Will this work?

[beachhead1985]

I am new to MegaMek; never used it before. I just downloaded it last night and I haven't messed with it yet.

Here is the situation:

I am developing a homebrew MechWarrior RPG and I am looking to manage the "Big Stompy Robots" side of things in a format which is managable in a weekly game night. I've run the group through some simple 1 on 1 mech battles, buit I have doubts about managing lance on lance engagements in a 3-4 hour time frame with any degree of reliability.

Can I use MegaMek/MekHQ for this?

I'd like to run it off my laptop with the screen shifted to my big screen and the pilots, mechs and stats from our game loaded into MM/MHQ and just hotseat play the individual mechs.

Is this workable?

What concerns and shortcomings should I be aware of?

Any suggestions or hints?

Thanks for your time.

[Kovax]

If you're playing out individual battles, not campaigns, you don't need MekHQ.  MegaMek will easily manage lance-on-lance battles, and if you run out of time, you can save the game to finish later.

Be aware that setting up a MegaMek battle takes a bit of time and attention, and the procedure is not clearly documented or explained.  If you start the battle, then realize that you forgot to set something like the map size (it defaults to a single random mapsheet), optional rules, or starting locations, it's too late, and you've got to do the whole thing over from scratch.  Once you work out a routine to do everything in some kind of order and become familiar with it, it's not that bad, but without a routine you're probably going to make mistakes....a lot.

[Hammer]

I am new to MegaMek; never used it before. I just downloaded it last night and I haven't messed with it yet.

Here is the situation:

I am developing a homebrew MechWarrior RPG and I am looking to manage the "Big Stompy Robots" side of things in a format which is managable in a weekly game night. I've run the group through some simple 1 on 1 mech battles, buit I have doubts about managing lance on lance engagements in a 3-4 hour time frame with any degree of reliability.

Can I use MegaMek/MekHQ for this?

I'd like to run it off my laptop with the screen shifted to my big screen and the pilots, mechs and stats from our game loaded into MM/MHQ and just hotseat play the individual mechs.

Is this workable?

I've done hot seating in the past and it works but does slow things down, but if they each bring their own laptop they could connect via the network set the options to use some of the Simultaneous options (avoid the movement one its a little buggy).  In games once the players are connected I put one of the players screens on the TV (that way they don't see all my units as I play opfor).

I've played company on company that way (each player is a lance) in 4-5 hours.  The key I find is to keep everyone focused and ready to play.  The biggest challenge I find is making sure you don't play with too many options on. MegaMek has tons of optional rules from the books and if the players aren't familiar you waste time figuring out whats going on.

The other thing cause the MegaMek UI isn't allows intuitive I'm had my players play some games against Princess to get used to the game.

Given MegaMek supports most unit types I've had lots of fun with players being Fighter Jocks, running BA, and Mechwarriors all in the same battle. The BA guys quickly learn they aren't immortal but they had fun.

As players get more familiar with the UI and how MegaMek plays they get faster.

[bluedragon7]

For a roleplaying group I find mekHQ being quite helpful, you can keep track of any large scale items and repairs and NPCs in there. So if your group does not repair their damaged Mechs in time, for the next fight they could still have damage and so on.
In the group I am playing at the moment the GM uses mekHQ for that in the background, the actual sessions are either megamek or Maptools, depending if we are having a mech battle that evening or just run around without.
If that works for an online group it should work offline as well, megamek actually speeds up the game a lot, as you don't loose time for counting hexes or calculating TNs, but you loose the appeal of having real mechs on the table.

[beachhead1985]

If you're playing out individual battles, not campaigns, you don't need MekHQ.  MegaMek will easily manage lance-on-lance battles, and if you run out of time, you can save the game to finish later.

Be aware that setting up a MegaMek battle takes a bit of time and attention, and the procedure is not clearly documented or explained.  If you start the battle, then realize that you forgot to set something like the map size (it defaults to a single random mapsheet), optional rules, or starting locations, it's too late, and you've got to do the whole thing over from scratch.  Once you work out a routine to do everything in some kind of order and become familiar with it, it's not that bad, but without a routine you're probably going to make mistakes....a lot.

Well, it is *THE* prototypical mechwarrior campaign; PCs are a small merc unit, so maybe MekHQ would help?

