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 Click for Intro Movie MechWarrior’s Campaign Journal, Update 1 August 12, 3044 This looks like the end for Team Venom. Saunders and Yoshitaro bought it keeping the Snakes off my back, and now even “Colonel” Harris is dead. I could’ve signed on with Hansen’s Roughriders, but I gave those Lyran lapdogs the finger back when Holly first told me her plan. I thought I’d backed a real winner: spend a few years operating as an independent lance, showing off what we can do on the smaller, low-risk jobs. Then sign on with one of the big bad A-List groups like the Dragoons or Black Omen once we’d earned a name for ourselves. This contract with the FedCom was supposed to be a simple smash-and-grab against a poorly-equipped planetary militia. Easy. That’s what “Colonel” Harris said.    When I shut my eyes, I can still see her through her Zeus’s canopy. Reaching out as the doors close. Holly, you may’ve been the stupidest person I’ve ever met, but you were there when I needed you. I just wish you’d looked out for yourself half as well. I guess it just goes to show: in the end, it’s every Merc for himself. Holly, I’ll miss drinking with you at the Boar’s Head, but there’s no sense crying over dead comrades. In spite of everything going wrong, I successfully completed the mission. The Federated Commonwealth may not like deadbeat Mercs like me but they pay as well as anyone. Maybe even a little better. That means all the money’s mine. Even after travel expenses, fixing my ride, and paying off those Lyran vultures Holly pissed off I should still have a tidy sum left over. I could probably sell my `Mech and retire home to Regulus if I wanted—if I weren’t Persona Non Grata for skipping out on my family’s mandatory “patriotic” service in the Marik Militia. Sorry Grandpa, but it never pays to back the wrong side in a Civil War. We land in ten hours. First thing I’m going to do is check out the news, and then? Well, we’ll see. Maybe the Roughriders will take me on; but honestly I think I’m done putting with other people. Holly was afraid to take on missions solo, but I’m not. I want to get back in action again. Landing on Outreach  August 13, 3044 A warehouse at the edge of the Starport ain’t much, but it’s home. At least, as close to as I’ve had since I left House Marik. I’m not sure who Holly had to bribe (or how) to get a ComStar terminal and a direct line to the computers in the Hiring Hall installed, but the thing’s a lifesaver. Even if it only really works for “mercenary commanders” it means I won’t have to stop by the hall for anyone. That place gives me the heebie-jeebies, all those people just milling around looking for work. It’s like being at an unemployment office, or a recruiting station. I just need to enter some temporary credentials since Team Venom got itself annihilated. Placeholder name, placeholder team. As if ComStar would fall for that—  Huh. Alright then. I suppose I can always fix that later. How do I have a message waiting for me already—?  Holly’s Goodbye I don’t know who killed you, Holly. And frankly? I don’t really care. But thanks. You were a good commander, even though we all knew you were never a real Colonel.  Looking out over the Mechbay never fails to impress, although I guess I’ve gotta flag down the Chief Tech and let him know we’ll only need the one bay for now. That’s him, working on that old Atlas corpse up front: the Techs all treat it like a mascot, but I’m not sure why he keeps it around. The damned thing’s a pile of junk, it’s never going to fight again. There aren’t even enough spare parts in the thing to maintain an already-functional Atlas for more than a month, and that engine’s never going to run again. Still, it is an Atlas. If nothing else, it’s impressive. Unlike my little Hangar Queen.  The COM-7X Commando, the “finest” in experimental Lyran hole-digging and-slash-or Mechwarrior-killing technology. It’s a little better than the standard model, but it still reminds me of a giant metal baby. For such a small machine, the Commando’s a bit sluggish and it’s got just enough armor to run up a hefty repair bill if I manage to run it into a building the next time I take it out. I’ve never been much for SRMs, either. I mean yeah, they’re good, but ammunition is expensive. Well, I’ve got a Mechbay, a bored Tech crew, and a million C-Bills burning a hole in my pocket so I guess I finally have an opportunity to do something about that.    Yeah, that’s a little better. I dumped the launcher and my unused ammo on the black market and got an immediate return, so I picked up a couple extra heat sinks while I was there. That should help stop me from baking myself like a potato whenever I fire my lasers and give anyone expecting slow, inaccurate SRMs a nasty shock. Even after buying and installing the heat sinks I came out slightly ahead. I even slapped a finishing touch on the Commando, so the Lyrans can’t claim this was their grand idea all along. It’s now the COM-7X5. Suck it, LCAF!  That should keep me in repairs for a while, at least. I hope. poo poo. I should probably head back to the office and update my expenses. I have no idea how much it actually costs to keep this operation going.     Oh, good. That’s only more c-bills than most League households see in two years. Worst comes to worse, I can dump my Commando on the free market and live—not comfortably, but at least reasonably—for the rest of my life. Honestly, why the hell should I settle for a meager subsistence when I have the skills, the will, and the firepower to live like a king and maybe even buy a planet of my own someday? I should check out the hiring hall while I’m at it. I wonder if it’s as bleak and depressing as I remember?  Yup. Ah, well. I can’t expect anyone to sign on with a no-name just for the asking. I bet that Chris Fulton guy just sends applications to every Merc group on outreach. He’s probably a scammer. Or a wanted ex-pirate. Or worse, Dispossessed. Well. Let’s see who’s hiring, and for what.  Ok, either the computer’s glitching out or the Roughriders really want to impress me. Venaria’s a Lyran world. A deeply Lyran world. It’s closer to Marik space and close enough to the periphery that I can honestly believe there’s a pirate threat, so unless I’ve entered some bizarro-dimension where the Lyran Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine joined forces to be the biggest, richest failures in the Inner Sphere, the Roughriders slapped a Drac meatball on this because they know I’m not a fan of working with the AFFC. I guess they really want me. Or maybe they wanted all of us? Still, pass for now. We’ll see what else is up.  