Feel free to make comments about this guide below. Technical or grammatical or just flow changes are welcome.
MekTek MekPak 1 Install Guide
Anyone who has additions or corrections please notify me, I'll recompile this list. MT can feel free to change and post/pin this where ever to help those that had custom changes to their installs and need assistance. And remember, if you are going to install you need to read this over and follow the instructions.
Though the majority of this guide has been ripped from the MekTek staff it includes information from Jeho in the tech forums, my own efforts at helping players in the tech forums it also includes the writings of many other players that frequest the MT Tech and BI MW Help Centre forums. I have pulled information from many sources for this guide as well as what I have written. If you see something you have written, don't be offended, this guide is for the many users that need a hand with the install and would like to have all the necessary information in a single location. Your assistance is appreciated.
Before you begin.
MekPak Minimum Requirements
Mechpak Expansion System Requirements:
Multimedia personal computer with a 700 megahertz (MHz) or faster processor.
Microsoft Windows 98, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating system.
128 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM) on your computer.
1 gigabyte of free hard-disk space.
8x speed or faster CD-ROM or DVD drive.
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device.
Microsoft DirectX application programming interface version 8.1 or later.
Sound card compatible with DirectX 8.1 or later.
Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) or Peripheral Component Interface (PCI) video card with 16 MB of video RAM that supports Direct3D and is compatible with DirectX 8.1 or later.
Speakers or headphones for audio.
Super VGA, 16-bit color monitor or better.
Keyboard.
Installation Methodology Index
1 ) Standard Install : Plain Mercs & PR-1 install method but with and without Pack Switcher
2 ) Download Manager or Seperate Install Process : For 56Ker & Download manager installs
3 ) Post HudPatch Install : Removing HudPatcher effects with some info about correcting the user install after using the QSkinner
4 ) *.mw4 Error Install : Using Evil Cow's tool to tell about the condition of the users current install and identify problematic files. Then using the download links provided to install over the files to return the install back to post PR-1 condition. Then install MekPak 1.
5 ) Hell In A Handbasket Install : OK, the install just doesn't work for you. Don't go hang yourself just yet, there is hope. How to save your game settings, connection settings, pilot settings and saved games, variant mechs, installed maps and decals. Then how to completely remove your current install, reinstall MW4 Mercs, IS Pack, Clan Pak, PR-1, MekTek MekPak1 and finally putting all your stuff back. Was considering writing a .bat for it but after reading some rant by someone against DOS work, well, not too sure about going that way. Will see...
1 ) Standard Install
MekTek Patch Switcher Installation
1.1 ) Installation requires a clean Mercs PR1 install (MW4: Mercs & PR1 Patch). Maps and varients are fine. Game modifications like the HUD patch, Mech Textures and MiniMap Overlays MUST be disabled (not uninstalled, just disable them). Failure to do this will result in the patch process failing. After the installation is complete, you may reapply these modifications with no problems.
1.2 ) Download the MekTek Switcher and place in your MW4: Mercs directory. Run MekTekSwitcher.exe
* GoTo: MekTekSwitcher Download
1.3 ) Press "Install" and follow the download/installation procedure.
* At the download portion of the installation, you may choose from various mirrors to acquire the pack. If the Downloading updates.ini page holds up, click abort, and choose a different mirror.
* Download size is approx. 45 megs.
* During the installation, backup files will be made of the PR1 files so that you may switch between the two versions.
1.4 ) Reapply any modifications to the game, like the HUD Patch or MiniMap Overlays. Use of the NoCD mod is not supported with the MekPak and MekTek cannot verify its use.
1.5 ) Launch the Switcher using your desktop/startmenu icon, it will give you the option to launch the classic game or the enhanced game. Preferably use this as your Mercs Launcher, rather than the regular MW4: Mercs shortcut.
2 ) Download Manager or Seperate Install Process
If you are on a 56k connection, and need to use a download manager to acquire the patch, your installation procedure will be slightly different.
