Updates to MW4

Greetings Mech Fans!!




Before I get started with this issue of Vettie’s Views let me send out a condolences to Clan White Tigers and Friends and Family of Jabberwock.

Jabber passed away recently while gaming due to a long time illness. Jabber was 38. For those who knew him, you already know that Jabberwock was a good guy. He loved the game and he loved his friends and family. He will most certainly be missed. Go in Peace young man.

Its tough to try to write anything after something like that so forgive me if I stray.

It’s been a long hot summer and things are once again starting to heat up in Mech Land.

The Solaris Ladders of MCL are really heating up and I have been talking to WB and we may have something lined up. We still have to mesh out the details, but I think we have a good plan in store for the members of MechCombat League. If you are not already a member, go sign up and get registered. WWW.MechCombat.Org. There are 2 parts, the forums and the league, members MUST be registered to both parts. When you register for the forums, you will see a link to the League site at the top of the forums page. Sign up today.

Also, we have news from CK Mack at MechStorm, WWW.MechStorm.com. It seems they have made some break thrus and are now able to add things to the game where they weren’t able to before. In the MechStorm Forums and MechCombat Forums, Mack has posted some pictures of items added for use with the NetMech IV modification. Here is a link to the MCL forum post
http://mechcombat.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=329 . Here is a link to the MechStorm forum,
http://www.mechstorm.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4804 . These guys are looking for helpers, so get in contact with Mack and put your skill set to good use.

On top of all that, MekTek has announced that MP4 will be coming soon. Ref this link for more info, http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=121787 . We all know that with MekTek, SOON, may still be some time away, however, they HAVE posted, that means we are getting closer. I cant comment on anything I do or don’t know about MP4 or what MP4 might contain, but I can say this, most folks will be surprised at what MekTek has accomplished, not just in the mechs to be added, but the other magic they are doing. If you are wondering what Mechs MIGHT be included in MP4, check out this thread for some PICs, http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=80763 . This list is not all inclusive and some of these may NOT make it in.

So, a lot of development work is going on in Mech Land. People adding new textures and items to terrain, people modding the game and adding more mechs, its gonna be some great stuff when its all out there for everyone to see.

MechStorm is concentrating on the terrain and these guys already put out some really great maps and some fun single player additions, not to mention the ‘coop’ missions. If you haven’t tried some of their work, I suggest going there, registering as a member and downloading some of their maps and single player missions. They have a few of them that will kick your butt. Their maps are first rate, Also, Starfire, a member of MechStorm, is the guy that brought us the High Definition Pack for MP302b. IF you haven’t tried this, I suggest you do so. It adds many new textures to the terrains and to the Mechs as well as some improvements in the sound effects. The best part is that you can install it on your machine and it works whether anyone else INCLUDING the server has it or not. It does not change your version of working Mercs. A little bit of a warning before you try it, as far as I know, MP4 WILL NOT be compatible with the HDP if it is installed on your MP302b installation. I suggest separate installs. Copy your MP302B install to a new folder and name it MW4HDP or something. Install the HDP into your new folder. That way your MP302b folder is preserved and ready when MP4 comes out AND you get to enjoy the HDP modified version until then.

MekTek is concentrating on Battle Mech Models and game play for multiplayer. Their intent is to bring the ‘team concept’ back to the multiplayer online version in ways you and I may not have thought possible. I don’t know how many of you played MW2, but I remember the Thermal Radar setting and the Wire Frame setting. I always thought it would be great if MW4 had the Thermal radar capability. Another thought I had was about being able to zoom in night vision, and yet another thought I had was being able to buy ½ increments of ammo. I mean, I hate ‘building’ a variant and putting everything I want on it (well not really everything) and having .60 or .40 tons left over. I would like to be able to spend .50 ton for a half ton of ammo. You know, if a Gauss Rifle costs 16 tons and extra ammo for it was 1 ton, giving you a total of 48 rounds, why not spend only .50 and get a total of 36 rounds. OF course there’s that old nasty ‘source code’ issue. Well I can still want it right?

