Game Play

Greetings Mech Fans. My last entry, the Pure Tech series, got a few comments and some talks or discussion stirred and I am happy for that. A person that writes anything is always happy to have someone read what they wrote, it is even better when people make comments about it. That is what my blog is for, to post my thoughts on something and to let you readers post your thoughts as well. We don’t have to agree and many times we wont agree, but it is good to get the various points across so others can see them.

In the course of my last posting, my old (on-line) pal, GP mentioned that I should make a post about the various forms of play, mission play vs team battle vs team destruction. I have been thinking about that and then last night another thought popped into my head. Stock Play. So, today, I am going to attempt to put together a discussion about the various forms of team play and the use of stock variants all in one column. Hopefully, with a bit of word smithing I can put it so that it all makes sense and is readable, who knows, it might even be enjoyable by some.

Let me start off by saying that I am going to mix League play and Open Play in some of my comparisons based on some of things I have done while playing this game over the years. Normally, I would try to separate the two, but in this context it doesn’t matter if they get mixed up (or it doesn’t matter much and where it does I will try to point that out).

MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries offers many types of play for owners of the game. There is obviously the campaign or instant play games for single player. As most of you that played the campaign know, it is set up to take you through all the mech classes, you start with lights and work your way up to the assaults. The internal Solaris competition within the campaign is set up like that as well. My thoughts are that it was done this way to introduce the player to all the classes and allow the pilot to determine what is best for his play style. That, and the fact that it gets a pilot a wide variety of mechs to use in the game.

My personal feeling is that there is no better gaming experience than playing online. In fact, I think that is what keeps MW4 Mercs on its legs today, the online community. For those of you that do venture online, MW4 Mercs again offers many types of play. There is singles competition in various Battle or Destruction servers and there are several different types of game play for teams. Today, we discuss a few of those team oriented options so sit down, strap yourself in, button up your neuro-helmet and hold on. Stay in cover where possible, shoot straight and shoot first.

I don’t plan to discuss all the online options, but let me assure you, there are plenty of them and I am sure I would leave some out if I tried to mention them all, so I wont. A few, and I mean a very few are Urbie Dodgeball, Mech Racing, Mech McRugby, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill and many others. The ones I am going to discuss are Team Mission Play, Team Battle and Team Destruction.

Let me give a brief overview of each of these types and what they are all about before going in depth about any one or all three. Team Mission Play, known as Mission Play is probably the most complex game of the three types. Mission Play has multiple options for both teams. Usually, there is an attack team and a defending team, but not always, sometimes both teams attack. In the attack v defend scenario, usually the attack team has objectives to accomplish such as destroy something on the defenders side of the map OR they can kill all the defenders. Most times there is a time limit granted for them to do this, be it 5, 10 or 15 minutes. The defenders must keep the attackers from the objectives for that time limit or kill all the attackers within that time limit. The side that accomplishes their task wins the round. If the defenders keep the objectives in tact and DO NOT kill all the attackers, they still win so the pressure is on the attack team. There are some missions in which both teams attack, meaning that both teams have objectives they must destroy or kill all the other team to win the round. Usually these missions don’t have a time limit. Lastly, there are those where the objectives change from round to round. Team A could be the attackers on the first round and defend on the second round and both teams could be the attackers in the third round or any combination of the three. That’s the quick and dirty of mission play.

Team Destruction is pretty easy to describe. Read the name, T E A M - D E S T R U C T I O N. In this game type, one team tries to destroy the other. There are no other objectives and the time limit is the only factor. Team Destruction is all about kills. The team with the most kills at the end of the game wins. Sometimes the TD Games are played in waves. This means that the game is in rounds or waves. Each round has a time limit and the team with the most kills at the end of the wave wins the wave. Most Waves won wins the match. Sometimes TD games are respawn, meaning that after you are killed, your mech regenerates at your spawn or drop zone and you go back and fight again over and over until the timer runs out. The team with the most kills wins. Very simple, very basic game type.

Team Battle is also pretty simple. Two teams battling to score the most points, whether it is by waves or by match, kills don’t really count (but they help in the points). This one is often done in respawn mode meaning that if you get killed you come back to life to go inflict damage to the other guys until you die again.

More or less, that is basics for the three types of games on the board today. Over the years of play I have noticed some differences in these types of play from league to league and I will tell you a little about what I know of each. In some leagues, Mission Play is much different from what I spelled out above. I have seen Mission Play games be very quick in that there is only one wave. The attackers are generally set up to hit the objectives quickly. Get in, kill objectives, get out, game over. The Defenders are set up to kill the attackers in one or two shots. If the attackers take out the objectives, they win. It is hard to stop a team that works well together and comes in with a good plan to hit the objectives. Even a well oiled defensive team will have trouble killing 6 to 8 fast little jumping mechs before they can take down the objectives.

I have also seen Mission Play done in league play where you had to kill 50% of the opposing team before you destroyed the objectives. So if the match was a single wave, 400 ton, Mission Play Match, the attackers could not destroy both the objectives until they had killed at least 200 tons of the defenders mechs. This makes Mission Play most interesting. You can kill the turrets and one of the objectives, but you still have to kill at least half of the defenders before wiping out their base.

Open Play Mission Play is much different. You play in waves or rounds and there basically is not a weight limit unless it is set by the server (you could have a team limit or individual mech weight limit). The attackers try to move in and pressure the objectives while simultaneously trying to kill the defenders. Meanwhile the defenders are trying to put an end to this silly attack by taking out every attack mech encountered. In Open play, you see every type of mech used, heavy Assaults with massive alphas, speedy mechs that rush the objectives with a combo of weapons that is set up specifically to take out a building quickly, to general purpose mechs that can fight, move fast or take down buildings. Some folks prefer to concentrate on taking down the objectives while others prefer fighting mechs, but either way, Mission play offers it all.

Open Play Team Destruction is also pretty simple. Whether there are weight restrictions, or weapon restrictions, both or none, there are two teams set up to kill the other team. Matches can be waves or single rounds and they are usually not respawn (but they can be). When the map launches both teams set out to find the other and take them down quickly.

The league play version is not much different, except that there is usually a team weight restriction. You can take any mech you want but your team can not exceed the team weight limit. League play is generally a little more intense than the open play version. In League Play, the pilots are all part of one team, not a mix of teams, and there is generally one guy directing the team to battle. The team will run passive except for an electronics mech and maybe a couple of others and there may even be a scout. The Drop Commander will search for the enemy and for a place to stage the battle on terms best suited for your team. The mechs are usually predetermined including what type of weapons and armour to be used. Everyone on a team in a league should be on comms. In Open Play you get a mix-match of players on teams (usually, but not always) and some folks have comms and some don’t or they use different comms programs (TeamSpeak, Ventrillo and Roger-Wilco are the top three I think). The coordination is also less in Open Play because of these other factors. That is not to say that Open Play is not fun, it is. And LOTS of it.

Team Battle is another one that I have seen used differently. One league uses it LIKE Team Destruction in that only Kills count, not the score. Other leagues use it for the scoring. Team with the highest score wins. Almost always, team battle is a respawn fight. Because of the scoring and the respawn, Team Battle is very popular in Open Play. Set the map time limit to whatever (30 minutes is the norm) and drop and shoot. Team Battle is also very popular with the NHUA (No Heat Unlimited Ammo) crowd. Again, the League Play version will almost have restrictions on weight, chassis, weapons or any combo where Open Play may or may not. Either way, this is a fun version of the game.

