Spread the word! How? Where?

[[CG]Anastasius Focht]

I post my Mech pics at non related forums like modeling forums etc, and when i get a response like, i wish there was a new Mechwarrior game...... i point em here

[XhootiehooX]

I set my steam profile name to( hootiehoo-mechlivinglegends.net ) so that everyone on my steam friends list and groups will see it.
It also is my css name

[Knightcrawler]

Clicking fires the weapons in group 1, right-clicking does group 2, mousewheel click does group 3 (by default). The arrow keys and space bar assign/reassign weapons into different groups (upper right of your HUD).

Left click by default actually fires the currently selected group, not necessarily group 1. Also, I am pretty sure you use Enter to change weapon groups, not the Space Bar.

Maybe wanna throw in "Didn't have time to read something in the in-game chat? Press ~ to bring up the control panel, with recent messages."

[SquadronROE]

Ah! Good point, you're right. I was going off the top of my head, and I also rebound my left-click to fire group 1 exclusively so long ago I forgot that it acts differently by default.

I'll correct the post here and where I put it, and add in the ~ tip.

[SquareSphere }12thVR{]

Nice write up, I agree add some pics to spice it up.  There's plenty of screen shots on the main page and/or check out Pytak's collection of super awesome collection

[SquadronROE]

Very good idea, and I will share some pics on the board I posted this to. Feel free to spice up the post as you see fit.

I kept it fairly sparse of media because the forum I was posting to uses Vanilla 2 which can be a bit of a dick when it comes to resizing images, so I didn't want it to become bloated.

Also I ran out of time when working on that post. I might play around with it some more tonight.

[~SJ~ Atlessa]

TAG is basically a laser targeter. NARC is a beacon that can be shot onto a mech. Both will guide all missiles to them after the missile is fired assuming your radar was active at the time you fired those missiles.

[SquadronROE]

Alright, here's what I did.

Alright, so for awhile now you wonderful people have put up with me slipping further and further into the depths of mech-fuelled madness. Oh, it started innocently enough, playing a lightweight Battletech boardgame based on the Heroclix system. Then it deepened when I found Megamek and campaigns for it, and now my living room is dominated by a Steel Battalion setup.

Throughout it all, though, what I always really wanted was a good remake of Mechwarrior 4. There was something about that game that just grabbed me for hours on end, when I would consistently beat all challengers in crazy Solaris matches. That's when I found out about <a href="www.mechlivinglegends.net"> MechWarrior: Living Legends [/url] and started figuring out what it would take to get into it.

Well, it wasn't easy for me to figure out but that doesn't mean it needs to be difficult for you to figure out. In hindsight there were a few things that would have made life MUCH easier for me getting the game up and running. So without further ado... here's the Megathread. Everything you might need to know about Living Legends.

Battletech? MechWarrior? What the hell?
It's the far future (3068 or so), and the Human empire has expanded so far that Terra is barely remembered as the place where it all started. Now, battles are fought between militaristic Clan warriors and the staunch defenders of the various Inner Sphere houses (think: rival factions all united under one banner) on hundreds of planets. The weapon of choice is no longer the assault rifle, a hover tank, or even some fancy laser but instead a Battlemech... 100 tons of firepower, heavy armor and mobility, designed to lay waste to enemy armor as quickly as a fat kid lays waste to cake.  Heavy tanks, speedy hover tanks, aerospace fighters and VTOLs still buzz about in the battlefield, but the 'Mech has become the platform of choice for most heavy weapons.

Alright... but I'm sure there's more I need to know. Tell me, or else.
You got me, there is. You need to realize that these 'Mechs are different than the Mecha that is popular within Anime. Those Mecha manage to be incredibly agile and rely on incredibly high tech weapons and melee combat to quite a bit. Battlemechs do not do this. They lumber onto the battlefield (for the most part, but we'll get to that later), striding towards the enemy while launching missiles at long range targets, firing heavy lasers into closer targets, and sustaining withering blows to their armor. You'll also not find melee combat (in MW:LL at least), nor shields. Think a bit closer to our current technology (anti-missile systems exist, and high-caliber rifles are popular) while a bit more sci-fi (particle cannons and numerous flavors of lasers exist).

So why should I play MechWarrior: Living Legends?
Because of this:
Ta-da!

Basically, it is the best multiplayer Mech piloting game I have seen to date. In addition, it's the only one I've seen that allows you to choose from a variety of positions. Lumbering around the battlefield in a slow but heavily armed 'Mech not quite your thing? Well, how about zipping across the battlefield in a speedy RVN-3L "Raven" light 'Mech? As a scout, you'd be automatically providing incredibly useful intel on enemy movements while at the same time jamming enemy missiles and harassing lighter enemy units.

