Guitar Hunters

Greetings Mech Fans. It has been a long time since I visited Vettie's Views and passed along my thoughts about whatever topic I randomly picked. I have kept an eye on mechland, even though I haven’t been able to get on line an play very much. I keep a close eye on MekTek so I can keep up with the changes and I drop in on the http://www.sunderjunkies.com/ to see whats up with the old friends and the new guys. Of course I sneak into the halls of the Blood Pearls cause that is where it really all started for me.

Many of you know that Vettie and Ms. Vettie have divorced. After 16 years, we grew apart and all my medical issues and then financial issues became too much and well, never mind the details. Facts are facts. Ol' Vettie has medical issues that will only get worse as time goes by but he is doing everything he can to make the most of each day.

One of the things Ol Vettie has always liked or has always been a part of is music. Every since I heard my first Beatles song on my older sisters fold and play phonograph, I have had something in me that said “you gotta be part of this!” Well let me set the record straight right up front. Vettie has no natural talent. When I was a drummer, I practiced every day banging on everything from coffee cans to dresser tops. When I got my first kit of drums, my folks quickly moved them to the basement of our well insulated house and I wore that kit out practicing every day. Later I joined the school band for some real “music education” but other than drum and colour guard competitions, I really didn't care for it. I preferred football and basketball and baseball (that’s all we had back then) and rock and roll. I was in a few garage bands and later, in the high school years, I managed to get with some guys that really had talent. We did a few covers and created some of our own stuff and it sort of took off from there. We toured the southeastern U.S. And made lots of money and had lots of fun. We were signed to front a major act and did that for one year, then we were picked up by another one for the next year. During that time, we signed a record contract and went to Memphis to cut the tracks. Soon after the deal was done, tragedy struck our band as one of our lead guitar players was killed in an auto accident. One week later, in the exact same intersection, our bass player was killed in an auto accident. Suddenly, our future became very bleak. Of the surviving members of that band, I am the only one still alive.

Let me back up a little more. Yes I was a drummer and yes I loved it. My current condition with my back and lack of some motor controls prevents me from being an effective drummer today or I would still be doing that. As I said, backing up a little (my I easily get side tracked). When I was in second grade (yes Homer they had schools back then, my father was in the Air Force. He was some sort of a Sargent or Chief Master Sargent or something. He had a squad of airmen assigned to him and most of them were single guys. Being single, young and dumb, they often ran out of money before they ran out of month. This is the main reason you see so many pawn shops near military installations (and there used to be MANY more than there are today). One of the airmen assigned to my dad had borrowed some cash from him promising to pay him back at the end of the month (payday). Well, when payday rolled around, the young man didn't have enough cash to pay back my father. I remember the dude coming to our home (we lived in on base housing) and he and dad going out to the back yard and then to the guys little VW (it was a square back sedan). A few minutes later my dad comes in the back door carrying a long black rectangular case and a small blonde coloured box looking thing. My dad and mom had a few words and then my dad asks me if I would like a guitar. DUH!

My dad laid the long black case down on the floor and flipped a few latches and opened it up. Inside this case was some orange coloured velvet like material and a fairly new Fender Telecaster. It was Black with metal flake specs and it was brand new looking. The little blonde box was an amp and it too was a Fender. I would love to have either of those today, but mostly the guitar. It was either a 1964 or 1965 model. I took a few lessons way back then and learned a few chords, but my interest had always been on the drums and sports.

Let's skip forward to present times. Many of you know I manage a local band (II Daze Gone). The lead singer of the band and I have have become very good friends. He owns a music store. The days of our youth followed similar paths, at least musically, except he stuck with it and is still doing it today.

Many of you out there watch TV? True? A show on the History Channel (I think) is (or has been) running lately called American Pickers. Ever watch it? These two guys travel around picking through peoples old barns and stuff looking for “Old Americana”. Its a pretty good show.

Well, Henry and I sort do that, except we are looking for musical stuff, mostly, guitars, basses and drums. We have found some pretty cool instruments and we have made a little cash along the way. Living in North Alabama, we are located close enough to Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Huntsville and Muscle Shoals that we can work up a deal, go there and be back in just a few hours. We have traded and/or bought some really nice items at some really good bargains.

Let me give you an example. We were sitting in the store one day, both of us broke, down to about 200$ between us, wondering what we were gonna do about the store rent that was rapidly coming due. A gentleman walked in and asked if we bought guitars. Henry explained that we do, but it depends on the item, what shape its in, and of course how much the person wants for it. The man walked out to his car, raised his trunk and came back in with two guitars. He hands one to me and one to Henry. Henry and I looked at the guitars and then swapped with one another and to look at the guitar the other was holding. We both asked the guy almost in unison, “How much did you want for them?” The guy scratched his head and said “well, my dad bought me that Gibson when I was a kid to learn how to play on. I cut grass and saved my money to buy that other one. I have arthritis now, and cant play anymore. They just sitting in the corner collecting dust. I want someone else to enjoy them as much as I did. Do you think 150$ for the both is too much?” I damn near fell out of my chair. I was holding a 1963 Gretsch Corvette in near mint condition (other than the dust) and Henry was holding a 1958 Gibson LG-1 in good condition. The Gibson had the original case with it. I handed Henry a 100$ bill (my last bit of money) and he coughed up 50$ more. The man said “thank you” and walked out the door.

