Unofficial Mechwarrior II FAQ

Part 2 (of 2): Playing the game!!!

Version 2.0 8/9/95

The FAQ is split into two parts:

• Part 1: a re-hash of the Pre-release FAQ, providing mostly descriptions of the game. This would be most useful for those who haven't bought the game yet, and want to know "What is it like???"

• Part 2: addresses specific topics relating to playing the game, like cheats, bugs, and general questions of the type "How do I do this in the game???"

Revision history

• Reorganized Pre-release version into a Post-release version, split into two parts

Table of Contents

The Game Shell

1. Why doesn't Alpha Attack use his PPCs on the 2nd enemy mech in the intro?
2. How many cut-scenes are there?
3. Can I read the greyed out information in the Archive Holoprojector?
4. Can I change the name of my custom mechs from "User variant #X"?
5. Nice music; what was used to create it?
6. What music in the game is GMIDI, and what is from the CD?
7. Can I listen to a different CD during missions?
8. Can I play the game without the CD in the drive?

Cheats and Codes and Neat Things

1. What cheat codes are there?
2. I can't get the Enzo cheat to work.
3. It won't let me use the BattleMaster.
4. How do I modify the cheat mechs (Elemental, Tarantula, Battlemaster)?
5. What other easter-eggs are in the game?

Control Configuration

1. How do I get my 2-joystick setup to work?
2. I assigned a key to a function, and now it's performing TWO functions!
3. Pressing the "firegroup-2" key also centers my torso.
   ( Or, the FireGroup-2 doesn't work from my Thrustmaster. )
4. The jumpjet rotate keys don't work on my FLCS.
5. I'd really like a key to move to the next weapon group.
6. Why does the torso always center itself when controlled with a joystick?
   ( Or, why is it so hard to aim with the joystick? )

The Simulation

1. The mech won't ever come to a complete stop.
2. If I have no ammo, do I have to worry about overheating?
3. Sometimes my jumpjets don't lift me up at all.
4. Why do the enemy mechs pick on me specifically?
5. Why is my right torso/arm ALWAYS the first thing to be destroyed?
6. Does the enemy AI have a sense of self preservation?
7. When I press 'm' to recenter the torso to the legs, why does it jerk?

Problems

1. I don't get music in the game.
2. The CD only works in first slot of my multidisk CD drive.
3. The game crashes, and I get page frame errors.
4. I get a "critical write error on drive c:"
5. The game keeps locking up when I'm calibrating my joysticks.
6. How much memory can the game make use of?
7. How can I improve the speed of the game?

Complaints

1. Why do the stars only have 3 mechs? They're supposed to be five.
2. I'm limited to only 10 weapons on a mech?
3. The mechs don't fall down when they lose a leg.
4. Why is the ER PPC shorter range than the ER Large Laser?

Network and Multiplayer-Gaming

1. Do I need more than one copy of the game to multiplay?
2. Will the full network version directly support IPX, rather than requiring NetBios?
3. Can I netplay between the demo and full version?

Extras

1. Where's the DEMO? Is it OUT YET??
2. I never saw the canyon wall that was shown in one of the screen shots. Did I miss something?
3. The computer has a nice voice.
4. What machines/configurations were used for testing?
5. What programming platforms did you use to write the game?
6. The credits mention"Special thanks to...Tim Morten (for the Second Coming)".
7. What's taken so long?

The Future

1. Is there a level editor? Or, What add-ons are planned?
2. Will the M&T disk work with the NetMech add-on?
3. I'm a CLANNER! I want to invade the Inner Sphere!
4. Will there be a [Mac, Win95, WinNT] port of the game?
5. Will there be an upgrade path from the DOS version to Win95/NT?
6. Any plans for MW2 on Sony's Playstation?
7. Will Activision be doing a future Mechwarrior game?
8. What about a MW2 movie?

Net References

1. What Activision people involved with Mechwarrior are on the net?
2. Where do Activision-Mechwarrior people usually read and/or post?
3. On what ftp sites can I find Mechwarrior II info?
4. What web pages are there about Mechwarrior II?