I just DL'd the programs and haven't had a chance to futz with them; lots of checkboxes and such?

I've done hot seating in the past and it works but does slow things down, but if they each bring their own laptop they could connect via the network set the options to use some of the Simultaneous options (avoid the movement one its a little buggy).  In games once the players are connected I put one of the players screens on the TV (that way they don't see all my units as I play opfor).

I've played company on company that way (each player is a lance) in 4-5 hours.  The key I find is to keep everyone focused and ready to play.  The biggest challenge I find is making sure you don't play with too many options on. MegaMek has tons of optional rules from the books and if the players aren't familiar you waste time figuring out whats going on.

The other thing cause the MegaMek UI isn't allows intuitive I'm had my players play some games against Princess to get used to the game.

Given MegaMek supports most unit types I've had lots of fun with players being Fighter Jocks, running BA, and Mechwarriors all in the same battle. The BA guys quickly learn they aren't immortal but they had fun.

As players get more familiar with the UI and how MegaMek plays they get faster.

I hadn't even thought about them seeing my units!

I was just going to hook my laptop to my TV (do that all the time) and pass the mouse around. Some of them do not have (working) laptops.

What is UI? User Interface?

For a roleplaying group I find mekHQ being quite helpful, you can keep track of any large scale items and repairs and NPCs in there. So if your group does not repair their damaged Mechs in time, for the next fight they could still have damage and so on.
In the group I am playing at the moment the GM uses mekHQ for that in the background, the actual sessions are either megamek or Maptools, depending if we are having a mech battle that evening or just run around without.
If that works for an online group it should work offline as well, megamek actually speeds up the game a lot, as you don't loose time for counting hexes or calculating TNs, but you loose the appeal of having real mechs on the table.

Yes; that kind of detail is what I want and as much as I'll miss the mechs; I think this fits better for a 3-4 hour game night.

***

Next question: Can I get my buddy in on this through Skype or something?

[Hammer]

What is UI? User Interface?
Yes; that kind of detail is what I want and as much as I'll miss the mechs; I think this fits better for a 3-4 hour game night.

Next question: Can I get my buddy in on this through Skype or something?

Yep User Interface.

and I've played many a game of Megamek with a couple of buddies connect into Megamek that I'm hosting. They use Hangouts(our preferred program) but Skype would work as well.

[arlith]

I hadn't even thought about them seeing my units!

I was just going to hook my laptop to my TV (do that all the time) and pass the mouse around. Some of them do not have (working) laptops.

Yea, that's what ends up being the problem.  Not an issue if you don't play double-blind, but if you do... put even if MM did have some dedicated support for hot-seating, you'd still have this issue hooked up to a TV.

One idea I've heard before (although it requires a lot of computers), is to have one computer hooked up to a TV that is running an observer client, so everyone could see on the TV what's going on, and then several other laptops for running clients for other players.

If you had two systems, you could have all clients for one team on one computer, and all the clients for another team on another.

[beachhead1985]

Yep User Interface.

and I've played many a game of Megamek with a couple of buddies connect into Megamek that I'm hosting. They use Hangouts(our preferred program) but Skype would work as well.

How do you make that work?

Yea, that's what ends up being the problem.  Not an issue if you don't play double-blind, but if you do... put even if MM did have some dedicated support for hot-seating, you'd still have this issue hooked up to a TV.

One idea I've heard before (although it requires a lot of computers), is to have one computer hooked up to a TV that is running an observer client, so everyone could see on the TV what's going on, and then several other laptops for running clients for other players.

If you had two systems, you could have all clients for one team on one computer, and all the clients for another team on another.

I actually do have two computers...And I can use the home network...Would that work?

[Hammer]

How do you make that work?

With Hangouts we set up a group -  See Here

[arlith]

I actually do have two computers...And I can use the home network...Would that work?

Yes.  So, one thing to point out is that MM doesn't exactly support hot-seating.  When people play hot-seat games, they do it by running multiple clients on one computer and switching between them: one client for each player (you could potentially have one client per team, and each player controls a specific unit under that player as well).

So, what you would do is have one laptop run a client that hosts a server, and have additional clients for any player on the same team.  Then, the other laptop will run clients for each player on the opposing team, connecting to the server on the first laptop.

