14 replies to this topic

[no1337]

Hey,

once we all killed a Mech, it simply falls down and we can walk through. Why doesn't it go off like in the trailer?



I'd be happy to see mega explosions as reward for the hard dogfight. Of course, the explosion should do dmg, like a shell of the artillery.

What's your opinion?

NL

[R79TCom1 Night Lanner]

Nothing in a BattleMech should cause it to explode like it does in the trailer. Fusion reactors would simply shut down when the shielding is breached and there isn't really a super brilliant explosion animation right now, so maybe they could fix that. Like CASE should cause the explosion to vent out the back. Still when ammo goes up now it doesn't do damage to surrounding 'Mechs, so it would be weird for it to happen when a 'Mech is destroyed.

Now, when I played the boardgame I remember an optional or house rule where whenever ammo was hit any damage that remained after destorying all the armor and internal structure of the 'Mech that was housing it -- whether the 'Mech was destroyed in the blast or not -- the reminder was done to surrounding friends and enemies. Something like that could be considered.

[no1337]

well, a fusion reactor has 200.000.000 deg. kelvin inside, if the superconductors break, the reactor melts and the thermal fusion energy gets out. so, we can have a logic for explosion here ^^

[Vegalas]

It looks like exploding reactors got some wind again which is good. To be honest though the explosion showed in the trailer is simply too large. I would be satisfied with something similar to MW4 where your mech could get damaged if you were stading too close to the exploding mech.

Even if the mech had countermeasures against an exploding reactor, I don't think they would matter much in the stress of a heated battle. As a real life example the reactor of Fukushima got breached during a tsunami despite the fact that there were safeguards like it should've had. They probably prevented the leak from getting worse though.

Edited by Vegalas, 21 November 2015 - 02:51 AM.

[Clideb50]

Vegalas, on 21 November 2015 - 01:44 AM, said:

It looks like exploding reactors got some wind again which is good. To be honest though the explosion showed in the trailer is simply too large. I would be satisfied with something similar to MW4 where your mech could get damaged if you were stading too close to the exploding mech.

Even if the mech had countermeasures against an exploding reactor, I don't think they would matter much in the stress of a heated battle. As a real life example the reactor of Fukushima got breached during a tsunami despite the fact that there were safeguards like it should've had. They probably prevented the leak from getting worse though.

That was a fission reactor. Mechwarrior's fusion reactors don't go boom like they do in the intro movies (or like mech assaults). to quote sarna (link:http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Essay:_BattleMech_Technology)

"Fusion reactors do on very rare occasions die in a spectacular manner, but the majority of those times isn't due to an exploding reactor.
What normally happens is that the reactor core is breached allowing a large quantity of relatively cold air into the vacuum of the reactor chamber which puts out the fusion reaction instantly... but in so doing, the intruding air in the reactor chamber soaks up all the heat and comes blasting back out in a white-hot blinding gout of flame. Considering that it takes massive damage to breach a reactor core so quickly that the safety fields can't drop down before something intrudes into the chamber... the visual end effect is that the 'Mech has very nearly been blasted in half, followed very quickly by a blinding fireball. This is a spectacular way to decommission a fusion reactor - a rampaging super-hot oxygen flash fire - but it is not a nuclear blast.
In the last instance it will happen that a MechWarrior will figure out that they can overcharge the engine, causing the plasma ball to heat up to an amazingly high temperature - far beyond their normal operating range - and than kill the magnetic field quickly, causing the extremely overheated plasma to hit the reactor walls which causes the reactor lining to explosively evaporate. The result of this is that the reactor is over pressurized, which causes a respectable explosion - but again, not a nuclear explosion."

Is this accurate if Fusion technology existed? I don't know. Let me research it, and get back to you.

EDIT: http://fusionforener...standingfusion/
https://en.wikipedia...ki/Fusion_power

The more you know!

In my opinion: It could vary. We could have the current system of some sparks and the 'mech falls over mixed with throwing the 'mech to the ground with a flash, and a small bang on rare instances. (for example: center torso has no armor, very little structure health left, and you get hit by a large amount of damage, like a king crab hitting said torso with two ac20 shells.)

