11 replies to this topic

[Catalinasgrace]

I was curious to see if I'm the only one that thinks the mech ragdolls seem off. Perhaps I'm thinking in too literal of a sense but hey we all have our pipe dreams right?

My example would be lets say you have a King Crab (many others would follow the same thing). We have a 100 ton mech which is 200,000 pounds. You have the engine or engines as I'm not sure how legs/arms are powered or move, sorry. You have gyros spinning who knows how fast and any other balancing mechanisms. All of that doesn't stop when you die right? Yet a lot of mechs simply flop right on over. A lot of mechs flip right on over on top of their own head. I would think that more would be at play here trying to keep them upright until all of the systems die off or at least the top half with the gyros. I have seen many times where a mech dies and it takes a bit to actually hit the ground for whatever reason, and I have to say it looks flippin awesome... lol...

I remember back in the days of the original Rainbow Six and various other games you could "tweek" the ragdoll to be a bit more realistic. As I am not a game programer and don't really know what is involved. But, since this is my own little pipe dream here I would love to see a better ragdoll system for a dying mech... Your thoughts?

**edited for spelling***

Edited by Catalinasgrace, 17 August 2015 - 08:53 PM.

[KrazedOmega]

Quote

Lastly, when a BattleMech is shut down, its actuators lock into place in whatever position they were last in. This can result in everything from keeping a 'Mech upright in its gantry in its 'Mech bay to causing a 'Mech to lock up in mid-stride and fall over onto its face on a battlefield.

I'm not sure if the same would apply to an engine failure from being destroyed but
I would assume it would be similar.

[KraftySOT]

I think any more 'weight' in the ragdoll effect, and itll just drop faster/look worse. And less, and theyll fly around more than they already do.

What you want are death animations. Or at least semi dynamic ragdoll scripts, so some mechs do some 'things' as they die.

Maybe if they ever get around to engine explosions, might see something like this, but I doubt it. Im pretty sure they just licensed ragdoll tech and dont really think much about it one way or the other. It just works. Most people dont seem to care.

[El Bandito]

Gyro and myomer are out of control!

[Destructicus]

90 ton mech?
**** it, look at your body fly down the hill like a Raven

[Nothing Whatsoever]

Probably a side effect of the increased gravity we have.

[Alistair Winter]

I do like it when Dire Wolves sometimes just sink together and remain standing when they're dead. But to be frank, when you look at how some of these mechs are designed, it's a miracle they can remain upright even when they're undamaged.

Quick question though: I thought mechs were measured in metric tons. So a King Crab would be 220,462 pounds. No?

[Juodas Varnas]

Alistair Winter, on 17 August 2015 - 09:44 PM, said:

Quick question though: I thought mechs were measured in metric tons. So a King Crab would be 220,462 pounds. No?

If that's the case, they have the density of styro-foam

I like to pretend that these are somehow different from the tons we use.

[RoboPatton]

I agree, the mechs don't have that OOMF* when they die. No sense of scale from their coming down. I'd like a rumble, particles to burst up (especially snow), maybe some flames or mech-corpse-cover.

[Juodas Varnas]

RoboPatton, on 17 August 2015 - 10:24 PM, said:

I agree, the mechs don't have that OOMF* when they die. No sense of scale from their coming down. I'd like a rumble, particles to burst up (especially snow), maybe some flames or mech-corpse-cover.

That might be due to the lack of sound.
Just imagine if there was metallic creaking sounds and a loud metallic crash sound when the mech finally hits the ground.

Skip to 2:50, the part when the Thor falls.

Edited by Juodas Varnas, 17 August 2015 - 10:31 PM.

[Anarcho]

I would love some random death animations and even big explosions (not like a reactor nuke blast...) with pieces of the mech flying around... something like the arty explosions fx.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

I've been curious about what the volume and densities of these big ole stompers could be.
We know that the tallest mechs are around ~16 or so meters with the average for other tall mechs being around ~12 or so meters on average, so to get a feel for that sense of scale I took to googling statues some time ago to see some real world equivalents.

And I found a few example like the Brownhills Miner, which stands 12 meters tall and weighs 5.5 short tons.



Another neat one is the Willow Man also standing 12 meters tall and weighing at least 3 tonnes.



So in terms of realistic height scaling at least, BattleMechs can be plausible to see with the right sorts of tech available; also considering that weapons and equipment can stack up to 100 tons total, the main thing is to not walk in ground that would be unable to support the foot pads, and with enough surface area, they should be okay.

And I can see why the Atlas can be described as being so imposing with its increased height and likely width, closer to 16 meters tall, and for any curious, here is a list of other small statues.

Edited by Praetor Knight, 17 August 2015 - 11:12 PM.