23 replies to this topic

[CyclonerM]

Hail trothkins!

Today i decided to post this thread about the custom configurations you made in MechWarrior 2: 31st CC and GBL. No, not Mercs, not because i hate it but because i want to hear how you customized your OmniMechs with the veeery free MechLab rules the game had

I never customized any 'Mech when i was a child and started playing with it because i could not understand how it worked.. It was even worse then our current Mechlab in MWO: all text, no drag & drop.

I got the DOS version working so i can actually tell you a few configurations i made:

-Firemoth: ER Small laser, Med pulse laser.. XL 260 engine! That thing was fast!
-Stormcorw: 4 MPLs, SSRM4. Not too bad! I want to try it in MWO.
-Summoner: 1) UAC/20 with 3 tons of ammo, SSRM6 with two tons of ammo, ERLL, ER small
2) 2 LRM 20 with 2 tons of ammo each, 2 SRM4 , 4 MPLs.
both are configs i made for the mission on Twycross (Wolf campaign), Scorched Sand IIRC.
-Timberwolf: Here comes the most interesting configuration as you may remember, in MW2 you could do pretty much anything: you could lower your engine rating and your armor and place equipment everywhere. Even lasers in the TW's missile launchers! I downgraded a bit the engine to achieve this: 2 Gauss rifles (two tons of ammo), 2 LRM10, 4 ERML, 1 ERSL. I want badly to try it in MWO Try to imagine 2 gauss shots plus 2 "SSRMS 10" plus 4 MLs that are almost as powerful as IS Larges..

Post your own configurations now!

[DerRattenmann]

uhm... wow ... that was a long time ago... I pretty much played standart nova or stormcrow until I got my hands on this:
Rifleman IIC - 4x ER-LLas, 4x MPLas, 260XL, 4x jumpjet, 20x DHS
Played right through the end in this one. Sorry for not going omni
For GBL I remember something like this:
Warhawk - 4x UAC/5, 1x SSRM6, 3x MPLas, 340XL
...and there was a Firemoth without armor going around at 65 kph with a gaussrifle for the most brutal netmech rounds ever...
...good times...

Edited by DerRattenmann, 14 April 2014 - 02:55 AM.

[CyclonerM]

Such good times indeed! Too bad i was too young to compete in NetMech.. But i would be very willing to destroy your Gaussmoth with my Gauss Wolf

[YaKillinMeSmalls]

I recall doing most missions with a Nova that had 5-7 ER medium lasers on chain fire and just circle-strafing everything. Five was the minimum number of mlasers needed to keep up continuous chain fire, and I added 2 more just in case a limb got blown off.
I do recall how you could customize things maybe too much, IIRC, you could mount weapons in the legs. But legs got blown off waaay to easily in that game lol.

I do miss being able to have jumpjets on a Hellbringer. Only thing missing on that mech, IMO.

[Karl Streiger]

i think i did run PPCs mostly.... love that expanding fireball when you hit - if you hit.

(OK the range of those PPC balls was - the end of the map - so you could fire at any target you have spotted...and thx to the bad KI it were mostly hits.

i mostly used the Warhammer IIC....
2 ER-PPCS
4 Medium Pulse Lasers
4 Machine Guns

--- if ghost bears legacy did count - the Kodiak with 2 Arrow IVs

Edited by Karl Streiger, 14 April 2014 - 04:35 AM.

[Keeshu]

Ah MW2. Since I was so young, and no one I ever asked understood any of the jibberish that MW2 had and didn't have the time to learn everything because I was visiting someone, I didn't spend much time in the Mech lab and generally went with the Default builds.
Really hoping I can play MW2 again sometime since it's been such a long time since it was released, and to see if it's as hard as I remember since I now know what the heck I'm doing.


However, whenever I did do stuff with the lab, it was usually putting PPCs on everything. One of my favorite things to do was do a Firemoth + Jumpets and a PPC vrs Direwolves with 7 ppcs on a cold map. PPCs were so gosh darn slow and large in MW2 I loved it.

However, sometimes I did some other things. I probably would do pure LRMs, but unless there's a way to add just Ammo instead of another weapon (never could the option for more ammo when I was a kid), you'd always run out of ammo even if you hit with every shot.
Whenever I tried to make a build that worked (which was only a couple times), it was always Mediums/Large Lasers with a bunch of heat sinks. However I'd always do only one type 80% of the time, and which one I chose depended on the mech I am and the mission I'm doing. As a kid I just hated using the weapon grouping for some reason *shrug*. Sometimes I'd have LRMs with those builds for burst damage (and for the awesome factor). Was never a fan of the small lasers or ballistics weapons when I was a kid, only the guass rifle caught my attention when it came to ballistics.