Section 1: The Game Shell

I dunno. Maybe, ah, maybe he took splash damage from the explosion of his starmate. Yeah, that's the ticket. And, ah, it took out his PPC's. Okay, yeah.

There are a total of five cut-scenes: the main intro, the two clan intros, and the two clan endings.

I actually didn't notice the greyed out entries until I read a post earlier today. I guess we'll have to fill them out in the add-on!

You can change the name: (a) when you first create the custom mech; (b) by clicking customize again, in which case it'll be save in addition to the previously-named mech. I also have a little DOS command line utility that'll show or set the variant name. It's at: http://rom.oit.gatech.edu/~willday/mw2/mekname.zip ftp://rom.oit.gatech.edu/pub/mw2/mekname.zip

It was a Roland JV series rack mount.

I've never really made any definite determination, but I believe that the mission music is spooled from the CD, whereas music in the shell is GMIDI. At least, the Trials/IA setup screen plays GMIDI music.

Yes; our testers did this all the time.

The game expects to play CD-audio off the CD. Several other assets, including the training instructor's voice, are not copied by the full installation. The game looks to the CD to find these things. It will not run without them.

Even with the full install, much of the art for the shell is read explicitly off the CD. Also, there are 26 tracks of CD audio that the game expects to find on the CD. Sorry; we actually meant it when we said 2X CD-ROM required!

Seriously though, I do apologize for the inconvenience. The CD-audio can't reside on a hard-drive, so we designed on the assumption we'd always have access to the CD as a repository for art as well.

MechWarrior 2 expects to play CD audio off of your CD drive (not MIDI or digitized audio, real CD-audio you can listen to in your stereo's CD player). Also, it expects to play the 40MB plus movie sequences from the CD. Also, it expects to find a number of other art resources on the CD.

In short, no. Sorry!

Section 2: Cheats and Codes and Neat Things

These codes work in the simulation, by holding down CTRL-ALT-SHIFT and typing:

blorb

Toggle invulnerability

cia

Toggle unlimited ammo

coldmiser

Toggle heat tracking

hangaround

Toggle mission time-limit

flygirl

Add jumpjets to mech

mightymouse

Toggle infinite Jumpjet juice

gankem

Destroy targeted mech

enolagay

Explode an atom bomb (killing everything?)

michelin

Toggle bounding spheres on debris and mech parts

tinkerbell

View battle from free-floating camera. Turn off with "c".
ctrl-left to turn left
ctrl-right to turn right
ctrl-up to increase altitude
ctrl-down to decrease altitude
z to move forward
shift-z to move backwards

front

Toggles mini-front-view, shown in place of mini-rear-view

xray

Enhanced imaging with see-through. Turn off with "w".

dorcs

view the MW2 Sim Programmer Dorcs Web pages

icanthackit

End mission successfully

idkfa

End mission as a failure

zmak

Toggles Time expansion (?)

meepmeep

Time compression key enabled (?)

unmeepmeep

Time compression key disabled (?)

lairdo

"ATTENTION ENEMIES: Don't mess with the blimp." (?)

dei

"F E I F". (?) (Maybe Michael Douglas knows what this does.)

sh*t

"Freebirth vulgarity will not be tolerated!"

f*ck

"Freebirth vulgarity will not be tolerated!"

These codes work in the Trials of Grievance instant-action missions, by changing your name in Star Config to:

Calvin

Adds Elemental between Dire Wolf and Fire Moth (1 of 3)

Hobbes

Adds Tarantula between Elemental and Fire Moth (2 of 3)

Enzo

Adds Battlemaster IIC between Tarantula and Fire Moth (3 of 3)

This code works in the campaigns, by registering with the name:

FREEBIRTHTOAD

Lets you pick and play any of the 16 missions

It only works in the Trials of Grievance, not in the Wolf or JF campaigns. Be sure the E is capitalized.

Someone was in a hurry at ship-time at Activision, and made 2 careless mistakes. To fix the battlemaster problem:

In file MW2.PRJ:

change byte at offset 3206200 from 0x0B to 0x11

and change byte at offset 3206752 from 0x0B to 0x11

Someone converted to decimal when they shouldn't have ;)

In file MW2SHELL.EXE:

Search for string "btllmstr"

and replace with "bttlmstr"

That should do it, it did for me. Please use this mech's powers for good and not evil.

