[AtomicClucker]

I'm wondering if there's anyone else who's gotten to try this. It's retro, and it's a blast from the BattleTech past and free, provided the servers aren't crashing or dying.

It's been several years since I've laid my fingers on a joystick to pilot  a 'Mech, instead that was spenf flying fighters and small capships like the Dreadnaught from I-War, the last time being back when Mechwarrior4 first came out.  More than a year ago, I tried getting Mechwarrior from MekTek, but it proved futile due to the sheer demand and unreliability of the bittorrent network and client (uTorrent was less of a hassle than MTX;  in one sitting I downloaded all the necessary MTX files from MekTek and unpacked them).

Currently, I'm dying horribly in the light 'Mech arena on SolarisVII, struggling with a mix of beam and lrm weaponry on a Cougar chassis that's seen too much abuse. While I value speed, it's pretty rough devising a measure to a well placed PPC shot from a stupid Wolfhound.

[Sushi]

I played through it, 'twas fun.

I remember thoroughly abusing the railgun on the mechs that could carry it.

[AtomicClucker]

I played through it, 'twas fun.

I remember thoroughly abusing the railgun on the mechs that could carry it.

The Awesome is pretty awesome at that (yeah, lame joke). Being at the end of the stick of a PPC or Gauss weapon isn't so fun.

[Scotty]

I'm wondering if there's anyone else who's gotten to try this. It's retro, and it's a blast from the BattleTech past and free, provided the servers aren't crashing or dying.

It's been several years since I've laid my fingers on a joystick to pilot  a 'Mech, instead that was spenf flying fighters and small capships like the Dreadnaught from I-War, the last time being back when Mechwarrior4 first came out.  More than a year ago, I tried getting Mechwarrior from MekTek, but it proved futile due to the sheer demand and unreliability of the bittorrent network and client (uTorrent was less of a hassle than MTX;  in one sitting I downloaded all the necessary MTX files from MekTek and unpacked them).

Currently, I'm dying horribly in the light 'Mech arena on SolarisVII, struggling with a mix of beam and lrm weaponry on a Cougar chassis that's seen too much abuse. While I value speed, it's pretty rough devising a measure to a well placed PPC shot from a stupid Wolfhound.

I played this when it wasn't retro.

If you're playing a Cougar, ditch as much speed as you can, max your armor, and put on a pair of CLPLs with enough heat sinks to not shut down quickly.  THEN add LRMs.  You can switch CLPLs for CERPPCs, but be prepared to do less sustained damage and overheat in bursts.  In other words, the Cougar is the sniper tank of the Light bracket.  Use it like one.

Cougar is probably one of my favorite Light 'mechs, but I'd much rather be in a Hellhound.  I LOVE the Hellhound.

[NGTM-1R]

What Scotty said about when I played it.

I always tried to drive a Puma for light matches on Solaris. Two ER-PPCs gave you tremendous firepower for the weight class and after that it was simply a matter of careful fight selection so you could overpower your opponents quickly and move on.

[BlueFlames]

Currently, I'm dying horribly in the light 'Mech arena on Solaris VII, struggling with a mix of beam and lrm weaponry on a Cougar chassis that's seen too much abuse. While I value speed, it's pretty rough devising a measure to a well placed PPC shot from a stupid Wolfhound.

In the arena fights, especially the light matches, victory is a matter of position.  You just can't wade into the middle of a twelve- or sixteen-mech free-for-all and win in that weight class.  If you've got Large or ER Large Lasers, take long-range shots as the opportunity presents itself, but otherwise, keep your head down, until you're down to the last one to three opponents left.  At that point, if you've stayed back and minimized damage to your armor, you should have an easy time finishing off these last few fighters.  Playing it safe like this will pay off in all the weight classes, but in a heavy or assault mech, the additional tonnage available for armor gives you a greater margin for error.

If you're still having difficulty, consider switching to reflective armor.  Light mechs typically can't fit any really threatening ballistic weapons, leaning heavily on lasers to deal damage, so laser-resistant armor makes life a lot easier in this weight class.  Armor choice gets a little trickier in heavier weight classes, since mechs will start carrying a mix of weapon systems.  I've got an LBX10-toting Shadowcat, which will mess up anyone using reflective armor, and there's a similar configuration that will spawn in the arena matches, when you get into the Medium weight class.

