22 replies to this topic

[Impyrium]

Mauler looks pretty awesome. Surprisingly sleek, unique, should be a lot of fun.



They even managed to keep the trade mark... arms... wait a minute, what is this?



...

... okay, PGI, we need to talk. And I'm not even talking about how these square lasers mounted on a clearly round arm are going to absolutely destroy any chance this 'mech has of being anywhere near effective on the field of battle.

But don't you think PGI is going just a liiiiiiittle too far in their quest to squarify all the lasers?

Edited by Dingo Red, 03 September 2015 - 04:37 AM.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Are the square lenses great on the Mauler arms...no. Does it bother me...not really.

It does make me wonder though. The Catapult K2/Jester has a round laser lenses on it's arms when equipped with a laser, why can't that be used with other mechs (including the Mauler)? There has to be some reason because it would clearly look better.

[Sarlic]

I'm looking forward for it. By just looking at it, it suits my generalist playstyle very well. Or a brawlish thing. You can go every direction with that thing.

Need to wait for cbills though.

[Radbane]

Is there any reason to make Square lasers? Even when they're mounted side by side it would actually look better with two cylinders next to eachother than the boxes we have today.

[Sarlic]

Radbane, on 03 September 2015 - 02:55 AM, said:

Is there any reason to make Square lasers? Even when they're mounted side by side it would actually look better with two cylinders next to eachother than the boxes we have today.

Dynamic weapons. Working as intended.

[Joseph Mallan]

But the lens is round?

[MeiSooHaityu]

Joseph Mallan, on 03 September 2015 - 02:56 AM, said:

But the lens is round?

The bezel to the lens. Cone on, you know what we mean .

Seriously though, the Catapult has a round laser lenses AND BEZEL and it has dynamic hard points too. Why just the Catapult? :/

[Joseph Mallan]

MeiSooHaityu, on 03 September 2015 - 03:02 AM, said:

The bezel to the lens. Cone on, you know what we mean .

Seriously though, the Catapult has a round laser lenses AND BEZEL and it has dynamic hard points too. Why just the Catapult? :/

Artistic license?

[oldradagast]

Those arms are almost exactly what the Awesome's should have had... arms with large armor plates that can actually BLOCK SHOTS instead of having every hit go to the torso.

Sigh.. Take the Awesome and give it a Zeus's rounded upper body and the Mauler's arms, and you have about what an Awesome should look like, instead of a huge, flat plate on legs that now has missiles scattered all over it like a rash.

Nevermind my ramblings - I do like the Mauler's looks, though everyone is going to take those missile boxes off, but the square laser mounts are odd since we know they can do circles. Minimally viable and all that...

Edited by oldradagast, 03 September 2015 - 03:08 AM.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Joseph Mallan, on 03 September 2015 - 03:03 AM, said:

Artistic license?

I suppose :/. Well, better the Catapult getting the round laser bezel than no mech get it.

[Paigan]

Dingo Red, on 03 September 2015 - 02:36 AM, said:

Mauler looks pretty awesome. Surprisingly sleek, unique, should be a lot of fun.



They even managed to keep the trade mark... arms... wait a minute, what is this?

...

... okay, PGI, we need to talk. And I'm not even talking about how these square lasers mounted on a clearly round arm are going to absolutely destroy any chance this 'mech has of being anywhere near effective on the field of battle.

But don't you think PGI is going just liiiiiiittle too far in their quest to squarify all the lasers?

I still think the major fault with these problems lay with the original BT concepts, NOT PGI.
PGI are just the poor fellas who have to deal with the old sins.

If you look at original BT Mech artworks:

Sometimes light mechs have PPCs (7 tons) as a relatively small geometry.
Sometimes assaults mechs have gigantic HUGE geometry (like ridiculously large barrels) that are still just the same PPC (7 tons) that fits into a tiny light mech weapon geometry.
Same with lasers (sometimes only a tiny spot, sometimes a giant hole).

