"This Mod Requires MechWarrior Mercenaries and the latest patch Pr1. This patch can be downloaded from Microsoft’s site. At http://www.microsoft.com/games/pc/mw4mercs.aspx .
Welcome to Microsoft MechWarrior: Mercenaries Co-op Missions. This Read me file
contains important information about MechWarrior Mercenaries Co-op. Please read
it or you will have issues playing Co-op.
The Merc's Co-Op Team and Mechstorm are proud to present Mech Warrior Mercenaries Co-Op. This was a long painstaking project so we hope you all enjoy it as much as we have. Feel free to ask questions or post tips or bug reports in our forums.
Are you tired of going it alone? Are you sick of AI bots getting in your way? Well now you don't have too. The Merc's Coop team proudly presents to you 35 of the original single player missions re-created for multiplayer Co-Op. Now you an up to 4 friend's can plan and coordinate your attacks with other human players working your way through each mission to complete each of the objectives as they are presented.
Get real time voice mission briefings in game from Specter and Castle as the missions evolve and new objective are completed. We think you all will agree after playing Merc's Coop that each mission has been re-created to almost perfect recreation of the original missions down to the last detail as they were in the single player game.
To enjoy Merc’s Coop to its fullest we recommend that you download the High Definition patch for Mercenaries; this patch adds new enhanced weapon sounds and enhanced weapon effects, New Mech Textures and enhanced background textures along with all new Mech cockpits. This is a must download for any MechWarrior if you wish to get the full effect while playing Merc’s Coop.
http://www.mechstorm.com/dsplus/mplus.php
http://files.rlgaming.com/MW4/Mercs%20Coop%20v1.0.zip
Thanks to Steel for the mirror :)
http://www.mechstorm.net/hdp.html
Since the coop is made for Mercs and Mercs is designed to be like Classic Battletech, coop fans may find Netmech a great way to experience this coop due to its CBT rule set and balancing.
Within in this build we have also included 56 new skies to be used with the Merc's Editor. These skies were not previously released by FASA so we hope those of you in the modding community will enjoy them.
Warning! Once installing this patch it will over write 2 main files, the "SKIES. BUILD" and SKIES.HINT. If you decide to uninstall Merc's Coop you will have to rename 2 files both are marked with .original at the end of the original files just remove the .original
Special Note to map makers:
If you make your mission using any of the custom skies that come with this pack then all players will have to have this pack installed to see the skies. If you do not want the coop to be a required install for your map, rename the skies files above so the originals are used whilst your making your map. Rename them back to enable the coop skies after you have finished.
A. About
B. Installation
C. Game Play Hints
D. Running a Server
E. Current Game play Issues
F. System Requirements
G. Special Thanks
Every mission in Merc’s Co-op has been re-created from scratch. This was a very long and tedious task which took us over a year to do. Flying units are not in Merc’s Coop and for good reason they do not work on the client side of Multiplayer. They would be bouncing up and down in game and it just didn’t look right so we pulled those units out and did not use them at all. We did however use the Dropship. When you are playing, the clients will notice them jittering up and down on your screen about an inch. We did not want to leave out the Dropship, so we left it in and figured it’s not that bad. Clients can just deal with the jittering while playing.
While playing Co-op with your friends or others on the Internet, try to stay
in a group and work together as a team. This will help to keep you alive longer.
Also team up on Mech’s to kill them faster.
Combined fire power can be devastating!
On missions that require a Dropship to be destroyed, Aim for the APU’s first, the splash damage from the APU being destroyed does considerable damage to the Dropship.
MechWarrior: Mercenaries must be installed on the system before installing the Mod. To install MechWarrior: Mercenaries Co-op, double-click on Merc Coop v1.0.exe if you have Mercenaries installed the installer will find the patch for you if it does not then you will have to manually search for where you have your game installed. Install the Mod to the Root of your MechWarrior Mercenaries Directory. “Example” if you installed your game to D:\Microsoft Games\ Mercenaries then you would navigate to the root of the D:\Microsoft Games\ Mercenaries directory and install the Mod there.
After you installed the Mod you should see this in your Mercenaries directory,
: \Microsoft Games\ Mercenaries \Content the content Directory is where all the data files will be installed to.
Ok, just a few words about what to expect and a few issues with the mod when playing Multiplayer Co-op. Merc’s Co-op has been tested with up to 5 players on the Internet. Lag was bare minimal, everyone had cable modems or DSL. 56K Modem users are going to experience lag. That is just the nature of the beast with a dial up modem.
First off, we want to thank you all that are downloading our Mod, If you should
encounter a problem with our Mod please send all feed back to me at dark88@san.rr.com
or visit the www.mechstorm.net/forums
Web site and post any questions or comments on our forum. Please give us details
on what happened, and/or changes that you might think help the Mod. Please bare
in mind that balance issue are going to be very hard to fix, the reason being
is that you can never tell if you will have 3 or 5 players when playing.