....... I do remember seeing a video somewhere of someone taking a Mad Dog, putting an insane amount of armor on it, and filled it with Machineguns (17 machineguns I think?) basicly almost instakilling anything that got close. I'd like to try that, because it's hard for me to believe something so OP would exist, even if it is an old game. Also because I never used the machineguns in MW2.


*ends post before going off topic about which mechs were chosen because of not using the mech lab*

[Archon]

Man I also loved the lightning blue orb PPCs in that game. I also loved the ball-shaped slug the Gauss Rifle fired. Watching those orbs of death consume their targets was just awesome. And I LOVED the sounds that they made when you fired them. For those reasons they have always been my favorite BT/MW weapons, even though they don't look like that in any of the games since. I would deck out the heaviest mech I could get my hands on with as many PPCs and Gauss Rifles as it could carry.

[Shepherd]

I remember that the autocannons had a very fast cooldown time, so you could empty your ammo bins rapidly to do huge damage.

But mostly I was always afraid of running out of ammo, so I would use the Nova or Marauder IIC. I modified the Marauder IIC to have a single jump jet though, so that when a leg got blown off I could "hop" my way through the rest of the mission.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Shepherd, on 16 April 2014 - 11:01 AM, said:

I modified the Marauder IIC to have a single jump jet though, so that when a leg got blown off I could "hop" my way through the rest of the mission.

Turning could move you forward as well (turn left then right repeatedly) but a JJ was more effective (especially with the lateral jetting you could do!)


....was rather funny watching in 3pv as the one-legged mech hopped (oh-so slowly!) on that one leg around the level.

[CyclonerM]

Keeshu, on 16 April 2014 - 10:49 AM, said:

I probably would do pure LRMs, but unless there's a way to add just Ammo instead of another weapon (never could the option for more ammo when I was a kid), you'd always run out of ammo even if you hit with every shot.
a As a kid I just hated using the weapon grouping for some reason *shrug*.

What if i told you there is a "add ammo" option? And what if i told you that as a kid i never known there was a "group fire" mode? Weird controls

[Stormwolf]

Here you go buddy:

[Malcolm Vordermark]

I remember before I figured out how to make weapon groups I would basically boat any given weapon. I found it hilarious to stuff as many ER PPCs into a mech (especially the legs) as I could and then fire them all, overheat and blow up. Imagine my surprise when I joined MWO during the reign of the 6xPPC stalker.

I loved the Dire Wolf because of all that tonnage to play with, can't wait to get in one again. After I figured out weapon groups I ran mostly LRM20s and medium pulse lasers. I think ER mediums were better but they were nowhere near as satisfying.

Come to think of it, I had no idea what the weapon damages were because I would boat machine guns but avoided the UAC20 simply because it didnt sound like I was doing as much damage.

I also remember having a lot of trouble on a mission where you had to inspect a power generator in a city. I just could not slog through so many enemies so I took a Firemoth, stripped everything but a little rear armor, added MASC, put the biggest XL I could in the thing, and just ran to the generator and ran to the drop ship.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to queue up the Mechwarrior OST.

Edited by Rouken, 16 April 2014 - 12:33 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Rouken, on 16 April 2014 - 12:27 PM, said:

I also remember having a lot of trouble on a mission where you had to inspect a power generator in a city. I just could not slog through so many enemies so I took a Firemoth, stripped everything but a little rear armor, added MASC, put the biggest XL I could in the thing, and just ran to the generator and ran to the drop ship.

I know that mission!
I used a Jenner for the more armor



And back on topic.... I used a lot of different loadouts - PPC were a favorite - as were large and medium lasers, and LRM20s

Didn't like any of the AC, because I feared running out of ammo (yet it didn't bother me with the LRM20?!)
Also didn't like any weapon with less than 500 meter range (despite doing almost all my fighting within 90meters.... )

Edit: typo

Edited by Shar Wolf, 16 April 2014 - 12:52 PM.

