32 replies to this topic

[Karyudo ds]

I just want to be able to do something with hands. The anime mechs just looked stupid to me by the rules because they had HANDS but apparently the weapon was welded in as the rules didn't let them drop or swap them.

One thing that's bothered me about every MW game is that the hands did nothing in game at all. One reason MW4 seemed to lean away from having them. So I hope that mechs have and can use them. Options are nice.

[Jack Deth]

Hands on Mechs are great! How else am I supposed to club someone with their own leg?

[Xhaleon]

You know, I can almost see it now.

Pony up $1.50, and you can use the "Flip the Bird" emote at your enemies! For another measly $1.00, we'll throw in Jumping Jacks too!

[Dihm]

Karyudo-ds, on 29 November 2011 - 09:48 PM, said:

I just want to be able to do something with hands. The anime mechs just looked stupid to me by the rules because they had HANDS but apparently the weapon was welded in as the rules didn't let them drop or swap them.

One thing that's bothered me about every MW game is that the hands did nothing in game at all. One reason MW4 seemed to lean away from having them. So I hope that mechs have and can use them. Options are nice.

That's a valid complaint. Keep in mind however, that in the larger universe of Battletech, functional hands/manipulators DO get a lot of use. It is just a limitation of our games which depict that universe. What the hands STILL do in the games though, is make the mechs look like they should. If any of that made any sense.

[Quinn Allard]

I think the art is making me upset...is anyone seeing the mech as a living thing? Instead of a giant war machine piloted by a human? All I can thnk of is Gundam when I look at the new art. The mechs need to behave as they did in MW2, more mechanical and brute. Art of mechs squating and rushing/turning makes me nervous that its going to remind me of games like Heavy Gear, Gundam, and Amored Core. More anime if you will.

[Saurok]

Quinn Allard, on 01 December 2011 - 12:04 PM, said:

I think the art is making me upset...is anyone seeing the mech as a living thing? Instead of a giant war machine piloted by a human? All I can thnk of is Gundam when I look at the new art. The mechs need to behave as they did in MW2, more mechanical and brute. Art of mechs squating and rushing/turning makes me nervous that its going to remind me of games like Heavy Gear, Gundam, and Amored Core. More anime if you will.

That is how BattleTech has always been.

Being humanoid is what makes BattleMech stand out from MBT's.

[Quinn Allard]

I guess what Im trying to say is this is not the Mechwarrior or BT generation. Its the relaunched Transformers generation. So try to set us apart from Transformers.

[Datum]

Hands are a lot more practical outside of combat, so if you're not fighting you can use it for logistical purposes, i.e. heavy lifting.
Also you can pick up tree trunks and iron girders for melee combat.
I do admit that it looks much cooler to taper your forearms into gun barrels, but it makes a bit more sense to have hands on the side as well.

[Bear Shaman]

Quinn, that topic has come up a few times, and the most likely cause of your displeasure is the origin of the mechs. Inner Sphere mechs tend to look more humanoid, though that's not always the case. Clan omnimechs, which you would have used to the exclusion of Inner Sphere mechs in Mechwarrior 2, tend toward bird-like appendages and lots of guns.

In short - Relax, Don't Worry, Have A HomeBrew (wrong forum for that, I know). We've already seen plenty of humanoid mechs as of MW4, and they've yet to move or attack in the same physics-defying manner as an anime mecha/gundam/running-out-of-synonyms. Giving a mech the ability to articulate with its hand will not necessarily result in mile-long leaps or a body slam fight through the streets of Avalon City.

[Gorthaur]

i think hands should be replaced with claws, similar to the claw on the new dragon artwork. for example, this atlas by mektek:

http://www.mektek.ne...c/107659-atlas/

it has a simpler 3 finger claw thing going, which makes way more sense than a fully articulated hand and looks a lot more visually pleasing and way less "anime looking".

[UncleKulikov]

Hands should be modeled for accuracy and utility, like moving obstacles and uprooting trees.

[feor]

Quinn Allard, on 01 December 2011 - 12:04 PM, said:

I think the art is making me upset...is anyone seeing the mech as a living thing? Instead of a giant war machine piloted by a human? All I can thnk of is Gundam when I look at the new art. The mechs need to behave as they did in MW2, more mechanical and brute. Art of mechs squating and rushing/turning makes me nervous that its going to remind me of games like Heavy Gear, Gundam, and Amored Core. More anime if you will.

Thing is that Mechwarrior has never really represented what a battlemech is capable of. Mechs have muscles, a full musculature system siumilar to a human musculature system, made out of Myomar (a type of memory plastic). Mechs move like people. A mech is fully capable of break dancing if it so chooses (and there's nothing around for it to break with its dancing ).

The mechwarrior games have simply been constrained by the technology of computers and graphics cards and so haven't been able to represent this. And to be honest, they're probably not going to be able to represent that in MW:O, but at least having hands is a step in the right direction.

[CG Anastasius Focht]

I think hands have their place, you can pick up an enemys severed arm or leg and use it to bash its cockpit in with. (see clubs in the rules of warfare pg 27)
Only mechs with hands can lift things, a mech with hands can pick up an object weighing up tp 10 percent of its total tonnage
(see mech lifting capabilities page 41 of the rules of warfare)

Useful for clearing road blocks etc