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!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Update on Vettie
Just wanted to update everyone on Vettie's condition.
I have good days and bad days. I have learned (most) of my boundaries of what I can and cant do. I spend (way too much) time in bed or on the couch laying down.
As many of you know, I was accepted by the Kirklin Clinic at UAB (The University of Alabama Birmingham)as a patient and possible transplant candidate. I will know more after my initial appointment in mid March.
Overall, my spirits are good and I try to keep thing light. These are troubling times for everyone and our household is no exception. We have had a couple of offers on our house and we have accepted one of them. The buyers were pre-approved for the loan and we will close later this month. This is good and bad. We really loved that house and put a lot into it. It is selling for more than asking price, but we wont make much off th deal because I have been out of work for 6+ months. Even so, we would have had to sell because I could no longer easily move up and down the stairs from level to level.
My dog, an Alaskan Husky named Big Sy, has adjusted to apartment life. He is basically rotten and spoiled for sure now. He has a big pillow in front of the fire place and a patio to wander around on. He goes on frequent walks. He has a few rules that he is having to adjust to that he really didnt have before. No peeing on the furniture or crapping on the floor, he is really good about this and lets us know when the urge is upon him. No chasing the cats, this is a tough rule for him because at the house he was the ruler of the back yard (nearly 1/2 to 3/4s of an acre fenced in) and any creature that entered did so under the threat of attack from a 50+ lb Husky that runs like a Greyhound and is strong as a bear. No eating the cats - again refer to the previous rule, humans like the cats and humans feed the dog, if you eat the cats there will be no more meals for the dog.
Another rule that Big Sy is adjusting to pretty well is No jerking me around while on a leash. See Huskies are bred to pull very heavy loads over very long distances very quickly for a long time. This is pretty important, yet I cant seem to remember that bit of info at 5.15am during the week. That is the time that Big Sy generally goes for his initial relief walk. I typically roll out of bed and put on clothes warm enough to walk the dog and grab my smokes and the leash. I attach the leash and open the front door only to remember that Huskies are bred to pull heavy shit real fast over long distances. Its a good thing that it is only about 12 to 15 feet to the 1st bush. Big Sy makes this dash in record time dragging my arm and body the short length. When he stops to relieve himself, I re-attach my arm, stand up straight and light the days 1st smoke. After that, he is much more relaxed and taqkes his time going from bush to tree to bush, examining each one near the roots while I look down from the top side.
So we are adjusting and hanging in there. I miss my fun at the keyboard getting blasted by all you mechwarriors, but maybe that will change if I get a transplant.
I understand that my team mates, The Blood Pearls, have donned new "tags" in my honor. The now go by "VV" for "Vettie's Victors". All I can say to this is thanx so much and that I am not worthy *Vettie bows as best he can with arms out stretched in an up and down motion*. I hope to rejoin the ranks and get a few good shots in real soon. I miss the guys and the fun.
I will post again as soon as I can folks.
Vettie
I have good days and bad days. I have learned (most) of my boundaries of what I can and cant do. I spend (way too much) time in bed or on the couch laying down.
As many of you know, I was accepted by the Kirklin Clinic at UAB (The University of Alabama Birmingham)as a patient and possible transplant candidate. I will know more after my initial appointment in mid March.
Overall, my spirits are good and I try to keep thing light. These are troubling times for everyone and our household is no exception. We have had a couple of offers on our house and we have accepted one of them. The buyers were pre-approved for the loan and we will close later this month. This is good and bad. We really loved that house and put a lot into it. It is selling for more than asking price, but we wont make much off th deal because I have been out of work for 6+ months. Even so, we would have had to sell because I could no longer easily move up and down the stairs from level to level.
My dog, an Alaskan Husky named Big Sy, has adjusted to apartment life. He is basically rotten and spoiled for sure now. He has a big pillow in front of the fire place and a patio to wander around on. He goes on frequent walks. He has a few rules that he is having to adjust to that he really didnt have before. No peeing on the furniture or crapping on the floor, he is really good about this and lets us know when the urge is upon him. No chasing the cats, this is a tough rule for him because at the house he was the ruler of the back yard (nearly 1/2 to 3/4s of an acre fenced in) and any creature that entered did so under the threat of attack from a 50+ lb Husky that runs like a Greyhound and is strong as a bear. No eating the cats - again refer to the previous rule, humans like the cats and humans feed the dog, if you eat the cats there will be no more meals for the dog.
Another rule that Big Sy is adjusting to pretty well is No jerking me around while on a leash. See Huskies are bred to pull very heavy loads over very long distances very quickly for a long time. This is pretty important, yet I cant seem to remember that bit of info at 5.15am during the week. That is the time that Big Sy generally goes for his initial relief walk. I typically roll out of bed and put on clothes warm enough to walk the dog and grab my smokes and the leash. I attach the leash and open the front door only to remember that Huskies are bred to pull heavy shit real fast over long distances. Its a good thing that it is only about 12 to 15 feet to the 1st bush. Big Sy makes this dash in record time dragging my arm and body the short length. When he stops to relieve himself, I re-attach my arm, stand up straight and light the days 1st smoke. After that, he is much more relaxed and taqkes his time going from bush to tree to bush, examining each one near the roots while I look down from the top side.
So we are adjusting and hanging in there. I miss my fun at the keyboard getting blasted by all you mechwarriors, but maybe that will change if I get a transplant.
I understand that my team mates, The Blood Pearls, have donned new "tags" in my honor. The now go by "VV" for "Vettie's Victors". All I can say to this is thanx so much and that I am not worthy *Vettie bows as best he can with arms out stretched in an up and down motion*. I hope to rejoin the ranks and get a few good shots in real soon. I miss the guys and the fun.
I will post again as soon as I can folks.
Vettie
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Vettie
Hello Mech Fans.
Its been a bit since Vettie has posted anything to his blog. There is a good reason for that and I will go into it in a few moments, but first I want to extend a thank you to the readers of Vettie's Views and to anyone who has made a post to any of my columns.
As I mentioned, Vettie has not posted to his blog in some time. Ol' Vettie has been tied up with a bunch of damn doctors and medical tests and related things.
Let me give you a little background info then I will bring you up to date. About 3 or 4 years ago, I somehow managed to break the S1 socket in my lower lumbar region of my back. The break was nearly a clean horizontal break. The upper portion of the socket (S1) remained intact and connected to the rest of my spinal column (thank goodness), but it slipped from its usual “place” and fell downward and slightly right roughly an inch where it came to rest on my sciatic nerve (bundle), damaging the nerve bundle and causing me temporary paralysis (not to mention a huge amount of pain). The result was a spinal fusion and some hardware on the S1, L5, L4 areas of my spine and some physical torture, I mean therapy, to learn to walk again.
It was at that time, my surgeon discovered that I have disease commonly known as de-generative disc disease. What this disease does is cause the discs to degenerate and collapse down upon one another until it is just bone munching bone and whatever set of nerves you have in there. Currently, there is no known cure for this. There are fixes along the way, which basically results in a (forgive my spelling) discectomy surgery where they remove the damaged or crushed discs and replace it with a sponge type material and drill a small hole in the spine to re-route the nerves (that are hopefully not damaged from the collapse of the discs).
Unfortunately, I have also had to have the discectomy done because 2 years after my fusion, L3 collapsed as L2 fell down on it. This surgery is not as intense as the fusion and the recovery time is much less. I had that surgery last year.
As a result of the fusion, I had to learn to walk again and because of the nature of my injury, my sciatic nerve suffered extensive damage. During the fusion, my sciatic nerve was “wrapped” to prevent any further damage. To give you a visual picture, think, if you will, of a bundle of wires wrapped in electrical tape to keep them together. Also think that the bundle of wires were NOT tagged on both ends and many of them were nicked or damaged enough that they were either severed or had a lot of copper exposed. Not knowing which wire goes where you just wrap the bundle and you reconnect some that you HOPE work.
There is not enough knowledge in the medical community (yet) to determine which nerve goes where or how to repair the ones that have suffered catastrophic damage, so the fix is to wrap the entire bunch and “hope” that the body re-connects the right ones to the right places. Having said that, the surviving nerves didnt exactly work correctly. That is afterwards I have suffered two types of motor control issues with my right leg and sometimes my left one. The first type of issue would be that while walking or sitting, my right leg would go completely numb for 5 to 15 seconds and I could not force it to move unless I used my hands or my other foot or some external object. This sensation, or lack of, would pass and the ability to freely move my leg would and does return to normal. The other failure is that my leg will have a spasm that causes my leg to shake or wobble uncontrollably for a few seconds, again passing and returning normal motor functionality. To keep from falling in the event I have one of these failures while walking, I am forced to rely on a cane. This was quite difficult for me to accept because I was an athlete in High School and in College and even after my college years. I played the big 3 in high school and I played Basketball and Rugby in College and then rugby after college. Later I played mens softball and several men's leagues for basketball. As I got older and the kids got to the age where they wanted to play, I coached kids softball and soccer as well as mens softball. So learning how to walk and walking with a cane was very difficult for me to swallow, and do.
