Advice to the n00bs

Hello Mech Fans. Vettie here with another edition of Vettie's Views. As you know, from time to time I post my view of things, whether it be about MechWarrior or lousy service at fast food restaurants.

We are all waiting on the release of MekTek's MP3.1, a “free” version of MechWarrior4 Mercenaries with all the previous MekTek Mek Paks included plus a few enhancements. Along with this release, many of us speculate there will be an influx of old MechWarriors and hopefully new ones as well. The trick here is to attract new blood to a very old game AND to keep those players interested in the game. That's a nifty trick and I certainly hope we (we as in the current MW4 community including anyone reading this blog today) can pull this off. It's not gonna be easy to do.

Mechwarrior4 is a very old game. The graphics show that. The High Definition Patch (from Mercstorm) helps and the texturing on some of the MP302b mechs is incredible, but the graphics are still very old. The thing is, this isn't about graphics. Its about game play. I have covered this before stating that in my opinion Mercs is one of the best multiplayer games ever released. MekTek is making some changes even to the single player version. This will allow players to see and use Mek Pak Mechs in the single player campaign. This is a big step, allowing players to get familiar with battlemechs they may actually use on-line

This brings us to on-line play. Many of the existing players of the game, the community if you will, have been playing this game a very long time. Any night of the week a player can join Sunder II (pure tech server) and experience some of the best open play of Mercs anywhere. Many of those pilots, mechwarriors, players or whatever you want to call them, are not only very good at the game, but they are also helpful to each other and other players of the game. Sure, not all are, but most are, trading configs or tactics or backing one another up on a flank maneuver or straight on rush and so on. And let's not forget the guys on various “comms”. D-Day runs an open “comms” teamspeak for the players in Sunder II and I am pretty sure that Oneshot (operator/owner of Sunder II server) either runs a comms service or has access to one that is more or less “open”. Katt and Rhino have one as well. In most cases all you need is to download Teamspeak or Ventrlllo and a microphone. If you don't wanna talk but do wanna listen, you don't even need the mic.

Genghis Prawn (with his trusty admin Mini-Me) run a web site I have mentioned many times before called www.SunderJunkies.com . GP and Mini started this site some time back as a place for players in Sunder to have a place to go to post all kinds of things. If you haven't been there, I suggest you follow the link and go visit the site. They run a great site over there with lots of cool info. I used to write my Vettie's views there before I got my own space.

There has been a thread running over there, started by Vampire back in October of 2008, about giving advice to new players. It simply starts like this “...if you were going to give a new player, or a returning one, advice on MW4 what would it be?” This thread is some 4 pages long and still growing. That gave me the idea for todays post. I am going to try to paraphrase the gist of thread and list the pieces of advice (with my slanted comments of course) but I suggest that you go visit it for yourself so you can read it completely and get a feel for the players who made a post. So here goes, Vettie's View on giving a new player or returning player advice on MW4, taken from the Sunder Junkies with a Vettie twist added for flavour. I am not going to list all the people the contributed to this thread, but I thank them each and every one and I hope I don't offend anyone with my take on the advice and I hope I don't leave anyone out even though I am not using names or quotes, just paraphrasing. Well, you will see...

One of the first things posted is that n00bs (new players) tend to take BIG mechs loaded with high alpha values (as many weapons as they can fit on it) and run into the fray. I agree that this is a mistake. Many will use the “instant action” or solitaire campaign as guide for what works and what doesn't, again, big mistake. If you notice, whatever “faction” you choose in the campaign, you either start with a light or medium class battlemech and you eventually move up to a heavy or even an assault mech. This lets the player get used to driving each class of mech. However, the campaign is played against “scripted” bots with “mostly' stock load outs (except for some of the “named” players). These bots, even though deadly in their own right in no way represent what a “live” opponent will do with a “personalized” weapons load out. I suggest trying different classes of mechs with weapons you are comfortable with. Learn the recycle rates and how much heat the weapons generate on the mechs you choose and of course, learn the ranges of the weapons. The next thing is to learn the heat rating of the maps being played on-line Some maps are very hot (Solar Desert) and some are very cold (Lunacy) so the way your choice of mech operates with a specific load out changes from map to map. Try many different chassis and weapons and find ones you like and feel comfortable with. Try them without ANY electronics so you get a feel for how others pick you up at range or through the fog. Then blend in the electronics and learn how they work. Most of all keep moving. If you can shoot, you can be shot. These guys been playing for 5 to 10 years and they know how to shoot.

Teamwork is listed. This is important. Refer to what I said above, many of the players have been playing for 10 years. They understand the game and how it works. They can “hud” you from 1200 meters. Don't get mad, learn from what you did wrong and get back in there and do it again but better the second time and so on. Don't stray from your team (unless you agreed to be the bait). Stick close and read the chat screen for tips and tactics from your team mates or better yet, get on comms with them and listen to what they tell you, MOST are very helpful.

Back to electronics. After running for awhile sans electronics, Vettie suggests that you ALWAYS take LAMS if offered on your choice of mechs, always. You can learn to avoid missiles and you can figure out certain ways of dipping your chassis forward and turning hard right or left to avoid the inbound salvos, but that doesn't always work and they will eventually hit you. Also, ECM makes it a little harder for the enemy to pick you up on radar. You can get closer WITH ECM and running active than without it. ECM makes it harder for missile mechs to pick you up as a target and lastly it reduces the PPC “fuzz” (disruption) when you are hit by a PPC blast. ECM is worth the 1 ton expense. Vettie says take it.

Learn to run passive. So many pilots are radar dependent. Be aware of your surroundings. To get your bearings or find your team mates or enemies, flash your radar on for a few seconds (VERY few) and then off again. Leave learning missile boats until later.

Use cover. If you run around in the open, it will be a short round for you. When you do get destroyed, follow around a few of the pilots using the spectator view to see what THEY do.

Another thing that n00bs tend to do is set up too many weapons on too many triggers or buttons. If you use a joystick, get a good one that allows you to have multiple buttons mapped because there are MANY controls (not always weapons) that you will find handy. If you use a keyboard, learn the controls you use most. I use a Nostromo N52 and a high quality mouse (Logitech MX518). Configure your set up so that YOU are comfortable and can access the controls (be it keyboard, Nostromo, or joystick) without having to LOOK at the controller.

If you are playing on-line and NO one has died yet, don't, repeat, DO NOT peek that hill first. Even if you think there is only one mech on the other side that you feel sure you can take, there are others you cant see but absolutely know you are there. I like to run a 80 Ton Victor and nearly every config I have consists of FULL armour. I cant even count the times I have died in what SEEMED like one shot from the enemy. Its not just one guy shooting, its several and they all are just drooling for some idiot like me to give them a little bit of a target, that's all they need. Alphas from 3 or 4 assault mechs will kill most any mech in the game, especially if they hit you within milliseconds of one another, so close it seems to be one shot... One of the things you used to hear a lot on our comms (The Blood Pearls comms) was “...Smaga!! Don't go over that hil....crap, come on guys Smag's in trouble...” and the game chat reads “~BP~Smagaman destroyed “BY EVERY MECH ON THE OTHER TEAM””

Learn how to spread your damage. Don't expose your CT more than you have too. Learn to twist and turn. You can take 5 alphas in 5 different parts of your mech much better than 5 alphas to one part of your mech. Practice makes perfect, well, in this game, practice makes you better.

Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to ask questions, in game, on here or in the Sunder Junkies forums. Don't be afraid to boat weapons. Learn how they work. ALL weapons except LASERS have a lead time. Learn to shoot moving targets while you are moving. Lasers are the only weapons that hit where you point and pull the trigger. Some weapons have faster travel times than others (except LASERS). Some lock up on you (RACs) if you hold the trigger (or button) down for too long. Some will over heat you if you keep using them (even some ballistics). Don't be afraid to try different weapons until you get comfortable with them.

When you get destroyed, think about what you did wrong. Sometimes you did nothing wrong, you were just out gunned. Sometimes you did do something wrong. Think about it and figure it out. I have been playing since MW2 Dos version 1st came out and I still make some of the stupid mistakes I did way back then.

Remember that if you are new to the game, most of the guys and girls you are facing have been playing along time. You think you could beat Tiger Woods on his own course? There is a lot to learn in this game of ours. Most catch on very quickly. Even if you do, it doesn't mean you will be on top of the kill board all the time or even part of the time. As I said, I have been playing 10+ years and many times I just break even, kills to deaths. If you don't remember anything else, please remember this, MechWarrior4 Mercenaries is a game. Play it to have fun. Be respectful of the people you play with and against and be sure to thank your host every now and then. Enjoy the game.

I hope this helps and I hope to see new folks on line. I also hope that MekTek gets the “green light” soon for the free release. The folks over there have done a lot for this game. The players in the various leagues and open servers have done a lot too. For all you regulars out there, and some of you irregulars (that would be me in that group) give yourself a big pat on the back. If it weren't for the MekTeks AND the players, there would be no game to enjoy.

Side note(?), foot note (?), I don't know, some kinda note anyway, this post comes to you via Open Office version 3.1.1 in a freshly installed version of Linux Mint (8). In these days where jobs and $ are hard to come by, a free OS on an older machine makes it run like new, not to mention all the goodies included with Mint. My thanx to the Linux folks out there. Give it a look see at www.linuxmint.com .

w00t! Folks and hope to see you soon.

MP3.1 (Free Mercs)

Well I have to say this right up front, It's good to be writing and it's good to have something to write about. What's is store for this posting of Vettie's Views? That should be obvious. The Free Release of MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries.

I know the folks over at MekTek are as busy as one-legged waitresses at the IHOP on Sunday morning. AT1 just had a new release. MTX was released. MW4 Mercs was scheduled to be released but then there were issues with the unseen mechs, so MekTek had to go back and remove those mechs. I am guessing they have a “quick” way to put them right back in, in the event the “legal” issues are cleared up and it becomes “okay” to release those mechs(crosses fingers).