2.1 ) Installation requires a clean Mercs PR1 install (MW4: Mercs & PR1 Patch). Maps and varients are fine. Game modifications like the HUD patch, Mech Textures and MiniMap Overlays MUST be disabled (not uninstalled, just disable them). Failure to do this will result in the patch process failing. After the installation is complete, you may reapply these modifications with no problems. If you have these installed and have used them, please follow the instructions in section 3 about uninstalling the changes the mods have made. You do not have to uninstall the mod itself, just the changes it has made.
2.2 ) Download the MekTek Expansion (MP1) and place in the UpdatesCache directory under your MW4: Mercs directory. Do NOT install at this point!
* GoTo: English MekTek Expansion (MP1) Download
* GoTo: German MekTek Expansion (MP1) Download
2.3 ) Download the MekTek Switcher and place in your MW4: Mercs directory. Run MekTekSwitcher.exe
* GoTo: MekTekSwitcher Download
2.4 ) Press "Install" and follow the download/installation procedure.
* At the download portion of the installation, it will pull the pack from the UpdatesCache directory.
* During the installation, backup files will be made of the PR1 files so that you may switch between the two versions.
2.5 ) Reapply any modifications to the game, like the HUD Patch or MiniMap Overlays. Use of the NoCD mod is not supported with the MekPak and MekTek cannot verify its use.
2.6 ) Launch the Switcher using your desktop/startmenu icon, it will give you the option to launch the classic game or the enhanced game. Preferably use this as your Mercs Launcher, rather than the regular MW4: Mercs shortcut.
3 ) Post HudPatch Install
There are several mods that will cause the MekPak to fail.
3.1 ) NoCD : If you have this installed you are out on a limb here. Not a lot of positive information has been received by anyone using this and getting the pak to install. You can attempt to uninstall this and try again but likely you will need to use the "*.mw4 Error Install" section of this guide to get your game back to a state that will allow it to successfully work with the pak.
3.2 ) Merc QSkinner : This requires you to use the skinner to reapply the original skins. The tool has a setting to restore the original skins, do this and try again with the pack. If this fails progress to install method 4.
3.3 ) Hud Patcher : Like the skinner, you only need to un-apply the tek changes you made to your hud and minimaps. This tool has a setting to return everything to their original state. Do this and try again with the pack, if this fails progress to install method 4.
4 ) *.mw4 Error Install
4.1 ) If you have had problems with the install due to errors with various files that the MekPak installer complains about, you likely still have altered files from some sort of mod. A check program was created to assist with detecting this error and it tells you exactly which files are problematics. Downloads for these files have been provided but please do not download these unless you absolutely have to. Download and rull the following utility.
EvilCow's MekPak PreInstall Checker
4.2 ) These files will not work on their own. You must have Mercs+PR1 installed on your system before you overwrite with these files. It is recommended that you backup the following 5 files from your installation before you replace them with the downloaded files. Back up these files to someplace safe or rename them with a .bak extension.
In this directory : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\
MW4MERCS.ICD
MissionLang_Mercs.dll
RESOURCE\core.mw4
RESOURCE\props.mw4
RESOURCE\textures.mw4
4.3 ) If there is a file that you have a problem with, you can download that specific file here. It is recommended that you uninstall and reinstall first as repeated use of these links will use a great deal of bandwidth resources from the MekTek site. You thoughtfulness is appreciated.
These downloads contain all of the changed and new files. These are NOT patches. These are the actual files. Please do not download these files unless nothing else seems to work for you.
These files are for the English version of the game, these will not work for the German version. Attempting to use them for the German version will stop your game from working.
The entire modified and new file set is broken into 5 separate downloads. These are big files.
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/files/Mw4mercs.zip (3.6 MB 3,679,381 bytes)
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/files/Core.zip (11.8 MB 11,793,666 bytes)
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/files/Props.zip (155.5 MB 155,452,659 bytes)
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/files/Textures.zip (190.8 MB 190,892,948 bytes)
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/files/everythingelse.zip (10.8 MB 10,790,701 bytes)
Total is about 370 MB.
everythingelse.zip and Mw4mercs.zip should be unzipped into your mercs install folder (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\). The other ones should be unzipped into your resource sub-folder (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\RESOURCE).