I was able to get the BattleMaster to work with only the string change to MW2SHELL.EXE as described above, at offset 537782.

I threw together some code I had lying around to patch the right bytes in both files that need fixing. You can get it at my web page:

http://www.computer.net/~louish/bttlmstr.zip

You have to USE an elemental in a ToG/Mission first. When you return to the builder screen, you will be able to modify the elemental.

It IS possible to get the Customize button on the Elemental, Battlemaster, and Tarantula without having to go into a mission. I haven't worked out all the variables, but what appeared to work for me was:

• (after applying the Enzo cheat, and going to the IA screen)
• pick a mech you can customize
• go to the mech lab (ie click on the mech outline)
• exit back to the IA screen
• pick the elemental (or BM or Tar)
• go to the mech lab again, and you should be able to customize

Sometimes I had to go down two or three mechs into the list (ie the Jenner) because sometimes when I'd just choose the Firemoth, I'd go into the mech lab and be unable to customize it.

In the archive holoprojector, some of the periods after the heading numbers are buttons. Click on them and you'll a few interesting screens. Check both clans.

Section 3: Control Configuration

The "CH Flightstick Pro" joystick input option will allow you to assign the rudders (X-axis of joy2) and the throttle (Y-axis of joy2) to game functions. I'd also suggest:

1. DE-SELECT "2-button" joystick. This is very important, as the two will conflict with each other and you'll get some screwy results.

2. Delete all the calibration files (*.cal) in the mech2 directory. Then, the next time you enter the simulation it'll ask you to recalibrate. Having old or spurious calibration files seemed to cause hanging during calibration on several occasions.

3. Remove the FSPro-specific controls from the custom config, for instance "hat-right". I did this just to make sure it didn't try to interpret any of my "normal" buttons as those special FSPro inputs.

The config screen allows you to assign _four_ different inputs/keys to the same function. Click on "Primary Config" to cycle through the four pages of assignments. It could well be that the key is assigned to perform that extra function on one of the secondary-quartinery config pages.

I got around this problem by changing the custom config have firegroup-2 be (-) on the keypad, rather than (/) on the keypad. Then, sending "KP-" from the FLCS worked also.

It seems to have some problem with the concept of the "grey" keys, or something. I redefined the custom config to use j/k/-/= to be left/right/down/up. And of course, deleted - and + from controlling the throttle.

The solution is to use RAW keyboard scan codes....with the RAW codes MW2 can't guess wrong about which INS or PGDown key you're pressing. (by the way, the scan codes are all in back of the manual.)

One line of my .B50 file looks like this:

   BTN H3L /P RAW (#E0 #70) /R RAW (#F0 #E0 #70)   rem  JUMP LATERAL LEFT

(I think that those are the right scan codes....I don't have my new .B50 file on this machine....)

Although it doesn't appear to be documented anywhere, the apostrophe key (') will move to the first weapon of the next group, without firing anything.

It's tying the torso _directly_ to the stick axis (centering the torso when the stick centers), rather than interpreting the stick movement as delta-change in movement.

MechWarrior 2 uses the joystick in a unique way. Rather than just reading 'left' or 'right' from the joystick and adding up values, MW2 turns your torso to the exact coordinates the joystick transmits (much like using a mouse).

This technique allows for more precise aiming, and lets you hold your joystick in position to stay aimed.

See, I read it differently. To me, this technique requires more difficult aiming, because it forces me to hold my joystick in position to stay aimed.

Sorry you're unhappy with the joystick autocentering; this is not a bug. I recommend using a mouse if you don't like the feel of joystick play.

I understand that you are very unhappy about this, however many users are using joysticks and prefer autocentering. We also had specific requests for autocentering in the design phase.

I really wish we could make everyone happy; I'll certainly look into offering both choices. However I am familiar enough with our joystick code to know that this is not trivial addition.

Not a bug, just a poor design decision. I tried using the mouse for torso control and targeting, and it worked like a dream. Why is wanting the same level of targeting control with the _joystick_ such a far-fetched concept?!?