I guess it is time to throw the Vettie feelings in on each type of play and give you my thoughts on them. As I mentioned before, I have played some of each of these in both League and Open Play. Let me start with Team Battle. I often like an Open Play Team Battle with unlimited respawn trying to rake up points. This type of play is just enough to relax you and let you forget about life’s pressures and stresses. Jump in a favourite mech and go out there and rip arms or legs off your enemy before you kill them to rake in the points. The smaller the mech you use the more points you get when hitting those big monsters that seem to kill me with one shot every time. Its great fun. As far as League Play, I don’t care for this type of play very much, but for just plain old fun its hard to beat. Lots of people love this type of League Play action and they are good at it. That’s great, its just not my preference.

Team Destruction, or should I say the concept behind team destruction, is probably my most favourite type of game play. Its all about killing mechs. Points don’t matter. Kill or be killed. League Play gets real in depth with lots of strategy and planning and coordination. Hit the dirt, find the enemy before they find you and take them down. Open Play is very close to League Play, but probably not as intense overall. For people that love to shoot at other mechs, this is the game type for you.

I forgot to mention something and now is a good time to bring it up. Team Battle and Team Destruction offer the most maps in the game today. There are literally over 250 maps available for play in MW4 Mercs and the majority of them are set up for Team Battle and or Team Destruction. Team Destruction is set up to be about kills, Team Battle is set up to be about points, but it CAN be about kills. Knowing that, Team Battle is probably the most flexible game type.

Vettie is all about the maps. I love playing on a map that I never have played on, or have only played a few times and have never checked out all the Drops Zones. It adds to the ‘fog of war’ if you don’t know the battlefield, or it does for me.

Ok, sorry for the tangent, but Im old. Where were we? Oh yeah, I was just about to talk about Mission Play. I am not sure Mission Play in the Open Server Sunder is so much different than it is in any League Play environment. As I said above, the League Play versions of mission play are usually very short and only one wave. Get in, kill the objective and get out, game over. The other League version is where you have to kill half the mechs first then kill the objectives, but still it is only one wave. Open Play in Sunder offers multiple waves and you almost always end up killing about half the other team before the objectives are destroyed IF the attacker manages to win.

The Open Play environment of Sunder exposes you to nearly every tactic you can think of as well as nearly every weapon and mech in the game. I have seen them all from Battle Armours to Behemoths, machine guns to rail guns, small pulse lasers to large continuous beam lasers, SRMs to Arrows, you name it in the game and I have seen it used. Maybe that is the attraction?!? You don’t know what you will be facing until you find an enemy. The weapons and tactics are always evolving in this game. Here is a good time to remind folks that this essentially an 8 year old game (Vengeance came out in 2000 I think, and Mercs is more or less an upgrade/improvement to that engine). I find it amazing that we are still experimenting with weapons and stuff this late in the life of the game.

Preferences? Well, that’s a tough one to decide. I would say that personally, Ol’ Vettie prefers Team Destruction type game play whether its in the opens or in a league setting. I prefer killing mechs over blowing up buildings. I would say that I play more Mission Play in the Opens than any other type, but that is not because of the mission play, its because that is where all my online ‘buds’ are. If I could convince more people to play Team Destruction I think they would actually like it better simply because of the variety of maps available. You can play for 4 or 5 nights solid and never play the same map. Don’t get me wrong, mission play, the way its played in Sunder, is a blast and I really enjoy it, I just prefer shooting mechs and new battlefields instead of the same maps.

Another thing of interest to me is that most Leagues use daytime or default settings and clear visibility or default settings here too. I know there were hacks that allowed folks to see through fog and some of the older video cards allowed you to ‘whack’ the fog, but MekTek has patched the hacks and I seriously doubt if any of those older video cards are still in use today. Sunder, still gives you the variety of weather, fog levels and day or night drops. That adds so much to the game and tactics. All this makes a better experience and I think it should be used in league play and open play.

I mentioned earlier something about stock play. Many people dislike stock play. I guess I simply don’t understand stock at all. I mean, I like it when the occasional stock mechs comes up in Sunder, but I don’t understand stock. What is stock? Almost every TRO I have seen offers multiple configurations, or variants. So which one is stock? And why is there ONE default stock config when the TROs offer more than one so-called stock variant? Why is there even A ‘stock variant’? Why not just a mech with empty slots? Maybe someone at MekTek is reading this and a ding will go off in their head. The fun of the game is in creating your own variant, so why even bother with stock? And if you do bother with stock, why not have ALL the TRO Variants (similar to what MW2 offered in the mech lab before you built your own, there would be 2 or three or four pre-builts available). Is there an answer to this or am I just beating a dead bush?

I have never read many of the battletech novels and I never played the tabletop game so I don’t know much about what is in there for the offering. I suspect that the game allowed you to create your own weapons load out within reason (slots or criticals available in a mech chassis) and I know I have read in the few books I did read that the mechs used were not always ‘stock’. So again, I ask, for the video game, why even have stock? Why not just an empty chassis?

Either way, I do enjoy the occasional stock match. I adds a ‘new’ dimension to the game. Not all the mechs have BAP and ECM, very few can jump and weapons load outs are set up for a ‘do-all’ situation with a combination of long and short range weapons and missiles. Pilots become dependant on their BAP and ECM AND their choice of weapons. Take that away and watch their kill numbers change. Stock keeps ‘em honest.

I like the occasional stock match, but I would not like it all the time. The ability to customize the chassis is real big in this game. It allows each player to make the mech ‘theirs’. I also think that if you could not customize the mechs, this game would have long ago bit the dust, even with the possibly the best online game play going.

Gather up your mechs and head for a server. There are Missions to Play and Destruction to inflict and points to score. Whatever your choice is, MechWarrior 4 Mercs offers it. Tell me about your favourite game type and why you like it. You can also tell me what you don’t like about the others I mentioned. I love reading the posts and I love discussion.

Pure Tech Part 2

Continuing the Pure Tech theme, I would like to talk about my “perfect” league for playing puretech. Indulge me if you will.

Currently, there are three major leagues out there for our beloved game. MWL, NBT and MCL. I am not sure if ISW is still operational, if so, ISW would make a forth league. I do not know that much about ISW so I wont make comments either way. My understanding is that ISW requires either NetMech IV mod or NBT-HC mod, but again, I am not sure. You can check for yourself by going to their website and poking around. www.iswars.com is the last address I had for them.

MWL is mostly a 3PV mixed tech ladder league. They have ladders for nearly every type play you can think of and if they don’t have it, if you get enough teams to sign up for it, they will create it. For awhile, they even had some FFP puretech ladders. I know at one time they had a planetary league too.

I am an admin for MCL. www.mechcombat.org. This league is also a ladder league but it caters to FFP play only. They have Mixed Tech Ladders and Pure Tech Ladders and are in the process of creating a Mission Play Ladder.

NBT is a planetary league. www.netbattletech.com. This league is probably the most in depth league if you are looking for planetary play. NBT is FFP, pure tech style play, however they use their own mod, NBT Hardcore.

I spent some time in each of these leagues and I am still a member of MCL. Before NBT went to the Hardcore mod, I was a member / co-leader of a team in that league. I have enjoyed each of the leagues that I have been a part of, and each offers some fantastic play for its members. All three are still active and have teams that are looking for players and are even accepting new teams if you have enough pilots to form a roster. If you are looking for competitive play in an organized league, I suggest that you look at each one and find one that fits your style. Join up and be a member, it’s a lot of fun. MCL and MWL both have Solaris type leagues so individual players can play and fight without actually committing to a team.

If I were going to create my idea of a “perfect” league, what would I do? Well, to start with I would take the NBT Planetary Model and change it somewhat. What? Why? The NBT system, throughout my playing time offers the best play as far as really getting in to what your team is about. My understanding is that ISW is/was this way too, and possibly even more in depth for the individual pilot, so maybe I would borrow some for each type of play.

