![[MercLogo]](gif/merclogo.gif)
This FAQ is an unofficial collection of common questions and answers and information about Mercenaries. It should not be considered representative of Activision whatsoever.
See these sites for Official Mercenaries Information:
Also be sure and check the README.TXT, HELP.TXT,
and INTERNET.TXT files that came with Mercenaries.
If you disagree with any of the answers I present here, or would like to offer additional information to be added to the FAQ, please let me know.
README.TXT file:
| Processor | Speeds | Resolution | Graphics Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| 486 | any | 320x200 | none |
| Pentium | 60-75 mhz | 320x200 | none |
| Pentium | 90-133mhz | 320x200 | all |
| 640x480 | all but shadows | ||
| Pentium | 150-200mhz | 640x480 | all |
| Pentium Pro | any | 640x480 | all |
| Cray | any | 1024x768 | all |
Here are some reports by gamers:
| CPU | Video | Mem | OS | Res | Graphics Options | result | id |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P-133 | Stealth 64 VRAM | 32meg EDO | Dos 7 | 640x480 | all but ground detail | "good" | willday |
| P-90 | Stingray 32 PCI | 16meg EDO | Win95 | 640x480 | all | "lagged" | nhall |
| P-133 | Millenium | 32meg | Dos in Win95 | 640x480 | all | "very smooth" | rflor |
| P-133 | Dynamite/128 | 48meg | ? | 640x480 | some detail | "almost happy" | boogie29 |
| P-120 | 2meg VRAM | ? | Win95 | 640x480 | all | "decent" | casper |
| P-133 | ATI 3D | 24meg | ? | ? | all | "smooth" | radick |
| P-166 | Stealth 64 2meg VRAM | 40meg EDO | Win95 | 640x480 | all | "kinda slow" | shaitan |
| P-90 | ? | ? | ? | 640x480 | none | "ok" | dank |
| P-166 | Millenium 2M | 32meg EDO | Dos | 1024x768 | all | "like beauty" | SM_Slimee |
| P-133 | Hercules Dynamite Power | 32meg EDO | ? | 640x480 | all but ground detail | "quite acceptable" | akcobra |
| P-133 | Stealth 3D | 32meg EDO | Win95 | 640x480 | all | "crawls" | jgranto |
| P-133 | Stealth 3D | 32meg EDO | Dos | 640x480 | all | "nice and smooth" | jgranto |
| " | " | " | " | " | " | " | " |
I've also seemed to notice more reports of hanging, crashing, and sound problems with the Win95 version, but this is only my impression.
In his Mercs FAQ, Dan Kegel says:
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.
(ref: Kegel FAQ)
Mechs now fall down if one of their legs is destroyed. However, the mech is not yet considered destroyed. You still have to destroy its other leg (or a torso section, etc), at which point it will, as before, explode.
Also, the Artificial Intelligence of the enemies has reportedly been improved. Fred Berganio comments:
I think AI has improved a lot! They won't charge directly in on you anymore, and their lead aim, particularly with PPCs is frustratingly, good! They maneuver a lot better and more, and seem (to me) to be harder to hit, particularly the lighter classes, which will dance around you until you get a few solid hits on them. Mechs using jumpjets will maneuver more in the air, always trying the DFA move.
(ref: fred.berganio)
Jack Mamais further explains about the AI:
Actually, AI has improved a great deal. Lancemates stop shooting if you walk in front of them now. They might hit you one time but they instantly stop after that. Other AI changes include the fact that enemies (and lancemates for that matter) can group weapons and fire at individual body parts. Mechs can also lead better with their weapons (check out the Awesome from the first FCC mission) and they dynamically group on the fly. It's true the earlier pilots are kind of sorry but better pilots become available with time. Check out Daniel Wilkes as a lancemate, he is available early and I used him through the whole game. He is a very strong pilot.
