Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries FAQ _________________________________________________________________ These questions and answers are preliminary- nothing here should be taken as the final word. We are working on a patch which should address most of the technical issues. _________________________________________________________________ Finding a copy of Mercenaries Why can't I find it in stores? We printed over a hundred thousand copies of Mercs, and shipped as many copies as each store requested. Some stores requested air freight, and they already have theirs. Others requested ground freight, and those stores should be getting theirs about now (9/26/96), so look again in a day or two. Those that sold out will get more as soon as they reorder- if they wait until they sell out to reorder, they will probably be out for two weeks. What's the story on 3D card support for Mercenaries? We haven't announced 3D card versions of Mercenaries yet. It's fair to assume we're working on something, but for now stick to the software only version. Writing a well optimized Direct-3D version or a version tailored for a particular 3D card would take some time. _________________________________________________________________ Installing Mercenaries How do I install in DOS? I keep getting "Bad Command or Filename". You must be in the CD's \DOS\ directory to run INSTALL.EXE. What are the system requirements? * 486 DX2/66 MHz processor * 8 MB RAM (but see below; might really need 10 MB RAM) * Win95 or Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 operating system with MSCDEX 2.10. * Double-speed CD-ROM drive (300K/second sustained transfer rate) * 65 MB of uncompressed hard disk space * VESA local bus (VLB) or PCI video with 1 MB RAM * 256 Color SVGA (640 x 480) video card For modem/internet play: * One of: + 14.4 Hayes-compatible modem and 16550 UART for 3 players; + 28.8 Hayes-compatible modem and 16550 UART for 5 players; or + direct Internet connection or ISDN modem for 8 players. * A PPP account with an Internet service provider Here are some recommended performance guidelines: * 486 (all speeds): 320x200, all options off * Pentium (60-75mhz): 320x200, all options off * Pentium (90-133mhz): 320x200, all options on -or- 640x480, all options off except shadows * Pentium (150-200mhz): 640x480, all options on (The options can be adjusted by pressing the ESC key in a mission or in the shell, and selecting "Combat Variables".) _________________________________________________________________ The Mech Lab I'm having problems adding Ferro-Fibrous or Endo-Steel to a 'Mech. When you highlight "Endo-Steel Internals Upgrade" or "Ferro-Fibrous Armor Upgrade", and see "Assign Crits" appear, you must click on the units of endo or armor that appear below "Assign Crits"! This will add the unit to an empty critical slot of the selected mech part. _________________________________________________________________ Crashes and CD-ROM Problems I have 8 Meg of RAM, and am playing in the lowest resolution. Whenever I play a mission, once I destroy the third 'Mech, it locks up on me. There seems to be a bug where it briefly requires MORE than 8 meg of RAM! Install that extra memory, and you should be fine. We're looking for a better workaround. When I get into the Merc95 sim, it says "Error 53: CD Not Mounted", but MercDOS sim works fine. One person reports "It was because I had the MS powertools flexi CD loaded. When I exited flexi cd (closed it from the sys tray) the game ran fine." When I try to run with a multiple-CDROM-turntable drive, it takes forever to sense the drive, or exits with "Error 53: CD Not Mounted". One person reports that switching his CD-ROM drive to take just one drive letter seems to fix this problem. _________________________________________________________________ Controls and Keystrokes Hey! Where'd Image Enhancement go? 'w' doesn't work anymore. You can get it back by adding the line ENHANCED_VISION w into GAMEKEY.MAP. It was taken out because it wasn't quite finished- lasers don't show up when it's on. The custom config screen can't flip the direction of torso twist, nor will it let me use CTRL, ALT, or SHIFT! Will Day (who has a great Mech2 web page) posted a good explanation: In Mech2, you might recall, there were two columns on the custom config screen: one that let you flip the direction of some functions, like the torso twisting, from Up/Down to Down/Up, and another that let you assign a keymodifier to the input device or key (ctrl, alt, or shift). This former column would let you reverse the direction as you want to to. In Mercs, those two columns appear to be absent. They don't show up on the config screen at all. However, it appears that the functions of the columns are, in fact, still there. That is, you can click in the locations of the columns, and produce the same changes as you were able to in Mech2. You just can't see the results of those changes, at least without exiting the game and looking at the INPUT.MAP. ... As you noticed, the INPUT.MAP file is replaced whenever you change your active configuration. I think, but I'm not sure, that the four config setups are saved in GIDDI/CONFIGxx.CPC in a binary format, and the chosen one is then used to produce the INPUT.MAP file used by the game's input routines. My solution to the problem was to config my controllers with Mech2, and copy the GIDDI/CONFIGxx.CPC and INPUT.MAP files back to the Mercs directory. This so far as worked just fine, as it appears the file formats are virtually identical between the two games. Needless to say, this should be fixed in a future patch. _________________________________________________________________ Extra goodies What about a mission editor? Mission tools are on the disc. A mission editor would be a good project for a determined 3rd party; we probably won't be doing one any time soon. _________________________________________________________________ MercNet Trouble getting the KLOS dialer to accept my configuration and dial When I run MERCPPP, and enter in my ISP's phone #, etc., it takes all my inputs, and seems to "save to net.cfg" just fine, but I never get the main menu afterwards. It only gives me the "current" selection again. The first time you go through MERCPPP.BAT, and enter in your COM port, you *must save and exit* before you can see the main menu. That's right, hit ESC again after saving, and say YES when it asks if you want to leave. MERCPPP will then take you to the main menu. (The main menu won't show up until PPP is loaded, and it can't load PPP until you tell it what COM port you have and exit.) ________________________________________________________________________ Dan Kegel