Great writeup! Vividly remember this being a thing especially in multiplayer. What was that janky match matching service, MSN something?
Also a really underrated game, the mechanics (line of sight over the horizon stuff) and isometric graphics were pretty cool for the time and it had a well developed story/campaign mode.
I never played this game! I didn't realize there was a RTS after Crescent Hawk's revenge. I'm looking at the MC2 source code now... it looks like there is a Linux port, meaning could probably get it working for Apple using Fable 5, AI haters, I will challenge you to a batchall.
I wonder if the board game materials have rules or guidance about where equipment goes? I dunno how close the computer games stick to the board game materials though.
The board game has extensive rules on mech design, but for weapons, it's just wherever they'll fit. Some of the built-in hardware has fixed locations: cockpit, life support, sensors go in the head; engines go in the center torso (with light and xtralight fusion engines spilling out into the side torsos as well), arm and hand actuators go in the arms, and hip, leg, and foot actuators go in the legs. You can see this in the critical slot section in a record sheet: https://i.redd.it/jt3p2f1v14gf1.jpeg
This one definitely deviates from tabletop: pretty much everything except the smallest weapons have an integral tonnage, and the weapons themselves don't line up directly with their tabletop versions.
The newer games tend to be absolutely consistent with the mech design rules in terms of what weapons are available, and their weights and sizes, such that board game designs are legal in the game (and usually the state you get the mechs in before you customize them), and customized mechs are legal board game designs. They tend to limit the customization by doing things like having mechs have predefined hardpoints that limit what types/sizes of guns can go where, because otherwise you just end up with every mech being identical, with maximum armor and the rest of the tonnage being spent on whatever happens to be the most optimal weapon.
Btw, I recently did my first patches with ghidra. Is there any way to avoid jumping into a code cave by shifting all the instructions up then updating any statements referring to those memory locations? Seems like it should be simple enoigh in theory, but I didn't find an implementation on a cursory search. Could probably code up a plugin pretty easily.
A rare gem to see someone talking about MF. I used to play lots of it with friends, our games would last for over 48 hours (we wouldn’t sleep). Different time.
My games would last until whoever was hosting had the bug that kills the game due to having too many units, or running out of names for pilots.
And it was somehow still incredibly satisfying, even though there was probably just one bugger who went underground at the start and all the people who over invested in giant robots would have to play whack a mole to find him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CVvOWlfl1U
Also a really underrated game, the mechanics (line of sight over the horizon stuff) and isometric graphics were pretty cool for the time and it had a well developed story/campaign mode.
This one definitely deviates from tabletop: pretty much everything except the smallest weapons have an integral tonnage, and the weapons themselves don't line up directly with their tabletop versions.
The newer games tend to be absolutely consistent with the mech design rules in terms of what weapons are available, and their weights and sizes, such that board game designs are legal in the game (and usually the state you get the mechs in before you customize them), and customized mechs are legal board game designs. They tend to limit the customization by doing things like having mechs have predefined hardpoints that limit what types/sizes of guns can go where, because otherwise you just end up with every mech being identical, with maximum armor and the rest of the tonnage being spent on whatever happens to be the most optimal weapon.
Just non-disassembled function or unidentified struct would ruin your plans…
(Assuming they didn't fix it themselves, it is a pretty big overhaul to MC1)
99% sure it should work fine for (Exodus and Turncoat), (X-Ray and DSC Raid), and (Xenocide and Bengal Lancers) since those are just custom campaigns.
Lovely stuff. Always a joy to see anything MechWarrior related end up here on HN.
Came here excited that MeshCommander is maintained again.
[1] https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCommander
And it was somehow still incredibly satisfying, even though there was probably just one bugger who went underground at the start and all the people who over invested in giant robots would have to play whack a mole to find him.