Yeah. This is a genuine DCMS contract. Riot duty. The Combine’s been going to hell since 3039. Someone’s probably up in arms about Teddy the K’s reforms again. I hate riot duty, but look at that payout—the Snakes are desperate to buy a little plausible deniability. Hell. Next?  Double-hell. Those one-month contracts are never worth it. When a contract that short says “poor” salvage rights, they really mean no salvage rights at all. poo poo, I guess that leaves me with a joke-job for the Roughriders for almost no pay, or riot duty. Well, I probably won’t mind the smell of burning children that much. Leaving Outreach Mission Briefing:    Mission Track: Track 2 - Scalpel   LP Vote 1: What should be our Callsign? What should we name our Mercenary Unit? Up to 22 characters for both, you decide! PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 04:04
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Table of Contents The Career of Niko "Neckbeard" Snow of the Hired Goons                                       The     
PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 23:03 on May 7, 2015 |
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Sep 25, 2014 04:04
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Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries Original Soundtrack Track 22 - Intro (this is as close as the game has to a real Track 1 (the game itself was Track 1)) Track 2 - Scalpel Track 3 - Snake City Track 4 - Dawn Watch Track 5 - Final Strike Track 6 - Phoenix Dawn Track 7 - Homestead NEWEST! Track 8 - Freedom Fight Track 9 - Glittering Gold Track 10 - Back Door Track 11 - Exodus Track 12 - Trojan Horse Track 13 - Tick Tock Track 14 - Crystal Storm Track 15 - Night Wolf Track 16 - Leg-Breaker Track 17 - Dust River Track 18 - Dragon’s Teeth Track 19 - Berserker Track 20 - Götterdämmerung Track 21 - Starlight Hunt Mechwarrior 2 Original Soundtrack Track 8 - Arkham Bridge How to get Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries Working with DosBox (special thanks to tuluk for walking me through this!) First, you'll need DosBOX and a DOS-capable copy of Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries (look for Version 1.05, if it says 'Includes MercNet' it's probably the right one). There're other methods for the Titanium Version and other versions of the game, but I personally prefer 1.05 since all the music is intact. Once you have a copy of the game, you'll need to image the CD. Tuluk suggests IsoBuster, and I can confirm it works great. You'll need a [game].bin and a [game].cue for this method to work, and IsoBuster will get you both at once. For reference, the .bin is the game's files itself, while the .cue is the game's music. The music is integral to MW2 Mercenaries, the game just plain won't run without it. Then, you'll want to make a folder in one of your base directories. You can name it anything, but I went with DosBoxGames. Make another folder (I just went with MercsImage) in the first, and stick your .bin and .cue files there. Then, we're going to make a config file for DosBOX. For convenience, I put up an example of the installation configuration file. If you want to be lazy, just use the same filenames I did and copy this example into notepad. Find the area labeled [autoexec], and we're going to add a line that reads mount C C:\[name of directory] So, in my example, it would read: mount C C:\DosBoxGames Then we're going to add a line that loads the music. C:\[name of directory]\[location of .cue file]\[name of file].cue -t iso -fs iso So again, my example looks like this: C:\DosBoxGames\MercsImage\CD.cue -t iso -fs iso Save this to the folder containing your copy of DosBOX as [filename of your choice].conf I named mine: dosboxmech2mercs.conf Now we're going to need a .bat file. Good news is, it's simple. Open notepad, and add this line: dosbox.exe -conf [name of .conf file].conf So mine reads: dosbox.exe -conf dosboxmech2mercs.conf Save this to the folder containing your copy of DosBOX as [filename of your choice.bat] Mine is: mw2mercs.bat I also made a shortcut to my desktop for future use, but you can do that later if you want. Double click on the .bat file, and once DosBOX loads type: d: cd dos INSTALL And the installer should run. Install the full version of the game (150 whole megabytes!) and then, if you let it do its thing the game should install to: C:\DosBoxGames\MERCS (if you're using my example filenames) When it asks for sound card, you can use anything but the config file we made is set up for SoundBlaster 16 (SB16), so I'd go with that. You can skip the registration and all that, and bootdisk can be skipped (do you even have a floppy drive? Didn't think so). To test it, you can type mercs and then hit enter to see if the game runs, but we're not quite done yet. We don't want to install the game every time we try to play it, so we're going to change our config file to run it instead. Here's an example if you're lazy like me and just used the same filenames I did. Now that the game is installed, we're going back down to [autoexec] and we're going to change the first line to mount C C:\DosBoxGames\MERCS Which tells DosBOX what we want to run. The second line remains unchanged--remember, that's our music files. The game won't run if you don't load them. Then we're going to add some new lines at the end: C: MERCS.exe exit Now, whenever you double-click mw2mercs.bat (or the shortcut to it I suggest you to put on your desktop), the game should launch. When you quit the game, it'll quit out of DosBOX too. Easy! Some other tips: If you need to close DosBOX in a hurry hit CTRL + F9 to force-quit If you need to get your mouse back without closing hit CTRL + F10 If the game's running sluggishly, try allocating a little more processing power with CTRL + F12 Likewise, if it's running too fast CTRL + F11 should help Other Stuff [I probably won't need this, but I'm reserving it anyway!] PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Apr 2, 2015 |
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Sep 25, 2014 04:06
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DosBOX does even worse. Fraps just has a couple of hitches when you first start recording (it always does, it's usually not noticeable but sometimes there's a crackle or two) and then it's fine. The built-in DosBOX recorder has actually crashed the game after missions, so I avoid it.
