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My idea for a solution: Heavy & Assault mechs should be bigger!
When I launch matches and start roaming around places like Crimson Straights & River City and see cars and excavators (bulldozers if you prefer) and size them up to my mech I realize that mechs, especially the 60-100 tonners, need to be much larger.
Even in a dystopian future such as the world of BattleTech, you would certainly have lighter materials for vehicle construction: special lightweight alloys for internal structure, composite armor plating, etc.
The weapons systems also do not appear to be scaling to what they actually weigh. LRMs are an excellent example.
I believe the mismatch in scaling is what's making a Centurion & Shadowhawk virtually the same height and volume as most of the Heavy & Assault class mechs.
The solution isn't to make things smaller, especially in regard to the objects around the maps, but to make the mechs larger.
When you compare the Locust to an Atlas, you don't get the impression that the Atlas has 5 times the volume. The Atlas appears to be roughly 3 times the volume when stood next to each other.. Even comparing 50 ton mechs to a 100 ton Atlas leaves something to be desired from a volume standpoint. You need room for 2 cockpits, twice the internals, twice the armor, etc.
If you make the lighter and medium mechs smaller compared to the heavy and assaults, the various structures and vehicles on the ground in maps would seem outrageously large in comparison.
The most obvious offender to he whole scaling system is the Jagermech. Stood next to a Centurion, the Jagermech looks virtually the same weight. The Thunderbolt, at 5 tons lighter, looks almost 15 tons heavier compared to the Jager. Compared to an Atlas, the Jager at 70 tons looks nearly half the weight of the 100 tonner.
The second most obvious offender of the scaling system is the Spider. From a volume perspective, the Spider appears to be virtually the same weight as the Commando, which is 10 tons ligher.
In my opinion the entire scaling system needs a programming and graphic pass. Each class of mechs (Light, Med, Heavy, Assault) should be scaled within their classes. And then, each class should be scaled within the entire system.
20-30 ton Light mechs should be roughly half the size of the 50-55 tonners. Medium mechs should be roughly half the size of the 90-100 tonners. Thus, boosting the size of the Heavy & Assault class mechs would achieve this and properly scale the entire canon of mechs to what the various structures and vehicles in the maps show.
Edited by Swervedriver, 01 November 2013 - 09:47 AM.
