41 replies to this topic

[Alicorn]

I was just bumming around today, and it occoured to me that some mechs feature rear-mounted weaponry to defend demselves if they become surrounded. Even the original Centurion mounted a rearward-facing Medium Laser for that matter.
Personally though, I've never found such a weapon to be of much use - it takes space and weight, and can only be used in the rarest of situations. That, and if you do have units behind you, you're probably really bad at your job anyway.

So, what are your thoughts? Are rear-mounted weapons good? Bad? Useless waste of tonnage?

And more importantly, should MWO have them? Only on mechs that canonicly mount them? Drop them alltogether?

Let me hear what you have to say!

[Kenyon Burguess]

there is so little armor in ct/r lt/r and rt/r that it makes no sense to have rear firing weapons in video games. However, when we play TT you have to abide by the weapons locations unless you pay to have modifications to your mech done.

[CoffiNail]

You can tell they already are voiding rear firing weaponry, at least at launch/this time of the game. As both the Atlas and the Centurion, as you pointed out have rear lasers, but FD and PGI have shifted them to the front.

[Mims]

no point to my post really, not even supporting this, just throwing out there that shooting srms in 360 degrees would be crazy fun.

[CoffiNail]

Mims, on 06 February 2012 - 11:44 AM, said:

no point to my post really, not even supporting this, just throwing out there that shooting srms in 360 degrees would be crazy fun.

umm... unless the srms are attached to the top of your mechs head. . .

[osito]

I dont think they will have any rear firing weapons due to the fact of how to target the rear weapons. do they add another screen showing whats behind you and a targeting cursor? its just easier for them to move everything to forward facing.

[Mims]

like i said, no point to what i was saying. in my mind i had created a mech that had srm launchers that faced in all directions. not based on ANYTHING, not battletech, mechwarrior or this new game.

[VYCanis]

has anyone considered what aiming rearfiring weapons would entail?

in the TT, it was just target is in rear arc, roll to hit.

in real time you'd actually have to line up the enemy with your back. you'd be spending time presenting your back to your target, in order to fire popgun scale weapons, when you could be taking that time to just turn around and fire your primary stuff.

it was useful in the TT because of how turns worked and how you could be stuck with someone behind you for an entire turn and it was better than not having any weapons to use on them. but real time maneuvering works very very differently.

[HanaYuriko]

Firing to the rear could be as easy as switching to a rear view. A simple keystroke or toggle the hat switch on a joystick and your crosshairs now control the rear weapons. It could even work for flipping arms on 'mechs like the Urbie, Jenner and Rifleman that have no lower arm actuators.

As far as MWO goes, like as been said, the art suggest that ability isn't available.

-edit-
Sometimes, your front armor gets so torn up that you may not have an alternative. A desperation move to use what remaining armor you have to give it that last go at turning a bad situation.

Edited by HanaYuriko, 06 February 2012 - 12:40 PM.

[Felix Dante]

Under the circumstances and design of MWO, its not very useful...

However: I could see a toggle that allows a mech with rear weapons and/or arms that can flip (i.e. Jenner and Catapult) could then switch views to rear and fire as normal, with a reversed movent profile and then toggle back as neccessary. Mechs without this advantage could still switch view, but could not actively fire at anything.

Edited by Felix Dante, 06 February 2012 - 12:40 PM.

[Elizander]

They should have made a mech with a rear-mounted AC/20 just for the lulz.

[ManDaisy]

Back armor is weak only because of people who min and max. There is nothing stopping you from making your back armor more armored then your front as long as table rules are concerned. There are ways to make rear mounted weapons shine even in Real time combat, just most people don't have the mind set to use them correctly. That being said I dont feel that the devs should exclude them with prejudice based on the fact that most people don't know how to use them.

Edited by ManDaisy, 06 February 2012 - 12:52 PM.

[CoffiNail]

Well it does help Lore wise that the pilots have a 360 degree condensed to 180 degree holographic projection in front of them, you know the ends of the display would show behind you. So lore wise, it is rather 'easy' to use rear weapons.

[Strum Wealh]

Mims, on 06 February 2012 - 11:44 AM, said:

no point to my post really, not even supporting this, just throwing out there that shooting srms in 360 degrees would be crazy fun.

CoffiNail, on 06 February 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

umm... unless the srms are attached to the top of your mechs head. . .

SRM launchers in the side-torsos (facing forward) +
SRM launchers in both arms (directed to each side) +
SRM launchers in the side-torsos (facing rearward) +
a bit of fancy footwork, torso-twisting, and arm-swinging

equals...

SRM DEATH BLOSSOM!

[El Loco]

I'd actually like to see rear mounted weapons / flipping arms firing to the rear. BUT: To be easily available this would make a 360° vision condensed to 180° mandatory. Otherwise it would require a key assigned to switching between front and rear firing modes and a second display showing what's going on behind you. With the 360° vision, your rear could have a crosshair of a different colour or shape (I think one could quickly adapt to the change of colour / shape over a couple of games) and be separated from the front / sides by some coloured bars or who knows what. I honestly have no idea how hard it is to programme something like this as this is absolutely not my field of expertise.

[Joanna Conners]

Hopefully by the time I'd need to use a rear mounted weapon, I've either killed my opponent, been bolstered by reinforcements or gone down guns blazing against overwhelming odds.

So to me it's a waste of space and weight.

[CoffiNail]

See I always envision the 'rear' crosshairs are divided between the right and left side of the projection.

[Dakkonn]

Even in the books (other cannon sources) rear weapons are little more than a minor deterrent when someone catches you from behind but nothing you can't ignore an just kill them. I personally wouldn't devote the weight to it even if it was an option. If anything I'd prefer something like the rifleman had where you can rotate you arms completely around and fire behind you.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

The idea was for light mechs like the Wolfhound to be able to zoom past a much slower mech and get a shot off once they were past. Arm flippers should be in - it's a nasty surprise to that light thats been creeping up on you (especially when it's a Warhammer )

[Joanna Conners]

Dakkonn, on 06 February 2012 - 01:03 PM, said:

Even in the books (other cannon sources) rear weapons are little more than a minor deterrent when someone catches you from behind but nothing you can't ignore an just kill them. I personally wouldn't devote the weight to it even if it was an option. If anything I'd prefer something like the rifleman had where you can rotate you arms completely around and fire behind you.

God, I loved the Rifleman in MW2 so much. I could record the sound of it firing off its guns and fall asleep to it.