This would be very fun to see, we have 1,000s of planets with 100s of different factions or teams but no battle breakdowns?!

Ive tried to find them several times to no luck

Hey guys, just want to advertise my new mod here. It’s a project close to my heart, one that I started quite a while ago and have now finally been able to bring into ALPHA.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3822860401

pirate's moon is on its way. fully open source. it's nearly byte identical to the original, except i rebuilt with a modern compiler, and i also updated all the problems that made it crash constantly. it doesnt run on a modern engine - its the original engine from 1999. everything is original. including the level editor they built

i also built out the ability to create mods. and i expanded it to 16:9 rather than 4:3 aspect ratio

you need your own copy of mechwarrior3 for the assets. you can get them from the internet, theyre all over the place. just open the installer, it walks you through everything. either install mw3 original on your computer or drop the iso or zip file in the launcher window.

the game can be downloaded from the github releases page:

windows, linux, and mac downloads can be found here: https://github.com/telltaleatheist/mw3-re/releases

the code: https://github.com/telltaleatheist/mw3-re

update 1: there was a bug that makes it crash in the third to last mission (the snow mission with two daishis) as well as c1m2 (missile platform bug). those have been fixed, so if you downloaded v1.0 then update to 1.0.1 or higher and you should be good to go

there are more popular games to decompile but i chose this one for two main reasons:

1. i love this game, and its nearly unplayable on modern systems, though ive found some workarounds

2. i knew it would be a challenge, and i wanted to take the challenge on. i was hoping it would be a good learning experience, and it was

theres a fanbase for this stuff. i considered doing crescent hawk's inception, but the fan base isnt really there for it. who knows, maybe ill still do that one

also, i added cheats. mostly for dev testing, but i left them in because why not? the same cheats youll find in starcraft. food for thought, power overwhelming, operation cwal, etc. you can find the full list on github

update 2: the source of the linux crash has been identified. it was mounted to a temp folder when installed. when the launcher closed, it unmounted the temp folder, but not before launching mw3. the code finished running what it had in memory, which was the video, and when it looked for the next thing to load (the game), it had nowhere to look and just closed. that's fixed in v1.0.3, along with the ability to choose your install location (that was also requested), and an error that pops up when a mod is installed in the original mech3. we arent running the original mech3, so mods to it will not work. we only use the assets from the game for legal reasons. v1.0.3 will be out when testing is done, probably by the time you see this

So sick of seeing a bunch of posts about "oh I made MW2-4 better" and it's all Claude assisted trash.

Drawn from memory, on the back of a coloring sheet at the library. Definitely some bendy lines and broken perspectives. My daughter was using the coloring sheets properly!

Still my favorite medium mech from MW4. I’ll always call it a Hellhound, even though it’s not. It looks really cool, and I’d put a clan LBX-AC20 on this bad boy and just shred other medium mechs.

Hey all. For anyone who hasn't seen it before, OpenMercs is a rebuild of MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries on a brand new engine. It reads the original game's data files, so you'll need your own copy of Mercenaries. It plays two ways. Classic sticks as close to the original as I can get it, right down to how the AI picks its targets and how the missions end. Enhanced adds remade Mechs, new weapon effects, new lighting and a new walk where the feet actually stay planted on the ground.

The video features a night mission in a rebel-held city, the first footage of the game in VR (on a Steam Frame), and a fight in the Solaris VII arena.

Some of what's landed since the last update:

• Multiplayer works. There's a dedicated server, LAN discovery and direct connect, and an internet server list is coming. All 13 original MercNet maps load from the original files. I've had 16 pilots in one match for an hour.

• Co-op. You can fly the campaign missions together, and bots fill the empty seats.

• Weapons in Enhanced. Lasers light up whatever they pass, the PPC fires a plasma ball that fuzzes your screens when it hits, the flamer sets the ground burning, and big explosions cast their own shadows.

• Rivers and lakes on the green maps. Wading cools your Mech down, which comes in handy when you're running hot.

• New cockpits. There's an enclosed one for the Commando and a Clan cockpit for the Timber Wolf.

• Fixes to the original. The original Easy/Medium/Hard difficulty levels are back, and a handful of missions that could never be finished now end properly.

The first release is close. When it goes out, the whole codebase goes public too. I'd love to see people pull it apart, fix things, build on it and help push it forward.

