As some of you may have known, I'm a HUGE fan of Battletech and Mechwarrior. Most of you probably didn't, though, and a lot of you probably don't even know what that is.

Anyhow, over the last few weeks, there have been some HUGE developments in the Battletech and Mechwarrior communities.

1. The recent announcement of Mechwarrior 3015, a reboot of the Mechwarrior franchise, is now in development by Pirhana Games and Smith & Tinker on the Unreal 3 engine. This is a sequel we've been waiting close to a decade for, and there's a huge amount of excitement for it. The ingame trailer can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ricQ9NEP ... r_embedded

2. The largest Mechwarrior 4 community, MekTek, and the associated mod studio, MekTek Studios, has been given exclusive permission to distribute Mechwarrior 4 and ALL associated expansions free of charge to the public. This is huge news, and a long-coming recognition of MekTek, who have maintained support for the game since the official master server went down by reverse-engineering their own to facilitate continued online play, developing their own mod tools for the game when none were released by the developer, and easily tripling the amount of content in the game with their MekPak mod, which is now in version 3.02b.

Following the anticipated release withing the next month or two of the freeware version of Mechwarrior 4, which they have dubbed Mechwarrior: MekTek, they will be releasing the V4 of their MekPak mod later this year, completely rebuilding many gameplay mechanics, including an complete overhaul of mech electronic systems and placing a new emphasis on electronic and information warfare, teamplay, and dedicated tactical roles, in addition to several more new mechs, and major improvements to the MechLab.

http://www.mektek.net

3. The "Unseen" mechs which were removed from the franchise due to compyright issues raised by Robotech have been reinstated as Canon. This includes such iconic mechs as the Battlemaster and Warhammer.

4. Mechwarrior: Firestorm, the version of Mechwarrior 4 designed for the Tesla II simulator pods, is now under continued development by MekTek studios, who may be experimenting with the possibility of adding some of their amazing content to the extremely popular simulator pods.

In addition to the above items, we are seeing massive progress both in the development of the Assault Tech 1: Battletech stand-alone game, whose development team recently partnered with the aforementioned MekTek team, and excitement is also building for the upcoming Mechwarrior: Living Legends mod, a massively ambitious project which has been in development for the Crytek 2 Engine for the last few years.

Truly, it is a good day to be a Mechwarrior.

Wow! This is awesome news!

I can't wait to see this stuff roll out!

Nice, imma bit of a fan on teh mechs! i got loads of figures of em that i used to play a table top game with, but i can't find anyone else who has them

Sorry for double post but i need to know!

Carsmoryr, do you know anything about the mech Nova Cat? Cos i love it but i can't find anything about it

Big picture,novacat

What about the melting pot?

I want to play with some new mechs

Yeah, the nova cat is a big, silly, energy-only oven-mech, built by the clan of the same name.

Standard loadout is
3x ERLL
2x ERPPC

And it mounts everything in the arms (shakes head).

I like the Ryokenn myself (misspelled it) and the Madcat. Ive always preferred clan tech over Innersphere. The weapons are light, longer ranged, harder hitting as well. The innersphere does have quite a few powerhouse mechs though thats for sure.

The worst thing that they can do with this game is make it like mechassault (have yet to watch the trailer) they were ok games.... but WAY TOO ARCADEY.

I think we're safe from something truly Mechassault-like, which would indeed fail hardcore. I think we'll see something dumbed-down from the classic mechwarrior games, but still definitely more mechwarrior than mechassault.

Things that worry me are:

1. Focus on urban environs. Some of the language used in the interview sounded like there would be significant exclusion of non-urban environments. This really worries me.

2. Cross-Platform multiplayer. This never ends well, and doesn't help the likelihood of us getting our hands on mod tools. Stupid console tards.

3. RPG elements. I'm not totally opposed to the idea - just skeptical. Rewarding people for getting good at one class / chassis is fine, but you don't want to shoehorn people into feeling like they should only take advantage of one element of the game. TF2 just learned this lesson.