Some of the other things I would like to see would be destructible ‘parts’ like if you take some shots to the rear of mech, AND you have jump jets, I would like to see the jump jets have the ability to get blown off. I already know from game experience in league fighting that the ECM can be destroyed (thank you Mr. Prime 24 and your pretty little Ares for jumping on my little WolfHound’s head during a match). I just think it makes sense that if something can be selected as an option, that it can be taken out by the bad guys, maybe not easily, but at least the possibility should be there (IMO).

Mentioning jump jets, I know that in MW2 and even in NetMech, when you used jumpies, you had to feather your landing or take damage to your legs. I certainly hope that MekTek figures this one out because it makes a lot of sense to me. If an 80 ton beast lifts itself into the air more than waste high to itself, its gotta put some beating onto whatever it lands on, i.e. the legs. Feather that (like retro rockets on landers) to soften or eliminate the damage. I would also like to see a ‘legged’ mech with jumpies lose the ability to jump. You are already hurting and near destruction with one leg gone, you want to lift something that heavy into the air and try to bring it down on a ‘monopod’ without inflicting more damage to the only thing it lands on? Not very likely. Again this may be source code, but somebody figured it out with NetMech so I am sure the guys at MekTek will figure it out if they are so inclined.

I have been a strong proponent against comparing what technology we currently have and are working on against what technology exists in the imaginary Battle Tech Universe. People will say well we have “X” and it can track a target for hundreds of miles and hit it within a 5 ft accuracy so why cant MW4 do “Y”? That is a logical argument, except that the BT Universe is non existent and we only know what technology exist there from the games and the books, period. We can assume anything, but until it is added in the game, the video game or the book it is only an assumption.

Having said all that, I have to step away from that stance for this next item I would like to see. I hate to do this, but I am in strong belief of it so I am willing to take my beatings where I need to. I would like to see something like GPS tracking for FRIENDLY units regardless of radar settings. That is, I think that unless the enemy is jamming signals (you would need to be in range of their jammer to be affected) that if installed as an option, each unit could have something similar to our GPS devices so that everyone on the same team could ‘see’ where everyone else on the team was unless one (or more) of the team were being jammed. I also think that this option should be capable of being destroyed in fire fights with the enemy.

If you had that, league play (oh, hell, open play too for that matter) could be enhanced by allowing teams to stay together even if passive and even on no radar maps. The GPS type device could be used to track all the team mates. If their ‘blip’ disappeared, quickly over comms, you could find out of they are taking fire, or being jammed or what ever.

It could also be very useful for scout mechs. Take a small mech like a Raven and break away from the team to go looking for the bad guys. When he finds them, he simply says contact and folks could look at their displays to determine where he is and roughly where the bad guys are. A leader can then decide if he wants to stage the battle there or have the Raven ‘lead them’ to a better terrain for the battle.

Of course I think there are a few weapons that need tweaking, like the rail gun and Inferno Rocket Launchers and the entire Auto Cannon family, but I don’t think the MekTek crew are focusing too much on weapons. From what they have posted, I think they are more concentrated on the team play aspect of the game. This might include new types of game play, new maps and maybe a better communication ability built into the game. I think it would be great to have comms built in. Don’t know if that s possible, but it would be cool. Each server would be its own IP (similar to TeamSpeak) and whatever team you joined, you would be attached to that channel.

Another thing I would like to see changed if possible is the chat window. It is somewhat opaque, but it still takes up a good sized square of the view of the battlefield (at least while using FFP). I have seen other games, including Freelancer and Halo and Battlefield 1942, where the actual chat messages show up on screen, but are not in a ‘visual box’ per se, chat just appears as text on the screen. This would be very nice in MW4.

As far as other things, I guess I would like to see the net code worked out where there was less lag, bigger maps and more players. Some weapons seem to cause lag, whether its localized because of the video card (although it should not be) or whether it is caused because of a bad connection to the server. Bigger maps would be a lot of fun for team battles so that the game didn’t end in 2 minutes after 4 or 5 minutes of searching for each other. That, and I just like new maps. The thing with more players is that I would like to see more than 24 players to a server. However, to do that effectively, you need bigger maps and NEW missions, missions made for larger numbers of players. Some of the Mission Play missions that we have already begin to show their faults with just 10 per pilots per team. They simply weren’t made to handle that many mechs and it becomes too easy to beat the objectives. IF the maps were bigger and there were larger numbers of players on each team, things would get much more interesting.

