12 replies to this topic

[Blackjack Jones]

If at all possible can we see some punching/kicking/charging/smacking the other guy with
his on blown off limb, like we do in the tabletop game? Of course there is also the Hatchetman
in the tabletop game with his little housewarming present.

I can understand if it's not technically feasible, or conflicts with game balance or the sense
of style the PGI is trying to achieve, but it would be fun to punch someone with a 'Mech at least once.

[Youngblood]

Dev Blog 0 already says it's not on the plate yet, but it would make closing to point-blank much more of a tactical decision.

I enjoy a good head-chopping.

[godmonkey]

i wanted the hatchets too....

[Tuborn]

If you hit someone with the busness end of your PPC you might be in for a suprise next time you fire one off.

[AcesHigh]

I hope everyone who agrees is clicking the "like this" button in OP.

[Xhaleon]

Tuborn, on 22 November 2011 - 04:30 PM, said:

If you hit someone with the busness end of your PPC you might be in for a suprise next time you fire one off.

Some mechs have retractable or fixed weapon cowlings that are reinforced JUST for the express purpose of smashing people's faces in. Many mechs may not have proper arms at all, but they may still happily kick anything and everything. While I don't hold it to the devs to get it done as a necessity, it is very much necessary to emulate the feel of how battles occurred in the fluff and tabletop. At the very least I want to see mechs having a simple animation of swinging a fist, and if the model connects anything it does damage to the object, building or mech. Clumsy, but that's true to the origin.

[Karyudo ds]

Blackjack Jones, on 31 October 2011 - 02:25 PM, said:

I can understand if it's not technically feasible...

I wouldn't. I was mad even the Mechcommander games had no melee. We've had Battletech video games for decades and not one has tried it. I WANT MY HATCHETS!!! If they mentioned there was an AXM-2N in this game I'd send them $60 right now and call it good. I want to cleave things in half or smack them silly. An Axeman hatchet to the face was a great one hit kill if it connected.

Designing a mechanic for 2 mechs would be stupid though I agree, but the boardgame described kicking, punching, charging, pushing, uprooting trees and building rubble to smack things with. I mean guns are the go-to. I agree with that, but I would like to go totally midevil every know and then.

I mean why does the Atlas have hands not for punching? For that matter why does it have hands that seem to in every game DO NOTHING?

[Damocles]

There have been many threads in the past few weeks over physical attacks and I'd just like to advertise a possible way to handle that here:
http://mwomercs.com/...4832#entry24832

Though no matter how complicated or simple of a version of combat gets in to the game, I would still be happy to see it in any form.

/Damo

[Franklen Mattlov]

A good way to handle physical combat might be to incorporate it as a mini cut-scene game. When two mechs get within a certain distance of each other, either can elect to initiate physical combat. When one does both pilots play out some type of fast game of chance (perhaps 'evens or odds') which decides what mini realtime cut-scene plays out. The scene plays out while both pilots view the scene from a third-person perspective. Both mechs take the appropriate damage and they regain control of their mechs after the animations finish.

There is a built in penalty, in that both mechs lose control for a few seconds (this could even be used as a tactic to deny the enemy control of a mech at critical moments.)

[Corsair101]

I'm not sure of the mini-cutscene games - quick time events (or similar) really take a great deal of immersion away from the player. Forcing into third person or changing the game mechanics suddenly may not be the best direction.

The thread posted Damocles is not a bad start - I would move to suggest even having close combat togglable (as it is described in some of the source books for the TT game or novels) would work as well. Switching to melee mode would cause your mech to "focus" on the current target and your fire button would launch melee attacks instead. Or not - there are many ways to go about the solution to achieving melee combat.

At the very least DFAs and Charges should be included - punching and hatcheting I don't see as difficult. In all honesty it's the kicking that gets hard - having a pair of light mechs running at 100kph trying to land kicks seems like a recipe for crappy animation glitches or all sorts of wonkiness in gameplay. Not to say a solution can't be found, but at the expense of kicks, the rest of the melee combat seems like a no-brainer to implement.

[feor]

I think the viability of physical combat (particularly kicks as suggested by Corsair101) will rely heavily on how fluid they decide to make the mech movement animations.

If they're the big dumb lumbering targets they were in MW2-4 physical combat outside of charges and DFAs would just look goofy. Kicks would lead to the aforementioned animation glitches, and punches would look like rock-em sock-em robots.

If they move more fluidly as they're supposed to in the background, able to duck, dodge and weave, then you can put in much more realistic looking physical attacks as well. Then it just comes down to figuring out how you want the controls to work.

[Tierloc]

I'm just going to blow your arms off anyway if that's where your main weapon exists, whether it's a hatchet or primary cannon.

Ramming at speed should affect damage and gyro.

[Felicitatem Parco]

The Devs could implement a Ramming Damage calculator:

Damage incurred by both Mechs, in the body parts that make initial contact, is directly and linearly proportionate to the summed opposing momentum [in the collision vector] of the two Mechs when they touch. Momentum is just speed-times-mass, so as long as your physics engine doesn't throw out a bunch of tangents and crap, then you should easily be able to calculate ramming damage.