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But WHY is it always a Spider at the end of the match running laps around the map until eventually taking enough fire to die? Usually without ever trying to fight back, or any other tactic a, "normal" light pilot would do in anything other than a spider.
So due to this odd phenomenon, I've come up with a couple theories that may explain this behavior:
Theory 1: There is an Autopilot
Little did we know, but there actually is an autopilot feature in this game. It's mounted in the Spider. The autopilot in the Spider's mech is constantly receiving updates from the server, and attempts to dodge incoming fire for the pilot by automatically adjusting hitbox locations calculated from realtime HSR updates.
The autopilot also keeps track of the current progress in the game. If the team that the Spider pilot is on happens to be winning, the autopilot has already predicted this outcome through statistical analysis of thousands of recorded matches and, "the snowball effect." In this case the autopilot will have already determined the Spider's team will win, and will take full control to ensure the Spider is sacrificed within the first minute of the match, either by running it straight to the enemy team and standing still, or proceeding straight out of bounds.
If the Spider's team is losing, the autopilot will adjust hitboxes as necessary to ensure the survival of the Spider until it is the last remaining mech on its team, at which point it will disable all weapons and pilot input, and proceed to follow a pre-programmed loop of the map's perimeter, with one exception:
*The exception is the Conquest game mode, in which the pre-programmed loop will be executed and all cap points ignored, UNLESS the Spider's team is about to win on caps, in which case the autopilot will promptly steer the Spider to the nearest enemy mech with weapons and power down.
Theory B: They're Actually Spiders
Since no human being of a right state of mind would ever consider dropping in a Spider, we can thus assume the vast majority of Spider pilots are in fact...spiders.
This would make a lot of sense, as spiders only have 8 legs, so with the WASD keys, spacebar, and "X," they have no other appendages in which to fire their weapons, nor would be able to reach the mouse anyway given they are not that big.
Some spiders may choose instead to fire their weapons at the cost of movement controls, which would explain why some Spiders just stand there firing machine guns at assault mechs 1000+m away, and others don't fire at all, but run around rather aimlessly. Spiders also like dark, dirty places, so sometimes they can be found off on their own exploring the insides of crashed dropships or other debris.
It has been said one brave spider attempted to master both movement and weaponry, but unfortunately could not stretch far enough, resulting in the separation of their legs. The separated legs then continued to twitch, which ended up spraying stray machine gun fire into the backs of many friendlies at the start of the match.
Spiders also do not speak english, which explains why they frequently ignore the calls given over VOIP and text chat.
Most Plausible Explanation: All of the Above
I think there is more than enough evidence that spiders do in fact play MWO, and PGI knows about it, which is why they developed a sophisticated autopilot system to manage movement and weapon functions. It's to ASSIST them because of their physical limitations.
Edited by Aresye Kerensky, 07 January 2016 - 11:18 PM.
