27 replies to this topic

[CocoaJin]

Quad mechs aren't like tanks or Aerotech at all. They are supposed to be more stable during locomotion and while firing high recoil weapons. I suspect they'd accelerate better and would scale inclines much better than a bipedal mech. It would seem some could side step way better than a bipedal would, one might argue they'd be more maneuverable than a bi-ped. At the same speed and weight, four legs will likely have more breaking power than two and provide higher levels and sample rates for changing direction at speed.

They are just specialized weapon platforms that compromise in certain areas of chassis attribute for another.

Personally, my preferred style of play would be well suited for a high accelerating, highly maneuverable and stable weapons platform considering I like to do high speed Boom & Zoom attacks from ambush positions...sounds like large predatory cat style attacks...something the Snow Fox(http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Snow_Fox) ought to excel at.

[Nathan Foxbane]

Because they could not torso twist so facing an enemy required an MP, quads were given a lateral shift ability to put them on par with bipeds. They also carried more armor because all their limbs got leg armor ratings.

I would love to see quads in MWO, but they would require different controls and a radically different playing style. Quads also come with three general styles of legs like bipeds so rigging and animating them would be very work intensive especially on quads with spider like legs.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Well, the Nova didn't have torso twist - what did they do? They put a hip in and graced it with torso twist.

So carry that to the the Snow Fox and Xanthos. Turn them into advanced skidders (so to speak), with the pivot point just in front of the hips or behind the shoulders.


A quadruped's version of torso twist is bending their spine so they're back legs point forward while they're front legs (or torso) face another direction. Like this:


It's entirely possible to animate the Snow Fox or Xanthos to "torso twist" while continuing to move in a direction that's other than the direction they're looking. These would have very limited torso twist, but they would still have it.
With directional legs (such as the scorpion, fire scorpion, tarantula, etc), this becomes much easier as you can strafe in any direction. Animating would be a slightly more difficult task, a rigging that relies on direction of movement being the deciding factor of the animation.

Quad Mech pack:
Snow Fox (Light)
Scorpion (Medium)
Fire Scorpion (Heavy)
Xanthos (Assault)


Watch Dogs did an amazing job with their spider in the Spider Tank Digital Trip mini-game. To have this in Mechwarrior? Aw hells yeah. (minus the two middle legs that clip through the front and back ones)
They even have hitbox paper doll in there.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 20 November 2014 - 10:43 PM.

[CocoaJin]

Beautiful...but that's coming from a guy who loves spiders and keeps tarantulas. W/S for throttle, A/D for strafing, mouse look for weapons aiming and turning like a typical FPS.

It would be controlled differently, but it wouldn't be anything unfamiliar to gamers. All it needs is a wide angle view for through its synthetic vision.

Edited by CocoaJin, 21 November 2014 - 12:02 AM.

[Vassago Rain]

No, never.

[GumbyC2C]

quads would be awesome. But I don't expect to see them. It's just too much work for the developers because of how different they are.

[Lily from animove]

No, I mena they weren't even able or willing to make mechs without torsotwist, 4 legged ones would require a load of new coding, which ahrdly is in relation to the benefit those mechs will bring.

But it would be cool of course.

[Tarogato]

I personally think we need a MW game with quads. They're just so neglected and PGI has been starting to jump on bringing lesser-known mechs to the fore. Quads would be a nice project for them to start in a year from now to explore the possibilities. If they can't get it to work in this engine, then they seriously need some better engineers to guide the team. The only realistic issues would be hitbox and lost limb logistics, which shouldn't even been a headache to solve. Navigating slopes would need some ironing out, but all they need to do is implement some dynamic knee joints or allow the mech to align with the slope of the terrain rather than sit 100% level all the time.

I'd love to see them play with the idea down the road when they have ECM, MASC, CW, map reduxes, and new maps ironed out.