4.4 ) Once again, do not use the NoCD crack. It has the wrong version number encoded into it and you will not be able to connect to MP1 servers that don't use the crack.
Please mirror these files if you can and you wish to post this on your own forum. We need the bandwidth assistance.
5 ) Hell In A Handbasket Install
This section is about how to reinstall your Mercenaries game but keep your old configuration settings for when you need to do a fresh install but do not want to loose all of your game settings / variant mechs / single mission game pilots / decals / previously installed maps and missions.
The following instructions assume you tried to use the install process outlined earlier in this guide but it failed. This is likely caused by your install having modifications to important files that inhibit the MekPak installer from completing. The NoCD Mod, Hud Patcher & Merc QSkinner have been known to torpedo the MekPak install. Don't use these! Also, if you are reading this it is likely due to an error in your install methods for the MekPak, one of the above guides should have successfully installed the MekPak for you.
But in the spirit of keeping every last MW4 player in the game and moving forward we have this guide to assist you with starting over but hopefully not loosing everything you previousl used to play the game.
5.1 ) Save The Important Bits Of Your Old Install
5.1.1 ) Make a temporary directory, "C:\Temp\MW4", and save all of the following files and directories
5.1.2 ) FILES : Under this directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries\
options.ini
motd.txt
m4c*.m4c ( you may have more than one file that looks like this : m4cModem.m4c )
5.1.3 ) DIRECTORIES : Copy off the entire directory and any subdirectories from the following :
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries\RESOURCE\VariantsMercs\
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries\RESOURCE\Pilots\
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries\Content\Textures\customdecals\
Be sure to retain the directory itself and not just the contents or you will end up with a mess of files from all of these directories and will have a difficult time attempting to recover your old information.
5.2 ) Completely Uninstall MW4 Mercenaries
If you have a Windows 2000 or Windows XP system you can skip all but one of the reboots. For those with Win98, Win98 Se, WinME, do not skip any reboots. Doing so may result in being unsuccessful in getting the MekTek Pack I to install properly and you will have to start over from the uninstall portion of these instructions.
5.2.1 ) If you have them, uninstall the Hud Patcher & MercQ Skinner
5.2.2 ) If you have them, uninstall the Clan/IS Paks
5.2.3 ) Uninstall MW4 Mercenaries
5.2.4 ) Delete the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries directory and all of it's contents
5.2.5 ) Reboot (all OS's, not just Win9x)
5.2.6 ) Go back into Uninstall / Install Programs and make sure Mercs is gone. Make sure the directory is gone.
5.3 ) Make sure to have a good copy of MW4 Mercs PR-1 Patch, the MekTek Pak Patch and if you desire it, the MekPak Switcher. The links to download each follow below.
5.3.1 ) MW4 Mercs PR-1 : http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/f...11d/mercpr1.exe
5.3.2 ) MekPak ModSwitcher : http://evil.mektek.net/files/MekTekSwitche...her%201.3.2.zip
Download 5.3.3 if you have the English version, 5.3.4 if you have the German version
5.3.3 ) MekPak Installer, English Version : http://www.mektek.net/download.php?op=getit&lid=480
5.3.4 ) MekPak Installer, German Version : http://www.mektek.net/download.php?op=getit&lid=482
5.4 ) Install - O - Rama ( Do not change the order of installation! )
5.4.1 ) Install MW4 Mercenaries
5.4.2 ) Reboot ( If you have Win-9x/Win-Me )
5.4.3 ) Install the Clan/IS Paks
5.4.4 ) Reboot ( If you have Win-9x/Win-Me )
5.4.5 ) Install PR-1 Patch
5.4.6 ) Reboot ( All OS's )
5.4.7 ) Install MekTek Pack
5.4.8 ) Optional : Install MekTek Pak Switcher. Unless you are a MWL League player, I wouldn't bother with this.
