97 replies to this topic

[feor]

Kristov Kerensky, on 26 December 2011 - 11:06 PM, said:

Cite it all you want Strum, doesn't change the fact that NO Mech has a blind spot, you don't look out of the cockpit canopy, and the designs, as cool as some of them are..and lets face it, the Timberwolf and Atlas are both just..well..the embodiments of the Rule of Cool, weren't always what they were turned into by FASA, so you can't point at the artwork and go 'aha!, see that, cockpit glass!' cause it ain't so.

The Atlas and Timberwolf WERE designed to be mechs though. Your point about the Japanese Mecha not really being designed for battletech is fair (though none of them I'm aware of were designed to be "armour suits" the scales were notably different in some cases), the majority of TRO3025 was drawn FOR battletech, so if they've got cockpit glass they're supposed to have cockpit glass. There's also piles of fluff background talking about cockpit glass. From Grayson commenting on how the polarizing cockpit glass of the Shadowhawk saved his eyesite in the novel Mercenary Star (he was riding shotgun with Lori in command), to the cockpit being described as using "a wide range of transparent armor combinations, with anything from Ferroglass to Alternating diamond and polymer sheets" (Tech Manual pg. 34), to the fluff for the Mackie being described as using a one-way Plexiglass cockpit to add menace to the design in TRO 3058. And that's before we get into the artwork showing pilots looking out of their cockpits, or looking into cockpit windows to see the mechwarriors. (case in point, check out the nose on this Atlas that used to be the background of the official Battletech website: http://4.bp.blogspot...tlas+firing.jpg and wave to the pilot you can see in there. )

Looking out the front window may not always be the primary means of tracking an enemy mech across the field, but when all else fails, you've taken 4 PPC shots and been overheating for 20 minutes, and all of your cockpit displays are static or dead, or just facing an opponent with sufficient ECM/Stealth capabilities that he doesn't appear on your HUD, you can still look out the window and open up on the enemy.

I will note that I recall actually a second one noted as not having an actual window, that being the Wasp, which in Decision at Thunder Rift was described as having a sensor strip on its head and no actual window.

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FASA never worried about the issue, after all, TT rules don't allow the head to turn, so it doesn't matter. Pilots in TT don't look out of the Mech, they are watching the HUD inside the neurohelmet, and there's no blind spots without ECM being involved or sensor damage. Head shots were head shots regardless of what the Mech's design was, take out the head and it's a dead Mech..even if it had no head(Marauder!) and in some cases, like the Catapult, where it's cockpit WAS the entire front profile of the Mech, you STILL had to roll to hit the head, even if the ONLY line of fire you had could ONLY hit that big cockpit canopy. TT game with rules that ignored what was physically represented.

And..ya know..that torso cockpit bit..that's some FUNNY stuff! Just look at some of the Mechs and tell me how they do NOT put the cockpits dead center of the torso...Catapult..Timberwolf...Dire Wolf...Archer...shall I continue? FASA had Mechs with torso mounted cockpits from the start after all..Archers being in Battledroids after all For the TT rules, that didn't matter, the 'head' was where the cockpit was located and it was made weak and easy to take out with a lucky shot for the cool factor...'head shot!'...it really has nothing to do with WHERE the cockpit is physically located.

FASA obviously does care about it, there may not have been rules about it, but they cared enough to put it in their artwork, describe it in the background, and come up with alternate rules for putting it in other places. The "head" represents a small area immediately around the cockpit in which most of the mechs computers and basic electronics equipment reside. This might be on top of the mech in an exposed ball of armour, or it may be attached to the front of the mech's torso and blend seamlessly into the mech's chest armour. But in all cases it has open access to the front exterior of the mech and is somewhat exposed, in order to give the pilot a physical view of the battlefield if needed, facilitate simple ejection if damage became too severe, and remove him from the majority of the heat generated by the mech's functioning. In game terms this is abstracted into a section that is difficult to hit but rather vulnerable when you do strike it. The Torso Mounted Cockpit represents a conceptual shift whereby they buried the pilot more deeply into the chest of the mech. This was shown to have advantages and drawbacks. The advantages being a safer, less exposed location that was more difficult to destroy outright. However the drawbacks were loss of physical view of the battlefield, direct exposure to the heat of the mech's engine, and an inability to eject due to the structure of the mech being between you and the outside world.

