9 replies to this topic

[Juodas Varnas]

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Anyway, i've been watching the MW:5 trailer and it got me thinking about a few things (like why the hell is there a Raven-3L, but that's not the topic of the thread!). What really got me thinking was the fact that the interior of the cockpit was visible from the outside of the mech, which implies that the interior and exterior cockpits are one and the same.

As you (probably) know, that is not the case in MW:O. A lot of cockpits (pretty much all of them, as far as I know) have mismatching interior and exterior scaling (the interior cockpits are much larger than the exterior model, kind of like the TARDIS). In some cases, the difference between the two is minimal, in others, the difference is staggering. One of the best examples, in my opinion, would be the Atlas.

The Atlas. A mech, that many would consider already oversized, would require its size to be increased even more (probably doubled or something), just to be able to fit a pilot in its cockpit.
The issue comes from the decision to place it in the left eye of the head, which already isn't large enough to fit a cockpit.
In order, for the mech to have a proper cockpit in MW:5, something will have to be done about it (and a lot of other mechs).
The easiest (but the absolute worst) way would be by simple increasing the size of the mech.
In my opinion, though, the best way would be re-doing the entire cockpit. Moving the cockpit into the center of the head and not just the eye. That would bring other problems though, like the extremely limited field of vision you'd get from the nose-slit window and maybe both of the eyes on the side. To fix that, one could take a look at Titanfall (yeah, yeah, i know) and fill in the gaps between the eyes and the nose with... Monitor screens. The central placement of the cockpit, would also be more in-line with previously established artworks, like this one:

The same thing would have to be done to the Commando, though, i'm not sure if that would even be enough to fit the pilot into its head.

P.S. Don't get me wrong though, i very much like the "looking through the eye" cockpit of the Atlas, but it's a sacrifice i'd be more than willing to make for the sake of consistency between the interior and the exterior of the mech. (Also, actually being able to see through the enemy's cockpit window, would be hella cool).

[El Bandito]

TBF, MWO's Light mechs are a lot smaller than actual BT scale. Commando is actually noticeably larger than what we have in this game. Probably has something to do with people alphaing all the weapons on the same spot.




On the other extreme we have Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. Here we can see Commando is a giant, if that ladder is human scaled.

Edited by El Bandito, 25 December 2016 - 05:16 AM.

[Juodas Varnas]

El Bandito, on 25 December 2016 - 05:09 AM, said:

TBF, MWO's Light mechs are a lot smaller than actual BT scale. Commando is actually noticeably larger than what we have in this game. Probably has something to do with people alphaing all the weapons on the same spot.


On the other extreme we have Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. Here we can see Commando is a giant, if that ladder is human scaled.

Speaking of the Commando, there's this old picture from an old thread showing how big the Commando should be for the Cockpit to fit properly.

Rin Shibuya, on 21 October 2013 - 10:18 PM, said:

Also fun fact: In order for the model to correspond to your view of the in-game cockpit, it would have to be this big

[Hit the Deck]

It would be cool if each 'Mech gets similar treatment as those ships in Star Citizen.

Another MW game, perhaps.

[Alan Davion]

Juodas Varnas, on 25 December 2016 - 04:17 AM, said:

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Anyway, i've been watching the MW:5 trailer and it got me thinking about a few things (like why the hell is there a Raven-3L, but that's not the topic of the thread!).

Mech scaling and cockpit size has always been an issue, but I have absolutely no idea how to approach that problem as it would likely require a complete re-scaling of literally everything in the game, from the maps to the mechs.

As to the Raven, I'd be willing to bet real money that the Raven shown in the MW5:M trailer is actually the RVN-1X, the prototype model, because the RVN-3L would have died when he lost one Side Torso. The Raven didn't die until after he lost both.

The 1X and 3L use all the same weapons, 2 medium lasers and an SRM6.

So there's really only two explanations.

One, it was a RVN-1X using a STD engine and not an XL like the RVN-3L.

Two, it's a sign that PGI is changing the IS XL to function like the Clan XL.

I think option two will piss off a lot of people should it ever happen in MWO, so I would hope PGI is smart enough to not do that.

So chances are it's a RVN-1X, and they just goofed on the name.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

in the Lights , many from the interior is in the Torso , the Stinger is more like a power Suit, and the Pilot have very little space ...not more as in a Smart Car...Shadowhawk in Lore 9,6m (like the lenght of a Abramas Tank M1) and only the upper Torso from the pilot is in the cockpit.

[RestosIII]

Old MW4 Ranger, on 25 December 2016 - 09:12 AM, said:

in the Lights , many from the interior is in the Torso , the Stinger is more like a power Suit, and the Pilot have very little space ...not more as in a Smart Car...Shadowhawk in Lore 9,6m (like the lenght of a Abramas Tank M1) and only the upper Torso from the pilot is in the cockpit.

Honestly, scaling is all out of wack. Compare how large Elementals in all the fiction we've seen are with the mechs in MW:O, and their cockpits.



You'd get some "interesting" sizes from that.

[Alan Davion]

RestosIII, on 25 December 2016 - 09:16 AM, said:

Honestly, scaling is all out of wack. Compare how large Elementals in all the fiction we've seen are with the mechs in MW:O, and their cockpits.



You'd get some "interesting" sizes from that.

Which is what I said in the first bit of my post.

To get the real, proper scale of everything in MWO, the maps would probably have to be doubled in size, and to some degree many of the mechs as well.

Which is something PGI will not likely ever do. Although they seem to have tried it in the MW5:M footage, given you can actually walk around the mechs, and even the vehicles like the Strikers and whatever those tanks were.

Has anyone identified what those tanks outside the base were? The ones on the right side specifically.

[Juodas Varnas]

Alan Davion, on 25 December 2016 - 09:45 AM, said:

Has anyone identified what those tanks outside the base were? The ones on the right side specifically.

I believe those are 60 ton Manticores. (They carry an SRM-6, LRM-10, PPC and ML, which seems to correspond to the visual design of those little tanks.)

Edited by Juodas Varnas, 25 December 2016 - 10:00 AM.

[Alan Davion]

Juodas Varnas, on 25 December 2016 - 09:59 AM, said:

I believe those are 60 ton Manticores. (They carry an SRM-6, LRM-10, PPC and ML, which seems to correspond to the visual design of those little tanks.)

You're probably right. Although the Manticores shown in the preview footage seem to have undergone a visual rework to have more of a normal turret setup than the original artwork would appear to have.

Overall they have a turret and body that's more similar to something like the Rommel/Patton or Von Luckner, but that launcher on top of the turret definitely marks them as Manticores.