Christian Schwietzke
10-03-2011, 09:23 AM
Iīm not sure how many of you here play this game. I remember discussing it with some of you years ago, though.
If you do play BattleTech, thereīs three pieces of software that I think you should be aware of.
The first is MegaMek, which lets you play BattleTech on the computer - both against other players online or per hotseat, or against a bot. Almost all the rules have been implemented, other than some obscure specialties such as VTOL battle armor. The bot is not as good as an experienced player, though cannot handle a lot of the optional rules, and as of right now, doesnīt know how to use aerospace fighters and conventional aircraft. MegaMek also has an amazingly detailed database of units; Iīm not sure thereīs a single canonical published unit that you wonīt find in there, plus a lot of non-canonical ones.
The second is MegaMekLab. Itīs not the most user-friendly mech editor out there, but it creates units in a file format that MegaMek can use; apparently it was the program used to create the units in the MegaMek database. MML can build mechs as well as vehicles (other than VTOL and ships) and battlearmor.
The third is MekHQ, which lets you manage a military unit, repair damaged equipment between battles, track pilot experience etc etc. Itīs still in fairly early development, and while it does have some bugs, none of them are gamebreakers.
You can get all three of them here: http://megamek.info/downloads (use the development version of MegaMek, as the stable version is seriously outdated, and the current development version has no notable bugs)
Using MegaMek and MegaMekLab shouldnīt be a problem if you know the board game and construction rules, respectively. MekHQ has a fairly extensive (fan-made) tutorial available for download in the forum: http://megamek.info/forums/index.php?topic=304.0; I like it very much, but thatīs probably because I wrote it.:)
If you do play BattleTech, thereīs three pieces of software that I think you should be aware of.
The first is MegaMek, which lets you play BattleTech on the computer - both against other players online or per hotseat, or against a bot. Almost all the rules have been implemented, other than some obscure specialties such as VTOL battle armor. The bot is not as good as an experienced player, though cannot handle a lot of the optional rules, and as of right now, doesnīt know how to use aerospace fighters and conventional aircraft. MegaMek also has an amazingly detailed database of units; Iīm not sure thereīs a single canonical published unit that you wonīt find in there, plus a lot of non-canonical ones.
The second is MegaMekLab. Itīs not the most user-friendly mech editor out there, but it creates units in a file format that MegaMek can use; apparently it was the program used to create the units in the MegaMek database. MML can build mechs as well as vehicles (other than VTOL and ships) and battlearmor.
The third is MekHQ, which lets you manage a military unit, repair damaged equipment between battles, track pilot experience etc etc. Itīs still in fairly early development, and while it does have some bugs, none of them are gamebreakers.
You can get all three of them here: http://megamek.info/downloads (use the development version of MegaMek, as the stable version is seriously outdated, and the current development version has no notable bugs)
Using MegaMek and MegaMekLab shouldnīt be a problem if you know the board game and construction rules, respectively. MekHQ has a fairly extensive (fan-made) tutorial available for download in the forum: http://megamek.info/forums/index.php?topic=304.0; I like it very much, but thatīs probably because I wrote it.:)