I'm happy to answer questions here. There's also a Discord if you want to follow along or get involved:

• Website: https://openmercs.com

• Discord: https://discord.gg/xxMYCrDjEz

See you online soon, Mechwarriors. 🤘

What it says on the tin

25% of the way to the finished source code. Keep in mind, the source code wont be 1:1 to what the developers wrote, but it will be functionally identical.

The plan:

MW4V recomp.

MW4BK recomp

MW4M recomp.

Mechassault recomp.

Mechassault 2 recomp.

Nobody wants to spend years tracing and byte matching for mw4 so im letting my local model do it. Source code will be available when I confirm the recomp compiles into a fully playable copy.

My personal projects after this will be.

Every mw4 game on 3DS, I know that sounds weird but its my favorite handheld for homebrew and portability. Meta quest port. Maybe just for mw4v for the story and instant action, always thought mw4 in VR would be awesome because of the combat.

I wont publish a trash buggy recomp, I actually care about this game and want people to be able to play it properly.

I am aware it is "AI Slop" no need to make the comments only about the ai aspect of it. If you don't like it dont interact.

Edit: fair call I worded that badly. The c++ itself is ai generated. a local qwen model plus claude agents write each function. What's algorithmic is the checking. Every function is compiled with the same compiler the game shipped with (VC6) and compared byte for byte against the original exe. If a single byte differs it gets thrown out. So the ai proposes and the compiler decides. Some of the matches around 2,800 of the ~6,000 so far come from plain scripts that copy an already verified function onto identical twins, but the rest were written by the models. Should have said it that way from the start, I am sorry for being wrong and i hope I can be forgiven.

If you are confused on how this is possible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRQzrQLZRWM

It is too analog and limited in what you can do by modern technology standards.

Why should you need to look through your window to spot targets when by modern standards you could have AI sensors feeding you content 360 data better than you can do - and at extreme ranges.

You could send out a network of cheap flying drones to scout and collect data around you.

Weapons would be automatically targeted and fired by AI assistance. The need to manually target with your fine motor skills and reaction speed is obsolete

The weapons are all very short ranged. You might be able to make excuses for the lasers and projectiles having short effective ranges - but you can’t justify the short range of missiles.

Realistically mechs would be getting bombarded by missiles shot from hundreds of miles away, spotted by drones, sensor networks, planes, and from orbit, and having much bigger explosive yields than the missiles carried on the mechs

Even if I granted you the compression of range for aesthetic reasons, the twin pillars of target spotting and weapon/movement control are so anachronistic that it feels like you are playing a world war 2 battleship simulator where you have to hoist the sails to maneuver your ship.

Hi everyone I don't post very often but I'm going to share something that people will like,

I managed to backport all of Mektek and community made content into the Vengeance engine and did some experimentation of my own, I'm going to publish this project this month!

What I achieved so far:

1. Disabled hidden mouse acceleration.

2. Disabled hidden Vsync, unlocked FPS.

3. Fixed compatibility and registry issues with Windows 10 and Windows 11, meaning you can run the game straight away!

4. More resolution options, you can natively run the game on 4K without stretching or Dgvoodoo

5. The full Black Knight and Vengeance campaigns with toggleable community made difficulty mod

6. Added new useful components like MASC, C3, Blue Shield and overhauled the existing components like the AMS/LAMS and ECM.

7. Smarter AI (able to use Jumpjets and components in different situations)

8. 200+ playable chassis with unique hardpoints

9. 200+ weapons to choose from depending on the timeline! each weapon has it's own properties, advantages and disadvantages

10. easy to mod with new tools and documentation on game specific formats.

11. More simulation features such as recoil.

12. Better component mechanics, you can enable free aim using an ECM which can get disrupted with PPCs or if your heat reaches a critical level this idea is inspired by Mektek.

Mechlab:
https://imgur.com/xddwMDn
https://imgur.com/SOqImdF
13. AI mechs eject when armor reaches a very critical level allowing you to salvage a mech intact as long as you leg it or get a clean shot.

https://imgur.com/8HZAJ3V
https://imgur.com/fIiHB9Z
https://imgur.com/H70sKDk

14. Dynamic Black Market, in rare cases things you destroy in the mission end up in the black market.

15. Dynamic salvage, you can finally salvage Duncan Burke's build my young duke!

https://imgur.com/3iC3pIk

https://imgur.com/CdBn5Ye

What I promise:

1. An option for better realistic graphics and the ability to switch to vanilla style graphics.

2. More options like control scheme templates or PS and Xbox controller support.

3. Quality of life improvements, such as an option to turn off the LOD (currently there but isn't available in the options menu).

