13 replies to this topic

[GodHammer13]

Quick question for the Mechwarrior veteran elite, I seem to recall a missile that could be fired blind over mountains, buildings, etc that you could click an alternate key once fired, I believe it was an f key and it would give you a small view of an on board camera that would allow you a quick glimpse of what was waiting for you on the other side. Does anyone recall what this actually was referred to as???

[RedHairDave]

neat idea, it would be a drone of some kind. but i like it.

[Striker1980]

Oddly I remember doing stuff like that in the old LHX attack chopper on the Sega Mega drive.

But it's totally new to me in mechwarrior, I guess the point would be why would you load expensive sensor gear into a one shot device like a missile when you could use an in-expensive fixed or rotary wing air frame that could be used again and again.

[Skylarr]

Dev Blog 4 - Role Warfare (Cont.)


Commander Skills:

• • Order View – Allows the pilot to right click and request friendly BattleMechs to attack or defend areas/objectives on the BattleGrid
  
• • Command View – Provides a layer of information over the BattleGrid including objectives and any intelligence information passed back by scout Mechs on the front line
  
• • Call Air Strike – Calls in an air strike that does AOE damage in a straight line
  
• • Call Artillery – Calls in a land based artillery bombardment on to a target area
  
• • Call Naval Bombardment – Calls in Naval artillery bombardment that has a larger and more powerful result than regular artillery
  
• • Call UAV – Calls a UAV that passes overhead of the battlefield and relays ALL enemy positions to the command pilot
  
• • Call Predator Drone – Drops a heavy explosive device on a targeted area
  
• • Call Satellite Sweep – Full detail information is passed to the command pilot including enemy location/direction/speed
  
• • Danger Close – A short range radar detection system that lets the command pilot know of any nearby enemy BattleMechs

All of this is subject to change, but we wanted you all to see what we have currently. Percentages may shift, abilities will be added or removed, however this is the layout we are currently working with.

[Strum Wealh]

Perhaps you are recalling the "Electro-Optical (EO) Missile" from Earthsiege?

[Seabear]

One of the earlier titles (MW2 I think) had the provision for "missle camera". At least that's what I think it was called. That was a cool feature as one could watch one's missles as thaey impacted the target.

[Undercover Brother]

In MW2, there was a key you could press that was a "missile-cam"... You could "dumb-fire" missiles over something and use the cam to see what was there.

Now, it was pretty useless in othe MW titles because you had virtual omnipotence, and could see anything and everything (unless it was shut-down) within your 1 km radar range.

[RiffWrath]

Homing beacon?

[GodHammer13]

Seabear, on 30 July 2012 - 07:36 AM, said:

One of the earlier titles (MW2 I think) had the provision for "missle camera". At least that's what I think it was called. That was a cool feature as one could watch one's missles as thaey impacted the target.

T Decker, on 30 July 2012 - 07:43 AM, said:

In MW2, there was a key you could press that was a "missile-cam"... You could "dumb-fire" missiles over something and use the cam to see what was there.

Now, it was pretty useless in othe MW titles because you had virtual omnipotence, and could see anything and everything (unless it was shut-down) within your 1 km radar range.

"Missile Cam" was infact what I was trying to refer to, as I do think the UAV and things of the like would be cool for a recon/scout type roll, the missile cam made each pilot have to ability to see all that lays ahead when they were in an area that was split from their lance. I recall this giving me an edge more times that not when i used it.

[Melcyna]

Striker1980, on 30 July 2012 - 06:10 AM, said:

Oddly I remember doing stuff like that in the old LHX attack chopper on the Sega Mega drive.

But it's totally new to me in mechwarrior, I guess the point would be why would you load expensive sensor gear into a one shot device like a missile when you could use an in-expensive fixed or rotary wing air frame that could be used again and again.

Speed is usually one of the main reason...

This is actually done in the real battlefield incidentally for that exact reason... sometimes Intel is needed ASAP either because a time sensitive opportunity presented itself or because other reason leaves the user with a rapidly diminishing time for window of opportunity.