We had some work to do on the Gibson, but all the Gretsch needed was cleaning and a new set of strings. The neck was still straight!. We sold them both on EBAY in the Vintage Guitar section and yeah, we made our money back and paid the rent and managed to buy some groceries.

We have made many deals and will continue to do so. One of our favourite things to do is looking on Craigslist and trying to find someone that has a guitar that is broken or doesn’t work properly and they just want to sell it cheap. I bought a nice Epiphone Les Paul standard for 50$. It didnt work, no sound came out of it when plugged in and the kid's parents didnt want to fool with it because the kid had lost interest in playing it. The input jack wires were broken.

A close friend of ours, a guy who runs a studio in Decatur has the done the best deal to date that we have heard of. We call the guy Slugger. Slugger always has some kind of wild deal working. He came to the store on Saturday after calling us to see if we had any acoustic/electrics. We had a very nice Samick the we had just bought for near nothing. Slugger shows up and sees the Samick. He picks it up and plays with it. He likes it. He sits around and shoots the bull for a bit and decides to go. As he is paying for the guitar, he notices a white LTD (SG Copy) hanging on the wall of electrics. He says “Wait!” “Make me a deal for the Samick and the LTD!” We did and he paid for them and off he went. Later on in the day, we get a call from Slugger. “How much is an American Tele worth? Its a natural wood and in damn good shape.” We tell him the Blue Book value. About 4 hours later, we get another call from Slugger. “Shhh, shhh. I am in this guys bathroom. I need to know how much a DoBro brand Dobro is worth, hurry!” Again we tell him the value range based on the Blue Book. About 2 hours later, old Slugger pulls up in his Jeep pulling a trailer loaded with a brand new Craftsmen Riding mower. He comes bouncing in to the store grinning from ear to ear. “Guys let me tell you what I did today! It started with me buying those 2 guitars from you. I ran into a guy with an American Tele that he didnt want, but he did want an acoustic. I swapped him the 2 I bought from you for the Tele and he gave me some boot. I sold the Tele to another guy. This guy tells me about an old dude that had a dobro he needed to sell, so I looked him up and bought it from him. I was on my way home and a guy saw it in my Jeep at a red light and pulled up beside me asking what I would take for it. We pulled into the Sears parking lot so he could look at it. He asked me how much and I said, well I just got it and I been wanting a Dobro for a long time. How about you buy me a riding lawn mower and you can have it. He did. A brand new Craftsmen Riding lawn mower. Well I still had cash I had made from selling the Tele so I went back to the guy I traded to for it and bought back the 2 guitars I traded him.” So Slugger started the day with 300$ and a want for for an acoustic guitar. He ended the day with an acoustic electric, an electric, a riding lawn mower and some cash!! Now thats pickin!

The key to being a good Guitar Hunter is knowing the value of the item you are trying to buy and never, let me repeat, NEVER get attached to a guitar. You have to separate your “I want that” from “can I sell that?” mentality. Once you do that, then you can be successful, or make a little money. Unless you just find an old 1957 Mint Condition Gibson Les Paul in somebody's basement or attic or under their bed, you ain't gonna get rich doing this, but it is a lot of fun. Hell, most of the fun is just in making the deal.

A recent deal we made went real smooth. We worked with a guy over email and txt messages for about 2 weeks. He had a (semi rare) Epiphone Sheraton II in an antique white colour (that had already started to fade to blonde). He wanted to sell it but we were cash shy. We found out, by working with him that he needed a set of drums. Ta DA! We had a bastard set of drums that we pieced together from several others, basically leftovers from several other kits with an odd kick drum we had taken in on trade from something else. Altogether, we had about 100$ tied up in the various pieces of the kit. We put it together to make it look like a fusion kit and sent him some pics. He loved it. He was in Northern Mississippi, so we agreed to meet at a half way point. When we got there, he was anxious to see the kit. So we pulled it out and assembled it quickly. The guy was drooling. He sat on the throne and banged a bit. He said, if you guys wanna trade I am all for it!! He pulls out the case and inside is a pristine guitar, it wasn’t even dirty, no dust or anything!! We sold the guitar later that day for about 400$ he was happy and we were. A good deal all around.

Personal guitars? Yeah I got a few. I have a Union Jack Mexican Strat with Floyd Rose Tremolo system and Seymour Duncan pickups. I have a Fender American Standard Telecaster and a an Ovation CC48 that I won in a drawing. Those are my current keepers. I also have an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Studio in Antique White, a Dean Acoustic Electric Cutaway mini jumbo, a Dean Exotic Wood Acoustic electric all for trade or sell and I have a Squier (yes a Squier) Tobacco Burst finish Stratocaster that I bought new specifically to try out a new Vendor's pick ups. WOW was I shocked. These things are exclusive from Concert Parts and they blow away Seymour Duncans at half the price! They have a deep rich bluesy tone and even using distortion, each string is clear and vibrant. This may be a keeper. I have had a couple of offers for it already but I am not quite ready to sell it. I know, its just a Squier, but it is bad ass!