Anyway, back in March or April of this year I started have a pain in my left side. The best way to describe the sensation was the pain you get when you have been running for too long and your side hurts, except this pain was on the left side. It would come and go, but it hurt when it came.
At the end of July, I unexpectedly was laid off from my job of the past 5 years. I was still having this pain, but it was more frequent and lasted longer and longer each time. Since I was not working, I decided to go to my doctor and let her look at it. I figured it was some serious gas from something I was eating or a bone jabbing my stomach (from a broken rib injury years ago) or maybe even my gall bladder going bad.
So I went to my doctor and she sent me to see a specialist. This guy set up some tests including an ultrasound, some MRIs, a CT Scan and some blood test. When I go to see him to discuss the results, I am a bit surprised at his answers. He tells me my spleen is roughly 1.5 times its normal size and that my blood platelet counts are low. Starting with the part I didnt understand, I asked him about the blood stuff and he says my white count is about 110k. That sounds like a lot to me, so I asked what is normal since mine was low. He tells me 150k to 500k is normal. So I ask what causes that. He says the liver is doing something wrong, but he is not a liver guy. He says he can remove the spleen which would end the pain, but that he doesnt want to until we find out what is the deal with the liver. Another specialist...
So I get the appointment and I go for more tests and XRays and pictures and blood work and a liver biopsy. Let me just say right here, if you have never had a liver biopsy you are in for quite a surprise when they do one. You are awake for the procedure which doesnt last very long. You are laying flat on a table, with some sort of IV fluid running through you and they put you under a CT Scan to get an exact location of your liver. They then mark it with a big “X” using a sharpie. They take you out from under the CT Scanner and give you a local anesthesia. They they get this rather large syringe with a big needle on the end of it and put you back under the Scanner. When they have you all lined up, they jam the entire syringe into your gut with a big push. I about jumped off the table. “sir, you have to be still” they said and I quipped back, “WTF are you doing? That hurt like hell!” Then the remove the plunger and insert a small device in the syringe that cuts small samples of you liver. They take 2 to 4 pieces of different sections and mark them accordingly as to where they came from. This is sent of to some lab and they send the results to your doctor, who then calls you in to discuss them.
So all this took place and I get the call to come speak with the Doctor. You know its bad news when they want you to come in. IF it was good, they tell you over the phone. So, I was expecting some bad news when I went for the appointment, but I was not expecting the news I received.
Seems Ol' Vettie here has cirrhosis of the liver and it is already in stage four of four. I have the non-alcoholic, non-hepatitis version, but the result is the same. Stage four basically means that the liver is failing and that the spleen is picking up the overflow and trying to “cover” for the liver. That is the reason the spleen is so enlarged, its having to do too much work. If we remove the spleen (the thing that is causing all the pain in the first place), then Ol' Vettie dies in 6 months (more or less). That option is out.
Back to the liver, the Doctor says there is no reversing the current state, but we do have the ability to slow down the failure. We can take some certain drugs, which I was already taking for blood pressure and I can watch my diet and not eat certain things, which I was already doing because I have type 2 diabetes (yay!). So I was and am already doing the things I can do to slow the spread of the cirrohsis, but it will eventually take over the entire liver and cause it to fail. I am not going to tell you my expected time left because there are still some options.
In one or two years (I have to go to the liver specialist every 6 months for blood tests to check on the status of the liver) I will become a candidate for a liver transplant. Currently, there is a 2 year waiting list for a liver, but that changes based on your condition and the availability of a compatible liver. IF I receive a transplant, and if it is successful, it will add anywhere from 5 to 10 years of expected lifetime depending on the condition of the liver and how well my body adapts. If I dont get a transplant when the time comes, well Ol' Vettie will get a good view of the daisies from the underside.
Now let me explain a couple of other things to you. I have never been a 'big drinker' and the Doctor says my liver condition is probably hereditary. Neither of my parents exhibited any issues, but both died at relatively young ages of other issues and any liver problems may not have shown up or may have been masked by the other issues. Also, as I mentioned early on in this post, I have had a couple of back surgeries. One of the off shoots of back surgery is that sometime you end up with a condition known as chronic pain.
Many of you go to the doctor and they ask you if you have pain and on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your pain level, with 1 being almost nothing and 10 feeling like your gonna die. Well chronic pain is a level 5 to 7 that you have ALL the time, and because you have it ALL the time, you get a little used to it and and feel s more like a level 2 or 3 to you, but to others it may be a 6 or 7. So I have this chronic pain in my back and legs ALL the time. Now, because of the liver / spleen issue, I also have a new area of chronic pain that is about a level 5 or 6 all the time. The condition persists and prevents me from standing or sitting for long periods at a time and I am basically uncomfortable all the time.
I am not a big fan of “pain killers”, but my regular Doctor, my back surgeon and my liver specialist have all given me prescriptions for pain killers to take every day. I dont. I try only to take them when I have days that are almost too unbearable for me.
It is hard to explain chronic pain, but it affects every aspect of your life and the people close to you. You, yourself dont notice so much, but those around you certainly do. Its like you get grumpy all the time and frustrated with little things, but you dont notice because you are now like that all the time. You friends and family do notice and either have to accept it and change the way they 'behave' around you or they can just leave you to be miserable.
I have been very fortunate. I have been blessed with a wonderful wife who is trying very hard to help in every way she can to make my existence as comfortable as possible. I thank the Lord for her every day.
I also mentioned I lost my job back in July. Because of my medical condition, I am no longer able to work. This has placed an even bigger burden on my wife. We will soon be selling our home (ironically enough, that we bought 5 years ago) and moving to something we can afford to live in based on her salary. Much of our savings have been spent on medical bills, so we dont have a big nest egg to fall back on and the housing market is not so great right now so we are hoping that we dont take a beating on the sell of the house. This all kinda sucks because I have worked for the better part of 30 years or so and to see things just slip away...well anyway.
I try to keep myself in very good spirits and I try to be happy from day to day and I also try to mask the pain as much as possible and not complain about it much. I joke and cut up as much as possible and try not to think about the unfortunate turn of events I have been dealt. I have my faith and I pray a lot and I know every thing happens for a reason and sometimes those reasons arent very clear at first, but everything will work out in the end.
Ok. Sorry about all the mushy stuff and the medical stuff, but I wanted to let my readers know where I had been and why so long between posts. On to the future? Well, I am not shutting down the site, but I will say the posts will not be as often as they have been in the past until the Doctors and I work out some way for me to sit up without so much pain, and I am sure we will, it just takes time.
I will be trying to make some time to actually get on line and play the game. I suspect I wont be on for too long, but long enough to make a good target for many of you! LOL!
Also, there are WAYYYY TOOO many people that I need to express my gratitude too, so I am not even gonna try to list them all. But I would like to take a little more time to thank some of folks that I have “met” over the years and they have influenced me in some way.
Not in any particular order
Genghis Prawn
Mini Me
WB3
Warden
Oneshot
The Black Knight Mercenaries
The White Tigers
The Midnite Cobras
The Blood Pearls
Mech Combat
MercStorm
MWL
NBT
MekTek
and many others I have met online on the battlefields or in a forum somewhere.
Let me say that The Blood Pearls have been such an inspiration to me, not only in this game we all love, but as friends we have all come to be talking over comms over the years. Each of them are really and truly special in their own way, but even as a group they are a great bunch of folks. I learned so much from each one of them, not only about the game but about life. We have all had some really great times playing this game and just chatting about nothing or serious stuff. A really great bunch. I am proud to have been and still be a member of the greatest team ever. Hats off and bows to The Pearls.
The Sunder Junkies is another group I have extremely proud to have been associated with. GP and Mini put together a web site for all the Sunder Players to have to discuss everything from housing repairs to MP4!
Mechcombat. WB and the group over there put together a league in the waning years of this game and made it come to life. They invited me to be part of it, damn, its a fine league. FFP LIVES!!!