NBT, as I have mentioned is a planetary system with Clans, Inner Sphere Major Houses, IS Minor Houses, IS Periphery Houses, Mercenary Units and even Pirates. All the major units from the BT Universe are or can be represented. They each have a little slice of the universal pie and each one is trying to get more of that pie. The Clans are trying to get to Terra as well as their own battles for supremacy and ranking within the Clan Worlds.

So how does this all fit in with puretech theme? As I said, I would start with the NBT model and take it a bit further. You see, when I played in NBT, you were either a Clan unit or and IS Unit. When you first signed on and started up your new unit, or took over and existing unit, you were given certain assets based on the type of unit you were. If you were an IS unit (this includes ALL units, Houses, Periphery, Mercs or Pirates, except Clan units) the majority of your assets were IS technology including your factories, jump and drop ships and battle mechs. I do not know for certain, but I am assuming it was the same in the Clan Side of things (I was never a part of a Clan Unit). You were given SOME assets that were opposite tech, but that was only a small percentage of your assets.

How would I further that? I would take it back to the BT Books and TROs. If House Marik built certain types of battle mechs, then that is ALL they would have to start with. Another way of putting is like this, if Steiner specialized in building the Thanatos and the Uziel, for example, then that is what they would start off having in their assets as well as having their factories being able to build. If House Davion built the Victor and the Wolfhound, then they would start with those mechs and the ability to build them.

As teams built their forces, and as the factories started to produce mechs and income, then the Houses could take their ‘goods’ to market and sale them to other Houses (either via auction (my personal fav) or public orders). After a House bought a certain number of another Houses goods, say the Steiners bought a 100 WolfHounds, then Steiner could buy the rights to build that model but still have to pay a percentage to the original House as royalties. Of course, if a unit captured or stole a certain number of a chassis, then they could reverse engineer it enough to produce their own. These captured tech could be manufactured and eventually sold, but ONLY on the Black Market. Some chassis would be shared by multiple (or possibly ALL Inner Sphere units). That is to say that ALL IS factories COULD produce an Argus (as an example) with no royalties to be paid to anyone.

IS Houses may also agree to share technologies and designs. This would mean that Steiner and Davion could become partners on battle mechs that were exclusive to them, like in the examples above, the Uziel and the Victor. Sharing would mean that both Houses give up exclusive rights on a design to another House in exchange for exclusive rights of another design. Each would then be the owners of that mech design and would be free to produce and sell the mech as they so desired. The royalties from these mechs would then be shared by both Houses going forward. This pattern could be repeated until all IS units are partners and then the unit becomes open technology among the Inner Sphere (like the Argus in the above examples).

Similar situations could be set up for the Clans. One Clan could have exclusive rights (as deemed by historical info from TROs or as set up by the Clan General Council) to build certain chassis such as the Mad Cat being built by Jade Falcon and the Kodiak being built by Ghost Bears. Now the Clans are so interested in monies or C-Bills like the IS folks are, so you would need to work out something on technology sharing amongst the Clans (even if they are warring among themselves). I suggest an allotment factor for each Clan.

Huh? How would that work? Simple. The General Council is made up of a Kahn from each Clan, major or minor. Among this group of Kahns, they elect a Leader of the GC and three member agreement board. Individual Kahns would submit their requirement ‘bids’ to the Allotment Board. The agreement board looks over the requirements for each Clan for each month and decides what new assets are delivered to what Clan. This would then be submitted to the Leader of the GC for approval. The Leader either agrees or makes adjustments and then each Clan gets what ever was submitted as their allotment for the month.

Also, if a Clan wins a ‘bid’ to attack an IS House, their allotment may be adjusted in increase their supplies as needed depending on their submitted bid, or as the GC sees fit to sustain, increase or decrease the flow of equipment. If a Clan is attacked by an IS house, they may also need more mechs than their allotment or even more than there ‘monthly bid’.

Why would you want to do this? In the beginning of a cycle (or whatever you want to call it), battles would be limited to only the mechs you have access to. How you trade and the agreements you make determine how technology spreads across the Inner Sphere and among the Clans. A team may spend months fighting a rival ‘house’ and never see an Atlas. Then one day they launch a assault on a neighboring planet in hopes of taking that planet for themselves and boom, there is an Atlas, or a few of them or many of them. Imagine capturing a planet from a rival only to discover some chassis being built there that you have not had access to, or only been able to buy through Black Market (extreme) pricing? Now imagine trying to work the logistics of deploying this new piece of technology to all your forces without losing it back, or having it stolen by pirates. Or, if you decided you weren’t happy with this new found toy, imagine the profits of selling through the Black Market o hiring Mercs to trade them off for something else or using ‘privateers’ to dispose of them for you on the Black Market if you don’t want to ‘dirty’ your hands.

Battle Mechs that were built by Houses or Clans that are not ‘filled’ while forming the league, could be bid on by other units. If Clan Ghost Bear did not have team filling that slot at the time of the league start up, or cycle, then any mechs built exclusively by Ghost Bear could be bid on by all the other ‘active’ Clans. Same for the IS. This would still allow for possibly all the chassis currently in the game to be used while the original ‘makers’ are not being used.

NBT has a very good system that allows for jump ship movements and record keeping as to what is in storage, on drop ships and jumps ships and what is on garrison as well as the size and type of factories on each planet. It also allows you to add factories if you have the C-Bills and it calculates income and maintenance fees. There is an overall universal map that can be drilled into down to individual planets. In the K-Cluster, planets may be sub-divided into territories owned by different Clans. It really is an impressive system and one that is fun to operate. Players can simply be pilots and fight using a multitude of chassis in a variety of different battle types, or they can have more assignments such as planetary garrisons or jump ship movements or financial operations or diplomatic relations officers or whatever.

More or less that is what my ‘ideal’ pure tech league would be like, chassis exclusive to certain Houses or Clans, Planetary Universe for warring and lots of diplomacy for agreements. This would make the pure tech aspect even more crucial.

How? As I stated in my previous post, the Clans had (have) an advantage in the 700 to 950 meter range and with lower tonnage weapons. The biggest thing in all the books and stories between the Clans and the IS was that the Clans would ‘bid’ on an attack. That is, the leader, or Kahn, would state tonnage or numbers of mechs or even which specific mechs they would use to capture a certain objective. A rival Clan would try to ‘bid’ lower by using less tonnage or smaller numbers and so on until one side passed and agreed to allow the other the right to be the aggressor for the battle that they were bidding for. This meant that the Clans would have smaller numbers of equipment available to them than there is counter parts, but the weapons technology was superior often weighing less (allowing for more firepower to be packed on) or having better range or both.

It wasn’t until the MekTek additions that things like the mini-gauss or Hyper Auto Cannons actually reduced that Clan advantage by taking away the range. Prior to MekTek MekPaks, the IS only had the Light Gauss Rifle and missiles (yes there were other weapons like the Long Tom and Arrow Missile System, but over all the Clans had an advantage). The IS had to rely more on tactics, stealth and shear numbers to overcome the Clan superiorities. In a video game, you cant very well ask one team to use only 5 or 6 chassis while the other gets to use 6 to 8 because overall it just doesn’t work out. Eventually the numbers game will catch up to the team using the lower numbers of chassis, especially in a planetary environment where it’s a one kill and you are out of the battle type of fight (meaning that there is no respawn, you either live or die in the battle).

In this suggestion of mine, you could recreate the Clan Invasion as well as the struggles between major houses. The Clans would still have their advantage of lighter / longer ranged weapons and the IS would slowly begin to realize that they need each other to survive the Clans (or at least they need some of their other IS chassis). Temporary alliances could be made, secret deals could be made, sales and trades could happen and Clans could fight each other as well as mount that drive on Terra…

Well that is my ‘perfect’ pure tech setting. The fun of facing mechs you don’t have access to or at least not yet. Realizing the strengths and weaknesses of the mechs you do have and the fun of going after what you want.

