Author Topic: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?  (Read 2285 times)

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« on: 21 February 2020, 10:31:45 »
Before anyone is offended by the subject line, I would play any species if they offered. The human is the only one interested so far.

I'm completely new to the forums but have done a bit of homework before coming here. I deeply apologize if this has been addressed elsewhere. I searched and didn't come across this topic but I'm not the greatest at getting information in searches.

A friend and I would like to play a campaign against each other using MekHQ. My only experience with MekHQ thus far is playing a bit of a merc campaign against the bot. Those mechanics make sense to me and I am amazed at the level of detail in that system.

How do you shift from running a campaign against the bot to a dynamic campaign between two people? I can kind of wrap my head around a GM and player concept, one player keeping the MekHQ logistics running and playing the aggressor to moves made by the player. I have yet to be able to wrap my head around how to have both players running their own companies against each other and applying that to the dynamic interstellar map.

Can someone give me some hints?

Thanks greatly in advance.

« Last Edit: 21 February 2020, 13:08:31 by bearnoceros »

pheonixstorm

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 5548
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #1 on: 21 February 2020, 23:24:47 »
Will you be tracking both sides in HQ or just one?
You don't have to use AtB. When you start a new campaign choose an option other than AtB as a preset such as Campaign Operations (CamOps).
All you need is either
1. Two copies of HQ if both will be tracking units via campaign
or
2. A copy of HQ and a copy of MegaMek. HQ for campaign tracking and MM for someone to play the OpFor.

You could still use two installs of HQ, but if you are only tracking one campaign there is no reason to use a second. MekHQ includes MegaMek and MegaMekLab plus other bits not used by MM or MML.

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #2 on: 22 February 2020, 11:19:18 »
Thanks for the reply!

We are leaning toward both running HQ so we both can have our own companies.

Can that work?

pheonixstorm

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 5548
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #3 on: 22 February 2020, 11:49:21 »
Yes. One will start a scenario and act as host and the other will need to connect to that host.

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #4 on: 22 February 2020, 12:03:45 »
If I'm following, at the end of the scenario, you both upload your MULs to your own instance of HQ and it does its magic?

PuppyLikesLaserPointers

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 1756
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #5 on: 22 February 2020, 12:56:06 »
When I did, I have the player's forces on MekHQ, and after load the scenario to MegaMek I was hand over the player forces to my player.

pheonixstorm

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 5548
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #6 on: 23 February 2020, 09:45:20 »
If you are both using HQ then everything should be automatic once the fight is over. You CAN export a mul file and then import into MegaMek but that is more trouble than it is worth. Just host from one HQ and the other connect to it.

Though I guess the bigger question is are you trying to do this on a single computer or over the internet or home network?

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #7 on: 23 February 2020, 19:39:36 »
Wait a sec... can you connect to an instance of HQ the same way you would to MegaMek?

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #8 on: 23 February 2020, 19:46:26 »
And also, we’re in different towns connecting on MM via IP.

Hammer

  • Numerorum Malleo
  • Global Moderator
  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 4101
    • MegaMek Website
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #9 on: 23 February 2020, 19:52:49 »
Wait a sec... can you connect to an instance of HQ the same way you would to MegaMek?

And also, we’re in different towns connecting on MM via IP.

No you can only play Megamek via IP
MegaMek Projects Wiki
Bug Trackers
MegaMek Tracker
MekHQ Tracker
MegaMekLab Tracker
New Units and RAT's aren't added until after the 2 month release moratorium is passed.
Join the official MegaMek Discord

dgorsman

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 1977
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #10 on: 23 February 2020, 21:25:45 »
For the sake of clarity: you're looking at doing player vs. player campaign, with each player running their own repair and logistics in their own MekHQ.  Sound right?
Think about it.  It's what we do.
- The Society

Thunder LRMs: the gift that keeps on giving.  They're the glitter of the BattleTech universe.

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #11 on: 24 February 2020, 09:33:17 »
Aff, dgorsman. The intention was for each player to be able to maintain their own company. I assumed we would each run our own instance of HQ.

PuppyLikesLaserPointers

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 1756
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #12 on: 24 February 2020, 09:36:32 »
Then each player maintain their own company? Are they works together?

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #13 on: 24 February 2020, 10:27:47 »
Neg, Puppy. They would oppose each other.

Sorry if I haven't given enough information for our intentions. Here's the idea we had:

One of us would be Combine and the other Federated Suns circa 3020 or 3025. We planned to have a set BV for each garrison defense force but additionally, we intended to have main line companies we could attack with or move to support a defense.

Obviously we could play as the opfor for attacks on planets with just a garrison but the idea was to be able to keep track of the readiness of our line units as well.

Are we thinking correctly or is this going to be outside of what HQ can handle?

Thanks for all the replies!

pheonixstorm

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 5548
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #14 on: 25 February 2020, 08:47:01 »
Wait a sec... can you connect to an instance of HQ the same way you would to MegaMek?

To clarify Hammers answer, a direct connection from one instance of MekHQ to another will not work. You have to start the scenario in once instance of HQ, which opens up MegaMek. Then the second instance of HQ can connect to the hosting instance of MM.

There are two buttons in HQ for this. One to start a scenario locally (which starts MM) and one to connect to an already running copy of MM. So Start Game and Join Game.

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #15 on: 25 February 2020, 10:59:59 »
This option sounds like exactly what we need!

I'll give it a try!

Thanks, all, for helping me figure out the possibilities!

Schugger

  • Master Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 267
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #16 on: 26 February 2020, 05:24:32 »
MegaMek creates .mul files after the battle. I don't know if the files are created for the two forces of yours and if you can upload them in your MegaMekHQ campaign. This might save you a lot of work if you are going to do all the repairs, maitainance and stuff whith MegaMekHQ.
"Shit!"
"What?"
"Clanners!"
"No!"
"Yep."
"Shit!"

pheonixstorm

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 5548
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #17 on: 26 February 2020, 05:50:17 »
As long as HQ connects to MM there should be no need for mul files. I haven't used HQ for multiplayer so not 100% on how well it works over the net.

Clavius1

  • Private
  • *
  • Posts: 48
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #18 on: 02 March 2020, 21:02:55 »
Also you can try Mekwars, it was intended for multiplayer campaign. It's somewhat differ from your request, but give it a try.

bearnoceros

  • Recruit
  • *
  • Posts: 16
Re: How to play a MekHQ campaign with another human being?
« Reply #19 on: 03 March 2020, 11:48:45 »
Update: my friend and I had to roll back to HQ 0.45.4 to make it work, but by creating a scenario in the briefing room, deploying forces to the scenario, and either starting or joining a game, you can both deploy your TO&E from HQ to MM and get it back at the end of the match with all damage and glory intact. For some reason, 0.46.1 will not let you join a game from the briefing room.

That path eliminates all manual MUL bookkeeping. We're excited to say the least.

I'm continually amazed at the level of detail put into HQ and MM.