[beachhead1985]

Yes.  So, one thing to point out is that MM doesn't exactly support hot-seating.  When people play hot-seat games, they do it by running multiple clients on one computer and switching between them: one client for each player (you could potentially have one client per team, and each player controls a specific unit under that player as well).

So, what you would do is have one laptop run a client that hosts a server, and have additional clients for any player on the same team.  Then, the other laptop will run clients for each player on the opposing team, connecting to the server on the first laptop.

Is "Client" a megamek term?

[Hammer]

Is "Client" a megamek term?

yes, its refers to each incidence of MegaMek you have running on a single machine.

[pheonixstorm]

It's not entirely a MegaMek term. Any program that connects to another program is referred to as a client, normally as in a client/server network. Generally there is a dedicated server rather than each instance acting as a client OR server. For MMOs such as MWO you use the client to connect to the server, in rare cases though the game itself can act as both client and server. That setup is used for smaller scale games such as MegaMek.

[beachhead1985]

yes, its refers to each incidence of MegaMek you have running on a single machine.

So I could run MegaMek on one computer, run it on another computer; link the two computers and play both side of the same battle?

[Hammer]

So I could run MegaMek on one computer, run it on another computer; link the two computers and play both side of the same battle?

yes, Megamek supports network play.  Or can have say 4 versions of MegaMek Running on one PC and have them all connected to the localhost.  Which would allow a version of Hotseat play.

[beachhead1985]

Wow, this sounds great.

I've been looking at some how-to videos on youtube after the readme file lost me, but this is kicking my butt right now.

And thanks for taking an interest, Hammer; you're mentioned on some of these videos and obviously a big wheel with the program.

After getting it installed on both computers, I started the game on my PC and then couldn't get my laptop to find the IP address. I used findmyIP after the methods listed in the readme failed, but my laptop still couldn't connect.

I also couldn't figure out how to build two opposing teams of human players. All the videos I've found so far are human vs bot.

To be clear, eventually; I want to build the PC's merc unit, complete with a few custom rides, into MekHQ and run the OPFOR in their missions from my PC, while they hotseat it down on my laptop.

[Hammer]

After getting it installed on both computers, I started the game on my PC and then couldn't get my laptop to find the IP address. I used findmyIP after the methods listed in the readme failed, but my laptop still couldn't connect.

If both computers are on the same network and behind the same firewall. You should be able to start the first Megamek client on the PC. Once started you'll want to look for the local IP address. Should say - Server:Machine IP is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

On the laptop when you select Connect to Game enter that IP address. Assuming nothing is overly strict with the firewall on PC then they should connect.  If they don't connect you can try disabling the firewall on PC as a test. If it then works then you'll need to set up a exception on the PC firewall, or play with the firewall off.

What I'd suggest about the player's unit is build the unit in Megamek, you can pick the Mechs, do some basic customization of the pilots and then save it as a MUL. Import the MUL file into MekHQ and you'll have the bones of the campaign ready to go. Flesh out the techs and parts in MekHQ. If the players are hotseating on the laptop and you're launching MekHQ from PC you should be able to build missions and scenarios in MekHQ for them to use.

For the custom units, we do suggest building them in MML since their are no compatibility issues with the equipment.

[beachhead1985]

If both computers are on the same network and behind the same firewall. You should be able to start the first Megamek client on the PC. Once started you'll want to look for the local IP address. Should say - Server:Machine IP is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

On the laptop when you select Connect to Game enter that IP address. Assuming nothing is overly strict with the firewall on PC then they should connect.  If they don't connect you can try disabling the firewall on PC as a test. If it then works then you'll need to set up a exception on the PC firewall, or play with the firewall off.

What I'd suggest about the player's unit is build the unit in Megamek, you can pick the Mechs, do some basic customization of the pilots and then save it as a MUL. Import the MUL file into MekHQ and you'll have the bones of the campaign ready to go. Flesh out the techs and parts in MekHQ. If the players are hotseating on the laptop and you're launching MekHQ from PC you should be able to build missions and scenarios in MekHQ for them to use.

For the custom units, we do suggest building them in MML since their are no compatibility issues with the equipment.

That was what I thought I was doing; but my laptop couldn't pick up the IP or log into the client or something.

I started the game on the PC, found the IP, started the game on the laptop and it wouldn't connect.

Right now, there are no NPCs fleshing out the unit; no techs. Is that an issue?

