21 replies to this topic

[Lockehart]

Sorry I'm a little new here so I apologize if I've missed this information anywhere, but I was watching the MechLab footage and it seems that the character models stay exactly the same regardless of what weapons you're equipping on your mech. Are there any plans to render individual weapons accurately in their equipped locations, whether at launch or after? Because if not, that is a HUGE missed opportunity and bums me out substaintially.

Certainly not enough to NOT play, but enough to take some of the realism out of the sails of the game for me, personally. =P

Thanks in advance for any info!!

[Anixantheas]

I personally hope they change with the load-out. Id rather not see PPC blasts coming from a missile rack, ya know like the ones on the shoulders of the Catapult.

[Reported for Inappropriate Name]

i sure hope so

[Lockehart]

@anixantheas Exactly, that'd be extremely disheartening, expecially considering the huge amount of consideration most players will be putting into their mech loadouts. I guess we'll see what happens huh? =)

[Buzzkillin]

Dev's already said you need the right variant type to support certain weapons. Should be screen shots of a catapults with missile racks and with beam cannons to support different weapons.

Edited by Buzzkillin, 26 June 2012 - 02:00 PM.

[Twisted Power]

You need to buy the other varient of the mech. There is a varient with 2 PPC's in place of a catapults LRM racks, you cannot do that on the stock or founders Catapult because it has different hardpoints.

[Ranek Blackstone]

Twisted Power, on 26 June 2012 - 02:02 PM, said:

You need to buy the other varient of the mech. There is a varient with 2 PPC's in place of a catapults LRM racks, you cannot do that on the stock or founders Catapult because it has different hardpoints.

This. I had a cata K-2 as my wallpaper for a long time. It replaces the LRMs and jumpjets with PPCs and more armor.

[Voyager I]

Different official variants of mechs have their own models. The Catapult K-2 has very large PPC mounts in places of its missile pods, for example. Similarly, the Swayback has a visible battery of lasers in its shoulder mount, rather than one enormous cannon. Weapons are also restricted by hardpoint type, so a missile rack will only fire missiles, and missiles cannot be fired out of anything that isn't a missile rack. Ditto for the other weapon categories.

However, thus far we have not seen mech appearances changing dynamically to reflect the modification of individual weapons. Replacing a small laser with a PPC does not cause the mech to grow a corresponding giant cannon. Similarly, replacing the K-2's PPCs with something less massive won't cause the model to change to something else.

[Name48928]

Answer is in the Dev Blogs.

[Silversteel]

It was said somewhere that the model will change but the dev also said that u wont be able to spot the difference between a medium and large laser jsut by looking at it. guess you have to wait for it to shoot to see the difference.

[Sabastion]

I think the Assault vid has the K2 in it. I haven''t seen a normal catapult in the vids yet though.

[Lockehart]

Thanks for all the information everyone; I appreciate it. =)

[Archer Christofori]

The models do change, check the heavy mech demo featuring the Catapult and you can see them swapping the LRM packs for a pair lasers and the missile pods sprout laser cannons from them.

[BlackMoore]

Voyager I, on 26 June 2012 - 02:04 PM, said:

Different official variants of mechs have their own models. The Catapult K-2 has very large PPC mounts in places of its missile pods, for example. Similarly, the Swayback has a visible battery of lasers in its shoulder mount, rather than one enormous cannon. Weapons are also restricted by hardpoint type, so a missile rack will only fire missiles, and missiles cannot be fired out of anything that isn't a missile rack. Ditto for the other weapon categories.

However, thus far we have not seen mech appearances changing dynamically to reflect the modification of individual weapons. Replacing a small laser with a PPC does not cause the mech to grow a corresponding giant cannon. Similarly, replacing the K-2's PPCs with something less massive won't cause the model to change to something else.

This

[Hexenhammer]

The Catapult K2 needs to look like this or it will destroy the illusion of a sim.

[Theodor Kling]

Buying different variants for different hard points is all fine... so is not seeing the difference between a medium andlarge laser at once. But in the mech lab video we see a AC20 beeing replaced by a AC5 without any visual change on the mech, which I think should be there.

[Aesaar]

Hexenhammer, on 30 June 2012 - 09:11 AM, said:

The Catapult K2 needs to look like this or it will destroy the illusion of a sim.

*picture*

You do realise that's an ingame screenshot, right? The proof that the K2 looks like that is right there.

[Project_Mercy]

Theodor Kling, on 30 June 2012 - 09:33 AM, said:

Buying different variants for different hard points is all fine... so is not seeing the difference between a medium andlarge laser at once. But in the mech lab video we see a AC20 beeing replaced by a AC5 without any visual change on the mech, which I think should be there.

Why? The thing with autocannons is that they run the gamut of fuel-propelled guns. Some of them will fire a single round. Others will fire a series of rounds. Bore size varies greatly. The only commonality is that they do X damage to an area. You can't really tell from the barrel exactly what it is. Once you start getting into more specific technology (Such as LB-X autocannons or gatling cannons), then you could technically start to stabilize the design, but the muzzle differences are still dynamic.

[Voyager I]

From a gameplay standpoint, you want your players to be able to recognize what they're fighting so they can make informed decisions. It's hard for strategy to develop if the player doesn't have information to base it off of. For little weapons, this isn't a terribly big deal. The difference between a Medium Laser and a Small Laser or the exact number of either probably isn't going to define how you approach the encounter, unless it's something like the Swayback which has gobs of them. Conversely, "big" weapons like an AC/20 will absolutely set the tone of a fight. That's a big fat "don't let me get near you" sign, and it's something players need to be aware of. The Swayback, for example, has a visually different model to let you know that you aren't fighting a regular Hunchback and you should adapt accordingly.

The problem is that sometimes, even with the stock model, that AC/20 isn't an AC/20. Maybe you're hanging back only to discover that oops! It's actually a Gauss Rifle! Turns out you needed to be hauling *** to get close on him because he wants to plink at you from range. Or maybe there's nothing in the shoulder at all and those dinky Medium Lasers on his arms are actually a pair of PPCs, and his resemblance to what we think of as a Hunchback is essentially superficial.


Now, this isn't necessarily a critical issue. In fact, there could even be arguments against making things too easy to read. It's pretty believable that a distant silhouette might not tell you more than "he's got a big gun on that arm", and one of the game's major design goals is to emphasize the importance of scouting. Part of a good scout's job is getting a look at the enemy loadouts so he tell you if that's a stock Catapult or a sneaky ******* boated out with SRMs just waiting for some sucker to try to get the drop on him. Eventually, you'll just get targeting information yourself with a full readout. And, of course, whatever he's packing, it's only a surprise the first time he fires.

Edited by Voyager I, 30 June 2012 - 10:29 AM.

[Vashts1985]

Anixantheas, on 26 June 2012 - 01:56 PM, said:

I personally hope they change with the load-out. Id rather not see PPC blasts coming from a missile rack, ya know like the ones on the shoulders of the Catapult.

but the catapult has missile racks already