I am not making a ton of money, but I am having a lot of fun and learning a lot about guitars. I make enough to keep the bills paid and keep the belly full, but money isn’t everything. I am doing something I really enjoy.

Below are some pictures of some guitars and drums we have traded for or bought during our hunting escapes.

First up is a Heavy Metal Strat Made in Japan

Next is a Shector Devil Tribal

We also have an Ibanez S520 (ohh so hottt!)

as well as a couple of Les Pauls

a Jackson Dinky

as well as many others

The Marauder

Greetings Mech Fans.

After sometime away, Ol' Vettie is back at the keyboard bringing you some more fun and Mech Reviews as well as other things that I find out about the world of Mercs and MekTek and an occasional rant about something that grinds my gears.

I started to write about all the things that have been going on to keep me away from the keyboard, but who cares, right? Short version is that my internet connection would not allow me connection to my own blog site long enough to update or add new articles. Some of that has cleared up so I will try to give a new review for folks to (hopefully) enjoy.

During my time away I had a request to write about the Marauder. Seems like a good topic so I will do my best to give an objective review of the battlemech. I must say right up front that the Marauder is one of my favourites but I will still try to be objective about it. So here we go...



The Marauder is a Heavy Class Inner Sphere battlemech. It was developed near the end of the First Star League and became a favourite of many Inner Sphere Houses and Pilots. It is easy to see why. This 75 Ton warhorse is very tough. It has a long cylindrical body allowing the mech sustained life on the battle field. Hitting the mech from straight on gives you basically a small target yielding little damage. From the side view, the torso does not really have any flat surfaces, again the cylindrical shape comes in to play. A direct shot may not apply as much damage as a pilot would think simply because of this shape. Ballistics tend to hit and go up or down following th shape of the torso instead of directly into the torso. Same for laser burns. A laser hit generally will not sustain a clean burn, especially if the Marauder is in motion. If it is not moving, well the pilot should be shot.

The Marauder is basically a energy weapons platform with the exception of the dorsal gun. The Dorsal Gun is a “special” slot as far as armour is concerned. A pilot may not add or remove armour from this slot when configuring his mech for battle. Personally, I am a little leery of putting a “big” gun in there because of several reasons. I have no control of the amount of armour protecting my choice of weapon(s). It also attracts a lot of attention from enemy pilots, and I am not very good at keeping things undercover, or maybe protected is a better choice here, when I am under attack, even more so at close range. In other words, I tend to loose the dorsal gun cause I cant hide it from the bad guys. Lastly, because of mechs like the Behemoth (both versions) and the Marauder II, dorsal guns have become a favourite target for mechwarriors. Take out the “big” gun and “lots” of firepower is gone.



This dorsal slot is a “4” slot ballistic only slot meaning you can put pretty much any ballistic weapon in there except a rail gun. A Standard Gauss Rifle or Heavy Gauss Rifle seem to be favourite choices, but many of the Hyper Velocity Auto Cannons are now starting to show up in this slot. The other slots on this battlemech are two “2” slot energy only slots, one in the upper left torso and one in the “beam” rack roughly located in the “chin” area. Each arm also house a “4” slot energy only weapon slot. This would also anything from a small laser (1 slot weapon) to a PPC with Capacitor (4 slot weapon).

Stripped of all armour, engine upgrades, heat sinks and electronics show us that the Marauder has internal armour of 18.4 tons. Speeds range from 65kph to 95kph. To get a decent engine speed from the base 65kph lets say to 75kph will cost you 3 tons. This now leaves you with 53.6 tons to fill your mech with armour, electronics and weaponry. If you max out the armour with Ferro Fibrous (standard (for now)) it takes 13.6 tons. Leaving you with 40 tons for electronics and weapons.



Forty Tons will buy some fire power. I always suggest that a pilot take electronics if offered. LAMs and ECM are two of my preferred choices, but NEITHER are offered for the Marauder. Only BAP. This one is a choice I leave strictly to you. It depends on what you want to do with your mech, the mission at hand, the radar ability on map and your role as a pilot. BAP will attract some missiles (if the enemy has any and if the terrain is suitable), but it will also give some 1200 meters of “electronic” vision. It also lets you be seen from that distance if the enemy is running BAP. Again, I say pilots choice and mission dependent.

Heat Sinks. Well there are many different thoughts on heat sinks and simply put, some pilots are better heat managers than others are. I need them. I always count on using them depending on the weapons I choose to use and I count them as part of the tonnage cost of using that weapon even though different mechs have different heat capacity ratings. This where time spent in the cockpit lets you learn the mech. An example for me is the Sunder vs a Thor. The Sunder runs very cool using nothing but energy weapons but for me a Thor runs VERY hot and requires more heat sinks to keep it cool. Maps or battlefields also play a big part in heat efficiency, some are cold and some are hot. Load sinks accordingly and load them to how well you can manage heat. I use a 100% efficient map to do my base judgments (such as the coliseum). From there I know whether to add or take away based on the map to be played.

