NetMech for Win95 (Netmech95)

Three victims of sleep depravation, desperately trying to escape from the ice caverns of Graus.

Introduction to 3D Enhanced Netmech

I'm not going to cover the whole history of Netmech or the online leagues here, because I'm really not the best qualified person for that job and I imagine that you could fill many webpages with information on those subjects. Hopefully someone will take up that task, as these games are slipping into online gaming history and deserve to receive a good accounting. I would like to see someone would take on the subject of the development of MechWarrior 2 (the good, the bad and the ugly) or a feature on the rise and fall of the great Netmech leagues, while the information is still somewhat fresh in people's minds. Getting to the subject at hand, all the PC 3D Enhanced versions of MechWarrior 2 included a Win95 based Netmech that also had been modified for 3D acceleration. This "Netmech 3D," if you will, was fully compatible with the regular Win95/Pentium version of Netmech (aka Netmech95) and included all the same maps and features of the original, with the exception of the "Time of Day" function, which no longer had any effect. This compatibility allowed you to take part in the Win95 based leagues that thrived from 1996-1999. The only exception to this was over on MPlayer (aka "the pig"), where they somehow managed to screw up their code to the point that the only 3D version that worked on the service was the ATI 3D Rage version, and even then, only with a special MPlayer patch. While the gaming bundle only distribution kept the number of players using the 3D versions online in the minority and prevented Netmech 3D from reaching a GLQuake level of popularity, it still saw quite a bit of online use and achieved somewhat of a cult status. In particular, the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics version was a highly desirable item to many Netmech players for several years. The later Titanium Edition had a great opportunity to link together the player base using the Pentium/Win95 and 3D Enhanced versions, help bring in new players and greatly expand the Netmech community, but instead a terrible judgment was made [IMO] that prevented that from happening. The final result was that Titanium instead had the opposite effect and further fractured the Netmech base, with players being divided up among the DOS/Mac, Win95/Pentium/3D Enhanced and Titanium versions. Unfortunately, the entire Netmech series has taken numerous blows over the last few years that have resulted in it's almost total disappearance from most online gaming hangouts. The release of MW3 and MW4, the decline, takeover or death of several online gaming services and new and incompatible operating systems and hardware have all had their negative effects. Additionally, Activision has not released the source code, which could have allowed the gaming community to overcome some of these obstacles. Personally, I haven't played Netmech since the spring of 1999, but I still try to pass on any good information that I find, to those who are still interested in playing the game. Presently [Spring 2002], if you are looking for a game, you may occasionally find some DOS or Win95 Netmech or MercNet players left on the ->Mechs, MECHNET! :P, or Smoke Jaguar HQ servers on Kali. You may also want to check out the forums of the larger Mecha sites like BadKarma, 31st Century MechBay, DropShipCommand or MekTek for postings by people who are looking to set up a game.

General Netmech Strategy and Tactics

I had never planned on including Netmech strategy or tactical information on this site, because there used to be no end to the number of websites that offered excellent guidance (and far better than anything I could ever provide) in the areas of online team and individual combat, mech building and league play for Netmech, but since the release of MechWarrior 3 in the late Spring of 1999 (and subsequent releases), most of these guides have vanished. At this point, if you are looking for guidance with Netmech, I would recommend checking out Bad Karma's Mecha Training Academy, which retains some guides from the glory days of the BTMA.

Specific Concerns for Netmech 3D users

Due to the passage of time, this first point is less applicable with every day that goes by, but I might as well list it for those to whom it still applies: If you're going to run these versions online, you better have enough horsepower (CPU, memory, video, etc) to be able to maintain a high enough framerate, otherwise you're going to be at a real disadvantage. Netmech is not kind to those trapped in a 5fps slideshow. All the 3D versions of Netmech are going to be a lot more demanding on your system than a Pentium version and if the game is slow in single player, then it is going to be even worse online, in which case you'd probably be better off running the Pentium Edition or running exclusively on wireframe mode. Of course, now that several years have passed, this information is less applicable most have systems well beyond For 3Dfx users, make sure you have run your correct AUTOEXEC.BAT or correct MW2 specific batch file, so your Voodoo card is all set. PowerVR users, remember to setup the correct MW2 default (or customized) profile in the PowerVR advanced settings area of your display properties. You can check the individual version pages on this website, for help with getting the best performance out of your 3D accelerated version of Netmech. Other issues include the way you go about building [some of] your mechs. Some years ago Raizen did several damage tests on Kali, while I was using the 3Dfx Voodoo version. The results showed that that hits I received from the side were much more likely to be attributed to frontal armor than when using a Pentium version. You had to be hit from almost directly behind to take rear damage. I don't know if others have encountered the same thing or if it effects all the 3D versions, but it is something that you may want to look into and test yourself if you're going to be using one of the versions of Netmech. If you also experience a similar effect, you may want to increase your frontal armor for dueling mechs. The team or FFA mechs are a little trickier, because you're more likely to take a shot from the rear, than in a duel. Some other concerns, the 3D versions appear to have a limitation in the torso twist that prevents a full 180 degree arc (it's probably more like 160-165 degrees), so that has to be taken into consideration. Another issue that has been brought up is that the trees on Galuzza appear to be much thicker in the 3D versions of Netmech. I am not really sure how this effects hits to the trees vs. objects behind them or if it differs depending on whether you are hosting or not.

Netmech Planet Guide

To be at your best, you need to be thoroughly familiar with your battleground. Using the Netmech Planet Guide, you can prepare for conflict by studying mission descriptions, objectives, maps and screenshots.