MW2 had a thing called AMS. MW4 has a thing called LAMs. AMS was an Anti Missile System that was ammo based (similar to the US Navy Aegis System). It would shoot down missiles all day as long as you had ammo for it. The current LAMs system is more or less random in how effective it is and it is Laser based. The thing with LAMs is that even tho it is Laser based, the mech never suffers an increase in heat when the LAMs are active, OR the LAMs lasers are so small the heat is negligible. I liked the old AMS and it would be cool to see it make an updated comeback. I would like AMS to be more effective than LAMs, but still ammo based. When you’re out your out. Not real sure how to update it because it was pretty good as is. Anyway, I would like to see AMS make a comeback.

I would guess that by this stage in the evolution of technologies that both the IS and Clan would now have advanced optics instead of the Clan only. Same for IFF. So yeah, let the IS have Advanced Optics and let the Clanners have IFF. Seems reasonable.

How many of you played MechCommander (or any of that series)? Remember when your mechs were walking around the map IF one of your mech had some type of ECM it showed a like a circle of the area affected? The more advanced type of ECM the bigger the circle? Well, I always thought it would be cool in MW4 if ECM on your mech did something like that. What I mean is, if your team mates are within the radius of the ECM mech, then they too were covered by the ECM blanket. OF course this would call for different levels of ECM, all at different tonnages and of course the greatest level would only be available to a certain select few mechs. This would prevent so many ECM capable mechs being used on a team. I mean, if you go into Sunder, on any given map, you will see several Cyclops in use with other ECM capable mechs such as Highlanders or Victors or Wildcats or Gladiators or Blood Asps or Warthogs and on and on. If this option was limited to a (very) few mechs and even limited to a certain number PER TEAM, I believe the quality of play would increase after the learning curve for the pilots. I think that people get used to running with BAP and ECM and they would have great difficulty running around and not getting detected or getting shot before they even saw their enemy, so yeah there would be a learning curve. Some folks already run in passive mode most of the time and do a damn fine job of it. Those peeps would be a step ahead of most of the others folks, but once everyone got used to it, I think the level of play would step up a notch or three.

I don’t know if any of that is possible, but I would like to see those things brought about. I know, I know, source code. But hey, I can want cant I?

Maps are another thing I have touched on, bigger maps that support more players and more difficult missions. Another crazy idea I had was to make the HQ and Comm Array actually DO something other than be a target. I think it would be cool if, on Mission Play missions, the Comm array was shut down or destroyed, the defending team could not use team chat in the game for the balance of that round, but regular chat would still work and if my built comms were actually in the game, that channel would be shut down for the duration of the round. Also thought it would be cool if the radar for the defenders quit working. A long with that, the HQ would actually provide INFO to the defending team. Some sort of EXTENDED radar system connected to the Comms array. So a Mech would need to stand by the HQ for 10 seconds and the HQ would upload a mini map that showed the current location of the attackers out to 3000 meters in all directions (hence the need for bigger maps). Also the HQ would have some sort of seismic detection ability for the enemy mechs that were running passive or covered by the cloak of ECM. Again, this info would need to be uploaded to a defender mech by having that mech stand by the HQ for 10 seconds (maybe longer). That actually makes the HQ and Comm array worth attacking and worth defending. OF course, both would need to be hardened so they could withstand more damage and the seismic readings could still be given even if the Comm array had been destroyed. The Radar readings could be uploaded from Comms or the HQ, but the team chat would be Comms dependant. I don’t know, I just think it would add a new dimension to the mission play missions. Again, it may be source code issues, but who knows?

OF course this is just my wish list and I have no idea what MekTek will do or can do. They did not take me on for hire as creative consultant, heh, for that matter they didn’t even take me on as creative consultant without pay.

Visit the web links above. Look at the pictures and read the threads. Come back and post your thoughts about what is happening to our game. Post your wish list if you like.