Battletech / Megamek / MechWarrior

Megamek a Java program designed around the MechWarrior universe (named Battle tech in japoon) http://megamek.sourceforge.net/

The game takes a little while to get used to lacking a user manual (and aircraft are absurdly complex) but if you guys are interested i could teach you how to play.

I mostly focus on Light meks, and sometimes tanks but Meks are where the fun's at. (not to mention there are a number of programs for building your own Mek)

Ooh, could be fun. Post a little bit about the ruleset here, and I'll see.

Hmm.. where to start.

Well its based on a hex grid using d20 for rolls however thats all calculated in game.

You select your meks / tanks up to a Battle Value (BV) much like points in 40k. however megamek uses less units, normally 5-10 meks however you could play larger theres no limit to how many you can take. (only the BV limit)

you take turns to deploy your meks one at a time (player1, player2, player1, player2)

Each mek has a move value, 1/2/3, walk/run/jump (if jump jets are fitted) stat.
weapons are listed underneath containing:
Lasers, autocannons, short to long range missiles, gauss rifles, melee weapons ect ect.
you also have armor points as well.

Armor works as thus:
You have X armor on a body part, and Y structure to a body part, once the armor is gone you start doing damage to structure and any parts in the structure (you can cook off ammo this way for extra damage).

When shooting the game takes your pilot skill, adds or subtracts any modifiers (cover, last move, has the enemy moved ect) and rolls against it. you dont need to know the rolls since just above all the calculations a % is given.

Ah, nice. Although I'd be surprised if anybody here couldn't work out % chance on a d20. May play soonish.

at some point in the near future i will post up a tutorial on how to create and run a beginners game.

Ah, perfect. I'll read through, and probably play.

Here is a 2,500 BV list i wrote a while ago.
https://burntlegion.darkbb.com/army-lists-f22/megamek-2500-bv-list-t636.htm
just to give you an idea in terms of fluff a Big laser is probably close to a 40k Lascannon.

you can also get autocannons in battletech but i tend to build laser/missile builds

Sounds good, do you need to know the rules to play or is it like an RPG where you have a GM?

actually it is both, since battletech is both a table top wargame ala 40k and there was an RPG produced. Megamek has rules to run the RPG in it, however i wouldnt know all of them.

To answer "do i need to know the rules" not particularly you need to know what weapon does what and what the numbers mean which i guess counts as learning the rules but all the calculations are done game side so you dont need to roll for things your self (like how V40k has you do).

The version i will play with you / teach you to play will be the table top wargame.

My bitchin tutorial:

1) Follow link to latest development snapshot, or use this link:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/megamek/files/development/snapshot%202010-05-02/

Now you dont need to DL all the files, just the one you need which is
"megamek-0.35.15-windows.zip" if you are on windows.
"megamek-0.35.15-mac.tar.bz2" i beleive is the mac one.

2) Install it! infact iirc you dont even need to install it, jut unzip and you should have your folder.

3) Start megamek.
you should be greeted with a rather nice menu.
To begin with we shall start a single person game. Select "Start a new game"
(note for later the "Connect to game" and "Connect as computer"
When starting a new game you wont need to change your password / port.
add a name and click "Okay"

SUDDENLY A FUCKING MENU, JESUS CHRIST WHAT DO ALL THESE BUTTONS DO!?

Well your got 3 main areas, the big fucking blank spot to the right, thats your unit list. All the fucking buttons on the left? that changes your army
and the white box at the bottom is the chat box, for online pleh. (also note the "im done" button to the right)

Jump ahead if you want to get moving on adding units, this is a description of each button if you dont get what they do.
Okay, so we arnt going to kick any ass with no meks, so lets check the Unit and playerset up (the buttons on the left ;D)

Unit Setup

Add a combat unit - pretty self explanatory, we'll come to this later

Create a random army - creates an army based around some variables you put in, its allright in a pinch but selecting your own units is better

Random Skills - This is for Battle tech Advanced (also known as "Total War") we wont be using this. ever.

