Speed Demos Archive - MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (original) (raw)

"MechWarrior 2 is a vehicle simulation game" begins the Wiki article on this blockbusting 1995 DOS title from Activision. Said vehicles are tons-weighing-and-tons-bench-pressing big dick "BattleMech" bipeds refittable in sundry ways from mission to mission, which are fought for one of two selectable factions and range from intelligent sophisticated intelligence to dumb savage mayhem. Despite the gameplay narrowing down from the first game to just the battlefield beatings and busywork, the bottom line took no beating whatsoever, with half a million copies profitably propagated in the first 3 months alone.

I decided not to do a full run for Wolf Campaign yet, so I decided to post some ILs instead.

These were all done on Medium difficulty as per Speedrun.com's rules for the category.

*Techniques*

Shutdown Slide: Jetting in a specific direction until the player reaches a certain speed, then shuts down. This glitch allows the player to recharge their fuel while jetting in a specific direction while maintaining speed. The player is also immune to collision of any kind in this state, so the player can literally slide up a mountain or just phase right through it depending on how the map is designed. The drawback to using this is that when the player starts up, there is rng involved as to when the mech will finish powering up. Sometimes itâ€™s quick, and sometimes itâ€™s slow.

Jump Jet Tapping: Allows the player to jet even after the fuel depletes by rapidly tapping the jet key. This allows the player to fly forever so long as he or she maintains that rhythm. The downside is that the jets wonâ€™t recharge at all while this is done, so itâ€™s best to use when youâ€™re about to reach the area youâ€™re heading towards. Generally this is done as a final glide to wherever it is that you want to go.

Overburning Before Shut Down: The player is able to shoot as long as he or she wants before shutting down without overheating. The only time your mech will overheat is if you've already overridden the shut down. This is very useful for Trial Missions.

*Wolf Runs* (All mechs are shown before the mission starts)

Pyre Light: I switched to a UAC5 with a 315XL engine and managed to shave off a couple seconds. Strat is more or less the same. Destroy the chemical plant and inspect the firebase wreckage while jetting past it.

Flame Tongue: Current World Record. I increased the engine to a 315XL with an extra jet at the cost of some armor. It takes a bit longer to destroy the objectives, but the faster travelling speed to the nav points more than makes up for it.

Blade Splint: Current world record. I had to strip my firemoth of all its armor to get the engine I wanted for this. I could have added an extra jet while removing a small laser, but then the power converter would take longer to destroy anyways, so the potential time save would be nullified. I had to keep my distance from the Power Converter because if I got too close to the explosion, it would kill me without armor.

Temper Edge: Best Possible Time. This mission is an autoscroller that requires you to wait for the Tarantula to repair itself and then wait an additional minute for the dropship to show up.

Trial 1: Current world record. I LRM the first firemoth and try and headshoot the second one as quickly as possible. It's challenging to get right sometimes.

Sable Flame: Current world record. I destroy the first 3 mechs without accidentally destroying the dome due to weird hit detection shenanigans. I send my starmate after the approaching Hellbringer as I head toward the shut down mechs near the dropship. I destroy them and take out the Mad Dog while my starmate destroys the last Hellbringer. I end up saving time without worrying about the last mech.

Burning Chrome: UAC5 has more range than an LB-XAC-10, plus it has a faster firing rate. Add that on top of a faster engine and I barely manage to sub 0:40. I don't think this could be improved any more.

Scorching Sand: Current world record. Trying to hit all the turrets was a huge pain. I got really lucky with that turret on the other side of the mountain while DFAing the vehicle. The level requires some waiting, but it's nowhere near as bad as Temper Edge.

Trial 2: Current world record. I quickly target both jenners and fire a volley of LRM 20s at each of them.

Silver Staff: Current world record. I recently got this after numerous attempts of getting 0:35. This record is tied between 3 people now, though I used a different method to maintain my jetting speed while autocannoning both objectives. The airbase is annoying to deal with because the planes have weird hit detections.

Aquiline Fire: Current world record. I used the same build in this one as I did for Cold Crescent. The trick is to inspect the dropship as soon as possible and then destroy it after the data transfer is done. Inspecting it in time can be tricky due to startup rng.

Trial 3: Current World Record. I used a new strat that involves not grouping any weapons. I had to kill the mechs quickly and have enough time to stop firing before I shut down or else my mech would explode while shut down. F12 is needed to view the correct time.

Cold Crescent: Current world record. This time was really hard to get due to startup rng. I switched to wireframe so I could see everything better and accurately time my shut downs, I then jet backwards back to the dropship.

Velvet Hammer: Current world record. I ended up finding out that I could push the hoverlimo to save some time in an otherwise total autoscrolling level. The collision detection is jank which is why I slid off so many times. It is possible to perfectly align yourself, but the chances of that happening are pretty rare.

Golden Spade: Current world record. I used to use a stormcrow for this mission to get 1:06, but I decided to try out a Jenner even though I didn't think it would work because the mechs shoot at you a lot in this mission. I have my starmates destroy the turrets while I destroy the roadblock, then I destroy the shield generator while really hoping that one of my starmates don't die, or engage one of the Warhawks on its own (which only seems to happen in this mission for some reason.) I then quickly jet back, inspect the palace, and order both starmates to destroy it. The palace consists of 3 different pieces, and the only piece that counts is the one in the middle. With how Q targetting works in this game, it's easy to select the wrong piece of the palace by mistake and the objective won't count. I also needed enough jet fuel to make it back to the dustoff zone at maximum speed. 1:03 was a nightmare to get. I managed to get 1:04 for the majority of the attempts.