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actually the marauder DOES have a viewport ... its inside the box at the front to the torso. The thing is that the cockpit is well back in the torso from the viewport ... slightly in front of the arm attachment points, so the marauder pilot is actually looking through a "tunnel" to look out the front viewport

Nope, in the Grey Death novel Price of Glory Grayson specifically states that one of the drawbacks of his Marauder is that he doesn't have any kind of viewports to the outside world. I think what you're thinking of is supposed to be it main forward camera.

[Ursus_Spiritus]

Bah I didn't see the post above mine, so excuse the delay/repeat.



I can't remember the source as it has been a long time since I read any source material. However I do remember mention/reading about pilots generally using a holographic display in the cockpit that is/was sensor based and that view ports were usually not required/essential because the pilots did have a 360 view that either was compressed or in fact a full 360 sphere which they could function. Though also that may just have been command mechs. But view ports even with polarized glass weren't that common.

Yet for those that read the novels, they should remember when Kai was first encountering a Elemental (Toad) and he was in a P-Hawk I believe, in which Stackpole describes Kai seeing the elemental through the view port in which the cockpit is in head of the mech and this is represented on the cover of the original novel.

The larger mechs i.e. assaults/heavies view ports were more cosmetic because of the shear size of the mechs. As where on lights and some meds they could be more functional.

I could see especially with Clan Mechs wanting view ports over reliance on technology based on the skill/bravado aspect as they aren't relying on technology but their own training to assess and react to the combat environment real time. Not to say that displays and sensors aren't important but Clan pilots can be quite arrogant.

I am inclined to think that reliance on sensors and internal displays either screen or holographic would be the "norm" with the level of tech they are using. Yet still having view ports would be addtional, though not necessarily practical with the designs of the mechs. The display orientated mechs would probably have their cockpits lower in the torso, yet the pilots would have to deal with heat more so then cockpits located in the head of a mech. Also something else to consider is the mech having an ejection seat and how feasible it would be to eject from a torso location vs the head/upper torso.

Edited by 8100d 5p4tt3r, 27 December 2011 - 08:16 AM.

[Escef]

Kristov Kerensky, on 26 December 2011 - 03:08 PM, said:

Not to mention that most of the Mechs prior to 3025 were designed for use with a neurohelmet that did NOT allow the wearing to see out of it at all, they had a HUD that provided the ONLY visual information the pilot received.

I have never seen a depiction of a neurohelmet that lacked a way to look out of it. I recall the most common design back in the day looked like a bucket with a dome on top attached to a set of shoulder guards, with a hexagonal "glass" pane on the front. Also, if one could not see out of the helmet, why is it that cockpits are usually described as having multiple screens and interfaces? Yes, the old school neurohelmets were also depicted as having a HUD integral to them, but this is because the design made turning one's head difficult.

Also, the "glass" used for the viewports of mech cockpits isn't technically glass. "Cockpit canopies use a wide range of transparent armor combinations, with anything from ferroglass to alternating diamond and polymer sheets." (TechManual, pg.34)

[Oppi]

Every mech uses a HUD that compresses a 360° view into a 160° wide "screen" (so no, there are no blind spots as long as all sensors are intact), but most mechs still have cockpit windows. While this may seem a contradiction, it truly is not.
Sensor damage ? Powered down mechs ? Enemies with ECM equipment ? It's not hard to imagine that those things can and will occur on a battlefield, and that a mechwarrior needs to maintain a good sight of his surroundings regardless of them.
As for the "weak glass" aspect, it's also not hard to imagine that there could be transparent armour material as strong as the normal stuff, developed by a civilization that also developed jump ships and PPCs.

[Octavian]

Escef, on 27 December 2011 - 09:36 AM, said:

I have never seen a depiction of a neurohelmet that lacked a way to look out of it. I recall the most common design back in the day looked like a bucket with a dome on top attached to a set of shoulder guards, with a hexagonal "glass" pane on the front. Also, if one could not see out of the helmet, why is it that cockpits are usually described as having multiple screens and interfaces? Yes, the old school neurohelmets were also depicted as having a HUD integral to them, but this is because the design made turning one's head difficult.