Are there better how-to guides than the readme? So far, all my youtube videos I've found don't reference this kind of play.

[arlith]

You have to be careful about your WAN IP vs your local IP.  Your modem will have an IP assigned by your ISP, which is what you will get if you use an online tool to find your IP.  You would use this IP if you wanted someone outside of your home network to connect (and you would need to setup port forwarding on your router).  Then, all of your machines in your local network will get assigned a local IP address that probably starts with 192.168.  You need to figure out what address is locally assigned and use that.  In windows, generally this involves opening up the command prompt and typing in ipconfig.  Perhaps there's an easier way to do this in newer windows, but I haven't used Windows since 7.

[pheonixstorm]

ipconfig is still faster and easier than trying to use the UI to move around network neighborhood. To me at least. Win 10 has a nice box that say type here to search. Type Cmd, when that pops up type ipconfig or ipconfig /all

[beachhead1985]

You have to be careful about your WAN IP vs your local IP.  Your modem will have an IP assigned by your ISP, which is what you will get if you use an online tool to find your IP.  You would use this IP if you wanted someone outside of your home network to connect (and you would need to setup port forwarding on your router).  Then, all of your machines in your local network will get assigned a local IP address that probably starts with 192.168.  You need to figure out what address is locally assigned and use that.  In windows, generally this involves opening up the command prompt and typing in ipconfig.  Perhaps there's an easier way to do this in newer windows, but I haven't used Windows since 7.

WAN IP; Wireless Area Network IP?

ipconfig is still faster and easier than trying to use the UI to move around network neighborhood. To me at least. Win 10 has a nice box that say type here to search. Type Cmd, when that pops up type ipconfig or ipconfig /all

I tried that and the other method in the readme, neither worked, so I went with a web program to find my IP.

[Hammer]

It would help us to get a screen shot of what you're seeing. Can you start MegaMek on the PC and give us a screen shot of the lower left corner of the lounge were it shows the server information.

[beachhead1985]

Okay, I had to do some learning on IP addresses, but I got it to work and I played my first game of MegaMek!

Awesome!

My AC/2 Carrier (PC) had no problem taking part the laptop's Aircar.

Next step;

Make the unit in MegaMekLab, import to MekHq as a MUL? And then I can load that into MegaMek Games?

Have I got that?

Bravo folks.

[Hammer]

Okay, I had to do some learning on IP addresses, but I got it to work and I played my first game of MegaMek!

Awesome!

My AC/2 Carrier (PC) had no problem taking part the laptop's Aircar.

Next step;

Make the unit in MegaMekLab, import to MekHq as a MUL? And then I can load that into MegaMek Games?

Have I got that?

Bravo folks.

Actually the best way and order to do it would be:
1) Create a folder in your data-mechfiles folder called Customs
2) Using MegaMekLab save the custom units to that folder.
3) Look for and delete a file mechfiles folder called units.cache
4) Start MegaMek and that will rebuild the unit.cache with the new units
  ---------------Options--------------
5a) In Megamek build the unit and save as a MUL file. Then import the MUL into MekHQ as a starting point for running a unit.

5b) Build the unit in MekHQ.

**personally I prefer 5a just since I find it faster to search for units, look for specific weapon and movement combinations versus doing the same in MekHQ**

-------or-------

6) if you just want to play and don't care about the running the unit part, save your MUL file then start Megamek and have players join.

[beachhead1985]

I'll give this a shot. Having trouble wrangling my group atm.

[Colt Ward]

I will also tell you if you still have Heavy Metal, you can make units in that game and transfer the file.  It only works for pre'67 tech afaik and I never tried the L3 stuff in MM.

[Jayof9s]

I will also tell you if you still have Heavy Metal, you can make units in that game and transfer the file.  It only works for pre'67 tech afaik and I never tried the L3 stuff in MM.

That is only for 'Mechs. The files used for all other unit types do NOT carry over from Heavy Metal.

[beachhead1985]

Well it is high time I moved to an updated and active design program anyways...I just hope I can still do all the stuff I used to on SSW.

[arlith]

an updated and active design program... SSW

SSW isn't an active and updated design program.

[beachhead1985]

SSW isn't an active and updated design program.

Yeah, but it let me do a lot of really cool stuff...okay; I mainly liked how they handled fractional accounting, but still.