Trial 4: Current world record. The alignment and the hit detection worked flawlessly in this mission. The Warhammer went down super fast, and the Warhawk stood square towards me which made legging it really quick and easy.

I don't recommend running the titanium version of the game because the heat mechanic doesn't work. These runs were done on DOSbox emulation with a fixed number of cycles for jump jet recharge. The optimal cycle settings will be different for everyone depending on their computer.

I decided not to incorporate a full run yet, but the individual levels that were done were optimized over the span of a year.

These were all done on Medium difficulty as per Speedrun.com's rules for the category.

*Techniques*

Overburning Before Shut Down: The player is able to shoot as long as he or she wants before shutting down without overheating. The only time your mech will shut down is if you've already overridden the shut down. This is very useful for Jade Falcon Trials 2 and 4.

*Jade Falcon Runs* (All mechs are shown before the mission starts)

Silent Thunder: Not the world record, but only 1 second slower. This mission is one of the more annoying missions to run. The HPG Uplink can be fickle sometimes, and the Communications Array can be stubborn sometimes too. Overall, this is my personal best as of now.

Arkham Bridge: Current world record. I greatly optimized this time with the additional strat of setting the object density to low in the options menu. With the setting removing some buildings, the kitfoxes behave a lot more consistently at the end.

Mirror Cage: Current world record. I absolutely abhor this mission. The dropship is easily the worst thing about this campaign. It has the worst hit detection ever, so trying to destroy it in time is a huge chore. In the full run, I tend to use a slower engine just for the sake of consistency, but for IL, I use the optimal engine with the UAC10.

Bone Machine: Current world record. I included a starmate to take out the hellbringer while I did everything else in the mission. I set the object density to low in the options to remove the mountains so the starmate could kill the hellbringer consistently.

Trial 1: Current world record. It's faster to take out both waves of mechs so you don't have to wait 17+ seconds to finish the mission after taking one.

Bouk Obelisk: Current world record. This mission is very rng heavy with your ally basically doing whatever it wants. After destroying the first couple of waves at Nav Upsilon, the ally starts to move back toward the base. The problem is that it never ends up at the same place once the skirmish ends. To midigate this as much as possible, I jet slide toward the ally and push it while shutting down. I can save a few seconds, but it's easy to slide off the mech while ramming it. The ally could explode during the process as well which will cause the mission to fail, so it's a risky maneuver in a full run. I take out the final wave before returning to the base to try and beat my ally to it. For some reason, this mission doesn't end right away once everything is completed. You have to wait a few seconds before the mission succeeds. F12 is needed to get the proper time displayed in this mission

Umber Wall: Current world record, but that isn't saying much considering that this mission is basically an autoscroller that lasts for a good 8 min, 7 seconds. DFAing the Dire Wolf is always fun though. The aircrafts are also harmless to the hovertrain; in fact, after a while they end up killing themselves anyway which is pretty funny to watch.

Rogue Chariot: I decided to try out a 315XL engine with a UAC5 to improve my former time to see if it worked. Turns out I could shave off 4 seconds. Timing the shutdown is a lot more strict with this strat.

Trial 2: Current world record. It's faster to take out both mech waves. Really glad I didn't overheat. The Gargoyle can be a huge pain.

Plum Wine: Current world record. Strat is the same, just had both legs this time for some reason. No armor and all lasers are on one torso for accuracy. Shaved off one second.

Rust Heart: Current world record. I managed to optimize the strat by replacing a couple of machine guns with small pulse lasers due to the mission having a pretty cold temperature to work with. I also hit the Marauder in the back rather than the legs. Usually it's inconsistent due to the arms and legs, but if you hit the cannon at the top from behind, you get very consistent results.

Trial 3: Current world record. The Warhawk was tough, and the headshot is semi consistent. It was nice getting 2 headshots in a timely manner.

Armor Veil: Current world record. Starmates are needed in this mission for optimization. I made sure to equip both of them with a bunch of LRM 10s on them so they could take the mechs out as quickly as possible. I jet towards the first Hellbringer and Mad Dog, take them out, take out the second Hellbringer and target the Mad Dog, but jet away from it so my starmates can attack it once they're done with the first mech wave. I jet toward the Summoner and Rifleman. The Summoner goes down first and the Rifleman gets backstabbed. I then take out the final Stormcrow and Nova while my starmates destroy the Mad Dog. I jet slide back to the nav point.

Iron Piston: Current world record. I optimized the strat some more and the mechs cooperated. I didn't need a small pulse laser, though it's difficult having enough ammo towards the end which is why this wouldn't work in a full run.

Bronze Anvil: Current world record. Hoooo boy, this mission will really try anyone's patience in IL. The optimal mech requires more of an investment in back armor instead of front armor because you get shot in the back a lot while you inspect and destroy the vehicles. I let my starmates destroy Dwilt Radick's Dire Wolf and the Battlemaster (A hidden objective in the mission. If you don't destroy it, your mission won't succeed) after I inspect it (The Dire Wolf), I try and take out the gauss rifles on the tanks because they can snipe me while I head toward the dustoff site. They also can snipe me in midair due to my low front armor. I do have another build with more armor for full runs, but I needed to use a slower engine as a result. I ignore the last staff vehicle and jet towards the dustoff site while I order my starmates to destroy it once they're done with both mechs.

Trial 4: Current world record. It's faster to take out both mech waves. That headshot through the wall was very nice. It is possible to shoot through walls if the mech is close enough to the wall with how the game's collision works.