(ref: bearkhan)
(in order as listed in the game)
| 2750/3025 Mechs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3050 Mechs | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3055 Mechs | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Clan Mechs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Missing Mechs from Mech2/GBL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also: "Why are all my favorite mechs no longer included in the game?"
They are loosely based on TR3025, TR2750, TR3050, TR3055 and TR3058 (but closer to actuality for the TR3058). Since that is EVERY one of the Technical Readouts except the Revised (which I can't comment on, money's been tight the last few months, so I haven't bought the latest Btech stuff...) and TR3057 and TR3026, which don't have mechs anyway. The TR2750 gives the Highlander, Flashman, Mongoose, Crab, Sentinel, Thug, and Bombadier an intro... The Crab and Sentinel appear in TR3050 as well. The Mauler and Wolf Trap are TR3050. The Hatamoto-Chi is a Charger variant that also came out in TR3050. The Hornet, Annhilator and Raven are all "Specials" in that they originally came out between the 3025 and 3050 books, but the first TR to have them was TR3050. They first appeared (in 3025 tech only) in the Wolf Dragoons Source Book. The Dragon itself (as opposed to the later Grand Dragon) is TR3025 only. The Grim Reaper, Battlehawk, and Salamander are TR3055. The Rakshasa is an Inner Sphere copy of the MadCat (Timberwolf) that was first created in TR3055 as well.The Direwolf (Daishi), Elemental (Toad), Excutioner (Gladiator), Gargoyle (Man-o-War), MadDog (Vulture), Nova (Blackhawk), Stormcrow (Ryoken), Summoner (Thor), Timber Wolf (MadCat), Warhawk (Masakari), Firemoth (Dasher), Hellbringer (Loki), and Kit Fox (Uller) were the "Classic" omnimechs introduced in TR3050, when the Clans were introduced.
The Cauldron Born is TR3058. The Battlesuit is not in any TR, other than a mention that the IS was attempting to rapidly develop a system like it in TR3050. It is in the rules, now, however, and has shown in the new Draconis March Field Manual. The Kodiak is also TR3058. The Kodiak and Cauldron Born first appeared in the Invading Clans Sourcebook.
That should account for every mech in Mercs. However, with that, this caveat should be seen. The is probably the same mech as TR2750, but the Crab should have FF, The Sentinel should have a SSRM-2 and a UAC-5, the Bombadier should have DHS, AMS and Ferro, IIRC, the Highlander should have a Gauss Rifle, the Thug should have DHS (GAWD is it over heatsinked!) and Endo, the Flashman should be extinct, etc. (Not that I'm complaining. I love the Flashman, and begged to have it in). The ones that were TR2750 except for the Mongoose have been "Dummied" down to TR3025 tech by FASA in the TR3025-Revised edition (the one I don't have) and these may be correct to that. Also, all but three mechs that were in TR3025 were included in TR3050 (others were added, but only three were removed), and all of the ones that would ever be in MW are in the group that is in both (ie., only the LAMs were present in TR3025 but not TR3050). The mechs in TR3050 had upgraded tech, however.
(ref: wew)
Jadam observes:
The original MW #1 was superior to this MW2 in a number of aspects (and even it was criticized at the time for having lack of story depth):None of these aspects are present in MW2 Mercenaries.(ref: jadam)
- You could bargain to try and get a better contract price.
- Travel, and travel expense, were an issue. You could move from planet to planet. Some planets didn't have repair facilities; some didn't have contracting offices. You could get better deals on mechs on some planets, and better prices selling mechs on other planets. --This added to the "atmosphere," and helped give the game more depth.
- If you said "Repair All" and some parts weren't available, it would tell you as much. (This one might be better listed as yet another bug in MW2.)
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.
It's a royal pain in the ass, and I think, a major oversight. I made it virtually impossible to move some of the config settings around. I'm not sure what else to say about this bug, except that I'm surprised it made it out of quality-assurance.
One way to get around the problem is to manually edit the
INPUT.MAP file to add the modifiers you want, or to flip the
direction of a function. Be aware, though, that this file is replaced
whenever you change your active configuration from the game's control
config screen.