Finally, missile-heavy configurations aren't necessarily the best idea in the arena.  The tougher bots with customized mechs will often be sporting AMS/LAMS, which will take a lot of the punch off of your LRMs or Streaks.

[AtomicClucker]

I use two cougars: "Commander" and "Gladiator" variants respectively

LRMs proved useless to my primarily beam focused combat, so the commander variant sports four clan medium pulse lasers and heavier armor at the cost of the engine and jump jets. However, I did kill a Cobra Bushwhacker (my new baby now ) taking minimal damage by running around pelting the bastard while my lancemates filled him and his buddies full of missiles.

The gladiator has been through several combos, though I'm going to probably go with the PPC combo and tweaking my joystick to react better to strafing movements.

[NGTM-1R]

Solaris Arena fits and tactics; mind you, these are from memory so they may be wrong.

Max armor is standard, typically ferrofiber as the others consume large amounts of weight. Jumpjets are typically removed. Heatsink capacity is pushed up wherever possible, and any spare tonnage went there or to engine. Armor on rear torso occasionally adjusted down for proper rounding.

Have a button for all your ERPPCs, but also have different trigger interlock combos so you can fire them one at a time when your heat is high. Secondary weapons should go on a different button from all others: their purpose is to let you keep shooting when you're cooling down.

Turn and pick off the guy next to you and work onwards from there, do not charge into the middle and FFA it. If you are being engaged by more than two enemies, something has gone terribly wrong. Look for opportunities to cripple your opponent's ability to project firepower, like blowing off an arm or arms you know has their main weapons.

Light: Puma. 2 Clan ERPPCs. Don't lose an arm. Replacements for Clan ERPPCs are tough to come by at this stage.
Medium: Uziel. 2 Clan ERPPCs. Secondary weapon either Streak-6, pair of machineguns, or RAC2, depending on how hard I want to push my heat curve. Extra ammunition, usually at least an additional ton and often two, is a must.
Heavy: Mad Cat. 2 Clan ERPPCs. 2 RAC2s or 2 RAC5s depending on how hard I want to push the heat curve. Extra ammunition, one or two tons. You may find it necessary to invest in a second chassis you can move your gear onto as you'll get beat up fairly often.
Assault and Tournament: Hauptmann. 3 Clan ERPPCs. Light or standard Gauss Rifle depending on pushing the heat curve. Extra ammunition again. I have vague memories of once squeezing a Heavy Gauss on, but suspect that caused a scrimp on armor.

[Angelus]

*snip*

Light: Puma. 2 Clan ERPPCs. Don't lose an arm. Replacements for Clan ERPPCs are tough to come by at this stage.
Medium: Uziel. 2 Clan ERPPCs. Secondary weapon either Streak-6, pair of machineguns, or RAC2, depending on how hard I want to push my heat curve. Extra ammunition, usually at least an additional ton and often two, is a must.
Heavy: Mad Cat. 2 Clan ERPPCs. 2 RAC2s or 2 RAC5s depending on how hard I want to push the heat curve. Extra ammunition, one or two tons. You may find it necessary to invest in a second chassis you can move your gear onto as you'll get beat up fairly often.
Assault and Tournament: Hauptmann. 3 Clan ERPPCs. Light or standard Gauss Rifle depending on pushing the heat curve. Extra ammunition again. I have vague memories of once squeezing a Heavy Gauss on, but suspect that caused a scrimp on armor.

Good choices there.
I preferred for:

Light: Cougar with one CERLaser and one CLPulse, medium armour and no jumpjets.
Medium: Uziel with 2 CERPPCs and a CStreak 6, no jumpjets or
              Uziel with 1 CERPPC and a CLPulse and a CMedPulse, no JJ and medium armour ( AI is in most cases to stupid to aim constantly for       your legs)
Heavy: Thor with a CERPPC, CACUltra10/20 ( depending on availability), and a CStreak, no JJ  or a
           MadCat with 2CERPPCs and CStreaks or
           MadCat with 2CLPulselasers, 2CMedPulse and CStreaks
Assault: Victor with CUAC20 with additional ammo, a CLPulselaser and a CStreak or a
            Templar with 2 CLpulse and either 2 CUAC10 or 2 RAC2 or a
            Daishi with 4 CLPulse and a CUAC20 ( and some Variants like one with 2 CUAC20).

