New here, first time playing MW2 since 1995

[Woolie Wool]

Hello, I've started playing MechWarrior 2 for the first time since playing the original demo on a 486 in 1995 (I couldn't buy the game because I had no CD drive). I'm also a long-time MechWarrior 4 player, having first played it in 2001. Since I was basically flying blind in terms of which version to get, I purchased the Titanium Trilogy as (a) it had all three games together and (b) it looks the best, especially when I use my Glide wrapper's high-res feature to boost the resolution all the way to 1280x960, as shown below.

Ghost Bear's Legacy Titanium in super high-res (LARGE IMAGE WARNING)

I have noticed that a lot of people here do not like Titanium, for reasons I am not quite sure about. The one that I really understand is that the way the game accesses CD music does not work under Vista, which I find rather frustrating--I might try playing it under Linux using Wine to see if that will work better than Windows Vista. Other than that, I really don't know, because I haven't played this game in 14 years and I don't have a DOS copy (the Win95 version is out of the question because I've been told it absolutely will not work under Windows Vista) and won't have one for several days at least, as they're not sold in brick and mortar stores in significant quantity anymore, meaning I have to order a copy online.So what exactly is wrong with Titanium as compared to the original game? Supposedly it is similar to Mercenaries in some ways but I am not familiar with how Mercs differs from 31st Century Combat. I can't find Image Enhancement, but I never liked wireframe mode anyway (I don't use MW4's green-screen image enhancement either, I toss it and use the extra ton for something more useful, like a heat sink).

Oddly enough, despite MW4's reputation for being dumbed down compared to MW2 or MW3, I find MW2 easier than MW4 in many respects:

-Heat management is much easier. A full alpha strike using the Marauder IIC's default configuration (3 ER PPCs + 4 ER Small + 2 ER Medium Pulse) inflicts about as much heat as a Timber Wolf firing double ER PPCs only in MW4 and heat bleeds away at least twice as fast. Further swinging the balance away from ballistic weapons towards energy weapons, ammo is in much smaller quantities. My preferred Dire Wolf configuration in MW4 (3 Clan Gauss rifles, 2 IS Medium Pulse Lasers, 1 Streak SRM6) held 144 rounds of gauss rifle ammo and 240 missiles, you'd have a hard time fitting that much ammo into an MW2 mech.
-Mechs turn and torso twist much better. When you do the Circle of Death in an assault mech in a heavy or assault mech, you have to work hard and fight the controls to keep the enemy in your sights and you might get only a split second to fire. In MW2 it's a lot easier to put your crosshair on a foe and keep it there.
-The AI is less aggressive. MW4 enemies were not only quicker on the attack, but seemed completely unaffected by heat and would blaze away with PPCs and large lasers with no apparent consequences.
-Weapons recharge faster, making carefully lining up for a king hit against the center torso or leg less of an issue. If you missed with PPCs in an Awesome, you were effectively disarmed for eight full seconds.

Not to say MW2 is any way inferior to MW4 (aside from technologically, being five years older), just different. I just wished I could use my preferred MW4 control scheme with it (W = throttle up, A = throttle down, S = turn left, D = turn right, mouse movement = twist and tilt, mouse1 = fire group 1, mouse2 = fire group 2 with mechs being pregrouped with heavy weapons in group 1 and secondaries in group 2). Being locked out of certain keys and forced to group weapons in-mission is annoying.

[Sir MMPD Radick]

Welcome Woolie! Sounds like you have been around the Battletech/MW scene for quite a while thats pretty cool especially playing MW2 on a 486.

You make some interesting points with regards to titanium. You are right some of the issues are very much not that big of a deal.
In my opinion it is mostly a matter of perspective. Most players that dislike Titanium played online prior to Titanium's release (I am one who dislikes Titanium for the record). This gives them a completely different vantage point than one who chose to play single player only because the features that are often complained about in Titanium are the ones that are relied upon in multiplayer in DOS or 95 Vanilla. For a quick example: Wireframe is a necessity online because most often than not radar is always off and it allows a player to see farther than without wireframe. I would go into the debate more, but Titanium as you said is a very touchy subject.
I will however point you to the Youtube video comparing Titanium to Mech2 DOS.

With regards to MechWarrior 2 95 not functioning in Vista, that is incorrect. It can work in Vista, but it is not guaranteed. DOS as you said works the best in Vista via DOSBOX.

Again, Welcome to mech2.org!
I would encourage you if you would like to have a good time come by IRC and play a netmech match.
Netmech is a free download and is presetup and works in XP, Vista and Windows 7.

[Woolie Wool]

So does wireframe actually increase draw distance or does it just remove fog? I've increased the draw distance in my copy of Titanium to 9 kilometers, and I've spotted approaching mechs from at least 1.8km (which is a lot better than the mere 1000m you can see in MW4). That mission, though, gave me a headache, trying to find the power converter among all those box buildings (and the skybox is so ugly that the DOS version actually looks better in that particular mission). I've ordered a DOS copy of MechWarrior 2 so I can hear the soundtrack properly.

Also, that video with the medium pulse lasers is...quite something. I didn't notice because I tend to ignore pulse lasers. Maybe just for balance's sake I'll replace the Marauder's pulse lasers and some of the small lasers with another PPC.

[Sir MMPD Radick]

removes the fog which allows you to see further I believe.
It is not an issue of course if you hack your draw distance, but it is in the stock game.

[Skyfaller]

Welcome to mech2.org!

We have made some patches to Titanium Trilogy, see here.
Most notably, we lift the limit to the viewing distance. If the GLIDE wrappers work for you, you won't need the resolution patches. Not sure, did the GLIDE wrappers solve the Z-fighting problem where you can see some objects through others? It most obvious when mechs hide behind the slim, but wide and tall walls in the Jade Falcon trials.

[Woolie Wool]

Thanks, I already downloaded the view patch. Also, the Glide wrapper does not fix all the issues with occlusion, but issues with occlusion and disappearing polygons are so common in games of the 95-98 era (even Gran Turismo has them, and that was a top-quality, AAA game if there ever was one) that I sort of accept them as inevitable.

The Jade Falcon campaign mod sounds nice but I'm playing through the Wolf campaign first because I like Clan Wolf better. I'll start that one once I'm done with the Wolf campaign. How is the weapon damage mod coming, though? That plus the Jade Falcon campaign mod plus a Wolf campaign mod would be awesome.

[Skyfaller]

Thanks for the info.