Mechwarrior 3 Tech Help

[Alex Kerensky]

Greetings, I was directed to the Atari site when I tried to access www.microprose.com (the creator of Mechwarrior 3), so I guess this should be where I post this.

When I start up the Mechwarrior 3: Pirate's Moon expansion, everything is fine. However, when I go to play a mission from the Campaign, the game crashes while the briefing is being loaded. The briefing stops playing, and then the game shuts off. There is no error message; it occurs without warning.

Is there a patch I need to download to fix this problem? Do I have something turned on/off that needs to be turned off/on?

Any help is greating appreciated. Thank you.

[Zalgaddas]

First thing I'd do is check my video drivers/update and run msconfig from start, run. Set aSelective Startup and disabled all Starup items. Test it then to see if there is any difference.

If its XP, try right the compatibility wizard.
Goto Start, Programs, Accessories, Program Compat. Wizard.

[dalbozofgurth]

I've had issues with Pirate's Moon too, only they're more severe. I posted in another thread but it seems to be relevant for this one:

I am totally dissatisfied with the Gold Edition MW3 Pirate's Moon CD I purchased.

Pirate's Moon is NOT recognizing my Saitek Cyborg 3D RUMBLE FORCE Joystick Properly. By this I mean the following bugs occur:

1. Will not accept my Z Axis throttle controls.
2. When I click the trigger button, it will sometimes fire Alpha Strike. NO I AM NOT TOUCHING ANY OTHER BUTTON ON MY CONTROLLER!!!!!!
3. Sometimes my mech won't turn, I have to move my joystick abck and forth to make it turn.

My joystick is not an issue here. Mechwarrior 3 (original) works fine. My X-Wing and TIE Fighter games work FINE. My calibration works FINE. My old Wing Commander Armada works FINE.

Mechwarrior 3 Pirate's Moon DOES NOT SEEM TO WORK FINE!

OTHER IN GAME BUGS:

I have to press Alpha Strike twice sometimes before it will fire. I tested this out to make sure that it wasn't a coolant problem or my lasers were busy recharging------- It wasn't.

It does this even with full charged lasers.

Sometimes it will just refuse to fire at something which turns my targeting cursor Yellow. It will actually WAIT until I turn my mech facing AWAY from the yellow targetable object. My finger will be nowhere near the Alpha Strike key, but the alpha strike will STILL GO OFF!

This doesn't happen in MW3, and it's random.

I noticed this with the mission where I had to blow up the statlites.

Epona Rhi on mission 4 seems to have a serious issue with dealing damage. This is also random occurance:

I was sitting there, watching her mech battle it out with another mech one on one.

I saw her fire an alpha strike while I had the enemy targeted-- he was the ONLY enemy on screen.

The enemy Mech was hit dead on (they were 30 feet from each other, stopped and just firing on their mechs).

Epona fired THREE ALPHA STRIKES-- THis guy's armor didn't even turn LIGHT PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I replayed the mission switched mechs with her, and I fired an alpha strike-- blew the -- whatever it was-- out of the water in 2 and 1/2 hits.

I replayed the mission again (several times), managed to re-create this bug twice-- her Alpha strikes were doing 0 damage and YES I am sure the guy was being hit.



AMS is NOT WORKING ON MISSION FOUR!!!!!!!

Why?

Why?

Someone please explain to me WHY the AMS system refuses to function on Mission four!!!

It functioned on Mission 3.

But it does NOT function on Mission 4--- WHY!?

I am using the EXACT same lousy mech and the exact same configuration in both missions... but AMS isn't working.


These trucks you are supposed escort are supposed to move from point abel to point dog after you finish blasting the mechs. Half the time they don't move even after the first group of enemy mechs are eliminated.....

why?


Automatic Shutdown Sequence for an overheated core--- Half the time I'm hittin "O" the comptuer says: Acknowledged-- auto-shutdown aborted. I am in the YELLOW and my mech STILL SHUTS DOWN!