This is simply a HUGE error on BT artworks.
No mention of realism, but the BT geometries are not even consistent in its OWN world.

If you need to make it actually geometrically "real" to some degree, and modular and consistent (and maybe even kind of efficient to model and reuse), like PGI has to, you MUST consolidate the moronic BS a little (just like with the stupid original weapon stats).

IMHO, PGI always gets pretty close to the optimal achievable solution, given the inconsistent and stupid base they have to build on.

Edited by Paigan, 03 September 2015 - 03:21 AM.

[Yellonet]

I sure hope this thread is a joke. I really don't understand why this is something to even mention. It looks great.

Edited by Yellonet, 03 September 2015 - 08:06 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

The artist responsible for the lasers is from a lost city in the mountains of South America. He loves squares.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Alistair Winter, on 03 September 2015 - 04:15 AM, said:

Minecraft? Is that you?

[mogs01gt]

Is that sucker going to have Awesome syndrome?

[Prof RJ Gumby]

Some unifomification is sure not a bad thing. But, to some extent, the PGI goes too far with this.

Not that the 'circle in square in circle' bothers me much, but it is kinda stupid. Do we really need only 1 laser design to exist in the entire inner sphere and clan worlds? Why forcing lasers to be ALWAYS of the same identical square desing?. Size - sure it should be more or less similar, but what's so wrong with having other, identical-in-performance-but-round laser designs too? Only one laser manufacturer in the universe? Only one model and series ever released?

God, the moment they'll put square lasers on hunchbacks' arms and head, I'm selling them all.

[Impyrium]

MeiSooHaityu, on 03 September 2015 - 02:52 AM, said:

Are the square lenses great on the Mauler arms...no. Does it bother me...not really.

It does make me wonder though. The Catapult K2/Jester has a round laser lenses on it's arms when equipped with a laser, why can't that be used with other mechs (including the Mauler)? There has to be some reason because it would clearly look better.

Orion pretty much does that exact thing.

Paigan, on 03 September 2015 - 03:20 AM, said:

I still think the major fault with these problems lay with the original BT concepts, NOT PGI.
PGI are just the poor fellas who have to deal with the old sins.

To some degree I can agree, there's a lot of BT designs with some seriously funky weapons... but on the same token my point was that too much standardization just appears boring. There needs to be some unique character in 'mechs.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Dingo Red, on 03 September 2015 - 05:02 AM, said:

Orion pretty much does that exact thing.

.

That's a better example. Why couldn't PGI use the Orion arm Lasers? It has to be related to time constraints or something like that.

[Juodas Varnas]

MeiSooHaityu, on 03 September 2015 - 05:16 AM, said:

That's a better example. Why couldn't PGI use the Orion arm Lasers? It has to be related to time constraints or something like that.

Nope.
I'm 100% sure it would've taken less time to just make the lense fit into the arm, instead of cramming the whole square peg onto it.

I swear they're doing this just to spite us

[Bishop Steiner]

MeiSooHaityu, on 03 September 2015 - 02:52 AM, said:

Are the square lenses great on the Mauler arms...no. Does it bother me...not really.

It does make me wonder though. The Catapult K2/Jester has a round laser lenses on it's arms when equipped with a laser, why can't that be used with other mechs (including the Mauler)? There has to be some reason because it would clearly look better.

Great. Now you just got the Arms on the K2 on the list to ruin further........ DOH!!!!

MeiSooHaityu, on 03 September 2015 - 03:02 AM, said:

The bezel to the lens. Cone on, you know what we mean .

Seriously though, the Catapult has a round laser lenses AND BEZEL and it has dynamic hard points too. Why just the Catapult? :/

and itty bitty PPCs and VCRs....careful what you ask for!

MeiSooHaityu, on 03 September 2015 - 05:16 AM, said:

That's a better example. Why couldn't PGI use the Orion arm Lasers? It has to be related to time constraints or something like that.

considering the last time the Orion or Catapult got any love, they probably forgot those assets even exist, lol.