MechBattle is a free replacement for TKZ (The Killing Zone) online gaming league. TKZ allowed MechWarrior 2 players to battle each other online using the Netmech DOS program and Kali. Players would meet up in Kali, then drop to Netmech and setup a match. Most matches were 2 on 2 due to the lag of the internet at the time.
TKZ was a league that used this match play to resolve conflicts between teams, and the winner would take over a resource or planet. There was also a strategy aspect of the game where team leaders would move resources, buy resources, trade, and form alliances with each other. The team with the most resources and planets after the close of the league would be the winner of that season.
The goal of MechBattle is to replace the old league with a new league with some changes to the rules or gameplay. The new league will use the same match based conflict resolution, but teams can decide which version of MechWarrior they wish to fight the battles in. The strategy part of the game will use a new hex based map which the leaders can move pieces on the board, buy and sell resources, or even build a resource on a planet. The game will also have real-time update of the map, and leaders will not have to wait for someone to process a transaction.
I copied all of the TKZ rules and information over to the MechBattle site, and created placeholders for all the existing forms in TKZ. Added demos of all the reports, and added a placeholder for the login screen. I know the version says it’s an Alpha release, but it is more a demo release than anything else.
The main game board is setup and just needs the backend coding. The database for the game is about 80% complete and still needs to be adjusted.
Development has been at a standstill for a few months as other small projects were moved to the forefront. Now that we have a few games to play on the site, and to download, it’s time to start making some progress on this beast.
I hope there will still be enough interest in MechWarrior 2 to have enough teams to make the league fun. I will post instructions on how to play the DOS version of Netmech using DOSBox soon.