Besides, suggesting I use the mouse rather than the joystick for torso/targeting is, at best, an inadequate solution. My two hands are already engaged with the joystick and throttle, and reaching for the mouse during battle will get me killed.

Interpreting the joystick in a delta-change manner isn't a non-standard method of control. (1) The chassis movement is done this way. (2) Both EarthSiege and VWE control their torsos in this manner, with no forced-centering.

In any case, now you're getting specific requests for non-autocentering. Providing a choice for the gamer sounds like it's in order.

We are now actively looking at making the centering optional based on yours and others suggestions.

It pains me to hear frustrated users .

It pains me to be frustrated, too. :-)

I hope this does indeed make it to a patch. I would suggest anyone else who would like this fixed to send a note to Tim (tmorten@activision.com) to show as much support as possible for a patch.

Section 4: The Simulation

If you turn, the mech automatically powers up to enable motion (otherwise you could only turn torso while standing still).

If you're standing still, and cause any left/right movement on the joystick, the mech will speed up to about 10kph or so for a couple of seconds, and then drop back down to 0, assuming you stop moving the stick. :) Also, if there's noise in your joystick card, it could be registering left/right movement to the game, in which case you'll always be slightly turning, and moving.

If things get warm enough, you should eventually suffer pilot death.

If you stay overheated for long enough, your mech _will_ explode, regardless of ammo.

Some planets have such high gravity that you can't get off the ground.

They target the leader of the star.

I sent a message to Tim Morton the other day about the frequent (read always) destruction of a mechs right arm. He said that they are working on it and the technical explanation was because there was a problem with the random number generator.

An obvious suggestion to get around this until a patch is released is to always use customized mechs that have NO weapons, ammo, or critical systems in the right torso/arm. Place everything in the left/center torsos and arm, and anything you can fit in the legs. You rarely get hit in the legs. :)

Yes; they will either flee or kamikaze if they have lost all weapons.

The legs are re-centering while your walking, so the legs have to turn while the torso re-centers, several times for the full re center. Press "C" for external view to see what's going on. It makes much more sense than what you see in the cockpit.

Section 5: Problems

Most of the game music is spooled directly off the CD, as regular (redbook) audio. You'll only hear the music if you have the CD wired to a speaker in some manner.

1. With most of the recent sound cards, you can connect the CDROM drive to the sound card via an internal cable.

2. Or, you might be able to run a cable from the head-phones jack on the front of the drive into an input jack on the back of the sound card, if your card has one.

3. Plug headphones or speakers into the CDROM drive's headphone jack.

Also, if you connect your CDROM audio into your sound card, be sure to check any mixer settings on the card, and make sure the CD-in is set to a reasonable volume. For instance, on my SB Pro, the CD-in volume defaults to 0, and I have to raise the level at bootup time.

We query the Microsoft CD extensions for the CD-ROM drive. It only reports back one letter, and that's the first drive. Sorry; I hope it's not a major inconvenience.

Try booting your machine without an expanded memory manager like QEMM or EMM386 loaded. The game doesn't need one to run, and it's also been known to slow the game down a little bit.

Turn off SMARTDRV.

I had problems with calibrate locking up on me many times. I did three things to help alleviate this:

• Delete all the *.CAL files in the mech2 directory. When you enter the sim next time it'll ask you to recalibrate.
• Make sure you only have one joystick type defined, as they tend to conflict with each other. For instance don't have "2-button joystick" and "Flightstick" both selected.
• Boot up with a very minimized setup, long enough to calibrate the sticks, and then return to your normal boot setup

RAM will provide a marginal improvement in frame rate, as less things will have to be swapped in and out at run time. Anything past 12MB has no benefit.

None of the missions has more than 12MB total, so anything above won't really get used.

Some ideas are:

In the game:

1. Run at a lower resolution
2. Turn off details in the Combat Variables screen
3. Turn off the enemy damage display
4. Use a larger installation on the hard drive, so it doesn't have to load as much from the CDROM drive.

