23 replies to this topic

[Clint Steel]

I love how the mechs are getting new passes on them to make the weapons they are carrying show up on the model. I do have a suggestion though, I would like to see the lasers stick out more depending on their size. This would do two things, one it would be even easier to see what a mech is using, and it would make the raven a little more aesthetically pleasing when running medium or large lasers in its arm (right now it looks a bit anemic).Some mechs get this on all laser sizes like, the Griffin Sparky, and the Shadow Hawk , with side torso lasers.

I did put together a quick pic to demonstrate what I mean, its pretty rough but gets the point across.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

That will be neat to see in the future, but it's likely to be a while to see another pass for Ravens until other mechs that haven't gotten a pass are taken care of first.

[Clint Steel]

Praetor Knight, on 23 September 2014 - 08:26 PM, said:

That will be neat to see in the future, but it's likely to be a while to see another pass for Ravens until other mechs that haven't gotten a pass are taken care of first.

True the Raven did just get its pass, I suppose I mean for this to be a system for all mechs. The Raven is just the one I think it makes the most difference on (I might be bias bit )

Edited by Clint Steel, 24 September 2014 - 05:12 AM.

[Zeus Mantium]

Nice

[MATRAKA14]

Why not use the old tubes just for LL, ERLL and LPL?

[Clint Steel]

MATRAKA14, on 24 September 2014 - 02:53 PM, said:

Why not use the old tubes just for LL, ERLL and LPL?

I would be fine with that too, though I was under the impression they are trying to standardise the looks of the weapons, so at a glance you know what they are using. But ya, they looked a lot better before.

[BadWolf13]

I think, the distinctive look of the raven is lost withour the tubes. The tubes are essential for the mech's look and part of the design, please bring them back, it's not a jenner.

[NautilusCommand]

MATRAKA14, on 24 September 2014 - 02:53 PM, said:

Why not use the old tubes just for LL, ERLL and LPL?

Why not just go back to these altogether, the new ones make the raven look stupid.

[Angel of Annihilation]

I would rather see them fix the visualization of weapons on the CTF. My CTF-3D always shows a UAC/5 in the arm no matter if I have a Guass or AC/10 fitted there and the right Torso always looks like it has an AC there, even though I don't mount one in the torso at all.

[BadWolf13]

The raven is my favourite mech, and it feels broken somehow

[Mudhutwarrior]

I would like to see a raven in a dress. Most of the councILL too.

[BadWolf13]

A dress would be somehow exaggerated

[Malcolm Vordermark]

Yeah, this change seemed unnecessary and unfortunate. I would like to see the lasers reverted to their old model.

[Clint Steel]

Rouken, on 06 October 2014 - 11:06 AM, said:

Yeah, this change seemed unnecessary and unfortunate. I would like to see the lasers reverted to their old model.

I really don't think they will revert them since they want the weapons to look the same on each mech. (next up is the Centurion, I'm a little scared about what they do with his arm, since it looks pretty cool right now but thats another subject)

They can tweak them a little and make them look better though (maybe even keep the old design, and just square off the barrels to make them lasers), look at the Shadow Hawk when he mounts lasers in his side torso, they stick out as far as ac5s do and look pretty decent, I'm not sure why the Raven didn't get the same treatment.

[Tristan Winter]

Clint Steel, on 07 October 2014 - 05:48 AM, said:

I really don't think they will revert them since they want the weapons to look the same on each mech.

Nah, they make exceptions. The lasers on the Orion and the CPLT-K2 arms look different than the regular cube lasers, for example.

They could make an exception for the Raven too.

[Wolfways]

Looks like any weapon with long "barrels" is getting replaced by these stubby things. It's making mechs look stupid imo

[BadWolf13]

Please give us back the old look of the tubes, maybe just for the right arm mounted weapons.

