18 replies to this topic

[Sergeant Miles]

I have a cat 3D and even when I don't have an AC in the torso.. it still shows one. Also, no matter what guns are in the right arm.. the arm never seem to chance to match the various weapons??? I know this has been an issue with other mech's . When will this issue with the Mech's weapons matching what has been selected going to be completely fixed?

[Ironwithin]

The Cataphract and others like the Centurion are rather "old" models. Those shiny modular weapon-visuals on some of the 'mechs are a rather new feature.

PGI said some time back that they'd revisit the older guys and give them a tune-up and they did so with the Atlas already, probably because of the hero-Atlas, but also with the Catapult.

So the 'phract will get it's turn in due time, I'm sure.

[Sergeant Miles]

Baaaa.. I'm not even a pro model maker.. but I know that remaking this model and doing it so it reflects what is installed on it is EASIER then coming out with whole new Mech's. POOR reason for the not to be done already. This Mech has been out for a long time. This should have been a no brainer.. just do it. and do it right the first time!!

[Ironwithin]

PGI is not terribly big on manpower, there are other things that need development time too and are higher priority than visual improvements to 'mechs that work perfectly fine without them. So have some patience and mind your manners a little.

[Durant Carlyle]

It's not like this is a bug. It's something they don't need to do at all -- the Cataphract and other 'Mechs would look and perform perfectly fine even if they decided not to do any more visual customization passes.

They will continue to do those passes on older 'Mechs slowly, maybe one or two at a time, while still working on other 'Mechs and artwork.

Why? Because new 'Mechs make money. Visual customization passes don't make them money. Which do you think they are going to prioritize?

[Koniving]

Jenner's getting the next pass. Words in the quickfire ATD 50. "We're doing an art pass on one mech per month."

[Deathlike]

Koniving, on 21 November 2013 - 09:48 PM, said:

Jenner's getting the next pass. Words in the quickfire ATD 50. "We're doing an art pass on one mech per month."

Well, they have like 11 to 13 mechs to get it all done, so that's literally another year to get that completed...

[kuangmk11]

Be careful what you wish for. Look what they did to the catapult.

[Durant Carlyle]

It will be interesting to see what they do to my favorite 'Mech in the game (Jenner).

[Bront]

Koniving, on 21 November 2013 - 09:48 PM, said:

Jenner's getting the next pass. Words in the quickfire ATD 50. "We're doing an art pass on one mech per month."

Sure it's not the Hunchie? It's one of those two, and likely a hero to go along with it.

[Koniving]

Bront, on 22 November 2013 - 10:25 AM, said:

Sure it's not the Hunchie? It's one of those two, and likely a hero to go along with it.

Which is on sale? Hunch or a Jenner? But aside from that I imagine the Jenner would take less work. In comparison the Hunchback has many variants with very unique geometry on each (it's why it is so great with Buccaneer!). I'm not really sure if they would know how to 'attach' things. Just imagine a 4G hunch with 2 pods attached to it.

Or a 4J with an extra launcher.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Koniving, on 22 November 2013 - 03:39 PM, said:

Or a 4J with an extra launcher.

I would imagine that they would do more like they did with the catapult - rather than that image that keeps floating around.
(did people really expect it not to look modded? If you are adding more weapons to an existing design... it probably isn't going to look nice!)

[Sable Dove]

Koniving, on 22 November 2013 - 03:39 PM, said:

Which is on sale? Hunch or a Jenner? But aside from that I imagine the Jenner would take less work. In comparison the Hunchback has many variants with very unique geometry on each (it's why it is so great with Buccaneer!). I'm not really sure if they would know how to 'attach' things. Just imagine a 4G hunch with 2 pods attached to it.

Or a 4J with an extra launcher.

[Koniving]

Oddly enough seen that picture -- but it had a different number of tubes.

[Ironwithin]

Sable Dove, on 22 November 2013 - 04:20 PM, said:

That'd be SO cool.
But more likely they just switch out the tube-texture with more or less tubes to show different launchers and don't do much else to the boombox. I'm more intrested in how giant PPCs will look on the tiny arms.

