Mechcommander: does anyone out there remember, and dare I ask, like this series??

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I'm referring to the Mechcommander series - Mechcommander and Mechcommander 2 - for PC (in case there's a Mechcommander series out there for another medium or platform).

I sometimes get the feeling that I'm like the only person out there who remembers these games, or at least, who enjoyed them. Sure, they were way too easy ("too easy" factor got way worse with MC2 - thanks Microsoft!), and the AI was horrific but I found that they still had a lot of magic, and enjoyed them immensely.

Anyone out there even know what I’m talking about? Or is my assumption that this thread will just fall off the front page unnoticed soon to be realized? We shall see, I guess.

 

Well, with getting a post from the admin of the board, I can't exactly say that the thread was "unnoticed" (thanks Tal btw), but I'm not exactly getting the sense I was wrong about these games being all but forgotten.

Just for giggles, I'll point out that I was never really into the whole MechWARRIOR PC game series either. I tried a couple of them, but just found that playing an "mech style" FPS was not my cup of tea.

The MechCOMMANDER series, on the other hand, was a third person perspective, and as mechcommander you are in command of several mechs at a time. It was about as close to doing mechs in a "Role playing" style as I've seen. Your pilots even had attributes that increased over the course of the campaign. And items? Well, you were constantly looking for weapons facilities to expand your available technology.

For me one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game was the set up before a mission. Picking the "right" mechs, the right weapons, the right pilots, making sure you've got a full complement of abilities so can deal with practically any situation. Balancing all the pros and cons, and making sure you fit your ideal deployment team within the available tonnage. A very strategic, and enjoyable gaming moment (with ever expanding possibilities from mission to mission).

Then to get into the game and see your chosen crew in action: very rewarding. Plus, there was an interesting story with some memorable characters, all of whom had strong actors driving them. Mechcommander 2 also got a nice 3d overhaul, and still looks pretty decent.

I dunno. I guess, if the game devs are out there, there was at least one gamer who "got" what you doing. Otherwise, I'm sure my voice will fall on deaf ears, as no one else seems interested.

 

I haven't played 1 but 2 was quite my style. The AI for "my" pilots was sort of bad - tell them to run around the mind field (waypoints and everything) and suddenly Hacksaw is complaining that he's taking fire. I check on him and the idiot it tramping through a mind field in a Men Shen.

 

uh i liked the the mechwarrior games, mainly because around that time the mechwarrior cartoon was shown, so me and my friends spend a lot of time on watching, playing and building mechs (in lego, it rocked)

 

Friend, you are not alone...

Mostly I got into MC from the MW series of games, which I got into since they were set in the milieu of BattleTech the board wargame and it's spinoff pen'n'paper RPG MechWarrior.

Personally, I *liked* the simplicity of the AI in both games (bait and lure into the 'shooting gallery') since if I desire a challenge I'll play against a HUMAN.

And technically I'd class the MW computer game series closer to the 'flight-sim' genre which existed long before Wolfenstein 3D or Doom...though technically one could call Gunship or Falcon AT 'first-person shooters' but for the fact that the player is sitting in a vehicle, not running around on foot...hmmmm...

But yes, designing your 'Mech(s) is at least half the fun - in the boardgame you could easily win or lose the fight before you even set your forces in the field depending on how well- or poorly-suited they were for facing what they were up against...

Anyways, back to the RTS (minus resource 'farming') games:

Yeah, fun and with reasonable polish; say what you will about Micro$oft, they and the developer FASA Studios manage to put a little CHARM in the games. I can still clearly hear Worm from MC2 announcing contact with the enemy with a raspy yet desperate "They're ON me!!!" or Jinx (bless her sweet rookie heart) declaring a successful capture with so childlike-sounding "I got the building, sir!"

And the first game had that ace pilot who would respond to an attack order with a vain "I am engaging" that I'd just have to heckle with "Actually, I find you rather uninteresting and humorless, missy"

But yeah; I got both games sitting in my CD caddy - haven't had a chance to put them on this new hard drive yet, and you're bringing up enough nostalgia to make a case for them being high on the 'pending games' queue...

(P.S. you tried any of the mods and user-made missions and campaigns? Mixed lot but a fair bit of it was better (more challenging & smarter AI) than the M$/Fa$a campaign - try in Sarna.net's downloads section here and here. Never had the time/inclination to get a feel for the mission builders to make my OWN missions, tho )

And Equester?