Also, the "glass" used for the viewports of mech cockpits isn't technically glass. "Cockpit canopies use a wide range of transparent armor combinations, with anything from ferroglass to alternating diamond and polymer sheets." (TechManual, pg.34)

I'm pretty sure i've seen pics of neuro helmets that are just solid buckets with no way to see out.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Lol, while were on the topic of mech cockpits, I have always wondered where the Cockpit of a Cyclops is at? I had always thought it was the big optical thing up on top where the head of a mech usually is then I played it in MW4 and realized thats an optical thing or something and then got back to wondering...where is it? Same with a Kodiak, where is it at? Is it way up on top of that Vent thing it has?

As for mechs with bad blindspots, unless MW4 has the Sunder wrong, that one looks like it has bad vision as well.

Edited by LordKnightFandragon, 27 December 2011 - 01:48 PM.

[Wolf Hreda]

Kind of the Hunchback's big brother in this respect is the Summoner/ Thor. The missile rack on its left shoulder would make it near impossible to hit the cockpit from that side. Unless you blew it up. That I always thought was an issue. Also, I always thought the cockpit was a little small, like an Elemental could land on it and crush it.

[Strum Wealh]

LordKnightFandragon, on 27 December 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

Lol, while were on the topic of mech cockpits, I have always wondered where the Cockpit of a Cyclops is at? I had always thought it was the big optical thing up on top where the head of a mech usually is then I played it in MW4 and realized thats an optical thing or something and then got back to wondering...where is it?

Evidence would seem to suggest that the Cyclops' cockpit is, canonically, in the 'Mech's head, along with (behind?) the "sophisticated holographic Tacticon B-2000 battle computer" (which is presumably "the optical thing").

Furthermore, it would appear that headshots were (canonically) a particular concern for the Cyclops, as "though the Cyclops' head section is armored as heavily as its internal structure can handle, the armor is somewhat inadequate. In battle situations, most enemy 'Mechs will automatically aim at the head of the Cyclops, knowing any hits or near misses could damage or disable the sophisticated command and control equipment located there, as well as doing the usual damage to the MechWarrior inside."
That would seem to imply that the Mechwarrior (along with the cockpit) was, in fact, located within the (oft-targeted) head.

This seems to not be the case with the MW4 version of the Cyclops... perhaps the MW4 version represents a variant that adopted the torso-mounted cockpit system?

LordKnightFandragon, on 27 December 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

Same with a Kodiak, where is it at? Is it way up on top of that Vent thing it has?

As for the Kodiak... I would expect the cockpit to be in the head assembly.

LordKnightFandragon, on 27 December 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

As for mechs with bad blindspots, unless MW4 has the Sunder wrong, that one looks like it has bad vision as well.

I would say the MW4 version is pretty much how it the Sunder is supposed to be set up.
For the sake of completeness, here is the TRO picture.

Also, from the Solaris7 entry:
"The upper torso was redesigned to accept a bulkier Inner Sphere engine. This change meant rearranging the 'Mech's internal spaces, and so the designers moved the torso weapons bay above the cockpit. This reconfiguration posed no problems when the weapon pods were loaded with energy weapons, but firing missiles sprayed caustic gasses all over the cockpit canopy and sensor arrays. The engineers eventually fixed the problem, but the delays made the Sunder one of the last DCMS OmniMechs to be authorized for full-scale production."

[CG Anastasius Focht]

The 360 degree HUD means there are no blind spots per see, and as for armoured glass

http://www.physorg.c...s110727530.html

[Xake]

The head turning is a matter of physics. The 'mechs use the neural helmets to link to the pilots sense of balance, which is located in the head. i.e.; the head turns as adjustments to balance are made. just like the pilot would do.

[Kristov Kerensky]

Again..no blind spots on a Mech, the pilot has a 360 view compressed into 160 displayed inside the neurohelmet as a HUD, this has already been covered, it's CANON, it's part of game rules for TT, it's discussed in the novels more then a few times, it's a known factoid for the BTU. And no, turning your head in the neurohelmet does NOT turn the head of the Mech, that's not even an option in the TT rules and it's not how it works in the novels either. READ this please... http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Neurohelmet keeping in mind it mainly just covers the basics..what a neurohelm does..which isn't all that much. Early helms were so big and bulky that you did NOT see out of them at all, again, covered in the lore, the only view was the HUD shown INSIDE the helm. Later versions can include the ability to see out, but keeping in mind that most IS Mechs were designed when the helms didn't allow you to see anything but what they projected inside the helm, combined with the simple fact that a big easy to see canopy, which is OBVIOUSLY not as well armored as the rest of the Mech, is a really REALLY stupid design and no military in their right mind would accept such an obviously FUBAR feature. But..ya know what..it's got the cool factor going on, so FASA left it alone. Remember, whatever breaks the laws of physics and just plain common sense is called BTech Physics.

