In the Soviet/CIS armies, mobile rocket artillery sometimes came with large covers, made of hardened rubber typically, painted the same color as the rest of the vehicle. Which were removed before combat. Because they weren't stupid, and knew they didn't want their equipment exploding catastrophically because of a hinge getting stuck.
Again, swinging panels exist on real-life missile launchers today. It's pretty easy to find examples of naval missile launchers with a swinging panel covering a tube (there's several pictures on the wikipedia page). It's not that far-fetched. Your opinion on aesthetics is acknowledged, and perhaps you think they are less practical, but some of them ARE designed that way. It also wouldn't be the first time that a military object has some silly feature by design that no other similar piece of military equipment has.
The crucial difference between a cover over a single tube, for something like a torpedo, and the cover over an array of missile rack. It's not the same thing. Even submarines from the first world war had opening and closing doors over the torpedo tubes--something like that existing for a launcher over the water line doesn't surprise me. In fact, even a case of multiple missile tubes covered by a large door on a ship wouldn't surprise me that much, though I've never heard of such a thing personally.
A swinging door on a missile rack on a small land vehicle? Not the same thing. If you can find photographs of something like an MLRS or a BM-27 with a mechanically-operated cover over all the missile tubes, I will marvel at the wasteful over-engineering of that. In the meantime, fuck tradition.
EDIT: In retrospect, this makes me wonder why, with all the crazy stuff, simple angle adjustment for this sort of thing never factored in--then again, you're only firing a kilometer away at most.
Yeah my only complaint about the HUD is that the graphic presentation isn't like, hard monitors and panels and shit all over the place. I really like that look.
I'd like that too, but that's something that takes a lot more effort on the part of the developers than simply displaying information on a HUD as usual. I don't expect they're going to want to count on something like a joystick hat switch or TrackIR to allow a player to quickly look around at all of their displays, so grouping everything together on the HUD covers that. The fact that separate screens (that may or may not take up a lot of space) is aesthetically more impressive is a secondary concern.
Just my take on it though. TrackIR will probably just be used for looking around from your cockpit, rather than looking around at your cockpit, if at all.
Not to belabor the point but not all design decisions in real vehicles are good design decisions. Historically there have been any number of things that have been fielded in battle with often crippling design flaws. Tanks storing ammo in their turret rings, exposed fuel tanks, electronics that overheat in warm weather, and so on. These decisions often have politics and egos involved behind them. So maybe some engineer was ordered by Duke so-and-so to put mechanical covers on it because he didn't want his missiles dirty before the battle.
Regarding the UI, I have no idea how far a long they are but the GUI is often the last thing to be finalized in a game. My suggestion would be to "dirty" it up some by adding some noise and random scanlines. Think the holograms in Star Wars.
Yes, but can you make it another kind of boat in the mech lab? :P
Medium lasers.
Nothing but medium lasers.
Anyone that does this is a bad person.
I can neither confirm nor deny my use of comedy boats in Mechwarrior 4 mp.
I miss my Machine Gun Daishi.
I once crammed as many flamers onto a Timberwolf as possible and ran around giving everyone a shutdown sandwich. No kills, but a lot of irked pilots.
I did that a lot in MW2. Napalm srms are so awesome.
Oh man, I remember playing against some A-hole who was running a warhawk with 5 PPC's and blasting him to shit with a jenner that was loaded with inferno SRM's. The guy decked me the next day in real life.
On the subject of boats though: I'm extremely amused by the Piranha. It's dead meat on an open field against anything with decent mid range weaponry but in a city or canyon or similair terrain It's an absolute murder machine in a 20 ton format.
I like missile doors. They should be on more stuff. Firing a weapon is just a bigger event if there's a door that needs to open first. Like wrapping paper on a mail bomb.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited May 2012
I agree with tychocelchuu regarding the missile doors.
Accept the mech magic, or walk away from the ip's flaming carcass. Those are the two choices. It can't hold up to any kind of scrutiny. You are in a room full of gunpowder and you are lighting a match to see why one of them is labelled "sugar". It is not smart.
It's similar to Star Wars, really. You either accept the magic or you don't. Trying to take it seriously results in an abomination that self destructs and takes all the fun with it.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I like missile doors. They should be on more stuff. Firing a weapon is just a bigger event if there's a door that needs to open first. Like wrapping paper on a mail bomb.
A main door covering the entire bay and all the individual tubes have their own doors.
Then the missiles could have pop out fins protected by doors.
In the Soviet/CIS armies, mobile rocket artillery sometimes came with large covers, made of hardened rubber typically, painted the same color as the rest of the vehicle. Which were removed before combat. Because they weren't stupid, and knew they didn't want their equipment exploding catastrophically because of a hinge getting stuck.
Again, swinging panels exist on real-life missile launchers today. It's pretty easy to find examples of naval missile launchers with a swinging panel covering a tube (there's several pictures on the wikipedia page). It's not that far-fetched. Your opinion on aesthetics is acknowledged, and perhaps you think they are less practical, but some of them ARE designed that way. It also wouldn't be the first time that a military object has some silly feature by design that no other similar piece of military equipment has.