Pure Tech

Start a war? A debate? Maybe so.

We all know the radical differences between 3^rd Person View and 1^st Person view. We all know that there are many people on both sides of that razor edged fence. I prefer 1^st Person view and that is my choice. I don’t care if you prefer 3^rd person view because that is your choice. As long as you play the game, that is what matters.

The debate, the war, the topic for this rendition of Vettie’s Views isn’t about what view you use. No, instead I hope to spark some interest in one of the other oldest debates about this game, pure tech vs mixed tech.

Yes, my view will be slanted to the pure tech side because that is my preferred way of playing. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, its my blog, so I can put whatever I want in it. I do hope that this issue will spark some comments on both sides of this fence.

OK. Wow, where to start with this topic? Oh yeah, for those of you that may have stumbled upon my blog by accident, of for those of you that are new to MechWarrior, let me explain the differences and then I will state my case for pure tech. Pure tech simply means using Clan Technology Weaponry on Clan Technology Chassis and Inner Sphere Technology Weapons on Inner Sphere Chassis. Pretty simple. Mixed Tech is even more simple. Mixed tech means you can use any weapon on any chassis. Any questions? Ok maybe if you are new to the game you don’t know what is what. Simple enough. When you go into the mech lab and select a chassis or create a variant the chassis is there spinning around inside the lab. There is a brief description that tells you some key info like whether the chassis is Clan or Inner Sphere. On the left side is a list of weaponry. If it is Clan Technology, it will have a little “C” in the upper left hand corner of the weapon Icon. If it has and “X”, it can be used by either Clan or Inner Sphere and if it has nothing in the corner, it is an Inner Sphere weapon. If I figure out how, I will try to post pics of the different weapons and a chassis of each technology.

Well, I hope that my explanation was simple enough and I hope that I didn’t confuse anyone. Now on to my favourite, Pure Tech. Let me state this, I have never played the table top version of “Battletech” but I have a pretty good idea of how it works. I am a gamer and I play several table top games. My favourite is ASL or Advanced Squad Leader. Let me also state that I have read a few of the BT novels but not very many, so my dedication and love for this game actually stems from the game itself. I started playing way back in the MW2 days and I even played some online version back then. Vengeance and Mercs really got me interested and I have played for years.

My pure tech roots are not seated in the board game or the novel, its actually seated in the game itself. Vengeance and Mercs are very similar and I consider Mercs to simply be an improved add on to Vengeance even tho they are separate games. Way back in Vengeance (and in Mercs too) when you created a stock mech or a variant of a mech, it came pre-loaded with weapons based on the technology class of the chassis used. That is, if I created a Thor, it came with Clan Tech ER Medium Lasers, Clan LRM missiles and Clan Ultra Auto Cannons. If I created an Uziel (Carl’s favourite, “the ‘work horse’ of the Inner Sphere” if you remember the guy that ran the mech lab for Ian) it came with IS PPCs and IS Machine Guns and IS SRM missiles. This carried over into Mercs. I am not talking about the campaign game where salvage in Mercs nets you ‘the empty chassis and the weapons that would normally be installed on a stock mech’, I am simply talking about going directly to the mech lab and creating a mech (variant) for you to (possibly) use on line.

These ‘pre-existing’ stock models or variants have their roots from either the novels or the board game, I believe. I think they are called “TROs”. This is basically a listing of the mech, its variants (if any), the standard armament, the type of armour, the type of engine, the speed range and any electronics installed. Obviously, these “TROs” are more complex than what we get in the video game version, so our armour has been changed to three types, our engines are listed as speed upgrades or downgrades and the various electronics have been compressed into ECM, BAP, LAMs, Jump Jets and IFF and all the weaponry installed is same technology as the chassis.

If you ever read any of the books, then you know that early on the Clan Tech Mechs had a distinct advantage over the Inner Sphere mechs. The Clan Weapons had long ranges and the mechs had dual heat sinks to contain heat better. I also am under the belief that ‘early on’ the Clan Mechs were generally faster. This fact is brought about in the game we play. Inner Sphere Large Lasers are heavier (in tonnage) and have a shorter range than the Clan counter part. The same goes for all weapons that are shared by both technologies, like the PPCs, the standard Gauss Rifles, the Medium Lasers, the Pulse Lasers, the Ultra Auto Cannons and LBX Auto Cannons. All the Clan versions either weigh less (in tonnage) or have a longer effective range or both. For game balance, Microsoft and Mektek made the Clan versions of certain weapons run a bit hotter so it forces the player to either not shoot as much or use more heat sinks.

When I first started playing Mercs on line, I would play in a server called NBT-Thor (I think). Its now called NBT-Sunder, but it was a mission play requiring people to play FFP Pure Tech. I had no idea what all those acronyms were, but they played the same style that I played. I liked it. Before too long, I had joined a team in the NBT League. Here was a whole league that played 1^st Person View and Pure Tech Chassis loads. Wow!

It did not take long to learn the ranges of the weapons and when you were in range or out of range depending on the enemy you saw or picked up on radar. This became part of the strategy of how to play the game. You knew your limitations and you exploited your advantages. Clan Tech was nasty at 700 to 900 meter range while IS tech was great inside 600 meters or outside 900. Being an Inner Sphere Pirate team, MOST of our technology was IS but we did manage to have some Clan Tech.

Here’s the thing. If you saw a Gladiator or Mad Cat MKII, you new not to get within the 800 meter mark (or the 900 meter mark for the Glad) or you would get ripped to shreads UNLESS you could avoid being shot and close to the 600 meter mark where your (IS) weapons were as good as theirs. It just doesn’t seem right to see a jumping Glad Bag firing ‘red’ Gauss slugs at 1000 meters. Something is wrong with that picture. I hate to see a MKII firing what looks like regular Gauss slugs, but registering a hit at 1000 to 1100 meters.

You see, playing pure tech gives each chassis its own bit of character. There are many chassis in each weight class that can carry the same weapons load outs. The difference is the chassis itself. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some mechs can not carry some weapons or some combo of weapons because of slot size or weight (of the weapons) without altering some other part of mech (like losing jump jets or speed or armour).

Let me put it another way. Mixed tech allows you to build some uber configs that you could not do in pure tech. I will show you an example using my favourite mech, the Victor. Using a mixed tech config, I can load two Clan Gauss Rifles and three ER Large Lasers with ECM, LAMs and Jump Jets with no adjustments to speed or armour. In a pure tech setting, I can load two standard Gauss Rifles and only one Large Laser and I would have one ton left over to add to the armour or as a heat sink. Now you may not think the twin gauss, triple ER Large Victor is uber, but for a Victor it IS. What it shows is that by allowing any tech on a chassis, you can build some pretty mean configs that you would not see in a pure tech environment or in a TRO or in any of the books.

Another way of looking at it is like this. If you went to buy a new Ford, when you opened the hood you would expect to see a Ford motor, not a GM motor. You would think that not only is there some performance differences between IS and Clan weapons, but you would think that there may actually be some technical differences, like size variations (English vs metric) or connection issues or wiring issues or who knows what. What was the chance that during WWII that if any Allied Unit captured a gun or tank that they could take that and put it own ‘technology’ without some sort of retrofit to make it work? I mean come on, you capture a German Tiger and ‘our’ ammo fits and works flawlessly when the ammo it had runs out? What about modern weapons? Can the U.S. Army take parts of an AK47 and use them on an M16 without modifying something first?

