MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries runs great on Linux with Proton now it's on Steam

Wait.. when did they get to 5???

It feels like yesterday that I was playing Merc 1. Still got the CD too, bloody good game and intense.

Just ordered a new HOTAS to replace the old FF2 that I got with one of the Mechwarrior games about 20 years ago.

I also remember paying about $800 for enough RAM to be able to run MW on my old 386DX40. That bought me the awesome total of 4Mb.

God I'm old.

Is the game good, though?

From what I heard it is just incredibly repetitive with the worst kind of procedural mission generation.
I'm a big fan of procgen, but when all it does is generate more or less the same mission every time, something went horribly wrong.

Of course, even in that case, it might still be worth it on a sale.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 31 May 2021 at 10:19 am UTC

Yes, I've also heard that this game is quite mediocre, with just a lot of tanks and helicopters spawning all the time. I've read, repeatedly, that people who liked the previous games will absolutely hate this.

Haha that *all systems nominal* message never fails to trigger nostalgia :)

Is the game good, though?

From what I heard it is just incredibly repetitive with the worst kind of procedural mission generation.
I'm a big fan of procgen, but when all it does is generate more or less the same mission every time, something went horribly wrong.

Of course, even in that case, it might still be worth it on a sale.

I recall the earlier Mechwarrior games being quite repetitive in certain regards, so it must be pretty bad in 5 to be a common critique, or maybe people's expectations have changed.
No wait, I know what the problem likely is. If I had to guess Mechwarrior 5 is probably like a 40ish hour game, a know a lot of modern games have been considering that a minimum play time these days. I don't think any of the earlier Mechwarrior games took any longer than 20 hours to complete at most, and repetitive gameplay would certainty be more tolerable in shorter games.

As I sit down to paint some Battletech miniatures this news pops up. I might give it a gander if a few friends are interested in it too.

Hey,
I made the *critical* error of buying it on EPS, and I have only ever managed to get it to run once.

Does anyone know list of setting that will make it work via lutris / heroic or manual installation of EPS?

Sorry to have to ask for help, I had it working exactly once....


nvidia 460.73.01 with a 1650 Super (not expecting great perfomance but any playable setting will do)

thanks

Hey,
I made the *critical* error of buying it on EPS, and I have only ever managed to get it to run once.

Does anyone know list of setting that will make it work via lutris / heroic or manual installation of EPS?

Sorry to have to ask for help, I had it working exactly once....


nvidia 460.73.01 with a 1650 Super (not expecting great perfomance but any playable setting will do)

thanks

I am able to run the handful of EGS games I have by simply installing EGS on my default wine prefix, installing the game through that. And then either launching them through EGS as well, or directly.
I generally recommend Q4Wine to manage wine prefixes, makes it a lot easier than messing around with config files.
Of course, who knows if that would work for MW5 as well.

Heroic has honestly never worked for me, not even when I point it at the exact same default wine prefix...

I'm a bit confused, there are tons of great games that run with Proton. Why does this windows game get an article?

Hey,
I made the *critical* error of buying it on EPS, and I have only ever managed to get it to run once.

Does anyone know list of setting that will make it work via lutris / heroic or manual installation of EPS?

Sorry to have to ask for help, I had it working exactly once....


nvidia 460.73.01 with a 1650 Super (not expecting great perfomance but any playable setting will do)

thanks

Heroic Games Launcher works great with Epic games store. With Heroic Games Launcher you can select what version of proton you want to use as long as you have it installed with Steam.

There is a inner sphere addition and you can get it with base game called drop something bundle for like 57AUD on fanatical. No GOG sales atm.

I'll probably wait a bit longer, give mods and more discounts to appear.

I'm a bit confused, there are tons of great games that run with Proton. Why does this windows game get an article?

I guess the guy who runs the site and gets to decide what he wants to talk about, likes Mechwarrior.

This goes to my wishlist. I have always wanted to buy some of these games but haven't because that was before Proton existed. I have a massive nostalgia over it's predecessor by 7th Level G-NOME originally for Windows 98.

My only contemplation is whether this one is the one or not. I would like something that's full controller support at least, and I haven't checked out the competition in a while either. Not sure if it improved.

Hey,
I made the *critical* error of buying it on EPS, and I have only ever managed to get it to run once.