The guys at MekTek have done a great job in keeping this game alive and allowing me (as part of the Blood Pearls) to be a beta tester for MP3 and MP4 has been absolutely a great experience. When you guys get to see MP4, it will blow your socks off. So many things, its almost like a brand new game.
The folks at NBT for having the best planetary Mercs system ever. What a ball we had there as The Black Knight Mercenaries Unit, St Ives Compact and finally The Blood Pearls. DP and team put together a damn fine system and we had a great time.
As I said, there are way too many individuals to list, way too many, but there a special few I have to extend a few thank yous too.
I already mentioned GP and Mini Me and WB, and Jeho (and team), DP (and team), MechStorm Team, but I would like to extend a special thanx to a few of the Blood Pearls who really touched me over the years
Homer – Young and brash, with more talent than I can ever write about
AC – Talented and fun, a young man that grew up with the Blood Pearls – say hi to Leslie for us!
Agent – A friend among friends, many hours we have spent discussing so many things
Cora – An honorary Blood Pearl. Possibly the best Long Tom artist in the game, not to mention a good friend.
Wilson – Crazy and carefree, and the talent this guy has! Me thinks he is currently under the Warcraft spell...
Mechnut - a lover of the game, a maker of mech models, I still have my Victor (mint condition)
Prime – always ready for a drop, I swear this guy is Mechnuts brother, but they say they are not related
Buddha – Quiet and level headed, one hell of a pilot
Ninja – altho now retired, he was a silent but deadly force of the Pearls
Lordsbaine – aka Cpt Sparrow – what a guy, he gave us the Blood Pearl Arena, our own personal map
Kodi – Kodi came to us from MCs team after years of duels. One hell of a pilot and a damn nice guy
Mongo – a huge inspiration to me. This guy suffered a terrible injury of his own and is paralyzed from the waist down yet still manages to join us for a game or two.
Vampire – a late joiner to the Pearls, but damn can this guy shoot
Zero Bragg – a defector from the amazing team known as I.Hx. These guys were awesome and Bragg was one of their best, now he is one of our best!
Force – another good friend and fellow drummer, he got caught up in the wicked ways of Warcraft, but one great guy
Hugh Manatee – Hugh and I joined the Pearls at the same time from the Black Knight Mercs Unit. Growing up together in NBT -GET SOME!!!!
D-Day – So many hours spent playing this game against and with D-Day. From the NBT days until he joined the group. Now one of our leader
Smaga – The Leader of the Blood Pearls. Smag has been there since the beginning and even before. Talented Cockmonkey that is great to listen to on comms, especially when excited. More than that, Smag has been a personal friend throughout my rough times and the good times too.
CowCrusher – What can I say? This guy knows so much about the game, the tactics, the maps, the mechs. Almost always level headed and the talent. Man o man. On a personal level, Cow has always been there and has always had good solid advice and been a friend when I needed one and the voice of reason when I was an idiot (too many times)
I cant say enough about these guys and all the previous members of the Pearls.
I have traveled many a road through Merc Land over the years and this game has been a big part of my life whether I want to admit that or not. Sure mostly it was and is the people, but it was the game that drew us together in the 1st place.
I also would to pass what little wisdom I have on to anyone reading this. If you play this game or any game on line with others, please remember that it is just a game. Sure, I want to win more than anyone else does, even more so now, but when it comes down to it, its just a game. There are so many things in life that are so much more important. Try to remember that and also try to remember that your life can change very quickly and so many things will become so unimportant to you. I wish everyone good health and lots of success.
I am not gone (yet) and I will be posting from time to time and hopefully even playing the game now and then. It just wont be as much as in the past and I wont make any promises, but I will give it a try when I can.
Enough ramblings from a tired old man. Get out there and go play the game. Get Some ! And Pressurize Them!!! w00t!
Hope that I see ya all very soon
Vettie
Its been a bit since Vettie has posted anything to his blog. There is a good reason for that and I will go into it in a few moments, but first I want to extend a thank you to the readers of Vettie's Views and to anyone who has made a post to any of my columns.
As I mentioned, Vettie has not posted to his blog in some time. Ol' Vettie has been tied up with a bunch of damn doctors and medical tests and related things.
Let me give you a little background info then I will bring you up to date. About 3 or 4 years ago, I somehow managed to break the S1 socket in my lower lumbar region of my back. The break was nearly a clean horizontal break. The upper portion of the socket (S1) remained intact and connected to the rest of my spinal column (thank goodness), but it slipped from its usual “place” and fell downward and slightly right roughly an inch where it came to rest on my sciatic nerve (bundle), damaging the nerve bundle and causing me temporary paralysis (not to mention a huge amount of pain). The result was a spinal fusion and some hardware on the S1, L5, L4 areas of my spine and some physical torture, I mean therapy, to learn to walk again.
It was at that time, my surgeon discovered that I have disease commonly known as de-generative disc disease. What this disease does is cause the discs to degenerate and collapse down upon one another until it is just bone munching bone and whatever set of nerves you have in there. Currently, there is no known cure for this. There are fixes along the way, which basically results in a (forgive my spelling) discectomy surgery where they remove the damaged or crushed discs and replace it with a sponge type material and drill a small hole in the spine to re-route the nerves (that are hopefully not damaged from the collapse of the discs).
Unfortunately, I have also had to have the discectomy done because 2 years after my fusion, L3 collapsed as L2 fell down on it. This surgery is not as intense as the fusion and the recovery time is much less. I had that surgery last year.
As a result of the fusion, I had to learn to walk again and because of the nature of my injury, my sciatic nerve suffered extensive damage. During the fusion, my sciatic nerve was “wrapped” to prevent any further damage. To give you a visual picture, think, if you will, of a bundle of wires wrapped in electrical tape to keep them together. Also think that the bundle of wires were NOT tagged on both ends and many of them were nicked or damaged enough that they were either severed or had a lot of copper exposed. Not knowing which wire goes where you just wrap the bundle and you reconnect some that you HOPE work.
There is not enough knowledge in the medical community (yet) to determine which nerve goes where or how to repair the ones that have suffered catastrophic damage, so the fix is to wrap the entire bunch and “hope” that the body re-connects the right ones to the right places. Having said that, the surviving nerves didnt exactly work correctly. That is afterwards I have suffered two types of motor control issues with my right leg and sometimes my left one. The first type of issue would be that while walking or sitting, my right leg would go completely numb for 5 to 15 seconds and I could not force it to move unless I used my hands or my other foot or some external object. This sensation, or lack of, would pass and the ability to freely move my leg would and does return to normal. The other failure is that my leg will have a spasm that causes my leg to shake or wobble uncontrollably for a few seconds, again passing and returning normal motor functionality. To keep from falling in the event I have one of these failures while walking, I am forced to rely on a cane. This was quite difficult for me to accept because I was an athlete in High School and in College and even after my college years. I played the big 3 in high school and I played Basketball and Rugby in College and then rugby after college. Later I played mens softball and several men's leagues for basketball. As I got older and the kids got to the age where they wanted to play, I coached kids softball and soccer as well as mens softball. So learning how to walk and walking with a cane was very difficult for me to swallow, and do.
Anyway, back in March or April of this year I started have a pain in my left side. The best way to describe the sensation was the pain you get when you have been running for too long and your side hurts, except this pain was on the left side. It would come and go, but it hurt when it came.
At the end of July, I unexpectedly was laid off from my job of the past 5 years. I was still having this pain, but it was more frequent and lasted longer and longer each time. Since I was not working, I decided to go to my doctor and let her look at it. I figured it was some serious gas from something I was eating or a bone jabbing my stomach (from a broken rib injury years ago) or maybe even my gall bladder going bad.
So I went to my doctor and she sent me to see a specialist. This guy set up some tests including an ultrasound, some MRIs, a CT Scan and some blood test. When I go to see him to discuss the results, I am a bit surprised at his answers. He tells me my spleen is roughly 1.5 times its normal size and that my blood platelet counts are low. Starting with the part I didnt understand, I asked him about the blood stuff and he says my white count is about 110k. That sounds like a lot to me, so I asked what is normal since mine was low. He tells me 150k to 500k is normal. So I ask what causes that. He says the liver is doing something wrong, but he is not a liver guy. He says he can remove the spleen which would end the pain, but that he doesnt want to until we find out what is the deal with the liver. Another specialist...