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Sep 25, 2014 04:34
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PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Sep 25, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 04:46
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Bip Roberts posted:The frame rate of that video is horrendous. Is that the game or the recording? It's the game. They did as much as they could, but it's running off of 150 MB. I can gain 8-10 more FPS by shutting off the 3D cockpit, unfortunately I didn't realize that in the first video (I'll probably re-film when I rerecord when I start over to get a new name / merc unit name), and it'll be done for all future videos. wargames posted:Can you make it so I don't have to hunt for the links to the videos and maybe timg the pictures? Other updates won't have as many pictures. The first one is kinda setting the mood. There's not a lot of call to show off the UI elements every time I update, but they're worth seeing once (the `Mechs in the `Mechbay never change, but it's a neat shot the one time you'll have to tolerate seeing it). I did bold the mission video. It comes right after the mission briefing. Edit: I also added it to the table of contents, if you don't care about anything but the videos. But the flavor text for the mission briefings is really well done, and helps to establish the game's mood. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Sep 25, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 07:52
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Clearly we should be Niko Snow of PGI Community Outreach. It looks like this is about half a character too long (the game's "O"s, "G"s, and "C"s are fatter than normal characters, so more than a few and it cuts off as soon as you hit the end of the box. If you use nothing but the letter O, you can only fit 16 characters.  So I guess a safer total is probably 18-20 characters VVV Not the PGI Mod Squad? PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Sep 25, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 09:14
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We've got a tie for first place, so I may call it with the next vote. Will we be Niko Snow of PGI PR Outreach, or Neckbeard of the Hired Goons?
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Sep 25, 2014 19:05
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Rats, still tied
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Sep 25, 2014 19:20
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apostateCourier posted:Fine, go with the Niko one. Bethany would've been tied too if the vote hadn't been split between Bethany as the Callsign and Bethany as the unit name.
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Sep 25, 2014 19:49
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If Bethany somehow gets voted in, it'll give me an excuse to enable the semi-functional Clan Enhanced Imaging wireframe mode.
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Sep 25, 2014 20:06
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Night10194 posted:Speaking of, will this game feature Clanners getting shot in the face? Everything I know about Battletech's setting says they're a bunch of pricks who should be shot in the face. I won't spoil it, but the game happens before the Clan Invasion so it might happen. 