Does anyone know list of setting that will make it work via lutris / heroic or manual installation of EPS?

Sorry to have to ask for help, I had it working exactly once....


nvidia 460.73.01 with a 1650 Super (not expecting great perfomance but any playable setting will do)

thanks

Heroic Games Launcher works great with Epic games store. With Heroic Games Launcher you can select what version of proton you want to use as long as you have it installed with Steam.

thanks - I have tried all options as far as I can see it starts and then crashes immediately I cannot get to tell me whats wrong

Heroic settings seem to confuse me....

in the game settings (and universal settings for safe keeping)

wine prefix folder:
/home/xxxxxx/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/Proton-6.8-GE-2

Wine version:
Proton Proton-6.8-GE-2

anyone know where to get a clear set of instructions how to setup Heroic? I am wondering whether it needs something like VCRUN to work so such but Heroic spits out no information at all...


Last edited by _J_30000 on 1 June 2021 at 10:38 am UTC

-dx12 will switch it to vkd3d
Also if your running Muqss scheduler with your kernel you can you use schedtool in I mode with less cores which the game likes.

schedtool -I -n 4 -a 0xfff0 -e %command%

Mind that will do nothing if you don't have the muqss scheduler.
Find dx12 games don't crash (for me) with nvidia as well, while messing around with that stuff.

Also if you use MANGOHUD_CONFIG=vsync=3 it's less likely to stutter then the games normal use of vsync and might save your gpu from running at 100% all the time.


Last edited by RossBC on 1 June 2021 at 11:55 am UTC

I'm a bit confused, there are tons of great games that run with Proton. Why does this windows game get an article?

• It's a new Steam release.


• Wasn't ridiculously expensive.


• I like big mechs.


• I cover what I want to cover.

And the list goes on.

This goes to my wishlist. I have always wanted to buy some of these games but haven't because that was before Proton existed. I have a massive nostalgia over it's predecessor by 7th Level G-NOME originally for Windows 98.

My only contemplation is whether this one is the one or not. I would like something that's full controller support at least, and I haven't checked out the competition in a while either. Not sure if it improved.

Just curious: you know that "Proton" is just wine, right? Some extra patches, and DXVK added, but still just wine. While DXVK was the missing piece for good performance on DX11 titles, even that existed before "Proton".
Or is it more of a case that you didn't because of wanting Steam integration?

I've been using WINE since the early 00s to play StarCraft BroodWar, Counter Strike 1.6, etc...

You have to understand people have sociological economic / behavioral reasons behind the things they do. Just because I "COULD" throw some money to buy some CD or DVD in the early 00s and then spend 5-10 hours dicking around trying to figure out the right conditions to make it work -- doesn't meant I would.

Even today, Games that run fine on Proton sometimes don't run fine when downloaded via GOG and ran on WINE.

The older I get the more I have to try to make my time count for something so if I solve a problem, I document the process and share it and move on -- sometimes becoming the benefactor in the future of my past self.

I'm only curious, repeated because text cannot convey tone of voice.

If the game controls are similar to Mechwarrior Online (and they should be, MW5 is basically that with some AI instead of other players from what I can tell) a controller may work, but isn't designed for that. MW:Online is free though, I can recommend playing that to get a feel for things.

Right on, thanks for the input. I think the game I was really interested in but couldn't remember was Heavy Gear Assault but after the initial negative reviews and steep entry price with no demo I was turned off.

Then BattleTech looked super interesting but then was turn based.

Then I was sortof interested in Titanfall 2 but because EA is the publisher it just makes me feel dirty and like I'd be investing my time into something only to have the feeling that EA will somehow ruin it in the near future, plus if any other launchers are involved It's just a automatic NO.

The only reason I buy computer games is because I appreciate how lazy Steam lets me be -- little to no Administration, it's always up to date, no screwing around with installers, etc... That's what I am giving my money for, "It just works" and "requires little to no work" just some [Tux Bux$].

I've long said that if the computer market ever splits up into multiple stores piracy come easily back with a vengeance. Some of these greedy companies greed trying to lessen Steam's cut could EASILY undermine their ability to sell games on PC at all. One of many reasons I advocate for Steam's Dominance (with a little exception for GOG cuz the no DRM thing is worth throwing money at too)


Last edited by ElectricPrism on 2 June 2021 at 7:39 pm UTC