The Mechcommander Gold mission editor extender is an excellent tool for adding many things that were left out of the game’s editor. Please note I did not create this program, and I am not responsible for it’s use and functionality:
+ Download link 1 – local mirror
+ Download link 2 – collosus.demon.co.uk
If you need help using the editor have a look at the tutorial below. There are several sections to this tutorial:
The GUI
Objectives
Drop Zones
Lookout Points
Adding Salvage
Damages
New Units
The Graphic User Interface (GUI)
The mission editor extender has a small and easy to use GUI. To use the extender, first save your changes in the mechcommander mission editor. After you’ve saved your changes switch to the extender, add what elements you need and when you’re done press generate. Finally go back to the mechcommander mission editor and select generate .DPK to create you map.
Objectives
Once you have a map selected (you will have to have created one through the original editor for it to appear on this list) click on the Objectives button to bring up the objectives window. Here you can see the list of all objectives that exist in the mission you selected. You can create up to 8 objectives total (4 from the editor, 4 from the extender). You can only delete extender objectives in the extender. The extender also allows you to add resource rewards and time limits to objectives; something you couldn’t previously do.
Drop Zones
The Drop Zones window shows you all drop zones in the selected mission. You can edit the location, the formation and the spread of your mechs when they are deployed in the mission.
Lookout
The lookout window lets you specify lookout points. When specifying a lookout point use the editor to find the x and y coordinates and then experiment to find the size you want your trigger point to be (in terms of radius of a circle). You can also specify a trigger condition, and the menu changes to accommodate this. With the structure related objectives make sure to specify the structure block and structure vertex, not it’s x and y coords.
Adding Salvage
To add salvage you will have to find a capturable structure and specify its structure and vertex block values. For best results try to use only the structures that appear in the editor’s Salvage menu or you may be unable to start your map.
Damages
To damage a building enter it’s structure and vertex block values and specify a trigger condition in a similar way to the lookout menu. The number you enter will be a percent value of damage.
New Units
You can specify new units to appear with a trigger. This is most useful for adding allies midway through a mission e.g. after capturing a prison complex. This window functions in a similar way to the Lookout and Damages windows. Specify the structure and vertex blocks with building related triggers and x and y coords for area triggers. *NOTE* you will want to disable the purchase of mechwarriors that will appear in the mission through this function otherwise you will have problems down the road. Adding multiple units in a single mission can also be somewhat finicky.
If you’ve read through this tutorial and are still having trouble with the Mechcommander Gold mission editor extender, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!
I don’t know if this place is still active but, do you know how to get the editor working in Windows 7 x64?
I’ve had to install MCG itself by copying the contents of the CD to my HDD, but as there are no registry entries added for it (I assume), the mission editor refuses to install as it can’t find the MCG installation.
I have run into the same problem before, and I don’t know if there’s a solution. You might have to just install on a virtual machine and do mission editing there.
It’s very difficult without using virtual box and installing windows 98. That’s the easy part. Hard part is getting files onto that operating system and getting drivers that actually work to allow for reading a thumb drive. Ugh, I figured it all out 4 years ago but I forgot what all it entailed. It was a pain but I was determined.
Would anyone who has the editor installed be able to look up the registry key for MCG?
As the mission editor is very old it’s highly likely it uses a registry key lookup to find the mcg installation, so having that information would allow installation (in theory) in windows 7
I installed the game via emulated xp mode. I copied the game files now on the winows 8 computer and it runs fine.But when i try to open the mission editor it displays this error: Couldn’t open the database because ‘C:\Teditor\FitAbl.mdb’ isn’t a valid path. Make sure that the path name is spelled correctly and that you are connected to the server on wich the file resides…
I haven’t done this in a while but I believe the editor needed the actual game disk to start unlike the freeware version of the game that’s floating out there on the web
The only way I was able to use the map editor was by using virtualbox and installing windows 98 from an ISO.
Win98 allows you to easily install and USE the map editor/extender.
The hard part was after creating a map or Solo mission, was to get a thumb drive to be readable to actually transfer the files onto a USB from win98 in order to get them onto a Windows 7/8/10 OS. Windows 98 was so old it really required drivers for ANYTHING to function. I had to research old software for win98. That part was the biggest pain. It’s even worse that win98 is so old you can’t even view webpages even if you have internet so it became challenging overall. Once I figured it out it wasn’t too bad but it was a whole day of figuring it out after using the editor how to transfer the map files.
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