In software:

1. Load as little as possible in autoexec.bat and config.sys
2. Use smartdrv to cache your HD.
3. Use smartdrv to cache your CDROM drive. Be sure smartdrv loads _after_ MSCDEX in your autoexec.
4. Don't load an expanded memory manager (EMM) like QEMM and EMM386. Despite what some of the documentation says, the game does not require EMM. You'll often get faster performance without it.
5. Load UniVBE. In some cases it includes a newer and better VESA driver than what comes on your video card. You can get it from SciTech software (http://www.scitechsoft.com/) at: ftp://ftp.scitechsoft.com/uvbe51a.zip
6. Get a copy of video benchmark programs like VidTest and 3D-Bench to see how your system rates. They're available at:
   http://www.dfw.net/~sdw/3dbench.zip
   ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/screen/vidspd40.zip

In hardware:

1. Get a faster processor. :)
2. Get a faster video card. PCI is best, VLB next, with at least 2meg onboard. Some good choices might be Matrox Millenium, cards based on the ARK2000 chipset like the Hercules Stingray 64, cards based on the ET4000/wp32 chipset, and cards based on the S3 968 chipset like the Diamond Stealth 64 VRAM (NOT the Viper!) Check out the benchmarks for some of these cards at:
   http://www.dfw.net/~sdw/bench.html

   Get at least 16meg RAM. Use EDO memory if you can.

   Get a recent PCI motherboard without VLB. Having the VLB slows down the PCI. In addition, some older VLB-PCI boards had the PCI bus wired incorrectly, and were slowed down even more. Early OPTi pentium chipsets also had performance problems.

   Optimize settings in your motherboard's BIOS. Be careful not to screw anything up, or put your machine in state where it won't even boot. :O Read comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips for some information. Also check out:

   http://www.dfw.net/~sdw/bios.html

   http://www.metronet.com/~rcollins/mrbios

Section 6: Complaints

We wanted to ensure performance on 486 computers. The add-on will allow 5 mech stars.

The add-on will address this limitation.

We may do this in the add-on; it's a bit more complicated since we have to worry about falling on hills.

Despite what the game manual says, the ER PPC in actual play has a range of 1.25 km. You can tell because the retical will turn red as a target enters this range. I have hit and damaged targets this far away.

Section 7: Network and Multiplayer-Gaming

The current demo (on the game CD) requires two disks. However, the full version of NetMech (coming this October), will support up to 8 players with only one CD.

IPX will be the norm for the full NetMech version. TCP/IP will be available in the Windows 95 version this Christmas.

The current demo require NetBios running on top of IPX. The real NetMech version due this October will support IPX and (presumably) Kali.

No mixing I'm afraid.

Section 8: Extras

We are still in the process of trimming down MechWarrior 2's hefty 30MB worth of art resources into a reasonable size for the downloadable demo.

Thank you to all those who have taken the time to flame me for not having the demo out; trust me: it's not my fault . I want everyone to like my game!

In any event, the director of the game says we will definitely get the demo out this week. I apologize for the delays, and I encourage everyone to go check out the game, WHICH SHIPPED TODAY!!!

I'll be posting here and everywhere else I can think of when the demo is available, so hang in there. In the mean time, see if you can't grab a few minutes on your local software store's computer.

No, it's not out yet, we're still waiting.

And no, that "mw2demo2.zip" file you found on an ftp site is not the new demo, it's the one from a year ago - check the file dates.

The canyon wall got cut because it was too slow on 486 machines. It might show up in the add-on if we do any Pentium specific stuff.

BTW, for those who are wondering about the woman who did the computer voice in Mech2: Yes, she is as good looking as she sounds. :)

The testers have everything from 486-50 computers (not officially supported) to Pentium 120's. We test on as many machines as possible, and there are a number of people areound the country beta testing as well. I have a 486-66 and a Pentium-90.

Oh no, now you've done it. Given me an excuse to ramble endlessly that is <G>. We started using Borland's 16-bit real mode compiler, but about a year ago myself and another programmer here converted the program to use Watcom's 32-bit protected mode compiler (that is actually part of the reason we had to delay shipping). The game is written in a mixture of C and assembly for optimum speed.

Tim was instrumental in convincing Activision to NOT cancel the project after the first production team fell apart. In fact, the game would most likely not exist if he had not stepped in at a crucial time.