IMPORTANT Mechwarrior 2 + Expansions (free)

Great guide for installing! Getting more people to play this is never bad!

 

I'll try it out soon.

 

BTW, thanks for uploading this, I am enjoying it all over again. Fuck Katrina, that bitch! The deaths head will rise again! /end rp

carry on gentlemen, and vicious beasts, carry on.

 

Alright, everyone. Calm down. I'm here to save the day.


This beauty of a compilation has ALL the mechwarrior games, includeing the 16 bit SNES version.(under the Mechwarrior installs)
Simple click in the menu for the version you want to install. Once you install, say Mechwarrior, it has it's own menu screen to select Mechwarrior or SNES Mechwarrior, etc.

Here is the piratebay link
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/8776173/MechWarrior_Quadrology_(Eng_Rus)_[RePack]_RG_Catalyst
I could upload somewhere but it's 3.58 G since it includes everything. And it's dropbox VM etc is all preconfigured. I have had no problems so far.

 

Lol @ the Engrish in the descriptions in that torrent post. A representative example:

I'm guessing it was translated to another language and then back to English?

 

Actually, no. I'm still playing the MW1 so far. I'll let you know if I have those issues. And even so, I can fix the missing files from another version.

 

It's a shame I was such a clueless buffoon as a kid that I missed this game.

On the other hand I often get the feeling "I wish I could try this for the first time again". I guess I sort of got that with this. Mags, thanks for the help! Couldn't have got this to work without you. Appreciated! I actually had to edit the security settings of the mechVM folder in program files because the installer didn't have all the permissions for some reason.

 

SHRING!

The game doesn't allow WASD to be used for controlling the mech. I also tried to edit the .map files but then it throws errors.

Easy solution was to use autohotkey to bind WASD onto respective keys and whatever needed to be binded. Also works with 'toggle' key that allows binding to go off mode when you're not in a mission. (didn't bother to write that though, I'm happy with manually disabling the script when need be)

 

Here's the code if you want to make an autohotkey script for remapping keys for WASD controls:

Code:

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.


a::left

d::right

w::NumpadAdd

s::NumpadSub

 

Just download Autohotkey (free), then open notepad and paste that code into it and save it as "mw2keys.ahk" and then Autohotkey will run it when you double click the file. It will go to lower right corner and you can right click to suspend hotkeys or exit the script when you need to type stuff.

:edit
What I tried to say was, you can then run the saved .ahk file and it will appear in windows lower right corner where all the background applications are. Since it remaps WASD keys it is recommended to right click on the green icon with "H" on it and choose 'suspend' or 'exit' when you pause the game.

I didn't bother to actually make a toggle key for disabling it because you never actually write anything while playing.

Autohotkey link
http://www.autohotkey.com/

Overall Autohotkey is the shit. You can make all sorts of really nice things with it.

 

After several days of playing, a review:

This game was incredibly well done considering it's 18 years old. From pure experience and gameplay perspective it blows many modern AAA games straight out of the water. Dynamic missions where mission goals may change during missions and the player has actual full freedom of doing whatever he pleases from simply abandoning the mission altogether while on it to even double crossing the people who hired him for better pay.
Also, such choices are not restricted by overly punitive game mechanics such as massive penalties for going against the dev's preferred style of play.

Overall the game oozes with sense of freedom and choice but also danger, you might end up going against a little bit too dangerous enemy - it is up to you whether you'll just abandon the mission as hopelessly impossible or if you're going to risk death and take on a far stronger enemy. And this is where the mercenary spirit shows really well - even if you defeat a stronger enemy, it may cost you so much that you end up making loss for the contract. On the other hand if the pay is good enough losses can be acceptable.

Even 18 years after it came out it is still possible to have great moments of joy, be surprised and feel rewardment after success in a particularly difficult mission but all of that pales to the pure feeling of freedom, freedom from being forced to successfully complete every last submission of a campaign, freedom to just abandon a hopeless quest.

That said, 18 years of age shows. User interface is horribly outdated and often it appears that things like information depicting damage on enemy do not update correctly. The AI is capable of firing at player's cockpit with frightening accuracy whereas I wasn't able to score a single confirmed hit on enemy cockpit even on targets standing still while using maximum zoom. Almost all maps are just flat, absolutely flat spaces with no obstacles and only an odd mountain or a random building near a nav point. There is nowhere to run from LRMs. Furthermore, jump jets are so powerful that I was practically able to fly through an entire mission with my Catapult without touching the ground once, other than to change direction.

Menus are quite horrible in their clunkiness and while there is plenty of certain information other things like tonnage of a weapon are completely hidden. It also appeared that after every mission mechs would experience shifts in their weight despite apparently having the same loadout. At times it felt like the mechs inventories and weight calculations were simply being corrupted after some missions while randomly suddenly being fixed after others.

Overall, MW2 Mercenaries offers an uneven experience. Actual spirit and atmosphere are still almost unrivaled today, however weird bugs such as AI mechs ignoring attacks against their lancemates or ignoring a player standing in front of them really hurt the immersion. Also, at times it feels that besides choosing a bigger mech and loading it with lots of LRMs and medium lasers there are very few things a player can do to alter a mission's outcome. Often it feels that on a plain map against a bigger opponent that fires straight for cockpit there is just no way a player can find a way to win. In these instances the spirit of freedom is lost and it can feel as if the dev's meant for such missions to be aborted. Winning such missions by exploiting the flawed AI doesn't feel especially rewarding either.

Final word: I really recommend trying this out just to get a feel of how much freedom you can have in terms of choosing a mission and even choosing whether to double cross your employer or just turn your tail and run away if the risk is too high. I now imagine how great this game would be with a modern UI, better menus and some of the bugs fixed and with the addition of an actual iron man mode. It would be quite something.