20 replies to this topic

[Kon19]

I was puging the other day and got the dreaded HUD bug. I had no HUD information at all. My first reaction was to quit the game, as obviously my effectiveness would suffer greatly. I didn’t even have a crosshair for aiming. I decided to stick it our however, my resulting experience surprised me. I found it really very fun. The tension was significantly higher. I constantly looked around my cockpit to glean any information I could from my multiple monitors. As I had no way of telling who was on what team, I stuck with my teammates from the start and tried to shoot that what they shot at. Once the battle got really hot and I lost track of my team I had to be very very careful who I shot at. Even if I saw another mech I would either wait to see if they shot at me, or if I saw them shoot at a mech I knew to be a teammate.

I think there could be something to this. Not that I am advocating playing with no crosshairs or basic instrumentation, but perhaps limiting/changing how it is displayed. Having to look around my cockpit and actually use the monitors in it was very immersive. I felt much more like I was inside a machine. With improvements to what and how the monitors are currently used I think this could be really interesting. Rather than having floating HUD information for my weapons and damage, I’d like to have to refer to one of my many monitors. Thoughts?

Oh, and I actually ended up surviving the round and getting a pretty decent score (a kill and 5 assists).

[Joseph Mallan]

I had similar experience this weekend. Including the surprising end score.

[jay35]

The worst parts of that bug are the inability to communicate/type and the missing crosshair. The rest of it isn't quite as crucial, though damage display, heat level, and ammo counts are helpful.

Edited by jay35, 23 April 2013 - 05:28 AM.

[Tenpin]

It is definitely a fun twist to play with only "iron sights" (for lack of a better term) and pure situational awareness.

[Roughneck45]

It can be fun sometimes.

As long as you have lasers to track your reticle you can still put up some nice numbers. I just think of it as handicap mode.

Besides, it's better to try than to just leave your team out to dry. Even if you can't contribute much you can still soak damage.

[Mahws]

Couldn't agree more.

I certainly haven't been playing around with the HUD .gfx files in order to try to make the HUD less obtrusive, vision blocking and immersion breaking. I also certainly haven't taken a look at fixing the cockpit monitors so that they show information like heat, armor and an actual useful ammo display instead of useless filler.

If I had done something I'd probably be amazed at how even just trimming down the excess HUD 'decorations' that serve no function improved the game experience. But I'd probably also be frustrated that without commercial software or the original developer files progress is extremely trial and error and blind fumbling.



Seriously though, the HUD in MW:O is really one of the worst I've ever seen. It's huge, obtrusive, repeats information unnecessarily (there are a total of four indicators for a weapon group being able to fire, two audio and two on the HUD), has useless information displayed on huge center vision components (pretty sure I can tell if I'm facing up or down, torso twist is already covered at the bottom of the screen) and has functionless 'eye candy' all over the place. I really do hope they change it soon. Even just halving the size of all the elements would be a step in the right direction.

Edited by Mahws, 23 April 2013 - 05:49 AM.

[Sephlock]

Yeah I was suggesting giving us the option to play WITH the bugs. The rainbow radar bug could be called "hippie mode". And hey, machineguns could serve as tracers.

[CyborgDragon]

It would be interesting if they created a 'hardcore more' based on this...

[Panimu]

I also had a similar experience. Including locking on with and launching LRMs

I guess Tag helps a little .. as a laser point for locking and Medium Lasers

[Howdy Doody]

CyborgDragon, on 23 April 2013 - 05:51 AM, said:

It would be interesting if they created a 'hardcore more' based on this...

I agree. I would also like to try playing some night maps with no enhanced visions.

[Barkem Squirrel]

The good old Kentucky windage. I have had this happen a few times and it was a learning experience, almost so that it should be an included "bug" in the game. Just remember the equipment for the military is built by the lowest bidder, or the one who pays to play.

I just think some random drops should have a little bug like this for some real life flavor and as a learning experience.

[ReconSaint]

Right Shift + F11 for secret HardCore Garth Mode

[Gregore]

They need to get rid of the triangles. Make those appear only if someone on the team has the command console and the rest have a receiver of some type.

though with this bug you lose the ability to identify accurately who you have targeted, so the targeting box should be there.
The missing crosshairs certainly make it more difficult/interesting to shoot. Deters alpha striking since you(meaning I) will shoot out a tracer round (usually my smallest weapon) to see where I am aiming.