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.
This will hopefully be fixed soon in a patch.
John Chih-Wei Tang had this to say about the mech editor:
First of all, there's this occurance of weight peeling off mechs. I would buy and customize a mech, and it would show up 75/75 tons. After one battle, that number turns into 61/75. And then if you fit more stuff onto it, it drops YET AGAIN after the next battle!Carlin also mentioned the problem with ammunition:Then there's another huge (and fatal) problem with ammunition. It never tells you exactly how much ammo is left, nor does it ever really chage you for ammo. You just buy the ammo racks, which are replaced if they're damaged. But the odd thing is that once you start replacing these racks, your mech gets heavier and heavier. And you get proportionally more and more missiles or shells. At one point I had 1380 LRM5 missiles, and my mech was 10 tons overweight. 'course that's the point at which the game crashed each and every time when I try to use the LRM5.
And there doesn't seem to be a way around either of these problems. It seems like with the weight-loss problem, Mercenaries is taking weight off for the armor lost during the battle, but never adding them back on when it's repaired.. and similarly for the ammo, it leaves the old space in there somewhere (you don't even see it in the critical chart).. so the mech gets heavier and heavier. You can't even attempt to re-customize the mech and remove the space reserved for the ammo, because they take it off the customization list!
(ref: johnct)
Ammunition bug - This one really hurts gameplay. On any mech that carries ammunition, if the ammo gets damaged, an extra ton is added upon repair. The damaged ammo isn't replaced, an additional ton is added ignoring the maximum weight. This really sux because while you can remove the ton of ammo added for replacement, you can't remove the damaged ton, making the mech non-customizable for the rest of the game. The only way to deal with it is to a)Use only energy weapons, b)Get the design the way you like it and never change it again, or c)Sell the mech and get another one. This bug was amusing at first, but now I find it maddening.Michael Wang mentions a problem with ES and FF criticals:
(ref: markcln)
The killer problem for me is the bug with assigning crit slots for endo steel and ferro-fibrous armor. Let's say you are customizing a mech that already has endo steel. You want to move the pieces around for better crit slot placement (e.g. sticking them in arms rather than the torso). So you delete the endo steel (if you delete one piece, they all disappear) and notice how the tonnage used goes up (as expected). Then you double click the appropriate equip item to add it back on, struggle when the addition process since there's a bug where it doesn't track your mouse click correctly so you end up having to click all over the place to move the pieces to the designated crit slots, and after you've struggled with that, you notice your tonnage used hasn't gone down. Oops!And here are Paul C. Mrstik's observations:
(ref: mwang)
I must confess that I cannot for the life of me figure out why they had to change the well-tested and familiar (and user-friendly) 'Mechlab of MW2 and GBL to this surprisingly incomplete and non-intuitive monstrosity that plagues Mercs.Tim Morten has responded:If case you haven't tried it yet, I'm referring to the fact that (as several others have already noted), the many 'Mechs are first listed in alphabetical order as opposed to tonnage, and the tonnages are listed on the same screen. Thus inless you happen to know offhand, you have to first select each 'Mech (and go to a separate screen) in order to check its tonnage. This I could live with, as I personally have played the board game since it was released and am familiar with most of the units by name and tonnage anyway.
But the actual Mech editor is unexplainable. First, there is no general data list. Where you used to be able to see the following inportant information at a glance:
- Engine (tonnage allocated, rating, and type)
- Heat Sinks (tonnage allocated, NUMBER, and type)
- Jump Jets (tonnage allocated)
- Internal (tonnage allocated and type)
- Armor (tonnage allocated and type)
- Weapons (combined tonnage allocated)
- Ammo (combined tonnage allocated)
- and Used and Total Mass. . .
now there is no such listing. I haven't found a method to determine the number of heat sinks you've got on a given design short of counting the critical spaces you have assigned.
