Introduction |
When compared to Quake or several
other popular multiplayer games of the period, the MW2
series is very limited in user mods due to the game's
design [and especially] the tools that were used to build
the game worlds (see here for details). Without having the source code,
there are limits to what one can accomplish and to date
[Feb 2002], Activision still has not released the code.
At this point I don't know if it will ever happen, nor do
I know of any active organized effort that has recently
been lobbying for the code's release. Still, a handful of
creative and dedicated individuals have worked hard over
the years to create some interesting programs and files
for the MW2 games. Included on this page are many of the
mods that were provided to the Mecha community over the
past 6+ years. All the files below are for the PC
DOS/Win95 Platform and I am unaware of any mods or
utilities that were made for the Macintosh port. Hopefully this page will be a worthwhile
reference for those who are new to the MW2 series, those
getting back into it, or old pilots that just want to do
a little bit of reminiscing. Also, if someone is
interested in doing a future mod, this helps give them
reference for the work that has taken place and the
individuals responsible for it.
This listing is a work in progress, as
it isn't easy to quickly and accurately find out what
happened to all these projects. If you have any
information about mods that are not listed or any
updates/corrections for those listed below, please let me know, so I can offer a respectable, accurate
account for all projects.
As for official patches and demos, they
can all be downloaded directly from Activision. Sometimes their server is painfully slow, so
you may want to check out the 3D
Gamers' MechWarrior 2 Page or similar
game file archive sites.
Note: I've included many defunct links
to old sites for historical purposes. The "*WM Archived*" links listed below [and elsewhere] on my
webpages are for sites that are down, closed, changed,
not available, etc. and have a worthwhile copy of their
old active webpage(s) archived on Wayback Machine. You will not be able to get downloads from
these archives with the exception of some smaller images.
|
MechWarrior
2: 31st Century & Netmech Mods |
MW2:
Battlemaster
Patch I'm not sure who was
originally responsible for these patches, but the
original Battlemaster patches (the ones for
instant action - single player) have been around
from the very beginning. By applying this patch,
then entering in names of "Enzo, Calvin, and
Hobbes" for you and your wings in Instant
Action, you can access the Elemental, Tarantula,
or Battlemaster. Unfortunately it does not work
in the campaign part of the game,nor in
multiplayer (See Netmech II or Netmech Forever
below for multiplayer Battlemaster patches). This
patch is available for DOS and Win95 and the
Win95 version also works on the 3D Enhanced
versions, but not Titanium. You can download them
from several sites including First of One's MechWarrior
Arena, BadKarma.net, or Sarna.net.
MechEdit
I couldn't find any info yet on who made
this DOS utility, but it has been around forever
( I guess that could be considered good and bad)
and it allows one to build super mechs. Many
people use this program to build "hacked
mechs" which are illegal in league play.
Still, it can be fun to use these mechs at times,
as long as all are aware of what is going on. You
should be able to find it at several locations
including BadKarma.net, or Sarna.net.
High
Resolution Patch for MW2: 3D Accelerated/Enhanced From here at MW2 3D, there's still a
possibility I may be able to do for MW2, what I
did for Mercs, but I can give no guarantees. I'll
see what happens over the next few months.
Others:
There are several other misc utilities for
building/editing mechs or weapons that can be
downloaded from several sites including Bad Karma, which has many of
these still available at their Technical
Institute. You can also find
several at Sarna.net. Custom mechs are still
available at various locations as well including First of One's MechWarrior
Arena.
Netmech:
Mech
Lab Maid
from
http://www.iccom.com/usrwww/katzen/omlm.htm [Gone!] *WM
Archived*
MLM was an essential utility for Netmech players
online. MLM allows you to organize, rename and
view your mechs attributes, and provides a cheat
detection function. Even though the home site has
recently disappeared, you can find it at
available for download at the main MechWarrior
sites like BadKarma.net, Sarna.net or most of the larger mecha sites that
have MW2 files.
MechMan
I'm not sure who wrote this one, but it
has been around for a long time. MechMan preceded
Mech Lab Maid by a few years and it is much a
much simpler program, but still helped to provide
cheat detection for Netmech Players. You should
be able to find it by doing a search for
"Netmech Mechman" on Google.com. Note: Bad Karma has a
file listed as "MechMan" but the
description seems to describe a different
program, so I'm unsure if it is the same thing or
not.
- Netmech
II from NavAlpha.net [Down!] *WM
Archived* Maerlyn of NavAlpha.net was
doing some cool mods for Netmech when I first
started expanding my webpage in 1999,
but since my time away from MW2, his page seems
to be have disappeared. He had several downloads
available for Netmech Win95 and DOS (Mainly
Win95) and to my knowledge they are not mirrored
anywhere. Features of these Netmech II mods at
present:
A
mech soccer map was being tested in late 2000,
but there has been nothing available since then.
- Netmech
II/Forever project from Team
NPX (Original
Site) This was an organized
and ambitious effort by Team NPX back in late 1998 into
1999 to create various mods for DOS Netmech. Mods
they created and released included:
- Battlemaster
patch for DOS Netmech (replaces
Tarantula)
- Gravity
and atmosphere patch
The NPX
Battlemaster patch is still available, but I did
not see a link to the Gravity mod. They also
planned and worked on but never released several
weapons adjustments, new weapons, different
mechs, and new netmech maps. The site appears to
have been last updated in 1999 some time.
|
MW2
Expansion Pack: Ghost Bear's Legacy Mods |
GBL:
There are no real mods
that I know of and the lack of [a finished] multiplayer
is probably a large contributing factor. IIRC, there used
to be a weapons editor that appeared 5 years ago or so
and maybe you still find it somewhere. I believe Maerlyn
and the NPX were digging into the GBL PRJ file a bit, but
the reason behind that was mainly to get material for
Netmech DOS/95. For those interested in GBL, you might
want to check out this old USENET thread: Play
MW2 missions in GBL! Complete (almost) weapon editor for
GBL!