Yes, I do think that scientists and engineers would be able to come up with ‘retrofit kits’ to allow you to use a Clan weapon on an IS Mech, but I also think that such a kit would have to have some tonnage to it that would need to be calculated in addition to the weight of the weapon. I would also think that the reliability of ‘wrong tech’ weaponry would be decreased somewhat, you know, more prone to malfunction.

I just find it very hard to believe that Clan engineers and Inner Sphere engineers came up with the exact same idea at roughly the same time. No, I think more like the Clan came up with these things and the IS captured or recovered (more likely) one of these gigantic monsters and reverse engineered it as closely as they could. Then again, I guess these mechs were already around before Kerensky and his followers headed off to form the Clans, so the basic design may have already been there and the Clans ‘improved’ upon existing technology.

Now a quick bit about mixed tech. Yes I play mixed tech some times. I don’t care for it, but the first few times through the solo campaign I did use mixed tech based on whatever I salvaged. By the way, its much more of a challenge to play the campaign using only pure tech configs.

As I mentioned above, mixed tech allows you to build some killer configs. What it really comes down to using mixed tech is ‘what is your mission objective?’ IF you playing to get the most kills, then mixed tech is great, just pick a tough chassis and load it up with whatever weapon you need to kill a lot of other mechs.

I see that as a down fall. Seems to me, and again, I don’t play mixed tech very often, but it seems to me that mixed tech would put a lot of weapons and especially mechs on the shelf. I mentioned above how there are multiple mechs in every weight class that can carry the same weapons load. For mixed tech, in my opinion, it would seem that you would almost ALWAYS use the toughest chassis mech that would allow the load out needed.

I could be wrong. I would love to hear from the mix tech readers (if any) about your thoughts on this.

Well that’s all for now folks.

Traffic Rant

Well, its been a very long time since I posted anything on Vettie’s Views. Some of the reasons are obvious if you have read my Blog. I lost my sister in a horrible car accident followed by having to take a couple of business trips. I really didn’t get time to grieve and I am still not sure if it has sunk in. I guess on of these days I will just sit down and have a massive cry.

The past three years have been pretty rough on Ol Vettie, I lost my mom to a very unexpected illness. I broke my lower back and had to have a fairly extensive surgery. The damage to my nerve bundle (the sciatic nerve) was bad, so bad that I had to learn to walk again, and even now I have trouble with my legs not always wanting to go where I want them to go. Then I had to have yet another back surgery because one of discs collapsed on top of another and caused the lower one to explode (yes, it really exploded, little pieces of bone fragments went as much as two inches away from the disc). Then my sister’s untimely death, not to mention my teenage daughter totaling a car in a head on collision with a SUV.

Yeah, I have had more fun in my life, but I guess it is all part of life, good times and bad. I am still alive and still kicking (and cursing and being generally a pain in the butt). I would like to say thanx to those of you who took the time to make a post about my sister and to those of you that just thought about me or even prayed for me, even if it was just a brief thought or prayer. Friends and family really help out in times like these and it means a lot, even if we forget to say thanx.

So, before I forget, thanx. Thanx to all of you.

Its been awhile since I had a good rant and now is as good a time as any. My rant is something that has most likely happened to you or you may have even done it yourself. As you can see from what I said above, my nerves are really pushed to the edge and it doesn’t really take a lot to set me off. When I was younger (and could move quicker), I was known to have a short fuse. Now, my fuse is MUCH longer, but once it is lit, well you will see.

Here’s the layout. Recently, my youngest step-daughter is on the colour guard for the high school band. She is a senior this year and she made ‘front line’. Front line, as they call it, is the line of ‘flaggers, or sabers, or rifles’ that is closest to the audience in a half-time show. She is very proud of herself and she works hard at the colour guard routines.

The Colour Guard have been having practices earlier in the mornings before it gets so hot. So typically, they start at 6.00a and practice until about 8.00a, except on Sundays. Sundays, they go from 7.00a until 8.30a, then they are excused for church and start up again about 6.00p.

The car that her mother and I have so graciously provided for her was in the shop having new tires installed and getting a general servicing. We had taken it on Saturday, but the shop said they were having a problem getting the tires and would not be done until Sunday afternoon. No big deal. Except that I forgot she had practice on Sunday morning. That meant that someone would actually have to get up and take her to school and pick her up. Well, you probably have a pretty good idea who ‘someone’ is, right? I didn’t really mind, because I normally get up between 6 and 6.30 anyway so I figured I would be awake.

Sunday rolls around and I wake her up so she can ‘get ready’ to go. I take her and drop her off at the school and I told her to call us when it was time to pick her up.

Its roughly 7.00a on a beautiful Sunday morning and I am awake and hungry. I decide to go to Hardees and pick up some breakfast to take home to the wife. She likes that and scoring some goody points with the wife never hurts, right?

Anyway, I head to the local Hardees. IT is located across a main road artery from where I live and this roadway is under heavy construction. The highway department is building and overpass over this particular intersection. At this east to west intersection, going west there are five lanes. Two lanes are for turning south (left) onto this major highway, two lanes are for going west (straight) into the parking lot of a shopping mall and two lanes are for turning north (right) onto the major highway.

No it is NOT a math error, five lanes, six options. The two northern most lanes (right hand lanes) are set up so that the farthest right lane is a right turn only lane. The lane adjacent to it is for going straight OR turning right.

I am going straight and after the intersection, I will be exiting into the parking lot of the Hardees. I can smell that sausage cooking from across the highway, hmmmm, sausage…

Anyway, as I mentioned, it is only 7.00a on a Sunday morning. I pull up to the intersection and stop because the traffic light is Red. This intersection is pretty busy during the week and the light cycle is roughly 3 minutes.

As I am sitting there, a couple of cars line up behind me and 2 cars enter the right hand turn lane. Alabama law allows a right hand turn on Red if the lane is clear, so those cars managed to turn right away. The light goes through its normal cycle and a green right turn arrow lights up for the right turn lane and my lane. I am going straight (one of the two options for this lane) so I don’t move. The guy in the car behind me sits down on his horn and (apparently) is screaming at me to go. I double check the light and it is only an arrow, so I put my car in park.

I grab my (titanium) cane and get out of the car to see if I could assist this gentleman with whatever problem he is having with his horn. Now, Ol’ Vettie is not huge by any means, but he isn’t a small guy either. Ol’ Vettie is about 6’1” tall and weighs about 240lbs.

Early on Sunday morning, before I have had time grooming, I guess I can have the look of a deranged killer or something like a mad scientist, with lots of hair going in every direction and a pair of grey eyes (my eyes are hazel and they change with my moods) that are non-blinking and staring a burning hole into whatever I am able to focus on. I get out of my SUV with cane in hand and proceed to the vehicle behind me that has now apparently been able to ‘fix’ his horn because it is no longer honking or blaring.

The dude in the mini van proceeded to roll his window up nice and tight. I walked right to the drivers window (he was alone in the mini van) and I began to use my cane to rap on his window requesting that he roll his window down. He obliged and I asked him, in a nice calm voice, what the issue was. The conversation went something like this..

“WTF is your damn problem? Roll that damn window down or I will break the damn thing!”

He rolled the window down.

Again, in nice calm voice I screamed “Is there a freaking problem with your horn? Or did you want something?”

He mumbled something like “I think I made a mistake.”