Of course, work continues on MP4. But more importantly, the folks at MekTek have been “upgrading” their web access so when the “green light” is given for the free release, the servers over there will be able to handle the expected traffic of folks downloading the software. MTX will be needed for this, so I hope you have your copy installed and ready. MTX can be downloaded from this site http://www.mektekdev.com/site/index.php . I suggest that you go ahead and get MTX downloaded to insure that you have it and it is working for you with no problems. I had zero problems downloading and installing it to my Vista machine. Each day I peek at it just t see if MP3.1 (Free MW4 Mercs) is out there even tho I know its not there yet, its just a hopeful thing.

Last time I did that, something occurred to me that I am sure someone else has thought of, hopefully. Glancing quickly at MekMatch moments ago showed some 23 active servers. Of course this is non-prime time in the U.S., so as the evening goes on the list will grow. That's ok, its more the 23 that brings out this post. Almost all of these servers are dedicated servers running MP302b. Sure there are some running NBT's HC and even one running Mercs PR1, but most are MP302b.

I have tried, on more than one occasion to get an interview with MekTek, but as I mentioned above, they are some busy folks, they dont do interviews, they dont like me, too much going on to talk to an old guy like me, still investigating the Kennedy shooting or whatever. (Truth is, in my opinion, Vam, Jeho, Whitefeather and the rest of the gang are simply too busy right now and they have too much going on to take the time, not to mention they have real lives to lead.) One of the questions I was planning on asking is whether or not the operators of these servers, especially the dedicated, rented machines would be allowed access to MP3.1 prior to the release to the public. This would allow those operators time to update their machines and get them running again as the general public readies their personal machines. If not, there may be some down time with “on-line” play of Mercs while the servers are converted over to the newer version. Having run a server myself, there is prep required (to do it correctly) before your machine is ready.

Another question I had about Free Mercs would be will there be any new maps included or will they just be the “standard” ones that come with the “disc” versions. This relates back to the previous question for both the server operators and the players themselves. IF the maps included are only the maps included with the “boxed” version of the game, the map sets will need to be transferred into the “new” folder in the Free version to be able to use them server side and player side. Some folks have saved these map sets to discs or have the downloaded versions on a hard drive somewhere. These will need to be “installed” in the free version to be able to use them (I think). Again this would have been a question for MekTek.

Server ops will need to do this and reset their MW4Monitor program and then verify that it works to get their servers running as they currently are. Some dont use MW4Monitor, so their set up wont be as “complicated”, but there is tweaking to be done for dedicated servers.

I am fairly sure players will create their own server(s) in the short term just so they can get online and play the game. For many of them, this will be the first time that they are free to use the Microsoft Mech Pack mechs such as the Dragon, Zeus, Highlander, Cauldron Born, Kodiak, Hunchback, Masakari and the Arctic Wolf.

Some of the “expected” changes that MIGHT be included in MP3.1 are as follows
-MTX downloader and updater (no more multiple patches to mess with and the game will be kept up-to-date)
-Additional MekMatch servers to handle a much greater population with dedicated game types, including new/returning players
-No CD's needed
-Clan and IS Mech Packs included
-MekTek mechs and weapons available for purchase in the campaign
-Game launches much quicker getting you to the Main Menu much more quickly
-Many exploits fixed
-Lag Correction
-Microsoft and MekTek mechs incorporated in one alpha list in Mechlab
-Improved graphical representation for the S1/S2 Weapon slots
-Screenshots placed in Screenshots sub-folder
-Custom Decals folder created upon installation
-Long name server crash fixed
-LTRI (Long Tom Range Indicator)
-Transparent HUD Clock (indicates time left in game)
-Date/Time stamp easily seen during gameplay
-Removed unnecessary UI components like Zonestats, Details, Refresh
-Removed "Checking for Updates"
-Easier to read Torso Twist Guage

I have it from a pretty good source that this is “real” close.
REAL close...

Back to the servers. I have read that “as many maps that we can” will be included with the download. That's great, but again, for server operators, if they do it correctly, time is required to make the changes such as camos, updating the NFM files for weights, restrictions, and on and on. If a server op makes any changes to the NFMs, then the MW4Monitor program has to be changed to match. If you use the in game server options, you still have to add the maps to the list and set the parameters and blah blah blah. Personally, I think it would be a good idea for MekTek to allow these dedicated servers “1st” access to insure that folks have a place to play once the game is available to download, but that's me.

I wonder how many MP302b servers AND MP3.1 servers there will be for the first week or two? That would allow folks to play either or version until most have MP3.1 downloaded and running. Interesting. All I know for sure is that I am hoping that there will be an influx of new and old players to the game. We have already started seeing some new folks show up in the Sunder Junkies forum, so I am pretty sure there will be some new blood brought to the battlefields.

Well folks, just one more thing, w00t!! w00t to all.

Special Edition

Vettie’s Views SPECIAL EDITION

Hello Mech Fans. Summer has fallen. Its been awhile since I have been able to post and I will get into that in just a bit. For now I just want to say hello everyone and Vettie is back.

I have a lot of research to do to get caught up. I still want to work on a MekTek interview, but I have not had “real” internet access in over a month (again, more on that later). One of my sources tells me that the “Free Release” for Mercs is almost ready and that they are working out the legal details.

Bringing Mercs back from the “dead game zone” will certainly breathe some life into this game. Hopefully, this freebie will bring in some new players. MekTek has done a lot of work and tho I haven’t sent it myself, I am told that the Free Edition will be a smooth go from the time you click the button to install until you click the “join” button in multiplayer. I really hope that is the case because I think a lot of the folks that may “give it a try” will be easily shunned away if they encounter problems with the install or getting online. Most of “today’s” gamers want to click and go and if it doesn’t work, well, there are other games…

I am one that thinks that Mercs is one of the best multiplayer games ever done. I even wrote a Vettie’s Views about that. Mercs offers everything, multitudes of maps (thanx to the community), plenty of mechs (thanx to MekTek), customizable weapons loads (crap, I don’t know who to thank, but thanx), tons (pardon the pun) of weapons (again thanx to MekTek) and hours of fun thanx to all the folks that still play the game.

Veterans of the game may be an issue for incoming new players (n00bs). Many of us have been playing this game since MechWarrior 2. The game really hasn’t changed that much, you still drive mechs and shoot each other into oblivion before someone else does it to you. New players might have a hard time with learning the features of the game while only lasting a few seconds against guys that have been playing for 10 years (maybe more). It can be a real turn off to get into a game and die quickly and then have to wait for one side to win the round before you can get back into it.

Hopefully, many of the veteran players like most of the Sunder Junkies will take the time to help the n00bs learn the game so maybe, just maybe, we retain a few of the “Ill try this game to see if its any fun” players. My hats off to you guys for taking the time to help these guys.

Look at it like this, a true n00b coming into Mercs would be like, oh, say any one of you going to bat against Randy Johnson. Yeah, you might get a hit, but remember this, a professional baseball player makes millions of $$$ and becomes and all-star if he manages to bat .300. That’s just 3 hits in 10 times at bat. 70% of the time Randy is gonna send you back to the dug out. So the chances are that a n00b will be sitting on the side waiting fro respawn are very high. Folks want to play and many don’t have the patience to watch and learn. We can hope there are a few that do.

On a personal side, I will try to give you a brief update on Vettie and the Vettie household. Many of you know we had to sell or home and move to an apartment. Well, it was costing us plenty and we were forking out money faster than we were taking it in. We came to the decision that we needed to do something before we were flat broke.

My son is in his final year of college and working, my oldest step-daughter has started college and is working and living with us. The youngest step-daughter is gone away to college.
UAH (University of Alabama at Huntsville) is a fine but (VERY) expensive engineering school. Calhoun College is a great 2 year Junior College and not too expensive. Jacksonville State University is a fine (medium expense) school for future teachers. All together, it puts a hurt on the old savings account and any other accounts.

The youngest is a Flagger in the Band at JSU. On the second day of band camp, she broke her foot! DOH! We (Ms. Vettie and I) took a short trip down to get her medicine scripts filled and take her some crutches and on the way home the oldest called all in a panic. She had slipped in the bathtub at the apartment and busted the tub cutting her knee up pretty badly. Ms. Vettie and I were 3 hours away so we contacted a friend and had them take her to the emergency room for XRays and stitches while we tried to get home as quickly as possible. They are both fine and all is well with them, but it was a rough little stretch.

We went shopping for a place to live before we burned through what was left of our money. We found an old (little) house with some land that needed some loving. The house belonged to a lady that died 2 years ago. She left it to her sons (4 of them). The house had been sold about a year ago, but the buyer could get the financing, so it set empty. We made a ridiculously low offer (hoping to pay cash and not borrow any money) and they turned us down. About 2 weeks later, they came back and said if we were interested they would sell for our offer. We did and closed within a week.

This old house (not Bob Vila’s, but we could have used him) needed lots of work. The exterior was in good shape with a roof that had been installed within the last 4 years. The interior is another story. It was just terrible. We have installed a dishwasher, new counter tops, new cabinets will come later, a central heat and a/c system, new flooring, some replacement windows, a new bathroom (all new stuff in there), re-wiring the electrical works and some plumbing work. DOH!!!!

We have moved in but the place is nowhere near done, so now the garage is full of our stuff and there are boxes everywhere. My computer is just up in an ad-hoc fashion as my office area is not complete yet.

We have had a pretty rough stretch and I hope it is over. Things got tight, too tight and we burned money like crazy just to keep afloat. Maybe we bought us a break. And things will turn around. We keep our heads up, keep our faith strong and hang on to each other. My thanx goes out to all of you that kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Vettie will be coming back soon.

Oh yeah, w00t!!

NEW MECHWARRIOR!!!!!!

By now you have all seen and heard the news. A new MechWarrior is afoot!
For those of you living in the dark, I have added a link here for the video.

http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/18954/mech-warrior-project/videos/mechwarrior_trl_phoenix_70709.html

Also, MekTek has been granted the rights from Smith and Tinker to distribute MW4 for FREE!!!!! I am working on talking to the MekTek folks and I hope that soon I can arrange the meeting and bring all the readers here the results of that.

Just a short post for now. I have to see what develops with MekTek.