I, too like clan tech better. Though recycle times are longer, ammunition problems are more rampant, and heat buildup is worse, the lower tonnage and harder punch more than make up for it. We won't be seeing much, if any clan tech in 3015 though.

No gauss rifles. No pulse lasers. No X-Pulse. No LB-X Autocannons. No Ultra Autocannons. No ER Lasers. No ER-PPCs. No Streak Missiles. No Rocket Launchers. No Heavy Lasers. No TSEMP. No HAGs. No ATMs. No Specialized Armor. No NARCs. No advanced internal structure. No Light, XL, or Compact Engines, no Clan Chassis. Barring that in use by the Wolf's Dragoons, and any random lostech that gets dug up, obviously.

The focus on urban environments is gonna hurt them. Mechwarrior was all about the BIG open environments and huge battles with other mechs. It was real good and a lot of fun. Hopefully they dont pull an oblivion and dumb it down so much that its depth is only comparable to a puddle.

The lack of clan tech is gonna be a bugger but... ITS ANOTHER MECHWARRIOR GAME! Im happy they didnt let the series die off.

Playing around with my miniatures was getting... kinda... boring...

Agreed. I want my rolling hills, desert, forests, moons, and artic tundra back!

Really what I most want is good mod tools - we get that and I have faith the community will deliver the experience I'm hoping for regardless of what the retail product is like.

I have not played a Mech warrior game in years... (I last played Mech warrior 3 I think... or 2... We still have a copy of the original somewhere...)

Raziel

P.S I can't wait to play a MechW game with good graphics (the original graphics were cool, don't get me wrong... it's just you know what I mean)

This is an excellent time to get back into the game. Look for Mechwarrior 4 to be available in a fully updated .iso sometime late august.

Where's the love for the Inner Sphere? Their mechs are flat out the best there is, and they aren't a bunch of test tube grown science experiments.

Plus you know, Atlas.

And the Brigand is full of kick ass and awesome sauce.

I lol'd. The AS7-D is a joke. A single LRM-20 as the only long-range equipment on a mech that can't break 60kph? Please. It's a walking deathtrap. Anything that doesn't have the speed to force a close-ranged engagement needs to be equipped for a long-range one. A Warhawk will gut an atlas with PPC fire before the atlas ever gets to bring that AC-20 to bear.

I'll give you that the brigand is a tough little monkey that tends to survive better than you'd expect and has good operational stamina, but it's not that impressive, either.

Bah. That's just what I'd expect a Clanner to say.

I've had plenty of kills with my plodding death trap.

Carsomyr's got a good point.

Clan mechs are the better of the bunch, but there are some pretty good Innersphere ones as well...

The Atlas is a powerhouse, its a good mech but I agree a mech with long range capacity such as the Warhawk would have the upperhand in the fight. That isnt a contest between innersphere or Clan... its common sense. The Atlas is a Brawler, gets in close where it can bring its power into the fight... All that power is just excess tonnage though if you cant make it to the ring.

The atlas shines in Urban environments though where it can use its electronics to hide itself until the enemy gets into range.

I just ran the scenario in MW4:Mercs I was in a catapult with LRMs, the opponent was in a stock Atlas... I managed to knock him out right when he got within pretty reasonable striking distance with my missles. Ran the same situation in a city environment and he pretty much wiped the floor with me. I had to get in close to him (I was in a catapult again) just to get my weapons locked, i was in range and heavily damaged as i started to fire. Thus proving its not the mech... its the roles they are designed for.

+1

Though a properly config'd catapult, with jets and SRMs / rocket launchers might have a shot against an atlas in good hands even in urban territory.

The Nova Cat is one of the best mechs i think.. It did more damage more quickly than any other mechs i customized.. Although a Daishi with 3 long toms is quite devistating...

He he, fun things...

Yeah, the nova cat's always been pretty popular for PPC an ERLL boats. Personally, I've never been a fan of running anything that hot.

Aff on the Catapult with short range configuration.