Once more, in soft, calm demeanor, I spoke, “look dude, this as a go straight OR turn right lane. I am going straight and the light is red for straight. If you need to turn right you can get your light happy mini-van or in the right lane and turn whenever you wish. I suggest you get that horn of yours checked right away because others may not be as calm as me or may have even taken your horning blowing and gesturing as a threat of some kind. I don’t pack a gun, but others do. Also, Dude, if you are in that big of a hurry, why didn’t you leave a few minutes sooner? Nobody wants to hear that crap at 7.00a on a Sunday morning, so knock it off, Clear? One more thing dude, I know that when you turn and you get a ways down the road and I am out of your sight, you are gonna have thoughts about what you should have done. Well, I am here none so I suggest that you do whatever you think you should have done and do it quickly, but I must remind you that not only do I use this cane to walk with, I am pretty good at using for other purposes. I played college baseball (jr. college) and I had a very high batting average. I still play golf and my bat or club speed is still very fast if you care to find out. And just so you know, titanium does not bend when it meets bone. Or at least, it hasn’t yet.”

With that I turned and headed back to my car. I felt a lot better about helping a neighbor with his horn problem. Just as I got my seat belt buckled, the light for my lane turned green. I slowly started out into the intersection, in fact, I went so slow that the light turned yellow before I got past the ‘stop line’. That poor fellow with the malfunctioning horn was again stuck at the intersection. Damn…

My rant is this. People do not need to be so impatient with their fellow humans in traffic. You are driving or riding in a (roughly) 3000+ bullet. Those thing hurt when the hit you, so pay attention to what you are doing, especially when you are behind the wheel and for God’s sake, stay off your damn cell phone while driving.

It wasn’t too long ago, that we didn’t have cell phones. You know what we did back then? We actually spoke to one another face to face or we used a real telephone. We either waited until we got where we were going, or we stopped and used a pay phone. If you need to use the phone so badly, get off the road and so it so you can concentrate on the call and you don’t have to worry about that bullet you are driving.

Also, just a few short years ago, this country under went a terrible attack from terrorist that killed many innocent people. Shortly after that terrible day that we now know as 9-11, everyone (at least in my area) was overly nice to each other, opening doors for one another, waving other cars on even tho the waver had the right of way, people slowed down and appreciated what they had and each other. It seems now that all of that has been put once again on a back burner and its every man for himself, again. Maybe we should step back a little and look at what we have and once again be thankful we are alive and that by the Grace of God (whoever or whatever you God is) you have what you have. Take a minute and be nice to somebody that you don’t know. You might just make their day, and it damn sure wont hurt you.

Before you get in line in traffic and decide to see how well your stupid horn works, remember that there maybe someone in front of you that is a bigger a$$h013 that you. Remember that jerk just might get out of his vehicle and come to your window and see if he can help you with your damn horn. Also remember that if he has a cane that as of yet, not one bone has ever bent that cane and that stupid jerk just might not be afraid to use that cane.

You never know the pressures or pains or incidents that someone else is going through. Just because you are having a bad moment, doesnt mean the guy you are blowing your horn at hasn’t had a worse one. You don’t know what you don’t know. Yeah, I was wrong to get out of may car and go bang on this guys window and give him crap. But I opened his eyes a little and at least before he does that again, he will at least hesitate for a moment and remembers that big ol’ dumb@ss that beat on his window. People, it’s a small world and at least for now, we all have to live in it. Have a little respect for others.

Ok that is my rant. Vettie tells the readers he is an idiot. He tells the folks that early on a Sunday, Vettie does not appreciate the sound of a car horn blaring at him from behind. Vettie also tell the readers that the one finger salute with rapid waving is not something he completely understands at 7.00a on an otherwise quite and peaceful Sunday morning. He also mentions that he might have mistaken those gestures as a call from that driver for help as his horn was obviously stuck in the “BLOW LOUDLY NOW” position. After a brief discussion with his friendly neighbor, Vettie apparently helped the guy fix the horn by rapping on the car window with a walking cane. I don’t know if this works for every vehicle, but it does seem to work well on Dodge Caravans, I am guessing the horn has a direct link to the window up/down button, but I am not a mechanic so I don’t know for sure. You also learn that Vettie is adept a giving directions in the heat of traffic, help the distressed traveler find the correct EMPTY lane for turning and finally, you learn that Vettie offers sound advice in that if you need to get some where in a hurry that maybe you should leave sooner….

Oh yeah, watch the video

http://www.trunkmonkey.com/content/view/28/1/

My Sister

Hello Mech Fans

Vettie here with a short blog for this week.

I lost my sister to a terrible car accident this week and I have been very busy doing some family things and trying to help with the final arrangements. She lived about an hour south of where I live in a more rural area.

My sister was almost 10 years older than me and lived a very good life. She had had some medical issues in the latter years including a couple of heart attacks. She was NOT a smoker and she was NOT overweight, she just had some issues.

On Tuesday of last week, she had some sort of seizure and was hospitalized because of it. They released her on Wednesday and on her way from the hospital to her work, she apparently suffered another seizure and died while driving. The vehicle she was driving obviously left the road and ran several hundred yards of the side until it struck some trees. After crashing into the trees, the vehicle then ignited and burned completed before fire and rescue teams made it to the scene. My sister was still inside the vehicle when the fire teams managed to extinguish the fire. The state forensic lab did tell us that she did not suffer the fire as she had passed prior to the vehicle igniting.

My sister had brought two wonderful boys into this world. The Oldest son, John, is in the U.S. Air Force, Special Forces stationed in Qatar (spelling?) on station somewhere in Iraq. Bless his soul for having to find out about his mother from his commanding officer. They sent him home for services and he arrived this weekend. The Youngest son, Joshua, lives near me and was one of the 1^st (of the family) to discover what had happened. Again, thoughts, blessings and prayers to him and for him. They are both exceptional young men and just two of the greatest guys you would want to know.

Its rough news to take in that a family member has just died in such a terrible way, especially a mother or a sister. I am still shaken by the entire event and I guess I am still in the disbelief or bewilderment stage. I mean, I know it happened and I have talked to the funeral directors and even my pastor but I still find it hard to believe.

Let me just throw this out there for those of you that have family members that you no longer live with or maybe had a falling out with or, for whatever reason, you just don’t talk to them much or at all, take a minute and call them. Tell them you don’t want anything, that you don’t need anything, that you’re not mad about anything, and that nothing else really matters, but you just wanted them to know you were thinking about them. Not only should you do that, but do it every so often. I will not get that chance. I sure wish I had that chance, or more so, I wish I had taken that chance because now my sister is gone and I cant remember the last time I spoke to her. All I had to do was pick up the damn phone, dial her number and say hello, you’re my sister and I love you, talk to you later. Don’t let this happen to you. Get in touch and just let whoever it is know you care. Both parties will feel better for it.

I don’t mean to get all mushy and whiny, so please bear with me. The past 3 or 4 years haven’t been overly kind to me, losing my mom, my sister and having many medical issues of my own.

I just needed to get some thoughts out into the air and now I have. Thank you guys for being here and reading this. I’ll get back to meching real soon. Remember what I said and reach out to your family members or close friends and tell them you care. I know life is very busy for every one, but its worth it in the long run.

God Bless you Sis, you are going to be missed. We love you.

Music

Greetings Mech Fans! For those of you who read my blog, you know I write about mechs and every once in a while I go off on a rant about something that bugged me or bugs me. You also know that I put a little of myself into just about every column, whether its my experience playing the game or some real life thing. Most of you also know that Ol’ Vettie is pushing 50 years of age.

I gotta (that’s a Vettie word, by the way) say that in my life time I have seen and done many things. The Good Lord has smiled on me and I have been fortunate for most of my life time. I thank him for that very often (not nearly enough, but he knows that I am thankful).

In my life and career, I have been to many places throughout this world. I guess I knew enough about the job I was doing that the company I worked for in the past felt they could send me to other factories throughout the world and teach people how to do some of the things I do (did). I have been to France, Holland, Finland, Switzerland and Hungary to pass my knowledge to those folks there and I have been to many places in the States.

