Ghostryder (Team Banzai)

Your willingness to take criticism along with kudos goes along way with your credibility. So far you have addressed the majority of the issues, without the flames many have come to expect. (btw Ghostrider later critisizes the GUI but since that changes constantly, ive not included it here)

Journeyman (House Steiner - Empire League)

One last item: support by the dev team. It is apparent the dev team has dedicated itself to responding to issues and critique as we have gone through this Beta testing. Several ideas from the Beta team have been implemented or are apparently in the works, and bugs discovered have been quickly squashed. I applaud the team for this…in a world where our favorite game is no longer supported by it’s maker, you folks continue to provide support to fill in that gap and keep this game alive and fresh as long as possible.

Thunderbolt (Team Banzai)

I can say that this game feels more like what I thought Classic Battle tech would feel like as a sim than any mech game I have played, even more so than MW3 (I don't wanna even talk about MW2...hated that game, and loved it at the same time because it was the only Mech game around!)

Spartan10590

Just started playing this yesterday and all I can say is wow! NM4 is the sim version of this game I have been hoping for for a long time.

(TW)Tibrojo (Clan Timber Wolfs)

I really like the more of a simulator feel this has now. I like it that the radar is more quirky in its detection of mechs. It makes the pilot use his eyes more. I also like the fact that mechs take damage when they land too hard. To me this really makes me ask whether I want Jjets on my mech exept in certain cases. Also I think that the heat generated by the Jjets is something I never considered. I know I have tried to run IS urbies in the past few months and can almost max my heat out by a good ascent burn. I think that jets now are more of a terrain traversing tool and not as much of a method of attack anymore.

~RK~RIMFIRE (Edit by Giskard: I warned him, did he listen, NO lol)

Now for NMIV. O.k. first off I'm getting used to these bots and their intelligence as they move up the scale. As someone said fire on one of our bots and see what happens..... Yeah well I did and that damn Awesome let fly on me. Chained his PPC's on my butt and generally made my life hell from the get go.

The CB though took all the punishment and dealt it's fair share of blows as well. I used the LBX and Streaks as the primary weapons on the Awesome and used the Med Pulse lasers as a secondary weapon to use only when not firing the other 2 systems. This proved very effective and I was able to keep the Bot off target for a lot of his firing

Thunderbolt (Team Banzai)

Advice to newbies: The heat scales are nothing to play with, so pay attention to the number of sinks your config has and the way you alternate weapons firing. Unboating is now your friend in this regard as it can allow you to fire energy, ballistic and missile weapons in succession, still do major damage to an opponent and not end up shut down and everybody's static practice target. I'm not saying you can't boat, I'm just saying it's not in your best interests to do so.

Quicksilver Clan Jade Falcon {Clan WidowMakers} in NBT:HC

A lot of the changes take some getting used to (like the overall improvement of each weapon as a stand alone weapon, the new heat scale, and radar settings) but I like all of it, its a different change of pace, which is already good.

Maestro

Overall I like the just skill you need to compete in this mod, it's not just some brainless beatdown, you have to think about how you shoot. I like the fact that you can kill someone who's a better shot than you just because they're laser boat went and shut down.

What I have really wanted for a while physical interaction and that is what I think this mod really needs, it would complete my gaming experience (I mean really, what's better than asserting your IS superiority over the clantech in close combat).

BT_Slayer

OK, so here are my thoughts for the folks coming in:

What they will hate but learn to deal with:

UAC's that Jam
Slower speeds and maneuverability all around
No Engine Mods
No Coolant until 3070

What they will hate and learn to love:

Falling Damage
The new Heat model
Lack of balance
The challenge of playing IS in 3050 or 3067
The relative weakness of 3025 tech
No Coolant until 3070 (Yeah I listed it twice. It's probably the most important modification in the game IMHO)

What they will love:

The new sensors. The light pilots especially will have a field day with this.
The odd balance that the CBT rules DO enforce
The more sim-like feel of the game
The fact that the poptarts can not rule supreme any more, so that variety in weapon systems and tactics has been restored.

The only problem is that nowadays, there are very few inexperienced pilots. It took me about 2 drops to get the feel of NMIV, then I was maiming opponents left and right. Then again I played all the MW games so I had something to go on with group firing and mixed weapon type management. What I'm saying is that the learning curve is relatively short given the experience in the community, and thus the whole Good IS can beat bad Clan thing will be moot in short order.