Vettie out for now

Ubuntu

Some time back, many of the users of the Sunder Junkies web site including GP, D-Day and I had some discussions concerning Linux. It is a fact that several of the players have a Linux install somewhere, if it's on a second drive, and older machine, a back-up machine or whatever, there are those of you that have a Linux Box. I would like to spend a little time today to discuss Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is a self sustained Linux organization that is brought to us by one man. His idea is that an OS should be free and user friendly. Ubuntu is sponsored by a UK Company called Canonical Ltd and is owned by Mark Shuttleworth. Here is the Wiki description “Ubuntu (pronounced /uːˈbuːntuː/[3] oo-BOON-too),[4] is a computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux. It is distributed as free software. Ubuntu's goals include providing an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease-of-installation. Ubuntu has been selected by readers of desktoplinux.com as the most popular Linux distribution for the desktop, claiming approximately 30% of their desktop installations in both 2006 and 2007.”

I have a Ubuntu installation on my Gaming machine that I use for emails and web surfing and just generally trying to learn some about Linux. I use Ubuntu 8.10 (Intreped), but I think the latest version is 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). I am not real sure where they get the code names, but I admit some are interesting. I had tried the 9.04 version, but I have a high end sound card installed and it requires proprietary drivers to operate within Linux. I have the drivers for Linus, installed them with little or no trouble, but they simply would not work. They worked fine in 8.10. I had the option of using the onboard sound from my motherboard (which is very nice) and using the sound card in Windows, but that would require me to move plugs around every time I booted into one or the other OS and it sort of defeated the purpose of having the expensive sound card in the first place so I decided to go back to version 8.10 and I am happy with that edition (s0 far).

The Ubuntu installation looks and feels a lot like a Windows install for those of you that have wanted to try Ubuntu (or another Linux distribution). There may be some of you that think that they do not know how to operate Linux and wouldnt know what to do with it if they installed it. To that I say, what do you do with Windows? Can you use a mouse and click on Icons? Can you navigate a drop down menu and select the program you want to use? If you can do these things, then you can use Ubuntu.

Ubuntu comes packed with many (if not all) of the things you might want (for the average user and many for the advanced users). Firefox is the default browser and it comes already installed. I do not think that you can use Internet Explorer (I could be wrong), but there are other browsers already installed (or available for install) that look and operate similar to IE. Microsoft Office? Well, no, but Ubuntu comes with Open Office pre-installed and ready for use. It includes a database program, a spreadsheet program, a presentation program and a word processor (I used it to write this article). Outlook? Again, I dont think you can use it, but Ubuntu comes with a program called Evolution that has all (or most of) the goodies that Outlook does. You can set up rules, it has a junk mail/spam filter, a calendar, a contacts list, a memo list (stick pads like post its) and a things to do list that can be prioritized. Outlook Express or Windows Mail user? How about Mozilla's Thunderbird? Very powerful, yet simple to install and use. Just ad a couple of plug-ins for it and it also rivals Outlook, but easier to use.

Let's review, most users use their PC to get on the internet and Ubuntu lets you do that. Many if not all users like to get their personal email and Ubuntu can do that. Some folks use spreadsheets and Word Processing or databases for personal use or homework or bringing work home to do, Ubuntu gives you all those tools (and for the most part with few exceptions, Open Office can and will open MS Office documents or spreadsheets and allow you to save them in that format). So what else? Oh yeah, some folks like to listen to music or download music or “rip” music. Hmm, yeah, Ubuntu can do that too and they have some very nice tools pre-installed that let you do that (even in MP3 (shudder) format). For those of you that like to chat or “instant message”, Ubuntu comes with a program installed that allows you to log into most of the on-line clients like Yahoo Messenger or Windows Messenger or AOL Instant messenger.

What I am missing? Oh yeah, gaming. Ok, maybe you got me here. I cant play Mercs on Ubuntu. I can play many games that are available on the internet and Ubuntu comes with some interesting games with MANY, MANY MORE available to download and play for free including many multi-player games. There is a program called Wine that can be downloaded and installed (for free) that allows you to play SOME Windows games in a Linux installation. I have tried it for some things and it is very easy to do, but sadly Mercs is not one of those things.

Let me put something out there for everyone to understand. I am not a programmer. I do not write code, read code or even understand code. I am a PC user that digs a little deeper into how things work so I understand what is wrong “if” there is a problem and I can (most of the time) work my way out of it, but I am not a programmer. For the most part, I am Joe User like many other people out there.

That being said, I wanted to try Linux and I read about the many different versions available and I decided on Ubuntu. I downloaded the program and copied it to a CD so I could install it. Ubuntu allows you to run it without installation so you can get a feel for how it works. It also installs a dual boot option if you have a Windows Machine running that you want to install Linux on and it works great, very simple. The hardest part about the entire install is deciding how much hard drive space to give to Ubuntu IF you only have one hard drive (HINT: 40 gigs is PLENTY). This is a real simple process and Ubuntu has a utility that comes up during the installation to help guide you through the process.

Ubuntu also has a notification if there are updates to ANY program you installed (assuming you added the repository for “special” programs, but more on that in a bit). You can manually check, but you get a notification that there are updates available to you. A simple click or two and you are downloading and installing updates to keep you safe and secure and running smoothly.

Ubuntu (most Linux installs) use what they call repositories to store all the programs and updates. This is all online. You can add or delete a program simply by selecting it from a list of “stuff” available to you. Click the program on the list and click the install button and moment later (depending on your connection speed) that program is downloaded, installed and ready for you to use. There are MANY programs out there that you can use. If you are looking for a specific program and it is not in the Ubuntu repositories, then you can go to their web site and download a Linux version of it (in most cases) and you can add the repository to your list so that you will get a notification of any updates.

Many of you have heard of this “command line” and “you have to use scripts to do certain things” statement. Well, there is a command line and little windows called terminals that allow you to sue commands and scripts, but you dont have to for most of the everyday things that you use your PC for. Ubuntu is simple to use, safe, stable and actually pretty cool and fun.

This brings me to the next segment of my post today. To get Ubuntu (or most any other Linux installation) you have to either download it, get it from a computer geek magazine or even buy it at a local store like Best Buy (Red Hat for example). The downloads are free and so is the OS (with some exceptions) such as Ubuntu but here is the issue. To download, create a CD for installation and finally install it, you must already have a PC. IF you ALREADY have a PC, you probably already have an OS such as some form of Windows. IF you already have Windows (and you like it and it lets you do what you want to do) then why would you be interested in a free Operating System? Other than to be a geek like me and try it out and learn about it, you dont need it, or that is how I see it.

Think about it. You (most likely) have a version of Windows that you use most of the time and you know how to use it and you are comfortable with it even if you just read the news online or read your joke emails. So why do you care if you COULD have a FREE Operating System? You ALREADY have one. Why do you NEED another one?

Ok, well heres the deal. Assuming companies (like Dell and yes they do offer this) would build computers and install Ubuntu on them, the cost of the machine drops considerably. Horse stuff you say? Well lets look at it.

Most computers for home users consist of the following items
A motherboard. This device CAN have a audio chip (and now days they actually sound VERY good with 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound capabilities) and a video chip in lieu of a video card. For our example, this User Friendly Computer will have a motherboard with both sound and video on-board.
A hard drive.
An Optical drive. Now days most are DVD Burners that can play DVDs and CDs as well as burn both.
A power supply.
A processor with heat sink.
Some Memory (we will go with 2gigs for this model)
A fan or two.
A chassis. To put everything in.
A keyboard.
A mouse.
A monitor. Most do not come with a monitor, but you do NEED one.
Windows (XP or Vista) pre-installed. The OS.
Now because Dell builds literally millions, but we will say thousands, of these they get special pricing on all the components. They even get a deal from Microsoft on the cost of the OS that comes installed on your PC. If you and I were to build one, our price would be a little more expensive.

Lets look at that using US pricing from a well respected Computer store such as NewEgg.com or TigerDirect.com.
Motherboard – I went with an AMD motherboard of average ability (not top of the line, but certainly will use the latest chips and memory) ASUS M3A78 = 80$ (round up)
Hard drive – I selected a SATA drive (WD or Seagate, both were reasonable) 320gig with a 16gig cache OEM model (usually cheaper than retail, but they dont come in the pretty boxes) – 50$ (CHEAP!!)
Power Supply – for this machine, you dont need a big, honkin, electricity draining, power supply, 350 to 400 watts is plenty and gives you power to expand upon later in life. I selected a nice, name brand model with a BIG fan, Coolmax 400watt with a 120mm fan – 28$
Processor – We used an AMF motherboard so you have to use an AMD processor. I selected an AMD Athlon II X2 250 Dual Core (3.00ghz, 2mb cache, 2000Mhz) in a retail box that includes the proper heatsink – 95$
Memory – I try to always use good, quality, name brand memory. This avoids nagging trouble in the future. Its usually a bit more expensive, but worth it in the long run. I selected Crucial Ballistix PC8500 DDR2 – 36$ (this is 2 1gig strips, or 2gig total)
Fans – cooling is very important – 2 80mm noiseless fans Ultras – 15$ ea or 30$
Chassis – something simple, yet allows plenty of air flow and room for expansion. I selected a Thermaltake M9 with a 120mm fan on the rear and front access for USB ports, sound and firewire. 70$
Keyboard and Mouse – I LIKE nice keyboards that are soft touch and dont make lots of noise when you push the keys, but for our example here, just a simple keyboard and scroll mouse combo. Logitech 350 USB keyboard with an 800dpi optical USB mouse. Combo price – 25$
Monitor – Monitors are very import and they need to be easy on the eyes as well as fast (for gaming). I selected a Sceptre 19” Widescreen LCD with 5ms response and a 10000 to 1 contrast ratio. Not the best but very nice – 110$.
Optical Drive – DVD burner (22x, RW 8x) sata with Lightscribe from LG – 30$
The OS – Vista Home Prem 64 bit – 110$

Total – 634$. This is a decent machine but it DOES NOT have a separate Video Card or audio card. It will do some games, but not many. If we remove the OS, the price drops to about 524$ or 525$. If you go to Dell.com and look at their similar machine, the price is about 480$ with the OS pre-installed (Windows Vista Home Prem. Version, 64 bit.) and it has an Intel Dual Core instead of an AMD. Another 40$ gets you the 19” monitor instead of a 17”. raising our Dell price to 525$. If you order a machine from Dell with no OS, the price drops another 100$ or roughly 425$.

