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[EuchreJack]

I have now played 3 games against other players, and I have made a few discoveries.

1) I can't win initiative rolls for shit.

2) If I take a bunch of brawler mechs, the game will dump me on a wide open map with no cover.

3) If I take couple of longer range units, the game will dump me in a city map where you can barely see 3 hexes.

4) I pretty much always need a 12 in order to hit. This particular one I suspect might be my own fault.

1) Yeah, initiative sucks sometimes

2&3) That is probably because you are defending.  Attacker chooses the terrain.  Defend enough times, and you'll be able to attack, even if you traditionally lose those defenses (it happens).  From looking around, it appears that you can run two lances at similar BV, then chose your defending lance.  You should try that, if you wish to field specialized lances.

4) Stop moving.     To-hit is a base number, increased by range, spaces moved by the enemy mech (within a range), and the speed of your mech.  Unfortunately, light and medium mechs move fast, so base to-hit is high in most patrol matches (what most people fight).

I used to love Mekwars 3025, but the games can literally take forever.  I've spend 12 hours on some games.  The good news is that experienced/reckless players can play a lot faster, but you never know how slow your opponent will be.

[EDIT: Sadly, I had to delete "my favorite junk lance" because it might not be legal in the current operations rules.  They're more confusing than ever...]

By the way, how exactly does Bay 12 plan to reinforce MekWars 3025?  Trading with non-faction members is forbidden, so everyone ideally needs to join an existing faction.  Ordinarily, a group that wanted to form their own group would join the periphery/pirates, but those factions are for very experienced members of both MekWars itself and the 3025 campaign.

I'd suggest everyone join House Davion/Federated Suns.  It's got a reputation for being the newbie faction, and they could use a unified subgroup to help them not lose as badly as usual.  Other factions are more tightly knit and more experienced, so fighting the other factions is probably the best way for all of us to learn the game.

Good luck, maybe I'll rejoin the fight for the Inner Sphere as well.  Just have to find my "movement charts and penalties-to-hit"...

[Anvilfolk]

Yeah, there's a ton of good rules of thumb that you learn. Here's a few in no particular order.

• If you're going to walk, walk at least 3 tiles. That makes it so your +1 to-hit is compensated by a +1 to-be-hit.
• If you're going to run, run at least 5 tiles. Idem as above, with +2!
• Always fire heavy damage weapons first (AC/10, AC/20, PPC, Lasers, ...) before cluster weapons (SRMs, LRMs, MGs in Rapid Fire, ...). This ensures you destroy armour first, then maximise probability of hitting unarmoured areas several times, resulting in multiple crits! The order in which you fire weapons for a single mech matters!
• Always move less critical units first. Even if you lose initiative, having 2v2 mechs in a small area is enough that they can sort of cover each other's backs!
• Always analyse your mechs before a battle, and figure out an optimal range for you to fire all weapons. Once you've got that, figure out 2 ranges, one optimal for closer combat, and one for longer, taking heat into account.
• Try to get behind LVL1 things so you get a +1 to-be-hit and misses instead of leg hits (instead of the traditional +3 to-be-hit modifier.
• Be very careful with buildings whose CF is below your weight... learnt this the hard way. Also, the type has nothing to do with CF. Heavy does not mean more CF!

Still haven't figured the campaign out, but had an AMAZING fight. I just feel like doing LPs up the whazoo.

1) I can't win initiative rolls for shit.

I get you! SO MUCH RAGE!

4) I pretty much always need a 12 in order to hit. This particular one I suspect might be my own fault.

See above! Don't always run, and double-check ranges using ALT-click and CTRL-clicking.

I used to love Mekwars 3025, but the games can literally take forever.  I've spend 12 hours on some games.  The good news is that experienced/reckless players can play a lot faster, but you never know how slow your opponent will be.

Holy cow! How big was that battle? My worst one was 2h, 2h30m or so. I usually do 4v4 or somesuch? Just started the campaign, not sure if it gets worse. Also, simultaneous fire saves a lot of time!

By the way, how exactly does Bay 12 plan to reinforce MekWars 3025?  Trading with non-faction members is forbidden, so everyone ideally needs to join an existing faction.  Ordinarily, a group that wanted to form their own group would join the periphery/pirates, but those factions are for very experienced members of both MekWars itself and the 3025 campaign.

I just thought it'd be nice to get a few B12ers in there anywhere. Not do anything funny or illegal. Just either join the same faction - perhaps an underdog faction in need of help - or just fight each other as we learn. I'm going to try to keep a list of all the players and what factions they're in, so let us know! I essentially randomised my choice

[Cthulhu]

I've been playing a few games against Princess bot, tried RedKing's suggestion of a Warhammer/Treb/Spider and it went pretty well at least at first.  Got the WH and Treb on a hill (I guess that's probably not actually the best place, are there any benefits to be gained from elevation or should I be using them as cover instead?) and had the spider jumping around and taking pot shots at their rear armor.  The other team was a Battlemaster, Hunchback, and Viper, whatever those are and do (though I got a pretty good idea what the battlemaster does very quickly :c)

We killed the viper, sort of, hammered it with a ton of fire and knocked it over in a bog, effectively taking it out of the game.  Almost killed the Hunchback but it just wouldn't seem to die. The Battlemaster shot my Spider's leg off in melee range and curb stomped it, then helped the Hunchback beat my other two guys and we lost.

Still not completely sure what the fuck I'm doing.

[Anvilfolk]

I had a blast just playing over MegaMek and Steam voicechat a few days back. Voicechat makes things so much more hilarious

Although, if you're a newbie on MekWars 3025 people will really try to help you. I've actually been on chat for about 30m, with a guy called BarukKhazad just explaining repair rules to me He actually joined as an observer on one of my earlier matches and just generally gave tips and helped around. Amazing guy! The problem is: text chat takes so much longer, and is kind of clunky over MegaMek.