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Sep 25, 2014 20:09
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Sep 25, 2014 21:04
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Also, turns out the ground textures are what's killing the video framerate. Fortunately, they're the least important thing in the game so disabling them doesn't really hinder anything. There's still some occasional drops in cities when the game starts popping buildings in, but there isn't a lot I can do to help with that. I'll be putting up a rerecorded version of Mission 1 alongside Mission 2. VVV I have plans for Bethany! Namely, a cheating Failure Reel wherin I show off the alternate paths in each mission and slowly lose money forever. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 23:16
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MechWarrior’s Campaign Journal, Update 2 PTN’s note: I did a little better on the second run, so here’s our updated financial situation.  September 29, 3044 My Drac Liaison officer is a real piece of work. Chu-i Fukuzawa Kobo has had me on a series of extended patrol missions, hunting “rebels” in the hills around Washkatin City. I get to do the legwork while the Chu-i hogs the glory. That Star League Crab of his may be attention-grabbing, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a DC Knockoff put together in someone’s back yard. He’s reluctant to get it scratched, so I have a feeling I’m going to be on my own the next time something goes down. Fortunately, the repair costs for my last mission were pretty light.  I can handle spending 8,125 c-bills to fix the Metal Baby, especially since that last mission put me back in the black. A little dinged-up armor is a small price to pay, I just wish the Combine was footing the bill. I don’t think Fukuzawa’s the type to let me pressure him, though. He relaxed a little when I told him I was from the Free Worlds League. Theoretically, we’ve been allied with the Combine for decades, but you never know what’s going to torque-off one of these honoeurabru Samurai-types and I have no desire to see his ancestral pointy sticks up close. Speaking of pointy sticks, I’m pretty sure those farmhouses we’ve been burning down weren’t actually rebels. I suppose starving the Free Mutineers is less expensive than shooting them, but it’s not expedient and I have a feeling things are going to get much worse. The Draconis Combine is paying me to keep my head down and my mouth shut so as long as I play the part of a dutiful money-grubbing gaijin they’ll keep patting me on the head. With c-bills. Mission Briefing    Mission Track Snake City  
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Sep 26, 2014 01:19
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Night10194 posted:I'm guessing the missions get way more complicated later, because these seem pretty simple so far. The game's going to be 20 years old next year, so we're not going to see anything too fancy; but the enemy "AI" actually steadily ramps up over time as does the number of enemies we'll have to fight at once. Eventually, it's going to be able to move and shoot at the same time. And by the end of the game it's going to start getting the occasional cheating headshot with Gauss Rifles at max range.
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Sep 26, 2014 12:19
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The Clans are a faction that threw a tantrum because the Star League fell apart rather than electing their leader Military Dictator of Everything; took their proverbial ball and then, rather than going home, set out into the After it turned out that most of them didn't really like each other all that much and most of their society tried to kill most of the rest of their society, a He formed a new society based entirely on
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Sep 26, 2014 14:30
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MechaCrash posted:Inferno SRMs are amazing. Fun fact: Inferno SRMs are the only weapons in the game that do as much damage as they're supposed to! All other missile weapons strike for reduced damage. 
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Sep 27, 2014 14:58
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Actually, it makes logical sense. Because pretty much every LRM is guaranteed to hit, they bumped the damage down to around 55-60% to compensate and keep LRMs from breaking the game wide open. Almost like tweaking tabletop values to make the game more fun is an OK thing to do! :o Streak SRMs and normal SRMs having their damage reduced too is probably a bug. Clan ER Large Lasers doing 3 damage per hit is definitely a bug. Yeah, 1.05 has fixed salvage. Titanium / 1.11 have dynamic, 1.11 is a windows 95 version and it's a bear to get running on a modern system and it won't patch to DOS at all. Which is a shame, because it's got some hilarious bugs. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 27, 2014 17:12
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You can do that in the normal game. Don't want to fight on the terrible comet  ? Go do randoms for a month!
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Sep 27, 2014 20:23
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Chronojam posted:There are some really cool missions you can only get by failing/ejecting/aborting. One that comes to mind is this defensive style mission, and if you screw up, it branches to a "hold the line" last ditch effort. I'll be showing those off in the Bethany Cochraine run. Nearly every story mission has a 'failing path' you can take.
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Sep 27, 2014 20:27
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dis astranagant posted:I must say that I'm deeply disappointed that we didn't do that training mission. It has all this game's most quotable lines. Who says we didn't do it? I just said we weren't doing it first. You'll see why.
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Sep 28, 2014 01:36
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Try not to talk too much about upcoming missions, guys. The game's 20 years old so we're long past the point of spoilers; but I'd like to save some surprises for people who really haven't played.
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Sep 28, 2014 11:42
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MechWarrior’s Campaign Journal, Update 3 October 24, 3044  Repairs were lighter than I expected. Some banged-up armor and a few thousand C-Bills to the “company store” and the Metal Baby’s back in fighting shape. I couldn’t even see the damage, but I think one of those armored cars must’ve winged me while I was helping that Draconis tank crew escape the city. Everyone’s rushing to get things fixed up in time for the next assault. It won’t be long. A week. Maybe two, if we’re lucky. Mission Briefing    Mission Track Back Door   And depart on the next DropShip for Outreach I did! As far as I’m concerned, the snakes can kill as many of their citizens as they want—as long as I’m not one of their citizens and as long as they’re not killing me, we’ll have no problems. They were even kind enough to patch the hole I shot in that Jenner’s cockpit before they turned it over to me! I wasn’t expecting to earn any appreciable salvage this run, I guess it really goes to show how much DCMS appreciates a Merc who knows better than to protest any morally-questionable orders they’re willing to give. The trip back is going to be a boring one, but that’s not a problem. I just have a feeling ComStar is going to be playing this newsfeed for the next three months:  I’m moderately richer, at least.  I can also use the travel-time to arrange a buyer for the deathtrap—I mean, the Jenner. Wait, did I say moderately richer?  Because I meant I’m rolling in it! Not bad for three months work. Who knew genocide paid so well? No wonder House Kurita tried to burn down Kentares. If I got all that converted to paper money, I’d probably have a big enough pile to sleep on. Hell, if I went mad and converted it all to Romano Liao’s Funbucks I’d probably have enough to build a castle! Not that I’d do that, mind. The Roughriders still want me to come “train” with them. This one they’ve marked time sensitive. Sure, I’ve got six million in the bank and I’m in no hurry to burn down any more farmhouses. Let’s see what they want.  Next Campaign: The Tutorial! Why are we doing it second? You’ll see!