If you had Ubuntu on a disc and you bought the stuff to build a PC, or had someone like Dell build you one with no OS, you save roughly the cost of the OS or somewhere around 100$. IF you didnt have a PC and you wanted to build you own, you would need to go to the library or a friends house to order the parts, but you still may NOT have the OS (unless your friend lets you use his or her burner and copy the OS to Disc.)

Wait!!! How about this? Remember when AOL used to send you those damned old CDs to try to get you to sign up for their service? (I used mine as christmas ornaments) What if Canonical did that with Ubuntu? They could send out millions of discs for people to install their OS. This could work. You wouldnt need to download it or burn it to disc, and you wouldnt need to bug your friends or neighbors. Just use that junk mail they sent you and install it on your PC. The numbers of users would certainly go way up. I also think that the number of people who kept it installed, or used it as a primary OS would also increase. Hmmm, I see a major suggestion coming here....

In the meantime folks, if you havent tried Linux because you were afraid or you thought it was too hard to use, maybe you should think again. If I can do it, you can. If you can use Windows, you can use Ubuntu. Its as hard as you make it. Its as easy as you make it. Why not give it a try, especially if you have and older PC sitting around collecting dust and not being used.

The Missons (Part 1 v)

The Missions (Part 1)

I have been sitting in front of my computer pondering what to do for my next edition of “Vettie’s Views”. My good friends over at The Sunder Junkies have posted the mechs of the month for July and I have already done reviews on the Catapult and the Blood Asp. I have not posted anything on the Hellhound or the Crab, but Have lots of stick time in both and I am sure pilots will find them both to be exciting and fun mechs to drive,

I am somewhat at a loss as to what to write about. I was fully expecting that MP4 would have been released in June or maybe even by July 4, but I don’t see that happening. So many loose ends yet to tie up. If MP4 had been released then I could go over some of the changes and try to help you get going with this latest fun pak.

So, what to write about? Hmmm, I have an idea… bear with me and I promise, little to no medical stuff… (If you wanna know about that then post a comment or send me and email).

Today I am going to try to put together a column about one of our favourite (or most despised) maps, Royal Guard. Why is it that this is the most played mission play map in the game? What? You don’t think it is? Have Oneshot check his server logs and I will bet that Royal Guard is played more than any other.

I have thoughts about it. Number one is that the name of it is the easiest to remember when folks want to vote in another map. “Uh, I cant think of nothing, how about Royal Guard cause I hate this map” and then they type “Vote Royal Guard…” and people think to them selves, well Royal is better than this one, or we just played this one and we haven’t played Royal all night and on and on and they end up voting for it.

Another reason, and many who have played this game for years will disagree, is that Royal Guard is actually a fun map. No, really, it is. It has everything you could want in a mission play map. Even better if weather and visibility are turned on because the map does have snow, looks very cool with a light fog and looks completely different during night drops.

There are basically three objectives for the attackers. Kill the HQ, kill the comms array OR kill all the enemy. The HQ is planted way on top of a couple of layers of palace grounds that are mostly surrounded by walls and other structures once you enter the walls. The Comms Array is nestled nicely behind a couple wall, tucked away in a corner, yet still reachable from outside the palace grounds.

As an attacker, you can go for the objectives and they can be hit from outside the palace walls. A pop sniper from the front gate could take out Comms while a jumper from the rear could hit HQ. Also, Comms and the HQ are “hittable” (new word there) from the East side of the palace. A well placed sniper on the Library building can lay waste to the Comms and one with longer range and a good Idea of roughly where the HQ sits “could” take it out over time. Of course, there is the old “lets get some fast mechs and charge the objectives” option as well.

The East, West and North side of the palace grounds are basically urban settings with lots of buildings to run around and use as cover. Some of the front gate (south side) has urban terrain, but not as much as the other three sides. The palace itself is surrounded by walls. The walls are tall enough that mechs can walk beside them and not be seen, but the walls are not so high that they can not be jumped by a jump capable mech. There are two gates, or rather, openings in the perimeter walls, one on the South side generally referred to as the “Main Gate” or “Front Gate” and one on the East side. These aren’t really gates so to speak because there are no “gates”, just openings in the walls.

Oneshot or Magnus or somebody did a pretty good job matching camos to terrain for this map on Sunder II and I think that “camos” make a huge difference, especially if the snow is falling, the night has fallen and the radar is team only or off completely. Not just this map, but all maps. When I ran a server, I always tried to match the camos to the playing field. It adds another element as far as I am concerned. Mechs sneaking around in the distance with other elements are just a little harder to see and it plays both ways.

The palace sits on top of multiple tiers or layers. The ground level has the walls and a few buildings on the southwest corner. The first tier or layer also has some walls, a few more buildings on the north side, the Comm Array and a catwalk. The final tier houses the HQ but actually has no walls around it. On the south side there are two hard points for defense as well as some wall based turrets and a couple of ground based turrets. The second level wall also has turrets and another hard point resides on the east side. The top level has only the palace itself and the HQ.

It’s the basic story from when you were a kid. Capture the “fort”, King of the Hill style. The guys in the fort shoot at you (or threw lots of snowballs) with there play guns or sticks used as faked guns while you tried to make your way into the center of the fort and capture the flag, thus winning the round.

The Attackers start deep on the south side of the map and they have many options as far as what sort of attack. A few can start taking down turrets, a few can go east and west and some can go up the middle. Perfect three pronged attack! Or the attackers can all concentrate together and go the same direction making it very difficult on the defenders to hold back such a powerful horde. Taking down turrets is optional, but it always helps, even if you decide to wait until you are past your 1st hurdle, either over the wall or through one of the gates. If you don’t take out at least some of the turrets, it will bite you. Those thing peck away at you, slowly melting away your armour making it easier for the defenders to finish you off.

As far as defending on Royal Guard, well that is just as hard as attacking. Maybe that is why so many like the map; it is a well balanced map. Not to easy to kill objectives and not to easy to protect the objectives. I have already mentioned how the HQ and Comm array can be destroyed from a distance, so the defenders cant afford to sit idle and wait for the wave to come, they must get out and defend. Some go west and shoot at jumpers as the pop up to blast a turret. Some go to the rear and watch for “base rapers” or speedy mechs shooting at HQ from behind, some go to the east to catch those little sneakies up on the library or creeping in the East gate and some go south to meet and greet those entering the main entrance.
Many battle are fought along each and every wall, from inside to outside or from either inside or outside. The attackers are trying to get inside and jump the wall only to find one or two defenders waiting there blasting them as they descend from their jump. Sometimes the defenders get a little anxious and jump to the outside and take on the attacker(s) before they jump the wall. Occasionally, the defending team will send out a greeting committee from either side and try to pre-empt the attack from the east or west, often drawing the attackers away from the palace grounds and into the city surrounding the castle.

Many duels have been fought on this map between two or more mechs and it is a shear pleasure to watch two or more skilled pilots in different but evenly matched mechs battle to prevent invasion or to destroy the objectives. The moves, the weapons loads and the abilities always give me a smile.

Another tactic I mentioned but did not detail is the “base raper” mech or mechs. One thing I dislike, but it is a valid tactic, is for a pilot to take a very fast mech with rocket launchers or Heavy Rocket Launchers or even Arty Strikes on a team only or no radar map and rush the objectives. Its hard enough to kill some of those mechs (Tenchi for example or Ares) when you can see them coming, much less when you don’t have the help of radar to pick them up. On the other hand, if the radar is set to normal, I have been known (as well as a few pirates that shall remain nameless, D-Day, Smaga, Cow) to take a Commando loaded with speed, jumpies and regular rocket launchers and head for the objectives as fast as possible. Again, we only do that if the radar is normal and we take a mech that can be killed in two shots. Yeah, its fun, but I don’t see the fun doing that with the radar turned off. It’s a valid tactic, but its just not that fun for the other people in the game.

You see, Royal Guard offers it all. A great map to defend on with lots of cover and walls that are big and objectives that are well placed and not easily killed if you are careful. From the attack point of view, Royal offers cover, objectives that can be met but are not too easy and a time limit forcing you to be on the attack. There’s buildings, there’s objectives, there’s hard points, there’s turrets, there’s mechs, there’s fog (can be), and there’s snow (can be). The map is rated at 110% heat efficiency so you can use beam weapons without the immediate over heat issues and there are plenty of chances to use ballistics at range or close up if you prefer. Yep, pretty much everything you would want in a map, sans water and caves.

The best thing about Royal Guard is that it is actually fun to play, no matter how many times you have played it, Royal Guard is still fun. Maybe that’s why it is played more than any other Mission Play map. Maybe.

I still think its because it’s the only map that players can remember the name when it comes time to vote another map in play.

Sometime ago, I wrote some reviews on several of the mission play maps, but sadly I have lost the originals and/or the backups for those articles. I really enjoyed revisiting the Royal Guard Mission from my memory and I think I will forge ahead and so some more of them. TO really do them justice, I gotta get back in the cock pit cause the old memory banks ain’t what they used to be. I hope you liked this issue and please post comments or your own stories about Royal Guard and let me know if you enjoy reviews of the maps and want to see more.

The Missions (Part 1)

I have been sitting in front of my computer pondering what to do for my next edition of “Vettie’s Views”. My good friends over at The Sunder Junkies have posted the mechs of the month for July and I have already done reviews on the Catapult and the Blood Asp. I have not posted anything on the Hellhound or the Crab, but Have lots of stick time in both and I am sure pilots will find them both to be exciting and fun mechs to drive,

I am somewhat at a loss as to what to write about. I was fully expecting that MP4 would have been released in June or maybe even by July 4, but I don’t see that happening. So many loose ends yet to tie up. If MP4 had been released then I could go over some of the changes and try to help you get going with this latest fun pak.