So I get the appointment and I go for more tests and XRays and pictures and blood work and a liver biopsy. Let me just say right here, if you have never had a liver biopsy you are in for quite a surprise when they do one. You are awake for the procedure which doesnt last very long. You are laying flat on a table, with some sort of IV fluid running through you and they put you under a CT Scan to get an exact location of your liver. They then mark it with a big “X” using a sharpie. They take you out from under the CT Scanner and give you a local anesthesia. They they get this rather large syringe with a big needle on the end of it and put you back under the Scanner. When they have you all lined up, they jam the entire syringe into your gut with a big push. I about jumped off the table. “sir, you have to be still” they said and I quipped back, “WTF are you doing? That hurt like hell!” Then the remove the plunger and insert a small device in the syringe that cuts small samples of you liver. They take 2 to 4 pieces of different sections and mark them accordingly as to where they came from. This is sent of to some lab and they send the results to your doctor, who then calls you in to discuss them.
So all this took place and I get the call to come speak with the Doctor. You know its bad news when they want you to come in. IF it was good, they tell you over the phone. So, I was expecting some bad news when I went for the appointment, but I was not expecting the news I received.
Seems Ol' Vettie here has cirrhosis of the liver and it is already in stage four of four. I have the non-alcoholic, non-hepatitis version, but the result is the same. Stage four basically means that the liver is failing and that the spleen is picking up the overflow and trying to “cover” for the liver. That is the reason the spleen is so enlarged, its having to do too much work. If we remove the spleen (the thing that is causing all the pain in the first place), then Ol' Vettie dies in 6 months (more or less). That option is out.
Back to the liver, the Doctor says there is no reversing the current state, but we do have the ability to slow down the failure. We can take some certain drugs, which I was already taking for blood pressure and I can watch my diet and not eat certain things, which I was already doing because I have type 2 diabetes (yay!). So I was and am already doing the things I can do to slow the spread of the cirrohsis, but it will eventually take over the entire liver and cause it to fail. I am not going to tell you my expected time left because there are still some options.
In one or two years (I have to go to the liver specialist every 6 months for blood tests to check on the status of the liver) I will become a candidate for a liver transplant. Currently, there is a 2 year waiting list for a liver, but that changes based on your condition and the availability of a compatible liver. IF I receive a transplant, and if it is successful, it will add anywhere from 5 to 10 years of expected lifetime depending on the condition of the liver and how well my body adapts. If I dont get a transplant when the time comes, well Ol' Vettie will get a good view of the daisies from the underside.
Now let me explain a couple of other things to you. I have never been a 'big drinker' and the Doctor says my liver condition is probably hereditary. Neither of my parents exhibited any issues, but both died at relatively young ages of other issues and any liver problems may not have shown up or may have been masked by the other issues. Also, as I mentioned early on in this post, I have had a couple of back surgeries. One of the off shoots of back surgery is that sometime you end up with a condition known as chronic pain.
Many of you go to the doctor and they ask you if you have pain and on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your pain level, with 1 being almost nothing and 10 feeling like your gonna die. Well chronic pain is a level 5 to 7 that you have ALL the time, and because you have it ALL the time, you get a little used to it and and feel s more like a level 2 or 3 to you, but to others it may be a 6 or 7. So I have this chronic pain in my back and legs ALL the time. Now, because of the liver / spleen issue, I also have a new area of chronic pain that is about a level 5 or 6 all the time. The condition persists and prevents me from standing or sitting for long periods at a time and I am basically uncomfortable all the time.
I am not a big fan of “pain killers”, but my regular Doctor, my back surgeon and my liver specialist have all given me prescriptions for pain killers to take every day. I dont. I try only to take them when I have days that are almost too unbearable for me.
It is hard to explain chronic pain, but it affects every aspect of your life and the people close to you. You, yourself dont notice so much, but those around you certainly do. Its like you get grumpy all the time and frustrated with little things, but you dont notice because you are now like that all the time. You friends and family do notice and either have to accept it and change the way they 'behave' around you or they can just leave you to be miserable.
I have been very fortunate. I have been blessed with a wonderful wife who is trying very hard to help in every way she can to make my existence as comfortable as possible. I thank the Lord for her every day.
I also mentioned I lost my job back in July. Because of my medical condition, I am no longer able to work. This has placed an even bigger burden on my wife. We will soon be selling our home (ironically enough, that we bought 5 years ago) and moving to something we can afford to live in based on her salary. Much of our savings have been spent on medical bills, so we dont have a big nest egg to fall back on and the housing market is not so great right now so we are hoping that we dont take a beating on the sell of the house. This all kinda sucks because I have worked for the better part of 30 years or so and to see things just slip away...well anyway.
I try to keep myself in very good spirits and I try to be happy from day to day and I also try to mask the pain as much as possible and not complain about it much. I joke and cut up as much as possible and try not to think about the unfortunate turn of events I have been dealt. I have my faith and I pray a lot and I know every thing happens for a reason and sometimes those reasons arent very clear at first, but everything will work out in the end.
Ok. Sorry about all the mushy stuff and the medical stuff, but I wanted to let my readers know where I had been and why so long between posts. On to the future? Well, I am not shutting down the site, but I will say the posts will not be as often as they have been in the past until the Doctors and I work out some way for me to sit up without so much pain, and I am sure we will, it just takes time.
I will be trying to make some time to actually get on line and play the game. I suspect I wont be on for too long, but long enough to make a good target for many of you! LOL!
Also, there are WAYYYY TOOO many people that I need to express my gratitude too, so I am not even gonna try to list them all. But I would like to take a little more time to thank some of folks that I have “met” over the years and they have influenced me in some way.
Not in any particular order
Genghis Prawn
Mini Me
WB3
Warden
Oneshot
The Black Knight Mercenaries
The White Tigers
The Midnite Cobras
The Blood Pearls
Mech Combat
MercStorm
MWL
NBT
MekTek
and many others I have met online on the battlefields or in a forum somewhere.
Let me say that The Blood Pearls have been such an inspiration to me, not only in this game we all love, but as friends we have all come to be talking over comms over the years. Each of them are really and truly special in their own way, but even as a group they are a great bunch of folks. I learned so much from each one of them, not only about the game but about life. We have all had some really great times playing this game and just chatting about nothing or serious stuff. A really great bunch. I am proud to have been and still be a member of the greatest team ever. Hats off and bows to The Pearls.
The Sunder Junkies is another group I have extremely proud to have been associated with. GP and Mini put together a web site for all the Sunder Players to have to discuss everything from housing repairs to MP4!
Mechcombat. WB and the group over there put together a league in the waning years of this game and made it come to life. They invited me to be part of it, damn, its a fine league. FFP LIVES!!!
The guys at MekTek have done a great job in keeping this game alive and allowing me (as part of the Blood Pearls) to be a beta tester for MP3 and MP4 has been absolutely a great experience. When you guys get to see MP4, it will blow your socks off. So many things, its almost like a brand new game.
The folks at NBT for having the best planetary Mercs system ever. What a ball we had there as The Black Knight Mercenaries Unit, St Ives Compact and finally The Blood Pearls. DP and team put together a damn fine system and we had a great time.
As I said, there are way too many individuals to list, way too many, but there a special few I have to extend a few thank yous too.
I already mentioned GP and Mini Me and WB, and Jeho (and team), DP (and team), MechStorm Team, but I would like to extend a special thanx to a few of the Blood Pearls who really touched me over the years
Homer – Young and brash, with more talent than I can ever write about
AC – Talented and fun, a young man that grew up with the Blood Pearls – say hi to Leslie for us!
Agent – A friend among friends, many hours we have spent discussing so many things
Cora – An honorary Blood Pearl. Possibly the best Long Tom artist in the game, not to mention a good friend.
Wilson – Crazy and carefree, and the talent this guy has! Me thinks he is currently under the Warcraft spell...
Mechnut - a lover of the game, a maker of mech models, I still have my Victor (mint condition)
Prime – always ready for a drop, I swear this guy is Mechnuts brother, but they say they are not related
Buddha – Quiet and level headed, one hell of a pilot
Ninja – altho now retired, he was a silent but deadly force of the Pearls
Lordsbaine – aka Cpt Sparrow – what a guy, he gave us the Blood Pearl Arena, our own personal map
Kodi – Kodi came to us from MCs team after years of duels. One hell of a pilot and a damn nice guy
Mongo – a huge inspiration to me. This guy suffered a terrible injury of his own and is paralyzed from the waist down yet still manages to join us for a game or two.
Vampire – a late joiner to the Pearls, but damn can this guy shoot
Zero Bragg – a defector from the amazing team known as I.Hx. These guys were awesome and Bragg was one of their best, now he is one of our best!