Artwork and what is shows...seriously, this HAS been covered pretty indepth..it's why HG sued FASA ..remember? FASA bought artwork, they didn't produce it themselves, and they would take that artwork and create the configurations and fluff pieces for the boxed set and then later the TROs based on that artwork. NEW artwork..seriously..the NEW stuff..which FASA has nothing to do with? FASA went out of business in 2001, anything after that isn't their product, especially the BTech stuff, that's currently CGL's baby, having to deal with artwork they didn't originate and having to deal with the problems that creates. From Battledroids to TRO 3055, FASA bought artwork then created Mechs based on that artwork, and some of the works just don't match what's drawn..like the Wasp..clearly has cockpit glass..but..hey..NO, it's not a cockpit cover at all..it's a sensor strip! So..really..you are going to try and tell me that what you see is what MUST be..even when the canon says you are wrong?

Again..NOT news, NOT some sudden revelation of a deep dark hidden secret of FASA's, this has been PUBLIC RECORD since the mid 90s people, come on. FASA bought cool looking artwork of robotic..things..and created Mech configs and fluff based on that artwork, did it for years, got some good stuff out of it too..and some pretty silly stuff as well..but hey, it's BTech, who cares, giant robot things blowing **** up and smashing stuff and RIPPING THE ARMS OFF OTHER GIANT ROBOT THINGS AND BEATING THEM DOWN WITH THEIR OWN ARMS! We didn't give a damn back then, I'm not about to start now so many years later. Mechs don't have blind spots, what you see is NOT what you get, and it's fun to rip the arms off another Mech and beat them into scrap with their own arm.

[Rhinehart]

I think it's really a mixture of concepts. Plenty of Mechs definitely have cockpit viewports while some others may not. Bear in mind these designs were built by different manufacturers to different specifications and with different concepts in mind as far as canon is concerned. Also bear in mind many of these designs were supposedly built many years apart from each other. Just like any other technology fads in design will come and go and then come again. (3D movies anyone?) Personally I like mechs with a cockpit viewport as well as heads-up displays.

"Advice from an old tracker. If you want to find someone, use your eyes."-Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity.

Edited by Rhinehart, 27 December 2011 - 05:59 PM.

[feor]

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no military in their right mind would accept such an obviously FUBAR feature. But..ya know what..it's got the cool factor going on, so FASA left it alone. Remember, whatever breaks the laws of physics and just plain common sense is called BTech Physics.

No military in it's right mind would accept a design with a big easily targeted canopy, huh? I know one military that would disagree with you:

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Artwork and what is shows...seriously, this HAS been covered pretty indepth..it's why HG sued FASA ..remember? FASA bought artwork, they didn't produce it themselves, and they would take that artwork and create the configurations and fluff pieces for the boxed set and then later the TROs based on that artwork. NEW artwork..seriously..the NEW stuff..which FASA has nothing to do with? FASA went out of business in 2001, anything after that isn't their product, especially the BTech stuff, that's currently CGL's baby, having to deal with artwork they didn't originate and having to deal with the problems that creates. From Battledroids to TRO 3055, FASA bought artwork then created Mechs based on that artwork, and some of the works just don't match what's drawn..like the Wasp..clearly has cockpit glass..but..hey..NO, it's not a cockpit cover at all..it's a sensor strip! So..really..you are going to try and tell me that what you see is what MUST be..even when the canon says you are wrong?

There were exactly 21 mechs taken from other sources for Battletech. The Unseen. Everything else, from the Commando, to the Catapult to the Atlas is 100% FASA. You also realize that 90% of the people working for Catalyst right now were employed at FASA before it's closure, right? Randall Bill's first battletech books appears to have been the Northwind Highlander's sourcebook, circa 1997. Blaine Lee Pardoe (who continues to write fiction for Battlecorps) Has been writing battletech novels and sourcebooks since 1987 (having worked on the Original TRO3025), and Herb Beas, current Line Developer for battletech (i.e. he decides what gets made and approves what it looks like) goes back to 1998. The idea that they disagree with the old artwork is laughable, especially give the number of new designs they have developed since FASA went under (both as FanPro and CGL) that still have cockpit glass, and on top of that, new designs and new artwork with articulated necks, like this picture of a Hatchetman from TRO 3085 (though the aesthetics have moved largely away from distinct heads)