So, what to write about? Hmmm, I have an idea… bear with me and I promise, little to no medical stuff… (If you wanna know about that then post a comment or send me and email).

Today I am going to try to put together a column about one of our favourite (or most despised) maps, Royal Guard. Why is it that this is the most played mission play map in the game? What? You don’t think it is? Have Oneshot check his server logs and I will bet that Royal Guard is played more than any other.

I have thoughts about it. Number one is that the name of it is the easiest to remember when folks want to vote in another map. “Uh, I cant think of nothing, how about Royal Guard cause I hate this map” and then they type “Vote Royal Guard…” and people think to them selves, well Royal is better than this one, or we just played this one and we haven’t played Royal all night and on and on and they end up voting for it.

Another reason, and many who have played this game for years will disagree, is that Royal Guard is actually a fun map. No, really, it is. It has everything you could want in a mission play map. Even better if weather and visibility are turned on because the map does have snow, looks very cool with a light fog and looks completely different during night drops.

There are basically three objectives for the attackers. Kill the HQ, kill the comms array OR kill all the enemy. The HQ is planted way on top of a couple of layers of palace grounds that are mostly surrounded by walls and other structures once you enter the walls. The Comms Array is nestled nicely behind a couple wall, tucked away in a corner, yet still reachable from outside the palace grounds.

As an attacker, you can go for the objectives and they can be hit from outside the palace walls. A pop sniper from the front gate could take out Comms while a jumper from the rear could hit HQ. Also, Comms and the HQ are “hittable” (new word there) from the East side of the palace. A well placed sniper on the Library building can lay waste to the Comms and one with longer range and a good Idea of roughly where the HQ sits “could” take it out over time. Of course, there is the old “lets get some fast mechs and charge the objectives” option as well.

The East, West and North side of the palace grounds are basically urban settings with lots of buildings to run around and use as cover. Some of the front gate (south side) has urban terrain, but not as much as the other three sides. The palace itself is surrounded by walls. The walls are tall enough that mechs can walk beside them and not be seen, but the walls are not so high that they can not be jumped by a jump capable mech. There are two gates, or rather, openings in the perimeter walls, one on the South side generally referred to as the “Main Gate” or “Front Gate” and one on the East side. These aren’t really gates so to speak because there are no “gates”, just openings in the walls.

Oneshot or Magnus or somebody did a pretty good job matching camos to terrain for this map on Sunder II and I think that “camos” make a huge difference, especially if the snow is falling, the night has fallen and the radar is team only or off completely. Not just this map, but all maps. When I ran a server, I always tried to match the camos to the playing field. It adds another element as far as I am concerned. Mechs sneaking around in the distance with other elements are just a little harder to see and it plays both ways.

The palace sits on top of multiple tiers or layers. The ground level has the walls and a few buildings on the southwest corner. The first tier or layer also has some walls, a few more buildings on the north side, the Comm Array and a catwalk. The final tier houses the HQ but actually has no walls around it. On the south side there are two hard points for defense as well as some wall based turrets and a couple of ground based turrets. The second level wall also has turrets and another hard point resides on the east side. The top level has only the palace itself and the HQ.

It’s the basic story from when you were a kid. Capture the “fort”, King of the Hill style. The guys in the fort shoot at you (or threw lots of snowballs) with there play guns or sticks used as faked guns while you tried to make your way into the center of the fort and capture the flag, thus winning the round.

The Attackers start deep on the south side of the map and they have many options as far as what sort of attack. A few can start taking down turrets, a few can go east and west and some can go up the middle. Perfect three pronged attack! Or the attackers can all concentrate together and go the same direction making it very difficult on the defenders to hold back such a powerful horde. Taking down turrets is optional, but it always helps, even if you decide to wait until you are past your 1st hurdle, either over the wall or through one of the gates. If you don’t take out at least some of the turrets, it will bite you. Those thing peck away at you, slowly melting away your armour making it easier for the defenders to finish you off.

As far as defending on Royal Guard, well that is just as hard as attacking. Maybe that is why so many like the map; it is a well balanced map. Not to easy to kill objectives and not to easy to protect the objectives. I have already mentioned how the HQ and Comm array can be destroyed from a distance, so the defenders cant afford to sit idle and wait for the wave to come, they must get out and defend. Some go west and shoot at jumpers as the pop up to blast a turret. Some go to the rear and watch for “base rapers” or speedy mechs shooting at HQ from behind, some go to the east to catch those little sneakies up on the library or creeping in the East gate and some go south to meet and greet those entering the main entrance.
Many battle are fought along each and every wall, from inside to outside or from either inside or outside. The attackers are trying to get inside and jump the wall only to find one or two defenders waiting there blasting them as they descend from their jump. Sometimes the defenders get a little anxious and jump to the outside and take on the attacker(s) before they jump the wall. Occasionally, the defending team will send out a greeting committee from either side and try to pre-empt the attack from the east or west, often drawing the attackers away from the palace grounds and into the city surrounding the castle.

Many duels have been fought on this map between two or more mechs and it is a shear pleasure to watch two or more skilled pilots in different but evenly matched mechs battle to prevent invasion or to destroy the objectives. The moves, the weapons loads and the abilities always give me a smile.

Another tactic I mentioned but did not detail is the “base raper” mech or mechs. One thing I dislike, but it is a valid tactic, is for a pilot to take a very fast mech with rocket launchers or Heavy Rocket Launchers or even Arty Strikes on a team only or no radar map and rush the objectives. Its hard enough to kill some of those mechs (Tenchi for example or Ares) when you can see them coming, much less when you don’t have the help of radar to pick them up. On the other hand, if the radar is set to normal, I have been known (as well as a few pirates that shall remain nameless, D-Day, Smaga, Cow) to take a Commando loaded with speed, jumpies and regular rocket launchers and head for the objectives as fast as possible. Again, we only do that if the radar is normal and we take a mech that can be killed in two shots. Yeah, its fun, but I don’t see the fun doing that with the radar turned off. It’s a valid tactic, but its just not that fun for the other people in the game.

You see, Royal Guard offers it all. A great map to defend on with lots of cover and walls that are big and objectives that are well placed and not easily killed if you are careful. From the attack point of view, Royal offers cover, objectives that can be met but are not too easy and a time limit forcing you to be on the attack. There’s buildings, there’s objectives, there’s hard points, there’s turrets, there’s mechs, there’s fog (can be), and there’s snow (can be). The map is rated at 110% heat efficiency so you can use beam weapons without the immediate over heat issues and there are plenty of chances to use ballistics at range or close up if you prefer. Yep, pretty much everything you would want in a map, sans water and caves.

The best thing about Royal Guard is that it is actually fun to play, no matter how many times you have played it, Royal Guard is still fun. Maybe that’s why it is played more than any other Mission Play map. Maybe.

I still think its because it’s the only map that players can remember the name when it comes time to vote another map in play.

Sometime ago, I wrote some reviews on several of the mission play maps, but sadly I have lost the originals and/or the backups for those articles. I really enjoyed revisiting the Royal Guard Mission from my memory and I think I will forge ahead and so some more of them. TO really do them justice, I gotta get back in the cock pit cause the old memory banks ain’t what they used to be. I hope you liked this issue and please post comments or your own stories about Royal Guard and let me know if you enjoy reviews of the maps and want to see more.

Mercs Getting On-Line(1)

Greetings and sensations Mech Fans. Vettie here back with another edition of Vettie's Views. This is basically “my take” on whatever the current subject is. Speaking of subjects, this issue is going to deal with Mercs installation and the “fun” it is to get to a working “on-line” version of Mercs.

Recently, there has been some new discussions on this in the Sunder Junkies forum found here http://bb.evilgeniuses.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=936

I suggest that anyone reading this sign up to be a member of the Sunder Junkies even if you do not play in Sunder or Sunder II server. This site is run by Genghis Prawn and Mini-Me with a couple of admins thrown in, D-Day and Vettie, to keep the forums on a cool level (not that we have ever had to do that). GP runs a great site and folks go there for help with Mercs, to chat about stuff, learn about mechs and Configs and to keep up to date on the latest info about our beloved game. The Web site is www.SunderJunkies.com . If you sign up as a member, you will be able to POST responses to threads you read and may want to comment on, non- registered viewers can read, but not post. There will be no junk (Or junque as I spell it) mail and you wont get any bogus links. The owners and admins police their site and it is very safe.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Mercs installation for on-line play. Man, I'm getting old. Good thing I wrote this stuff down. So, as I was saying, many discussions on how to get your Mercs game ready to go on-line and kick butt. Moons ago, when MechWarrior4 Vengeance was released, it was pretty easy to get on-line. You put the disc in and installed the game (2 discs, but it told you when to change them out). After that, you started the game and set up your joystick, or mouse and you played through the campaign trying to save your sister (or not) and the Drasari family name. After some of that, you ventured to go to the website to find any updates to the game and once you were there you found out there were NEW Maps available for installation for on-line play! W00T!, Wait, w00t wasnt around back then, so YAY or something.

Most folks back then had dial up and there were many servers to choose from. You just tried a few until you came across one that played the game style you enjoyed and you just jumped in.

Let's get in the time machine Mr. Peabody (you old guys will remember that) and skip forward until today. MechWarrior4 Mercenaries is a whole new ball game. Most people, not all, but most folks have high speed connections either via cable or DSL. This means that most folks have a modem external to their PC and that modem could possibly be a router too, or many folks even have separate routers. Getting on-line just got three times harder, or twice as hard because you have to go through one or more devices to get to the internet. DOH! Not only that, but nowhere (yet) does there exist a simplified, one-step method to get your game up to date and ready to blast other MechWarriors to bits on-line. I say yet, because my friend Oneshot is on a campaign to get someone to create and publish this “potential” “oneshot” to being up to date.

