3 replies to this topic

[BlackFurredBeast]

Hi again!

As I mentioned someplace else on this forum, I'm a huge RPG geek. Not only do I like CRPG's, but I enjoy playing with "live" people (currently D&D 3.5, but that's another story). My all-time tabletop strategy game fave, Battletech, has seen many translations into software format, most notably the MECHWARRIOR and MECH COMMANDER series of games, but there was no substitute for the "real" (boardgame) thing.

So, if you understood what I just told you, go to
http://megamek.sourc...idx.php?pg=main
and check MegaMek, the software rendition of the classic boardgame of BattleMech warfare. Too bad it has no AI for singleplayer, but on the other hand - head to head is the way to go :-)

If you didn't, then let me explain. BattleTech is a game of giant-robot combat, called "mechs". Usually the Mech's you have are weighing in at somewhere between 20 and 100 tons. More weight = more armor and weapons, less speed. Gameplay is turn-based on a hex grind, governed by an intricate ruleset, with line-of-sight, terrain, indirect fire, hit locations... you get the drift. The good part: Most of the crunchy numberwork is done by the computer, so you usually only need to figure out the best way to move your units (a four-mech unit is called a "lance") and on which bad guy to fire. Don't expect a graphical slugfest, it's all top-down view, no animations or sounds, just boardgame -> PC conversion. But who needs flashy 3D effects when the real fun comes from challenging a human opponent to a test of strategy? But be forewarned - you need big time on your hands, since a typical lance-vs-lance match can take the better part of 2 hours :-)

If you are _really_ hardcore, though, you'd like to play in an ongoing campaign, with your "own" lance of 'Mechs, their pilots getting better and better and all?
That's where MegaMekNet comes in. (www.megamek.net)

First off, you learn "the ropes" by joining the infamous Solaris Training company, a "boot camp" of sorts. It pays off if you know how to play Battletech, but the Trainers and Mods (and many players there) are eager to help them newbies to get their taste of heavy-metal goodness. You spend some time in Solaris, until you either earn the minimum requirements to join a house (more on this later) or you stay there as an instructor and teach others to play, your choice.

In MegaMekNet (as in Battletech) there are several factions, called "great Houses" who try to gain supremacy over the area of colonized space called the "Inner Sphere". When joining a Great House, you start to play "for real". In Solaris, if all your 'Mechs were wiped out, you got replacements, but now you have to save in-game credits to buy replacements, have to consider what machines are in stock and if you can afford to have a new mech produced if none are in stock. Aside from credits, there are so called "parts". You need a certain amount of parts to have a Mech constructed, and most of you playing time you try to acquire parts and or influence on planets in the Inner Sphere.

The community is _very_ friendly and helpful, just be patient and nice (rudeness is sneered at) and take your time. It's one of the best time-killers I've ever encountered, it is steadily improved and _very_ faithful to the board game.

[NrmMyth]

  To big to read ... Could you in few lines explain all this?

[BlackMageJawa]

Sounds very interesting. And the documentation on the site says there is an AI to play against.

I know nothing of Battletech, but have always been interested in games like this (I never seem to have sufficient money or interested acquantances to play them for 'real'). I shall have to look into it.

[BlackFurredBeast]

NrmMyth, on May 10 2005, 10:13 PM, said:

  To big to read ... Could you in few lines explain all this?

Sorry, but that is the shortest way possible so that either newbies to Battletech and those in the know will understand what MM and MM.n are about :-) You'll have to read through this :-)