The crucial difference between a cover over a single tube, for something like a torpedo, and the cover over an array of missile rack. It's not the same thing. Even submarines from the first world war had opening and closing doors over the torpedo tubes--something like that existing for a launcher over the water line doesn't surprise me. In fact, even a case of multiple missile tubes covered by a large door on a ship wouldn't surprise me that much, though I've never heard of such a thing personally.
A swinging door on a missile rack on a small land vehicle? Not the same thing. If you can find photographs of something like an MLRS or a BM-27 with a mechanically-operated cover over all the missile tubes, I will marvel at the wasteful over-engineering of that. In the meantime, fuck tradition.
EDIT: In retrospect, this makes me wonder why, with all the crazy stuff, simple angle adjustment for this sort of thing never factored in--then again, you're only firing a kilometer away at most.
Yeah my only complaint about the HUD is that the graphic presentation isn't like, hard monitors and panels and shit all over the place. I really like that look.
I'd like that too, but that's something that takes a lot more effort on the part of the developers than simply displaying information on a HUD as usual. I don't expect they're going to want to count on something like a joystick hat switch or TrackIR to allow a player to quickly look around at all of their displays, so grouping everything together on the HUD covers that. The fact that separate screens (that may or may not take up a lot of space) is aesthetically more impressive is a secondary concern.
Just my take on it though. TrackIR will probably just be used for looking around from your cockpit, rather than looking around at your cockpit, if at all.
Not to belabor the point but not all design decisions in real vehicles are good design decisions. Historically there have been any number of things that have been fielded in battle with often crippling design flaws. Tanks storing ammo in their turret rings, exposed fuel tanks, electronics that overheat in warm weather, and so on. These decisions often have politics and egos involved behind them. So maybe some engineer was ordered by Duke so-and-so to put mechanical covers on it because he didn't want his missiles dirty before the battle.
Regarding the UI, I have no idea how far a long they are but the GUI is often the last thing to be finalized in a game. My suggestion would be to "dirty" it up some by adding some noise and random scanlines. Think the holograms in Star Wars.
Goodness knows engineers in Battletech have done really stupid things for the sake of being stupid. The usefulness of giant walking machines aside, missile racks on a Catapult count in that category.
I wouldn't be surprised if we get a return of heat/PPC interference in the HUD from MW3 and 4--separate effects. They might be unbalancing in multiplayer, but they did add to the immersion, I would say.
I do hope we get more game modes than "kill the whole team or take their base." Some mission-specific objectives would be nice, as would CTF (though that might be breaking from the spirit of BT outside of something like Solaris).
I do hope we get more game modes than "kill the whole team or take their base." Some mission-specific objectives would be nice, as would CTF (though that might be breaking from the spirit of BT outside of something like Solaris).
CTF might not work, but escort NPC VIP or Convoy, and King of the Hill with multiple objectives would both work very nicely. It would be really nice if they copied the mission objective structure from a game like Brink.
I do hope we get more game modes than "kill the whole team or take their base." Some mission-specific objectives would be nice, as would CTF (though that might be breaking from the spirit of BT outside of something like Solaris).
CTF might not work, but escort NPC VIP or Convoy, and King of the Hill with multiple objectives would both work very nicely. It would be really nice if they copied the mission objective structure from a game like Brink.
I hope they put CTF in. CTF in an urban map playing as a tiny little mech was so much fun.
Gotta say, I'm pretty happy they're doing their best to make ligher mech classes more viable.
MW4: Mercs is just get the Fafnir/Daishii as fast as you can and never use anything else. There is one mission after you have access to assault mechs where you actually wouldn't want to take assault mechs.
Everytime you pull the trigger it's like screaming "FUCK YOU" at whatever you're shooting.
I love the missions towards the end where you're part of a massive firing line with dozens of mechs, or where you're trying to hold a pass against an invading force. Those are great missions to have assault mechs on.
There just needs to be more missions where you're sneaking around infiltrating a production facility or where the terrain makes assault class mechs nonviable.
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Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
Sneaking around in a mech? Yeah.....
Actually, I wish there were ground forces elements. It would be fun to infiltrate a Mech hangar and sabotage the facility to the point where they couldn't deploy the mechs.
BattleTech haves a pretty expansive setting, I was playing a tabletop session in this setting and it was basically Firefly mixed with Jurassic Park.
Well stealth ops at least. For instance there's the mission in MW4:Mercs where you trying to get a scan of a mech factory and you can't get a large enough force into the area to just take the facility so you have to go in with something light and fast that you can load up with electronics. You then go in radar silent and try to avoid LoS from patrols. Its a ton of fun. I usually end up taking a Cougar, stripping the weapons and loading it with as much speed as I can manage.
Actually, I wish there were ground forces elements. It would be fun to infiltrate a Mech hangar and sabotage the facility to the point where they couldn't deploy the mechs.
