9 replies to this topic

[Satans Pooper]

I am talking about two feature suggestions, Rear View Screens in Cockpit and Rear Facing Weapons Hardpoints,

There was a MechWarrior game back in the day that had this feature. (I do not remember which one, so commenters could be helpful here) I loved that feature and wish MW:O had it too. I know that rear facing weapons would be a large tactical change from what we have now.
Rear view screens in the cockpit would facilitate the use of such weapons. Screens in the cockpit would also see the benefit of using more of the screen space for useful information in the cockpit instead of seeing the same placeholder visualization. So as a side effect having rear facing weapons and the ability to use them effectively could also make this game a lot prettier for us pilots.

I bet asking for such a feature is like asking for a bag of moon rocks, it is possible but highly unlikely to receive.

I ask anyways because I would love to see such a change to gameplay. How would rear facing weapons and the ability to see behind you (to a degree) change gameplay you ask?

- Lights would finally have to fear Assaults and Heavies that could hit back while the fast mover is behind them. Players would no longer leave their backsides at the mercy of teammates who may not be aware or care.
- Target locks would be much more useful in 360 degrees than they are now therefore making that skill more relevant.
- Streak SRMs would become more useful as defensive weapons and in brawls.

PGI, I dare you to give us Rear Facing Weapons and Rearview Screens in the Cockpit and to see what happens.



Constructive feedback only please.

[MechanicalWraith]

MWO is too fast paced, light mechs would be halfway done circling back around to your face by the time you've hit whatever key you bound to the rear-view switch and started acquiring a firing solution.

And another problem, MWO armor inflation makes rear-facing weaponry (typically a laser. A. Small. Laser) utterly useless.

Nice idea but not in MWO.

[TheoLu]

Part of the current gameplay appeal of mechs and equipment like ECM combined with appropriate skills is the ability to sneak about the rear of the enemy and potentially go unnoticed while spotting for your team.

What you propose significantly impacts on that style of gameplay since it'd increase substantially the chances of players attempting to sneak into such positions of being 'detected'.

There would also be a significant performance hit since you're calling for geometry which isn't being rendered/shaded to be done, which has potential to lock out many people whose systems are already only-just keeping up with the game's increasing system requirements as time goes on; ergo those who've been playing for years and have invested money in fleshing out their mechbay but haven't upgraded their PCs are once again hit performance-wise if they want to have the same tactical advantage everyone else on better systems gets.

[MechanicalWraith]

The two reasons I gave why it's not practical stand, but I'd like to point out that the only form of rear-view MWO could get - a camera switch like Mechwarrior 4 - wouldn't actually impact performance to any noticeable degree. Engine limitations prevent using the cockpit screens to display additional camera perspectives, the same limitations that force advanced zoom's picture-in-picture to be all pixelated (upscaling a cut from the center of the screen).

I do like the idea of shaking up gameplay and certainly agree that light mechs need a counter as they are far too powerful in exploitative roles. (personally I think increasing collision damage is a good way to handle that, but that's another topic.)

[Satans Pooper]

Don't tell me how it cannot be done.

Tell me how it can be done.

[TheoLu]

Well in that case, as MechanicalWraith suggested you've got one of two options.

a.) rear-view 'mirror' instead requires a camera-switch, meaning you're either looking forward out of your cockpit or looking backward through your rear-view camera. Not both simultaneously by way of an in-cockpit screen
b.) a complete graphics engine change for the game, which since it's CryEngine we're talking about, means a complete engine change in general - which unless Piranha Games has plans for doing so at some point in the future (such as switching to Unreal Engine) is simply impractical in general

That's 'how it can be done' from a technical perspective.

If you want one from a meta perspective, that's a different story. I don't know of there being any mechs in the BattleTech universe which have rear-facing weaponry, though I've never cared enough to go looking.

And if there aren't, I wouldn't personally call for them to be introduced by MWO. I'd sooner go find another mech-combat game which does have that sort of functionality in the game already.

Edited by AnonyTerrorNinja, 14 March 2018 - 05:46 AM.

[Throe]

AnonyTerrorNinja, on 14 March 2018 - 05:46 AM, said:

I don't know of there being any mechs in the BattleTech universe which have rear-facing weaponry, though I've never cared enough to go looking.

There are, but as has been stated already, they're typically limited to a single small laser, which is going to be pretty severely underpowered and therefore mostly pointless.

Addressing the OP:
I'd say if you want the same effect as rear facing weaponry, you should just pilot an Urbanmech.