Well there used to be lots different thinking on armour. Different chassis perform (last longer) using specialty armour, at least in my opinion. The Marauder, with its shape, speed and profile does not really require any spec armour. It is a pretty tough mech on its own.

We have not talked much about weaponry for the Marauder. Again it depends on your mission and the map. Some typical load outs are 2 PPCs and a Gauss Rifle or Heavy Gauss Rifle, or exchange standard PPCs for PPCs with Capacitors (CPPCs for short). These are pretty hard hitting configurations and they cover a lot of ground. This best also makes for a nasty brawler using Large Lasers or LOTS of medium lasers and an LBX 20 0r 10, a Heavy Gauss or a Hyper Velocity 20 Auto-Cannon. There might have even been a “BBQ” config that had a flamer or two or six on it with a LBX 20.

Well I have gone over some of the basics and the standard stuff but how does this mech perform? In simple words, great. This thing is relatively fast for its size and pretty powerful. It actually handles better going backwards (good reverse speed too) so you can jam that nose into something then back out firing all the time. The dorsal gun is a bit fragile (but that's because it is a natural target) but the rest of the mech can take some punishment. The rear of the mech is probably the weak point so (in pilots words) cover your ass.

The Marauder climbs extremely well. It goes up and down mountains as easily as any mech without jump jets. Also, the Dorsal gun is set up high with a natural (gradual) downward pointing slope to it (maybe it is level but the shape of the mech gives it an optical illusion of a downward slope). I have already mentioned that this gun is a natural target, but being set up so high, it allows a pilot the ability to fire at an enemy from behind a ridge or hill or slope and never give the enemy a target other than the dorsal gun itself. Useful at times.

I guess it is about time to give you my rating and then my personal view of the Marauder. Ol' Vettie rates this thing a solid 4 minutes. Its tough and easy to pilot. The “Big” gun (Dorsal) seems to get blown off quickly leaving (most) with only arm weaponry. These go quickly too (or seemingly so after the dorsal gun) but are there long enough to inflict some heavy damage on the enemy. When on the battlefield it often becomes the number target because it is a dangerous machine.

On a personal note, I really like the Marauder and I was very happy when MekTek were able to include this mech (as well as some others) in their work and free downloads. Once known as one of the unseens, this mech gets seen quite a lot, especially on weight restricted maps. Its tough and can hold its own against larger more powerful assaults. When The Blood Pearls were active in NBT (Mercs, not HC), the Marauder was one of our mainstay mechs and they saw a lot of time on the battlefields.

Robotic resurrection

QUOTE “Robotic resurrection

FREEWARE MECHWARRIOR 4: MERCENARIES IS NOW FREE

Microsoft has finally caved, permitting the free release if its 100-ton robot-bashing sim, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries.

Its a copious package. A game of massive (if now slightly low-res) battlebots going metal to metal across varied and large arenas, but also an interesting sim with a few surprising additions.

You're in charge of a squad of mechs-a mercenary team that'll cause you to fret over their configuration, condition and costs. Things you probably didn't envision looking after when you first clapped eyes on these metal buggers. But if Mercenaries is as much about management as mechanical mashing, it's a worry tempered by the choice you have over what missions to fight, when and where. If you need to buy a more powerful add-on, you can choose to take time-limited military missions that'll throw staggering amounts of ammo at you. You can coast easily through the standard battles, but that's just treading water. Or oil, possibly.

In battle, you'll have to ponder the systems of your mech, worrying about overheating your vast lasers while fighting off a valley stuffed with enemies, routing coolant and dodging missiles. And all the time, you've got a squad to order around on the battlefield. It's a multilayered, complex and exciting robot stomper. Grab it now.

Size 1.2GB Link bit.ly/aeje4s “

QUOTE “It's like WWF wrestling, but with more lasers”

All of the above was taken from the September edition of PC Gamer magazine, page 89. I received my copy earlier this month. I hope you have yours.

While I am sure MekTek is thankful for the advertisement and the link to their web site (but the link is cryptic and does not say “www.mektek.net”), they are not mentioned in the article or even in the link (even though the link points to their web site). MekTek have put in untold numbers of man-hours on MW4 Mercs, maybe even more than the original team did. Maybe. They (MekTek) have given us MANY new battlemechs to choose from and more weapons than you could possibly use. Because of their work, others (including some of the MekTek folks) have also added many maps and even modified the single player game to be able to be played in multi-player mode (less the Solaris battles).

Now it is just my opinion, but it seems to me that the person that penned that article, just took an obligatory look at the download, played a mission or three and said 'yep, thats nice.' I am almost positive that the author NEVER went to multi-player mode and got online with some of the real players of the game. Even though I always enjoy running back through the single player game, it pales in comparison to going online.

What bothers me the most about the article is not so much that it is obvious to any MechWarrior fan that the author did not bother to go online, or even go in depth about the game and the additions MekTek made, but this simple statement, quote “It's like WWF Wrestling, but with more lasers”. What?