BattleTech haves a pretty expansive setting, I was playing a tabletop session in this setting and it was basically Firefly mixed with Jurassic Park.
Actually, that would work for the CTF elements, you are escorting a hovervan with special ops to the enemy base to capture an enemy VIP then you need to escort them back again without the van getting blown up. Enemy does the same.
King of the Hill could be you have to hold landing sites for a dropship (heavily damaged and in need of repairs so it cant defend itself) or something coming down, and if the enemy takes it and holds it they start pulling up/out again and it resets the timer for you until it begins the timer for the oppositions dropship to begin a landing run.
Also keep in mind the video doesn't really show impacts very well. I'm sure they're a lot more brutal when you're the one getting hit or nearby. Its a nice visual difference between LRMs and SRMs.
Wow, those videos were great. That preview one especially. It's a little heavy handed, but I like seeing the heat register visibly on the 'Mechs!
I like it being big tbh. It's critically important info that in the past was usually kinda squirreled away. If you're in something like an Awesome or another energy weapon based mech that big bar is going to be a god send.
Posts
I once crammed as many flamers onto a Timberwolf as possible and ran around giving everyone a shutdown sandwich. No kills, but a lot of irked pilots.
Not to belabor the point but not all design decisions in real vehicles are good design decisions. Historically there have been any number of things that have been fielded in battle with often crippling design flaws. Tanks storing ammo in their turret rings, exposed fuel tanks, electronics that overheat in warm weather, and so on. These decisions often have politics and egos involved behind them. So maybe some engineer was ordered by Duke so-and-so to put mechanical covers on it because he didn't want his missiles dirty before the battle.
Regarding the UI, I have no idea how far a long they are but the GUI is often the last thing to be finalized in a game. My suggestion would be to "dirty" it up some by adding some noise and random scanlines. Think the holograms in Star Wars.
I did that a lot in MW2.
On the subject of boats though: I'm extremely amused by the Piranha. It's dead meat on an open field against anything with decent mid range weaponry but in a city or canyon or similair terrain It's an absolute murder machine in a 20 ton format.
Accept the mech magic, or walk away from the ip's flaming carcass. Those are the two choices. It can't hold up to any kind of scrutiny. You are in a room full of gunpowder and you are lighting a match to see why one of them is labelled "sugar". It is not smart.
It's similar to Star Wars, really. You either accept the magic or you don't. Trying to take it seriously results in an abomination that self destructs and takes all the fun with it.
A main door covering the entire bay and all the individual tubes have their own doors.
Then the missiles could have pop out fins protected by doors.
Goodness knows engineers in Battletech have done really stupid things for the sake of being stupid. The usefulness of giant walking machines aside, missile racks on a Catapult count in that category.
I wouldn't be surprised if we get a return of heat/PPC interference in the HUD from MW3 and 4--separate effects. They might be unbalancing in multiplayer, but they did add to the immersion, I would say.
The missile rack covers on a Yeoman would stand to be an effective close-quarters weapon
"Officer, I swear, that mech walked into a door."
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Also, that heat shutdown in the movie really hammered home how much shutting down to the heat sucks. I wonder if they will have Flamers?
CTF might not work, but escort NPC VIP or Convoy, and King of the Hill with multiple objectives would both work very nicely. It would be really nice if they copied the mission objective structure from a game like Brink.
MWO: Adamski
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
I hope they put CTF in. CTF in an urban map playing as a tiny little mech was so much fun.
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Dropships do.
MW4: Mercs is just get the Fafnir/Daishii as fast as you can and never use anything else. There is one mission after you have access to assault mechs where you actually wouldn't want to take assault mechs.
LBX20 Daishi Boat is just pure comedy.
Everytime you pull the trigger it's like screaming "FUCK YOU" at whatever you're shooting.
The images link has some in-game shots of the Dragon.
I love the missions towards the end where you're part of a massive firing line with dozens of mechs, or where you're trying to hold a pass against an invading force. Those are great missions to have assault mechs on.
There just needs to be more missions where you're sneaking around infiltrating a production facility or where the terrain makes assault class mechs nonviable.
Actually, I wish there were ground forces elements. It would be fun to infiltrate a Mech hangar and sabotage the facility to the point where they couldn't deploy the mechs.
BattleTech haves a pretty expansive setting, I was playing a tabletop session in this setting and it was basically Firefly mixed with Jurassic Park.
Actually, that would work for the CTF elements, you are escorting a hovervan with special ops to the enemy base to capture an enemy VIP then you need to escort them back again without the van getting blown up. Enemy does the same.
King of the Hill could be you have to hold landing sites for a dropship (heavily damaged and in need of repairs so it cant defend itself) or something coming down, and if the enemy takes it and holds it they start pulling up/out again and it resets the timer for you until it begins the timer for the oppositions dropship to begin a landing run.
MWO: Adamski
IwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgameIwantthisgame
Oh yes, daddy is home.
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
I like it being big tbh. It's critically important info that in the past was usually kinda squirreled away. If you're in something like an Awesome or another energy weapon based mech that big bar is going to be a god send.