Force – another good friend and fellow drummer, he got caught up in the wicked ways of Warcraft, but one great guy
Hugh Manatee – Hugh and I joined the Pearls at the same time from the Black Knight Mercs Unit. Growing up together in NBT -GET SOME!!!!
D-Day – So many hours spent playing this game against and with D-Day. From the NBT days until he joined the group. Now one of our leader
Smaga – The Leader of the Blood Pearls. Smag has been there since the beginning and even before. Talented Cockmonkey that is great to listen to on comms, especially when excited. More than that, Smag has been a personal friend throughout my rough times and the good times too.
CowCrusher – What can I say? This guy knows so much about the game, the tactics, the maps, the mechs. Almost always level headed and the talent. Man o man. On a personal level, Cow has always been there and has always had good solid advice and been a friend when I needed one and the voice of reason when I was an idiot (too many times)
I cant say enough about these guys and all the previous members of the Pearls.
I have traveled many a road through Merc Land over the years and this game has been a big part of my life whether I want to admit that or not. Sure mostly it was and is the people, but it was the game that drew us together in the 1st place.
I also would to pass what little wisdom I have on to anyone reading this. If you play this game or any game on line with others, please remember that it is just a game. Sure, I want to win more than anyone else does, even more so now, but when it comes down to it, its just a game. There are so many things in life that are so much more important. Try to remember that and also try to remember that your life can change very quickly and so many things will become so unimportant to you. I wish everyone good health and lots of success.
I am not gone (yet) and I will be posting from time to time and hopefully even playing the game now and then. It just wont be as much as in the past and I wont make any promises, but I will give it a try when I can.
Enough ramblings from a tired old man. Get out there and go play the game. Get Some ! And Pressurize Them!!! w00t!
Hope that I see ya all very soon
Vettie
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Mech of the Month
Some time ago, maybe even two years or so, my friend over at The Sunder Junkies, Genghis Prawn, started doing this thing he called the Mech of the Month. If you have not visited the Sunder Junkies Site, I suggest you do so and become a member. The web site is www.sunderjunkies.com. GP and crew will not send you any crap mail, nor will you be added to any mailing lists. All you will find there is stuff about MechWarrior and the many players that play in the server named Sunder.
Back to the Mech of the Month. As I mentioned, each month, Genghis selects a Heavy and an Assault Class Mech to be the Mech of the Month. He will use those two mechs for his entire online time during that month while playing in Sunder. This MOTM has created a following and you will see several people use the ‘mech’ while playing during that month.
I mentioned in a post on the forums there not too long ago that I thought that it would be cool if GP and I could synchronize the MOTM and the Vettie’s Views selections so that I ran a review of the mechs Prawnie selected for that month. That would allow players to get a bit of an inside view of the mechs chosen to be MOTM. Hopefully, it would stir a little interest so that players would not only post their configs for those mechs but also maybe post their thoughts about the mechs as well.
The problem I have run into is that I had already written reviews for many mechs and I have not written reviews for many of the others. For instance, this month Prawnie selected the Black Knight and the SuperNova. I had reviewed the Black Knight many moons ago, but I have not yet published a review on the SuperNova. The BK review can be found here, http://vettiesviews.blogspot.com/2007/11/black-knight.html .
I have only published one review for MP3 mechs. Originally, I started out to review all the mechs from the originals issued in the game to eventually cover the mechs added by our friends at MekTek. Somewhere between MP2.1 and MP3, I had the fortune to be beta tester for MekTek for MP3. This consumed quite a bit of free time and when MP3 was released there had been many changes to some of the mechs I had already reviewed. I felt like I needed to go back and give those mech another shot to bring them up to date. More so, some of the reviews I had already written, but not yet published had to be scrapped or re-done because of the MP3 changes. Again, I felt like I needed to keep to my original script as much as possible and review all the older mechs before I put out anything on the MP3 chassis.
Now I find myself in similar situation. MP4 is forthcoming from MekTek and I haven’t published reviews on older mechs and only one on an MP3 chassis. Because of the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) I signed with MekTek, I cant tell you what is in MP4, if any of the Mechs that already exist have changed nor what new chassis we will see. All I can tell you is that MP4 will be released soon.
With all of that being said, I have gone back and given some additional thought to my original script of mech reviews. I have thought about this for a week or so and every time (lately) I sit down to write another issue of Vettie’s Views this comes to mind and I find myself unable to write an article or to make enough sense of a bunch of words so that you guys find it informative, entertaining or worth your while, instead I come back to this same thing. That thing?
Will I be able to complete my goal of publishing articles on each mech in the game before more are added?
The simple answer to that is no. IF any of you have visited the MekTek Forums, then you already know there are to be new mechs added to MP4. I cant tell you which ones, but you can go there and check it out yourself. It may not be listed as MP4, it might be listed as MP3.1 which is what MekTek started to call this mod until they got very deep into it. As I mentioned, MP4 will be released soon and as soon as I get the official ‘okay’, I will publish pictures or videos of whatever MekTek says I can.
Again, MP4 is coming soon. I still have many mech reviews to publish and many yet to write if I plan to attain my original goal. GP and I have exchanged a couple of mail over the subject of matching my reviews to his Mech of the Month selections, so I have decided to publish or link mech reviews based on GP’s selections for MOTM.
As I mentioned, Prawnie selects Assault Class or Heavy Class mechs. This still leaves the Medium and Light Classes open without the love they deserve. Ol’ Vettie has given lots of thought to this and he thinks he came up with an acceptable conclusion.
When Genghis Prawn makes his selections, I will either put a link to my review on the Sunder Junkies Site if I have already reviewed the chassis or I will dual publish a review for a mech that I have not done already. By dual publish, I mean I will write the review and publish it here on my blog and put a link to it on the SJ site. Additionally, I will get with Prawnie and with his permission, I will add a medium and light class to his selections. I will then link the selections to any review I have already written or publish a new one for that chassis, sometime during the month. Again this is pending approval from GP because the Mech of the Month is his creation, I am just trying to enhance it some and increase the (traffic) flow on his site and mine too.
Back to the Mech of the Month. As I mentioned, each month, Genghis selects a Heavy and an Assault Class Mech to be the Mech of the Month. He will use those two mechs for his entire online time during that month while playing in Sunder. This MOTM has created a following and you will see several people use the ‘mech’ while playing during that month.
I mentioned in a post on the forums there not too long ago that I thought that it would be cool if GP and I could synchronize the MOTM and the Vettie’s Views selections so that I ran a review of the mechs Prawnie selected for that month. That would allow players to get a bit of an inside view of the mechs chosen to be MOTM. Hopefully, it would stir a little interest so that players would not only post their configs for those mechs but also maybe post their thoughts about the mechs as well.
The problem I have run into is that I had already written reviews for many mechs and I have not written reviews for many of the others. For instance, this month Prawnie selected the Black Knight and the SuperNova. I had reviewed the Black Knight many moons ago, but I have not yet published a review on the SuperNova. The BK review can be found here, http://vettiesviews.blogspot.com/2007/11/black-knight.html .
I have only published one review for MP3 mechs. Originally, I started out to review all the mechs from the originals issued in the game to eventually cover the mechs added by our friends at MekTek. Somewhere between MP2.1 and MP3, I had the fortune to be beta tester for MekTek for MP3. This consumed quite a bit of free time and when MP3 was released there had been many changes to some of the mechs I had already reviewed. I felt like I needed to go back and give those mech another shot to bring them up to date. More so, some of the reviews I had already written, but not yet published had to be scrapped or re-done because of the MP3 changes. Again, I felt like I needed to keep to my original script as much as possible and review all the older mechs before I put out anything on the MP3 chassis.
Now I find myself in similar situation. MP4 is forthcoming from MekTek and I haven’t published reviews on older mechs and only one on an MP3 chassis. Because of the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) I signed with MekTek, I cant tell you what is in MP4, if any of the Mechs that already exist have changed nor what new chassis we will see. All I can tell you is that MP4 will be released soon.
With all of that being said, I have gone back and given some additional thought to my original script of mech reviews. I have thought about this for a week or so and every time (lately) I sit down to write another issue of Vettie’s Views this comes to mind and I find myself unable to write an article or to make enough sense of a bunch of words so that you guys find it informative, entertaining or worth your while, instead I come back to this same thing. That thing?
Will I be able to complete my goal of publishing articles on each mech in the game before more are added?
