MechWarrior: Living Legends

[Serafina]

Well, it has been out since the 26th of December, and the current Beta-Version runs pretty stable, so i'm putting up a thread for this.



MechWarrior: Living Legends is a full-conversion mod based on Crysis.
The mod itself is free, download mirrors can be found here and here.
An step-by step installation guide can be found here - i would advise following it.

The game itself is pure multiplayer. Right now, there is only a team-deathmatch-mode where you earn credits and ranks (which increase spawning credits) for causing damage and various assist actions.
You start out in a Battlearmor and can purchase various additional weapons for it - it can be a viable choice on the battlefield on it's own.
You can buy and pilot mechs, tanks, hovercraft, VTOLs and jets - all of them come currently in four variants with different weapons and equipment, but a full customization system will be implemented later on.

The gameplay itself is quite interesting in my opinion.
There are obviously still some balance-issues, but you can already see various tactics - from long-range missile engagements over air superiority and pesky battlearmor to close-up mech assaults - all can and do work and challenge different kinds of players.
Combined arms really comes into play if you have good teams - something that never happened so far in any Mechwarrior game, since mechs were the only avaiable weapon type.

If you want to get started on this game - here is a very basic introduction:



I hope i will see some of you on the battlefield - my MadCat is waiting.
Regards
Fina

[CaptHawkeye]

This looks great, i'll probably re-install Crysis just for it. It's not like Crysis really had any other purpose in life except to be a fancy mod-carrier.

[Oskuro]

Neat. How that crippled mech kept rolling around using its jumpjets was awesome. About time someone mixed mechs with a decent physics engine.

[Ryan Thunder]

Man. I'm getting Crysis just for this if I can still find it...

[Serafina]

Man. I'm getting Crysis just for this if I can still find it...

Get it on Steam, it costs about 20€ there.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Does it work with only warhead?

[Serafina]

Does it work with only warhead?

Right now, you need the standard-Crysis, but i think the Devs want to upgrade it to Warhead sometimes in the future, since it apparently has better Netcode.

[Acidburns]

I've been playing this as well and it's been great fun. I've actually noticed Serafina on a couple of servers - I vaguely remembered your name from here but I assumed it was co-incidence.

There are some pretty serious performance issues on >16 player servers at the moment but as long as your playing 16 or less it is very playable. A few annoying bugs including falling through the mech hangers you can work around that. The team have put an amazing amount of work into it so far so I hope they'll continue to optimise it.

I've found it to be less of a leg-sniperfest like Mechwarrior 4 was but maybe people are adjusting to the new weapons. Most combats I've seen people focus on centre torso and cockpit hits. If your legs do get crippled you can still fire from the prone position which allows you to take people by surprise. What vehicles have people found effective so far? I've had great success with the 4LPL Huit tank and 4LPL Awesome. The Atlas unfortunately has the most ridiculously huge cockpit hitbox that renders it pretty much a deathtrap.

[Oskuro]

So you wear jetpack-equipped power armor when off the Mech? Is going as infantry any good, or is it just a last resort measure? 'Cause I can totally see the appeal of planting a demolition charge on an enemy Mech's cockpit.

I can get Crysis for 10€ around here (a re-edition), but if they upgrade to warhead they might ruin my day then

[Tanasinn]

This mod reminds me of why I'm so looking forward to Mechwarrior 3015 - a chance to see I.S. machines in large numbers again, rather than an endless parade of Timber Wolves and Dire Wolves.

[Karrick]

I highly approve. I've noticed the falling through the hangars too, as well as the occasional CTD. My biggest issue, though, is with the preset weapon groups for several of the mechs. I mean, who the hell groups medium lasers with ERPPCs? Since that's my biggest complaint, I'd have to say the modders have done a spectacular job.

Acidburns - I've found the LPLs to be best for swatting battle armor out of the sky. I'd rather have something more powerful for heavier mechs, like a PPC or gauss rifle. I as for vehicles, I rather like the Partisan with the AC/5s.

LordOskuro - A lone battle armor with the stock weapon load will have some trouble trying to kill pretty much everything. I haven't experimented with demo charges yet, so I could be wrong there.

[Acidburns]

Acidburns - I've found the LPLs to be best for swatting battle armor out of the sky. I'd rather have something more powerful for heavier mechs, like a PPC or gauss rifle. I as for vehicles, I rather like the Partisan with the AC/5s.

LordOskuro - A lone battle armor with the stock weapon load will have some trouble trying to kill pretty much everything. I haven't experimented with demo charges yet, so I could be wrong there.

PPCs and Guass both have greater range and volley / alpha strike damage of course; Guass will be more practical on the lava and asteroid maps too but I don't think either come close to the DPS of the LPLs at the moment. Even if the DPS wasn't so good the ability to easily take out aircraft makes them such a great all round weapon. Roasting battle armours is a bonus . The AC5 Partisan seems to increase your ranks very quickly, perhaps something to do with its rate of fire. One of the modders said that they need to tweak the small ACs because they upped their damage to help them kill aircraft but accidentally increased it vs mech targets too.

