Four hours in, one mech out of eight dead, and I just said "forget this".
I've played a few more 3025 games since, and it's certainly fun, but too slow paced for me. IMO, 3050 era IS vs IS fights are the sweet spot for pacing and tactics, with IS vs Clan coming second.