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Sep 28, 2014 21:44
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Affi posted:Are we getting a rundown on the available mechs and/or are you buying a new one anytime soon? We will be buying a new `Mech very soon! With the thread's help, of course!
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Sep 28, 2014 23:22
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I can make no guarantees, it depends on how many Crusader Kings / EU III expansions get released.
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Sep 29, 2014 00:15
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Tuluk, I'm fine with it. My personal hope is that one day Paradox will get the license, and will release Mechwarrior: Star Lord in the Crusader Kings style. Do you have what it takes to take a one-planet minor all the way to the head of House Marik? Fake edit: In other news, I'm sick, so I won't be talking over the tutorial for a day or two.
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Sep 29, 2014 18:46
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Magni posted:Pretty sure the FP (which are officialy called the Civilian Guidance Corps) are the bog-standard street cops of the Combine - the ISF is doing the secret police part. This is correct. They're also called "Candy Stripers" because of their uniforms, which are supposed to help Civilians understand they need to get out of the way right the gently caress now. The Friendly Persuaders' police tool of choice in nearly every situation is the good old-fashioned automatic shotgun. Their uniforms exactly are as embarrassing as they sound. 
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Sep 29, 2014 22:17
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David Corbett posted:After spotting this LP, I immediately booted up my tablet to see if there were any of the CBT novels available. To my dismay, it was nothing but Dark Age *Some of them are pre-final copies however, that don't have any last-minute edits. In some cases they're surviving publisher copies, rather than the final novels. Edit: This is no longer true. According to Catalyst's website they're now available through E-pub. Not that any of the links work. 
PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Sep 30, 2014 |
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Sep 30, 2014 03:47
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MechWarrior’s Campaign Journal, Update 4 I’m not even sure what day it is anymore, the Roughriders are loving with me because all of their clocks are different. Is it still 3044? I stopped by the black market before heading out to Verania, just to see if anything interesting popped up. ComStar’s latest news broadcast suggested there’d be some new guns on the market and I wanted to see that for myself.  That is what happens when a project fails spectacularly: a company cuts its losses and dumps whatever it has on the open market. If machineguns were worth using (and they’re not), now would be a great time to buy. Fortunately, even I have standards, when you get your company sued into the ground for designing a tank and naming it after a BattleMech, there’s no guarantee any of the weapons you designed for that tank are going to be worth using. Even Quikscell knows that, and when I’m praising those rip-off artists over Duron Armaments you know Duron’s in trouble. It’s sad that I’ve been on Venaria a month now and the most interesting thing that’s happened is my visit to the arms market before I even left Outreach. I hate this place. I’m starting to hate my “training instructor” too. Sgt. “Brown Eye” Unther seems to think I’ve never piloted a BattleMech before. I know I’m piloting a light `Mech, and that theoretically makes me a scout, but I know how to fight; drat it! Oh, and it turns out this mission deep in Lyran space really is for the Draconis Combine. These pirates must have something they really want, for them to be taking a risk this huge. Not that I’d know, honestly, I haven’t even seen the pirates yet. Just look at these briefings and mission results, and see the nonsense I’ve had to put up with!   Your hopes were in vain, past self! I almost finished the whole patrol before Sgt. “Shuteye” stopped talking about nav points. C’mon, past self. It can’t be that bad right? At least we got something for our troubles, right? Right?   NOPE! “It’s just part of the job, newbie!”—shut the hell up, Unther! I wish he’d told me the key code to mute him instead. It would’ve made the next mission so much more tolerable. I should’ve known better than to follow anyone who earned his nickname by shooting civilians with his medium lasers.   At least this one paid, right? Uh-huh. Barely enough to fix up the paint I scratched when the airfield’s generator blew.   I think I’ve figured out what the Roughriders’ plan was: they were trying to scare me into joining up. “Life’s tough for a Merc, so back us and we’ll back you!” Tell that to someone who isn’t rich enough to buy a whole Light Lance.   No he doesn’t, past self. The only reason why “Deadstick” didn’t wing us with his first flight of LRMs is because I got the hell away from that convoy after the first pass. We were only supposed to shoot the ones full of ammo, you rear end in a top hat! If you were just going to destroy the whole convoy why even bother scanning the contents? Or better yet, shoot the first truck and force the rest to surrender. Boom. Salvage. Instead, what did we get?   