And this isn't exactly as easy as it sounds, since the actual Battletech table-top game rules are followed in the Mechwarrior games where "A number of heat sinks equal to the engine rating divided by 25 (round down) are assumed to be an integral part of the engine. These heat sinks are only destroyed if the engine is totally destroyed, and so cannot take critical hits."
For example, if the player adds 5 heat sinks (for a total of 15) to a Battletech carrying an engine rated at 210, 8 of these sinks (210 / 25) are considered integral to the engine and do not have to be assigned critical slots. The other 7 are the only ones actually assigned.
No more nice presented figure to show max. heat dissipation capability. Ugh.
Just as frustrating is the lack of a Weapons and Ammo List. As others have indicated before me, there is no way to see an itemized list of a 'Mech's Weapons, Ammo, and Special equipment. The only way to determine this is to actually check each critical location to see what happens to be there. Checking the 60-plus units in the game (granted it's nice to have so many options), will take forever, and who's going to remember all of that? Add to that there are buttons labeled Missile, Energy, Projectile, and Equipment - which one might think would show all installed equipment of that type - when all it does it present the list of possible choices to install.
And finally, the convenient tool which presented you with the most critical information for making informed decisions about what weapons to add (heat, damage, criticals taken, and tonnage) is absent as well. As far as I can determine, there is no other info except for criticals available in the 'Mechlab. You don't even know how many tons anything is going to take until you install it and watch the Used Mass indicator go up.
(ref: phelan)
It was necessary to redesign the mech lab to incorporate the in-game economy, and to more closely adhere to BattleTech specs. There are a handful of problems that have been reported, and these will all be addressed in the patch. We will also address the usability concerns that have been posted, albeit within the new interface design.
(ref: tmorten)
...when you're escorting a prince around on a fun fun merc killing spree... you chase after this spoiled brat, waste the mechs that would grind his face into the dirt, go to all the nav points, no problem. But when everythings's accomplished, you and the prince start heading back to the pickup zone. He stops about 300 metres shy of the final nav point, and never moves again. If you keep going, and reach the final nav point, you fail the mission, even though all enemy mechs are dead, and there's nothing left to do. If you don't go to the final nav point, you'll die of old age.. nothing else happens.and:
(ref: rmollard)
I've found one you have to win or you die, and it's impossible to finish.It's the mission right after you make your escape in a hovercraft from prison. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you will. In this mission, you have recovered your mech, and have to make your way to a dropship to escape before the clan mechs come kick your ass and throw you back in prison. Well actually they don't throw you back in prision, they just kill you.
Anyways, you have two main goals.. reach nav Alpha (which gets changed to nav Beta, as nav alpha is defended by the bad guys), and to defend the dropship. Well, the mission starts, you kill two mechs, go to nav alpha, kill two more mechs. As you approach nav beta, a clan mech challenges you to single combat for possesion of the drop site (the dropship is circling overhead).
So, I kick this lame clanner's butt. There are two more enemy mechs at nav beta, but they say "you defeated our comrade in single combat, so we will not prevent your escape" or words to that effect. So you go to nav beta, and have succeeded in half of your mission. But "defend the dropship" is still in progress. Those other two mechs are powered down, unmoving, and there's nothing left to kill. But just in case, I killed both of those other mechs too. So there's absolutely nothing else left alive but you, and the damn drop ship just keeps flying around, refusing to land, and you never succeed in defending it.
And if you abort the mission, clan Wolf re-captures you and executes you, game over.
(ref: rmollard)
Charles Winston's solutions for the above two missions are:
Escort the prince: The only time I played it I personally killed the prince. The game acted like he survived, and gave me full compensation for the mission, and another person verified this result, and expanded it to 'any' mech can kill the prince. Just make sure he dies and you get paid. It is possible that the new patch will fix this.Circling Dropship: I tried this mission many times and found the dropship trapped a small way away from nav beta. Finally I tried a different strategy, let the Flashman take the first two mechs. If you don't fire at them, they won't fire at you. Go as quickly as possible to nav Alpha and kill both mechs there (nova?, stormcrow?). The dropship should arrive right after the defending mechs go down. You must kill the other two mechs quickly (I had an Atlas with 4 PPC's, 4ML's, lots of heatsinks).