[Victor Morson]

Sergeant Miles, on 21 November 2013 - 03:08 PM, said:

Baaaa.. I'm not even a pro model maker.. but I know that remaking this model and doing it so it reflects what is installed on it is EASIER then coming out with whole new Mech's. POOR reason for the not to be done already. This Mech has been out for a long time. This should have been a no brainer.. just do it. and do it right the first time!!

Except originally it wasn't a planned feature at all. The only thing that was originally planned to change was the missile tube count.

Also.. it's not recycling the art from the looks but redoing the art for each type of gun, on each mech, so it's actually a sizable amount of modeling work.

Edited by Victor Morson, 22 November 2013 - 10:45 PM.

[Josef Koba]

For the most part I really love the improved models; it's good to see what a mech has equipped and it adds (for me at least) to the immersion. That said, I think there are some legitimate gripes with the new Catapult models (like, why, if having more than one launcher mean that my ground crew MUST install them outside the doors, do I still have to open the doors to fire? They're already exposed!), and I'm sure there will be some complaints with future model improvements. Personally, I love what they've done with the art in this game. I didn't realize how dated some of the canonical pictures were until I saw the new ones. They still keep close to the spirit, but they don't looks so cheesy-80s sci-fi.

[Wildstreak]

Sergeant Miles, on 21 November 2013 - 03:08 PM, said:

Baaaa.. I'm not even a pro model maker.. but I know that remaking this model and doing it so it reflects what is installed on it is EASIER then coming out with whole new Mech's. POOR reason for the not to be done already. This Mech has been out for a long time. This should have been a no brainer.. just do it. and do it right the first time!!

Then I can only guess you are not looking at it right.

I am not a pro model maker but have dabbled in it and studied from people better than me. From what I know, I will show you one example why it is NOT as easy as you think.

Let's take one variant, Hunchback 4J such as Sable Dove's picture:

Sable Dove, on 22 November 2013 - 04:20 PM, said:

OK, a bit extreme, already the 4J has 20 tubes.

Now, let's start with the missile launchers. 20 tubes already, you can swap the 2 LRM10s for 1 LRM20 without a hassle. Want a second launcher on top of that? Another 20 requires going near the bottom on engine sizes and perhaps stripping off some armor in addition to doubling Hunch size, even an LRM5 would make the Hunch bigger.

What if you swap in 2SRM6s instead? Hunch should decrease sensibly.

That's just the Missile launchers, what about the Energy points? Ironwithin mentioned putting PPCs in the arms, that is true for all Hunchies especially the 4SP that has 2 Energy per arm while the others have 1.

Next consider the RT Energy mounts. In the quoted picture, you see the 3MLs under the Missiles, what if one of them becomes a LL or PPC? Does it stay down there or get moved up top?

Most of this is just for the 4J, now expand onto the other variants.

I saw someone drive a 4P with 9LL, picture all those LLs and how they would look on a 4P model.

How about a 4G with 3 AC/2s? 3MGs and big Energy?

A 4SP with 2LRM10s? Obviously slightly bigger side Hunchs (Hunchies?).

4H with 1 AC/2 or AC/5 and some big Energy somewhere? What goes on the RT shoulder and what stays down below?

Any Hunchback can be turned into a Laserboat, what does that look like?

Just picturing the many ways things can turn out takes time then you have to figure out how to implement them.

I remember when the Highlander came out, it had the appearance change based on weapons and they had problems displaying Missile tubes correctly. Some people tried putting on max SRM6 launchers but did not get enough tubes.

Not as easy even for pros to get everything right when you look at the various possibilities that can happen given all the hardpoints.

Though it will be interesting seeing those big LRM15 & 20 boats displayed properly such as a 5 LRM20 Stalker 5M or 4 LRM15 Awesome 8R. Don't think I have seen anyone try making a close to accurate image of those, just for the AWS-8R, I think it would wind up with a Hunch in each side torso. LRM Stalkers become easy targets to hit.