[FurnishedHydra2]

I'm also in favour of reverting the right arm lasers, at least for now. That specific look of the Raven's arms is pretty key to its design, since they don't have hand actuators. Like, I'm staring at it right now, to the left of this Reply field, in the fancy background art on these very forums; why mess with perfection, that is a very effective design! Ravens did not need to look more like Jenners -- you can only "standardize" so much before every 'Mech looks the bloody same.

Drop in a 3L now and the arm-mounted 2xERLL look significantly less menacing than the torso-mounted TAG. Seriously, the new torso laser hard point representation makes the TAG sort'a look like it's ready to mess you up. But the once-iconic main lasers... not so much.


It's just so not Raven.


If I may go on a tangent here: The last big change they made to the Raven after Beta was already a disappointment; making it so you can't apply camo to the laser casing on the right arm. The left arm ended up looking "okay" across the ballistic and missile hard points after the change, but the right arm looked way worse with so many places the camo suddenly didn't cover. Many of the newly updated 'Mechs with their standardized hard points don't have such distracting bald spots, so the Raven was already getting the short end of the stick there. Now with the stunted lasers... It's definitely not an improvement. Some of us do value the look of specific 'Mechs, and there was no real need to make this change for the worse.



Here's an old (way back in Beta) Raven, Sherman camo scheme with no bald spots; looks quite nice. Behold the fully camo-able right arm that so many of us miss so dearly! When they attempted the first wave of "visual standardization of weapons", they made it so you couldn't apply any camo to the guns or the gun barrels, along with a few of the other random parts, which really ruined a lot of the camo schemes. So this older shot really emphasizes how the visual changes (to the right arm, specifically) have not actually been improvements...

"Before" said:

I don't have my beta shots anymore, sadly. pic pulled from this thread:
http://mwomercs.com/...ame-paint-jobs/

And here's a recent CapCon Raven with bright Phranken camo, now complete with detracting camo bald spots and stunted lasers. I mean the bald spots were bad enough (if the missile/ballistic hard points on the left side could still have camo applied -- why not the right side, too?)... but now taking away the lasers? ...Why?

"After" said:

Seriously, take a gander at this other screenshot, and imagine how much worse it'd look were it taken now, with all those spots no longer having camo applied:
http://pumpgasracing...its/5-4/032.jpg


The Raven has always been my favourite 'Mech and aesthetic-related items are generally the only things I purchase in any F2P game. So when I was finally able to drop some cash on the game, I put it towards making my Raven cute. The new "visual standardization of weapons" is definitely making me regret the purchases though, I mean c'mon, this looks like they just stopped halfway through! It would've been significantly better to have done nothing...


Lately I was dropping with a camo scheme I was rather fond of that at least tried to incorporate the many bald spots... Considering the lasers and their casing could no longer have camo applied, I was doing okay with this blue/gray palette. You can see how the 'un-camo-able' laser barrels don't quite match the camo, and would better if they could have camo applied. But those lasers still really complete the Raven's look.

The Raven said:

...nevermore...?!

But camo aside, I have always hoped some sort of distinction would be made between the laser sizes on the Raven in the future. The LL and the SL could visually benefit from the distinction. If that's the end-game plan, I do think it's a good idea, and I understand what this latest change was trying to achieve as far as "standardizing" the weapons across all 'Mechs goes. But this latest change to the Raven's right arm just doesn't look good. Can we at least revert it to it's previous iteration in the meantime, please?


Ravens are losing a big part of their charm... They're no longer looking super cute in screenshots. This must be fixed!

[Kassatsu]

I can't remember the last time I piloted my Raven, but I too would love to see the laser barrels make a comeback. Without mounting dual PPCs in the right arm and still looking wrong.

Also the camo needs to come back to its right arm as well, I have no idea why it was removed to begin with.

I suppose one could argue for hitbox balancing that the barrels gave the arm too big of a profile (if they even HAD hitboxes), but you know what? I don't care. I doubt anybody else does either, in this case especially I'm willing to sacrifice a superficial balance issue that only even exists if you make it in favor of superior aesthetics.

[Thejuggla]

I want those long laser barrels the mad dog is suppose to have, like in the concept.