Decided to pimp my Mech Commander 2 preview. Just went live today on Games Domain.

Normally I don't pimp, but this time around it's the product of a week of sleepless video editing and beta mangling. I've got windows media available in 56k and 256k streams - the first time GD has ever run video for anything.

It's at: http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/previews/jun01/mech2.html

Please let me know if you have any difficulties in watching it. I tried to QA it with my friends, but we've all got heavily updated systems and cable modems. I need to know how it works on "normal" computers.

Nice piece, Jim, both the written preview and the video. It worked fine over my DSL. The video was probably a bit long for all but the diehard Mech fans, but it was still pretty nice anyway.

Everybody needs a nice piece now and then... doh

Impressive video Jim, on par with the pro stuff that I've viewed.

-Andrew

I'm waiting for final. I tried the preview/beta build and performance was so abysmal at 1024x768 that I got fed up--that and the fact that in mission saving and loading didn't work, period. It's still beta, and I suspect the slowdown was partly due to debug code and lack of optimizations; the saving stuff was probably just bugs. It's going gold in a week or two probably.

For the three or so missions I did play, I liked it a lot.

Is is flat-out action, or can I eke a bit of strategy out with a give-orders-while-paused manuever?

Much more strategic than the original, Kevin. You can give orders while paused quite handily, and assuming the save/load system works in the final, which I'm pretty sure it will :-), that will give you a little leeway in trying different things.

Stuff happens pretty fast still; once your 'Mechs encounter the enemy they'll go into action quite rapidly, and battles can be over in a flash if a 'Mech gets ganged up on. But the AI for the individual 'Mechs is much better than in MechCommander--your 'Mech pilots actually move to the proper range for their armament, and tend to react pretty well under fire.

I found that with some judicious attention I could use my 'Mech's pretty well. Send two jumpjet capable units forward to scout, leaving two mediums in the woods in ambush--lure the enemy to his death, that sort of thing. Actually worked, too.

Another thing adding quite a bit to strategy is the support palette, where you spend Resource Points (RPs) during a mission. For each mission you get an allotment of RPs, and you can get more by capturing stuff in the mission itself. You spend these points on things like air strikes, artillery pieces, repair and mine vehicles, sensors and scout choppers, and most importantly, the salvage thingy. The salvage thingy comes down and drops a pilot in a knocked-out 'Mech, giving you the ability to grab the enemy's toys, put your pilot in, repair, and use it yourself. Even if you con't use it immediately, any 'Mech's you salvage this way don't cost you C-Bills after the mission--otherwise, though you get first dibs on salvage, you have to pay for it.

It's still more fast-paced than true fans of turn-based BattleTech will like, but the improvements over the original are legion, and I'm thinking this one'll be a keeper. Hope so at least.

For me, the reason why the original BattleTech was so compelling was because it was like Car Wars: The fun was in trying out new designs. I wonder if MechCommander 2 will be able to capture any of that since the obvious focus is on the overall strategy and deployment of the 'mechs instead.

Gordon, as you probably know the've simplified the 'MechLab in MC2. Each 'Mech has a certain volume of space, organized sort of like a Diablo inventory, and each component takes up a certain amount of space. You have an overall 'Mech weight limit, and some slots can only hold certain components; you also have an overall 'Mech heat limit, so you can't layer on four ER PPCs or whatever. But it's not the full-on B'tech critical system, nor is heat modeled in-game--as long as you keep your 'Mech under its overall heat limit, you are fine.

Still, there is a lot of flexibility, and the 'MechLab seems easy to use. In gameplay, from my limited experience, it's a toss-up whether all that mixing and matching will make a difference, as the basic designs are pretty well done and combat happens pretty fast--a lot of specific 'Mech designs work best in turn-based or simulator play IMO.

Bob,

About the performance issues - and the bug where everything on the screen seems to detonate at once... I've got an 80 meg file sitting here that brings the beta we got up to darn near gold status. It's a LOT better, lemme tell ya. I wasn't really happy with it until I got this fix, and now it's 5-star material as far as I'm concerned. Well, maybe 4.5 but you get the idea.

If you turn off the shadows, it helps a LOT.

On the mechlab - I've spent considerable time trying to find a "cheese-o-matic" mech configuration, and I come up empty every time. You need balance here or you're dead. I've got a spreadsheet I made that calculates the optimal weapons based on range, recycle, heat, size. It doesn't lie. For short range, stick to lasers. The large lasers are best for medium, and the only reason to have an autocannon on a mech is if you've got no room for heat but plenty of slots left. PPC's reek. For long range, LRM is the only game in town... clan ones doubly so when you get them.

The problem with my theory is that you often don't have the heat capacity to create a laser-mech, so you have to decide on other things. If you go in with all short range weapons, you're going to die fast... because by the time you're in range to open up with all 12 of them, you've already been picked apart by lrm fire. A mix of short and long range is best. Medium range weapons aren't all that hot... most of my mechs wind up with LRM, long range light autocannons, and short range lasers. Those ones work.

Maybe when higher tech reveals itself my tactics will have to change... but for now, I think I've maximized the damage/time/range potential of all my stuff.

I'm not hardcore, am I?

I gave up patching the beta as the final is due "real soon now," and I don't have the time to screw with it anyhow . I will probably do the review when it comes in though.

Hardcore, Aszurom? Naw, just practical! B'tech stuff is so fun to tweak.

Yeah I've pretty much given up on the beta because of the "everything explodes at one" deal -- it's fairly close to release I imagine so I can wait. I imagine they sped it up quite a bit as well??

--- Alan

I sure as hell hope it's faster. The beta was unplayable at 1024 by 768, which is a pity, because it looks so sweet at that res. I'm assuming it'll be much smoother in the release version. Fingers crossed.

As with many other games, I predict shadows to be a huge framerate hit until it's been out a while and had a patch or so. Ctrl-Alt-D turns 'em off.

Post-betapatch, with shadows off I get a pretty smooth framerate in 1024 unless I look up at the horizon. If I keep the view angle down "where it's supposed to be" then everything is fine. I can look at any angle I want so long as I'm not moving the camera around though. Yeah, still needs some work regardless, but is much improved.

Kinda odd they'd have that much trouble with the 3D stuff at this point, though. Sure, the models are nice as are the effects, but there's only a few units on screen at once, really.

Not so much the units... it's every building and every individual tree in the forests casting their own shadows. That's what is killing it. There should be a "shadow detail" slider or something. It's pretty much doubling the poly count of the trees, if you look at how the shadows are constructed.

Well, I know they were really really proud of their models when I visited them for our cover story a while back. And the models do look very good. Mabye they got carried away with the shadows :-)

Did you preview detonate? Mitch put an announcement on the dropshipcommand.com forum that they had code in the beta to disable it. They were going to disarm the bomb, but they found some betas floating around warez channels so they decided "ok, screw you" and let it shut them off.

Mine's still functional tho

Dunno, I uninstalled it.