WHAT? MW4 Mercs is in no way like WWF Wrestling ( a male oriented soap opera featuring steroid laden goons faking their way through matches while afterwards having dinner and beers together). Mercs online is more like game of hide and seek and kill or be killed, quickly. Mercs can get VERY intense and leave your palms sweating, while you sit on the edge of your seat seeking that next enemy that you have very little idea of where they are and what shape they are in and what weapons they have left while you watch your temp gauge slowly descend back to normal operating temperatures and look over your radar to hopefully catch a glimpse of a red dot before you are the red dot.

Its pretty doubtful that any of you have ever stepped into the squared circle of the WWF to face off against John Cena or The Undertaker or whoever is the next greatest wrestler currently. But it very likely that if you are reading this, you have picked your favourite battlemech and loaded it to the hilt with your most useful weapons and electronics and the launched yourself into some world where the buildings are huge and landscape is vast. You and your team mates are on a mission to seek and destroy the enemy to keep them from meeting their mission objectives, which are most likely the same as yours, destroy all the other team in 30 minutes or less.

I would even say that if you are reading this, it is highly possible you played in a league match at sometime during your playing days. If you have, you know the intensity level. Two to twelve team mates are “dropped” onto some terrain that maybe be covered in snow or trees or buildings or lava or any combination. You all run passive except for your scout mech or your drop commander and you follow along closely so as not to be separated from your team and become an easy target for the enemy. Slowly you make you way around the map searching for those bad guys and a good place that is advantageous to your team to stake the battle. If you are good, or just lucky, you physically spot them before they spot you. Over teamspeak or ventrillo you discuss which mech to hit first and what the chain of command is should your DC get whacked, all the while maneuvering into attack formation. When the command is given, you either open fire or charge the enemy force at full speed hoping to take them by surprise and to come out alive. The weapons start blazing and mechs begin to explode. Parts are blown off and mechs explode shutting down other mechs close by making it tougher to determine who is on top of the scoreboard. After only two to three minutes, the dust settles and the ballistics are smoking while the lasers begin to cool down, a lone voice over comms says “good job gentlemen, we kicked their asses”. Now thats intensity.

So, yes, I am glad to see the freeware post in a world wide magazine publication, but I would have liked to see MekTek get some of the credit they deserve for so much work to such a great game and I would have liked to see the person who wrote the article actually “play the game”.

FREE MW4 Mercs and MTX

Greetings Mech Fans

By now you all know that MekTek has released MW4 Mercenaries along with the Microsoft Mech Packs and the MekTek Mech Paks. If you did not know this, then I suggest you head over to the MekTek web site ( www.MekTek.net) and download the MTX program and then let it download MW4 and install it for you. It will search out and get all the updates and bring your installation current. You will NOT need any discs and this will be a completely NEW installation, separate from any others may already have on your system. Please note that the new download for MW4 Mercs is just over 1.7gig in size, so it may take a bit to download. MTX Client is similar to a torrent program except that it handles the installation of the software for you and then checks to see if you need any updates.

Some people had issues with MTX. If you do have issues, please visit the MekTek Forums and do a search for your problem before making a new post. IT is most likely that some else had that problem or one very similar and that the issue had been resolved already.

I had NO issues with MTX. I installed it on 3 different machines and used it to install “Free Mercs” on each of them with no problems. In fact, my download times were very fast and so were the installs. Yours, of course, will depend on the speed of your internet connection and the speed of your machine as well as the number of users 'feeding the seed'.

Why MTX? Many have asked this question. I am not part of the MekTek Team even tho I was part of the Beta Test Team early on, but I completely understand the MTX solution. MTX was designed with the idea that all people could install MTX, and then use MTX to install whatever you download (AT1 or MW4 Mercs currently). MTX would also act as a revision checker to make sure that each person using MTX ALWAYS has the most current up to date installation of whatever game they installed.

In the past, MekTek would come up with some ideas and Battlemechs and release those as a patch. Most times they were large installs and they would completely 'revamp' your game to have the latest and greatest version of Mercs. With the introduction of MTX, you only will have to contend with 1 really big download (version 021) and then MekTek can make adjustments to that or, and more importantly, they can release “parts” of what we would have known as a complete patch or newer version (example MP1 to MP2). MTX allows the team to work on something specific, lets say new types of armour, test it completely, and when they deem it complete, they can release it via MTX and everyone can download it poste haste rather than having to wait for MekTek to complete work on something else. They can do this with just about any part of the game they are working on including adding new Battlemechs one at a time, or lump many things together. MTX also allows them to put out bug fixes rather quickly if something was missed in Beta Testing. All in all, MTX is a good way to do what MekTek wanted (and still wants) to do.

Bugs? Sure there were bugs. I have been watching the MekTek forums, specifically the 'problems' with the game and MTX. Since the release of version 017, the numbers of issues has continued to reduce. This is good. In defense if MekTek, I am pretty sure that they were not expecting the number of downloads that occurred during that first week to ten days. During that time, I was running a Linux version of U-Torrent and the numbers of seeds and peers surprised me. The high numbers I saw exceeded 40,000 users for that version. Thats a lot of MechWarrior floating in hyperspace.