Nothing. Nada. Zilch. If I walk away from this “campaign” with nothing, I think I’m going to steal one of the Roughriders’ `Mechs when we get back to Outreach. Just don’t take that seriously, it’s just a joke. Y’know. In case that actually happens. Anyway, I’ve got a mission coming up. A real mission, against targets that shoot back. If these pirates are anything like the ones I’ve fought before, they’ll be red-hot garbage in the cockpit. As far as I’m concerned, if you replaced every pirate Mechwarrior with a live sheep they might actually become a threat to the Inner Sphere. Mission Briefing    (Shut up, Deadeye!) (Quiet, Deadeye’s talking!)Mission Track(s) None   PTN’s note: You don’t get the Javelin if you do the training campaign first!   “Kill the meat, save the metal” indeed. There wasn’t enough left of the poor Panther that “Dumbfire” brutalized to make a bucket. The Roughriders tried to pull a fast one on me after I knocked out the pirate Javelin, claiming that because I was under contract with them any salvage I managed to claim was theirs. Fortunately, the DCMS has a rather favorable opinion of me after Galedon V. They normally stay out of Merc vs. Merc affairs, but I gather the Roughriders haven’t exactly been pulling their weight. When I made my case, Chu-i De Silva decided to back my claim to the Javelin. I may’ve just burned a bridge with the Roughriders but the look on Sergeant Unther’s face was priceless. The Psycho didn’t even lift a finger to help me knock the Javelin out, and it came back and bit him square on the rear end. What month is it again? 3044 I’m back on Outreach and I just got back from dumping that awful Javelin on the Black Market. Apparently Commandos are in big demand right now, and a Merc from the Capellan Confederation made a sweet offer on the Metal Baby. I think it’s time to either “go big” or “go home.” And I’m not quite ready to go home.  Yeah. That’s 13,721,449 c-bills. I could buy an Atlas for that! If there were a working one on the market, anyway. Our options are sadly limited—the Thug and Stalker are both gone, so the biggest machine currently up for grabs is a “refurbished” Zeus being sold by the Draconis Combine and, well…   I think it’s probably Holly’s. And I kinda want it. Ok, I really want it. It just seems fitting to fight in a `Mech that’s already saved my rear end once. It's also the biggest and most expensive boat on the market, and believe it or not that really does matter. The only downside is the Zeus will take a fair bit of refitting to bring it in line. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just a cheap bastard and hate spending money on ammunition. And I want Jump Jets. I really, really want Jump Jets. So before I do anything crazy, I want to take another look at my options. There’s a Flashman on the market again—serial numbers match the one that vanished after I got back from Galedon V, but I'm not going to complain if it’s back now.   It gives me pretty much everything I’d want in a heavy `Mech: decent speed, an armament that doesn’t require a lot of work or extra money to make passable, it just doesn’t have quite the same wiggle room as the Zeus. It’d be a decent buy but I’ll probably have to replace it sooner than I’d like. I only have two concerns: it got pulled and put back on the market in a short period of time, so it’s probably got a technical problem that’ll bite me on the rear end and, well, the Flashman’s cockpit is pretty much front-and-center. Against Light and Medium `Mechs I imagine that won’t matter much, but if I’m doing my math right I’d say it’s cockpit is just about crosshair-level for an Assault `Mech. And we’ve already seen how well that works for Jenners. The Flashman opens up another option though: a lancemate. If I buy the Flashman, I’d have 5,881,419 c-bills left over—so I could easily pick up a respectable Medium `Mech and snag one of the dispossessed Mechwarriors from the hiring hall to back me up. My only worry—my biggest worry—is that if I do I might not have enough money left over to keep my head above water. I’ve seen way too many Mercs get burned because they couldn’t budget, and I’d hate to sink myself before I even started. Getting a second `Mech almost doubles my expenses each month, and I’ve gotta pay the pilot besides. A more frugal option would be to pass on an Assault or Heavy `Mech, and do a gradual upgrade into a powerhouse Medium. There’s only really one of those on the market right now.   The Crab’s an economical choice, it doesn’t give me near as much room to play and it’s just a stepping stone until I can get a bigger and better machine. It’s pretty quick, has good armor for its weight, and with a little TLC I can turn it into a decent midrange brawler. The only downside to nabbing the Crab is: if I do, I’ll have to get a lancemate to back me up from this point onward, and there isn’t even a Centurion to stick them into. My only options for a lancemate are all low-end mediums, like the Sentinel.   The Sentinel is garbage on legs. It’s faster than the Metal Baby, but the cockpit’s a big target so I’d need a lancemate willing to maneuver—and those can be hard to come by. It’d also take quite a bit of money to give it a passable armament: the only thing I like less than ammunition-eating weapons are ammunition-eaters that aren’t under my direct control. Compared to the next option, the Sentinel’s a real gem.   What can I even say about the Cicada? It’s fast. It’s also lightly armored, poorly armed, and it doesn’t give me anything to work with. The advantage of the Cicada is that it’s cheap, but is it really worth the price if I can’t get any decent firepower or durability out of it? The final option is a machine most `Mechwarriors consider utter garbage; but for what I’m considering it may be a real diamond in the rough.   