EDIT 2: Yes, I'm a nerd. There is nothing I can do about it.

Edited by Regulus1990, 21 November 2015 - 08:46 AM.

[R79TCom1 Night Lanner]

Regulus, thanks for posting that. I think that is from, or they used that essay in, the BattleTech core rulebook, TechManual, which is where I got my information on how a fusion Engine would work.

[Dark Bard]

I think its good idea. Chance to explosion, if engine was destroyed. But no explosion, if destroyed both legs. And ammo explosion must deal damage too)

[Durant Carlyle]

#1 -- That isn't the MechWarrior Online Reveal. That is the trailer for MechWarrior 5, which was supposed to be a single-player game with multiplayer tacked on, like previous MechWarrior titles. That was scrapped when no publishers stepped up to fund it.

#2 -- Fusion reactors don't explode. If the perfect conditions that sustain the fusion reaction are disturbed, the reaction stops. It doesn't go critical, like the fission reactors we have now would.

[Vegalas]

Number one was obvious enough thankyou very much, but I think mech explosions have been generally in Mechwarrior for so long that you could simply call it cannon. Secondly you contradict what is written above. After all whether a mech explodes or not upon destruction is pretty much speculation at the moment but I think there's enough reason to turn this idea into a game mechanic. This has been in every Mechwarrior or Mechcommander game I remember playing but strangely enough it's not the way of MWO.

[Vellron2005]

To be honest, I have not played the TT.. but I've played most MW games on PC, and in most of them, when you killed a mech, yes, it would go boom..

For MWO, I would not mind taking some damage when I kill, but only at extremely close range (like facehugging range). The mech blow up animation could be adjusted to account for some sort of reactor-breach..

Maybe we could take a module that would go boom when you get killed, and do arty-level damage?

But, come to think of it.. in a well-organised 12 man team, this would be extremely counter productive, since you mostly die surrounded by friendlies..

So.. yeah.. Mech Boom on death.. bad for Team Play.. and therefore bad for a MMO type game..

Edited by Vellron2005, 23 November 2015 - 06:12 AM.

[Vegalas]

Actually there has been discussion about using this specific mechanic for breaking up the so called "death balls" that occassionally roll around in public matches. From this point of view mechs exploding as a mark of a last stand would add more depth to the game since the match won't just be about the team that wins by just getting into the formation first and therefore getting an advantage which can sometimes be very unfair with certain mechs. Mobbing should be taken more into account when encouraging people to do more teamwork.

I for one support this kind of mechanic as long as it isn't taken to the extremes and balanced gameplay is guaranteed. I don't think it's going to kill teamplay either if it's implemented properly. The rewards for going into a formation already encourage people to work in a team as it is and as long as those don't change there shouldn't be any problem.

Edited by Vegalas, 23 November 2015 - 08:52 AM.

[InsaneRotta]

Maybe we could have mechs exploding on engine crits if override is turned on? The bigger the engine the more shrapnell it would fire outwards from the mech, with each piece of shrapnel dealing around .5 damage? The explosions optimal radius could be around 50m, so no damage beyond 100m.

Whatever it would be, I'd enjoy having engines explode at least with some degree of damage to surroundings.

Also, override + ejecting = delayed engine explosion.

[Vegalas]

I was suggesting a hitpoint threshold in my topic but it seems the discussion moved here. I think it's a good idea to have to possibility of an explosion come into play when the mech is missing a certain percentage of hitpoints. They would have another purpose in game and nobody would need to worry about getting punished from critting mechs easily.

Shrapnel sounds reasonable but I would already be happy with a boom and a flash. Then MWO would be a little more reminiscient to other MW titles.

[Ted Wayz]

If we had salvage you wouldn't want explosions.

What i would like to see is the pilot ejecting out of a destroyed mech.

[Vegalas]

I would never want something like this to be left out of the game because of R&R. It would only be another way for people to get more equipment or to waste their c-bills on. It should be limited to CW anyways. Even though I can understand why it would be frustrating to see equipment go up in the air, I believe it would teach people to actually be careful with their shots thus adding much more depth into the game.