I think since that time that MTX has become more stable and the flow is better. MekTek is now up to version 023 with 024 just on the horizon (maybe before this even hits the web). I would like to post kudos and accolades to the Team and also members of the forums for their patience in helping (many times very rude) users. Some of the folks that did this are not even part of the Beta Team, but still they took their time to help people with installation issues and other basic and even complex troubleshooting problems so that person could enjoy a “free” game with many times no thank yous involved. Hell, I even tried to help some of the people. And this type of 'community' effort is what is needed to keep this game going and to support the MekTek staff so we can get MORE goodies from them.

I dont often go out and say you should donate to this or that because money is a very personal thing and many dont have it to spare (especially in these economic times), but I suggest that if you can spare 5 or 10$, please do so. Every little bit helps and MekTek is mostly just a bunch of users like you and me that love the game and found a way to make it better and decided to share their abilities with all of us so we can enjoy a better MechWarrior too. They do this for no pay and give up LOTS of their own personal time so WE (you and I) can have a new 'toy'. So think about that next time you pull up to the drive thru at Macky D's or Taco Hell, or the next time you go to the local store and ask for a pack of Marlboro Lites or Newports and save that 5$ this one time and send it to MekTek. They use PayPal (I think) or most credit cards. IF you dont have access to either of those, send a PM to Vam or Whitefeather and ask them for info and mail them a money order or personal check. We are not talking Hundreds of dollars form any one user, just a little from you.

I do have one thing I need to get off my chest concerning MekTek even tho I have a complete understanding of why. What is it? Well, sometime ago, I had asked Jeho for an interview about the free release and possible inclusions for MP4. Jeho had responded positively, but then said I would really need to clear it with Vam first. My idea was to do an interview, record it, post it to my blog and even offer a “podcast” of it for download. I did not get a response from Vam, so after several days (week or even longer, dont remember now) I sent another PM to him and still no response. Maybe a month or so later, I see a post where they were do a live interview on MWL radio (shout cast) about the same thing(s).

I know the MWL shoutcast would reach a bigger audience so I have no issue with that, but I would have liked to at least received a response from Vam telling me no, or no thank you, or we decided to go do it at MWL or whatever, but I got nothing. Yeah, I was miffed about that, but I completely understand the reasoning behind why they went with MWL and I dont disagree with that decision. I just felt slighted, and yeah I may be old but I still got feelings. This does not affect how I feel about MekTek and their product and I will continue to be a supporter, donater and user and if asked, I would be on the Beta Team again, or even do an additional interview and post it on my blog with a podcast if they (MekTek) agreed to it.

IF you dont have it yet, I suggest you go get the download started and then enjoy the game. It's not the same old MechWarrior. Play thru the single player to get accustomed to the controls and the battlemech movement and weapons abilities, then go on line and get with real people playing and having fun. I would like to remind you that this game has been around for 10yrs or more. There are MANY veteran players out there and they are VERY good. If you need help once on line and in a server, dont be afraid to speak up and ask someone. Most of the players I have seen are more than willing to help you learn the game to make yourself better and to give them a better opponent as well, RGMU Corrine has a nice server called “coolants theme park” or something like that and Oneshot has a great server called +PT+Sunder II. I know the players in these 2 servers will go out of their way to assist you. You can also view older pages of my blog where I reviewed some of the mechs or maps or tactics and the SunderJunkies web site is also full of info for pilots. You can get there by typing www.sunderjunkies.com into your browser. Be sure and tell 'em Vettie sent ya.

So there you have it. Mercs released for FREE. MekTek working on more and more fun stuff for us. Get MTX and get the game. Then Get online and destroy stuff. What more could you want from a game? Its FREE, its GOOD, its fun, lots of maps, its FREE, its well supported, many players, its FREE, it works, you can customize your favourite mech and did I mention it was free? Well it is. Get it, get it today, get online later today or tomorrow and kick a little butt.

….w00t! Folks!....

Looks like its Finally Here

Greetings Mech Fans!

Couple of things to go over today.

Big news on the MechWarrior Front. I am sure most of you know by now, but Microsoft has given MekTek the “OK” to release MW4 Mercenaries for FREE. Yes, I said FREE. That means, to you and me and hopefully many new and old players that the game will mo longer require the original CDs to work AND it is legal.

Our thanx go out to the MekTek Crew for all their hard work and diligent attitude to make this happen. You can read more on the thanx at www.MekTek.net front page.

How is this to be accomplished? Well, if you dont know by now, MekTek released a small program (13megs or so) called MTX. MTX is used as a “bit torrent” type of interface to download AND INSTALL Mercs. As of this morning, the “Free Release” was not yet available, however, the prerequisites ARE available. (I left out the part about all the infrastructure MekTek did insure good download speeds and server availability and the insurance requirement placed on them by Microsoft, but all this can be read at the MekTek web site. Take some time and browse around.

What do I have to do? You might ask? Simple. Download MTX and install it on your gaming rig or whatever machine(s) you wish to have Mercs installed on. After the download and installation, run the program. There are a few tabs, but one of them is “Games Available”. Click that tab and let the software check the servers to see what is out there. It will give you a list, something Like AT1, and Mechwarrior Mercenaries release xxxxx017 (or something similar). If you want Mercs, click on it and it wills tart downloading AND it will install automatically. This is a major download, some 1.7gigs. Yes GIGs. It may take you a while to download, be patient. I also recommend you try AT1 if you are a true Mech Fan.