Create squadron - as if you needed to make air combat more complex, we wont be using this button either.

Load Unit list - self explanatory, loads a pre-saved unit list.

Save Unit list - i guess load unit list would be fairly useless without this button.

Delete all - located conveniently under "save" much to the chargrin of many people. it deletes all units on the unit list.

Player setup
Team1 - drop down box for team play, self explanatory
Change start - always use this, "any" means anywhere on the board.
Add bot - bots dont work in this way at the moment.
Remove bot - removes bots you've added.
big ass grey box - click to change your color, or use the drop down menu to select various cammo styles

Below this is your name, start, team, BV, tons and cost. stat line BV is Battle Value and functions like points in 40k.

LONG DEscriptION OVER.
so lets Add a combat unit

This will open up a new menu note the drop down menus are "Mek" "light" and "IS introductory box set" stick with these for now, the meks here are mostly well built and not total lemons.

Click a random mek on the list and you'll see the big white area on the right serves a purpose.

for example i will select the "HNT-151 Hornet" the info for this is;
Hornet HNT-151
IS introductory box set by this time you may be wondering what IS is, it stands for Inner Sphere, the more civilized portion of the galaxy
20 Tons
BV: 488 Battle Value, for the 4th time, works like points in 40k, the average battletech match is between 2000 and 5000 BV
Cost: 1,248,700 C-Bills some more roleplay centric games use c-bills instead of BV. c-bills being battletech currency

Movement: 5/8/5 thats Walk, Run, Jump since the Hornet has jump jets fitted, some meks will only have X/Y listed since they are not fitted with jump jets
Engine: 100 largely unneeded stat, this simply tells you what size engine it has
Heat Sinks: 10 each heat sink sinks 1 heat ;D we'll touch on heat later. but regardless overheating is bad and can cause a mek to shut down

Internal: 33 dont know what these mean lol
Armor: 64/59

Armor sections, i wont list them but ill give you a run down on armor (again)
Basically once you lose your armor you start taking structural damage, this is bad because when you're out of structural damage you lose that body part, loosing Center Torso or head renders the mek dead, loosing legs or arms immobilizes and disables weapons.

WEPUNZ!
this is the good bit, lots of dakka here
Small Laser - LA - 1
small shitty laser, deals little damage and has a short range, only produces one heat so its good to fire pretty much anytime and you wont overheat your mek. Located on the Left Arm

Medium Laser - RA- 3
Located on the Right Arm a medium laser, a brilliant laser this, a fine balance between range and power vs weight and heat, produces 3 heat per shot so with our 10 heatsinks we should be fine. (my custom locust has 4 of these and can oerheat if i fire too much ;D)

LRM-5 - RT - 2
<3 the LRM 5, Basically Sniper missiles, they have insane range and reasonable damage, the "5" means they're 5 missiles a turn, you can get up to LRM-20 on things like Assault Meks, and the smallest is SRM-1 (short range missile, 1 shot per turn)

Under this is Ammo
Ammo is needed for Missiles, Auto guns and gauss (iirc, not to sure on gauss) it also shows where it is listed
LRM-5 Ammo - LT - 24
so 24 shots of LRM ammo in our left torso compartment, well that means if our left torso looses its armor there is a chance that any subsequent damage will cook off the remaining LRM ammo, fortunately if we ever get to that point you can dump the ammo, although i never do since if anyones close enough to hit me im dead regardless

WELL, now thats over with, i suggest you click around, take a look and compare other meks, personally i wouldnt be happy with the HNT-151, the single small laser is essnetially useless since it has the medium laser and LRM which seams to put it at a Medium to long range, where a small laser would be out of range 101% of the time. the HNT-152 is an upgrade, replacing the LRM-5's with SRM-4's turning the mek into something id use for more close assaults.

