66 replies to this topic

[Dr FeelBlue]

Why not just design newer mechs if you havent already. if you guess already, I have not been following forms very well. But basicly i love the old mechs and fans probably do to. but how about some fan art to help cut down on time. " Mech a competition" to see which Warrior has a good bases or concept to work with. Or just make one from scratch. At least this well help to pass the time and new concepts.

Edited by Silent Blues, 27 June 2012 - 01:46 PM.

[Spleenslitta]

I think this is a brilliant idea...Well to tell the truth i made the same suggestion a couple of days ago.

Entirely new mechs would be a great way to give the fans something to do while they wait to play the game.
Naturally only a very few people have the talent to fully design a mech and make it move so we would have to just make drawings and those that have the patience and skills could make the basic shape of the mech.

Then the dev's go over all the presented mechs and chose one which they tweak on until they are satisfied and put it into the game.
This way all there is no way the mech will turn out overpowered or something along those lines.

I used to be a member of a game forum for a mech MMO and they accepted fan made mechs.
In the end 3 fan inspired mechs made it into the game and one of them became the mech they put on the homepage.
That mech was actually crudely drawn with a pen by a fan and scanned. So simple.

Another fan got a job as a mech designer since his talents for making them were incredible.

Edited by Spleenslitta, 27 June 2012 - 01:55 PM.

[Fire for Effect]

There are enough Mechs already in existence. I recommend to add first the existing ones. As a part-time game master of the classic boardgame I can tell you there are many ways to design game breaking Mechs without any flaws. All classic mechs have some "flaws" or imperfections by design. These imperfection can and should be exploited in a game. Completely designing new Mechs from scratch is dangerous. In the classic game it is not without reason that all designs need game master approval.

[Freyar]

Because the lineup was already designed and written into lore. We're in the middle of established territory, adding things just randomly won't work.

[Spleenslitta]

Fire for Effect, on 27 June 2012 - 02:05 PM, said:

There are enough Mechs already in existence. I recommend to add first the existing ones. As a part-time game master of the classic boardgame I can tell you there are many ways to design game breaking Mechs without any flaws. All classic mechs have some "flaws" or imperfections by design. These imperfection can and should be exploited in a game. Completely designing new Mechs from scratch is dangerous. In the classic game it is not without reason that all designs need game master approval.

I'm sorry but that's not possible. Why?

Because the dev's would be the ones who decides on which mech they put into the game and furthermore they can tweak it till it satisfies them.
These new mechs wouldn't have any cons or pros this way. It's that simple.

Furthermore let me tell you something from experience. The game i was talking about had only +3000 members registered on the forums and yet those forums were very active back then due to one thing and one thing only.---
--The amateurs who started doing stuff in Blender and churning out mechs of all sizes and shapes.
I should know....i made one quad mech with arms and two turrets. Yes this wasn't part of the BT IP.
I also made a flying type mech and i had two more in the works...

Sadly this game was an indie game and didn't make it.

[Dr FeelBlue]

Fire for Effect, on 27 June 2012 - 02:05 PM, said:

There are enough Mechs already in existence. I recommend to add first the existing ones. As a part-time game master of the classic boardgame I can tell you there are many ways to design game breaking Mechs without any flaws. All classic mechs have some "flaws" or imperfections by design. These imperfection can and should be exploited in a game. Completely designing new Mechs from scratch is dangerous. In the classic game it is not without reason that all designs need game master approval.

Hey im just saying this as a suggestion and yes of coarse any prexisting mechs should be put in first, but the thing is is that Mwo is a new generation of Mechwarrior. Old fans already familier with the older mechs but why not come up with newer ones. That way old fans can explore a new toy.

[Spleenslitta]

Freyar, on 27 June 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

Because the lineup was already designed and written into lore. We're in the middle of established territory, adding things just randomly won't work.

They wouldn't be adding stuff randomly. The dev's could pick what looked promising and tweak it till they are satisfied.

[MrMasakari]

I do kinda agree, they should make new ones, but only once most of the others are in. They cannot just simply drop mechs into the game sadly. They need backstories and lore to go with them that is suitable and fits in with the BT universe. Otherwise it just doesn't fit in my opinion. Maybe they already have something planned, maybe not, only time will tell I guess.

Edited by Artaire, 27 June 2012 - 02:19 PM.

[light487]

I want this game to be a "Mechwarrior" game.. as in it being as canon as possible while still being fun and exciting.
While I like the idea of running a competition to design a new mech... I have to agree with the sentiment that adding a "new" mech style or type that doesn't fit with existing BT lore before adding more of the established and well known mechs would be a mistake. Even a year down the track they should ideally be still adding more of the established mechs.

One, and only one, user-designed mech maybe.. but it would need to have a good story behind it.. not just some nice looking stuff. It would have to fit in with the existing universe... it would have to look, smell, taste, feel like an original Mechwarrior mech.. and not be anything like an Armored Core mech, or a Gundam mech etc.... So the competition entries would need to include much more than just a simply design.

[Spleenslitta]

I just remembered something. The selection of mechs viable for MW:O is actually quite limited. Why?

