Battletech/Mechwarrior Universe Catch-All

The Battletech universe has over 1000 years of future history, over 30 years of real-world history, and a whole lot of games. It seems like each new game in the setting sparks new discussion of the old ones and the setting in general, so here is a thread where maybe we can keep that kind of thing going all in one place.

Links and resources:

Classic Battletech (board/minis/tabletop RPG) official site, introduction to the universe (with downloadable quick-start rules and setting primer in PDF)
Mechwarrior Online: official site, GWJ thread
Harebrained Schemes' upcoming tactical game for PC :official site, GWJ thread

Mechcommander 1 and 2 and Mechwarrior 4:Mercenaries have been available as free downloads in the past, but the download sites I have for them are defunct.

Running MW2 under DOSBox (GWJ thread)

Sarna.net: massive wiki with both in-universe and real-world information
MegaMek: unofficial adaptation of the boardgame (runs in Java VM)
MegaMekNET: 3025-era online campaign using MegaMek

On YouTube:
1994 animated series episode 1
MechWarrior 2 intro

This is just scratching the surface -- please share links!

I should note that there are whole realms I don't touch on in that first post -- e.g., I never really got into the fiction. I'm hoping that people who were into parts of the setting that I wasn't will talk about them here!

We spent 45 minutes on the drive home from GenCon with 3 of us explaining the history of 3025 onward to our fourth friend who had never read the novels and only knew the setting through Mechwarrior 2. It was fun until we got to all the Marik clones and body doubles.

Don't forget the CCG designed by Richard Garfield during the CCG gold rush of the mid-'90s

http://www.moddb.com/mods/mechcomman...

Mod that takes the recompiled open source code for MW2 and adds enhancements such as new mechs, new pilot skill system and new and retooled weapons. There is a Carver V campaign add on that you have to download separately.

Solaris Skunk Works is a program you can use to create new mechs and customize then down to the nth degree. If you download the "master" files you can also add a database to SSW that contains all canon mechs so you can view and tweak them.

http://www.solarisskunkwerks.com/

Custom mechs made with SSW can also be plugged into Megamek and used for tabletop play.

Also Mechcommander 1 and 2 have been released as freeware. Both are great games so you should go pick em up if Battletech interests you at all.

Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries (coming 2018): GWJ thread

misplacedbravado wrote:

I should note that there are whole realms I don't touch on in that first post -- e.g., I never really got into the fiction. I'm hoping that people who were into parts of the setting that I wasn't will talk about them here!

I read many of the novels. I enjoyed the Michael Stackpole pre-Clan Warrior trilogy the best, and actually read it several times. It's sort of like Mechwarrior meets the Princes of Amber. Lots of pretty well-described combat, but political intrigue and espionage too. I haven't read them in a while, but I bet they hold up pretty well for what is basically published fan fiction.

My main "realm" of MW/BT, was actually the collection of Battletech MUXes that were popular in the late 90s/early 2000s. These were text/ascii-based, but real-time multiplayer telnet games. You'd connect to a server with a few dozen people and pick a house or clan. Each team would have one or more base locations and dropships that would store mechs, and let you repair them. You were safe in your base, but you could be assigned a mech or tank and then go out onto the 24-hour live map called "real-space." In RS there would be claim points, or objectives. You would attempt to start a claim and hold it for some certain number of minutes, defending the claim from any other players that came to take it. These 100+ player matches were really amazing for their time, and really involved a lot of interesting tactical play. In many ways I feel like the 3d games have never been able to capture the strategic and tactical play of those MUXes. Sort of like comparing an arcade space shooter to EVE Online.

Mixolyde wrote:

My main "realm" of MW/BT, was actually the collection of Battletech MUXes that were popular in the late 90s/early 2000s.

I'd love to hear more about how those worked.

The teeny little bit of the MUX scene that I dabbled in back in the day were like text adventures plus relatively simple D&D-esque mechanics -- no combat maps or hit locations or, in general, much of anything resembling Battletech combat. Were there ANSI hex maps?

I am such a geek. I recently purchased a few hundred dollars' worth of old Battletech manuals including a full set of the original House books and some old campaigns. I miss the seeing the Battletech universe used in PC gaming but I have high hopes for the forthcoming games.

Now I just need to get a good copy of the old boxed sets.

misplacedbravado wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

My main "realm" of MW/BT, was actually the collection of Battletech MUXes that were popular in the late 90s/early 2000s.

I'd love to hear more about how those worked.

The teeny little bit of the MUX scene that I dabbled in back in the day were like text adventures plus relatively simple D&D-esque mechanics -- no combat maps or hit locations or, in general, much of anything resembling Battletech combat. Were there ANSI hex maps?

Yes, this is real-time Mech combat with ANSI hex maps, ANSI mech status displays, ANSI radio channel communications, etc. You used text commands to drive your mech by setting a heading and velocity, jump commands, checking scanners, etc. And you'd fire your mech's weapons, which would pop up a dice roll and deal damage. Most weapons cycled every 30 seconds. When fired they generated heat. The heat cooled off over time, so you had to control your firing cycles to not overheat. These games were really ahead of their time.

I tried to find one of the original online "manuals" for playing, but they all seem to be gone or broken. However, you can still find some old copies of the Basic Mech Instruction on the Internet Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090621...

The left side is native MUX ANSI graphics, the right side is a special made Java client called THUD that could interpret the ANSI for you.

IMAGE(http://bt-thud.sourceforge.net/thud/big/bigpicture.jpg)

Arise thread!

Just got an email from Piranha Games that MechWarrior 5 is up for pre-order.

Release Date is 9/10/19

Edit: Nevermind, saw that there was an actual MW5 thread. I'll post this there.

Nevin73 wrote:

Arise thread!
Edit: Nevermind, saw that there was an actual MW5 thread. I'll post this there.

Yeah, I was all excited to start a thread for the entire universe, but people prefer to use threads for individual games. It's all good.

Having a release date for MW5 is way exciting! Especially since I got some major computer upgrades for Christmas.