Ah, yes....the k'Hartuun - that vile, simplistic, 'lets simplify a political setting worthy of the Byzantine Empire into two-dimensional Good vs. Evil jingoism' couldn't be bother keeping the 'Mechs from drastically changing in size throughout a single episode, created by *Saban* (do I need to expound on THAT pile of televisual deadwood?) pile of steaming animal droppings... well, at least it introduced you to the BT universe.

But it slighted that deep, rich setting so much I felt compelled to issue a Trial of Annihilation against the dezgra scum!
{/satiric, over-the-top, hopefully-humourous rant}


But on the other hand, Lego ROCKS - such a simple tool for igniting the imagination; I wonder how many engineers and architects out there grew up making many myriad things with the wonderful blocks? I am sure your BattleMech designs kept to relative scale with each other, quineg?

[ July 16, 2007, 22:53: Message edited by: jaded empath ]

 

Well there are a few closet fans on the BoM who like this game after all! That's encouraging to see. I've never attempted a mod on this game, so I may have to do a little research and plan a modded game! Thanks for pointing that out JE.

In all the games I've played, I've never once put Jinx into the cockpit. Pretty much the entire bottom 5 or 6 pilots in my merc crew have been relegated to painting and polishing mechs.

I always stick with the guys I start my first mission with: Longshot, Flash, Hacksaw, and Meat (who comes in as a reinforcement). After mission 1, I quickly pull in Twitch and Worm to the fray, and those are the 6 mechwarriors that I focus on. Once I add Steel to the roster he's usually the first guy that I bring in from a reinforcement perspective.

The rest of the original mechwarriors (I mean the guys you start the game with... you do recruit along the way) really just come into play because I've got xp resource points to have them pilot a downed enemy mech. But there are roughly 5 or so who never end up seeing action as a result of that approach. I usually get Psycho from green to veteran status, without really trying to.

Later in the game, I also like to make use of Rooster (who was present in the original game), but by the time I start recruiting new elite pilots, my originals are already better pilots (some have achieved Ace status) or I'm just too attached to them to consider using other pilots.

I tend to favor bringing in more, somewhat lighter mechs into battle than fewer heavy mechs. I guess I value the pilots more than the destructive power of a nasty assault class mech. An Ace pilot even in the most unassuming of light mechs can prove a deadly ally. So I make sure my favored MWs see as much action as possible. Even in the final missions I tend to bring in lighter mechs. In particular, once I get access to the Liao mech called Anubis, I rarely fail to include it in any subsequent missions. It's the ultimate scout mech, as no other mech can match its speed, it can be equipped with jump jets AND an Intermediate sensor! I usually put Flash in that sucker; give her LRM and Long Range Specialty, along with Light Mech specialty. And she learns to maneuver that little mech like no other can!

I usually have Steel and Hacksaw focus on more short range kind of abilities. I often give Steel specialty with Heavy Autocannons and Jump jets, so he's good at getting in close quickly and delivery destructive blows.

Twitch and Meat are my medium range guys. Flash, Longshot, and Worm become my long range guys -- most of the time, at least. Once I get access to the Cyclops assault class mech, I put Worm in it as often as I reasonably can, and ultimately give him specialty in gauss weapons.

Once I start getting my pilots to Ace status, my most popular specialty is Sharpshooter. Not only does this ability help to take out enemy mechs with very little damage to their chassis and weapon systems, but it also tends to indicate that an enemy mech warrior isn't going to remain in his/her cockpit for very long.

But my biggest complaint is just how easy the game is. I play with some house rules that help slightly. Namely, I don't allow any saves during missions, and if I lose a pilot, he/she's gone for good (though the toughness specialty makes losing veteran pilots very, very rare for me). If there are some mods out there that improve enemy AI and overall difficulty, that would be a very welcome change.

(no time to proofread - so hopefully I didn't butcher the English language too badly in this post - I so hate doing that....)

 

I reinstalled Mechcommander Gold (or whatever it was called) last month but it crashed whenever I tried to start a mission. Or, more precisely, whenever a mission was finished loading.

Anyone know how to get it to run in XP?

Oh, and JE, I hereby issue a Trial of Possesion for your copy of MC2

 

I run it on WXP just fine. I have noticed that sometimes XP doesn't recognize my CD, and it crashes exactly at the moment you describe when that's the case.