Still no? What about lobbing salvos of long range missiles from a tracked assault vehicle into enemy targets? Or setting up heavier mobile artillery to shell an enemy's base? Or even hopping into a VTOL or Aerospace fighter to bring death from above?

While the action centers around Battlemechs, MW:LL brings combined arms into the fray. I've had huge amounts of fun using the standard Battle Armor and assaulting from below. It's hard to beat the feeling of blowing apart a 'Mech's leg without him even seeing you with blasting charges.

Ok, I'm interested. Now what? How much does it cost? How do I get into it?
Well, that's a bit more difficult to answer. MW:LL is a mod based on the Crysis engine. As such, you'll obviously need Crysis and then the MW:LL installer before you can get in. So let's take it one step at a time.

First off, you'll need Crysis. Or, more specifically, Crysis Wars. The best way to get this is currently via Steam, by buying the Crysis Warhead game. This will get you the most up to date version of Crysis Wars, and the Steam version works just fine with the mod.

Once you get that downloaded and installed, you'll want to hop onto any Crysis Wars server that has Punkbuster enabled and make sure you can log on properly. Once you do that, you're ready to actually install the mod.

NOTE: You might get an error on trying to connect, saying "CD Key is invalid, would you like to edit it?". Don't fear! Your key is not invalid. Check out this post for information on how to fix it. It's really not that difficult. Basically, Steam's "installscript" pushes a CD key into your registry that doesn't include dashes. Real CD Keys include dashes, so you just need to pop them in there in that script, or edit your registry and remove that part of the script.

NOTE 2: You'll have to create a Gamespy account as part of this. I've never had to log in more than the first time I did this, but that's the way it works.

Installing the mod is joyfully simple. Grab the installation file from here and click Next a bunch of times. Once the installer is done, make sure that you mark "Run Auto Update" and then an Auto Updater will start its work and will bring you up to the latest.

That's it! You then just click Launch MWLL and you're in the game.

Some quick basics about the game:

W A S D and mouse is the general control scheme. In a Mech, W and S are throttle up and throttle down (and you can go into reverse) and the mouse aims weapons and twists your torso appropriately (so you can move in one direction and fire in another).

Clicking fires the weapons group you have currently selecting, right-clicking does group 2, mousewheel click does group 3 (by default). The arrow keys and Enter key assign/reassign weapons into different groups (upper right of your HUD).

If you miss messages in text, just hit ~ to bring up the console and see the messages you missed. Handy, as there's a lot of communication going around.

To get a missile lock, hover the aiming point over a vehicle far enough away. When the tone goes solid, click away and adore the whooshing of missiles.

TAG is basically a laser targeter. NARC is a beacon that can be shot onto a mech. Both will guide all missiles to them after the missile is fired assuming your radar was active at the time you fired those missiles.

AC is Autocannon. Lower values are smaller caliber, which fire faster and farther but pack less punch.

Don't be afraid to try new things!

[SquadronROE]

Fixed. Sorry about the double post.

[xInVicTuSx]

TAG is basically a laser targeter. NARC is a beacon that can be shot onto a mech. Both will guide all missiles to them after the missile is fired assuming your radar was active at the time you fired those missiles.

Thus making TAG even more worthless.... can't count the times I've forgotten that and thought, "Hey I can ninja launch LRMs and guide them with TAG without being seen on radar!... oh wait no..." 

[DFDelta]

You can actually go active, fire the LRMs and instantly go passive again after they have all launched. You can guide them while passive, as well as friendly missiles.

If you are only tagging then you never have to go active at all.

But yeah, forgetting to go active for the missiles keeps happening to me, too.
Guess I'm getting old 

[TAX_MAN!]

TAG sucks right now because it also messes up MRMs that are fired while passive.

[4204ME]

Growth of the player base has been something I have put allot of thought into. I feel MW is a very unique game and doesn't follow the same rules that most other FPS games follow. MW has more/longer persistence to its fans than most games. Retention of players I feel is more important than searching for new ones. I feel making it easier for "new/casual" players to get up to speed would help. There are allot of newer players to MWLL that do not come from a MW or BT background and the learning curve is steep and documentation/instructions messy. At the end of the day retention is based upon social connections and interactions. We don't join a clan/unit and play MWwith them for years because we wanna be leet. Its because we enjoy the comradery and teamwork. However for units/clans to grow and multiply means there needs to be some sort of unit competition going. Every new unit is a seed with its own driving forces to grow and recruit players. By that function they also bring new players to the game.

[SquadronROE]

The nice thing about MWLL is that the controls are based off of a modern FPS. WASD + Mouse is extremely familiar to most people who have played a modern shooter, and the only things that are really difficult to learn in MW:LL are the nuances of the various weapons.

I agree that the social interaction will get people to stay, and would encourage people to be as helpful as possible to pubbers in-game. Answer questions, etc.