71 replies to this topic

[VooDooPC]

How do you guys feel about fully submerged mech combat in MWO?

I've been reading Battletech: Hector over the last two or three nights and part of it involves the Wolf Dragoons having to cross a river.

The mechs are fully submerged while crossing a muddy river. In the book it mentions only energy weapons working under water (unless you have torpedoes), heat being less of an issue, you could hardly see anything because of mud in the water, radar didn't go through the water very well, and thermal vision got distorted by the water currents. A Zeus kept falling down due to the slippy river bottom.

The only thing that really seemed to work at all was the magnetometer and seeing shots in the water visually.

The problems I see are since magnetometer vision is only available to the Assault/Defense class they would have a huge advantage for them. Only being able to see a few meters in front of you without it might be an issue. Also, if the maps are random no one is going to have torpedoes and HOPE for a water map.

One of the past Mechwarrior games (Mechwarrior 2?) had an underwater mission but graphically it might as well have just been a night mission, everything was blue and not much to indicate you were under water.

Would this be an interesting change of pace compared to normal combat or would it just be frustrating and totally suck? Maybe maps that have large areas for underwater combat or sneaking up on dudes?

[Wildcat]

hmmm I cannot imagine Mech Warfare working all that well under water lol

Ballistics, Fail... may work at 5-10 meters
Missiles Fail
Laser Weaponry, may work at 10 meters+ lol

far too much resistance under water for mech warfare, even melee would fail

Only thing that would work is Torpedoes and ICBMs lol

Edited by Wildcat, 11 July 2012 - 01:16 PM.

[dboy]

I don't see that happening...
1. Mechs will move slower.
2. I doubt lasers will work well.
3. Only thing water would be good for is to cool down the mech.

[Groundstain]

Missiles = torpedoes.
Any shell weapon useless.
Energy weapons would be questionable.
Movement slowed to damn near nothing.
It would be interesting at best.

[Bluey]

Interesting proably better than space battles

[Sir Aaron]

Well the Long tom may work .. although the question is if it can be set to explode by timer ... xD Missels may work as well although they would be swimming mines then ;p There are some episodes in the books, where we get told about mechs hiding under water and it makes sense there they are able to work in environment without air too buuuuuuuuuuuut they never fight under water. (would be rather odd too and require some special equipment anyway) So .. unless you want to go dynamite fishing i would say that Underwater battles are rather not quite likely. Battles while standing up to the mech-hip in water how ever are quite common and i expect them to happen in MWO as well

Edited by Sir Aaron, 11 July 2012 - 01:21 PM.

[Erwiin]

If the Devs follow the TT rules, underwater combat will be very slow and very boring.

[Damascas]

I would love to see underwater combat

[ElcomeSoft]

Google up Mechwarrior 2: Ghost Bears Legacy.

They had an underwater mission in an Executioner. It was slow, it was extremely painful and it was so difficult that I never actually completed said mission.

[Buzzkillin]

I read the battletech book Hector and it had a underwater battle but everything was useful but lasers at a short range. And the water was murky making visibility very limited and the mechs can barely move. Adding water in a map as a way for mechs to sneak around the battle would be a nice option. But if seen in water you may be left defenseless till you get out.

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

There's an underwater Ghost Bear's Legacy mission. You shoot energy weapons and "torpedoes" instead of missiles.(They worked pretty much like LRMs but moved slowly through the water) Due to the water though heat was pretty much non-existent so you could spam PPCs all day long. What was interesting was the added danger to Mech damage. The mission warned you that damages to a Mech would become flooded by water and destroy weapons or functions. This basically meant that when a part of a Mech would normally hit "red" status, it instead skipped straight to "destroyed" status due to the water flooding. So instead of Green Yellow Red Destroyed, it was Green Yellow -> Destroyed.

I don't think they can really put in water maps because the environment requires very unique Mech customization and a guy hitting the "Join Random Battle" button(Or whatever they will call it) probably won't be prepared for it. What'll happen if I'm configured with missiles and the game throws me in the water? Will they turn into torpedoes? What if I'm loaded up with heatsinks the water will probably render pointless? What then? An easier solution is to keep water out of the game for a while.

[Damascas]

Buzzkillin, on 11 July 2012 - 01:24 PM, said:

I read the battletech book Hector and it had a underwater battle but everything was useful but lasers at a short range. And the water was murky making visibility very limited and the mechs can barely move. Adding water in a map as a way for mechs to sneak around the battle would be a nice option. But if seen in water you may be left defenseless till you get out.

In TT at least nothing can hit you underwater either so it would be good for sneaking and protection. Of course if you cannot fire our of the water then you will be a sitting duck once you exit.

[Dechan Fraser]

I'd say stupid.

You don't want a walking mech for underwater battles.

[Daniel Wraith]

I read in a Book once of a Liao Spec ops guy cross under a frozen lake the size of lake Erie in a http://www.sarna.net...i/Huron_Warrior took him 5 days to make the crossing

an in MW2 the Water mission was the only one i was never impressed by i found after some trail an error where the enemies was an fired in there general direction

[CW Grayson]

Mechwarrior2. GBL did it and it was fun. Would also add another Layer of possible enviroments (like caves etc.) so why not go for it?
I would be ashamed to make a game that cannot do what former games could.

[Sean von Steinike]

I would like to see coastal combat or where one might have to fjord a river deep enough to submerge smaller mechs but straight up underwater combat? No thanks.

[Rejarial Galatan]

I think an underwater fight would be fun. Ballistics such as Gauss Rifles or Machine guns or even AC's of ANY kind would be rendered instantly useless. Water cannot be compressed and the impact of a shell into the water would cause cavitations in the water instantly shredding said shell. as proof of what I am saying. Lasers/PPC's and missiles/torpedoes are your only options. Space environs would be fun too XD

[Dredhawk]

I gave up on that mission in ghost bear legacy cheated to get throw it LOL bascily you had PPC and Torpedoes you took damage real easily ...

Edited by Dredhawk, 11 July 2012 - 11:55 PM.

[Mattrixx]

I have admit I would be interested to see under water stretches on some maps, but not entire maps underwater.

Maybe a smallish lake or a deep river that you canf fully immerse your self with and rise out of it like a shadowy
leviathan from the deeps when you near the edge again.
Of course your mechs capabilities would be severely limited while submerged. And if you didn't go deep enough
into the water you might still be spotted by the out of water mechs on land or shallow waters. Maybe just as a
dark shadow or if you are not fully submerged might even have left your head or something on your back still
visible above water that the enemy can shoot at.

[Sumner]

Well options being what they are maybe a,

1) flooded city map - hurricane, torrential rain, coastal shelf collapsing
2) jungle recon with multiple rivers w/ enemy supply depot
3) retrieving info from a sunken vessel
4) underground river to move along and come out of a lake near a enemy base

just some of the ideas and or maps that could be done