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The Kintaro has been addressed and cleaned up, (TY PGI) but I feel the Orion could benefit from a more intelligent hitbox system itself. Outside of the Orion itself there are a few other mechs that could vastly benefit as well.
The simple easiest way to fix all mechs is apply these rules:
Rule 1: Destroying the Legs on a mech shouldn't kill it. The only way to kill a mech should be by killing it's engine or by killing the pilot (Head location).
Killing the legs shouldn't kill your mech. Only killing the Engine should kill your mech.
Kill 1 Leg - Reduces you to 15% movement for 5 secs then you are permanently reduced to 50% top speed. Additional hits on the legs won't hamper your speed at all.
Kill 2 legs - Knocks you down, you get back up and you are permanently reduced to 15% top speed for the rest of the game.
So yes, though it makes legs easier to hit but what it also does is makes your mech almost twice as hard to kill, even more so if they have a STD engine as once you kill a location it transfers damage inward to the CT.
Legs -> Side Torso -> CT.
Easy to Crack, Hard to kill.
Rule 2: A Mechs Center Torso hitbox should be equal or smaller than than the Side torsos
Now that we've extablished what needs to happen lets break down what the problem is in it's most basic form:
1. The Center Torso is the easiest location to hit on a mech.
Part of this issue is the Pelvis / Pelvic Area being counted as the CT
See here? I am torso twisted almost 120 degree's away from my attacker and they can still hit my ct, so all the torso twisting in the world means very little in this game which can end up being quite frustrating.
The best mechs with the best hitboxes as always the mechs where the CT is the equal to or smaller than the side torsos and ear marks them as a mech capable of taking damage and still remaining on their feet.
Not because they have more armor than another mech of it's size but because you have to peel it like an onion.
Arm --> Side torso --> Then finally CT.
All mechs should be set up a lot like this, especially when that players is doing he should be doing: Rolling the Torso.
Where a huge amount of the problem comes in, and this very much means you Mr. Orion is that even after you roll the torso people are still able to hit that massive Center Torso. Either by nailing that mech in the pelvic / pelvis area or by directly shooting the mechs Center torso because the arms / side torso's do not adequately cover the CT.
Lets get into some examples.
Here is what the Orion looks like right now:
As you can see that Torso is MASSIVE, more to the point even if trying to roll torso solves nothing as the Center torso still sticks out up above the torsos.
Even on both sides does the Center torso still stick out as absurdly big.
The rear torso has got to be one of the absolute worst hit boxes ever. That rear torso is Massive.
As you can see the Orion itself has a lot of problems with it. The Orion battlemech was renown for being tough, a good brawler and an excellent jack of all trades able to operate at any range.
But despite having 14 tons worth of armor the Orion dies after 75 points of damage because the CT is so large that enemy players can't help but hit it. Even good players that try and roll torso are still getting rocked directly in the CT.
There is some straight up realities when it comes to the Orion. The Orion doesn't make a good hill humper. The Jagermech, K2, Blackjack and others are always better. Like the Atlas the Orion has to expose a significant amount of it's torso to be able to clear the guns. And with the Orions massive "Forecastle" or hull that sticks up above making it a magnet for enemy fire.
But there are times when an Orion pilot is forced in that situation and simply has to make the best of it. I get it.
But that doesn't mean that we can't design intelligent hitboxes allowing the player to work within those limitations.
Lets look at how the Orion should be.
As you can see here the pelvis / pelvic area is split between the legs, as it should be. The side torso's are slightly bigger from the front and visually from the the front there isn't a whole lot of change. Anyone firing at the orion center mass will hit the CT.
Here is where the big change happens.
As we turn to the side we see that the actual side of what used to be the CT is now the Right torso. As it should be. If you compare to the picture above of the same view you can see what a massive change this make. Even from a 3/4 side view the CT is no longer the biggest hitbox but instead the Right torso is, as it should be.
Also you can see how the arm hitboxes stretch up the side of the left torso, this also makes sense as the shoulder actuators are housed there allowing a more intelligent and progressive hitbox view. As i said above, more peeling an Onion and rewards a pilot for torso twisting.
Now from the other side. This begins to just make all sorts of sense. The upper part of missile box now becomes part of the shoulder of the arm hitbox. The left torso now takes up what used to be part of the Center torso and allows a pilot to roll torso to spread damage.
Lastly what we see here is the rear torso.
Now there is no helping it, that rear side of the mech is one big billboard of space, but what we can do is be a little smarter about it by at least making the Rear Center Torso equal to the side torso's or smaller. Losing a side torso doesn't kill you (Unless you have a XL which is a risk you took when you bought it) but loosing the Rear Center torso will.
Peeling an Onion.
What the idea behind intelligent hitboxes means is essentially the "VIEW" you are looking at a mech should present the largets hitbox to be hit.
If I am looking at you directly from the left, the Left arm should be the biggest hitbox.
If I am looking at you from Front left, the Left torso should be the biggest hitbox.
If I am looking at you from straight on, the Center torso should be equal or smaller than the side torso's.
See where I am getting at?
Now if we take this design philosophy and lets apply it to a few other mechs.
The Dragon
As you can see here i made the ARM big taking up a big chunch of what used to be the side torso but also I extended that side torso down cover the left side of the mech.
It's OK to make Arms too big. Everyone expects arms to get blown off, it's apart of the Mechwarrior.
Why? Because once that arm does get blown off continued hits there will be transferred to the side torso. The target isn't taking less damage, he is still taking that damage but ultimately his mech is just becoming easier to crack but hard to kill.
Lets look at another example.
Cicada
See here on the cicada what I did, I made the Arm hit box a part of the side of the mech. It makes sense because that's where the Shoulder is, but also it makes sense because it gives cicada pilots a reason to pack armor in their arms.
Before arms were essentially useless as they never took a hit and did little to help the survivablity of the mech.
Next I extended the torso's down to be apart of the CT but like the orion in such a way as to be intelligent so it's only the biggest hitbox exposed when you are looking at it from that view.
The pelvis / pelvic area is also split between the legs as it should be.
I think the hitboxes on the cicada are very important as we have the locust comming out next month and it's design follows after the cicada in so many ways.
Last mech i'm showing
The Jenner.
Like the cicada's arms people finally have a reason to put armor on the jenners torso so the CT doesn't take the brunt of the damage.
Straight on of course the Jenner ct is at it's biggest, but this at least allows Jenner pilots to torso twist to start soaking damage in other locations.
So by this point probably a lot of people may not like this idea because they feel it will ruin a lot of their builds that rely upon XL engines.
Yes and No, The XL engine has always been a risk. A valid one because you save lots and lots tonnage by using it, but also and more to the point the Standard Engine will be a Valid choice as well.
The Combination of intelligent hitboxes and a Standard engine even a jenner could absorb an impressive amount of damage before finally going down. (Not HSR ghost damage either)
Feel free to post up your thoughts, but at the very least I hope it gets PGI thinking about hitboxes and the future.
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EDIT: Putting all mech designs for hitboxes located here:
Edited by Carrioncrows, 22 October 2013 - 01:02 AM.