On second thoughts, comparing this to the Wasps i use for CQB currently, this could prove to be vastly superior since it possesses more armor than the Wasp. however it does colst more BV, the WSP-1L is 335 BV where as the HNT-152 is 425 BV.

Well enough mechanic musing, we want to fight.

Click "Select and close" and you'll see it appear in our unit list, our players statline has also changed now to show our BV.

The units stat line has;
Image of the unit, in the colors you will be using it. Along with its name and weight.
The name of the pilot who we neednt name unless you want to.
the pilots stats, default 4/5 which is rookie level, 3/3 is experienced pilot. the lower the number the better.
the player who owns it and what team its on
and lastly its BV (note, BV will change if you edit pilot stats)

OKAY, enough blather[fel] at the top above "Add a combat unit" is the "select map" tab, lets use this.

now a note before i begin, the preview board size on the left (the big box with 0 in it) is not an accurate representation of what size the map actually is)

Well well well, a new menu.
from the top;
Planatary conditions - generally an advanced menu, however fighting in snow and the like can be fun
Generated map settings - this is to edit the parameters of a randomly generated map, or as i like to do "STOP MAKING MAPS WITH WATER EVERYWHERE DAMMIT"
Use Ground/Atmosphere map - this is for aircraft, ill teach you aircraft much later, MUCH later since theyre rather complex.(which is a good thing, just not good for newbies)
Drop down box with "Ground" - more aircraft stuff.

Map Size - leave the Hex number so you can use pre built maps however feel free to make a map thats 2x2 or more that way you can add in prebuilts to make a city or even larger.

View game board - brings up a little mini map that can be expanded using the + sign and made smaller with the - sign, clicking "N" will show the number of units high each peice of terrain is. Meks are considered to be 2 units high and cannot fire leg mounted weapons if theyre standing behind 1 unit high terrian, 1 unit high terrain also works as nice cover.

Maps selected - this is the current map, default set to "surprise" which is a randomly generated map at game start use...

Maps available - use this to select a map, also see the map preview on the left, feel free to take a look around.

okay, now you are educated in the menus apply these settings.
Player->start->Any
Map->any
a single mek of any type.

click done.

Now the game rolls initiative for the round and tells you the weather.

click done.

Suddenly holy shit a map. and a new menu, ITS FUCKING BLUE!
Alright, more explanations incomming
1) map with lots of yellow lines.
the yellow lines show your derployment zone normally you get 3 tiles in from your selected edge however "any" starting area allows us to derploy anywhere on the map.

2) buttons at the bottom of the map window
next unit - cancels deployment of this unit and deploys the next
turn - click to place unit, click turn and click where you want it to face
Load - for transports
unload - for transports
remove unit - removes a unit (you will still have to deploy it ,but this is in case you put it somewhere stupid.

3) Minimap
functions like the map preview, simplez.

4) funky new blue menu
this is a display of the unit it has 6 tabs, only 3 are of any use for what we're doing however ill get to the others

General - the general tab, you should understand most of what these things mean (Current senseors and max visual range are for night missions and more complex rules)

Pilot - same shit as before in the unit select menu

Armor - a handy dandy visual representation of your armor also shows structural and current heat level

Systems - this shows your critical slots, basically when ever you take a structural hit the shooter gets to roll on the critical table a d# based on how many slots there are, example the head of the Hornet has 6 slots, so the opponent would roll 1d6 which ever number he gets destroys the component (along with dealing structural damage) if the roll lands on our empty slot ---- then the shot passes through the structure damage it, but not hitting anything critical.

Weapon - yay weapons!
feel free to click a weapon and get its stats, damage, range's, heat ect ect
Missile damage is listed as "Missile" i know. not owning the books i dont know how much damage that actually does.

"Target" "range" and "to hit" are used in the shooting phase when we see an enemy.

extras - Battletech advanced crap, cbf explaining it since we wont be using it.

