29 replies to this topic

[DaZur]

Okay...

I'm big into air-combat simulators. One of the things for me personally that imbues life into war machine is "seeing" a pilot sitting in the cockpit. This holds true particularly in online arenas where in a round-about way the pilot-avatars are representative of an actual person... somewhere else in this world.

With that being said, this is one thing to date that Mechwarrior games did not represent well... The cockpits were there, as textures representative of tinted glass.

Would MW:O being an online game benefit from the same humanization treatment?

Clarification: Seeing a pilot in the other Mechs cockpits... NOT a virtual "you"

Thoughts?

Edited by DaZur, 18 February 2012 - 08:33 AM.

[CoffiNail]

I would like to see this. I always enjoy in the few shooters and such games which show feet as you run. Makes you feel like you are not just a floating camera.

[Stone Profit]

nah, i can see my hands on the control, and its not a sim of driving a person whos driving a mech, its a sim of driving a mech! But if there is a pilot, i should be able toturn off that animation

[ManDaisy]

at most just the hands and feet should be view-able, I don't want a pilots head getting in the way of... my head.

[CoffiNail]

ManDaisy, on 18 February 2012 - 08:30 AM, said:

at most just the hands and feet should be view-able, I don't want a pilots head getting in the way of... my head.

you seem to not understand how this is done. Effectivly the Camera is still where it is, from the pilots eyes, but they have a attached body with arms and legs. It would be a bit more work, but it does give you a feel you are a pilot in the mech and not just some 'guy playing on the PC.

[Yeach]

No because that would imply a LARGE visual cockpit just BEGGING for a head-shot.

A virtual "glass"-cockpit from "inside" is fine with me but not a large viewable cockpit view from outside.

[Unruly Gentleman]

I don't think it should be on the list of priorities. If done well it could be a nice to have but I can't see it being a very easy thing to implement convincingly because I can't imagine piloting a bipedal war machine would be a simple/static task and I think developers energies could be better spent on perfecting game play mechanics rather than designing an animation for every switch flicked/dial twisted/button mashed for each individual cockpit (because I really hope that each Mech has a different cockpit layout.)

Voted for the negatory.

Edit: As for viewing the pilot inside the cockpit of another Mech, I think once again it would be hard to do convincingly and would probably end up looking like a shop mannequin strapped to a chair. Better to have reflective/tinted glass in my opinion.

Edited by Unruly Gentleman, 18 February 2012 - 08:45 AM.

[Graefin Zeppelin]

Yeach, on 18 February 2012 - 08:39 AM, said:

No because that would imply a LARGE visual cockpit just BEGGING for a head-shot.

A virtual "glass"-cockpit from "inside" is fine with me but not a large viewable cockpit view from outside.

I agree, trying to hit the head of a mech is something completly unheard of, especialy with gauss rifles.

[8ghtBall]

I agree with Profit there should definantly be the option to turn off the pilot animation inside the cockpit. If there is a pilot in the **** pit I think the only way to do justice and make the player feel like the actual pilot. It would be awesome if the hands manipulated more than just the side controls, itd be cool if the pilot reached forward and manipulated switches on the top or side panels when the player selects different modes like powering down, switching radar modes to active or passive, hitting multiple switches when starting up the mech etc. I'm a pilot in the airforce and i can tell you that when things get busy on the flight deck my hands spend just as much time flipping switches and dialing ***** and putting in frequencies as they do on the control stick and throttles. also it'd be great too see inter-cockpit visual cues like maybe sparking of panels, smoking or like shimmering air when the head level inside the cockpit starts to rise.

[Opus]

DaZur, on 18 February 2012 - 08:21 AM, said:

Okay...

I'm big into air-combat simulators. One of the things for me personally that imbues life into war machine is "seeing" a pilot sitting in the cockpit. This holds true particularly in online arenas where in a round-about way the pilot-avatars are representative of an actual person... somewhere else in this world.

With that being said, this is one thing to date that Mechwarrior games did not represent well... The cockpits were there, as textures representative of tinted glass.

Would MW:O being an online game benefit from the same humanization treatment?

Clarification: Seeing a pilot in the other Mechs cockpits... NOT a virtual "you"

Thoughts?