No one is saying mechs will have sensor blind spots. No one's saying the primary means a pilot uses to look outside is the window. Something like the Hunchback will doubtlessly have camera and viewscreens (as we see in the demonstration Cockpit graphic) to show what's on the other side of any physical obstruction to their view. But it's irrefutable from the background that that at least some mechs (and probably most mechs) DO have cockpit glass. And that only makes sense, otherwise simply deploying ECM would completely blind enemy mechs and leave them easy pickings for pretty much anyone.

[Kristov Kerensky]

feor..why don't you show a picture of a relevant miltiary vehicle..a tank, not an airplane, especially not a cargo plane. Because it would support my point, not yours? Or do you actually equate a Mech with a cargo plane instead of a tank?

And the 21 Mechs composing the Unseen were just the ones they were sued over, because those pieces of artwork were sold to multiple buyers, which caused the issues in the first place, and they got the use of some of those back..remember? Not everything FASA bought was sold to multiple buyers, just some of it. Duane Loose did 274 pieces for BTech and he did other concept art for various FASA projects as well and created artwork for other companies..he wasn't a FASA employee btw when he did that work according to his bio, he was in Boston at the time, moving to the west coast in 94..not to work for FASA but to be a TEACHER and work for Disney Interactive. Looking at the other known names of the various original artwork, most of them seemed to do art for all sorts of companies at the same time...as I said..FASA bought the art then worked around it more often then not.

BTW..I like the new artwork personally, but that Hatchetman you linked..looks pretty damn close to the original Hatchetman, as do the other depictions of that Mech in the old and new BTech manuals. Except for the Unseen, most of the old designs are still being used as they were originally presented. It's good that CGL has their own artists on staff, they can actually do artwork based on the new designs as they create the concepts. I never said they disagreed with the original designs, don't know where you got that, as the NEW artwork is mostly the old artwork with the new artist's personal touches on it. It's pretty obvious that someone decided some time ago to NOT revamp the BTech artwork from the original designs, various comments made by the on staff artists tend to support that... The iconic BattleMech look has definately been retained..and only an ***** would have changed that..

ECM doesn't blind a Mech, it simply jams certain sensor modes. Visual signals(camera feeds) aren't affected by ECM, that takes special equipment that was around during the days of the Star League but wasn't used much and was a secret that was lost in the Succession Wars, but it wasn't 100% effective. It won't ever reappear..but something similiar that requires ECM to help it function WILL be around in the 3060s..again..not totally effective and not something to worry about in MWO..not for another..12 years or so at any rate.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

I don't really worry about anything other than knowing where the cockpit is so I can target it. If it's not in the "head" then fine, but we do need to know where it is, from schematic's or whatever, otherwise it's an "unfair" chassis advantage. i like being able to study the possible enemy. Just as if the intoduce the "2 shots to kill" mode.Thats why a Hunchback has a SL - to provide the second "shot"

[Sir Aaron]

Now we have read a lot about how the cannon says that the cockpit glass is not really there .. lets see what we can use on our small 90° screens. In quake 3 was once the possibility to change your view to 180° i believe. I tried it and .. it was awful i hit only a lot of walls not much else and got nothing useful out of it actual my real field of view was smaller then before because only a small part did appear clear.

Now the neuro helm. IF you just use those all you will get is a pretty boring and nearly always similar looking picture. No cool cockpit, no hula girls no nothing, just a hud and lot of view. So quite unlikely (want the hula girl xD).

Now however if you just take the cockpit with only the glass/seetrough armor, what ever, you see at the artwork, it wont work as well. Because apart from designs like the catapult (lot of glass) most has not enough of it to look through even for the small 90° screen like the many times named Marauder. So it is up to the designers to make the cockpits feel real and that will mean that they will look like you can see through glass. (take a look at the first vid and you know what i mean) Because if you don't have cockpits if all you see is the Mech or the HUD itself .. it loses a lot of the feeling of: i am driving a 60 ton! Mech around.

Edited by Sir Aaron, 28 December 2011 - 06:54 AM.