(ref: mange)
I would love to include these Mechs in Mercenaries but Fasa has stated that we cannot use any of those mechs, sorry.Here's an official answer from FASA Interactive's Tom Dowd:
(ref: jnc4p)
FASA unequivically owns the rights, under license, to the images used in BattleTech that originally appeared in Macross, Crusher Joe, Dougram, and others. That, however, does not stop others from suing over what they believe their legal right to those images to be and for FASA to have to continually defend itself in court and public forums from uninformed claims that FASA somehow "stole" or "ripped off' those images from their original source without permission.For further questions about this matter, mail can be directed to FASA at: FASAInfor@AOL.COMGiven that legal defense is very espensive, and for a small company can be quite damaging (a tactic often exploited by larger more wealthy companies) and that public defense of unsupported claims gets tiring, FASA is removing those images from use. The `Mechs they represent still remain active and usable in the boardgame, but since a computer game relies on those images they could not appear in the game.
(ref: FASATomD)
Here's a list of the affected mechs, as posted by Paul C. Mrstik along with his comments:
The list of 'Mechs affected from the Battletech board game includes the following:
(The Clan versions of the Rifleman, Warhammer, and Marauder also got the axe.)
'Mech Tonnage Anime from originally Locust 20 "Crusher Joe" Stinger 20 "Macross" (later Robotech) Wasp 20 "Macross" (later Robotech) Phoenix Hawk 45 "Macross" (later Robotech) Griffin 55 "Fang of the Sun Dougram" Shadow Hawk 55 "Fang of the Sun Dougram" Wolverine 55 "Fang of the Sun Dougram" Rifleman 60 "Macross" (later Robotech) Crusader 65 "Macross" (later Robotech) Thunderbolt 65 "Fang of the Sun Dougram" Archer 70 "Macross" (later Robotech) Warhammer 70 "Macross" (later Robotech) Marauder 75 "Macross" (later Robotech) Battlemaster 85 "Fang of the Sun Dougram" All of these 'Mechs were in the first edition of the Battletech board game. The Locust, Shadow Hawk, Rifleman, Warhammer, Marauder, and Battlemaster were included as choices in the original Mechwarrior (1).
Actually, these 14 designs (not 16) constituted all of the original 'Mechs you could play (short of designing your own) in the 1st Edition of the Battletech board game - released in 1985. (I'm sure of this because I still have it.) The Jenner (included in both the original Mechwarrior and still in Mercs) was one of the first of FASA's own. It was first seen in the first "Technical Readout - 3025" as an expansion for the board game, released in 1986.
(ref: phelan)
DDraw offers us only 320x200 and 640x480 right now. Microsoft says there working on higher resolutions, but we are bound by what they provide us.I'm not sure if this is still true about Direct Draw. Others report that DirectX2 now supports higher resolutions.
(ref: tmorten)
README.TXT
HELP.TXT
INTERNET.TXT
Also, in the 1.05 patch, there is a MERC105.TXT
file which includes weapons chart and descriptions, as well as descriptions and weapon
loads for the mechs in the game.
Finally, Dan Kegel has a Mercs FAQ on the web:
The patch reportedly includes the following fixes and enhancements:
It also includes a text file with a chart and descriptions of all the weapons, as well as descriptions and weapon loads for the mechs in the game.
Looking at the BattleTech manuals, I can see now what's happening. The weapon specs in MW2 and GBL don't match the BT specs.For example, in BT, an Clan extended-range large laser has a max range of 25 hexes, which translates into 750 meters, while in MW2 it has a max range of 1019 meters. In BT, Clan LRMs have the same max range as IS LRMs (the Clan weapons are just smaller and lighter) which is 21 hexes or 630 meters (which is the range I was seeing in Mercenaries), but in MW2 the LRMs have a max range of 1000 meters.