The simple answer to that is no. IF any of you have visited the MekTek Forums, then you already know there are to be new mechs added to MP4. I cant tell you which ones, but you can go there and check it out yourself. It may not be listed as MP4, it might be listed as MP3.1 which is what MekTek started to call this mod until they got very deep into it. As I mentioned, MP4 will be released soon and as soon as I get the official ‘okay’, I will publish pictures or videos of whatever MekTek says I can.
Again, MP4 is coming soon. I still have many mech reviews to publish and many yet to write if I plan to attain my original goal. GP and I have exchanged a couple of mail over the subject of matching my reviews to his Mech of the Month selections, so I have decided to publish or link mech reviews based on GP’s selections for MOTM.
As I mentioned, Prawnie selects Assault Class or Heavy Class mechs. This still leaves the Medium and Light Classes open without the love they deserve. Ol’ Vettie has given lots of thought to this and he thinks he came up with an acceptable conclusion.
When Genghis Prawn makes his selections, I will either put a link to my review on the Sunder Junkies Site if I have already reviewed the chassis or I will dual publish a review for a mech that I have not done already. By dual publish, I mean I will write the review and publish it here on my blog and put a link to it on the SJ site. Additionally, I will get with Prawnie and with his permission, I will add a medium and light class to his selections. I will then link the selections to any review I have already written or publish a new one for that chassis, sometime during the month. Again this is pending approval from GP because the Mech of the Month is his creation, I am just trying to enhance it some and increase the (traffic) flow on his site and mine too.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Updates to MW4
Greetings Mech Fans!!
Before I get started with this issue of Vettie’s Views let me send out a condolences to Clan White Tigers and Friends and Family of Jabberwock.
Jabber passed away recently while gaming due to a long time illness. Jabber was 38. For those who knew him, you already know that Jabberwock was a good guy. He loved the game and he loved his friends and family. He will most certainly be missed. Go in Peace young man.
Its tough to try to write anything after something like that so forgive me if I stray.
It’s been a long hot summer and things are once again starting to heat up in Mech Land.
The Solaris Ladders of MCL are really heating up and I have been talking to WB and we may have something lined up. We still have to mesh out the details, but I think we have a good plan in store for the members of MechCombat League. If you are not already a member, go sign up and get registered. WWW.MechCombat.Org. There are 2 parts, the forums and the league, members MUST be registered to both parts. When you register for the forums, you will see a link to the League site at the top of the forums page. Sign up today.
Also, we have news from CK Mack at MechStorm, WWW.MechStorm.com. It seems they have made some break thrus and are now able to add things to the game where they weren’t able to before. In the MechStorm Forums and MechCombat Forums, Mack has posted some pictures of items added for use with the NetMech IV modification. Here is a link to the MCL forum post
http://mechcombat.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=329 . Here is a link to the MechStorm forum,
http://www.mechstorm.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4804 . These guys are looking for helpers, so get in contact with Mack and put your skill set to good use.
On top of all that, MekTek has announced that MP4 will be coming soon. Ref this link for more info, http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=121787 . We all know that with MekTek, SOON, may still be some time away, however, they HAVE posted, that means we are getting closer. I cant comment on anything I do or don’t know about MP4 or what MP4 might contain, but I can say this, most folks will be surprised at what MekTek has accomplished, not just in the mechs to be added, but the other magic they are doing. If you are wondering what Mechs MIGHT be included in MP4, check out this thread for some PICs, http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=80763 . This list is not all inclusive and some of these may NOT make it in.
So, a lot of development work is going on in Mech Land. People adding new textures and items to terrain, people modding the game and adding more mechs, its gonna be some great stuff when its all out there for everyone to see.
MechStorm is concentrating on the terrain and these guys already put out some really great maps and some fun single player additions, not to mention the ‘coop’ missions. If you haven’t tried some of their work, I suggest going there, registering as a member and downloading some of their maps and single player missions. They have a few of them that will kick your butt. Their maps are first rate, Also, Starfire, a member of MechStorm, is the guy that brought us the High Definition Pack for MP302b. IF you haven’t tried this, I suggest you do so. It adds many new textures to the terrains and to the Mechs as well as some improvements in the sound effects. The best part is that you can install it on your machine and it works whether anyone else INCLUDING the server has it or not. It does not change your version of working Mercs. A little bit of a warning before you try it, as far as I know, MP4 WILL NOT be compatible with the HDP if it is installed on your MP302b installation. I suggest separate installs. Copy your MP302B install to a new folder and name it MW4HDP or something. Install the HDP into your new folder. That way your MP302b folder is preserved and ready when MP4 comes out AND you get to enjoy the HDP modified version until then.
MekTek is concentrating on Battle Mech Models and game play for multiplayer. Their intent is to bring the ‘team concept’ back to the multiplayer online version in ways you and I may not have thought possible. I don’t know how many of you played MW2, but I remember the Thermal Radar setting and the Wire Frame setting. I always thought it would be great if MW4 had the Thermal radar capability. Another thought I had was about being able to zoom in night vision, and yet another thought I had was being able to buy ½ increments of ammo. I mean, I hate ‘building’ a variant and putting everything I want on it (well not really everything) and having .60 or .40 tons left over. I would like to be able to spend .50 ton for a half ton of ammo. You know, if a Gauss Rifle costs 16 tons and extra ammo for it was 1 ton, giving you a total of 48 rounds, why not spend only .50 and get a total of 36 rounds. OF course there’s that old nasty ‘source code’ issue. Well I can still want it right?
Some of the other things I would like to see would be destructible ‘parts’ like if you take some shots to the rear of mech, AND you have jump jets, I would like to see the jump jets have the ability to get blown off. I already know from game experience in league fighting that the ECM can be destroyed (thank you Mr. Prime 24 and your pretty little Ares for jumping on my little WolfHound’s head during a match). I just think it makes sense that if something can be selected as an option, that it can be taken out by the bad guys, maybe not easily, but at least the possibility should be there (IMO).
Mentioning jump jets, I know that in MW2 and even in NetMech, when you used jumpies, you had to feather your landing or take damage to your legs. I certainly hope that MekTek figures this one out because it makes a lot of sense to me. If an 80 ton beast lifts itself into the air more than waste high to itself, its gotta put some beating onto whatever it lands on, i.e. the legs. Feather that (like retro rockets on landers) to soften or eliminate the damage. I would also like to see a ‘legged’ mech with jumpies lose the ability to jump. You are already hurting and near destruction with one leg gone, you want to lift something that heavy into the air and try to bring it down on a ‘monopod’ without inflicting more damage to the only thing it lands on? Not very likely. Again this may be source code, but somebody figured it out with NetMech so I am sure the guys at MekTek will figure it out if they are so inclined.
I have been a strong proponent against comparing what technology we currently have and are working on against what technology exists in the imaginary Battle Tech Universe. People will say well we have “X” and it can track a target for hundreds of miles and hit it within a 5 ft accuracy so why cant MW4 do “Y”? That is a logical argument, except that the BT Universe is non existent and we only know what technology exist there from the games and the books, period. We can assume anything, but until it is added in the game, the video game or the book it is only an assumption.
Having said all that, I have to step away from that stance for this next item I would like to see. I hate to do this, but I am in strong belief of it so I am willing to take my beatings where I need to. I would like to see something like GPS tracking for FRIENDLY units regardless of radar settings. That is, I think that unless the enemy is jamming signals (you would need to be in range of their jammer to be affected) that if installed as an option, each unit could have something similar to our GPS devices so that everyone on the same team could ‘see’ where everyone else on the team was unless one (or more) of the team were being jammed. I also think that this option should be capable of being destroyed in fire fights with the enemy.
If you had that, league play (oh, hell, open play too for that matter) could be enhanced by allowing teams to stay together even if passive and even on no radar maps. The GPS type device could be used to track all the team mates. If their ‘blip’ disappeared, quickly over comms, you could find out of they are taking fire, or being jammed or what ever.
It could also be very useful for scout mechs. Take a small mech like a Raven and break away from the team to go looking for the bad guys. When he finds them, he simply says contact and folks could look at their displays to determine where he is and roughly where the bad guys are. A leader can then decide if he wants to stage the battle there or have the Raven ‘lead them’ to a better terrain for the battle.
Of course I think there are a few weapons that need tweaking, like the rail gun and Inferno Rocket Launchers and the entire Auto Cannon family, but I don’t think the MekTek crew are focusing too much on weapons. From what they have posted, I think they are more concentrated on the team play aspect of the game. This might include new types of game play, new maps and maybe a better communication ability built into the game. I think it would be great to have comms built in. Don’t know if that s possible, but it would be cool. Each server would be its own IP (similar to TeamSpeak) and whatever team you joined, you would be attached to that channel.