Yeah, that’s an Assassin. One of the most maligned `Mechs in the Inner Sphere. Its cockpit is cramped and uncomfortable, it doesn’t vent heat well, and it’s not even all that durable. But it does give me a lot of room to play, and with a little effort it’d make great back-up. It’s a little faster than the Sentinel and a much smaller target, with the right pilot it could do really well—but that’s the trick. If there aren’t any good pilots on the table, we’re better off nabbing the Zeus, so let’s take a look at the Dishonor Roll—I mean, the `Mechless Mechwarriors who are looking for work.  Pass. Absolutely not. I don’t care that this guy’s a sociopath, if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that any pilot who has an MRBC piloting rating worse than a B+ is a walking (or sometimes standing, if they’re a C+ or worse) target and worse than a B+ Gunnery means the pilot will lose a standing slugging-match against an identical `Mech 3 times in 3. Arnold ‘Psycho’ ‘Mr. Happy’ ‘Can’t Make Up His loving Mind’ Jennings is asking way too much for how little he brings to the table. I’d drink a beer with this rear end in a top hat and he’s got exactly the right morals for this kind of work, but I’d never hire him. Get the hell out of my office, Arnie. Next!  DING! DING! DING! We have a winner! Or at least a reasonable facsimile. With an A / B+ rating I’d give him 50:50 odds against an identical target. His motivations are a little rough, but the guy clearly knows what he wants out of life and I can’t fault him for that. Jake ‘Killer’ ‘Lobo’ ‘I Don’t Think Anyone Told These Guys How Callsigns Work’ Ives was good enough to make it into the Dragoons, even if his proclivities mean he couldn’t stay there. It’s risky, but he works cheap and sometimes having a psychopath to throw under the bus can come in handy. I can work with him. It’s time to do some hard thinking, those `Mechs are going to move but there aren’t any DropShips scheduled to land for a few days, so I should have some time to deliberate. Upgrade Vote: 1) Zeus 2) Flashman - a) No Lancemate - a) Sentinel - c) Cicada - d) Assassin - e) Crab (This only leaves me with 1,019,084 c-bills for customization; so we might go broke!  )3) Crab - a) Sentinel - a) Cicada - c) Assassin Please vote for your `Mech of choice, and your lancemate `Mech of choice (if applicable). The `Mech with the most votes wins, and the lancemate `Mech with the highest applicable vote wins. Example: Voting 2d for the Flashman / Assassin still gives votes to the Assassin if the Crab wins the vote. Voting 2e Flashman / Crab does not give votes to the Crab. The Bethany Cochraine Failure Run will feature a Crab, so don’t feel pressured to vote for it, you’ll still get to see one in action!
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Oct 1, 2014 23:48
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I like PPCs too. They're slow and hard to hit with but the unlimited range is really nice. Autocannons and missiles are good and reliable weapons in Mechwarrior 2, Ghost Bear's Legacy, and in the no-economy version of Mercs. They're just too inefficient for an economy-enabled run because when a contract says "We will pay you for reasonable ammunition expenditures" what it's really saying is "if you don't use a full ton of ammo you'll get it refilled at the end of a fight; I hope you bought several tons to replace what you've fired!" I'm not going to bring an AC/20 just to fire 4 shots (1 ton is 5 shots), and the while the game is pretty lenient with its money the costs start ramp up significantly as we start getting lancemates (and we will be required to do so in order to win). Paying for ammunition can burn through funds that may be better spent on making sure you have a spare `Mech or two for when your lancemates get shot out of a machine.
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Oct 2, 2014 02:54
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goatface posted:Can you actually afford to re-fit that Zeus once you buy it? Absolutely. If I couldn't the option wouldn't be on the table.
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Oct 2, 2014 16:21
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The downside is that autocannons and machineguns fire more quickly than the game can assign damage, so if you're just holding the button down you're actually doing significantly less damage than you could be. The reason for this isn't game balance, it just has to do with the number of polygons on screen at any given time.
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Oct 2, 2014 18:45
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Jade Star posted:Yeah again with this. Can you tell me what's going on with that? Like, how could a game designed around shooting things some how be unable to handle the work load of assigning the results of shooting people if you shoot people too quickly? A full install of the game is 150 megabytes. They did the best they could with the technology of the time, but the game still came out in 1995. The exact specifics of the bug I don't know but I do know the game doesn't use 'hitboxes' the way modern games do, that concept didn't really exist at the time. Mechwarrior 2 and etc use bounding spheres instead--as I understand it, those function as a point on the model that checks to see if damage is passing through its radius, and then assigns damage to the appropriate part. These checks happen at regular intervals, but with a lot of polygons on screen the checks slow down allowing some types of damage to simply 'pass through' without actually being registered as a hit. This doesn't seem to impact missiles or PPCs because both are comparatively slow and have larger projectiles and spend enough time in the sphere for the hit to be registered properly. Autocannons, machine guns, and lasers seem to bump into issues because their projectiles are much smaller and much faster, and the problem went either unnoticed or was too difficult to fix given the hardware of the time.
