17 replies to this topic

[Biggs McIntosh]

According to the State of the Sphere Analysis, Most of those polled were for less of a HUD design and more for widgets and gizmos displaying the mechs diagnostics, radar, etc. Joe McWarrior likes his view constrained to his viewscreen. This conflicts a bit with canon, which has a system where a 360 degree view is condensed to 1XX degree view. Count me in the Joe McWarrior column, I think a constrained viewport adds to the gritty realism the games atmosphere appears to be shooting for. However, that begs the question, what about rear mounted weapons? Should they go to a HUD system, like canon, and have a funky condensed view? Should there be a "Backup Cam" widget in mechs that have rear firing armament? Should they just mount it to the front and call it a day?

I would like to see rear mounted weapons implemented. The way I imagine it working is to have a screen in the corner of your standard arc that mirrors the crosshair placement of your firing arc. When your crosshairs are on the top left of your forward arc, they are also on the top left of your rear arc. It would be like running dual monitors in clone. Then to fire in the rear arc, you look at the screen and fire the weapon. A simple solution, I think, of a historically ignored problem. What do you think?

Edited by Biggs McIntosh, 30 November 2011 - 09:43 AM.

[CoffiNail]

I would like to have a 360 holographics display like in canon, be awesome... feasible, probably not so much haha. Gizmos and widgets work for me... but I did vote for the 360 canon display

[guardian wolf]

I think that it would be nice to have a small widget to tell if you were being sneaked up on from behind, but not really for mounting any weapons in the back, takes too much weight.

[ELHImp]

Simple. Give me "B" button from mw4 (look backwards), but with reticle.

[Epitaph]

Nope, why put weapons to protect your back when you have good teammates to do the same thing?

[ELHImp]

Cause 4 srm6 launchers on timber wolf D, all in front arc, make me sick.

[Karyudo ds]

Rear facing weapons always seemed rare to me. Would be a nice option though nothing I would use for the big toys. Seems like the perfect place for machineguns etc, but with mechs only those are no fun.

[Biggs McIntosh]

Rear mounted weapons show up on several popular canon mechs, The Centurion, the Firestarter, the Archer, to name a few. If would be interesting to have rear mounted weapons if they implement slow turning for slow mechs as I have seen batted around here in the forums. Having those two rear mounted M-lasers could really help that Archer defend itself against very fast opponents.

[Orzorn]

Biggs McIntosh, on 30 November 2011 - 05:54 PM, said:

Rear mounted weapons show up on several popular canon mechs, The Centurion, the Firestarter, the Archer, to name a few. If would be interesting to have rear mounted weapons if they implement slow turning for slow mechs as I have seen batted around here in the forums. Having those two rear mounted M-lasers could really help that Archer defend itself against very fast opponents.

And it isn't just against very fast opponents. A firestarter, for example, going in to attack a mech could fire a salvo, then, when they're running past them, fire their rear weapons to either finish them off, or give some extra damage.

And like someone else said, I don't think rear firing weapons would be difficult to make. Just put a crosshair on your rear view camera. To fire the weapons, simply use the camera, line up the shot, and fire like any other weapon group.

[Gunman5000]

I think that rear weapons should definately be in the game if possible (design choice more than technical limitations) but I'm undecided about the type of view. While the whole 360^o view sounds awesome and probably would be pretty sweet, I'd be just as happy with a widget or secondary display in the cockpit itself that provides a view and reticule for rear weapons.

If implemented they could definately help out Assault 'mechs should they find themselves in the unfortunate position of being swarmed by light 'mechs in an Urban Environment (assuming customization to place the weapons yourself). The canon models that do have rear weapons may become sought after just for this advantage if customization is limited for rearward weapons.

[Dlardrageth]

Well, personally I think the canon 360° view is nice and well, but then according to canon future MechWarriors run through months/years of arduous training before being deemed truly "battlefield-worthy". some sort of compromise like an optional miniature screen in your cockpit showing rear view and recticle for rear-mounted weapons might be better. Like someone already mentioned, shots with your rear weapons are more often than not snap shots anyway. Main point of content is prolly how big that rear camera window on your cockpit/HUD should be.

[feor]

One thing to remember, if they implement being able to fire to the rear, rear mounted weapons aren't the only things that can do that. Any mech without lower arms (some popular examples being the Rifleman, Jenner, Jaegermech, and Urbanmech) are able to flip their arms, so that they can fire all of their arm weapons into the rear arc.

I think a combination of 2 & 3 would probably be best, give us the compressed 360 as more of a motion detector type of thing, doesn't actually show anything in terms of video, but will show movement and maybe a flashing red icon for enemy targets in our rear arc. Then you activate your widget for a rear camera MW4 style with a targeting crosshairs, and if you have flippable arms they automatically flip as soon as you turn that camera on, and let fly.

[Gunman5000]

feor, on 30 November 2011 - 06:36 PM, said:

One thing to remember, if they implement being able to fire to the rear, rear mounted weapons aren't the only things that can do that. Any mech without lower arms (some popular examples being the Rifleman, Jenner, Jaegermech, and Urbanmech) are able to flip their arms, so that they can fire all of their arm weapons into the rear arc.

I think a combination of 2 & 3 would probably be best, give us the compressed 360 as more of a motion detector type of thing, doesn't actually show anything in terms of video, but will show movement and maybe a flashing red icon for enemy targets in our rear arc. Then you activate your widget for a rear camera MW4 style with a targeting crosshairs, and if you have flippable arms they automatically flip as soon as you turn that camera on, and let fly.

That idea sounds great to me, also gives additional incentive to mount weapons back into the arms instead of the argueably more protected torso.

[Joachim Viltry]

feor, on 30 November 2011 - 06:36 PM, said:

I think a combination of 2 & 3 would probably be best, give us the compressed 360 as more of a motion detector type of thing, doesn't actually show anything in terms of video, but will show movement and maybe a flashing red icon for enemy targets in our rear arc. Then you activate your widget for a rear camera MW4 style with a targeting crosshairs, and if you have flippable arms they automatically flip as soon as you turn that camera on, and let fly.

That would be perfect!

[Blackfire1]

I'm against the 360 degree view like in cannon. Go play skyrim and set your FOV to 360 and play on a wide screen. You'll see what I mean .>.<

[Uncl Munkeh]

I'm not sure I follow why exactly this is needed? So you can fire while retreating?

[feor]

Blackfire1, on 30 November 2011 - 08:46 PM, said:

I'm against the 360 degree view like in cannon. Go play skyrim and set your FOV to 360 and play on a wide screen. You'll see what I mean .>.<

In cannon the 360 view is a sub-display, IIRC. Your main view is just out your front window. It basically lets you have peripheral vision while in your mech.

Uncle Monkey, on 30 November 2011 - 08:49 PM, said:

I'm not sure I follow why exactly this is needed? So you can fire while retreating?

Because we'll be fighting largely in cities according to the info we have so far, where it's very easy to get outmaneuvered a can be tricky to turn around quickly.

[Outlaw]

Mechwarrior 2: Mercs allowed you to replace your damage display with a rear mounted camera display as part of the MFD, if its possible to do it on such an old engine id like to see it implemented that way on Mechwarrior Online.