Then again, the point of this mod is not balance, it is CBT. CBT balance is acieved outside the chassis and equipment themselves, thus something outside the game itself is the only real control, and that is a voluntary construct of the communities that play the game. Some will create such constructs, the others will play 3025 (relatively balanced), 3070 (Relatively Balanced), or MP3.x.

the boss

personnaly i almost love it. just little things i don't like are : by far less electronic system on mechs and less armor. otherweise it s perfect. but if we consider another timeline : 3100 or 3170, i hope we will have some more liberty than the CBT rules. i mean more electronic system for mechs like atlas with ecm, bap, lams, iff, advanced gyro.

~SJ~Spartacus

I like the game, I like the timelines, and am defending the mod on MWL. However, as I just said in a post over there, after playing one then the other again and again, I have to say that it is frustrating to play NM-IV, after playing MP3. I am being honest here.

I think it is the same thing that Rimfire likes...there is something about how the game feels. I know it has to do with the way the mechs are spec'd. It handles different. This is as it should be tho...this is the way it is created.

Green Knight

Right off the bat we noticed the heat differences. It will take some getting use to and having to learn new mech builds and fighting tactics, but then thats what a new game is all about

~RK~RIMFIRE

I look at the differences between mechs in the timelines and I'm not going to look at IS pilots as simply a target dummy to shoot. More then likely I'm going to try and take them out first if given the chance. I like the IS mechs and always have. Yeah I pilot clan ones as well but the IS mechs just beg to be used. Using them and taking out clan mech pilots gives one a sense of accomplishment especially in the first two timelines.

(TW)Tibrojo (Clan Timber Wolfs)

I have to say that I totally love it. I have enjoyed Net Mech more than I can remember anything in the past.

I also feel that the multiple timelines give the player a more in depth feel of the evolution of mech technology from just before the clan invasion to just after. Certainly playing in 3025 is a quite different experience for sure.

Journeyman (House Steiner - Empire League)

Change is always a difficult thing for people in general to accept. I’m not talking about the type of change that simply adds more variety, I mean the type of change which requires a person to change their habits and their ways of “doing things”. NetMech IV is an example of that dynamic type of change. To those team members I have introduced it to so it could be evaluated for our League play, the initial response was hesitant…too many bad memories of difficult installs in the past that messed up peoples games for days. And then, as testing commenced, more hesitation…changes in the very foundations of gamestyle…”Is that right? It must be a bug…”, “The mixtech makes my weapons blow up every shot!”, “This mech is nothing like it used to be…I’m not so sure I like it….”

More practice and testing, however, soon turned those uncertainties into eagerness. Testing more mixtech, adjusting to jump damage, re-learning weapons ranges. Virtually everyone who has played NetMech on my team is impressed and amazed at the product. And the ideas for improvement down the road keep on coming, promising more improvements to the game.

~RK~RIMFIRE

As far as leagues go if there is a following for it and enough units want it in a ladder or two there may be a few NMIV ladders over at MWL. ( I wouldn't hold your breath though.)

Spartan10590

You can't expect to get the kind of league play out of this game like you get with MP3 at MWL. Now, by this I mean games like CTF and other more specific game types. The reason being that, especially in regards to CTF, the speed of the mechs is not as upgradable as in MP3. On the other hand, the normal Battle, TB, etc. type games will be incredible. The way I see it, this is the PERFECT game to play planetary on. It just has so much better immersion already that it far surpasses the other versions.

Quicksilver Clan Jade Falcon {Clan WidowMakers} in NBT:HC

When it comes to the league, this is what I question, as considering the IS outnumbered the Clans to win in CBT, this would also have to be done here (although Im not sure twice as many would be the right choice, as there are quite a few differences) but this would require the IS units to have many more pilots than clanners if ever so decide to fight clanners, which might cause some issues, like clan units not being able to field a whole lot of pilots, and the IS unit having trouble fielding enough.

Ghostryder (Team Banzai)

A true CBT mod has not been successfully attempted until now, and the changes will require League admins to address the Clan weapons superiority at the most basic level. Leagues that adopt this mod wll have to think more about tonnage and the capabilities now, so on one hand, it will be more of a comittment in the beginning stages, but this Mod has the legs to move it into the future.

