5 replies to this topic

[Alabraxis Hyperion]

Some games in which you can pilot tanks or other vehicles with rotating turrets have indicators showing the direction of the turret, usually as a line, compared to the chassis, usually an arrow or silhouette of the vehicle.
I think something like this in MWO would help new players considerably, to keep track of their torso/leg orientation. For a current example, I'd point at Planetside 2's tank HUDs.

[Syllogy]

There are 2.

One on your Compass represented by 2 triangles, and one on your Minimap.

Just sayin'.

[Alabraxis Hyperion]

This is true, but both are fairly subtle indicators that don't immediately show what is going on between your chassis and torso. Since torso vs. chassis orientation is one of the biggest hurdles for new players, a clear, obvious HUD element that indicates what is going on would be beneficial, I think. It could be optional but on by default for new players.

[Spirit of the Wolf]

Or people could just, y'know...

READ the tutorials.

[Noth]

Alabraxis Hyperion, on 03 April 2013 - 06:22 AM, said:

This is true, but both are fairly subtle indicators that don't immediately show what is going on between your chassis and torso. Since torso vs. chassis orientation is one of the biggest hurdles for new players, a clear, obvious HUD element that indicates what is going on would be beneficial, I think. It could be optional but on by default for new players.

The minimap one is far from subtle. I can't think of something more clear and obvious that that. The compass one is a bit more subtle.

[Durant Carlyle]

Both of the current indicators are clear and obvious.

On the compass, the top triangle is your torso-twist. The bottom triangle is your leg direction. Clear and obvious.

On the mini-map, the shaded triangle is your field of view (a.k.a. torso twist). The line is your leg direction. Clear and obvious.

If you actually pay attention when torso-twisting, figuring these out is a no-brainer -- especially the mini-map one. Once you actually notice the double-triangle on your compass, figuring it out takes a minute or two maximum.

This game has more of an indicator than previous MechWarrior games had.

I don't get the difficulty people are having with view direction versus movement direction. All FPSes have this. Halo has it. CounterStrike has it. Doom had it. UT had it. Even consolers should understand that, because they had two joysticks on their controllers -- one for movement, one for view/aiming. Moving in one direction while looking/aiming in another isn't rocket science.