I don't know why the MW2 weapon specs are different than BT, but I think this is going to confusion a lot of people making the transition from MW2 to Mercenaries, especially since I didn't see it documented anywhere.
(ref: mwang)
Also, if a mech has jumpjets, and you destroy one of its legs, it will fall down, but will usually soon hop into the air with its jets and continue attacking you, so watch out.
If you take two lancemates in their mechs into battle with you, then your aerospace
pilot will not come along. If you want to have air support, you'll need to leave
off one of your lancemate mechs, and take only 1 (or zero) lancemates with you,
and then your assigned aerospace pilot will be present and available in the mission.
(ref: dank)
(ref: rjchrist)
Jack Mamais clarifies:
The salvage is predetermined by the Designer (In this case Dustin Browder) and then the computer randomly determines what you get depending on the terms in the contract. What you kill does have an affect on you because you get additional money for each enemy you vanquish, but it has no effect on salvage.and has indicated in an email to me that they originally had a more responsive salvage system, but because of unreliability and time constraints, had to include a crippled version instead. He said:
(ref: jmamais)
Initially, we had the sim spit out the salvage that the player got. All the sim could keep track of was whether or not the player got a headshot on a mech. It simply does not accurately give us more info. (we had it working and it was not reliable at all) We also discovered that players could get tons of headshots and this destroyed the games' balance. So we went with the system you currently see in Mercs. I would like to say I'm sorry because I see your point and agree with you but we just could not finish it in time, it would have probably taken another 2 -3 months at least to get it right and we already had people beating down or doors for it.
(ref: jmamais)
Yes, in Instant Action (random battles) and in the Campaign (with ECON) you may get random battles (well, not completely random... there is some background to them, but they are optional, and not done in the non-ECON) that can earn you extra bucks... they are never worth big bucks though, and can still get you dead.... also, you have to pay attention to the dates so you don't miss the campaigns you HAVE to do to advance in the game....
(ref: wew)
Ok, I am kicking butt and finally I salvage a bunch of clan weapons on Luthien. Well I am thinking great I am gonna kick some IS butt with clan tech on my MEchs. WRONG!!!!! I HATE THE AUTOMATIC RETIRE!!!!! Hey ACTIVISION make it like MECHWARRIOR 1. Continuable!!!!!!!!
(ref: trav)
It's possible that there may be a MEK converter available at some point, to
convert Mech2 and GBL MEK files to the Mercenaries file format.
(ref: dank)
README.TXT from the game:
Each mech is recorded as a .MEK file in the directory labeled MEK. To remove individual mechs, you can delete the specific file that corresponds to that mech. To delete all mechs, simply delete all the .MEK files from the MEK directory.
(ref:README.TXT)
Dan Kegel has indicated that he plans to release a native
Win95 version of MerchNet, that will be compatible with the DOS version.
(ref: dank)
Unlike NetMech, there does not appear to be an option for installing only the files necessary for network games, so each player will will need a CD long enough to install the game, but will not need it again unless they want to host a game.
206.79.5.3 mercnet.activision.com
(ref: SERVERS.TXT)
Alternatively, there's a large collection of packet drivers for various network cards in the SIMTEL pktdrvr archive.
Cheat codes will be posted after I see tons of post on strategy. I don't plan on posting them until the good players are finished with the game and I see their final net worth posted. So get to killing!and:
(ref: jmamais)
I have all the cheats, the 900 people don't even know what they are. The only people on earth who do know them are me and my lead programmer, Bill Ferrer. I will release them after many people have completed the game, it's just too tempting to use them and IMHO I think they ruin the game. (ref: jmamais)and also points out, in reference to the upcoming strategy guide book:
There will be no cheat codes in the strategy guide because I havent given to them. When the time is right, I will post them everywhere.