Let me say up front that I am all for it, but I certainly understand why any group such as MekTek, Mechstorm, NBT, MWL or whatever will not do this. It has nothing to do with past histories with one another, its simply a matter of copyright issues (and the EULA stuff). Microsoft still owns the rights to the game and to PR1 patch. That combo is a two step process. Everything beyond that (assuming the MekTek team is okay with it) CAN be combined by an individual who is willing to put it up for FREE downloads. As long as no one makes any money from it, Microsoft is basically ok with you having a place to download PR1 and IF you dont make any money from it, they are okay (more or less and lots of legal stuff involved) with someone modifying the game. But you have to go through proper protocols to do so (good luck with that).

Let's look at the process of getting yourself ready to play with the fun bunch on-line as if we were n00bs and I will show you just how difficult it is to get there from the Mercs box you just acquired. This should be fun, huh? Along the way, I will tell you how to do it as easily as possible and give you the links to necessary downloads to help you out.

So here we go, n00b here just bought the game as I had to get my local GameStop (www.gamestop.com) store to order it for me or let me know when a used copy came in. the folks there were more than happy to do this because it means a sale for them and possibly more business from me in the future. Your area may have a different game store and if not there is always E-Bay (www.ebay.com) or Amazon (www.amazon.com) . You can get it cheap, no taxes (in most states) and just a little shipping charge.

Now I have the game and I cant wait to install it. Two discs just like Vengeance except that when you change to Disc 2, you dont have to click ok, it just knows... Because this game is older (10 years? If you include Vengeance?), there could possibly be some updates for it. So I go to the Merc4 website (www.microsoft.com/games/mw4mercs/) and to my amazement there is a download section. I click the link and it only shows 1 update, something called PR1 (www.microsoft.com/games/mw4mercs/downloads.aspx) so I download and install it. Because I have a cable connection (or DSL), that didnt take very long to download and I am thinking, that's it, a ten year old game and only 1 update? Hmmm.

Next I run the game, accept the EULA from Microsoft and begin playing instant action to get a feel for the game. I start the campaign, but after a few missions I am wondering if this game is still played on-line and if so, how many folks are out there. So I try to go on-line with it. I will save the “ports” requirements and go over those with you later in this post. For now, the game will bring up a little window telling you it is currently blocked and ask you if it is okay to unblock or to keep blocking. It is VERY important that you click unblock, this will save you lots of trouble later in the life of this game. By clicking “unblock”, you are basically allowing direct X access to the internet through your firewall(s) even if you didnt know you had such a thing. I am then taken to a browser like thing that is supposed to list all the available servers out there for me to go into to kick some butt, but I only see like one or two and my ping to them is not so great either. Then I find out I cant even join any of them because they are running a green version that I figure out means they are running a newer version than I am. Hmmm. Only one download on the Mercs4 website and I installed it, but there are servers running a newer edition, how can that be?

Now I have to do some research. Being a BIG TIME n00b, I decide to go back to the Mercs4 website and check it out for info about newer versions. I do notice that where I got the PR1 update that there is a link at the top of the page for the community. Let me check that out, maybe something there will point me in the right direction. I am such a n00b, I didnt think about using Google (www.google.com) 1st. So I follow the header link called “community”. On that page is a little statement about mods, maps and so on with some links to different things. Dropship Command is a cool looking site but it has no download section that I can find right away so I go back. BattleCorps also is a cool looking site, but again no download sections that I see right away, again, I go back. Next I try this site called MekTek (www.mektek.net). As luck would have it, this one has a download section. I follow a couple of links (related directly to MechWarrior4 and then to MW4 Mercenaries) and I find a section called MekTek MekPaks (www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?automodule=downloads&cmd=viewcat&cat_id=4).

Being a total n00b, I have never heard of MekTek or the MekPaks, so I am wondering if it is a good idea or even a safe idea. I figure I can always uninstall and reinstall my Mercs game if I screw it up so why not? I click the link and it takes me to a new page www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?automodule=downloads&cmd=viewcat&cat_id=27
Crap, too many to choose from, how do I know what I need? The latest one looks to be MekPak 3.02b (English) (because I have an english installation) but it says it is only a security and bugfix patch... A little lower is one called MP3.02a (from PR1) (English). Hey, I just installed a thingy called PR1, maybe this is where I should start...

IT IS. Clicking that link takes you here
www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?automodule=downloads&req=idx&cmd=viewdetail&f_id=298

This, Mech Fans is a huge update to the game and a big file to download. Not only that, but once you get it downloaded, it seems to take forever to install. You might even think it is not doing anything or “hung” or “frozen”, but it is not, it is doing stuff so let it run, make a sandwich, listen to some tunes on the radio (not your pc) or MP3 player, or watch tv cause it can and will take a bit of time.

I almost forgot. This is a ZIP file and when you Un-Zip it, you will need to run the WNP Installer file. It will ask you for the file to install after you run the wnp installer, and you will be looking for the (only) WNP file in the folder where you un-zipped this download. I suggest that you download this ZIP file to a folder, not your desktop, and Un-ZIP it to its own folder. From there you can run the WNP installer and it will update your game. It may ask you to confirm the directory to be updated and if you ran a standard install for Mercs4, the location will be something like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries. If you elected to install it somewhere else, be sure to point the WNP installer to that location.

Also, I should have mentioned this earlier, but now is a good time, IF you are running Microsoft Vista 32-bit version, you should install the Discs, PR1 and any MekPaks as an ADMINISTRATOR even IF you signed on as/with administrator abilities. You do this by right clicking the *.exe file and then clicking “run as administrator”.

Whew. Lot of stuff there and we are not done yet. Grab a drink or a smoke or both, we still have a way to go. Remember before you downloaded and installed that huge file from MekTek that there was one called MekPak 3.02b (english)? Now would be a good time to download and install that one. Here is the link
www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?automodule=downloads&req=idx&cmd=viewdetail&f_id=304

This “patch” is an *.EXE file so you wont need to Un-ZIP, just click on it when it is done being downloaded (or, if in Vista, right click the file and install as administrator). This file is smaller and doesnt take nearly as long to install.

Finished? Sort of. I suggest that you start the game now and see if it works. It should, but you will go through the EULA and screen setup stuff all over again, just like the first time you started the game. Also be sure to click unblock when it ask you you to keep blocking or unblock. This allows the game to access the internet (hopefully). The screen will look a lot different when you start up and you will be amazed at the stuff MekTek has added to the game, including infantry men and Elementals! DOH!

After looking at all the eye candy, you still have things to do before you can get on-line to play. If you have not installed the Microsoft MechPacks (2 discs, 1 = Clan and 1 = Inner sphere) then now is a great time to do so. Remember, if using Vista 32-Bit, install as administrator, if you are using Vista 64-Bit these Microsoft products will not work with Vista 64, sorry. Microsoft tosses in a few extra mechs with these packs, 4 four for each faction, if I am not mistaken. They can be fun but if you dont have them its not a big deal, MekTek gives you mucho more Mechs to play with. There is still MORE to do before you can get on-line! Dont give up, we are almost there. You will need to run the mekmatch registry fix and install bunches of maps.

Lets do the registry fix first because it is simple and easy to do. Go to “my Computer” (in vista it is simply called computer) and double click your C: drive (if that is where you did your installation of Mercs). From there double click Program files then Microsoft Games them MechWarrior Mercnaries. Inside your Mercenaries folder is a little file called “mekmatch” ( the icon for it may have what looks like little building blocks on a sheet of paper). Double click that file. If it ask you a question, agree or click ok and you are done with that part.

What this little file does is changes your game registry to look for the MekMatch Server instead of the Microsoft ZoneMatch server. Some time ago, Microsoft stopped supporting MechWarrior4 Mercenaries on Zone Match. In Fact, I dont even know if the Zone Mach is still working. All the servers (or I should say MOST of the servers) supporting Mercs use MekMatch to “advertise” on. Your in-game browser will now go to this service and you will see many more servers for you to choose from.

You can verify the change was made IF you are comfortable using regedit command. WARNING, you can really screw up things here if you dont know what you are doing, and I suggest you dont if you are not so savy. If you do feel comfortable, then In XP go to the run command and type regedit, in Vista when you click the start button in the search box type regedit and if a box comes up click continue. You will see a list of 4 or 5 things that start off with “HKEY”. The one you want is HKEY current user. Then click the little arrow beside software, again by Microsoft, and again by Microsoft Games. Now click (all these are single clicks just so you know) on mechwarrior mercnaries. On the right hand side of the window you will see several things, but the last entry on that side will be called Zoneserver. Under the data column it should say “mekmatch.mektek.net”. If it does not, then you can change it. To do so, single click on the Zoneserver on the right to highlight it, then at the top of the screen click EDIT. A drop down appears and click modify. In the Value Data box type – mekmatch.mektek.net and click ok. Then close the window and you are done.

Next thing you need are the maps that most servers use. Let me tell you folks, the MW4 Community has done a fine job with map creation. Literally hundreds out there to choose from. The best source to get most any map you will ever need is the MWL website. www.mechwarriorleagues.com/cgi-bin/main/index.cgi/
Once you click that link, across the top of the page, you will see a few headers, like “Home”, “Leagues” and so forth. Click on the one named “Ops”. A drop down window appears and the link you want will be the Map Management Console. This takes you to a new page. On the bottom right of the new page are 4 links under the MWL Map Pack section. MWL and Lord Magnus, have consolidated the Maps into 4 CDs worth of downloads. I suggest that you download each one and install them in the same order as they are listed. This will get you most every map in play on almost any server.

I also suggest that you download the Sunder II map Updater compiled by Lord Magnus. One of the most popular servers is called Sunder II. It is a Forced First Person, Puretech Mission Play server. This means you ALWAYs view the game from the cockpit view (as if you were driving it) (THIS IS NOT A PLACE TO ARGUE 1st Person View vs 3rd Person view or puretech play) and that your mech must have the same tech base weapons installed as that of your chassis. If you are using a Thor, then the weapons must be all Clan Weapons. If you are using an Argus, the weapons must all be Inner Sphere. Simple as that.