Since boating weapons is usually the best way to play MWO as far as builds are concerned, splitting a portion of your payload capacity between front and rear exclusively would be a bad idea. You want to be able to bring all your weapons to bear at once whenever you can. This simultaneously amplifies your firepower as much as possible, while limiting your opponents' opportunity to return fire. Placing weapons at a 180° angle to your primary weapons prevents them from being lined up with the others, and so really just causes you to expose yourself more than necessary to deal the same amount of damage.

Put another way, if you practice good situational awareness, rear facing weaponry is actually more of a liability than an advantage.

Edited by Throe, 14 March 2018 - 09:34 AM.

[Satans Pooper]

Throe, on 14 March 2018 - 09:32 AM, said:

I'd say if you want the same effect as rear facing weaponry, you should just pilot an Urbanmech.

Since boating weapons is usually the best way to play MWO as far as builds are concerned, splitting a portion of your payload capacity between front and rear exclusively would be a bad idea. You want to be able to bring all your weapons to bear at once whenever you can. This simultaneously amplifies your firepower as much as possible, while limiting your opponents' opportunity to return fire. Placing weapons at a 180° angle to your primary weapons prevents them from being lined up with the others, and so really just causes you to expose yourself more than necessary to deal the same amount of damage.

Put another way, if you practice good situational awareness, rear facing weaponry is actually more of a liability than an advantage.

I appreciate your candor. I know all about the little urbie as I run a K-9 from time to time. I started this post to address those mechs with rear facing weapons because they are all over the lore. When these mechs get added to MWO the rear weapons are forced forward facing. I wanted to bring attention to these variants as I believe they could mix up gameplay. That is my goal, to find a way to un-stagnate gameplay. And I want a rear view screen to use some of that wasted cockpit space. It could work just like the minimap or Advance Zoom, hit a button and the rearview screen blows up to a miniwindow.

So this idea might not work in QP with the casual player because they may not know the lore (Go watch Critical Rocket's youtube channel and learn you some lore boys and girls) and which chassis have rear facing weapons. It could cause some confusion at first. I understand this.

It may not work in FP either with the endemic Try-Hard-iness that has taken over FP and made it more into a kind of Competitive Play (which I thought there was a drop queue for that now....PGI ::shakes fist: ) LaserVomit is alive and well there. I can't play with that level of tryhard and still have fun. I am a casual player.

But then again Rear facing weapons might be the thing that MWO needs to break the stagnant funk of its routine gameplay. Each match I play in PUGs seems to be: Same map, Same gametype, Everyone goes to F7/G7. oh boy, its the fight i had last match all over again. Getting focused by 8 erLL from across the map. joy.

I have had enough of boating weapons just to be able to hit for 40+ Dam per Alpha. I do not want to play AlphaWarriorOnline, I want MechWarrior. And to me that means mentally challenging gameplay with a variety of threats to deal with. I think rearview and rear facing weapons could be an option for the devs to bring a fresh strategy to our beloved lobby shooter. (if for nothing else than for the tactical flexibility it would lend to gametypes with objectives like Conquest or Incursion) As for the concern that only a smllas would fit in a rear facing hardpoint: It is a hardpoint like any other, you want to fit C-ERLL in that slot, go for it, just lose some weight on your front facing weapons to be able to do it is what I say.

Thanks for your commentary everyone. There have been some good points raised. I am enjoying reading this conversation as it grows.

Edited by MichiNoketsuna, 17 March 2018 - 06:53 AM.

[MechanicalWraith]

I understand the desire to freshen gameplay and I'd wholly support this feature if I thought it practical - but MWO is too far gone to benefit from a change of this magnitude. Neither CryEngine nor PGI enjoy significant code changes, and the playerbase would never accept the changes to movement pacing and/or TTK necessary to make this kind of strategic feature relevant.

MW4 had a rear-view camera (and much better pacing/TTK imho, more faithful to BT) and although I sometimes wondered what it'd be like if my atlas could actually mount a rear-laser, although ultimately I suspected I'd still have used it just to check which way I should yaw to bring my frontal weaponry to bear.

Although I play an unhealthy amount of MWO due to the fact that I've loved battletech since I was a kid - and MW4 no longer works on my current OS, It's truly depressing to see this called a 'thinking man's shooter' as the only thinking I need to do is to buy the mechs that move fast with bad hitboxes, run circles around things, and shoot at them for slightly longer than another FPS.

I'm not trying to shoot the idea down because I think it'd worsen matters, but rather I believe PGI's extremely conservative attention to development of this cash-cow would be better spent on smaller, easier changes with greater impact.

Edited by MechanicalWraith, 17 March 2018 - 10:29 AM.

[Damnedtroll]

People will ask for Wind Commander style rear auto aim and auto fire turrets, and they will all walk backward...