The Novacat is a good mech. I have ran it many times before but it needs good heat sinks and a decent environment. The real nice thing about it is the Omni tech it uses, throw an srm in there or a ballistic of some type and throw the enemy off a bit.
The down sides of it are, as stated previously, it mounts all its equipment in its arms and the heat build up is pretty bad.

Give me a Timberwolf, Sumner, or a Maddog any day. keep it classic.

Wonder if it will bring back the firemoth (if anyone remembers that one.)

Firemoth's already in. Fastest thing in the game - especially with MASC. Thing breaks 210kph.

Now thats good news. Wonder how big the mech selection is gonna be.

Here's the current list for the latest version of Mechwarrior 4 running MekPak 3.02b:

Inner Sphere:

Infantry:
Ballistic Infantry
Energy Infantry
Missile Infantry

Battle Armor:
Infiltrator Mk 1
Standard
Gray Death
Longinus
Kanazuchi

Light:
Flea
Wasp
Brigand
Commando
Duan Gung
Koto
Osiris
Razorback
Urbanmech
Owens
Panther
Raven
Wolfhound

Medium:
Chimera
Strider
Assassin II
Hellspawn
Hollander II
Blackjack
Centurion
Crab
Hunchback
Trebuchet
Uziel
Bushwacker
Grim Reaper
Privateer
Shadowhawk

Heavy:
Argus
Dragon
Rifleman
Yeoman
Argus XT
Catapult
Catapult K2
Tenchi
Archer
Avatar
Black Hawk
Warhammer
Black Knight
Marauder
Thanatos
Thanatos XT

Assault:
Awesome
Talos
Thug
Victor
Zeus
Battlemaster
Stalker
Longbow
Templar
Cyclops
Highlander
Mauler
Sunder
Hauptmann
Atlas
Annihilator
Fafnir
Marauder II
Warlord

Clan:

Infantry:
Ballistic Infantry
Energy Infantry
Missile Infantry

Battle Armor:
Elemental
Salamander
Gnome
Golem

Light:
Dasher
Locust IIC
Solitaire
Uller
Urbanmech IIC
Cougar
Jenner IIC
Puma

Medium:
Arctic Wolf
Reaver
Fenris
Gesu
Shadow Cat
Black Hawk
Hellhound
Hunchback IIC
Ursus
Black Lanner
Rabid Coyote
Ryoken

Heavy:
Ares
Vulture
Vulture C
Cauldron-Born
Loki
Bowman
Grizzly
Nova Cat
Pit Bull
Thor
Mad Cat
Orion IIC
Vulture Mk II
Wildcat

Assault:
Canis
Man O' War
Battlemaster IIC
Deimos
Masakari
Blood Asp
Mad Cat Mk II
Supernova
Gladiator
Warthog
Behemoth
Behemoth 2
Daishi
Kodiak

We'll be getting several more with MP4, including the Firefly, Linebacker, Hatamoto-Chi, Champion, Battle Cobra, Turkina, and others.

I havent seen an Orion in a very long time. This is good news!

Im actualy having trouble installing the mechpacks, Ive got Mercs installed and im trying to install mechpack 1 and it gets to the end and says some files are missing. So any help there would be appreciated. Do I need the other two mechwarrior4 games in?

No, black knight and vengeance are totally unnecessary. You do, however, need to install the PR1 official patch prior to any of the mektek packs. Also make sure you're using the correct MekPak version.

Anyhow, we're all going to have to reinstall from scratch when they release the freeware version sometime next month - it won't be backwards compatible with what we have now.

Where do i get the PR1 patch? (cant seem to locate it)

http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... ercpr1.exe

Merry Christmas

Edit: Heck, while I'm at it, here's the whole process:

1. Install Mercs.
2. Install the PR1 patch. Location below:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... ercpr1.exe
3. Install the PR1 > 3.02a MekPak. Location below:
http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php? ... l&f_id=298
4. Install the 3.02a > 3.02b patch. Location below.
http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php? ... l&f_id=304
5. Open your merc folder and run mekmatch.reg

Thanks. I seem to have found it all though before you posted. Looks like google is my friend. Helpful links though.

Awesome. Welcome back to the field.