Lord Magnus is a map creator that has submitted several new mission play maps for the community (as well as others maps). One of the problems that players ran into was that they either didnt have the right version of a map or had it installed in the wrong spot. Magnus created a program to check your mission play maps and to make sure they are installed correctly and are the same version that is used on the server Sunder II hosted by Oneshot. If you dont have the maps in the right place, or if they are out of date, the updater (hosted by GP at the Sunder Junkies site) will install the correct maps and/or update your current ones so that you are in sync with Sunder II. The process is simple, easy and relatively quick depending on what you need installed/updated. This can be found by going to the Sunder Junkies web site at www.sunderjunkies.com
When you get there, dont go to the forums this time, instead click the LINKS tab on the left (bb.evilgeniuses.us/links.php)
in the middle of that screen you will find several useful links, but we are looking for the one called SunderJunkies Missionplay Map Updater.
(www.sunderjunkies.com/downloads/Mapupdater.html) After downloading this, and again, dont download to your desktop, make a folder for it. Unzip it in that folder and run the updater application. It will run and the launch the map updater. If you have installed your Mercs into the standard directory the map updater will start checking your maps. If you installed it elsewhere, you have to put in your directory info. Let it run. It gives you info at the bottom. Click ok to install the updates and let it do its job. When it is done, you are MAP ready to go on-line and play in Sunder II server or most any other servers.

If you are behind a router, you may have to open some ports so your game will work. You will know this when you go on-line and you click to join a server and you get a message that says something like “~there were networking problems or the server may be gone~” or something very similar. If you get this error, you will need to open some ports.

There is no “all in one” way to do this, it depends on your router and how you “address” it. If you need help, post some questions in the Sunder Junkies forum and the fun guys there will help you as much as possible. The ports you will need opened are as follows
2300-2400
47624
This should do it for most installations. If not then a few more ports to open (and by open we mean forwarded for your INTERNAL IP ADDRESS)
6073
19200
27999-28800
Again this depends on your machine, your firewall(s) and your router. The ports listed above should cover most any installation.

Another thing you will eventually need is the safecast repair programs for The Microsoft Clan and Inner Sphere Mech Packs. These little utilities will fix problems you MIGHT incur with the Microsoft Mech Packs, such as loosing the mechs. The fix is a small install and only takes a few minutes to run, but you do need your Microsoft Mech Pack(s) disc(s). These utilities can be found at our friends at NetBattleTech (who also offer there own mod to the game known as Hardcore). The links are as follows
Inner Sphere Pack
download.microsoft.com/download/Mechwarrior/utility/sdhd/W982KMeXP/EN-US/INNERSPHERESAFECAST_Repair.exe

Clan Pack
download.microsoft.com/download/Mechwarrior/utility/sdhd2/W982KMeXP/EN-US/CLANSAFECAST_Repair.exe

Now all this seems like a lot and it is but the simple steps are listed here
Install Mercs
Install Microsoft PR1
Install MekTek PR1 to MP302A
Install MekTek MP302A to MP302b
If you have them, Install Microsoft Clan and Inner Sphere Mech Packs.
Run MekMatch registry update
Install Maps from MWL
Install Magnus Sunder II Map Updater
Open router ports if needed
Get on-line go to Sunder II server and kick some butt!!

I suggest that you save these downloads and (maybe even) transfer them to a DVD. If you ever need to re install, you have everything in one place.

I want to take a moment to thank all our friends listed in this post. Not in any order, The Sunder Junkies, MekTek, MWL, NBT, Microsoft, Genghis Prawn, Oneshot, Lord Magnus and I really hope I didnt leave anyone out. These good folks make it possible for you and I to continue to enjoy this game known as MechWarrior4.

If you know of anyone that is interested in playing Mercs, but doesnt know how to get started, send him (or her and yes we have some ladies that play the game and play very well, hugs to Katt and Lady Zee) to this site or have them pop me an email. The Sunder Junkies Web site is also a great place to start and learn much about mech configs and who the players are. Hopefully, some of my earlier posts will give you some insight to the mechs that I have reviewed so far and help you select what is right for you.

This is a great game when played “on-line” and there are some great players out there. Many of the folks in sunder II (or at the Sunder Junkies web site) are more than happy to help a n00b get up to speed. Remember also, if you are a true n00b, you are gonna get your socks handed to you a lot at first, but it wont take long for you to figure out how to hide and get your own blows in before you get destroyed. Domt give up. I been playing this game since the MW2 days and I learn something new every time I get in the cockpit. Its a fun game and I have even said it “may” be the best on-line game ever.

Good Luck and w00t!

RADAR

Mother's Day 2009. God Bless all the mothers out there and all you readers take care of your mom. I wish I could take care of mine.

Well, let's get at it, shall we? Been a while since I penned an article on Mechs, altho the last article I did had some mech stuff in it.

I have been thinking about this for some time and trying to come up with a good topic. I think I came up with one for the day, one that hasnt been covered much, but often draw lots of questions or “in-game chat”. My topic for today will be radar. Not the guy on MASH, but the radar you use or dont use in your battlemech.

Radar in Mercs is represented on your HUD by a circle at the bottom of the screen. You are in the center of the circle, friendly units will show up as blue dots if within range and enemies show as red dots when in range. Neutral targets shows as green items. The standard range of radar in this game is 1000 meters. The radar “circle” on your HUD shows the effective range of YOUR radar. If you select a target, it becomes a highlighted dot or a larger dot of its respective colour and if you have the target selector on, you will get a picture of the target on the left hand side of your HUD. IF you have the selector set to damage bars, then you get a bar and a name of the target.

Your radar can be modified in several different ways. I want to discuss my thoughts on the radar system in this game and I will a bit later, but for now I will go over the modifications and different ranges of the current system.

I used several different sources to gather info as well as just plain old game play. The “Goodies”folder on your Mercs disc offers a PDF version of the Manual and the Specs. Sybex had a book out called the Official Strategies & Secrets of MechWarrior4 Mercenaries. This book offers some good overall info about the game to.

All battlemechs in the game have standard radar capabilities. As I said earlier, radar has a 1000 meter radius range. This is the “basic” range without any modification. This can be increased by the use of Beagle Active Probe, BAP as we know it, to 1200 meters. It can be decreased to roughly 250 meters by running passive, also known as running with your radar off.

In normal situations, without BAP or Electronic Counter Measures (ECM), your radar not only allows you to see for 1000 meters, but it also gives away your location for 1000 meters to any enemy mech that may be running with Active radar (radar on). Those enemies running active and equipped with BAP will see you at 1200 meters.

Guardian ECM (this is what the book and the manuals call “our version” of ECM, but I think that if you ever read any of the books, Guardian was a bit different) can mask your visibility to others. Using ECM limits enemies ability to pick you up on radar until you are within roughly 450 meters if the enemy is running standard radar. If you run passive, with or without ECM you reduce your own radar signature to roughly 250 meters, again, if the enemy is running standard radar.

According to Sybex, and I have found this to be true, in addition to lowering the range at which enemy mechs “see” you, ECM also reduces the effects of a PPC blast. The “shakey” screen and blue “jizz” effects dont seem to last as long on a mech that is equipped with ECM. Another interesting fact that I found in the Sybex book is that BAP and/or ECM decrease the amount of time it takes for an enemy to get a missile lock on you. I am guessing that this is the “down” side of ECM, but I had never really noticed that before. Of course, I tend to run in mechs that have ECM and with the advent of Artemis Missile Systems, lock time has been reduced to almost the blink of an eye (in my opinion).

One more little tidbit I found out while scouring the Sybex book was that ECM was reduced IF you have an elevation advantage over your enemies battlemech. This reduction could be as much as 150 meters. This is something I never knew, but it does explain a lot of things. For all of those folks I screamed “Hacker” at over comms, my apologies to most of you. Some of you I still think are hackers, lol.

Let's gt back to BAP for a little bit. BAP increases your radar range out to 1200 meters while you are running active. BAP also changes your ability to pick up enemies running with ECM and even those bad guys running passive. Normally, a mech with ECM running active radar emits only roughly a 450 meter radar signature. A Mech equipped with BAP will “see” that signature at roughly 600 meters. It will also pick up passive mechs at roughly 400 meters instead of 250 meters. Another good thing about BAP is that it decreases the amount of time it takes for you to get a target lock while using missiles. The downside is that BAP attracts missiles like ants to a picnic and it makes you have a big radar signature. An enemy running active with BAP while you are active and running BAP will “see” you at 1200 meters as you will see him.

Basically, its fairly simple. Standard Radar lets you see and be seen for 1000 meters. If you run passive you can see and be seen at 250 meters. BAP lets you see for 1200 meters and be seen at 1000 meters unless the enemy has BAP, then you are seen at 1200 meters. With BAP you pick up ECM equipped active radar mechs at roughly 600 meters and passive ECM mechs at roughly 450 meters. BAP allows you to pick up passive mechs at roughly 450 meters also. ECM equipped mechs can see for 1000 meters and can be seen at 450 meters. BAP equipped mechs will pick up ECM active mechs at roughly 600 meters. A mech with BAP and ECM can see for 1200 meters but can be seen at only 450 meters unless the enemy also has BAP. These numbers are rough estimates and they do vary depending on elevation to and from the opposing targets, but this gives you a rough idea of how your radar signature is seen by others and what you see with the different equipment.

I would like to throw in a word or two about the Radar system in the game. From what I can surmise, the radar system we use must be a combined thermal image from a top down view. Our radar only shows things that have a heat signature and it has the ability to see through terrain and buildings. I am not a radar engineer, or any type of engineer for that matter, but I do understand a little of how radar works. It basically sends a signal out and that signal is reflected back to it. The size and speed of the reflected object can be measured (roughly speaking) based on the speed of the return signal.

The assumption here is that the radar is being shot from a satellite and it is using only sending pictures of items with a heat signature. From there the IFF codes determine whether the items show as red, blue or green in your HUD. We have all come to accept this and work with it as it is.

Simple Radar (as we know it today in our world) does not have the ability to “read” over terrain. If a building is between the radar and the target, you get the radar signature of the building back. Heat sinking radar DOES “see” through buildings, although hot spots such as power sources and transformers will show up, but items putting out heat will glow as “targets”. However, heat seeking radar will not see through terrain such as mountains. Maybe that is what is being represented in the game.

