From phelan@nando.net Fri Sep 27 08:51:07 PDT 1996
Article: 2167 of alt.games.mechwarrior2
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From: phelan@nando.net (Paul C. Mrstik)
Newsgroups: alt.games.mechwarrior2
Subject: Raise your hand if you want MW2's Mechlab in Mercs
Date: 26 Sep 1996 08:51:30 GMT
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Hello,all

I must admit, I'm pretty impressed with Mercenaries, and I 
greatly appreciate the Mercs Team's efforts, but 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.  

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.

Besides the Mechlab (which affects both the game AND MercNet), I 
honestly like Mercenaries a lot and view it as worth the $$.  But
the inclusion of the basic model for MW2 / GBL's Mechlab would have
made Mercs nearly perfect.  As it is, it simply can never be.

If you think I'm blowing this way out of proportion, wait till 
people start trying to convert their dozens of NetMech designs to
MercNet through Merc's Mechlab. That will be a special kind of hell.

END SOAPBOX MODE. Flames welcome (because I'll always be a fan of MW2
regardless and I can always choose to ignore 'em.)

Regards,
-- 
phelan@nando.net  (Paul C. Mrstik)
-------------------------------------------------------------
 "Slavish adherence to formal ritual is a sign that one has
  nothing better to think about. . ."
             Star Colonel Natasha Kerensky (The Black Widow)
             Commander, 13th Wolf Guards Cluster, Clan Wolf