Some misc. thoughts on
GBL:
The one simple mod
I would like to see? I wish someone would fix the
damn clan emblems in the Titanium version of GBL
and put the correct emblems on the vehicles and
the mechs! It greatly affects the immersion
factor IHMO.
I also wish
someone could put the waterfall back in where is
should be! It would have been great to see that
in D3D/3Dfx!
Other issues: A
higher resolution patch for the Titanium version
of Ghost Bear. It may be temporarily possible, w/
editing the registry keys, but if it is like
Mercs, then the mw2shell.dll will reset the res
back to 640x480 (or 320x240) once you start it
up. Unfortunately there was no other high res
version made for me to hack like I did with Mercs
(and may do with MW2).
Finally: The
apparent existence of an unfinished GBL Netmech
in the GBL prj file is very interesting. I don't
have too many details on this. I remember someone
from Activision saying something along the lines
that "they just didn't have enough time to
finish it," so I'm unsure of how much would
need to be done, even if we did get the code.
Would anyone even care by that point?
|
MW2:
Mercenaries & MercNet Mods |
MW2:Mercs:
High
Resolution Patch for MW2:Mercenaries 3Dfx/D3D
from right here at MechWarrior 2 3D This is the patch I put
together after experimenting with the "3D
Enhanced/D3D Video" versions of Mercs (this
patch is the same one that is linked on my FAQ
page). It should allow you to go 800x600 and
maybe higher, but for 1024x768+ resolutions it is
somewhat temperamental ( I could get up to
1600x1200 on 3Dfx Banshee card, but my Radeon
7500 only did up to 800x600!). Different driver
versions can sometimes increase res. options. The
zipfile includes a ReadMe and you can also go here for more details.
Mechwarrior
2 Mercenaries - The Next Wave
This
is Demolishun's RPG
Project for DOS Mercs.
This project would provide an open ended
complex world for a mercenary to operate in.
There are details at his website, plus you might
want to check out these links to discussions @
BadKarma's forums.
The site hasn't
been updated since the summer of 2001, but the
downloads are still available as of present.
Others:
There are several other misc utilities for
building or editing mechs, weapons, maps, money,
etc. that can be downloaded at several sites
including Bad Karma has many of these still
available at their Technical
Institute and several can also be
found at Sarna.net. Custom mechs files are
still available at various locations, though I
have no links at present.
MercNet:
The
NAIS Shell from the New Avalon
Institute of Science [Long Gone!] *WM
Archived*
Probably the best known and most widely
used of all the MW2 series mods and a necessity
for DOS MercNet players online. The NAIS Shell
was created for DOS Mercs/MercNet by Ender and Co. that allows for the use of custom mech
chassis and vehicles, custom logos and cheat
detection. I believe v2.03 was the
final version released it is still available at
many sites including Bad Karma or Sarna.net.
The
MW2 Mercenaries
Tactical Design Lab was a follow-up to
NAIS, but it has long since moved on to other
projects. I believe this was headed by Led Mirage, who had been a member
of the NAIS.
- MeX
from Fozz's
MeX Modification site :
Similar to the NAIS Shell, but the MeX
program is for Mercs v1.1/Titanium (IIRC, the
early release was called "NAIS Shell for the
Titanium Trilogy" instead of MeX). It's
creators, -=Fozz=-
and
Co. were doing some interesting work, but Fozz
has been MIA on the mecha scene for a while now
and has not updated his site since 1999. When
following the above link, at the main page choose
the UK site, because the US site disappeared in
2000 sometime. According to the MeX site, the
program does the following:
- Cheat /
Hack detection and prevention
- Nuke /
Torpedo stripping
- 250 new
Chassis types to choose from
- Custom
Insignia's of Units will be used
- 400
example configs
- Post-Drop
logging to HTML pages for easy post-game
viewing
Fully independent settings for
both single and multiplayer games
The
main problem: Even though the MeX
Installer/Updater is still available for
download, when you run the setup and try to
download the MeX cabinet files, it cannot find
them or MeX just locks up forcing a Ctrl+Alt+Del
to shut it down. Well, at least this is what
happened when I tried it :P I have no idea what
the cabinet files were named to be able to search
for them and searching for "MeX" only
came up with the same old links to Fozz's site.
MW2
3D Mission Wizard (aka
MW2Edit) from Aeternus Digital
Design (I have no idea what their homepage
was). This program was a mission editor for DOS
MercNet and allows editing of most variables. Sarna.net has
two versions on their site in the MW2 Mercs
utilities section labeled "missioneditor.zip"
and "mw2edit.zip" They are basically
the same thing except the mw2edit.zip archive has
slightly newer timestamps on the files.
Back
in January of 1998, ADD announced that they had a
program to convert DOS missions into Mercs 1.1 ,
but then they seem to have disappeared w/o a
trace. I don't know if the conversion program was
ever finished or released.
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