Back in November, I wrote a column devoted to my dad (http://vettiesviews.blogspot.com/2007/11/happy-birthday-dad.html)

If you did not read it then please click the link and give it a read. I mention in there that my dad had spent 24 years in the United States Air Force. As you can imagine, we moved around a lot. I was born in Bermuda, but I have lived in many different states.

As I said, Ol’ Vettie is pushing 50, I’m not there yet, but only about a ½ a year to go. I was fortunate enough to have grown up during the 60’s and 70’s. I still remember the day JFK was shot. I remember where I was and what I was doing. If you were born around that time, do you remember?

Fortunate to have grown up in the 60’s and 70’s? Yes! I will tell you why in just a little bit, so hang with this old guy as I get my thoughts together. See, I have mentioned that I love playing Mechs and I have even mentioned that I love board games (WWII games mostly). I just don’t remember talking about something I really like maybe even more that meching. What could that be? Liking something more than MechWarrior? Well, its this little thing called music.

Vettie is a huge music fan. I love concerts and I love listening to music and I love playing music. I bought my 1^st drum way back when I was I in Jr. High School (6^th or 7^th grade) to play in the schools band. Before that, my dad had bought (sort of) me a Fender Telecaster and paid for me to take lessons. I say sort of, because actually he had let one of his men borrow some money and they guy couldn’t pay him back so he offered my dad his guitar. I still remember that thing, black body with a natural wood neck and a ‘tube’ type amplifier built into a ‘hard’ wooden case that stood upright.

I played in a few garage bands later in life until I got with a bunch of guys that really ‘gelled’ together. We practiced a lot and even did a few sets for parties. We got good enough to get ourselves booked into a local club. Then we toured the state. Later we played at a festival and got ‘noticed’. I may write a column about that some day, but that is not what this one is about. It is about music, just not ‘our’ music. Remember? I said fortunate enough to have grown up in the 60’s and 70’s? Remember now?

Well think about that. Think about what growing up in the 60’s and 70’s means to a real music fan. Let me give you a little hint. Before we had ‘good’ stations on FM, there was AM radio. And back in the 60’s, AM radio was very ‘time formatted’. The local stations actually had to announce the time they were going to broadcast “Hey Jude” by the Beatles because the song was ‘so long’.

The 60’s and 70’s brought us some of the greatest ‘rock’ and ‘folk’ musicians to have ever graced this earth. Can you remember the 1^st time you ever heard “Stairway to Heaven” on the radio? I mean, before you even bought or heard the record, or listened to the (laffs) ‘8-track’ or even the cassette? Did you know you were listening to greatness? What about Cream? Or Hendrix or Duanne Allman, or Leslie West? Did you know you had just heard greatness? Now days this type of music is called “Classic Rock”. I was there when it was fresh, new music.

That Era brought us many of the greatest artists ever. To this day people are listening to stuff that was first released when I was a kid or a young man. Can you imagine an FM station today announcing that “at 2.04pm today wxxx radio will be playing ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles”? Can you? Ok, quit laughing, but its true, they actually did that when that song came out.

When The Beatles played their 1^st gig in Shea Stadium, I was about 5 or 6 years old. My sister was either 15 or 16. She won tickets to go see them. We lived in Jersey (McGuire AFB). Mom and Dad would not let her go because it was so far away and she was too young. I still have those unused tickets.

When I was even younger, and this is probably where it all started, my Dad was stationed at Columbus AFB in Mississippi. We went to the state fair one year because my mom wanted to see one of the entertainers. I was just a kid, either 3 or 4 years old, because it was a year or 2 before Jersey, but I still remember it as if it was last night. There was a huge crowd at the fair grounds, an of course there were many rides and lots of terrible food, but from what seemed like the opposite side of the fair grounds, came the sound of music blasting through the park. My Dad scooped me up and we hurried to where ever the music was coming from. My Dad picked me up and put me on his shoulders so I could see. After whoever was playing finished their song, they left the stage. An announcement was made and we were supposed to give a big, warm welcome to an upcoming star. This fellows name was Elvis Presley.

Well, Elvis played about 5 or 6 songs and danced all over the stage. The crowd was screaming and yelling and clapping and I did not have a clue about what was happening. The surprising thing about all of this was that Elvis was NOT the main attraction of that show.

No folks, the next act to take the stage is the one that got me interested in music from that point on. When Elvis left the stage, the announcer came out and told us to hold on to our pants. The next performer is the man we had all been waiting to see. Then the lights went out and a spot light came on the stage. From behind a big black curtain came this huge white piano. A moment later this fellow with bright red hair and a sparkly jacket bounced out from behind the curtain. This voice rang out over the PA system announcing that Jerry Lee Lewis was here!

Jerry Lee only played about 4 songs that night, but the last one he did was ‘Great Balls of Fire’. I had never seen anything like I saw that night. This little fellow with the red hair and shiny jacket played that piano with his hands, his feet, his head, his elbows, his knees and even his face. It was incredible. I will never forget that show.

During my teenage years and later, I was privileged enough to have gone to many concerts. And I do mean many. I have seen Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, The Allman Brothers, Jimmy Buffet, The Who, Bad Company, Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Bread, Chicago, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Deep Purple, Molly Hatchet, Black Oak Arkansas, Journey, Kansas, The Rolling Stones, The Black Crowes, The Steve Miller Band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, ELO, Golden Earring, Jethro Tull, Boston, Pearl Jam, Robin Trower, Rod Stewart, Santana, Rare Earth, Uriah Heep, Supertramp, Genesis, Bob Dylan, U2, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, Black Foot, Arlo Guthrie, CSNY, Yes, Foghat, The Doobie Brothers, BTO, The Eagles, Joe Walsh, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Heart, Mountain, Humble Pie, Peter Frampton, AC DC, Bob Segar, Kiss. Fleetwood Mac, Spooky Tooth, Guns N Roses, Queen, Seals and Crofts, Styx, Stillwater, The Cars, Ringo Star, Paul McCartney and Wings, The Guess Who, Steppenwolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rush, Van Halen, Elvin Bishop, Wet Willie, Sea Level, Little Feet, Sandford Townsend Band, Elton John, Steve Earle, Billy Idol, Leo Sayer and many many more.

I remember seeing Kiss way back in the mid 70’s. The show they put on was amazing. I remember seeing Charlie Daniels, The Outlaws and Marshall Tucker all perform together for an encore. I remember seeing Keith Emerson playing a piano suspended over head and twirling upside down. I remember seeing Eric Clapton break and “E” string on his guitar and still playing thru the song. Yes, an “E” string. I saw Yes in the round. I saw Alice Cooper and his Billion Dollar Babies tour. Oh, I could go on and on about different concerts and shows I have seen.

I remember thinking that if Led Zeppelin ever came close enough that I was going to go see them. About a month later a show was announced for Birmingham Alabama. It sold out inside of 90 minutes. This was before the internet and ordering tickets. You actually had to go the arena and stand in line. A bunch of us decided to go even tho the show was sold out, we were going to crash the gate if we had to. We lucked up on some tickets outside the event for face value. What a show… The lights went out and smoke filled the stage as a single light beamed onto a guitar. Jimmy Page had taken the stage and was ripping into “Nobody’s Fault but Mine”, a song we had never heard before because it had not yet been released on record or even to the radio stations. As he ripped through the intro, another light beamed on John Henry Bonham as he joined Jimmy with his percussion parts. Yet another light flashed from above and John Paul Jones was throwing down some bass tracks to this amazing song. All the lights then went out as Jimmy jammed through the intro again and we heard the wailing voice of Robert Plant singing along with the rhythm that Jimmy was laying down. Then, the stage lights fired on and they were all on stage which was filled with this purple blue smoke and lights went on and off to the smack of a stick from John Bonham. Wow! I get chill bumps still just thinking about it. Of course they ended their show, after a couple of encores, with Stairway to Heaven.