[Aaron DeChavilier]

Kristov, battlemechs cannot really be compared to relevant military vehicles...because they are fictitious design paradigms.
that said; let's compare anyway because most people here don't give damn realism or don't understand what that entails when
one tries to make things realistic.

So how does a battlemech accomplish a 360deg projection? one would assume cameras no? ok now one or more
of those cameras just got obliterated by the A\C20 shell the mech just took to the rear left torso....blindspot.
Tanks may use cameras now instead of periscopes, but these cameras:

A) are not perfect, you can still reliably creep up on a tank, that's why almost a century after their introduction they still need infantry support.

B ) the cameras are not invulnerable and can be damaged/destroyed during combat rendering the tank blind. Why else would the commander
generally keep the hatch popped and himself/herself standing halfway out of it - to be the eyes of the tank!

So if I were designing a walking tank the size of small house, no matter how hard i try; there will be blindspots and they will be huge!
now for performance sake, I can't stick cameras everywhere either cause that begins to compromise armor integrity. Gee if only there was
some way in Btech to see out of heavily armored gla- see where we're going with this?

Best documented case of a blindspot in mechs to me? Test of Vengeance, Jake Kabrinski in Elemental Armor takes on an AS7-D Atlas.
The latter half of the fight, Jake gets onto the back of the Atlas, and the pilot panics cause he can't actually see where jake is, only can
hear him and see his radar sig. In desperation the Atlas pilot backs into a wall in the hope of crushing jake, almost does, but a half-dead
Jake climbs up over the head and down into the cockpit....pilot had no idea until Jake was in front of his canopy.

Now why would a mech pilot who can see 360deg ram his mech into the back of the building if he could see the enemy elemental? if he
could see the enemy, then he could hit it with his rear facing medium pulses...but he couldn't - Kristov explain this.

BTW the Atlas was completely undamaged and was not being jammed in anyway.

now when it comes to what you're talking about with the design artwork, would you kindly point to a source or quote about Loose and FASA's dealings? How would you know if FASA 'bought and worked around the art'?

Most concept artist are just that; they're given a concept to start with aka FASA gave Loose concepts to work with, maybe even a few pieces to let him know the style - I don't know and maybe we never will. Also in game design and theory, take the artwork away from a unit, and what you have are the stats; the hard numbers. This stuff is more important than the looks, I garuntee that when FASA was making Battletech they were using stand-ins for models and were more focused on unit stat testing. How a game plays is often more important than
how the game looks, and generally unit art is generated after the concept for the unit is fleshed out - much like comic book characters. Artists for comic book characters are given a character description like a RPG player sheet and are told to draw their interpretation of that.

Edited by Aaron DeChavilier, 28 December 2011 - 07:51 AM.

[Escef]

Kristov Kerensky, on 27 December 2011 - 11:09 PM, said:

feor..why don't you show a picture of a relevant miltiary vehicle..a tank, not an airplane, especially not a cargo plane. Because it would support my point, not yours? Or do you actually equate a Mech with a cargo plane instead of a tank?

So, aircraft are irrelevant in warfare? Son, you have just overturned almost a century of military history.

That said, I'm guessing you've never gotten a good look at a Stryker? I was in Iraq supporting a Stryker brigade, I got to see a lot of them. They have "glass" (I'm guessing it's not actual glass) viewports on the front. Not as pronounced as on a mech, but they are indeed there, and visible from tens of meters away. HMMWVs and MRAPs also have pretty large openings for the driver to see out of.

[Colaessus]

Last i checked this was a game, . . . meaning its a game and blind spot (line of sight) make for interesting tactics.

Really there is no blind spots. As you are looking at a monitor and not sitting in a cockpit.

[Mchawkeye]

Kristov Kerensky, on 27 December 2011 - 11:09 PM, said:

feor..why don't you show a picture of a relevant miltiary vehicle..a tank, not an airplane, especially not a cargo plane. Because it would support my point, not yours? Or do you actually equate a Mech with a cargo plane instead of a tank?

Also if you think that B52 is a cargo plane....

While I like the idea of the neurohelmet 360 view, we all know that that simply isn't workable in a computer game right now. At least not without being vomit inducing or just plain rubbish, I'd expect.

I like the cockpit art work we have been shown, and I think with monitors and what not is a viable way to get around some more obvious blind spots on mechs like the hunchback.

I also think that cockpit obscurities/designs will help to give each mech more personality and even provide a reason to use this 80ton mech over that 80ton mech.