13 replies to this topic

[EGG]

I've seen a few pics of MPBT:3025 over the years, but very few to none of the original MPBT, or Solaris for that matter.

Does anyone have screenshots or pics of the original two games? I started on MW2 in '96, but never heard about the MPBT games until about 2004, so never had the chance to play them.

[Tarl Cabot]

http://kerlin.de/artikel.php?id=785

The first set of screenshots are EA MPBT 3025.

The second set of screenshots are of AOL/Gamestorm's MPBT Solaris




https://www.facebook...k=photos_stream

And below showed the sweet spot for a cat/marauder. The top/rear was part of CT rear of the mech. Jenners/Grasshoppers would aim for that spot while jumping.



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GEnie MPBT 3025 which used the original Mechwarrior PC game as its combat engine.

http://mwomercs.com/...-the-early-90s/

This one has 2 zip files, one from Solaris, the other from EA 3025 screenshots
http://www.geocities...mpbtg/mpbtg.htm

http://mwomercs.com/...players-thread/

[Tarl Cabot]

http://www.oldgames....rrior/pictures/

[Tarl Cabot]

For GEnie's EGA MPBT, it was PVE, unless the players went to Solaris. And depending on which units were defending a planet determined the AI ranking. There was a big difference between a green unit and an elite unit. Lasted from 1991 to 1996/7 after the Solaris combat engine went live.

For AOL/Gamestorm MPBT Solaris - it had been announced as SVGA MPBT 3025. The combat engine was all that was finalized, as the Succession/Community Warfare did not materialized when the 3rd party design team did not deliver. Aol version ran from 1996 to 2001ish?, primarily populated by European pilots (through their ISP, it was still free), with the majority of the population on the Gamestorm server from 2007-2001, after AOL changed their pricing structure. You could drop into single combat against a NPC piloting the same mech as you dropped in. Otherwise it was team vs team or FFA. With the SW/CW interface we created and ran our own Solaris Succession Wars, using the Solaris Arenas as planetary bases. We did not use Elo brackets or such things. There were times when people were switched out at specific points but you dropped with the hand you were dealt.

MPBT 3025 basically was the MW4 combat engine, and the Succession/Community Warfare interface was a temporary stand in after the original 3rd party developer fell through on their end. Nor did that system have a Solaris interface. It was also PvP, everyone started off with lights and had to grind their way up. No Elo, you slept in the same bed you made.....

I believe it was with the Solaris combat engine that they had looked at increasing the battles from a max 4vs4 to either 8vs8 or 12vs12. They had taken all stalkers w/LRMS to test it. Lets just say it still needed some work Remember, most people would have still been on dialup with i468 Intel CPUs (25-133mhz, not ghz). On some systems you were able to improve the CPU by adding a math co-processor.....

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 20 April 2015 - 09:36 AM.

[Sylonce]

I found this youtube video of Multiplayer Battletech:

I've really only played one or two drops of that game back in the day, since back in the day, it was a subscription game, and I was a penniless child who only jumped in when there was a free trial. Seemed like a great game though.

[Tarl Cabot]

(chuckles) MPBT Solaris. One of the things I liked about it was if you were double legged you were flat on your back. At the time it went live on AOL it did not have the ability to look left/right/up/down/rear. For MPBT that is where the no legging/cockpit came from there, to make it less vicious for newbies. A few months later Kesmai did add those alternate looks, along with the ability to fire the respective arm weapons (up/down and left/right). For the battlemaster and dragon, they were able to fire the rear-facing medium laser.

For EGA MPBT 3025 (GEnie) that game has to ability, for those with arm actuators, to prop themselves up, to fire the weapons in the other arm/torso.

I had a match where those still alive (you could eject) had been doubled legged but relatively close to each other while the enemy had an one-legged marauder with only a medium laser left. He was slowly finishing us off but eventually cross through the fire lanes for myself (stalker) and another (marauder). He was not able to extract himself quickly enough before being finished off.

For the most part, due to, for the most part, lack of severe terrain (what little terrain there was, it has been used when needed) and the pace of the game, we actually used formation from echelon left to single file to inverted V or arrowhead and switch it up while moving towards the enemy. Upon contact then it became a fade/advance/flanking/torso twisting while calling out specific targets, generally including specific part locations.

Also, no mech lab but the mechs had several variants. Matches were usually along the line of lights/mediums/heavies/assaults/true lance (one of each) while the FFA (free for all) were a mix of everything. Bars, hallways, arenas, PM, search by different means for people. For the Houses, it was generally done by military forces names, DCMS, CCAF, FWLM, AFFS, LCAF. People were able to change their names in game (they had their own ID number which was also viewable) to match things up, ie Chu-sa Tarl.Cabot 13RR RMD *DCMS*, etc.

[Anjian]

Ah that brings back the memories. I think the first mech I ever ever played was a Jenner.

[EGG]

What mechs did MPBT:EGA have? The same as Mechwarrior 1, or more?

[Tarl Cabot]

EGG, on 22 April 2015 - 05:55 AM, said:

What mechs did MPBT:EGA have? The same as Mechwarrior 1, or more?

iirc EGA had the same mechs as the original Mechwarrior, with the Marauder generally being the first mech purchased once a player earned enough c-bills and progressed enough to pilot heavies.

With EGA the unit you were in determined what mechs were available for use while the combat drops determined the max weight class. At the beginning of attacking a planet but attacker and defender were restricted to lights, as it was recon/intersect/escort type missions. If your unit was on planet you had those mechs available. If your unit was not on planet, to fight you had to co-op with an existing unit on planet and used their mechs. If you owned a mech and shipped it to the planet you were on, you had to wait for it to arrive.

There was also Repair/Reload. For your private mech you played for it, if you used a unit mech that was taken care of. Exceptions. If the planet you are fighting on has its supply line cut then the mechs were not always fully repaired nor fully armed/loaded. Some mechs simply could not be used if the engine itself had been destroyed and could not be repaired/replaced at that time. I did not get to where I was in command of a unit but there were financial/bookkeeping that had to be done, unit movement (planets were restricted to the number of units that could land/bases).

EGA was a pay/hour game with two different pricing structures based on the time of day. At the time I played non-primetime was $6/hr from 6pm to 8am the next morning during the weekdays, local time. Primetime was $18/hr, again from 8am to 6pm local time. Tis when a person learned of credit card burn out... Later on, from some others the hourly rate dropped to $3/hrs, non-prime time.

There are others here who could provide more info, provided they have not lost their minds too..

[Hex Pallett]

Man, am I glad how much technology advanced.

These beautiful 3D graphics running at a glorious 5FPS....

[Valasharia]

I remember that first Mechwarrior game and how great I thought the graphics were.

[Tarl Cabot]

Hex Pallett, on 22 April 2015 - 12:43 PM, said:

Man, am I glad how much technology advanced.

These beautiful 3D graphics running at a glorious 5FPS....

And playing it on DOS.. and working the OS files to move memory load to high memory

[ScrapIron Prime]

Ah, the heady days of playing Crescent Hawks' Inception on an IBM PC that I upgraded with a 10 MB hard card.

Hangin' out in the spaceport, mugging people with a man portable SRM 2 and taking their wallets. Good times.

[Demongirl]

...adding to the necroed thread: EA's MPBT:3025