[CyclonerM]

Shar Wolf, on 16 April 2014 - 12:43 PM, said:

I know that mission!
I used a Jenner for the more armor

Blade Splint

I used a fast Jenner and just hidden cowardly behind the power generator while i was inspecting it

Yeah, the ACs ate ammo at incredible rate. My favourite were the Gauss Rifles: for a mission i stuffed a Gargoyle with 2 Gauss and i think 5 small lasers.. It worked

[Name140704]

These were all I ever used in MW2 and GBL. Prime variant. LRMs were so OP

[Name140704]

CyclonerM, on 16 April 2014 - 01:03 PM, said:

Blade Splint

I used a fast Jenner and just hidden cowardly behind the power generator while i was inspecting it

Yeah, the ACs ate ammo at incredible rate. My favourite were the Gauss Rifles: for a mission i stuffed a Gargoyle with 2 Gauss and i think 5 small lasers.. It worked

The medium pulse laser, flamers, or LRMs just seemed to wreck everything in the MW2 series, and don't forget your jumpjet!

[Keeshu]

Stormwolf, on 16 April 2014 - 11:49 AM, said:

Here you go buddy:

Funny I remember the Add/Remove weapon, but I don't remember Add/Remove Ammo. Then again, I don't think I knew what ammo was at that time..... Come to think of it, Mechwarrior 2 is the first game I played that had ammo. All games I played before that were NES, or Sierra games. Quake 2 being the second game with ammo, but that game just says the type of ammo, and it doesn't say ammo anywhere...

Whenever I do get around to playing Mechwarrior 2 again, I'll definently try more ammo based builds (at least for missles). Just a bit too lazy to actually look into how to run Mechwarrior 2 on newer operating systems.....

Though, I'll probably just end up doing LRMs/SRMS, maybe PPCs/Large Lasers. (MWO did do a good job on making Ballistics more entertaining btw)


On a side note, I'm getting some massive nostalgia from that screenshot.

CyclonerM, on 16 April 2014 - 11:41 AM, said:

What if i told you there is a "add ammo" option? And what if i told you that as a kid i never known there was a "group fire" mode? Weird controls

I remember now why I always look at game controls first before anything else, Mechwarrior 2 was a pain to learn so it left an impact on me. Especially considering I came from the simplicity of NES and Sierra games. Mechwarrior 2 just left that much of an impact on me. At least people playing MWO won't have that much of a hard time learning it.

God, it's hard making a post in this thread without going off-topic with nostalgia. So many things I want to say....

[Alaskan Nobody]

Keeshu, on 16 April 2014 - 02:11 PM, said:

I remember now why I always look at game controls first before anything else, Mechwarrior 2 was a pain to learn so it left an impact on me.

God, it's hard making a post in this thread without going off-topic with nostalgia. So many things I want to say....

You are not alone in either of those.

[Odanan]

Exploit build:

Jenner IIC "Jennifer"

245XL Engine
6 jump jets
9(!) DHS
EE, FF (6 tons)
5x MGs (+10 tons of ammo)
1x small pulse laser
all weapons in the torsos and head

This mech is brutal. Reach the enemies very fast, never gets hit and kill in seconds.

The MG ammo dry very fast tough, so I have an alt variants with 4 small pulse lasers for longer missions.

About MW2 weapon balance:
- machineguns, when boated, can 3 seconds any mech (totally unbalanced)
- autocannons sucks
- pulse lasers do a lot of damage but absurd heat (only SPL is usable)
- medium lasers are OK (but kind of hot)
- LRMs are deadly when boated
- Gauss is worthless
- PPCs do fair damage, but travel too slow and have poor rate of fire
- SRMS and SSRMs are not good at all

If you are skilled, you can reach 250+ speed with the jump jets - and keep in the air for a very long time.
If you are skilled, you can keep seriously overheating without ever shutdown.
You always lose your arms first, so don't put weapons there (arms also are locked to the torso)

As you can see, the game has a lot of flaws in weapon balance*, but it is compensated with a rich story-line and great mission design.

(*most issues - but not all - are fixed in MW2:M)

In MW2:M I pilot fast mechs with about 5 IS Medium Lasers, supported by assault mechs with ER Large Lasers and/or Arrow IVs.

In MW3, all mechs in the lance are heavier as possible, armed ideally with 2x PPCs and 6x ER Medium Lasers. In multiplayer, just 2 UAC/20s in a heavy (but fast) mech.

In MW4, Daishi with 3 Gauss + 6 ER Medium Lasers.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Odanan, on 16 April 2014 - 02:26 PM, said:

- Gauss is worthless

That weapon could hit the AI mechs before they knew you were there (1980m range, with no damage drop-off)-stick two of them on and any mission where you are not the defender can be won by sniping the AI's cockpits with two of them - while the AI was standing still waiting for you to get close enough for them to attack.