Battle armours can be a serious threat to any lone tank or mech. In fact heavier stuff can be easier if are carrying larger weapons with a slower rate of fire. The large top surface of a tank makes it pretty easy to land on and once you get up there it's defenceless unless there's another hostile paying attention. Mechs are tougher to land on but are easier to kill if you get up there; you've got good line of sight to the cockpit. It does take a while to burn through a mechs armour, especially with the default loadout. Using the man-packed PPC or autocannon in combination with the armour's missile makes chewing through even an assualt mechs rear armour much more viable. It still takes a long time compared to using a vehicle yourself mind and if your target has teammates with a clue (not that common yet) you'll get blasted pretty quick.

Unless your an ace at landing on top of targets your not going to pick up many solo kills in a battle armour but they can be great asset to a team by softening up targets before they hit your front line. They don't show up on radar except at point blank range so as long as there is some cover you can escape pretty easily. In groups they become very nasty, but the same is true of anything I guess.

The demo charges are a bit naff because it's tricky to land on a mech. After you plant one you need to jump off or risk killing yourself. The modders will be adding the ability to use your armour's claw hand to grab hold of mechs which will change things a lot. I guess you'll be able to fly straight at the large frontal profile and just grab on rather than try to land on it's head or shoulders. I could see the demo charges being much more useful then.

[Serafina]

So you wear jetpack-equipped power armor when off the Mech? Is going as infantry any good, or is it just a last resort measure? 'Cause I can totally see the appeal of planting a demolition charge on an enemy Mech's cockpit.

Yep, you start out with it.
A good BA-player can be pretty damn annoying and a good asset to his team. You won't take out heavy mechs out all on your own unless you are REALLY good and can hit the cockpit mutliple times with c8.
But you can inflict heavy damage to rear-armor or legs - which make a mech topple over and useless or reaaly slow and vulnerable.
If you want to stay a BA all the time (or buy a cheap vehicle to get to the front quickly), just remember to donate spare money to your team.

I highly approve. I've noticed the falling through the hangars too, as well as the occasional CTD. My biggest issue, though, is with the preset weapon groups for several of the mechs. I mean, who the hell groups medium lasers with ERPPCs? Since that's my biggest complaint, I'd have to say the modders have done a spectacular job.

You know that you can change the weapons groups to your liking?
Just select the right weapon with the Up and Down-Arrows, and then the right weapon group with the Left and Right-Arrows - then hit enter to put it in or out that weapon group.
It is somewhat annoying to do that every time, especially since some pre-deterimned groups are pretty useless, but it is not that bad.

[Oskuro]

How's the relationship, if any, between the modders and the IP owners? 'Cause it would majorly ruin everyone's day if they were Cease-and-Desist'ed into oblivion, as sometimes happens when a mod makes a better job at a game than the actual professional developers.

[Serafina]

How's the relationship, if any, between the modders and the IP owners? 'Cause it would majorly ruin everyone's day if they were Cease-and-Desist'ed into oblivion, as sometimes happens when a mod makes a better job at a game than the actual professional developers.

They have the IP from Microsoft. They are only allowed to use material that Microsoft used, and they are not allowed to make money, but it is all legal.

[Karrick]

You know that you can change the weapons groups to your liking?
Just select the right weapon with the Up and Down-Arrows, and then the right weapon group with the Left and Right-Arrows - then hit enter to put it in or out that weapon group.
It is somewhat annoying to do that every time, especially since some pre-deterimned groups are pretty useless, but it is not that bad.

Heh, I didn't know that. It helped a bunch today. I still haven't managed to get a demo charge placed on a mech, and all my attempts have resulted in getting myself splattered across the countryside. I can't wait until they get the battle armor claws working.

[Chris OFarrell]

This Mod is awesome.

As in EPIC awesome.

As in I rolled upside down in a Partisan last night by accident on a near Zero-G asteroid map.

I was about to eject after my attempts to right myself failed...until I asked for help, and a Raven walked over and KICKED ME BACK UP.

Seriously, that was awesome ^ 2.

[Chris OFarrell]

As good as the Mod is, I really really wish that they didn't use Gamespy.

Because now I can't log in, despite triple checking my Gamespy username/password, trying every damn nick I have under that username.

All it does is keep bitching that my Username/Password is incorrect. And when I try to make a NEW username/password, it just refuses.

God I hate Gamespy...

[Acidburns]

As good as the Mod is, I really really wish that they didn't use Gamespy.

Because now I can't log in, despite triple checking my Gamespy username/password, trying every damn nick I have under that username.

All it does is keep bitching that my Username/Password is incorrect. And when I try to make a NEW username/password, it just refuses.

God I hate Gamespy...

Yeah I sympathize with that. I'm not sure if it helps but you can't make a new account in game (or anything else account related) while running the mod. You'll need to startup regular crysis to do that.

[KlavoHunter]

*Casts RISE FROM GRAVE on THREAD*

Crysis Warhead (and with it, Crysis Wars) is a mere $5 on Steam *RIGHT NOW*, which is the version of the game you will want to play MWLL from now on.

If you ever wanted to give it a try, but didn't want to spend too much, you don't have an excuse anymore if you see this post quickly enough to react.

[Feil]

Thanks for the heads-up, KlavoHunter. A new Mechwarrior game to play with, for five dollars? And it comes bundled with some silly little game called "Crysis Warhead", as a free bonus!