To play our Coop missions choose the game type Mission Play.
The missions are marked as follows. “Example Avalon01_Spaceport Co-op”
Please play them in order to enjoy the campaign as it was in the single player
campaign. We tried to stay as close as possible to the original single player
missions, but we had to make some changes because of client issues and balance.
Believe me; you are going to have a lot of fun with these missions. They can
be tough to play, but with the right tactics and good team work you can beat
them. We have also added some Mech repair bays in the certain missions, so once
you make it to a repair bay watch each others back while you take turns repairing.
When playing please pay close attention to your NAV points, they will lead you
to the Objectives. If you die while playing you will have to manually cycle
through the NAV points to get back to the appropriate NAV point that you were
heading to.
Some Mission requires you to follow the NAV points as an objective.
Stealth Missions: Two Missions in Merc’s Coop are special missions,
they require Stealth. This can be a little difficult if you have several players
all trying to do the same objectives. Use good judgment on trying to accomplish
these objectives. All though you could just blast your way in and complete them
it’s more challenging to sneak in and show everyone your skill as a MechWarrior.
Turret Towers: While playing look for Turret towers on most of the levels,
destroying one of these towers will disable several turrets that are linked
to them.
Max Number of Players: you are able to play with up to five players Max; we did put a restriction on your drop weight but this is changeable by the host. The drop weight is out recommendation so please try to follow it and your experience will be much more enjoyable. some missions can be very difficult depending on the number of players and Mech’s taken. But keep this in mind while playing with 5 players, if everyone takes an assault Mech you will find that the mission may be to easy depending on your skill level. Take a mix of Mech’s some assaults some heavies and some medium Mech’s this way you won’t over whelm your opponents.
Completing Objectives: While playing Are easy, all you have to do is follow the waypoints given to you and you can’t fail. But you will have to be watchful for Mech’s that sometimes wonder off especially on the City maps. Sometimes you have to search out your prey. Always read your objectives at the start of the game it will help you to know exactly what you have to do on that particular mission. Hit the O key to open or close the objective screen.
Don’t rush in: when you are playing don’t be in a hurry to
get deep into an enemy base. Doing so will surly get you killed quickly. Most
Mech’s are shut down and you won’t be able to detect them very easily.
If you rush into the base you will wake them all up and be in for the battle
of your life.
Point Defense Platforms: Be on the look out for these bad boys. They are very deadly and will make short work of your Mech, take them out quickly!
Dropships: when confronted with Dropships that are to be destroyed, Attack it from a distance, like the Point Defense it has Incredible Firepower. Target the APU’s that are at its base, destroying the APU will cause considerable damage to the Dropship making it much easier to destroy.
Turrets: Take turrets out from a distance when possible, it will save you a great deal of pain.
NAV Points: Follow your NAV points as they are given to you, deviating from a NAV point could cause the mission to not work correctly or cause an objective to not complete.
Team Work: This is very important when playing, work as a team, double team an enemy Mech if all possible, this will cause maximum damage to the enemy and ensure your survivability.
Lobby Map Tab: Use this; it will explain the mission to you along with the map that shows you the main objective and Extraction point along with the drop zone “your starting point”.
Extraction Point: Everyone must be with in 100 meters of the extraction point or the mission will not end, once everyone is within you will get a text message saying that the mission is successful and will end in 10 seconds.
Mission Beeps and sounds: While playing you will hear to types of beeps, one is a single beep, this beep is the sound of an objective completing successfully. If you hear a duel beeps then you have just failed a mission objective. Destroying a Turret tower will cause several beeps; each beep is for each turret that has been disabled. Look at the message window at the top left corner it will give you a text message of what just happened.
Choosing Game type: Hosting a Co-op game. While in the lobby, you must choose Mission play as the game type. The missions are in order so you should start at the beginning and work your way thru. There are no Videos to watch so don’t expect to see any in game videos would not work in multiplayer.
Adding Bots: None can be added so don’t ask, we will not answer your question why this is a game restriction and nothing we restricted.
Dying in the Game. When you die in the game you will re-spawn at the drop zone. After you re-spawn, you’re NAV points won’t be shown until you hit the N key to cycle through them. Keep hitting the N key until you find the last NAV point you were heading towards.
Targets in a Co-op game: All Objectives and targets of opportunity will show up red when you target them. Those are targets that you have to destroy. Be looking for them some targets like building will not show up on radar as a selectable target, so keep this in mind while playing.
Mech Repair Bays: Always be on the look out for these, they are your life blood and can save you from horrible death J we have placed many on each map in strategic places, so be looking for them and don’t destroy them. Mech bays can be destroyed if you walk into them so be aware.