Another thing I would like to see changed if possible is the chat window. It is somewhat opaque, but it still takes up a good sized square of the view of the battlefield (at least while using FFP). I have seen other games, including Freelancer and Halo and Battlefield 1942, where the actual chat messages show up on screen, but are not in a ‘visual box’ per se, chat just appears as text on the screen. This would be very nice in MW4.
As far as other things, I guess I would like to see the net code worked out where there was less lag, bigger maps and more players. Some weapons seem to cause lag, whether its localized because of the video card (although it should not be) or whether it is caused because of a bad connection to the server. Bigger maps would be a lot of fun for team battles so that the game didn’t end in 2 minutes after 4 or 5 minutes of searching for each other. That, and I just like new maps. The thing with more players is that I would like to see more than 24 players to a server. However, to do that effectively, you need bigger maps and NEW missions, missions made for larger numbers of players. Some of the Mission Play missions that we have already begin to show their faults with just 10 per pilots per team. They simply weren’t made to handle that many mechs and it becomes too easy to beat the objectives. IF the maps were bigger and there were larger numbers of players on each team, things would get much more interesting.
MW2 had a thing called AMS. MW4 has a thing called LAMs. AMS was an Anti Missile System that was ammo based (similar to the US Navy Aegis System). It would shoot down missiles all day as long as you had ammo for it. The current LAMs system is more or less random in how effective it is and it is Laser based. The thing with LAMs is that even tho it is Laser based, the mech never suffers an increase in heat when the LAMs are active, OR the LAMs lasers are so small the heat is negligible. I liked the old AMS and it would be cool to see it make an updated comeback. I would like AMS to be more effective than LAMs, but still ammo based. When you’re out your out. Not real sure how to update it because it was pretty good as is. Anyway, I would like to see AMS make a comeback.
I would guess that by this stage in the evolution of technologies that both the IS and Clan would now have advanced optics instead of the Clan only. Same for IFF. So yeah, let the IS have Advanced Optics and let the Clanners have IFF. Seems reasonable.
How many of you played MechCommander (or any of that series)? Remember when your mechs were walking around the map IF one of your mech had some type of ECM it showed a like a circle of the area affected? The more advanced type of ECM the bigger the circle? Well, I always thought it would be cool in MW4 if ECM on your mech did something like that. What I mean is, if your team mates are within the radius of the ECM mech, then they too were covered by the ECM blanket. OF course this would call for different levels of ECM, all at different tonnages and of course the greatest level would only be available to a certain select few mechs. This would prevent so many ECM capable mechs being used on a team. I mean, if you go into Sunder, on any given map, you will see several Cyclops in use with other ECM capable mechs such as Highlanders or Victors or Wildcats or Gladiators or Blood Asps or Warthogs and on and on. If this option was limited to a (very) few mechs and even limited to a certain number PER TEAM, I believe the quality of play would increase after the learning curve for the pilots. I think that people get used to running with BAP and ECM and they would have great difficulty running around and not getting detected or getting shot before they even saw their enemy, so yeah there would be a learning curve. Some folks already run in passive mode most of the time and do a damn fine job of it. Those peeps would be a step ahead of most of the others folks, but once everyone got used to it, I think the level of play would step up a notch or three.
I don’t know if any of that is possible, but I would like to see those things brought about. I know, I know, source code. But hey, I can want cant I?
Maps are another thing I have touched on, bigger maps that support more players and more difficult missions. Another crazy idea I had was to make the HQ and Comm Array actually DO something other than be a target. I think it would be cool if, on Mission Play missions, the Comm array was shut down or destroyed, the defending team could not use team chat in the game for the balance of that round, but regular chat would still work and if my built comms were actually in the game, that channel would be shut down for the duration of the round. Also thought it would be cool if the radar for the defenders quit working. A long with that, the HQ would actually provide INFO to the defending team. Some sort of EXTENDED radar system connected to the Comms array. So a Mech would need to stand by the HQ for 10 seconds and the HQ would upload a mini map that showed the current location of the attackers out to 3000 meters in all directions (hence the need for bigger maps). Also the HQ would have some sort of seismic detection ability for the enemy mechs that were running passive or covered by the cloak of ECM. Again, this info would need to be uploaded to a defender mech by having that mech stand by the HQ for 10 seconds (maybe longer). That actually makes the HQ and Comm array worth attacking and worth defending. OF course, both would need to be hardened so they could withstand more damage and the seismic readings could still be given even if the Comm array had been destroyed. The Radar readings could be uploaded from Comms or the HQ, but the team chat would be Comms dependant. I don’t know, I just think it would add a new dimension to the mission play missions. Again, it may be source code issues, but who knows?
OF course this is just my wish list and I have no idea what MekTek will do or can do. They did not take me on for hire as creative consultant, heh, for that matter they didn’t even take me on as creative consultant without pay.
Visit the web links above. Look at the pictures and read the threads. Come back and post your thoughts about what is happening to our game. Post your wish list if you like.
Before I get started with this issue of Vettie’s Views let me send out a condolences to Clan White Tigers and Friends and Family of Jabberwock.
Jabber passed away recently while gaming due to a long time illness. Jabber was 38. For those who knew him, you already know that Jabberwock was a good guy. He loved the game and he loved his friends and family. He will most certainly be missed. Go in Peace young man.
Its tough to try to write anything after something like that so forgive me if I stray.
It’s been a long hot summer and things are once again starting to heat up in Mech Land.
The Solaris Ladders of MCL are really heating up and I have been talking to WB and we may have something lined up. We still have to mesh out the details, but I think we have a good plan in store for the members of MechCombat League. If you are not already a member, go sign up and get registered. WWW.MechCombat.Org. There are 2 parts, the forums and the league, members MUST be registered to both parts. When you register for the forums, you will see a link to the League site at the top of the forums page. Sign up today.
Also, we have news from CK Mack at MechStorm, WWW.MechStorm.com. It seems they have made some break thrus and are now able to add things to the game where they weren’t able to before. In the MechStorm Forums and MechCombat Forums, Mack has posted some pictures of items added for use with the NetMech IV modification. Here is a link to the MCL forum post
http://mechcombat.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=329 . Here is a link to the MechStorm forum,
http://www.mechstorm.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4804 . These guys are looking for helpers, so get in contact with Mack and put your skill set to good use.
On top of all that, MekTek has announced that MP4 will be coming soon. Ref this link for more info, http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=121787 . We all know that with MekTek, SOON, may still be some time away, however, they HAVE posted, that means we are getting closer. I cant comment on anything I do or don’t know about MP4 or what MP4 might contain, but I can say this, most folks will be surprised at what MekTek has accomplished, not just in the mechs to be added, but the other magic they are doing. If you are wondering what Mechs MIGHT be included in MP4, check out this thread for some PICs, http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=80763 . This list is not all inclusive and some of these may NOT make it in.
So, a lot of development work is going on in Mech Land. People adding new textures and items to terrain, people modding the game and adding more mechs, its gonna be some great stuff when its all out there for everyone to see.
MechStorm is concentrating on the terrain and these guys already put out some really great maps and some fun single player additions, not to mention the ‘coop’ missions. If you haven’t tried some of their work, I suggest going there, registering as a member and downloading some of their maps and single player missions. They have a few of them that will kick your butt. Their maps are first rate, Also, Starfire, a member of MechStorm, is the guy that brought us the High Definition Pack for MP302b. IF you haven’t tried this, I suggest you do so. It adds many new textures to the terrains and to the Mechs as well as some improvements in the sound effects. The best part is that you can install it on your machine and it works whether anyone else INCLUDING the server has it or not. It does not change your version of working Mercs. A little bit of a warning before you try it, as far as I know, MP4 WILL NOT be compatible with the HDP if it is installed on your MP302b installation. I suggest separate installs. Copy your MP302B install to a new folder and name it MW4HDP or something. Install the HDP into your new folder. That way your MP302b folder is preserved and ready when MP4 comes out AND you get to enjoy the HDP modified version until then.
MekTek is concentrating on Battle Mech Models and game play for multiplayer. Their intent is to bring the ‘team concept’ back to the multiplayer online version in ways you and I may not have thought possible. I don’t know how many of you played MW2, but I remember the Thermal Radar setting and the Wire Frame setting. I always thought it would be great if MW4 had the Thermal radar capability. Another thought I had was about being able to zoom in night vision, and yet another thought I had was being able to buy ½ increments of ammo. I mean, I hate ‘building’ a variant and putting everything I want on it (well not really everything) and having .60 or .40 tons left over. I would like to be able to spend .50 ton for a half ton of ammo. You know, if a Gauss Rifle costs 16 tons and extra ammo for it was 1 ton, giving you a total of 48 rounds, why not spend only .50 and get a total of 36 rounds. OF course there’s that old nasty ‘source code’ issue. Well I can still want it right?
