Text. The internet deals mostly in this collection of signs, numbers, and spelling mistakes. From the beginning of time to our days of cable modems, text and writing have been vital to our successes and our failures. To my great joy, our enlightened times allow the existence of a BattleTech MUX. For those not in the know, a MUX is a game that consists entirely of text, like a MUD. This, however, is not your grand-daddy's text game. Hexes, war, a command structure and a limited amount of units combine to make BattleTech: 3030 one of the most tactically challenging and adrenaline-filled game I have ever played.
Now, most of you will ask how a game without any graphics or sound whatsoever can possibly be exciting. The answer is that the gameplay is so cleverly contrived, so magnificently put together that this 'simple' on the outside game of text is actually amazingly immersive. Most commerical $50 games do not achieve the level of immersion this free online game has. Gameplay wise, 95% of the games out there cannot hold a candle to this particular system. That is not a coincidence, since the gameplay includes almost all of the complex rules FASA created for the BattleTech universe. There are mechs and tanks, VTOLs and hovercraft, systems are damaged and weapons fail, sensors are blocked by the proper countermeasures, etc. Even the possibility of blowing up your own mech without proper heat control is present, leading to hilarity and consternation of the unprepared pilot.
It starts with you loading up the site on a client, or if you want to be extremely old-school hardcore, Telnet itself. You choose a faction and get hired on as a mechwarrior, tanker, or technician (being a tech has no possibility for grim combat, so it's mostly a boring way to go.) Then, if you have never played a BTech site before, you get some training. That's right, before you can get to the combat, you have to train, making this also one of the most hardcore wargaming/combat simulation experiences you can find. All the training, and the combat, are with and against real people, there's no AI involved. Everything within a faction is player controlled, from the ranks to the mech assignments, everything. However, if you are not a faction leader, there are no strategic considerations. For anyone between private to sargeant-major, it's mostly a tactical experience, and it is a very satisfying one if you have the ability to navigate dangerous maps using only a text readout. If text isn't what tickles your fancy, the community has created several "HUDs" that provide a graphical interface to the site. You open one up on top of the client and it provides a graphical map, weapon and armor status, along with present heat and ammo reserves without you having to type in a command to bring up all of that information.
HUD Readout
Moving on, once you are trained you get a bit of rank, usually up to corporal, and a 'unit,' that is a BattleMech or tank if you're so inclined. From then on, when the faction musters, you venture out of your base along with the rest of your team to claim mines and factories that give your team resources, other units, and money. The core gameplay consists of you and your team venturing out to claim these places while the enemy team or teams attempt to do the same, leading to high-stakes violent combat over limited resources. It is in fact high-stakes because if you lose your unit, you do not get it back unless it was destroyed 'fixable.' All of this happens in real time, and the beauty of the system is that player skill reigns supreme. While there are some RPG factors such as your skills sublty improving over the course of a campaign, everyone is pretty much on the same page character-skills and stat wise. A new player, even if he somehow got to pilot the most dangerous and destructive mech in a faction's arsenal, would not become the dominant force on the battlefield, simply because he would not know how to properly pilot and do battle. The battles and a faction's health are primarily dependant on the skills of its players, not on the stats of their characters, with the quality of the faction's equipment taking a secondary role. Due to this, and the nature of FASA's BattleTech system, battles are not pre-determined, but instead exciting and somewhat chaotic to a new player.
The aim in combat between factions is not just to destroy their units, but if possible to destroy them fixable so that you may tow the salvage back to your base, repair it using specific parts, and then field it against the enemy. Prized mechs sometimes become key points of struggle as one faction strives to rid the other of a particularly dangerous unit. The joy of this combat is that it has to be intensely co- operative, otherise your team will be crushed and your prized BattleMechs will sit in the enemy's hangars. That is why the game has a distinct ranking system, with the colonel at the top, majors, captains, sargeants, corporals, and privates ordering each other about. Of couse, since the atmosphere is very loose, you do not snap to attention or call each other sir, and the more seasoned mechwarriors love to ignore orders, getting their team in trouble. C'est la vie. However, the co-operative combat, involving two or more teams, is unequaled in intensity and violent unpredictability among today's games.
In the end, this game exists on one server, in the endless wires of internet cable spread around the world, and your personal imagination. If you enjoy wargaming, combat-simulations, or giant Mechs, do yourself a favor and check out this fascinating game. You will most likely enjoy it a great deal (some people have been playing for a decade and still love it!) and after all, it's free.
To access the site itself, you need a client. A free one called MUSHClient can be found here. Its only downside is a nag screen on launch if you don't register, other than that it's full featured. To connect to the site, click 'New World' from the 'File' dropdown menu in MUSHClient and enter btech.ecst.csuchico.edu for the address, and 3030 for the port.
If you want to try the HUD which makes piloting easier on a new player, it can be found here. There is a training manual for the site with most of the basic commands right over here. Now you're good to go, good luck!
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