It's a real shame, they castrated the weapons in MW4/Mercs.

[Timerlane]

Puma: ERPPCs for missions; CLBX20, four ERMeds for Solaris(I regularly bag 4-6 kills and usually don't take too much damage in return. EDIT: To be fair, of course, 2-3 of them are often a hair away from death by the time I actually run into them, so that's just cleanup or simple kill-stealing, but the 200k bonus per kill doesn't care who did all the work. ). I think only the Wolf's Dragoons and Kell Hounds get them in the shop, though.

Also, I might try out the Jenner IIC if you like the Cougar, but find it a little too twitchy.

Stormcr..er, Ryoken: 4ERLL(the Medium Jungle matches are on a water map, so just keep your distance and keep your feet wet); 2 CLBX10, two Heavy Medium Lasers. I love the super-fast torso.

Black Knight: loads of choices, though 4 ISPPCs isn't bad to play with at all(if you don't like the heat, there's always 2ISGauss, 1ISPPC, same damage, no heatsinks needed). It's also available pretty early in the Campaign.

Timber W...Mad Cat: Again lots of choices, from 6ERLL, to various iterations of ERPPC/Light PPC/Gauss/CUAC2s or 5s/LRMs.

Orion IIC: Generally not fast, but very durable, good torso twist range, and slightly above average turning for a high-end heavy. It can pack a punch and carry more armor than other 75 tonners(plus AIs and people alike tend to have a hard time figuring out where the Center Torso actually is).

I'm finding the more I play with Heavies, the less I like most non-100(well, make that 95-100) ton Assaults(if you're willing to take a little extra heat, many heavies can offer comparable power and much better agility/speed). A jumping 3ERPPC, 2CGauss Behemoth can be fun, though the Behemoth II w/2ERPPCs and Railgun is a lot easier to build/manage heatwise.

[AtomicClucker]

So I tried the Puma with ERPPCs and it turned into a royal butt kickin' fest. Did the same with the Uziel, pushing the heat sinks extra high.

Not going to claim it was a piece of cake, the first couple of medium matches drilled that into my head. The wonderful part was pounding the enemy from afar and hiding from missiles using the barriers or buildings. It was also quite pleasing to shoot opposing 'Mechs and blow the rival PPCs away

And the zoom feature is handy for sniping, not too mention the dumb ones that try to fly too.

[pecenipicek]

though the Behemoth II w/2ERPPCs and Railgun is a lot easier to build/manage heatwise.

Stories i could tell about the light/medium sporting farts which loaded out with all MG's solely for legging purposes.

Legging them back with the above mentioned behemoth was often very hilarious, and more often than not oh so statisfying.
On bad days, i just went with core shots. God i love sniping with the behemoth


You can stand it only oh so many times when you get legged by little farts while you're in an annihilator... -.-




As a side note, i found the blood asp to be absolutely brutal. Its deceptively maneuverable compared to its size and target profile.





(speaking of annihilators... i once managed to beat the crap out of a long-time MW4 player. He was in an Annihilator with good double or quad lbx20's (whichever ones, memory iffy now). I was in a Flea, with engines and the full ballistic armor thing. Armed with a small laser or two.


Hearing the guy ***** and whine his ass off on TeamSpeak was the most hilarious event of my short MW4 gaming "career"

[Timerlane]

In terms of MP, I tend to consider the Behemoths and Marauder II to be the equivalent of WMDs; only to be brought out if the other guy does it first. They can be brutal as long as you have someone else with you to help discourage close flankers, as the Behemoths are easily the slowest handling mechs in the game(having spent an awful lot of time in Fafnirs in Single Player helps). I personally don't like putting so many eggs in one basket as the railgun arguably asks one to, and thus I prefer the standard Behe.