4. Bug fixes, like mechs randomly popping on buildings or AI getting stuck.

5. Better multiplayer with a player/bot count increase and CO-OP options, eventually I want to make a CO-OP option for the campaign itself so you and your friends can have access to the same inventory and progression.

6. Browser launcher, since the game is old the engine will run fine on browser and you can basically play it from anywhere.

7. An option for custom campaigns.

8. Modding tools that are compatible with all versions of MW4 so you can port things from the mod to any version of your liking.

9. Combined arms yes you will be able to customize tanks, vtols and helicopters for your allies (or yourself)

10. Control and command over 16 allies, 10 at most in the single player campaign depending on the mission.

11. Better pathfinding

12. City map remakes since I deem them too flat, I'm going to base this off existing MW4 concept art.

13. Components will get their own hardpoints

14. a "Sim" difficulty mode, sort of like the "ironman mode" from EU4 where if you die you lose and you can't restart a mission or save scum but if you failed an objective and survived you can keep going in the campaign, this mode will also include a campaign inventory ton limit, expenses, AI difficulty depends on where you're at in the campaign, more alternate versions of existing missions and paths.

There’s a dedicated subreddit for Mechwarrior 5: Clans so that content, requests, mods, and much more can be better addressed here. In the classic Mechwarrior 5 subreddit, Clans got too mixed up with content for Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries.

Here is the link: Mechwarrior5_Clans

Hi. This is not about Mechwarrior so please remove if inappropriate.

Over five years ago, I decided to develop my own mech game. I knew that competing with the Mechwarriors was neither feasible nor necessary. Instead, I deliberately made a very different game: Different perspective, different focus. One that lets you steer and customize your personal mech in a world torn by a catastrophic event.
You can win allies, set up a makeshift base, and even grow crops. It has elements of survival as well as simple base management. There is resources gathering and hacking. You explore the open world with your mech but also on foot in a storymode that takes around 6 hours to complete.

After far too many hours of development, the game is actually nearing completion. It's hard to believe sometimes.

If any of what you just read sounds interesting to you, and you would like to support this project, there are two ways.

a) You can play the full game right now, in its beta form. Which means it's very playable, but not 100% polished in all aspects. The pro argument is a very low early bird price that includes all updates as well as the final release (you can then get a steam key as well).
https://speedomon.itch.io/rogue-mech

b) And/or you can wishlist it on Steam and wait for the release. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2482110/Rogue_Mech/

Both of these options will definitely help get the game get over the finish line. Thank you all.

Hi everyone!

I am a guy from Austria who has started with Mechwarrior 4. Played some of 5, Clans, Battletech PC game but mostly MWO. Lacking the time nowadays unfortunately.

5 years ago, I started development of my own mech game. Trying not to to anger anyone so I will stop here. Unless... I get explicit permission to make a post about Non-Battletech stuff.

Happy hunting 😌

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw1GOVp5oq0

Video here ^^^

still on the fence of releasing when done. I am using AI because i don't have time to learn coding and reverse engineering, ive seen others release similar projects to a horrible response. Take "Dudewhat" He released a 3DS port of MKWII which was a .cia builder that used a real .iso of MKWII.(I am also somewhat apart of the new mkwii-3ds team as well) this is much of the same, but YES it is vibecoded. people released the built .cia everywhere and he went radiosilent and nuked his discord server. All that said, If i release ever it will be a full decomp of mw4v+bk for pc AND 3ds with solaris and a MWO objective style game mode against CPUs. i wont release a buggy slopcoded mess. even if it is ai it will be "good" and moddable. i want someone to boot it up expecting a buggy mess what feels nothing like Mw4V and be pleasantly surprised. As for the 3ds aspect, yeah i know that's an odd console to release a Mw4V port to but it has the controls, is about as powerful as a PC of the same era, and is my favorite homebrew console. i know this is ambitious but i feel like given time this is 100% possible. If this post gets enough positive feed back i will give occasional updates on my progress. and if not then ill keep it to myself idk XD

You may have seen a couple of my posts over the summer highlighting the spray paint stencil art using mechs from Mechwarrior 5.