5.5 ) If you want to recover various settings like connection type, your keyboard / joystick settings / pilots settings and missions / variant mechs previously created / custom decals you will need to copy and paste back in the files you copied off in step 1. They simply go back to the exact same directories from which you copied them.
5.5.1 ) Here is a list of what the various files mean / do and where they are to be copied back to :
options.ini - Joystick / Keyboard mappings and some in game settings
Where to copy this file back to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\
motd.txt - Message of the day if you were hosting your own server
Where to copy this file back to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\
m4c*.m4c or m4c
Where to copy this file back to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\
5.5.2 ) Here is a list of what the various directories mean / do.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries\RESOURCE\VariantsMercs\
- All of the variant mech configs you had made previously
- Where to copy this file back to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries\RESOURCE\Pilots\
- All of the pilot info with you name and various single player missions you had played
- Where to copy this file back to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\RESOURCES\
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries\Content\Textures\customdecals\
- All of your custom decals you had on your mech as well as all of the decals from other players that were downloaded when playing Multiplayer mode.
- Where to copy this file back to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\Content\Textures\
You may have to create the customdecals directory on your own if you are running a new install.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\RESOURCES\UserMissions\
- Many of the custom maps and missions are loaded here from your downloaded map installs.
- Where to copy back to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\RESOURCES\
5.6 ) Install you maps.
Make sure you have the MOST recent maps as a few of the MekTek maps that are downloadable are now in the MT Pak and installing an old version WILL cause your system to error out and MW4 to crash on those maps during online play. Just be sure to load the recent versions of the maps. Go here for map download info.
It is possible to move maps from one install to another. Save the following directories and note that this consumes a lot of disk space, make sure you have it to spare if you do this.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\RESOURCE\UserMissions
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\RESOURCE\MAPS
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\RESOURCE\MISSIONS
If you have a lot of maps installed, some like the New Battlefield maps have additional directories. It's a bit much to explain and it is recommended that you simply reinstall these.
You should be ready to play! If you like what you see be sure to thank the devs at MT.
Additional Notes
A ) Ensure That You Have Enough Free Disk Space
Folks, make sure you have a Gig or 2 of free harddrive space before you try to run the patcher to install the mekpak. MekTek has updated the PakSwitcher to check for available disk space, pre-install. If you have the original version of the switcher you need to check this yourself.
Also, make sure none of the following files are Read-Only:
All files are located under the following directory with additional subdirectory information given for some files. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mercenaries\
MW4MERCS.ICD
MissionLang_Mercs.dll
resource\core.mw4
resource\props.mw4
resource\textures.mw4
If you run out of space, the patcher will fail and you will be out of luck, your system may even have problems rebooting. User beware! You absolutely must have 1Gb of free disk space before you run the switcher, or the patching will fail.
B ) Windows 98 & Windows Me Users
Jeho has created a split-file installer for both the English and German patchers. This should be useful for 56kers, or Win98SE users that are having problems getting their patcher to work. Download each of the files, put them in a temp folder, and then run the .exe.
English version is split into 32 1.44MB files (1,440,000 bytes each):
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.exe
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp001
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp002
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp003
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp004
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp005
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp006
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp007
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp008
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp009
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp010
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp011
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp012
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp013
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp014
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp015
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp016
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp017
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp018
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp019
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp020
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp021
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp022
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp023
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp024
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp025
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp026
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp027
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp028
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp029
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp030
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1.wp031
Total : (1,175,543 bytes)
German version is split into 31 1.44MB files (1,440,000 bytes each):
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.exe
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp001
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp002
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp003
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp004
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp005
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp006
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp007
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp008
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp009
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp010
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp011
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp012
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp013
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp014
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp015
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp016
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp017
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp018
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp019
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp020
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp021
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp022
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp023
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp024
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp025
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp026
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp027
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp028
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp029
http://www.mektek.net/mekpak/split/mekpak1-de.wp030
Total : (198,455 bytes)
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