Karl Streiger, on 03 June 2019 - 11:52 AM, said:
well, modding might be indeed a possible option for us MechNerds.
The question is if self created mechs can be rigged into MW5.
If so maybe instead of hoping for PGI to do a Mech ask a talented 3D artist to do it and hope the best for the mod.
Of course it would be more expensive than to buy a single licence (but for example at cgtrader there is robotize with great looking me gs or the guy - forgot the name (search for swashbuckler)
or some other guys out there - maybe its better to find 100 whales that offer 5-10 bucks for the faith to have it as a mod instead of hoping that PGI will deliver.
As far as rigging goes, we already know that mechs of different weight classes can share animations sets. It's probably a matter of "assign this modded mech this skeleton/animation set". The animation data moves the rigging bones in a certain way, regardless of size, so a Wasp could easily use the standard humanoid animation set just fine, for example.
As for getting mechs made as mods, I'd say it depends on what is involved. Have you seen the kinds of mods created on places like Nexus; and at most they might ask for some minor donation to support their hobby/passion/resume (some creators literally use modding to build a resume, so it's high quality work they're putting out). If there's a talented modder that makes a mech for themselves, and is willing to share it on a place like Nexus, then you can bet it'll probably end up there..
There's also kit-bashing possibilities out there. Depending on how easily models can be exported from the game and put into an editor, it's possible that many MANY modded mechs will be made strictly out of kitbashing resources. Granted, they might not be as pretty as something made from scratch, but if I could get a Mongoose or Wasp that looked "good enough" and had reasonable hardpoint setups, then I'd be thrilled.
Just look at what is already available for HBS Battletech . . . almost every MWO mech has been created as fan-based mods for the game. Even some homemade mechs have appeared, as well (some appear kitbashed, others homemade). All of that is done without any official modding support. PGI is actually providing modding support for MW5.
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