(TW)StabinCarns (Clan TimberWolves)

The NetMechIV gaming environment seems to allow an RPG component. Clan TimberWolves is an RPG clan, but we also just like to run around in 'Mechs and shoot things. By including seperate timelines for gameplay one gets a deeper sense of the storyline, and it is my hope that this mod will pave the way for others to follow. For those that only enjoy the game on an arcade level it is a great extension of Mercenaries. For those that want a Classic Battle Tech simulator it offers an accurate environment for gaming.

TransFAN92 (echos my own thoughts here)

I must say, I am very impressed. Its everything a CBT sim should be. Some nay-sayers might look at it on paper and go "its too much like CBT to be fun." Its not. It has the perfect balance of fun and sim atributes. The other thing I enjoy as when you play you really feel like you.re in a mech during a CBT board game. Its truely what MW4:Mercs should have been.

(TW)Tibrojo (Clan Timber Wolfs)

I for one dont feel that the IS guys are in that bad of shape. Granted a 3025 design can have trouble against a 3050 clan mech, but once many of the IS mechs were upgraded to double Hsinks, I think they do quite well. In 3050-3067 the IS mechs dont quite have the range, but they are cooler. Its just a matter of using terrain to your advantage.

However, I feel in 3070, it is a different story. I feel the IS has a much better variety of weaponry. The IS has weapons like the Support PPC for instance. While is has a ballistic trajectory, it has the range of an Clan ERmed and also adds heat to its target for the same weight. The HVAC's, I feel, are something I wish i could put on my clan mech. They have better range, impact and damage than a Clbx. I wont even mention a 6 HVAC5 Anni.

Starfire will finish off with a word from the Mechstorm/Netmech team.

Mechwarrior: Vengeance was hailed as the Sim Game of the Year (Gamespy 2000), a title it's sequel, Mechwarrior: Mercenaires, was also awarded by Gamespy in 2002. While I think this says more about the abysmal popularity of true sims and the preferences of most gamers, Netmech IV is the first MW game this millennium to live up to this title.

The new radar system is more realistic now—energy output of ‘Mechs is now measurable. This means if you jump a lot, and fire weapons that generate a great deal of heat, you’re going to have to learn new tactics. Quickly. Also, ‘Mechs now take leg damage if they fall from heights, or jump too high and save no fuel to slow their landing with. The heat-scale has been completely revamped as well, a change that for most pilots of other versions of MW4 will take the most practice to get used to.

The mod team has spent a great deal of time trying to convert CBT rules into a video game format, a challenge not easy to take on successfully. They have struck a nice balance between CBT and a video game: not everyone will like every change, of course, but that’s to be expected. The biggest modification in this regard is Clan ‘Mechs are no longer artificially balanced against there is counterparts, especially in the 3025 and 3050 timelines.

Have they got it perfect? No. The names of most of the Battlemechs have been changed to reflect CBT. This would be fine if they had included a cross-reference sheet, with the Clan and IS names for each ‘Mech. Long-time casual players of the video games will be lost in the lab, trying to find an old favorite ‘Mech. Along these lines, the number of variants some ‘Mechs now have approaches silliness to the casual player, and again, some sort of reference material should have been provided. The other complaint I have is the menu music—it’s VERY dated. Retro music is no bad thing, but the music really should have been redone to bring it up to the standards of this century.

But these are small complaints. Users will eventually learn all the ‘Mechs (more than has ever been seen before in a MW video game) and their capabilities, and the menu music doesn’t impact the game-play. The only other complaint is they didn’t devote enough time to new maps: the old ones should have been removed, being (in some cases) 6 years old now. Two new maps are being included in the game, although only one of them will be ready at the time of launch (the other map not being included is entirely the fault of this reviewer, as I haven’t finished it yet). The new weapon and heat scale will help make playing these maps feel different, but nothing can make them feel new.

So if you thought MW4 was a simulation game, and want to experience a new level of combat, which requires thought on your part, you must try Netmech IV. Gamespy’s awards nonewithstanding, all pervious MW4 versions have been shooters, with little more than a fast trigger-finger being needed to play. So grab your neurohelmet, and fire up your fusion reactors: the Clan invasion has begun all over again, and this mod is the best way to experience it!