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Oct 2, 2014 19:08
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Ashsaber posted:I like how that has the qualifier of 'most'. I really hope there's a story behind that, or if not that a Goon will come up with one. The Destrier is as close to a fortification as you can get while still technically being a vehicle. The Atlas can outrun it, but only until it takes actuator damage. I should have a "Fail" Run update for you later today, where I show how to actually get yourself onto the losing path for a Campaign and what the first losing path mission of Galedon V looks like.
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Oct 3, 2014 20:18
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3 of the 4 Atlas production facilities are in the Federated Commonwealth anyway (one of them they trade with the Capellans every once in a while), so even if DI weren't the biggest producer House Kurita would still have less than everyone except the Free Worlds League. But the FWL gets the Awesome, right? Totally the same thing! 
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Oct 3, 2014 22:38
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Legitimate Inner Sphere Action V News Update 1 Alright guys, ready for the realtalk portion of the LP? This is it. We’ll be exploring something that I expect a fair number of players don’t even realize exists: the “losing” path through each campaign. Every (or nearly every) contract with multiple missions has an alternate path to success. Some are even kind enough to put you back on the winning track if you succeed early enough, and (admittedly rarely) some of the losing paths are superior to the winning paths. So, which brave  Like the real run, we’re starting on Galedon V. Unlike last time, I’ve done a little hex editing to give Bethany “a bit” more money than the game thinks we should have. So strap in, because we’re jumping right into a run where nothing is off the table as I try to break the game as thoroughly as I can manage while making as little money as possible! There will be cheats! There will be Crabs! And there may even be a bit of teamkilling! Mission Briefing Our first mission starts exactly the same as last time, so I’m going to skip the briefing here. For future campaigns, I probably won’t be showing the starting mission at all but just this once we’re keeping it in so you can see just how hard it is to get yourself onto the ‘losing’ path. You might think it’s obvious but: if you get your `Mech destroyed, you don’t move on. You get to see this instead:  Creepy. So if we can’t enter the losing path by dying, how do we get there? There’s only one way.  Mission Track Scalpel   We made 211,779 C-Bills after expenses, killed two allied `Mechs, and the only reason we’re on the failing path is because of that “Did Not Finish.” So now the real losing path begins. If we win at any point, we’ll wind up on the winning path, so obviously the only thing to do is continue to not win (while killing as many greens as the game lets me get away with). So, on the winning path we got to save the planetary governor, right? So clearly we’ve got to pull his rear end out of the fire again. Right? Right?   Nope! The map’s the same, but since we “failed” to destroy Novastar in the first mission the Draconis Combine had to send ninjas to do it instead. And the Ninjas hosed it up, so now we have to escort their evac helicopter in what may be one of the hardest missions in the early game. But before we actually run the mission, I bet you’re wondering: Poptarts, what do we get if we win?   A pat on the head, 600,000 c-bills, and a ‘terrorism’ charge added to our eventual War Crimes trial! So let’s not win, shall we? We’re not bad people.  Mission Track Snake City   Welp, our employer hates us now. And we’re still under contract for one more mission.  Total C-Bills Earned So Far (after expenses): 523,558 PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 23:02
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I play with that a little bit, but I'm out of practice.
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Oct 4, 2014 00:46
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Legitimate Inner Sphere Action V News Update 2 The final mission of the Galedon V Losing Path is really, really easy. How easy? Well, if I had been playing seriously with the Metal Babby, we could’ve polished this one off in under 3 minutes. Instead, it took six, but that’s because I did nothing but artificially handicap my own allies. Never not shoot greens! Mission Briefing   So, in Galedon V’s winning path, we got to launch a flanking maneuver and drive the enemy into the waiting guns of House Kurita. In this mission? We get to launch a suicidal charge* through a friendly artillery barrage** into the waiting guns of a superior enemy force.*** * We won’t be doing this ** The is no artillery *** This does not exist If we win?   1,000,000 C-Bills and the native populace gets Niko Snow’d again. But we’re not Niko Snow this time, we’re Bethany Cochraine! Proud defender of the Free Press, subtle commentator on the plight of the common man, teamkilling fucktard, and [REDACTED].  Mission Track Back Door   The fluff for this mission is fantastic, it's just a shame about the rest of it. We did get our first medal! Bethany will wear that “Golden Jackass” proudly, knowing that she Total C-Bills Earned So Far (after expenses): 623,558
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Oct 6, 2014 00:44
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DatonKallandor posted:Also that opening PPCing the Choppers is hilarious. Do the PPCs move slow enough to not have bounding sphere problems? If you hit with a PPC, you hit with a PPC. It won't phase through (the projectile is huge). quote:Edit: Ah so this is another game that does the "massive damage is applied over time instead of instantly". I've only seen that in one other game and it's absolutely balance destroyingly terrible in that. This is the part I think is unintentional. You notice they applied their damage instantly against the choppers? Sometimes you can PPC a `Mech and the game lags as it thinks about how to apply damage to it. Then they take it all at once a second after you PPC'd them. It always makes me laugh when it happens (because usually the bulk of the damage is applied to the cockpit). PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 00:57
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