Well folks there is just too much to write about. I mean think about ANY classic rock station today and the shear number of DIFFERENT artists they play. I grew up with most of them. They weren’t called classic rock(ers) then but they were classics.

I suggest that you go to a concert this year, even if you just go to one. Go see someone you like and just enjoy the music. Im looking forward to the season to start around here. Even if I have to go to Nashville or Atlanta, I plan on going to at least one big one this year. Its been a long and winding road following the magical mystery tour so jump on the magic bus and hang on loosely. Live for the Music. Get out and support your favourite artist(s). Doesn’t matter if its an orchestra, a chamber group, country, rock, hip-hop or heavy metal. Just go and see them.

Urbie Dodgeball

Urbie Dodgeball

MechWarrior is a GAME. Games are supposed to be fun. In fact, Dictionary.com shows the following for a definition.

1.	an amusement or pastime.

2.	the material or equipment used in playing certain games

3.	a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators.

Webster’s says the following

A contest with rules to determine a winner

An amusement or pastime

The game equipment needed to play a game

As you can see, both definitions are very similar and both mention “an amusement or pastime”.

And what is ‘an amusement’?

Amusement

Noun

1. A feeling of delight at being entertained.

2. An activity that entertains.

So again we get back to the entertainment thing. Entertainment should be fun

Define fun? Ok

Fun

Adjective

1. Providing enjoyment; pleasantly entertaining; "an amusing speaker"; "a diverting story"; "a fun thing to do".

Noun

1. Activities that are enjoyable or amusing; "I do it for the fun of it"; "he is fun to have around"

MechWarrior is fun. I have spent countless hours in Sunder playing MechWarrior and trying different things.

Leagues are fun too. They are much more competitive than just playing in open servers like Sunder, but they are still fun. The Blood Pearls belong to MechCombat League and we are having some fun there.

Sometimes you just need a break. Sunder gets pretty competitive and any league will also get very competitive. Our society has always been such that the individual is pushed to be a winner, to have success, to be the best. This carries over in to our pastime, our amusement, our fun. When we get time to play the game, we jump in front of our computers and we build the meanest, toughest battlemech we can and we go online to find the best players around and we do our damn best to destroy them before they destroy us.

That’s all fine and it adds to the enjoyment, the fun for a lot of us most of the time. Every once in a while you just want to play to be playing and it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it only matters that you are having fun.

I present to you, Urbie Dodgeball. Just for fun. I gotta say, this stupid rendition of Solaris brings back the reason I love this game as much as I do. Urbie Dodgeball is nothing but pure fun. Sure it is competitive, but it is all in fun. What? What did you say? You never heard of it? Well sit back, get some popcorn, you favourite drink and let me explain Urbie Dodgeball to you.

What do I need to play Urbie Dodgeball and get in on all this fun, you might ask. Simple. You need MechWarrior4 Mercs installed and updated to MP3.02.b. Then you have to have an internet connection (if you are reading this, then chances are you have an internet connection and probably MW4 Mercs too).

Now the next thing you need is something more like something you need to do instead of something you need to have. Start up the game and go to the mech lab. Create a new mech, an Inner Sphere UrbanMech. Name it Dodgeball or something that will be easy or you to remember. Remove all your electronics except jump jets. Yes you will need these even if you are a die hard ground pounder. Go to the weapons sections and remove ALL the weapons. Then go to the Armour section and remove ALL the armour. Yes ALL of it. I SAID ALL of the armour! Go back to the Weapons tab and load your little Urbie with a Long Tom. Now go back to the Electronics tab and add a heat sink and ECM or 2 heat sinks. Your speed should be 52kph and you should have .1 ton left over. You can increase your speed using 1 of the heat sinks for speed upgrades, but DO NOT USE ANY LEFT OVER TONNAGE for ARMOUR!!! NO SIR, DON’T DO IT!

Don’t forget to apply your favourite camouflage, make your Urbie as purty as possible. This is very important.

Urbie Dodgeball, as you can see is played with IS Urban Mechs with Jump Jets, Long Toms and NO ARMOUR. Dodgeball is played in ‘arena’ maps, preferably small ones so that the action is contained to a small area. The Jungle or The Factory are perfect. OF course you have to play 2 or 3 rounds and you must finish by playing the last round in the Coliseum. The Object of the game is to get the most kills using your Long Tom or by using the DFA (Death from Above) Maneuver.

Want to talk about fun? This is hilarious. If you are not a Long Tom user, it takes a bit to get used to flinging Toms shells accurately enough to do damage to any other Urbie running about or shut down from over heating. Long Toms fire in an Arc and they have a lot of heat associated with them when you fire them (that’s why your use 1 or 2 heat sinks).

You look around the battlefield and see nothing but Urbies. That in itself is funny to see, but you see these Urbies running and jumping and firing Long Toms. You also see lots of explosions. It is not uncommon for a pilot to get 20 to 30 kills in a 30 minute bout as well as 20 deaths. One thing you really want to try to do is to get a twofer or a threefer. That would be to kill 2 or 3 at once.

You would also be surprised at how tough a no-armour Urbie is. They will take 3 or 4 Long Tom ‘hits’ before exploding. Except the ‘arm’ that contains the Long Tom, many times it gets blown off on the 1^st hit. The cool thing about Long Toms is that you don’t have to ‘hit’ the enemy, you just have to get close. They have a blast radius that affects everything in that radius with damage.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I have blown off my own arm shooting at an enemy only to hit a hill or wall in front of me. Doh! LOL! The IS Urbie has a 360 torso twist and 1 big arm, so it is the perfect mech for this action. You cant make one fast enough to avoid much fire (following the Dodgeball rules that is), so the targeting is relatively easy. That is also why you take jump jets. You cant run away from the blast zone, but you can jump high enough to avoid the damage. Again, it is very funny to see a bunch of jumping Urbies on ANY map.

Duncan Fischer had no idea Solaris could be so much fun. “now let me show you the sky” has a new meaning. “It’s Factory Time” does too. I would love to get George in Comms with us one time and let him ‘Duncan Fisher’ his way through an Urbie Dodgeball Match.

That’s another thing. Comms. Urbie Dodgeball is a lot of fun. It’s a literal blast. Joining in with all your combatants on Comms doubles the fun. Hearing each pilot as they try for kills and lose their weapons or score a twofer or land a perfect DFA, well, it just adds so much to what is going on. Hell, every once in while, I will break out into my best ‘Duncan Fischer’ voice and repeat some of his sayings from the solaris matches in the single player part of the game.

Urbie Dodgeball with 15 other MechWarriors all on comms is just about as much pure fun for fun that can be had. Sure you want to get the most kills and have your name show up on top when the round ends, but even if you don’t, you had a bunch of pure fun. In these days of tight money, rising costs, personal pressures, job stress, family stress and on and on, just having some good old, plain, non pressure playing fun is really hard to beat. It only takes a few shots before you figure out how to use the Long Tom effectively and before you know it, you are placing the perfect round in the gaggle of Urbies 500 meters away that are ramming each other cause they have no weapons and you are trying for that elusive threefer or even a fourfer!!!!

Sit back, relax. Build A Dodgeball Special Urbie. Host your own game or next time the Blood Pearls are playing Dodgeball, join us and get on comms with us. After playing 2 or 3 rounds, whether you won or got killed a lot, you tell me you didn’t have fun. IF you don’t have fun playing Dodgeball, you just don’t know how to have simple fun or you don’t want to.

MechWarrior is a game and games should be for fun and amusement. Urbie Dodgeball is one of the most amusing, fun times that anyone can have with this game. Even ol’ Webster himself would give us a positive nod on this one. Join us next time, wont you?