After it installs release xxxxx017, there will be an update available to you, release xxxxx018. (This is a very small patch) This release puts the Unseen Mechs (The Warhammer, The Rifleman, The Archer, The Marauder (family, i.e. Mar and Mar II) and others) BACK in the game. Whatever the hassle was over the unseens seems to have been greased. Oh yeah, I forgot, the MekTek download INCLUDES the Microsoft Mech Packs, you know the eight mechs (4 Clanners and 4 Inner Sphere) that you need the packs for? Well they are in the download and unlocked for you to use.

Now these 2 downloads get you the ability to run the game with all the MekTek Content to date included plus the 2 Microsoft Mech Packs. It is also REQUIRED for the “Free” (no CD version) release, so go ahead and get the basics installed. Currently, you will need one of the CDs to run the game that will be changing VERY soon. The Beta Testers are finalizing the changes to MTX as well as the “free patch” for the main game.

Yes, we know MekTek said they were ready some time ago, but things change. Here's the deal folks, MekTek went ahead and released MP3.1. They then changed it to include the Unseen mechs, thus giving us the first patch. This allowed them to work out any “bugs' or glitches that MTX may have had or the actual game had, not to mention SOME of the content that was slated for MP4. In finding some of those issues, Mektek has made corrections and is now testing those fixes. See, with code, every time you change something, you have to see what else it affects hopefully BEFORE you give it to the public. Here's the REST of the deal, there is NO WAY a code writer, programmer, whatever the proper wording is (And I mean NO disrespect), that person or group of people can cover ALL situations that may arise. Thats why they have a Beta Team, to get a broader view of the possible issues, but even that view still only covers a part of the spectrum. There are simply too many variants of software installs and hardware to cover every unique issue. MekTek makes a change, they test it, the betas test it and then they release it. That's how it goes. Be patient. IF you DO incur a problem, post the issue at their forums in the correct area, but search for your issue first, it is likely someone else has had a similar problem and it has been resolved or at least noted for the next patch.

In the next few days, the Free release patch will be out. Get yourself ready, get your machine(s) up to date. If you got it, donate to MekTek. Most of all, spread the word and join an online game. That is where the real fun is.

A secondary note – for those of you that enjoyed my ASL post, it is most likely that I may start a NEW blog just for ASL (and mostly for the current campaign game in progress).

Folks enjoy the game!

Red Barricades

Many of you know Ol' Vettie is a huge Mech Warrior fan. Heck I have an entire blog devoted to MW. Well guess what? MechWarrior aint the only game in town for the old guy.

You see, many years ago, I was a big “war game” geek. Yeah I said geek. Not only that, but I had some friends and buddies that were War Gamers too. Huntsville had a “club” that was devoted to playing war games. Once a month they would have a meeting and play games from about 7.00a Saturday morning until sometime Sunday night.

I played many different war games of all varieties, from Civil War battles to World War I games to World War II games to Modern Day warfare and even some futuristic games. Of all those I played, I seemed to like WWII games best and so did the group of guys I hung out with.

Avalon Hill and Victory Games were two of the big publishers back then and between our group, we probably had every WWII title those companies released. Heck, we even went to “Cons” like AvalonCon where the game company sponsored tournaments. We got a couple of rooms and made the 3 day event like it was Woodstock or some political convention.

During that time frame, one of my best buds and I decided to try this game called Squad Leader. It was a tactical level game of WWII where the counters represented single vehicles and squads and even single men (leaders). The game was rated as a 8.5 to 9 (on a scale of complexity) but it had a programmatic scale of rules. That is, you learned a few rules and you played a scenario that used those rules. Then you learned a few more and you played another scenario that had all the first set of rules PLUS the ones you just learned. This went on until you had all the rules learned Then, Avalon Hill released “modules” adding more stuff (nationalities) and more specific rules. The first of these was Cross of Iron adding some serious rules for the Russians and Germans. Next came Crescendo of Doom adding the European forces (Brits mostly) and finally, G.I. Anvil of Victory that included the Americans.

It was about this time that Avalon Hill decided to consolidate ALL the rules from those modules and clarify them into one rule book. In doing so, the game became quite a bit more complex and they even had to redo the counters to account for some of the new rules. The result was a game called Advanced Squad Leader.

Let me clarify a little something here. Advanced Squad Leader is not a game per se', it is only a rule book used for playing ASL Modules. The group that I played with most of the time decided we needed to move in that direction. For it's day, ASL rulebook was very expensive (25$) and the supporting modules were roughly just as expensive. To get started, you needed ASL Rules and a module called Beyond Valor. This gave you a complete set of rules and ALL the historical Russian and German (including Finns) units that were seen in combat in WWII. Let me remind you that ASL did not include Air Forces altho Planes are in the mix, it is mainly a ground combat simulation.