In such case, the more expensive cost of the missile can be justified as it can give the fastest information relay compared to the conventional UAV that takes time to reach the zone.

The sensor gear in general is not the expensive part btw, the sensor suite for expendable UAV or missiles are generally not very advanced owing to their expendable nature. Nor is it usually necessary...

The ability to send back real time images, or IR images are sufficient for the most part... if it can lase the target then that's extra point, but not entirely mandatory.

The missile itself however in the case of missile mounted cam do cost a fair bit still, though much cheaper than most offensive missiles with actual payload.

A different approach done lately is to use regular attack drone/missiles for that purpose...

The drone/missile can observe the target, relay the information back to the CU as an add hoc recon unit and then if the officer decides to attack it the drone/missile enter the attack phase and either releases a payload at the target or fly towards the target itself (in the case of missiles) and detonate itself on the target.

One of the tomahawk cruise missile variant iirc, had this capability as well... able to relay information that it reads with it's onboard sensors back to the command center.

[GodHammer13]

Melcyna, on 30 July 2012 - 08:34 AM, said:

Speed is usually one of the main reason...

This is actually done in the real battlefield incidentally for that exact reason... sometimes Intel is needed ASAP either because a time sensitive opportunity presented itself or because other reason leaves the user with a rapidly diminishing time for window of opportunity.

In such case, the more expensive cost of the missile can be justified as it can give the fastest information relay compared to the conventional UAV that takes time to reach the zone.

The sensor gear in general is not the expensive part btw, the sensor suite for expendable UAV or missiles are generally not very advanced owing to their expendable nature. Nor is it usually necessary...

The ability to send back real time images, or IR images are sufficient for the most part... if it can lase the target then that's extra point, but not entirely mandatory.

The missile itself however in the case of missile mounted cam do cost a fair bit still, though much cheaper than most offensive missiles with actual payload.

A different approach done lately is to use regular attack drone/missiles for that purpose...

The drone/missile can observe the target, relay the information back to the CU as an add hoc recon unit and then if the officer decides to attack it the drone/missile enter the attack phase and either releases a payload at the target or fly towards the target itself (in the case of missiles) and detonate itself on the target.

One of the tomahawk cruise missile variant iirc, had this capability as well... able to relay information that it reads with it's onboard sensors back to the command center.

Thank you for adding a strong technical backing to this, my memory was real foggy, but I do recall this bailing me out of a quick demise many a times.

[Striker1980]

Melcyna, on 30 July 2012 - 08:34 AM, said:

Speed is usually one of the main reason...

This is actually done in the real battlefield incidentally for that exact reason... sometimes Intel is needed ASAP either because a time sensitive opportunity presented itself or because other reason leaves the user with a rapidly diminishing time for window of opportunity.

In such case, the more expensive cost of the missile can be justified as it can give the fastest information relay compared to the conventional UAV that takes time to reach the zone.

The sensor gear in general is not the expensive part btw, the sensor suite for expendable UAV or missiles are generally not very advanced owing to their expendable nature. Nor is it usually necessary...

The ability to send back real time images, or IR images are sufficient for the most part... if it can lase the target then that's extra point, but not entirely mandatory.

The missile itself however in the case of missile mounted cam do cost a fair bit still, though much cheaper than most offensive missiles with actual payload.

A different approach done lately is to use regular attack drone/missiles for that purpose...

The drone/missile can observe the target, relay the information back to the CU as an add hoc recon unit and then if the officer decides to attack it the drone/missile enter the attack phase and either releases a payload at the target or fly towards the target itself (in the case of missiles) and detonate itself on the target.

One of the tomahawk cruise missile variant iirc, had this capability as well... able to relay information that it reads with it's onboard sensors back to the command center.

Good point well made.

[Groundstain]

I would just be happy with a low-rez camera module on the missiles. This could tell me if any of my missiles were hitting my target over hills, buildings, etc.

[Cleverbird]

Groundstain, on 24 November 2012 - 09:12 AM, said:

I would just be happy with a low-rez camera module on the missiles. This could tell me if any of my missiles were hitting my target over hills, buildings, etc.

You can already tell, if your crosshair turns red