12 replies to this topic

[razenWing]

So as part of my daily cheapskate routine, I like to stare at cool concept arts in the store (don't judge me, I already spent 60 on the Resistance II Pack)

As I stare more and more, the mech cockpits just seem more and more... unusual.

For example, look at the cockpit of Ebon Jaguar. It sorta fits consistently with how a person might sit inside a cylindrical cockpit. But then you look at the Shadow Cat, and I realize... there is NO WAY a person is sitting in there. Just comparing the size of SC and Ebon and you realize that the cockpit area of SC is WAY too small. Are SC pilots all dwarfs?

Either that, or the Ebon cockpit have a whole ton of wasted space, and all those glass structures are actually some sort of sun roof. I don't know, maybe Ebon is the first mech designed with a space toilet.

Now, take a look at the Arctic Cheetah, and the size is even more weird. THERE IS NO WAY, a person is sitting inside, unless the Arctic Cheetah is taller than the Ebon Jag, which... clearly, it's not. (and in game, you ARE sitting)

The only way for that proportion to make sense, is for the AC pilot to be standing with half of body actually be inside the torse of the Artic Cheetah... so like a weird big Battle Armor.

But that concept has a very sinister implication... if you blow off an arm of an AC, you are literally blowing off an arm of another human being... All those center torso coring? You can actually shooting a PPC into someone's gut. No chance for eject, that pilot is not walking out of the flaming wreckage... eesh.

Grisly indeed...

Let's also look at mechs like the Locust. How in human geometry is someone suppose to fit inside that thing?

So to summarize... 2 points:

1: PGI should be more creative with the actual cockpit, cause they just don't make sense. The way around it is with clever augmented reality screen and showing some pilots standing. Cause otherwise, well... it may as well be magic.

2: Don't pilot an AC, Jenner, or Locust. Remember, every time it gets blown up, you are actually dead. There are not enough Darth Vadar Robot arm to replace all those broken limbs. (and/or artificial entrails)

[Pronotum]

I don't think you understand just how tall these Battlemechs are. The Arctic Cheetah, for example, isn't just five meters tall. You can go to the Tutorial area freeroam, and compare your mech's size with the technicians working on the other Battlemechs down below. The cockpit is large enough to support a pilot.

Or see it for yourself all first person when you decide to take one of the other Battlemechs there for a test ride.

Edited by Pronotum, 19 April 2016 - 10:13 AM.

[Juodas Varnas]

There are a few mechs that have cockpits too small to have a pilot sitting in it (like the Commando or the Atlas, as funny as it may seem), but a lot of them are actually properly scaled, as far as i know.

[Bishop Steiner]

shortest mech I believe stands about 8 meters tall in this game, with the atlas topping a little above 17.

That said a few of the cockpits are apparently recessed into the torso, as there is no other way they would work.

[Pariah Devalis]

Bishop Steiner, on 19 April 2016 - 10:16 AM, said:

shortest mech I believe stands about 8 meters tall in this game, with the atlas topping a little above 17.

That said a few of the cockpits are apparently recessed into the torso, as there is no other way they would work.

And as is lore appropriate, the Spider is a deathtrap for the pilot. XD

[Foxwalker]

Cockpit design is pretty weird in the game. Personally I can't get over the fact that the design of the Locust cockpit is so obstructed.

Hello, I am in the mech with the lowest armor in the game, and by the way, I am also nearly blind!

[Juodas Varnas]

Foxwalker, on 19 April 2016 - 10:50 AM, said:

Cockpit design is pretty weird in the game. Personally I can't get over the fact that the design of the Locust cockpit is so obstructed.

Hello, I am in the mech with the lowest armor in the game, and by the way, I am also nearly blind!

Well, as long as you're not in a Phoenix variant that adds extra bars in front of your face or the Pirates' bane with epilepsy inducing machine guns, they're not THAT bad.

[El Bandito]

Compared to correct lore size, Light mechs are very tiny in this game. Which explains why the cockpit would feel unnaturally small. And in a FPS game, size always matter, especially for an unpopular class such as Lights.

[razenWing]

Pronotum, on 19 April 2016 - 10:12 AM, said:

I don't think you understand just how tall these Battlemechs are. The Arctic Cheetah, for example, isn't just five meters tall. You can go to the Tutorial area freeroam, and compare your mech's size with the technicians working on the other Battlemechs down below. The cockpit is large enough to support a pilot.

Or see it for yourself all first person when you decide to take one of the other Battlemechs there for a test ride.

Well, I don't know how accurate those scales are (I really don't think PGI did that great of scaling comparing to the environment TBH)

But from the different lore comparison char that I've seen, aren't light mechs just 6 meters? A regular human is about 1~1.5 meters sitting down (taking away the thigh), and you look at the Arctic Cheetah, with the head being like in a 1:11 ratio and there is no WAY a person is not having half of his body inside the torso portion.

Other than that, because human size is the constant in mech size variables. Basically, the smaller the mech, the larger the cockpit should appear, right? Which would make Shadow Cat vastly weird size wise compare to a Ebon Jaguar.

(which comes to my second senario, if we accept that SC is the correct size, then Ebon Jag cockpit is just WAY too big unless we accept that the glass is not for forward view, but like a ginormous sun roof)

Edited by razenWing, 19 April 2016 - 11:05 AM.

[Coralld]

This reminds me of the time some one did a scale with the Mist Linx and pilot and found that the pilot would be super cramped. No joke, the Mist Linx is more like a proto mech than a true mech.

[Pronotum]

So, I did some crap Photoshop to try and visualize how the pilot and cockpit works in a Locust.
First I took a picture, to compare it to an average mechanic.
http://i.imgur.com/xSFfcNa.jpg

And then applied that to some crap Photoshop (GIMP, actually) in a lousy attempt to see how large would the cockpit need to be. To me, the scale on the tiny Locust seems very legit. Well, to a guy with "excellent artistic skill and sense of scale" it does at least.
http://i.imgur.com/ixt5Ko0.png

And the locust's cockpit on the inside, if needed.
http://i.imgur.com/Pd0Cfh1.jpg

Edited by Pronotum, 19 April 2016 - 03:56 PM.

[Impyrium]

On top of that, the actual rendered cockpits are very obviously not accurate to the actual 'mech cockpit in terms of shape, scale, position or movement.

That's more so the mech designs fault though, as indeed many aren't created in a way that would physically allow a pilot to fit properly. Ironically your pilot model in-game is scaled correctly in every mech cockpit, and so the cockpits themselves are modeled separately to at least make sense from the pilot's perspective.

[Fang01]

Pariah Devalis, on 19 April 2016 - 10:26 AM, said:

And as is lore appropriate, the Spider is a deathtrap for the pilot. XD

Late models got ejector seats, none of the ones in mwo though.