(ref: jmamais)
However, just a few days later Ben Janus reported that he'd located the cheat codes in the executable, and described how he had found them:
I have now given the cheat codes away, but here is their secret hiding place for those who wish to find them on their own. In Mw2.exe they are between a secton with stuff about lasers and a section with other stuff including damage. Amazingly, this is exactly where they were in Mw2 and Gbl. In Mw2 the cheats were coded but their results were not, so they are easy to find, and thats how I knew where to look in Gbl and Mercs. They go from about line c51f0h to c54d0h. They are coded, so they look like ascii mumbo jumbo. Below is how I decoded them, dont look if you want to try for yourself first.And finally, here are the cheat codes:I decoded them by looking for a word that followed the pattern "nrrx" (not the actual code, just an example). I figured that would be "ammo" and the word before it would be "unlimited", the word after it "on" ( it would be "off" the second time the string appears). This gave me about half the letters in the code, and I just had to translate what I had and the rest was easy guesswork. The find and replace feature of word processors makes the decoding very easy.
(ref: janus)
Hold Ctrl-Shift-Alt and type: Effect superfunkicalifragisexyinvulnerability on\off iseenfireandiseenrainunlimited ammo on\off ooohhhlllaaalllaaaheat tracking on\off wediditagaincoming at cha again (Dorcs Screen) itsdabooombnuke targeted mech inmybeautifulballoonsprout jumpjets redjackandtikrulesdestroy targeted mech likethecomstarbabyend mission successfully ontimeeverytimetime compression key enabled\disabled bubbleboybounding spheres on\off crazysexycoolinfinite jumpjets on\off beholdmygloryfree eye mode on\off antijolttime expansion enabled\disabled flashyflashyauto-grouping enabled\disabled walkthiswayleading reticle enabled\disabled
(ref: janus)
(ref: lloydb)
(ref: noemail)
You can re-enable the feature by adding the following line to GAMEKEY.MAP:
ENHANCED_VISION w
(ref: dank)
Actually, you can addTOGGLE_FRAMERATE_MAIN CTRL+SHIFT+fto your gamekey.map. Then, run the sim itself from DOS using mw2 ????scn1 -x where ???? is the first four letters of a mission. ie: mcc1scn1 Than, in the sim, hit ctrl-shift-f and wait a few secs. than you'll have your frame rate counter.
(ref: thomas)
MFD_CYCLE F1 MFD_CYCLE_A SHIFT+F1 MFD_CYCLE_B SHIFT+F2 MFD_CYCLE_C SHIFT+F3 MFD_CYCLE_D SHIFT+F4 MFD_CYCLE_E SHIFT+F5 MFD_CYCLE_F SHIFT+F6 MFDS_RESET SHIFT+F12 SAVE_HUD ALT+F11 TOGGLE_HUD F11There are seven multi-function displays (A-F and 1) on the cockpit, from left to right, with the following default configuration:
You can cycle each MFD through the entire list of possible displays, in this order:
Once you have decided on a layout that pleases you, you can save it with Alt-F11. Each time you start a mission, you'll be presented with the default HUD layout, but you can recall your custom HUD with F11, which will cycle between:
The HUD configuration is saved in the file MERCS.HUD.
(ref: willday)
Tim Morten points out that:
Just keep in mind that each display you have on screen requires more CPU time to render; the less on screen, the faster your game will run.
(ref: tmorten)
TOOLS on the CD-ROM, there are some
command-line utilities that appear to allow you to modify or create
new mission files and mech animations. There is documentation for the
tools in the MW2DOC.HTM file.
Dan Kegel mentions that:
The mission tools are already on the released Mercs disc in \TOOLS. These are the same tools we use in-house.
(ref: dank)
And Jack Mamais says:
It is our hope that the mission tools will be used to build many .bwd's (that's what we call our "wads")
(ref: jmamais)
That section may have been left in by accident- the list of 'Mechs is actually frozen in in many ways.
(ref: dank)