You might double check to make sure you can see your CD contents okay. I sometimes have to insert/eject my CD a couple of times to get it to read properly (or more dramatically, reboot my system). Once that's accomplished, I can launch missions without issue.

 

i prefer mechcommander 1 and gold.

Mechcommander 2 was a disappointment. Yes, the graphic was great, the weaponry was great but the AI was so bad that i can't really play the game. I never encountered any problem solving moment in the mechcom2. i remembered years ago when the game released that i had debated, fiercely, the AI issue with someone in gamefaqs.com board. Playing mechcom2, you just need to know the technique of "luring". Use a medium fast mech to lure the enemies, and run to the end of the world. Your other mechs can then tear down these enemies at ease and peace. Even when this medium fast mech CLEARLY ran out of their radar range, they can still track it down. This alone kills the game for me.

i like Mechcom1. The situation is harsher. You play the first drop spearhead team, so you don't have the luxury of buying a lot of stuff. Salvage becomes more important, especially when ALL your enemies are Clan tech. i remembered reloading "brazillian" times so that i can salvage the first Madcat (just 3 or 4 missions into the game). Mechcom1 is hard to play. You got to play a few more times to play better.

 

@teekc

I agree that Mechcommander 1 undeniably the more challenging game. I often had to play missions in MC1 many, many times to get them right, and there was no option to save during a mission. MC2 missions were generally doable for me on the first attempt because I tend to plan well and play slowly and methodically.

MC1 was published by Microprose, rather than Microsoft, so I'm guessing that Micro$oft had some significant role to play in the "dumbing down" of the sequel. MC2 added several cool new options that weren't in the original and was still very entertaining, but hard it wasn't (isn't).

I haven't tried any mods for MC2 yet, but Jaded Empath linked some earlier in this thread. The links he provided offer absolutely no descriptions around what the mods actually do (it's just a bunch of executable files with next to no description for any of them). That said, looking at the link prompted me to do a little research, and I found the "unofficial expansion" for MC2. These seem to be similar to some of the files linked by JE, but on this site there's a whole lot more history, discussion, and explanation (including install orders, etc): http://www.dropshipcommand.com/forum/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=15&topic_id=3886&mesg_id=3886&page=

So I think very soon I'll be trying out the the unofficial expansion for the game. The expansion purports to be MUCH more difficult than the official campaign, and even makes the OC more difficult (the AI changes and resource point changes seem to impact the entire install). Again, I haven't tried this yet, but if you're looking for a greater challenge using MC2's improved options and interface, this may be the place for you to look.

 

Haha you are probably right about the cartoon, I honestly cant remember much of the story other then it had to factions, a good and an evil, fighting each others, I think iwas around 10-11 years old when it was shown.

my lego figures was the right scale, but my friends for reason unknown (probably the shifting scaling in the cartoon you mentioned) thought (wrongfully ) that the mechs should be as big as 4store tall building in lego scales, so they made these huge butt ugly monstrosities, while mine was smaller streamlined beauties

anyhows since we are talking mech cartoons, does anyone know a cartoon about earth being attacked by a race of giants and defended by spaceships that can transforme into giant robots piloted by humans. later in the cartoon in turns out the giants aren't really giants but some form of humans with the technology to shrink and enlarge themself? I think it was one of the first animes i ever saw, it was about the same time i saw the mechwarrior cartoon, but the anime might have been older. I just remember renting the series while staying at my grandmothers for two weeks, but i have no idea of what it was called, but would like to see it again, so i can see if even was as good as i remember it was

 

I remember that series. I played them for months and actully managed to compleat the campains. They were fun, but I hated how the repair depos ran out of power.

 

Heh, Equester; I know that anime series VERY well; model kits related to Macross were fundamental to the inception of BattleTech.

Weisman (by mistake, I think) secured rights to make and sell model kits of the Macross robots/vehicles, and used the artwork as the foundation for some of the first BattleMech designs; Wasp, Stinger, Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, Archer, Rifleman, Warhammer, Marauder, OstSol & OstRoc - AFAIK - are all based on either Veritech or Zentradi vehicles.

That Japanese series was taken by Harmony Gold, edited and rewritten to merge with two other distinct series involving transforming robots, and marketed it outside of Japan as Robotech.

Either of these may be what you watched.


But that's all an tangent; let's get back to MechCommander and its RTS fun!