Again, I'm just up for playing

[EuchreJack]

I used to love Mekwars 3025, but the games can literally take forever.  I've spend 12 hours on some games.  The good news is that experienced/reckless players can play a lot faster, but you never know how slow your opponent will be.

Holy cow! How big was that battle? My worst one was 2h, 2h30m or so. I usually do 4v4 or somesuch? Just started the campaign, not sure if it gets worse. Also, simultaneous fire saves a lot of time!

Sadly, it was a only a 4v4 match.  We both had those light meks that were fast and thus hard to hit but also lacked any decent weapon systems, were both very new to the game, and tended to lose meks at the same time, so it took forever for a clear winner to emerge.

Which faction did you join Anvilfolk?  Looking at the cycle summaries, Federated Suns did better last round.

[Draxis]

Has anyone gotten the Mekwars client working on Linux?  MegaMek works for me, but the campaign client just opens up a blank screen on connecting to the server, without any error messages or anything.

Anvilfolk, that was me you asked if they were from Bay12 the other day; I only recieved the message through looking at the gamelog.

[Anvilfolk]

Which faction did you join Anvilfolk?  Looking at the cycle summaries, Federated Suns did better last round.

I'm Capellan Confederation. There's some amazingly helpful guys at CC! I ended up randomizing my choice I'm keeping a list in the OP of people who said what faction they are (or that I've seen)!

Has anyone gotten the Mekwars client working on Linux?  MegaMek works for me, but the campaign client just opens up a blank screen on connecting to the server, without any error messages or anything.

I'm just trying it, and it's working. Here's what I'm using:

Code: [Select]

$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_25"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea 2.3.10) (7u25-2.3.10-1~deb7u1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.7-b01, mixed mode)
Try running it like this:

Code: [Select]

java -client -Xmx512m -jar MekWarsClient.jar
The original .sh was working weird for me, and will also not give you any console error messages, I think (it's javaw is for windowed applications). Try what I have above.


Another thing that could've gone wrong is that it takes a while for your client to sync with the server, so if you have a flaky connection, that could've gone wrong. It takes me a few seconds until I see anything too, but not minutes. Good luck! I'll be on Steam (and watching this thread!)

[Knave]

Man, I seem to be having trouble getting the AI to work. It sets itself up on the map, and then when it's the AI's turn to move it wants me to move the mechs around. Am I missing something :/

[Anvilfolk]

Use Princess for bot, default values, and make sure both of you have units. I think you might have to manually change units to their control. Or there's a reallllllyyyyy small drop-down box on the select screen that tells you to add units either to yourself or to Princess.

[Knave]

Yeah, we both have units of roughly equal BV. So I set my units up 1 by 1 and the AI seems to set his up just fine. And then the move phase hits and it wants me to move all it's units. I'm probably just missing an obscure button somewhere, but it's just darn confusing. Maybe I should just jump into mekwars and get beaten a lot

[Anvilfolk]

I have to head out to a lunch now, but will hopefully (*crosses fingers*) be around later tonight. I'd love to help you get started, even outside MekWars if you're more comfortable with that

Or I could screenshare and just kind of show you how I do it. I haven't had any problems, really.

[Knave]

It may have something to do with the client I was using (The one packaged with mekwars) I downloaded the straight megamek client and it seemed to work without a hitch!

First game against the AI went pretty well. I got lucky as I picked a group of fairly long range units and the random map was a lava world devoid of cover. The AI raced his meks up the side, but his spider and hunchback got unlucky with their mv rolls and broke through the magma crust (terrain special rules I'm assuming) This basically melted both of them before they could do much damage. The rest was just cleaning up the remaining 2 light mechs and trying to keep them out of my minimum LRM range.

[Graknorke]

Could someone please clarify... what this game is? Is it a series of isolated matches, or do you have a persistent character, or is it an MMO type deal? I really have no clue.

[Knave]

Could someone please clarify... what this game is? Is it a series of isolated matches, or do you have a persistent character, or is it an MMO type deal? I really have no clue.

When you join one of the main factions you will get a persistent force of mechs, vehicles and troops. You can then group them up and do various missions to advance your faction's standing (improve economy, damage your enemy's, conquer worlds, etc.). These are isolated matches between 2 players from rival houses. Win or lose your pilots will gain experience, or be killed. Using rewards from the battles you win or lose you can repair your units and buy new units.

A faction wins if they conquer the capital of a rival faction.

[Anvilfolk]

Sweet, glad to hear it worked out Knave! You were lucky with that magma I understand that light meks can be particularly annoying because they can easily disengage. That means you can make a round last forever just by running away. When playing online, it is suggested you start with heavier stuff for faster matches

Could someone please clarify... what this game is? Is it a series of isolated matches, or do you have a persistent character, or is it an MMO type deal? I really have no clue.

I tried to get the idea across in the OP Could you tell me what you think is missing and where?

If you want to play the computer adaptation of the tabletop wargame, you use MegaMek. It's a program that implements all the rules and some basic AI, and has multiplayer. Used like this, it's just isolated matches.

Or you can use MekWars, which is used to take those isolated fights and make them have a meaning in a larger campaign. That means that you have a persistent hangar bay with your meks, vehicles, infantry, etc. If a mek is destroyed, it's destroyed and you need to buy a new one with your limited resources! If it's only damaged you can repair it and get it back in the fight, and the pilots sometimes gain experience and skills. You engage in fights over territory, production, raiding, etc to try to advance your faction.There's a massive campaign map with over 2000+ planets that you are fighting over.

Also, totally ninja'd by Knave

Also-also: I'll just say again the community is super nice, and we can totally give you the basics before you join the larger campaign