Oh, BTW, since the last thread, Mechstorm has released their HD patch for the MTX/Free version of Mercs, so now the game can look a bit better(it's just texture substitutions, so there's no compatibility issues, though you will want to let the program make the backup of your textures.mw4 file for whenever the next version update comes out from MekTek).

[Grizzly]

I kitted out an Uziel, without jumpjets, with Clan Flamers, two Clan LBX autocannons, AMS, and ... some sort of missile thing. And reactive armor to deal with all the missile boats.

Hmm. The MTX version does have one massively overpowered mech in its stall. The Solitaire. That 25 ton thingy can win a solaris championship match. (I am not kidding. I tried it a few times and placed second all the time, on elite, and I am a pretty lousy mech pilot).

[Timerlane]

Reactive armor only blunts 'proper' ballistic(yellow slot) weapons, unlike the actual CBT reactive armor. LAMS is the only real defensive equipment against missiles, other than staying near cover and letting the missiles hit that.

MekTek, however, did beef up the Reactive/Reflective armors to reduce damage from ballistic/energy weapons by half, rather than 1/3, as in all original retail iterations of MW4.

[Starman01]

I never got that ****ing MTX do run. It always yells at me, that I should install an incredible necessary patch. I click on download, something get's download, a dosbox opened, and then everything closes, nothing has changed. It then complains again the patch needs to be downloaded 

That really pains me. AFAIK, I have the newest version of MTX installed. Is there no way of playing the game without ? I hate those ****ing online programs like steam, and MTX is technically the same, just even worse programmed than steam (and I thought that's not even possible, i was wrong )

[AtomicClucker]

I don't bother with MTX anymore. I just use uTorrent and download the main files from the MTX tracker and install the manual way using their file extractor.

For my championship run, I originally used my Mad Cat PPC boat that carried me through the heavy matches uncontested, but was killed within the start of several rounds when I got nailed by a hailstorm of PPC and gauss fire. I solved this problem by using the Hellhound, god I love that thing

Solitaire felt like rape on the battlefield, so I went with the Hellhound armed with dual LPPCs and ERMPLs, threw in a few heat sinks and armored up. While I could die with a few well placed shots, that thing is fast, and makes moving from location to the next quick.

My key to victory was running like hell, then destroying the heavy weapons on the assaulit and heavy 'Mechs. So by the end of the round, I didn't need to worry about being sniped, just avoid close combat with the bigger tubs. There's a a great sense of accomplishment when the Colisseum is full of armless Daishis and Mad Cat IIs.

[Starman01]

and install the manual way using their file extractor.

Yep, I also already downloaded via torrent, but don't I need MTX to install AND play it ? If not, can you point me to a "how-to" how to extract and install the mtx file I already downloaded ?

[AtomicClucker]

Link: http://www.mektek.net/index.php/home/articles/mechwarrior4-mercenaries-downloads-r1204

Download the MTX Mercs v.28, then download the .exe 29 & 30 patches, install and play. You'll need the MTX extractor (separate file from the downloader) when you download the .28 install pack, so open the install pack with the extractor, and then apply the patches afterwords.

[Timerlane]

Same here. Use the separate MTX Extractor to process the .mtx files in order; either way, it will simply install like a normal Mercs install, complete with standard Windows icons. MTX proper, if it were functioning well, would more or less automate the process.

You'll also want to run the latest hotfix(just an .exe, no need to use MTX Extractor) after if you ever think you'll want to play online(or just want to be completely up-to-date).

Radar control is almost as useful in SP as it is in MP. I would take the time to map a button to toggle radar on/off on your joystick, if you have one, or swap the default keyboard combination(Ctrl-R, IIRC) out for a single keypress. AIs are just as reliant on radar contact in order to find you, though once they know you're there, they always know where you are.

Going radar passive at the beginning of a match(or alternately, using ECM, which similarly cuts detection down to 500m for normal enemy radars), at least for a little bit, will often make them pick another target to shoot at first, and if you stay 'off the grid' and stay back, they may not even acknowledge you until it's too late for them. Won't help you against Fen Cheng in the first Coliseum Heavy Match(since he starts right next to you), though actually shutting down completely until he wanders off will.