I'M IN THE YELLOW AND IT SHUTS DOWN EVEN WHEN I CANCEL IT!! WHY!?????


I want to turn this auto shutdown OFF PERMINATELY! Why can't I shut the STUPID Auto Shut Down completely off!?


I've been getting hit through mountains and other obsticles by lasers on the other side in Mission 4.


Half the time when I tried to equip the ams system to begin with the game instead equipped the artimes IV system

--- WHY DOES IT DO THIS!?

I've been forced to re-check my mech configuration before each restart of Mission 4. I save my configuration every time I attach the AMS unit. I've done this the fifty thousand times I've replayed Mission 4. EVERY SINGLE TIME I check my configuration, attach AMS system, and I click SAVE.


I am getting SICK of doing this.



Finally:
I can fire a single shot of the minigun weapon and the mech I targeted will be reduced to deep red status (which is almost blown up)
other times I fire an alpha strike and I will hit the same mech from BEHIND (where their armor is weakest) and it won't even turn it light pink
it's random though, it's never consistent.

It can be with any mech, it can be with the lighter mechs or the heavier mechs.

This is my weapon Configuration:

AC 2
LB-10X AC
Laser (M)
ER Laser (M) (CLAN)
ER Laser (L) (CLAN)
Heavy Laser (L)

So please, tell me how the above is possible.

I love the original Mechwarrior 3 missions-- so how could the Pirate's Moon expansion suck SOO Badly and be filled with SOOO Many Bugs!?



I'd also like to know why I haven't been able to receive a response from technical support.




PS: If you absolutely REFUSE to patch this game, then isn't there ANY way I can just load up the mechs from my last saved game of the original Mechwarrior 3? These bugs wouldn't stand a chance against an annihiliator ;D

I am really getting fed up with these bugs. I REALLY really am.

[Alex Kerensky]

Zalgaddas

Thanks. I will try doing that as soon as my brother gets off of the computer. And I run win98 from that one.

[Zalgaddas]

No prob Alex, let me know if you need anymore help, i'll see what I can do.

DaBozofgurth:

You're not likely to find ANY of the answer to your "WHY" questions, simply put, Atari didn't actually make the game so they don't actaully have the deveopment studio for it. The original Dev's have probably long since been disbanded, since it was originally made by Microprose/Hasbro.

THe Z axis thing on your joystick though, if thats your throttle switch on your joystick, then your right. It doesn't work. For some reason they didn't include Throttle controll via the joystick on the expansion. Go figure?!

[dalbozofgurth]

I don't believe there are more than a handful of games which have ever produced a patch through the original development teams.

Of the games I own, I believe Planescape: Torment is the only recent game I've played where the original development team programmed a patch for it. I mean even the Half-Life, Blood 2, Dungeon Keeper 2, none of those games I own had patches produced by the original development team-- the patches were all sub-contracted or produced through the tech support divisions. I don't think that the original development team for Baldur's Gate did the latest patch either... but I'm not sure.

Patches are almost always produced by technical support teams.

Using the "We're not the original developers" isn't an excuse for refusing to fix some of these erroneous bugs.

If Atari wants to repackage and re-sell the game on the market, they have what is called an "at sales trust" with the customer that they have assumed all technical responsibilities.

And, just so you know, when you own a software's license for tech support and production, you also own it's source code.


Either Atari acts like it has technical support or it should just discontinue it all together.

This jumping through hoops just to receive a bogus answer is ridiculous.

[Zalgaddas]

Yah, your probably right, they could higher a team to make a patch. BUT why would they go through that much trouble to do so when they game sells for like $2 in a bargin bin at Gamestop?
Unless they ever do plan on re-releasing it, I don't think you'll be seeing any patches for it. Why spend a buncha'money on something only a handfull of folks would benifit from and bring in no profit for the company. Atari being a large corperation, and knowing how Corps operate I doubt you'll see a patch made for this one.