[NitroBurst]

Kon19, on 23 April 2013 - 05:19 AM, said:

I was puging the other day and got the dreaded HUD bug. I had no HUD information at all. My first reaction was to quit the game, as obviously my effectiveness would suffer greatly. I didn’t even have a crosshair for aiming. I decided to stick it our however, my resulting experience surprised me. I found it really very fun. The tension was significantly higher. I constantly looked around my cockpit to glean any information I could from my multiple monitors. As I had no way of telling who was on what team, I stuck with my teammates from the start and tried to shoot that what they shot at. Once the battle got really hot and I lost track of my team I had to be very very careful who I shot at. Even if I saw another mech I would either wait to see if they shot at me, or if I saw them shoot at a mech I knew to be a teammate.

I think there could be something to this. Not that I am advocating playing with no crosshairs or basic instrumentation, but perhaps limiting/changing how it is displayed. Having to look around my cockpit and actually use the monitors in it was very immersive. I felt much more like I was inside a machine. With improvements to what and how the monitors are currently used I think this could be really interesting. Rather than having floating HUD information for my weapons and damage, I’d like to have to refer to one of my many monitors. Thoughts?

Oh, and I actually ended up surviving the round and getting a pretty decent score (a kill and 5 assists).

Like a hardcore mode? That could be fun. But you can go hardcore yourself already. Press RightShift+F11 and it will turn off/on your HUD. This can be interesting if you want to go "HOORAAHH" on ppl lol. I had the bug myself at one point and I used a Laser to guide most of my shots. I survived mostly like you did, and finished the match with a good score (funny how you think you are gonna go down no matter what and when you don't and get a good score you end up surprising/patting yourself in the back ). Good stuff lol

[Kon19]

A “hardcore” mode would be great. I would think you’d still have crosshairs, but other than that all of your other info would be via in cockpit displays (not floating). Damage, weapons load-out&linking, heat levels & heatsinks, heading (cardinal direction), map, lance member info. It would be interesting to play with how on screen designation would work as well. Not having the ability to clearly have enemy/friendlies marked with blue or red boxes makes things interesting (units markings would be critical). I’m not sure how/if this would really work, but it could be fun to experiment with. Maybe friend/foe indication would be range limited. Heck, an ECM in the area could disable this for everyone in range of the effect.

[hammerreborn]

Panimu, on 23 April 2013 - 06:18 AM, said:

I also had a similar experience. Including locking on with and launching LRMs

I guess Tag helps a little .. as a laser point for locking and Medium Lasers

TAG is amazing for "hardcore" mode. Though as a Jenner its not completely required because your arm reticles are all centered anyways just at varying heights.

[Kon19]

Obviously if this was a real “mode” you’d have to have some kind of targeting system. I am fortunate I was heavy on lasers that were mounted to my torso. I at least had a pretty good idea where they were going.

[Praehotec8]

It would be awesome if all of your information was represented on the monitors in the cockpit (minus an aiming reticle or something). The problem I have is that FOV is hard to get set so you can see all the monitors, and playing with joystick does not let me rotate my pilot's head fast enough to look at the monitors out of site.

[Ialti]

CyborgDragon, on 23 April 2013 - 05:51 AM, said:

It would be interesting if they created a 'hardcore more' based on this...

...Wouldn't that be hilarious to see. Entire teams wandering around and getting lost on their own maps, focus-firing team members only to discover that they were teaming up with the enemy and shooting their own. Yeah, some of us could do it and would actually have fun. But do you really have that much faith in humanity?

[Kon19]

I think you would definitely have to adjust the FOV so you could see at least a couple monitor better. I would think letting players map what is on their individual monitors themselves would be the way to go. Not having so many things floating in front of your view would probably help. I can understand using the hat on a joystick could be difficult.
I can see this being difficult, or unwanted, for some people. I guess that’s why it would be a “hardcore mode” and not default.

I am just thinking out loud here. I was really taken by how much more immersive having to use your actual cockpit equipment, and being forced to assess the situation and mechs around you more thoroughly was for the game. I’m sure a combination of these things is likely best. Immersion is something that I think this game could use a little help on.