6 replies to this topic

[juxstapo]

How exactly does everyone picture the cockpit canopies... "working", so to speak?

When I was a kid and got a good look at the Battlemaster for the first time (in the manual to MechWarrior as a matter'o fax). The first thing I thought was .oO(I wouldn't want to go into battle in an aquarium)Oo.

Now conceptually the idea of sitting atop this massive assault machine surrounded by a bubble canopy would be wicked fun/cool. But rather harrowing to get shot at in.

The train of thought has stuck with me over the years. My "other" fanboi universe is Star Wars, and one scene in the original trilogy and numerous novels have led me to transpose the idea into BattleTech; that the canopy material is synthetic (I won't actually say "transparisteel" or anything.. some sort of hardcore graded plexiglass I'd wager). Obviously bulletproof, up to a point, and shatter resistant. And I stake my imagination on it auto-darkening superfast.
Remember when that one blaster bolt splatted against Luke's snowspeeder canopy during the battle for Hoth? Thats what got me to thinking about this when I was a kid. "Coherent light" and "Transparent panel"... why didn't it just Blatt right into Luke's face?
Lower powered lasers would (in my mind) cause the struck panel of canopy to auto-darken itself, and perhaps suffer a puckered spot where the laser superheated a bit of it. Unless of course said blast was sufficiently powerful to just burn through the canopy completely.

This make sense? Rather tired, don't know if I'm expressing coherently.

[LordKelvin]

In all probability, the more distinctive designs with no obvious canopy are probably just going to handwave it with cameras. Take the Atlas, for instance: it's pretty improbable that a pilot will be able to get any sort of coherent field of view out of the two eyeholes and possibly the nose. With other more obvious ones such as the Mad Cat, Warhammer, and Vulture, it'll probably depend on how flyingdebris does the redesigns. In the end though, what matters is the fun factor; even the BattleTech rule books say that the aesthetic art designs of the various mechs shouldn't get in the way of the rules.

[Jack Deth]

Yo dawg, look at that mellon-farmin Atlas. Dats one sweet whip. Don't you just want to get all up ons that ******? Not one, but TWO captains chairs like sum kind of fancy RV, aww ya. One for you to be killin shiznit from, and one for your fly honey to watch from, gettin all hot n bothered. And downstairs ... a dope lounge with like two couches and maybe a pool table and a full wet bar right behind that pimpin nose glass. All them other hos you brought are ridin in style until you ready for them. Hells bro, you drivin an Atlas! I axe you, what don't it got?

[Alistair Steiner]

Right... Having read a novel recently, they apparently use a "holographic display" within the canopy to handle the HUD and zoom feature. That would be necessary for 'Mechs like the Atlas, as Kelvin said, since I REALLY don't want the bubble cockpit like they had to do in MWLL. Or maybe a combination of the two, with 'Mechs with obvious canopies, such as the iconic Mad Cat. Only time will tell.

[Jack Deth]

In all seriousness, the way they describe cockpits in the books/source material the clan cockpits seem really cramped like a jet fighter. The inner sphere ones generally seem to have a bit more room to move around in, like at least enough space for a mini-fridge for your beer and maybe a dead body stuffed behind the seat.

As for the viewscreen / canopy the descriptions vary a lot. My personal favourite, which is one of the more old-school ones is that they have a 180 degree curved display that shows a horizontally compressed 360 degree view around the mech. So no blind spots, but man would that take some getting used to.

EDIT: pretty sure this would be the ideal option if you hate your video card too.

Edited by Jack Deth, 10 November 2011 - 10:25 PM.

[CaveMan]

juxstapo, on 10 November 2011 - 08:44 PM, said:

And I stake my imagination on it auto-darkening superfast.
Remember when that one blaster bolt splatted against Luke's snowspeeder canopy during the battle for Hoth? Thats what got me to thinking about this when I was a kid. "Coherent light" and "Transparent panel"... why didn't it just Blatt right into Luke's face?
Lower powered lasers would (in my mind) cause the struck panel of canopy to auto-darken itself, and perhaps suffer a puckered spot where the laser superheated a bit of it. Unless of course said blast was sufficiently powerful to just burn through the canopy completely.

I always painted my minis with mirrored or gold-plated cockpit glass, like spacesuit helmets, to keep out the radiation and laser glare. I figure it's also not glass or plastic but something like aluminum oxynitride anywhere from 3 to 6 inches thick, maybe laminated with a softer material to absorb energy.

For 'Mechs that don't have wraparound glass I'd imagine you probably have a big camera display or a direct overlay on your neurohelmet HUD. Personally I don't want to see Star Wars style free-floating holograms. HUDs should be projected on glass like the real thing, or maybe beamed into the pilot's retina.

[Nebfer]

Well one thing to note is in regular battletech their is no penalty for engaging targets behind you, even with units with not ability to directly see back their (i.e. how do you see behind you in a Timberwolf? -rhetorical). This tells us they can see back their.

Also their are a few units that have no known cockpit location (the Crab comes to mind), and many more with very limited vision from it's "windows". So many units seem to rely on camera displays of some sort. And we do know that many a mech uses a 360 display thats compressed to about 160 or so degrees. And a good number mention holographic targeting displays (particularly with the clans but IS units are mentioned to use it).

In many ways battlemechs have cockpits similar to current day fighters, some with helmet mounted sights.

Also aerospace fighters use full up helmet mounted HUDs (with regular instruments as back ups), with a number using a form of virtual reality displays (via their neuralhelmet -ASFs have them as well).