New to MECHVM, having trouble with Mercenaries campaign

Issues with mercs? Post it up here!
Forum rules
Please provide the following when making a support request.
1. OS & Service Pack.
2. Version of Mercenaries that is being used.
3. If you are using 95 Mercs, please provide what method you are using to run it? (ie. Kontza's or Slugs Hook)
4a. If you are using DOS have you read the install guide?
4b. If you are using 95 have you watched the 95 install video?
5. What were the steps that you did after the initial installation? (if applicable)
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AJL1983
I.S. Baby
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun May 31, 2020 7:25 am

New to MECHVM, having trouble with Mercenaries campaign

Post by AJL1983 »

So first of all, I want to say that being able to play this game after almost 20 years has been an absolute pleasure! I remember Mechwarrior 2 and Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries being my favorite games as a kid. That being said...

I am running Mercenaries in MechVM, on a Windows 7 (Service pack 1) machine from 2014. After figuring out some bugs, I am still having trouble...but here is what I came across-

On first install, the game wouldn't play correctly unless I did "run as administrator" (I don't know why my computer doesn't consider me, the only user, to NOT be the admin.. odd). If I DIDN'T do this, campaign missions wouldn't launch, and instant action missions would result in all mechs being dropped in the same exact spot and the mission would end in a failure right after power-up. After this, doing "run as administrator" seemed to fix the issue and I just kept up this way (.....until recently, where those two problems seem to have gone away regardless of running it regularly or as an admin...but running as admin or not doing so will change what save file I see in the first slot upon loading..).

Ok, well that aside.. I was able to run through a good amount of the Mercenary Commander side, until at some point (say, a mission or two after the Arena combat mission...Solaris Championship?)...missions stopped loading and would always give me a "Page Fault" error on a black screen and go back to the mission aftermath screen as a "mission complete" while advancing to the next mission in the line. The really odd part though, is that when it does this, the aftermath screen shows the same objective screen over and over, despite advancing the mission (it shows the summary for the mission where you have the Kodiak and have to either protect the dropship and go to nav Alpha or destroy the dropship and protecting mechs...which is, also oddly, one of the missions that actually worked throughout this string of those that wouldn't work). Does anyone have any thoughts? Is there a file I need to dump somewhere? I was bummed that I got that far and couldn't play any further.

I know this is a very small community, and I am in the minority of 30-somethings who would love to see this game re-released with modern bells and whistles (something akin to the Sonic Mania game I have on my PS4 which was a fantastic modern follow-up for all the old Sega versions)..but alas, I know it will never happen..and I need to keep trying to get these games to work well on my modern hardware (....or dig up the old computer they ran great on..)
slickrcbd
I.S. Mech Washer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:41 pm

Re: New to MECHVM, having trouble with Mercenaries campaign

Post by slickrcbd »

AJL1983 wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 7:49 am I am running Mercenaries in MechVM, on a Windows 7 (Service pack 1) machine from 2014. After figuring out some bugs, I am still having trouble...but here is what I came across-

On first install, the game wouldn't play correctly unless I did "run as administrator" (I don't know why my computer doesn't consider me, the only user, to NOT be the admin.. odd).
I can't help you with the trouble you are having with the game itself, but I can help explain the quoted text.
Using your administrator account for everyday use is a bad idea. If malware gets onto your system, it gives it the ability to embed itself deeply making it much harder to remove. This includes viruses, trojans, worms, adware, spyware, ransom-ware, and all kinds of bad stuff. Using a Limited/Standard account (Microsoft changed the name because people were afraid of the term "limited account") is much safer.
You really should create a standard account for your day-to-day stuff, and only use the admin account when installing, removing, or updating software, managing user accounts, modding games, or anything else that requires administrator rights.

Starting with Windows Vista and all subsequent versions (7, 8, 10), Microsoft introduced something called "User Account Control". This was in response to users like you who use the administrator account for everything despite it being a very bad practice. While most techs call it "User Annoyance Control" as it tends to get VERY annoying when logged in as an Admin and trying to do our jobs, it's purpose is to make administrator accounts run as standard accounts until a particular program requires elevation, then alert the user to this and get his or her approval before allowing it to do something normally restricted to an administrator account.
Thus if the program is doing something it should not be, the user has a chance to stop it.

It is because of this that you need to "run as administrator" even with the administrator account.
There is a way to disable it, but it is a very bad idea if this is your only user account. As such I will not explain further.

I should also point out that the automatic prompting does not always work right with older games, especially stuff designed to run with Windows 9X.
Security standards changed between Windows 95 and Windows XP, especially between Windows 98SE and 2000 with Windows ME being somewhat intermediary (and also why it was called Malfunctioning Edition because of the incompatibilities and also why they ditched the 9X line after ME and released XP so soon after 2000 when it was essentially 2000 Second Edition with a new skin).

Anyways, sorry I can't help you with the game itself, but I hope it clears things up.
AJL1983
I.S. Baby
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun May 31, 2020 7:25 am

Re: New to MECHVM, having trouble with Mercenaries campaign

Post by AJL1983 »

Thanks for the info about the admin issue. I have never changed any settings so I assume I am a "standard user" (which, oddly, also locks me out of certain shortcuts on here, giving me an "Access is Denied" error. But alas...I'm more of a mechanical guy, not an I.T. guy.

Yeah, it is a shame I can't figure out the page fault bug. I feel like it happened for other issues way back on my old DOS machine too but I can't recall what the trigger was. I have a 98 machine that used to run the accelerated versions of the games with no issues that I haven't powered up in..probably close to 13 years. I am just being nostalgic and am pretty bummed that the game seemed to work great until I hit this roadblock in the campaign. Rats.
slickrcbd
I.S. Mech Washer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:41 pm

Re: New to MECHVM, having trouble with Mercenaries campaign

Post by slickrcbd »

DO NOT DEMOTE YOUR ONLY ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT!!!
Instead, create a new user account for admin purposes. Make it an admin account. Then create a second admin account as a backup.
Only then do you demote your current account.

You will have to enter the credentials for an admin account then when you want to "run as an administrator".
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