My suggestions:
- Critical Damage Modeling: When a mech loses all armor from a component, bits of armor fall off the visual model, opening up big holes revealing the mech's working bits underneath. Burn through an enemy's CT armor, and they have a huge hole in their chest with the engine exposed inside; critically damage an opponent's leg and armor plates blow off showing the leg actuators with wires and myomers dangling out; break through an enemy's Head armor and the cockpit glass looks broken or smashed in, etc. etc. You get the point. Of course, losing armor bits might change the visual profile of the mech slightly if really big chunks are coming off, but it wouldn't have any affect on hitboxes.
- Fire, Sparks, Electrical bolts: This goes hand in hand with the Critical Damage modeling. Along with the critical damage modeling mentioned above, small parts of the mech would appear to be on fire, sparks would come out of damaged wires, and electrical bolts (the blue lines or whatever they're called, I'm not sure if there's a proper term for them) would run up and down crippled limbs or torso sections of the mech, or shoot out of holes in limbs.
Not only would damage modeling like this improve immersion and look pretty, it would also provide a tactical benefit, as you could examine an enemy's damage state by simply looking at their mech and seeing what looks damaged and what doesn't.
What do you think?
Edited by StompingOnTanks, 14 January 2014 - 09:57 PM.