Some of the other things I would like to see would be destructible ‘parts’ like if you take some shots to the rear of mech, AND you have jump jets, I would like to see the jump jets have the ability to get blown off. I already know from game experience in league fighting that the ECM can be destroyed (thank you Mr. Prime 24 and your pretty little Ares for jumping on my little WolfHound’s head during a match). I just think it makes sense that if something can be selected as an option, that it can be taken out by the bad guys, maybe not easily, but at least the possibility should be there (IMO).
Mentioning jump jets, I know that in MW2 and even in NetMech, when you used jumpies, you had to feather your landing or take damage to your legs. I certainly hope that MekTek figures this one out because it makes a lot of sense to me. If an 80 ton beast lifts itself into the air more than waste high to itself, its gotta put some beating onto whatever it lands on, i.e. the legs. Feather that (like retro rockets on landers) to soften or eliminate the damage. I would also like to see a ‘legged’ mech with jumpies lose the ability to jump. You are already hurting and near destruction with one leg gone, you want to lift something that heavy into the air and try to bring it down on a ‘monopod’ without inflicting more damage to the only thing it lands on? Not very likely. Again this may be source code, but somebody figured it out with NetMech so I am sure the guys at MekTek will figure it out if they are so inclined.
I have been a strong proponent against comparing what technology we currently have and are working on against what technology exists in the imaginary Battle Tech Universe. People will say well we have “X” and it can track a target for hundreds of miles and hit it within a 5 ft accuracy so why cant MW4 do “Y”? That is a logical argument, except that the BT Universe is non existent and we only know what technology exist there from the games and the books, period. We can assume anything, but until it is added in the game, the video game or the book it is only an assumption.
Having said all that, I have to step away from that stance for this next item I would like to see. I hate to do this, but I am in strong belief of it so I am willing to take my beatings where I need to. I would like to see something like GPS tracking for FRIENDLY units regardless of radar settings. That is, I think that unless the enemy is jamming signals (you would need to be in range of their jammer to be affected) that if installed as an option, each unit could have something similar to our GPS devices so that everyone on the same team could ‘see’ where everyone else on the team was unless one (or more) of the team were being jammed. I also think that this option should be capable of being destroyed in fire fights with the enemy.
If you had that, league play (oh, hell, open play too for that matter) could be enhanced by allowing teams to stay together even if passive and even on no radar maps. The GPS type device could be used to track all the team mates. If their ‘blip’ disappeared, quickly over comms, you could find out of they are taking fire, or being jammed or what ever.
It could also be very useful for scout mechs. Take a small mech like a Raven and break away from the team to go looking for the bad guys. When he finds them, he simply says contact and folks could look at their displays to determine where he is and roughly where the bad guys are. A leader can then decide if he wants to stage the battle there or have the Raven ‘lead them’ to a better terrain for the battle.
Of course I think there are a few weapons that need tweaking, like the rail gun and Inferno Rocket Launchers and the entire Auto Cannon family, but I don’t think the MekTek crew are focusing too much on weapons. From what they have posted, I think they are more concentrated on the team play aspect of the game. This might include new types of game play, new maps and maybe a better communication ability built into the game. I think it would be great to have comms built in. Don’t know if that s possible, but it would be cool. Each server would be its own IP (similar to TeamSpeak) and whatever team you joined, you would be attached to that channel.
Another thing I would like to see changed if possible is the chat window. It is somewhat opaque, but it still takes up a good sized square of the view of the battlefield (at least while using FFP). I have seen other games, including Freelancer and Halo and Battlefield 1942, where the actual chat messages show up on screen, but are not in a ‘visual box’ per se, chat just appears as text on the screen. This would be very nice in MW4.
As far as other things, I guess I would like to see the net code worked out where there was less lag, bigger maps and more players. Some weapons seem to cause lag, whether its localized because of the video card (although it should not be) or whether it is caused because of a bad connection to the server. Bigger maps would be a lot of fun for team battles so that the game didn’t end in 2 minutes after 4 or 5 minutes of searching for each other. That, and I just like new maps. The thing with more players is that I would like to see more than 24 players to a server. However, to do that effectively, you need bigger maps and NEW missions, missions made for larger numbers of players. Some of the Mission Play missions that we have already begin to show their faults with just 10 per pilots per team. They simply weren’t made to handle that many mechs and it becomes too easy to beat the objectives. IF the maps were bigger and there were larger numbers of players on each team, things would get much more interesting.
MW2 had a thing called AMS. MW4 has a thing called LAMs. AMS was an Anti Missile System that was ammo based (similar to the US Navy Aegis System). It would shoot down missiles all day as long as you had ammo for it. The current LAMs system is more or less random in how effective it is and it is Laser based. The thing with LAMs is that even tho it is Laser based, the mech never suffers an increase in heat when the LAMs are active, OR the LAMs lasers are so small the heat is negligible. I liked the old AMS and it would be cool to see it make an updated comeback. I would like AMS to be more effective than LAMs, but still ammo based. When you’re out your out. Not real sure how to update it because it was pretty good as is. Anyway, I would like to see AMS make a comeback.
I would guess that by this stage in the evolution of technologies that both the IS and Clan would now have advanced optics instead of the Clan only. Same for IFF. So yeah, let the IS have Advanced Optics and let the Clanners have IFF. Seems reasonable.
How many of you played MechCommander (or any of that series)? Remember when your mechs were walking around the map IF one of your mech had some type of ECM it showed a like a circle of the area affected? The more advanced type of ECM the bigger the circle? Well, I always thought it would be cool in MW4 if ECM on your mech did something like that. What I mean is, if your team mates are within the radius of the ECM mech, then they too were covered by the ECM blanket. OF course this would call for different levels of ECM, all at different tonnages and of course the greatest level would only be available to a certain select few mechs. This would prevent so many ECM capable mechs being used on a team. I mean, if you go into Sunder, on any given map, you will see several Cyclops in use with other ECM capable mechs such as Highlanders or Victors or Wildcats or Gladiators or Blood Asps or Warthogs and on and on. If this option was limited to a (very) few mechs and even limited to a certain number PER TEAM, I believe the quality of play would increase after the learning curve for the pilots. I think that people get used to running with BAP and ECM and they would have great difficulty running around and not getting detected or getting shot before they even saw their enemy, so yeah there would be a learning curve. Some folks already run in passive mode most of the time and do a damn fine job of it. Those peeps would be a step ahead of most of the others folks, but once everyone got used to it, I think the level of play would step up a notch or three.
I don’t know if any of that is possible, but I would like to see those things brought about. I know, I know, source code. But hey, I can want cant I?
Maps are another thing I have touched on, bigger maps that support more players and more difficult missions. Another crazy idea I had was to make the HQ and Comm Array actually DO something other than be a target. I think it would be cool if, on Mission Play missions, the Comm array was shut down or destroyed, the defending team could not use team chat in the game for the balance of that round, but regular chat would still work and if my built comms were actually in the game, that channel would be shut down for the duration of the round. Also thought it would be cool if the radar for the defenders quit working. A long with that, the HQ would actually provide INFO to the defending team. Some sort of EXTENDED radar system connected to the Comms array. So a Mech would need to stand by the HQ for 10 seconds and the HQ would upload a mini map that showed the current location of the attackers out to 3000 meters in all directions (hence the need for bigger maps). Also the HQ would have some sort of seismic detection ability for the enemy mechs that were running passive or covered by the cloak of ECM. Again, this info would need to be uploaded to a defender mech by having that mech stand by the HQ for 10 seconds (maybe longer). That actually makes the HQ and Comm array worth attacking and worth defending. OF course, both would need to be hardened so they could withstand more damage and the seismic readings could still be given even if the Comm array had been destroyed. The Radar readings could be uploaded from Comms or the HQ, but the team chat would be Comms dependant. I don’t know, I just think it would add a new dimension to the mission play missions. Again, it may be source code issues, but who knows?
OF course this is just my wish list and I have no idea what MekTek will do or can do. They did not take me on for hire as creative consultant, heh, for that matter they didn’t even take me on as creative consultant without pay.
Visit the web links above. Look at the pictures and read the threads. Come back and post your thoughts about what is happening to our game. Post your wish list if you like.
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