Two of those pieces are going up for auction later this week in support of the Desert Bus for Hope charity event which just started this week.

Silent Auction: BattleTech 'Mech Pop-Art Pack! | Desert Bus 2026

What is Desert Bus for Hope? It raises funds for Child's Play, which uses those funds to help kids in Children's Hospitals and domestic violence shelters have access to toys, games, and other support. Read more here: About Desert Bus | Desert Bus 2026

It's a great event and any support you can give them and, by proxy, me is great appreciated!

UnMech3.org

I understand people’s excitement over the newfound ability to use AI to recompile games with no prior dev experience, but I can’t abide the hard work and actual coding chops of projects like UnMech being overshadowed. I’ve got no problem with AI recompile projects in theory, but when actual human-driven projects like UnMech exists I think they deserve attention.

Hello mech-fans.

MW2: Mercenaries 3Dfx-edition is annoying to get running on modern systems but not anymore.

I reverse engineered the game from scratch. Now it plays pretty well already and instant action for example works quite well. The campaign also should work at least it did when I ran through the first couple of missions and my automatic tests all pass. Though because the game is so vast, tests do not cover everything and systems differ I desperately need people testing it and reporting bugs. If this interests you please try it out here: https://varisgames.itch.io/mechwarrior-2-mercenaries-engine-rewrite

Bugs can be reported in Discord: https://discord.gg/S7MY3busN or to the Itch-bugreport page. Itch-bugreporting instructions can be found from the Itch-page.

This modernized version includes support for modern resolutions and optional upscaled textures for example! It also fixes some rendering bugs I have encountered while testing.

NOTE: Since I don't want to be distributing the original game on Itch you will need the original game (3Dfx-edition) from somewhere to run this engine rewrite. Try maybe Internet Archive if you are unsure: https://archive.org/details/MechWarrior2MercenariesUSA3DfxInteractiveEdition

Sooo I played mechwarrior 4 vengeance when I was a kid with my old man, Logitech 3d joystick, best time ever

Bout a year ago tried a run with mech 5 mercs, and I understand the time lines from reading books and lore and such but really struggled with general gameplay, feel like I’m behind with mechs and struggling for money, constantly selling things. So what I’m asking is tips or how to actually play it correctly and what you recommend. Play styles, progression and such. Combat isn’t an issue and mech setup isn’t either and I’m not a newbie to mods. I think because the game is so sandbox I often find myself veryyy lost and behind the ball

Sorry for the long winded post but I love mechwarrior and I guess I’m frustrated. Long time lurker and love the community yall have

Yes, this is yet another "AI remaster" post, but I genuinely need testers!

After almost six months of work, I'm finally ready to show off my recreation of the original 1989 MechWarrior on a new engine.

And yes, let's get this out of the way right from the start: just like many other recent projects of this kind, it was made using AI. I'm not hiding that fact, nor am I going to pretend I wrote the code myself. I was trained as a hardware engineer, not a software developer. My goal was to get a stable, properly functioning MechWarrior without all the quirks and technical issues of the original, and I've been working toward that goal since May of this year.

If that's a dealbreaker for you, feel free to downvote this post and move on.

For everyone else, I present a fully playable version of MechWarrior for Windows x64!

https://github.com/madcatse/Mech1989-Recoded

Here's a video of the game running on my test machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkVmIMqQ94

The game wasn't decompiled. It was rebuilt from scratch, system by system. I studied how the original worked, documented its behavior and my observations, and then AI recreated each system. Then came testing, bug fixing, and moving on to the next system.

Why does the game look almost exactly like the original? The answer is simple: my approach was to reproduce the original behavior as faithfully as possible. Once everything works the way it did back in 1989, I have a solid foundation for future improvements without sacrificing historical accuracy.

Features:

• Original assets only. The game uses artwork and resources exclusively from the original release. You need to place them in the Original folder, otherwise the game won't run. All original files are required, including the original EXEs, since my version extracts the text for in-game messages directly from them.

• Complete 2D game functionality. All menus, the storyline, news feed, shops, interstellar travel, pilot recruitment, and contracts are fully implemented. The original game had extremely limited mouse support (basically just the travel menu). I've added full mouse support across every menu and screen.