So we bit the bullet and we continued to bite with each release of a new module. The group of guys I played with changed some over the years, but a core group of us STILL play. Yes, I said we still play. The new rulebook is on its 3rd edition (and yes we have kept up) even tho Avalon Hill long ago sold out to Hasbro. A friend of ours, who also shares a love for this game called ASL, bought the rights to publish ASL and anything old and new generated from it from Hasbro. You may know the guy. He was an All-Star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox (as well as many other teams in his past). Curt Schilling is the guy and he formed his own publishing company to keep the game afloat. MultiMan Publishing now is the release point for all things ASL. We thank you Curt.

There is a small group of us now, that continue to play on a weekly basis. In fact, we just embarked on a new (another) Red Barricades campaign. This game was released back in the mid 1980's. The campaign reflects the German attack into Stalingrad during 1942 and more so revolves around the Nazi effort to take over the ordinance factory known as Krasnaya Barricady, or simply The Red Barricades ordinance factory. This is a re-creation of the actual Nazi campaign to push the Russians out of the factory and into the Volga, thus shutting down a major source of supply for gun barrels for tanks and anti-tank guns. The actual campaign lasted 30 days, from Mid October thru November.



Prior to the release of Red Barricades, all the ASL scenarios had been (relatively) small encounters lasting only a few game turns, somewhere between 5 and 12. The numbers of units used would depend on the battle or skirmish being represented, but would generally be a small number of units depending on how long (in game turns) the scenario was. These were “based” on actual battles, but usually represented only a small part of a battle or the prelude to a larger battle.

The group I played with (and I am sure we were not the only ones) sent a letter (no email in those days) to Avalon Hill suggesting some rules changes and, more importantly, suggesting that they do some sort of campaign game. The reason for the request was pretty simple. In a typical ASL scenario you had just a few game turns to meet victory conditions. Additionally, you had just a few units to accomplish victory (or to keep your enemy for doing so). A single mistake, or a bad set of die rolls could cost you the game. Many times it was decided early in the game OR it came down to a mad, unrealistic rush to get the victory condition (whatever it was, capturing a building or multiple buildings, inflicting X number of causalities, or exiting so many units of the game board.) Altho these were quite fun, it had that unrealistic feel to it. In the war, there weren't that many times that a leader would continue to send men (squad after squad) to their death just so some could leave the area, no most were fought with some bit of conservatism to save that tank or that squad for the next days battles. We often did DYO (design your own) scenarios that were “campaign like” so that you could “save” forces from the battle to use in the next one.

Obviously the designers were already on that train of thought. AH released a “Historical Campaign Module” that did all the things we were looking for. Red Barricades recreated and actual battle from day 1 of that battle through the very last day of the battle. Each 'scenario' represented 1 day of fighting. Things that didn't die got to stick around for the next day of fighting and so on. The victory condition was that the German Forces had to take over the entire map in 30 days of fighting and the Russians had to stop them to win.

The game is much more complex than that, but in a nut shell, the Nazis attack the factory and the Ruskies try to keep them out. The map is a 44” by 22” hexagonal grid overlaying a “fly by” picture of the actual battlefield taken from WWII photos, then obviously enhanced some to make things a little more clear for the players. The Order of Battle is taken from historical records of what actually fought in the battle, in other words, if it was there, its in the game. Players make “purchases” from day to day based on “what was there” and what they had previously bought. This means if only 3 Sturm Companies appeared in the entire battle, the German player can never buy more than 3 Sturm companies, but they could buy less. To make it more fun, each players purchases may not be a FULL company. They may be depleted, meaning they only get part of a company but they cost the same and the only control a player has over this is a die roll depending on some modifiers (based on historical events and actual game play events).



Anyway, as I said earlier, we have started a new campaign. Its 2 teams of 2 players each. Representing the German forces will be my old friend Ron who has been playing since the original Squad Leader game days, and my old friend Phil who joined us in playing war games some 18 years ago (maybe?). For the Russians, it will be a new comer to the gaming world, a friend of all of us Hugh and of course, Ol' Vettie. One of our plans is to use this (or maybe a new one) blog to keep up with the day to day (we meet once a week) battles. To list what each team bought for battle and to get their current battle strategy going in to the daily battle, note any changes of strategy and finally to get their point of view once the battle (daily battle) concludes and then repeat this for the next day and so on. Not really a series replay, but more so an overview of thoughts and ideas from both points of view. When we can, we might add some pictures of the battlefield so you readers can see where we are and what it looks like.

Let me know what you think and especially if there are any “gamers” out there, let me know your favourite game. I know Battletech got its beginnings (it still is) a board game.

W00t!

MP3.1 RELEASED

MP3.1 has been released from Mektek

THIS IS NOT THE FREE RELEASE, however, it does include the MS MechPacks.

The Unseens are out for now

YOU STILL NEED YOUR GAME CDs TO RUN THE GAME

MTX is required for download

Check it all out at

WWW.MEKTEK.NET

PLEASE TAKE SOME CASH OUT OF YOUR ACCOUNT AND DONATE TO MEKTEK. EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS.
5$ to 500$ give what you can. Give up your coffee or McD's for 1 lousy meal and help MEKTEK.

w00t folks!!!!!


EDIT
The UNSEENS have been released via a patch.
USE MTX to UPDATE your game. Its smooth.
Love me some Marauder!!
edit posted 4-5-2010 by Vettie!!!!!