Iron Spirit

## Intro

**Iron Spirit** was not the most played online game on the market. However, its esports broadcasts attracted a very wide audience, allowing the game to foster a large and diverse creator's market.

The reason for the game's success could be attributed to its adherence to reality. Iron Spirit emulated reality so well that players had to buy or rent expensive simulation pods to pilot a mech. It turned the player base into an elitist club that served as a decent simulation to actual mech combat.

As a reputable mech simulator, Iron Spirit only featured real mechs. The base designs sold in its virtual store could be bought in real life with almost the same performance. With its vast and extensive database, the game worked hard to group them together in a simple manner.

## Information

The BSBH Corporation stuck to the creed of realism so much that its virtual mechs had to be fabricated within its simulated ecosystem in a realistic manner. Only the mainstream mech models could be bought off-the-shelf.

The true high performing mechs in the game were all customized or original designs that could be sold for either gold - the virtual currency - or with real Credits. Unlike piloting a virtual mech, Iron Spirit didn't demand its designers to be a potentate, so even an average norm like Ves could engage in its virtual market.

BSBH didn't want its virtual mech market to be flooded by a tsunami of awful designs.

The BSBH Corporation decided to adopt a 1-star to 5-star rating. They later added even higher ratings with the introduction of even higher performing models.

The game’s database included many older designs, but its library of current designs was incomplete. Many top-notch mech designs were highly guarded secrets. These so-called next generation models represented the cutting edge of mech design.

Iron Spirit featured a sophisticated matchmaking system, and the lowest segment was the Bronze League.
Every potentate who played Iron Spirit started from the Bronze League. Only by winning a sufficient amount of times would one gain the opportunity to promote to the Silver League, which most mech enthusiasts consider it to be the real beginning of the game. Bronze leaguers were also limited from purchasing any mechs rated higher than 1 stars, which really frustrated a lot of kids who wanted to dive right into big and modern mechs.

Pilots can increase their League with wins and tremendous work. Leagues in order:
Bronze-->Silver-->Gold-->Platinum-->Diamond

A Bronze Leaguer only had access to 1-star mechs. A Silver Leaguer had access to 2-star and 3-star mechs, though they could still play around with 1-star mechs if they wanted to have some fun. A Gold Leaguer had access to both 4-star and 5-star mechs. Most potentates that did not pursue a professional career in piloting mechs languished in this League. When one reached Platinum League or further, they gained unrestricted access to every mech, even the mythical 10-star mechs. However, the higher the tier, the more expensive the mechs cost to purchase and to repair if it ever got damaged. The fancier mechs even required weeks of in-game time to repair if they got completely destroyed. This meant that a fair number of Platinum and Diamond players still occasionally took a 5-star mech into a match for the purpose of earning some easy gold.

Matchmaking in the lowest league also didn't cross star systems, which meant that most low-tier players fought against opponents from the same planet.

### 1-star designs

Iron Spirit’s lowest 1-star mech models used to plow the battlefield alongside legends such as Mack Liu, the mech pioneer. Compared to contemporary models, these ancient relics fell short in many ways. They were slow, clumsy, inefficient and sometimes looked ridiculous.

### 5-star designs

5-star mechs being one of the most profitable tiers in Iron Spirit. High performing models especially attracted attention.

## Costs

The entry fee for Iron Spirit is 800 bright Credit.

Customizing any existing design required the purchase of a so-called virtual license. The licenses for the cheapest parts started at around 10,000 credits, while the licenses for the most outdated 1-star mechs were valued at 100,000 credits.

## Prominent Users

### Designers

* Ves Larkinson
	+ Chasing Clouds
	+ Crazy War Criminal

### Pilots

* Joshua King
* Melinda Larkinson
* Ark Larkinson
	+ TheGrandGreenRoad