 

I downloaded the mod I linked above and have spent a little time playing around with it. There are 5 executables total, and here’s what each one does:

• Exe 1 – The Unofficial Expansion: This is called an expansion, but what it really is is a revamping of several game mechanics. Among the changes introduced are a WHOLE LOT of new mechs, some new/revised weapons and an overhaul of how enemy AI works – yes, it makes the AI much smarter, and enemies are just generally harder to kill. Enemies will even switch targets now!!!!
• Exe 2 – Patch to Unofficial Expansion: This is a patch for the expansion. As far as I can tell it basically just corrects the prices of some weapons (they were originally priced too high, apparently).
• Exe 3 – CarverV Campaign Modifications: This modifies the CarverV campaign (the official campaign of MC2) in several ways. First, it reduces your initial starting mechwarriors down to only 6 (Flash, Longshot, and Twitch (who you start the first mission with) as well as Meat, Dagger, and Psycho (who you find in your pilot deployment area)). It also lowers the number of C-bills you start with and that you gain each mission. The other main change I’ve noticed is a reduction in the number of Resource Points you start each mission with by a factor of 10 (e.g. if you would normally start with 16,000RPs, you now start with 1,600).
• Exe 4 – Another CarverV Campaign Modification: The only thing this one seems to do is modify your starting mechs. Instead of the Bushwacker and 2 Razorbacks you normally begin the game with, you start with a 35t Jenner, 30t Firestarter and a Razorback.
• Exe 5 – Exodus Campaign: This is a completely new campaign called Exodus. It is created to be extremely difficult, to be attempted by expert players only. It appears to be pretty extensive, having 29 missions total. There is also a fairly detailed walkthrough written for it (although the call it a FAQ for some unknown reason).

I’ve had a little time to play the modified CarverV campaign as well as the Exodus campaign, and here’s a few early thoughts on each:
Modified CarverV Campaign
--I’ve played like the first 5 missions so far, and I’m really loving the increased difficulty. Every mech you get your hands on is to be valued, since you don’t have nearly the budget you did in the unmodded campaign. Also, with few mechwarriors at your disposal, you often find yourself with plenty of RPs, but no available mechwarriors to call onto the field (making it that much harder to pick up new mechs early on).
--The AI improvements and general increase in difficulty results in battles feeling much more epic (without feeling silly or stupid). No mech battle is trivial, nor should they be. Even if you outnumber your foes, you’ll find that they have a lot more potential to inflict damage before you take them down. There are all kinds of tweaks that I’m noticing (to mechs and vehicles alike), and I’m finding pretty much all of them very agreeable, and enjoyable. I’m playing on “regular” difficulty, by the way.
--The order of the day seems to be finding ways to do more with a whole lot less. This is great, in my opinion, because the vanilla game seemed to be all about giving you way more than you could ever need or use. I also appreciate little tweaks like machine guns no longer having unlimited ammo.

Exodus Campaign
--I’ve only played the first 2 missions, so I don’t have much to say on this one yet. But I can say that those first two missions were very challenging. That said, it seems like there are multiple ways to succeed, and there is generally at least one way (which may not be obvious at first) that can be done fairly easily. So you’ll probably need to play each mission a few times before you’re able to get it right.
--Every decision really seems to matter. The choices that I made in purchasing or salvaging mechs in the first 2 missions left me with some very poor options for deploying mechs in mission 3 (and no mechs available to purchase on this particular mission – even if I had the C-bills to get them).
--Not sure how up for this challenge I am, but once I get through the CarverV campaign, I may consider going the distance on this new campaign.

Well, Jaded Empath, I appreciate you linking those mods a few days ago. Even though I didn’t end up downloading what was available on that particular site, your recommendation opened my eyes to the “underground Mechcommander modding community.” And now I’m finding new life in a much loved, classic game!

If there are any other closet MC fans out there, hopefully some of the above information will prove useful for freshening up your game as well!

[ July 20, 2007, 02:15: Message edited by: Marceror ]

 

so...... when is mechcom3?

 

Heh, I've heard it'll be released two weeks after Duke Nukem Forever

Unfortunately, the differing nature from the 'standard' RTS formula (resource gathering, permitting virtually unlimited unit creation) relegated MC to a niche market - mostly those MW & BT fans. I doubt M$ will be expending assets on anything more to do with the BattleTech millieu - MechAssault 3 was looking plausible, but it's been too long after the x360 launch... *shrug*