Because every mech that has been added so far has at least three variants with tech appropriate to the time.
The variants can't have primitive tech or tech from beyond 3049. When you start looking at it that way the selection becomes narrowed quite a bit

[Spleenslitta]

light487, on 27 June 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

I want this game to be a "Mechwarrior" game.. as in it being as canon as possible while still being fun and exciting.
While I like the idea of running a competition to design a new mech... I have to agree with the sentiment that adding a "new" mech style or type that doesn't fit with existing BT lore before adding more of the established and well known mechs would be a mistake. Even a year down the track they should ideally be still adding more of the established mechs.

One, and only one, user-designed mech maybe.. but it would need to have a good story behind it.. not just some nice looking stuff. It would have to fit in with the existing universe... it would have to look, smell, taste, feel like an original Mechwarrior mech.. and not be anything like an Armored Core mech, or a Gundam mech etc.... So the competition entries would need to include much more than just a simply design.

True true....maybe they could have such a contest once a year. And to narrow things down they could add restricitions such as.-

-They want only light fan made mechs this year.
-The dev's writte down a backstory but leave a few holes open.
-It must be a chicken walker for example.
-ETC.

[light487]

I think initially the time will be 3049.. and then, I assume, that they will release a big patch down the line.. call it an expansion.. whatever.. that brings us up to 3058.. or as the time goes by, the years tick past till we get to and beyond 3058..

[Landeraxe]

I prefer to see the ones I played with when I played TT, Mech Warrior, and all of their later iterations. Anyone could throw together a big robot fighting game; It's that it's Battletech that gets me interested an involved. I think you'll find that is prevalent here.

[Dr FeelBlue]

light487, on 27 June 2012 - 02:32 PM, said:

I think initially the time will be 3049.. and then, I assume, that they will release a big patch down the line.. call it an expansion.. whatever.. that brings us up to 3058.. or as the time goes by, the years tick past till we get to and beyond 3058..

I like the time pass idea. Most games now a days are going into the future a bit.

[Spleenslitta]

Hmmm...i think the sceptics should go take a look at the talent on display in the fan art section. Nobody is making new mechs that i know of though.
But still....if those guys let their imaginations run free then the sky is the limit.

Come to think of it. Didn't EVE do such a contest?

Edited by Spleenslitta, 27 June 2012 - 02:42 PM.

[Dr FeelBlue]

If i could afford the some of the Adobe programs i'de be spaming the dev's with new mech ideas. sadly I have no money, job, and the right computer to process that much RAM for the program. But i do have a sketchbook to pull out.

Edited by Silent Blues, 27 June 2012 - 02:55 PM.

[MrMasakari]

Spleenslitta, on 27 June 2012 - 02:41 PM, said:

Hmmm...i think the sceptics should go take a look at the talent on display in the fan art section. Nobody is making new mechs that i know of though.
But still....if those guys let their imaginations run free then the sky is the limit.

Come to think of it. Didn't EVE do such a contest?

No-ones being skeptical about the talent of the community. The community is amazing. Not doubting that at all. I just think this whole thing won't really be considered by PGI for a while until people start getting bored of the battle tech mechs. So far everyone is just requesting mechs from BT universe and not really anything new. And I think it will be like that for a while until at least the unseen and the clan mechs are put in, maybe much much longer.

PGI have got a lot on their plate for now, but please do keep reminding them with this idea

Edited by Artaire, 27 June 2012 - 02:56 PM.

[Spleenslitta]

Silent Blues, on 27 June 2012 - 02:46 PM, said:

If i could afford the some of the Adobe programs i'de be spaming the dev's with new mech ideas. sadly I have no money, job, and the right computer to process that much RAM for the program. But i do have a sketchbook to wipe out.

I used Blender. It's kinda clunky though and i never managed to learn how to do textures. Selfthought you see...

I remember how i got the idea for a big plasma cannon with three different coolant systems on it.
There were wires, cooling fans, vents and no less than four coolant pumps modeled after a waterpump from the 60's on that cannon.

Then there was that gyro jet cannon....kinda like a combination between a gauss rifle and a rocket launcher....
i made it with revolving chambers and a reinforced barrel. Looked kinda like a revolver with a huge long barrel on it.

Those were the days....[siiiighs].

Artaire, on 27 June 2012 - 02:55 PM, said:

No-ones being skeptical about the talent of the community. The community is amazing. Not doubting that at all. I just think this whole thing won't really be considered by PGI for a while until people start getting bored of the battle tech mechs. So far everyone is just requesting mechs from BT universe and not really anything new. And I think it will be like that for a while until at least the unseen and the clan mechs are put in, maybe much much longer.

Mhhmm....[nods head].

Now that i think of it...i think i'll try to find a thread were a guy did an extensive list on all the mechs that had enough variants in it to be viable for MW:O.
I think the conclusion he arrived at was really surprising and he did deeeeeeep research on that subject. Very thorough guy.

[MrMasakari]

Hell all you have to do to see how amazing the MW community is, is to just look at mektek and the living legends team. Maybe Piranha should get them onboard huh.

[Spleenslitta]

Artaire, on 27 June 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

Hell all you have to do to see how amazing the MW community is, is to just look at mektek and the living legends team. Maybe Piranha should get them onboard huh.

As i stated earlier i know one brilliant mech designer who was just a fan once.
He got a job just like that after he turned out no less than 2 mechs in record time and one of those was accepted into the game.
It had so many details. He even had multiple bolts keeping each of the armor plates in place. Simply amazing i tell you.....Stunning....

Edited by Spleenslitta, 27 June 2012 - 03:09 PM.