[Sable Dove]

Koniving, on 22 November 2013 - 05:12 PM, said:

Oddly enough seen that picture -- but it had a different number of tubes.

My original version was just two 20-tube launchers. I thought this one was funnier.

Ironwithin, on 22 November 2013 - 05:17 PM, said:

That'd be SO cool.
But more likely they just switch out the tube-texture with more or less tubes to show different launchers and don't do much else to the boombox. I'm more intrested in how giant PPCs will look on the tiny arms.

Have you seen the Catapult? Extra launchers everywhere!

Merchant, on 23 November 2013 - 02:07 PM, said:

Then I can only guess you are not looking at it right.

I am not a pro model maker but have dabbled in it and studied from people better than me. From what I know, I will show you one example why it is NOT as easy as you think.

Let's take one variant, Hunchback 4J such as Sable Dove's picture:


OK, a bit extreme, already the 4J has 20 tubes.

Now, let's start with the missile launchers. 20 tubes already, you can swap the 2 LRM10s for 1 LRM20 without a hassle. Want a second launcher on top of that? Another 20 requires going near the bottom on engine sizes and perhaps stripping off some armor in addition to doubling Hunch size, even an LRM5 would make the Hunch bigger.

What if you swap in 2SRM6s instead? Hunch should decrease sensibly.

That's just the Missile launchers, what about the Energy points? Ironwithin mentioned putting PPCs in the arms, that is true for all Hunchies especially the 4SP that has 2 Energy per arm while the others have 1.

Next consider the RT Energy mounts. In the quoted picture, you see the 3MLs under the Missiles, what if one of them becomes a LL or PPC? Does it stay down there or get moved up top?

Most of this is just for the 4J, now expand onto the other variants.

I saw someone drive a 4P with 9LL, picture all those LLs and how they would look on a 4P model.

How about a 4G with 3 AC/2s? 3MGs and big Energy?

A 4SP with 2LRM10s? Obviously slightly bigger side Hunchs (Hunchies?).

4H with 1 AC/2 or AC/5 and some big Energy somewhere? What goes on the RT shoulder and what stays down below?

Any Hunchback can be turned into a Laserboat, what does that look like?

Just picturing the many ways things can turn out takes time then you have to figure out how to implement them.

I remember when the Highlander came out, it had the appearance change based on weapons and they had problems displaying Missile tubes correctly. Some people tried putting on max SRM6 launchers but did not get enough tubes.

Not as easy even for pros to get everything right when you look at the various possibilities that can happen given all the hardpoints.

Though it will be interesting seeing those big LRM15 & 20 boats displayed properly such as a 5 LRM20 Stalker 5M or 4 LRM15 Awesome 8R. Don't think I have seen anyone try making a close to accurate image of those, just for the AWS-8R, I think it would wind up with a Hunch in each side torso. LRM Stalkers become easy targets to hit.

Sadly, as seen with the Catapult (and Atlas, and I think the Kintaro?), every hardpoint gets its own box, regardless of size. So in order to equip two SRM2s on the HBK-4J, it would require a second launcher.

Of course, I'm just exaggerating (I hope); Odds are that the 4J's launcher will simply be divided into two launchers with 10 tubes (max) each, similar to the Atlas' 10/5/5 (or 6/6/6 for SRMs) launchers. It's most likely that the 4J will retain its current hunch as the maximum, and hopefully removing the missiles will reduce the hunch size instead of just covering the tubes.

I am interested to see how the 4J handles triple-PPCs (or quad-PPC for the 4P, no matter how impractical it is).

Also, judging from previous mechs, having large lasers will not change the model at all. Only PPCs and Flamers get their own models.


It's kinda dumb that putting a LRM 10+ into a 6-tube launcher only gives 5 tubes. 6/4 or 6/6/3 are better patterns than 5/5 or 5/5/5 for LRMs.