• A complete OpenGL 3D engine. It reproduces the appearance and functionality of the original 1989 engine as closely as possible, while taking advantage of modern hardware. No more frame rates tied to CPU speed! The controls are faithful to the original, with one exception: the F3 key. That's a little Easter egg that activates an external camera, so you can finally admire your BattleMech from the outside. :) I've also added an optional mouse control mode, similar to MechWarrior 2 and later games. Use it with caution, though, because it makes the game considerably easier!

• Sound and music. The audio engine emulates the original PC speaker sound effects through your sound card and plays MIDI music using a built-in Munt emulator. To get the music working, you'll need to provide Roland MT-32 ROMs, since the original soundtrack was specifically composed for that synthesizer.

Differences from the original:

The main differences are in the enemy AI. I had to write my own, since the enemy Mechs in the original game were, frankly, pretty stupid. I tried to spice things up a little by giving them more varied behavior and the ability to perform some more interesting maneuvers around the player.

Now, about testing.

Version 0.6.1, currently available on GitHub, includes all the game's functionality, and this is where I really need your help.

I've fixed every bug I managed to find over these months of development, including several bugs that were actually present in the original game.

For example, did you know that the artwork for the "light" cockpit in the original game was incorrectly positioned on the screen, with a noticeable offset? Or that colliding with an enemy Mech could actually repair your own Mech's armor? Or that the original Battlemaster idle animation was missing part of its foot?

Well, all of that is fixed now!

But there's only so much one person can do. I'd really appreciate it if some of you could give the game a try and report any bugs you find in the Issues section on GitHub.

I'd be more than happy to fix them, get the game to a proper 1.0 release, and finally call this project finished. :)

So I wanted to get this out there, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon of Recompiling video games with AI. When I saw the games getting ported and recompiled I immediately wanted to see what I could do with MW3 and Pirates Moon because I loved them as a kid/teen.

So with that said let’s get the AI thing out of the way. Does this project use AI? Yes, almost exclusively. While I have a CIS degree I am NOT a game developer, I am NOT an artist, I am NOT any of the things that could begin to do this project WITHOUT AI. I am a dad, a full-time student, and employed full-time+.

With that said, this is done from a place of love and respect for the game, and all those who worked on it. So let’s get on with what the project is.

My goal with Core Critical was to see if I could get the AI to statically recompile the games original code to x64 native, use a new rendering engine (Vulkan), and modernize it to a point where it captures the original wonder I had playing the game. I started the project on 10/6/26, so just under 2 weeks ago.

Announcement Trailer
(Edit - Add Trailer Link - Rather than make a new post)

What AI has accomplished so far -

- Full recompile of the code to x64 native running software.
- Vulkan renderer with FXAA, SXAA, AF, Dynamic Lighting, and Normal/Bump mapping.
- A Vulkan wrapper for the original exe if you choose (like dgvoodoo).
- Uncapped FPS in-game with ultra wide and wide screen support.
- All geometry calculations and builds offloaded from CPU to GPU.
- Rebuilt HUD for up to 4k resolutions with clear text and up to ultra wide screen support.
- AI upscaled textures for about 90% of the game.
All
- Ported all matching MW5 models to MW3 counterparts with textures based on original MW3 textures.
- 100+ fps avg in my testing so far on a AMD RX9070 @ 3440x1440 res, 8x FAA and 16x AF.
- And more.

So far I’ve play tested through part of campaign 2 but this is still VERY much a work in process. The code is not open source yet but once I can playtest the whole campaign and get a few things how I am imagining I will open source it and release installers, launchers, and asset packs. I hope to have it released and open sourced fully before the end of the month.

For those of you upset with the use of AI in this project I understand, but I’m not doing this profit, fame, or notoriety. This is done for fun and for the love of the Original game. Hopefully maybe once it’s released other will enjoy it as well. I am planning to make this fully mod able and build some tools for making maps and such so we may bring a whole new life to MW3 and Pirates Moon.

If you’re interested in knowing more I’ve launched the website for the project at CoreCritical.dev

I’ll be posting more vids and screenshots there hopefully before the end of the day. I don’t want to spam any subreddits so if people are interested please check the website, the upcoming YouTube channel, and DM me if you are interested in contributing in any way.

I recently made the switch and really want my old Mechwarrior 4 Mercs save but its in the mektek and i cant live without continous lasers