Does this mean we get to see a smoking corpse too?

would be cool down the road, I would rather get the game in my hands first, before I decide on seeing an avatar in other mechs

[Yeach]

Graefin Zeppelin, on 18 February 2012 - 08:41 AM, said:

I agree, trying to hit the head of a mech is something completly unheard of, especialy with gauss rifles.

I never said that you could not hit the head of a mech.
I was implying that hitting the head would be much easier if there was a "large" cockpit to aim for at say a MadCat as opposed to say a Thor.

Besides I think the developer do not want your pilot to be killed in MWO; worst case being that a head hit/cockpit hit results into an auto-ejection.

Edited by Yeach, 18 February 2012 - 09:29 AM.

[Kaemon]

I thought that's one of the reasons they made the Centy's head the way it is...to help reduce long range head shots from any angle other than dead center.

Guess I'm rolling a female avatar then, hopefully they have wife beater T-shirts for sale in the cash shop.

"Kae, what's wrong with your mech? Over."
"Ummm...nothing, why do you ask? Over."
"For some reason it's always looking straight down when you're moving"
"ummmm..."

[Outlaw Wolf]

I think it would be kinda cool to see the animation of your pilot, like maybe moving a throttle or something as you increase your speed etc.

[Durant Carlyle]

Like the extremely unnecessary and stupid idea of adding Walking in Stations to EVE Online (trying to make it The Sims™ with Spaceships or something), it should never be implemented here. You get that, next you'll be asking to customize the avatar. And then, "why not be able to walk around after your 'Mech is destroyed?" After that, it starts becoming The Sims™ with 'Mechs.

This game is a MechWarrior/BattleTech simulation. You are a MechWarrior. You spend your life in a 'Mech. You do not have a personal life or any other reason to get out of the cockpit.

[FACEman Peck]

The devs have a lot of employees, they can add all the little things that make a game great.

[Whackjob]

Hrm. When I clicked the link, I thought this was going to be a "What pet name will you give your 'mech?" Planning on calling mine "Mister Sphincter".

But on-topic: I think it would be awesome to have a game where all you COULD see was the cockpit and whatever happened to be outside the windows. Force you to actually look at the radar screen, the commo system, ect. It'd put a much steeper learning curve into the game, certainly. But the immersion would be unmatched. Actually having your character manipulate the controls, get knocked around the cockpit when a gauss slug tears an arm off, suffers neurofeedback when the gyro takes a hit, or gets toasted to a crisp when the coolant blows and flamer fuel finally eats its way in.

The thought brings a tear to my eye. Beautiful.

[El Loco]

Having a lot of people working on this game doesn't necessarily mean that everything suggested has to be included. Personally, this suggestion for me runs under the categoy "gimmicks nobody needs to play the game properly". As such, it doesn't even make the cut on my priority list (and even if it would make it, it would rank very low).
It's not looks or gimmicks that make a game great, it's its mechanics, balance, content, and such... Think about PES for example. If you're familiar with this series, you'll have to admit that ever since PES 6 the quality of the game has significantly dropped, but the looks have improved a lot. I can now pick the colour of the sweatband my player uses... who cares that I can't control the movement in many situations... everything looks cool and crisp. Let the MWO devs get the game right first, and then things like this can be discussed.

[Gwenaelle Focht]

Well, I'd like to see hands (and feet) of the pilot in the player cockpit (I voted 'yes' in the above poll for that ... however, it is certainly not the most important detail to be included in the launch of the game) but to view other pilots of friendly or enemy mechs through the armoured cockpit windows of the mechs is hardly realistic and would not serve the simulation purpose but make the game just another (slightly less lame) shoot'em up (where is the fun if everyone is sort of invited to focus on headhooting (?) plus the damage profile and analysis of enemy and friendly mechs would become needless... in my opinion headshots should be the last option if a player is really desperate for survival or faces overwhelming odds) ...

[autogyro]

Viewing your pilot in 1st person, I think that's fine and would be a nice touch, especially given how it was portrayed in the Mechwarrior 3015 trailer.

As for seeing other Mechwarriors through the glass, I believe a lot of 'Mechs simply use 360 degree cameras and do not have a visible cockpit.

[trycksh0t]

Not terribly concerned either way. If they made the viewports transparent and added 'em in, cool. If they just kept the glass tinted so you couldn't see through it, that's fine too. Knowing the pilot is back there, waiting for my Gauss Rifle slug to turn him into jelly is enough for me.