I would like to see radar in the game work more like radar in our world. Objects between the radar and the target could and will block the radar so the target may not show up, even if the target is only 100 meters away. This would make the game much more interesting, especially for those of you like me who are dependent on radar to seek and shoot targets. It would make it much harder to track down an enemy if you kept losing him on radar based on his ability to use terrain to avoid destruction.

To go along with “actual” radar, I would like to see a couple of other types of sensors introduced. One of them would be a seismic type of sensor that picked up seismic or “movements” of heavier items at a distance, similar to putting your ear down on the railroad track. I see it as working some thing like this. A mech would be equipped with a sensor that worked while the mech was stationary. The Sensor would then pick up seismic events, you know, mech footsteps, from an mech weighing over a certain tonnage, say over 35 tons, OR pick up the foot steps of any mech that was running. This would show on your HUD as red or blue and a location based on the event. To use it effectively, the members of a team would need to go passive and stop moving, while the Seismic Sensor mech, suggest using in tandem with ECM, goes active and “listens” for enemy movements. The footsteps would show up and the seismic sensor mech would get a rough idea of where the enemy was and which direction they were headed.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to see something like NetMech IV put in place. Heat signatures. The more heat a mech produces, the greater its heat signature. A sensor on a mech could detect this heat signature and gain tell you roughly where it was and whether it was friendly or enemy. If a mech used an energy weapon, was running, or especially if it was using jump jets, it would produce a large heat signature that sensors could pick up for 100o meters depending on how much heat was involved.

Now, a true “sensor” mech would have ECM, Heat Sensors, Seismic Sensors and BAP. This would be like a command mech that had an overall tactical view of the battlefield as it progresses through the mission at hand. That command mech may not have much in the way of weapons, or may sacrifice tons of armour to get a decent load of weapons, but it would be the eyes and ears of its team, much more than a BAP and ECM equipped mech are today. He could tell team mates when to move, when to stop, where the enemy is, roughly how big and how many there are. IF you put all this on a scout mech, say a Raven for example, it makes the light mechs so much more important in a mission and it would really drive you to get the feel of the way the game worked based on the books and the board game. Small mechs did recon and scouting, mediums did the dirty work, heavy and assaults did just that, assault something instead of everyone driving assaults with BAP or ECM or BAP and ECM.

I just think it would be very interesting. Maybe you have some ideas too. Post them and lets discuss them. Mostly, keep playing.

April 2009

Mish Mash of Things to Cover

Greetings Folks. Vettie here. Been awhile since I posted anything on the ol' blog. Maybe there are still a few that read it.

Let me give you a quick update on my situation and then on to the future of Vettie's Views. I went to UAB Kirklin Clinic last month to have my liver checked and to see if I was going to be put on a transplant waiting list. The Doctor at UAB had not yet rec'd all of my medical records from the different doctors in Huntsville. Most importantly, he had not rec'd the films of my latest MRIs and the pictures or samples of my biopsy. he set a new appointment for me at the end of April to take his own set of pictures with some new type of CT Scan developed by UAB Imaging. UAB is a major medical research facility. so i was okay with it except for the possible cost.

Since I am not able to work I am not employed (shocker there, huh). My wife carries me on her insurance. For the most part, its very good. She is employed by one of the local hospitals and most all of our medical stuff is free if we use there facility (or facilities as they have hospital systems all over the south east). However, if you do something that is out of their "network" as they call it, we have a 1200$ deductible PER PERSON, and like most other insurances, they then pay 80/20. 12004 is a bit steep for us right now (anytime really), however, the good doctor at UAB asked me if I wanted to be on th student study program. This allows UAB to wave any insurance deductibles and accept only what our insurance covers from 0$ to all, with UAB absorbing the balance (if any). In my case that means I dont pay the 1200$ or the 20% our insurance doesnt cover. The downside is that many students COULD be with the doctor every time I see him including any surgeries, but only the doctor would do the surgery (if required). It also means that I will get any medicines for free, but I may be taking "new" drugs as part of the study. The good LORD has a way of taking care of those that believe...

We finally closed on our house. Our mortgage company was giving us a lot of crap about selling because we were behind in our payments by a month. All our savings were depleted, we sold 2 of our 4 vehicles and we werent gonna touch the kids college money (what little bit of that there was). They kept delaying and delaying and the buyers were ready to back out. As most of you know, this is not a great time to be selling houses. It is a great time to buy them. If I had the money or the backing, I would buy up a bunch of the foreclosed homes and put back on the market. Sooner or later the economy will turn around and there will be a killing made on real estate (again). Anyway, our mortgage company got sold twice while we were trying to close our sale and the final group were just a bunch of asses. I finally got to talk to a level 3 manager and I told him to either approve the sale or foreclose on the house. either way, we were done. He said, you credit will be ruined. I laffed and said look it up, it already is and I only have 3 years to live, you think I give a damn about my credit rating? Sign the frigging approval form so you can get some money out of our house or foreclose on it, but dont call me anymore, we are through with it, the insurance is canceled as of 4.30p CDT today. About 2 hours after that conversation, our real estate agent called me and said they had approval from our mortgage company to sell the house and was wondering when we could do the closing...shocker there. So they house is sold and the people buying it got a great deal, the (our) mortgage company is all paid up and our agent actually gave us some of his commission back on the sale. We loved that house but our backs were up against a wall and I could no longer go up and down the stairs. C'est la vie.

Big Sy, my beautiful Husky passed away last month, suddenly. He got real sick on morning and we rushed him to the Vet. They kept him for a few hours and called us. they told us that there was little chance for his recovery, but they could lots of things and for several days and several thousands of dollars he might get a little better. We spent another hour or so with him and said our goodbyes. They euthanized him later that day and he felt little or no pain on his last day. He was 10 yrs old and lived a very full and happy life after he came to us at (his) age 2. he was a great dog and very beautiful. We miss him badly, but we know he is better off now. If dogs go to heaven, I know I will see him again real soon.

I have read recently that Sunder is having some money issues and that my honourable friend Oneshot has taken up the slack and put up a server called Sunder II! this is good. The Sunderites will still have a place to play and mission play lives.

In other news, I hear that the mythical MP4 release from MekTek is not that far off the horizon. When i was still able to play, I did have the honour to play a little of MP4 (altho still very early in the alpha testing stage) and I have to tell you I was totally shocked at the things they were able to do. I am not talking about the new mechs (I never saw them on the battlefields), no folks I mean the changes to the game itself. I signed a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), and even if I had not, I would not give away the info I know, but I can say you guys are gonna be blown away. The game will be incredible. MekTek has put a lot of focus on the team play aspect and brought in things that probably should have been there all along. In typical MekTek fashion, by the time they are ready for release, I suspect there will be additional changes from what I saw and played with.

Many of you will not like the changes. That happens with every MekTek release. I think MP4 will bring more discontent than any previous release because of the nature of the changes. The game has changed so much that you have to re-learn things that you have known for 6 to 8 or 9 years. Some things that were second nature to you will have to be completely re-learned. Some of the basics of the game are no longer what they were. About the only things that havent changed (thru the alpha version I saw) were the names of the mechs and their weights.

My biggest hope for MP4 is not only that it draws new (or old) players back to the game, but that there are some new maps to go along with the 'new' system. i would hope to see some more mission play maps (w00t! for Sunderites) as well as team maps. New battlegrounds can add a freshness to even a well worn game. One of the biggest and best changes in recent years to Mercs was when Lord Magnus added some new Mission Play maps. he added others as well (I believe in the MP3 release) but the mission play maps have had a longer lasting impact (in my opinion).

I know that he made changes to some of those mission play maps he created because i downloaded them when he made a post about them. the problem is that NBT did not want to implement those changes for one reason or another, but those changes fixed a few things and made those few maps even better than what we are currently using in Sunder or Sunder II.

One of the thing I would really like to see MekTek do with this final(?) release is put an updater (similar to NBT) in place so that when you log on it automatically checks to see if you have the latest version, updates you if not (if you choose to that is) and also checks to see if you have the correct and most to date version of the maps.

That last part would be really hard to do because there are SOOOO many maps out there (just check MWL's map download section if you dont think so) and the fact that nearly anyone can create and publish a map. I dont mean to say that anyone can do a GOOD job with map making, but I am saying that the tools are out there for anyone and everyone to attempt to make a map, even you or me. I tried it once, making a map from scratch. It worked, but I didnt have all the neat stuff i have seen MekTek, Magnus or Giskard put on a map. It is definitely a skill and a patience thing.

It would take someone, or a group of folks to act as a repository and control what comes in and goes out. They would need to put a revision on each map and control it from there. They would also need serve space with access so that users could up or download. The download would need to be fast so a player could download, install and get into a server before the game that needed that map was over. The uploads would need to be submitted for review and revision control (similar to blueprint releases). Once accepted, any further changes would need to be a new revision so that the servers and players were always assured of running the correct version.

Of course, this is an old game and i doubt if there are that many dedicated persons left willing to take on such tasks and stay with it (it takes a lot of person resource (mostly time but some funding as well) to make it work. Why didnt I think of this some 6 or more years ago? Well, actually I did but I didnt know who to take it to back then.

Well there you have it. My long overdue updates. I am already taking a newer medicine that is supposed to help relieve some of the pain and help me be upright more than I have been able to. so far, it seems to be working. at the end of April we undergo a another full blood work up and see if there are any adverse affects (hopefully not). If it keeps working, i will be able to get back in the cockpit soon and go a round or three in Sunder or Sunder II (where ever the action is). My strength is getting better and my mental state is still on the positive side of things. I take each day that I wake up as a sign that it is not yet my time and I try to enjoy each day as much as I can. Of course, if I could win the power ball or something, I could enjoy some of the things I can only think or read about right now. So if there are any lotto winners out there that need a tax deduction, or if you just want an outlet to dump all that extra cash, send me an email and I will do my best to help you out.

Until next post, enjoy each day folks cause life is a no re-spawn server. w00t!
Vettie out.