While in the Lobby please click on the Map tab and read the Information. This info will tell you about the mission and the objectives for that mission. Plus the mini map will have icons painted on them with a Dropship for the players starting point, a Red targeting bracket for the main objective and a Yellow Diamond with an E on it this is the extraction point.
Dedicated servers will work; we have not seen any issues with running one.
Setting to use while playing
Splash Damage = on
Friendly Fire = this is up to the host
Dead Mech’s can’t talk = on
Dead Mech’s can’t see = on
Heat Management = on
Limited ammunition = on
Allow Join in Progress = on
This section talks about current issues that you will experience in a Coop game.
“Clients are the persons joining a game on the net that has been hosted
by another player”
As with all Mod’s there are going to be issues that are out of our control
to fix, this is what we have encountered so far.
Mech Dying on the battle field after being killed will look like they are still
standing up after killing them; this is a client issue that you see and is not
really true. The Mech is in fact dead and lying on the ground but the game is
not updating the client side PC with the proper updated information. They will
however, be noticeably destroyed.
Communication satellites, and the lunar effect, the beam after killing a tower, will still be firing for clients. The host will not see the lunar beam firing into space, only the clients will. Again an issue we could not fix.
On a rare occasion, after you lose a weapon and this has only been noticeable for the gauss weapon, when in a battle and the weapon is destroyed and then you die and re-spawn one of your gauss weapons will not fire. This is a bug in the game that Microsoft will have to address, after re-spawning the game still thinks the weapon is destroyed.
Drop ships that are active- to the Client, they will be jittering up and down about one inch. We are sorry, we tried to make these not jitter, but the multiplayer code for flying objects was not added to the editor. We did not want to leave out the Dropship because it would lessen the games content and make the missions less desirable and authentic. So please keep this in mind when playing.
While in the Lobby and clicking on the Map tab to view the mission text info about the mission, if you decide this is not the mission you want to play and choose another mission and then re click on the Map tab again, the text for that mission will not update its self with the correct info. To correct this, you must click on a different game type, and then click on the map tab to refresh the info. Then you can go back and re-click the correct game type again to view the info. This is a problem with the game and not our mod.
NAV Alpha
NAV Beta
NAV Gamma
NAV Delta
NAV Epsilon
NAV Foxtrot “Will not always be in a mission”
NAV Zeta “Will not always be in a mission”
NAV Extraction
F. System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows 95/98/ME, NT (with Service Pack 3 or
Higher), 2000 and XP
CPU: AMD Athalon or Intel Pentium III, or Celeron 733 MHz
Or higher
RAM: 128MB
Video: Direct X Compatible Video Card with at least
16MB of Video Memory
(3D Accelerator STRONGLY recommended- see
Supported modes below)
Sound: Any Direct X Compatible Sound Card (EAX and A3D
Supported)
Disk Space: 100MB Free Hard Drive Space
CD-ROM: 16X
Multiplayer: TCP/IP Connection via Cable/DSL or T-1/T-3 Line
Video Modes Supported: Direct 3D
Recommended System:
OS: WINDOWS 95/98/ME, NT (with Service Pack 3 or
Higher), 2000
CPU: AMD Athalon or Intel Pentium III 1Gig MHz or higher
RAM: 128MB
Video: NVIDIA TNT Series/GForce Series, ATI Rage
128/Radeon, 3dfx Voodoo5,
Matrox G400
Sound: EAX or A3D sound card
Disk Space: 650MB Free Hard Drive Space
CD-ROM: 24X
Multiplayer: TCP/IP Connection via Cable/DSL or T-1/T-3 Line
We wish to give credit where credit is due, The Microsoft Dev Team, T.J. Wagner
and Von at FASA for giving us a great MechWarrior game and their support on
the project. We also want thank everyone at FASA and Microsoft for a bringing
us a great game. Let’s hope they have plans for a new PC version some time
soon.
Very special thanks to the Giskard and for hosting the web site where Merc’s
Coop now resides, more thanks go out to Starfire for showing us how to get Tanks
working in a Multiplayer game and to HGB teaching me how to get the original
in game voice-overs to work in Multiplayer. Thanks guys for all of your help
with this Mod and all the information they passed to me. Never could have done
it without you guys!
More Thanks to my friends Patrick “Black Widow” Merriman, Shane “Paladin”
Tatum, John “Falcon” Harmon, Roosevelt “Vader” Simmons.
Thanks Guys for all the long hours, LAN parties and Internet play we had testing these maps over and over.
And big thanks go to Pat Merriman, my partner on this project for creating the scripts and teaching me how to script for Merc’s Co-op.
Have Any Question or Comments?
Feel free to contact us:
Rick “Dark” Francis dark88@san.rr.com
Also visit the Forum on our web site and tell us what you think about the mod
or any issues.
Enjoy!! And Good Luck MechWarrior!