5 replies to this topic

[BlackAbbot]

As per the Dev blogs and videos, much has been made of the fact that a mech's arms can move and aim independently of it's torso, yet so far all the footage seems to feature only a fixed targeting reticule. Is there going to be an option for free targeting of arm weapons?

Obviously this would come with it's own set of problems, you'd need another set of control axes in addition to the plethora a mech already has and you'd have to have some sort of maximum traverse speed for the reticule based on the mech in the same way as turn and twist speeds exist and you'd probably still have to have a fixed reticule in place for fixed torso weapons, but I think it'd be worth the effort. I know I'd certainly be switching to a double joystick setup for that couple of degrees of tracking precision and twist it'd give you, not to mention the extra awesome of finally being able to use your arms for something useful instead of them just being a way of making your weapon spread higher.

[misher]

Lol are you trying to be Kai ******* Allard-Liao in his Yen Lo Wang? Sounds epic though and there seems to be ways it could be advantageous to multi target such as tagging one enemy while finishing another, or to use the SRM/other weapon bash that MWLL has to keep em both off balance.

Another way to implement this would be to multi-target like in the Macross VF multi missle function....or dare I say it,Freedom
2:30

[zencynic]

The only 'multi-targeting' I have seen in the Dev Videos so far is the simultaneous LRM launches against a targeted foe while using the HUD-centered reticule to pepper a closer enemy mech with medium lasers or AC/20. This is nice, but not really new. IIRC, you could do this in MW3-4.

I am keenly interested in how this will be implemented. If it's well done, it increases variety of chassis possible. Mech A and B might both be 50 tones with 6 Energy Hard points each, but if all 6 of A's are in the torso and all 6 of B's are in the arms, they might play differently.

[BlackAbbot]

This is one area where Clan mechs really do shine. Look at the Black Knight vs the Nova Cat for instance. Both around the same tonnage with a very similar weapons loadout, but the Nova Cat's are basically all in the arms whereas the Black Knight splits about 50/50 arms and torso. On the other hand this can also be a disadvantage as any weapon in your arms is much more vulnerable to being shot off, but while they're still there it should give you a much better field of fire. To be fair to the Black Knight though, the Nova Cat is a much later era mech and custom designed based on getting their arses handed to them at Tukayyid.

Edited by BlackAbbot, 25 June 2012 - 02:15 AM.

[BlackAbbot]

Future Perfect, on 07 July 2012 - 04:15 AM, said:

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Thank you for your most useful contribution to a thread up to this point.

[Gorondu]

As I remember in the battletech tabletop it was possible to shoot targets behind you with the weapons of one arm (e.g. torso rotated 90° right plus right arm rotated outwards 90°). This would make absolute sense to me. As my foreposter said, this would ad variety to the mechs which is always good.