Interested in getting to play some more BattleTech? Inspired by the beta of the BattleTech video game? Do you have that itch and need to scratch it? Great!
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New Campaign Begins on MegaMekNET
2017/10/24
Tag Archives: MegaMek
MMNet Concludes Campaign and Announces Major Changes
2016/02/02
Yay Mechs!
On January 31st, the various electors that are running the current MegaMekNet Campaign announced that it will be concluding soon. The Free Worlds League has won, and a new cycle will begin on March 1st. In the wake of the victory, several major announcements were made to increase the value of the campaign in the future. (MegaMekNet is an online campaign played through various shareware programs, you can download and check out)
The various members of the winning faction, as long as they had enough games to qualify, are going to win units for the next campaign, randomly pulled from a special reward unit list. This is the first time that the winning faction for one campaign gets rewards for the next one, no matter whether they remain Marik or not.
Meanwhile, the way victory is determined will shift in the future. Previously, one faction usually won when they assaulted and captured the capital of an enemy. This has always created an inequity in the game as those states with a smaller path the capital (like the Capellan Confederation) are easier to defeat. Meanwhile, it becomes pretty easy to know when one faction has “virtually” won and it’s hard to fight against that momentum. Sometimes players won’t continue to invest time, sweat, blood, and metal in the campaign if it won’t change the outcome.
So how is the online campaign going to shift? The goal won’t be to take capitals, but a new slate of “Victory Planets” that are placed on the borders. All you have to do is to capture a net of these worlds from various fronts, and once you do, then you win. Not only will this balance the books, not only will it keep the campaign in flux, but it also will allow the campaign to better resemble the main line BattleTech wars. Most wars and conflicts were ended by one side taking some key border planets from the other that were fought over. So the resulting changes will give players the ability to fight for border worlds that makes a campaign more dynamic as well as getting rewards for winning for the next one.
That’s a pretty spicy set of changes. March 1st will be a good time to check it out and try the new campaign. Check out their thread post for more info.
The Danger of Being Cool
2015/11/08
Thunder. Lightning. The way you love me is frightening.
The other day I was playing with a Lightning Attack Hovercraft on my side in a battle in MegaMekNET. Since that campaign is set in 3025, having a LosTech hovercraft with medium pulse lasers was something I wanted to protect if I could. Plus you have those two one-shot SRMs. I was rushing past a target and I had a chance to fire the right-facing SRM at a distant heavy unit that had moved towards me. I needed a 9 to hit. I got lucky, and hit the target, which was taking damage elsewhere as well, and did some good with the weapon. But I was really tempted to hold off on the SRM4 and hope for a better shot against a better target. Holding off for the cool play.
Have you ever noticed a tendency to play BattleTech for the cool play, rather than the smart one?
MekWars: Dominion Begins New Cycle
2015/10/24
The 
MekWars campaign set in the Star League began a new cycle, or campaign, on October 23, 2015.
The First Slate of Changes at MegaMekNet is Complete
2015/10/16
Many Operations Await
As mentioned in a previous post, the online server for playing people online via MegaMek called MegaMekNet had instituted a new set of changes to shake things up. The longest running server online, MMNet has decided to place the decisions for the latest cycle into the hands of the players. Each faction elects a person to represent them on the stage, and then they suggest and vote on various rules changes that are fully player-suggested and supported.
MegaMekNet Goes in a New Direction
2015/08/30
All of the Players are Now In
Earlier on Saturday, August 29, the long-standing MekWars server, MegaMekNet began to initiate plans to reset their server, rebooting to a new player-empowered set of rules moving forward.
New Releases for MegaMek, MekHQ, and MegaMekLab
2015/08/18
Get Your Heavy Metal On!
On August 4th, new releases for the java-based freeware MegaMek, MekHQ, and MegaMekLab were announced. In addition to the variety of changes listed, both MegaMek and MekHQ have been given a freeze for new features, in preparation for a new stable release.
Weisman and Harebrained Schemes to make Battletech Returns?
2015/07/29
“TACTICAL ‘MECH COMBAT RETURNS TO THE PC.”
I was a backer of MechWarrior Tactics before it fell apart amidst development. MechWarrior Online is alright from the first-person view- vehicle simulation side, but I was hankering for something a little closer to the original source material, and with a much richer immersion in the interstellar politics and intrigue that makes up the BattleTech universe. Personae Studios‘ MechWarrior Tactical Command was, in my opinion, an unsung classic game that gave me a mobile MechCommander fix. But the game was fairly short and its title’s similarity to MechWarrior Tactics as well as its exclusivity to high end Apple mobile products made it instantly obscure and isolated. Of course there is always Megamek, but for one reason or another, I’ve never really had a good experience with it.
New Development Versions of MegaMek and Friends Available
2015/06/26
A new slate of releases have been announced for the trifecta of java-based programs that let you play of Battletech both online and against AIs by yourself. MegaMek, MegaMekLab, and MekHQ.
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MekWars: Dominion Announces New Cycle
2015/04/14
The Star League-era MekWars campaign announced that it would be starting the next cycle of events on May 18, 2015.