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MechWarrior 4 Free Release Now Available
Mr. Sketch writes with news that the free release of MechWarrior 4 has finally arrived. We've discussed the game in the past when it was announced, and later when its release was held up by Microsoft. Quoting the announcement:
"One of the greatest features of MekPak3.1 and of MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries in general, is the ability to customize. MechWarrior always has been about the Mechlab, especially multiplayer. The Mechlab truly distinguishes MW4 from a long list of shooters that have come out in the past 10 years. The ability to create literally thousands of configurations allows the game to continue in popularity over its lengthy life span. Since the Free Release not only comes with the original mechs and weapons of Mercenaries, but also with the Clan and IS Mech Packs and all the Mektek mechs and weapons, here is what you are getting ... for free."
I remember playing MW4 and thinking, "you'd have to pay me to keep playing this game".
Now I have proof that I was right.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
If I can't paint the 'mechs on the desk in my garage in my own distinctive palette and scheme, then play with them on my custom-built tabletop and with my custom-made terrain, what's the point? I mean sure, either option will embarrass my wife in front of her friends, but my way will embarrass her in front of her friends' husbands. There ain't no computer game out there that'll do that!
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
First download their mtx client.
Then this site: http://www.pedaltothemetal.com/index.php/news_story/mechwarrior4_free_released.html
was nice enough to repost the torrent file which downloads the mtx that you can use the offline mode of the client to install.
The link is labeled: Downloadmechwarrior4mercenaries.all.to.51.03.01.0017.mtx.torrent
1073 Seeders / 2154 Peers
tracker runs on mektek.net
Note: The client runs crazy slow after install. First thing I do is click Offline Mode.
Come now. We all know comments like that are how the Succession Wars started.
For those of you that hate the MTX client. Download the torrents and rename the extension from .mtx to .zip
No need to "install", the zip opens up to a functional game. Just unzip to where you want it and then apply the patches manually(kind of like oblivion/fallout3 mods).
Here are the torrents if you wish to skip the MTX client hell. (via reddit)
Main file:
http://www.pwned.com/dz/mechwarrior4mercenaries.all.to.51.03.01.0017.mtx.torrent
Patches:
http://www.pwned.com/dz/mechwarrior4mercenaries.51.03.01.0018.to.51.03.01.0020.mtx.torrent
http://www.pwned.com/dz/mechwarrior4mercenaries.51.03.01.0017.to.51.03.01.0018.mtx.torrent
I have not tried this yet but there is a mod for the game Crysis that pretty much turns it into a MW game. http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/ Probably still a bit buggy but I am sure it looks a lot better.
If you are a tinfoiler with a specialization in network privacy, you might want to research the distributors of MW4, MekTek, before you jump in and play. Part of their business is "Geospacial Research Technology," which means this game will probably be doing some phoning home with information about you. I personally don't mind this and think a free game is well worth some targeted advertising (especially when it is in plain view). Hhuzzah for companies that can evolve their business practice!
I didn't play a lot of multiplayer, but as far as Single Player goes, we must have played a different game. I remember MW4 and MW4:Black Knight as Nearly Perfect renditions of my fantasies of piloting giant robots, and MW4:Mercenaries as only a little worse than the previous MWx:Mercenaries was. (I didn't like that there were fewer non-plot missions to play.) The ONLY thing I disliked about MW4 was that the missions expected (and nearly "forced") you to upgrade 'mechs. Mercenaries was less in this direction, but I really enjoyed the dynamics of the Uziel, when it wasn't outclassed by assault 'mechs. Later on, I tried to stay in my Thor as long as possible, even though on the end missions it was almost certainly more effective to be using something like a Daishi loaded up with heat sinks and large lasers.
I loved the slot restrictions, as they forced each chassis to have a "flavor" -- otherwise, I'd do like I did in MW2, MW2:GhostBear, and MW3 and just load up on dual (triple?) PPCs and heat sinks up to my ears. I liked that a Thor vs a Madcat vs an Uziel vs a Catapult was more than merely a difference in tonnage or jump jets, but made an actual tactical difference.
Yeah, I submitted this Friday, but it's only now making it to the front page.
There's a new version of MTX (1.0.3.5) that doesn't require the web servers to be up:
http://mtxgear.mektek.net/mtx/beta/SetupMTX1.0.3.5.exe
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with MekTek in any way. I've just been following the free release since I love the Mechwarrior series, namely MW2: Mercs.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
Torrents:
.dll files? Try these: http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?act...st&id=57250
http://www.mektek.net/mw4free/torrents/fil...017.mtx.torrent
http://www.mektek.net/mw4free/torrents/fil...018.mtx.torrent
http://www.mektek.net/mw4free/torrents/fil...20.mtx.torrrent
Here are the official files from mektek. You can skip the bullshit MTX program to download them. Get the torrents using your fav p2p program (bitcomet, utorrent, etc..) Then launch MTX and choose Open File (*.mtx)
"Core" file fix link: http://mtxgear.mektek.net/mtx/fixes/mw4/0020/core.zip
Missing
Put them in your Mercs root directory.
In order to play you will have to setup Port Forwarding rules if you have a router.
For TCP both inbound and outbound: 47624
For TCP and UDP both inbound and outbound: 2300-2400
Try both UPnP Enabled and UPnP Disabled on your router.
After having installed this MTX 1.0.3.5, and never having any other MTX thing installed, ever...
.. since this blocking request isnt responded to in a timely fashion (many minutes!) the blank window goes (Not Responding) because MTX is also apparently single-threaded such that it can never service its message queue. When that request finally gets serviced, well its not done.. it now renders skeletons of the controls it intends to eventually display and then goes on to another blocking request.
The claim that it doesnt require a web server to function is bullshit. Just running it for the first time causes a blocking http request prior to its window having any controls/buttons rendered to it
It took half an hour to navigate to the area where I can initiate the download of MW4, and its been saying "Contacting MekTek tracker. Please wait 2-3 minutes" for an hour now. It is again in a blocking call, the process and its window is completely hung but using 0% CPU.
The programmer who wrote this MTX thing is a complete moron in terms of writing things that are supposed to do what this MTX thing is supposed to do. There pretty much are no words to describe the level of crap this is, so I instead had to actually describe my observations of its spectacular failure.
"His name was James Damore."
That rhymes pretty well with my experience as well.
Though, for me it started going wrong even earlier. During the installation of MTX itself, you're asked for the default directory to install games to. I changed the default to my games directory and hit save. And hit save. And hit save. It just wouldn't close the window. Eventually I X'ed it out. Then I discover some 15 MTX icons in systray, and an equal amount of processes.
After killing off all of those, and starting MTX fresh, I ended up in the cycle you describe. Though I wasn't as patient. After waiting a minute with a skeleton window "not responding", I killed it, uninstalled, and forgot about MW4 for the time being.
Spectacular failure is a good summary indeed. Hopefully their tweaks to the game itself are of a stratospherically higher quality.
We are going with a flat installer. The MTX thing was a total disaster. We should have this ready for downlaod via bittorrent in a few days. This will be a complete install up to version 21 (which has numerous issues fixed). Hopefully this will get everyone the game installed, and playing. Will also give us some breathing room to get this MTX thing redesigned to do what it needs to do. We never expect this many people.