2 replies to this topic

[Gwydion Ward]

Playerinput = K (using K for the kick attack key)

Kick Attack
ScanFront:5m x 5m, setTarget
IF ( TargetPlayFall | TargetPlayStand ) = True
Return Set Player KickCooldown;

ELSE
IF Target = ((KickInvul)&(Enemy) | (Friendly) | (LegCount = 1)
return Set Player KickCooldown;
IF Target = ((PlayerWeight - TargetWeight) < 20) & (Enemy)
return Set: PlayerRandomLegHealth = MASCDamageValue, Set: Player KickCooldown;
IF Target = ((Target KickInvul = False)) & ((PlayerWeight - TargetWeight) >= 20) & (Enemy)
return Set: Target TargetPlayFall, Set: Target KickInvul, Set: Player KickCooldown;
Else
Return;


So... what does the above do?

Well my programming logic is a bit rusty.. I Gained my BS in programming recently, and would LOVE to get a job in it, especially in the gaming industry, but everyone seems to want experience, but no one’s 'giving' experience :T.

Sorry, trailed off there a bit. So, what does this do?

Its 'my' answer to the problem we have of Lights running up into the shins of Heavy and Assault mech's, with 0 fear of their lives, because they take laughable damage on the 'impact’ and are 'under' the guns of the mech they are essentially face-hugging.

This has the effect of a mech as small as 25Tones being able to obliterate larger mech's with nearly no risk to themselves.

PGI will not turn back on the old pre-launch "Collisions", and for good reason! The collision model had issues such as friendly mech's tripping over each other, stuck-in-loop animation issues (likely caused by repeated 'bumps'), and a few instances of Dragon-bowling.

But, they don’t seem to have an answer to this problem either, and it’s a problem only amplified with the release of heavy Machine guns, and mechs like the Piranha and Lynx being able to ‘boat’ 8+ of them.

Which leads me to ‘my’ solution. A solution that makes use of already existing code/animations, with hopefully minimal ‘new’ code being made (mainly the script itself for the attack, and the ‘scan 5m x 5m’ bit.

Unless they scrapped them, PGI already has ‘fall over/get up’ animations... and damage done to a players mech leg structure already exists with the MASC over-use code.
This ‘solution’ essentially does the following:

• Scans a 5mx5m grid in-front of the players mech whenever they hit the “Kick Attack” key (K for my example). If the Scan reveals that a Standing-up, or Falling-down animation is already being played, nothing happens to the Targeted Mech and the Players ‘kick’ cooldown is started.
  
• If the scan reveals a mech that is an enemy, but already has the Kick-Invulnerability cooldown or a friendly, or is legged, then nothing happens to the ‘targeted’ mech, and the ability cooldown triggers on the player mech.
  
• If the scan reveals a mech that is an Enemy mech, but the differences in weight between the two is less than 20Tones, the Player damages his own leg by a certain amount, using the pre-existing MASC damage code, slightly modified to work with ‘this’ ability. And the players Kick cooldown is triggered
  
• If the scan reveals a mech that is an Enemy who is not under the “Kick Invulnerable” status, and is an enemy, AND is 20Tones or Lighter than the Player, that Mech then gets knocked down, and plays the Fall-Down / Stand-Up animations, with a brief delay between falling and standing back up. And sets the players Kick skill cooldown.

This will essentially create a code-block ability for “Kick” that

• Cannot be used to troll friendlies
  
• Cannot be abused due to Kick-Invulnerable timers.
  
• Cannot be used on ANY legged mech. (honestly, if a legged Piranha kills your 100Ton assault… you sort of deserved it)
  
• Hurts the player if they try to ‘kick’ a mech they would otherwise be able to attack like normal.
  
• Gives larger mechs the ability to ‘knock down’ Mechs like the Piranha’s and Lynx’s that are currently running around with full HMG builds that simply ‘face-hug’ those larger mechs without fear of being attacked by those mechs due to torso/arm movement limitations (As well as pretty much any light vs Assault/heavy face-hugging combination).
  
• Does not require any re-implementation of collision (as that is a whole new mess of worms to handle)
  
• Uses already existing code (the animations if they didn’t scrap them, and the MASC damage incursion)
  
• STOPS Light mech’s from being able to simply run up and ‘into’ larger mechs with 0 fear of being in any danger from that larger Mech.

So… thoughts? I doubt PGI will actually implement this... though its something that is desperately needed to solve this problem. But I’m curious about the community’s thoughts on it as a ‘solution’ TO that problem.

Edited by Gwydion Ward, 20 April 2018 - 03:47 PM.

[Levenstein_]

would love to see this

mechs should be able to do physical/close quarters/hand-to-hand combat anyways, Harebrained Schemes was able to do it with Battletech, why aren't we able to do it here?

pros to doing physical attacks is the ability to deal a significant amount of damage to mechs that are lighter than you, maybe even disable/destroy some components, and the chance of insta-killing almost anything if the weight difference is enough (though i doubt PGI will allow this, but still would love to see an Atlas crush a Piranha/Urbanmech/Lynx underfoot)

cons are that you will have to be really close to the target to be able to do it, overexposing yourself to the enemy team, risk of heavily damaging your own components when done to a mech that is of a similar weight or is heavier than you, doing damage to your armor regardless of the weight difference between the attacking mech and the target mech (i mean seriously, you're hitting something metal that weighs upwards of 20 tons with a limb that possibly weighs less than that)

ofc, ways of balancing this would be to introduce a "wind-up" time that visibly makes the mech prepare for the attack, somewhere along the lines of pulling the leg back or whatever, giving the targeted mech a chance to run away

[Gwydion Ward]

Exkommuniziert, on 20 April 2018 - 02:25 PM, said:

would love to see this

mechs should be able to do physical/close quarters/hand-to-hand combat anyways, Harebrained Schemes was able to do it with Battletech, why aren't we able to do it here?

Well 'full on' Mele combat would require a LOT of animation work, balance, and even re-modeling so those animations can even work and 'look' good. Its a lot more work than simply saying 'ok, make this mech swing an ax that does 20 damage if it hits'.

Quote

ofc, ways of balancing this would be to introduce a "wind-up" time that visibly makes the mech prepare for the attack, somewhere along the lines of pulling the leg back or whatever, giving the targeted mech a chance to run away

Hmm i like that idea... could possibly trigger a 'take one step' animation for the player mech, that not only makes it do the 'step forward' animation, but also moves it forward one step physically.

Quote

pros to doing physical attacks is the ability to deal a significant amount of damage to mechs that are lighter than you, maybe even disable/destroy some components, and the chance of insta-killing almost anything if the weight difference is enough

I am trying to 100% avoid any 'oh my 100ton assault kicked a Locust last night and destroyed its cockpit in 1 hit!' thing. Which is why the only 'damage' done with a kick is to the Player doing the kicking, rather than the mech that is kicked. Its also why the 'range' is set so low.

I simply want a way to make Lights have a reason to fear getting into the ankles of a Assault by simply ramming them head-on and having nothing to fear. Remember, this only works in a 'forward' column/grid. It wont knock down anything to your right/left, or rear, only a light that strait-line rams you purely to get under your weapons for a cheep/easy kill.


Full on 'mele' systems are likely beyond the game-engine their using, and the currently in-game models so-far as animation and such would go. And a simple 'kick' like i semi-outlined with psudocode above uses animations they already had at one time, requires no 'extra' animation on the side of the kicking mech (though liked the idea of a 'wind-up' thing. and uses the already in-used MASC code to damage the players leg if he tries to abuse it, or kicks something bigger than what would be able to abuse the lack of collisions in the game.