Okay, lets derploy that hornet if you havent allready, simple click a hex and boom! a hornet, if your derploying on the north edge remember to rotate it with the 'Turn' button (deploy, click turn, click hex you wish it to be facing) Facing is important since it actually costs movement to turn when we're playing.

Once youre happy with where you have placed it click Deploy!

now we move to the screen that will only appear once everyone has deployed, once again the comp rolls for initiative and tells you the weather

Click Done.

movement phase!
you will notice the buttons at the bottom have changed once more, feel free to read them and understand them. i will explain the more obscure ones here.

DFA - not a clue.
Evade - Perform evasive maneuvers on your way to the target
Reckless - dont remember
Climb mode - puts the mek into climb mode for steep hills.

Notes on movement
running on tarmac with metal feet will cause you to take a pilot test, failure and you will slide with the possibility of falling over and taking damage.
running makes you harder to hit, and it harder for you to hit them.

when you have moved, or if you dont wish to move, hit DONE to continue to the shooting phase.

Buttons have changed again
when targeting a valid object it will show in your meks blue menu thing along with the % to hit.(and the "FIRE" button will be lit)

most buttons are fairly simple
Twist allows you to twist a hex in either direction to fire

Find Club is for meks with hands, you can take a club and beat the shit out of other meks, although this isnt to be used as your primary attack (unless youre an atlas, in which case, go ahead and use a streetlamp or something)

Spot is for indirect fire, for example the LRM-5's can be fired indirect however require a spotter.
Searchlight is for battletech advanced (night rules)

once you have finished playing with the shooting buttons realizing you have nothing to shoot click done and you will get the summary. it tells you what heat you gained (from shooting) and how much was dissipated by the heat sinks, is also tells you who shot what at what roll and what damage the target took. Control rolls are if someone fell over and is trying to get back up.

TEAM 1 HAS ACHIEVED ALL REQUIRED VICTORY CONDITIONS!

how does it feel, accomplished that you won?

ill explain how to add a secondary player or a computer later today, for now my fingers are tired and you already have enough to learn

Drop in a post if you guys are interested ill continue.

I'm interested, go on?

Part 2

Multiplayer.

This is simple, however may not be easy. (in reference to online play)

To get two player on one comp:

1) Open megamek and create a game, for the server use "LOCALHOST" caps, no space. leave the port, but remember the number, mine was 6667 when i started.

2) create your army list, set your starting area, yadda yadda yadda. and then MINIMIZE the megamek windows.

3) Open megamek again, so you have 2 clients open for the second select "Join a game" (or is it connect to game? i forget). For server use LOCALHOST again for port use what was in the first client.

4) prep units and starting area for this guy too, you can load a unit list saved by player 1 if you want to streamline it.

(you should also notice both names are in the box for listed BV now.)

once you have both clients ready, just click ready and away you go! nice and easy!

Adding a computer player.

1) Create a game much as you did against yourself ... er i mean another person at your computer.
2) open client #2 and select "connect as computer"
3) yadda yadda your yadda yadda tlll you're all set for both comp and you
4) Play!
5) no the game hasnt crashed after derployment, the AI just takes a while to calculate each movement phase, its quick in shooting phase though, best to keep it to 5 or less meks a side
6) you can have as many clients open as you want or as long as you're willing to wait for them to move.


1) open megamek
2) enter the IP of your server
3) enter the port of your server
4) connect!

Hosting: this is where it gets a little tough for those less technically skilled

YOU MUST PORT FORWARD THE PORT YOU ARE HOSTING ON.
other than that.
start megamek
create game leave IP blank
tell other players your IP and port
they connect as before.


well
thats all, hope you have fun, if you want a game hit me up sometime here.

So Spiritcurse, up for a game sometime? its easier to teach when you are both there as i can answer questions.

Aye, I'll have a see when I can get online. Should be easier during the day now - I've finished school, pretty much.