22 replies to this topic

[BeforeLife]

Simple little Idea really, Im proposing that as your head takes damage, your cockpit glass will get more and more cracks/chips/whatever the hell you call it when tempered glass gets hit(look it up to see what i mean). I know they did this in MW3 and I think it would be a great additioion to MWO.

Edit: Forgot this lol.
And when your head armor is almost gone your glass is so cracked it will be very hard to see though.

Edit: Added new poll option.

Edited by BeforeLife, 04 March 2012 - 12:15 PM.

[Jumbik]

This is part of the 1st person view. Without it the magic would be lost. You need to feel as the pilot and to be afraid of those bullets is part of it.

Let's just hope we will be fighing in places with athmosphere.

[FACEman Peck]

I didn't vote because the option of "It should be glass thick enough to withstand some really hard hits" wasn't in there.

I mean, if the glass can break really easily, then how did it ever make it into the most advanced war weapons known to man?

[CoffiNail]

Not voting because it is not really glass but transparent armour.

[Kenyon Burguess]

there arent many weapons that would be able to crack the armored viewscreen of mech and not kill you outright on a head shot

[BeforeLife]

Added a new option to the poll.

Edited by BeforeLife, 04 March 2012 - 12:20 PM.

[GDL Irishwarrior]

I voted for the third option - I don't think we should be unable to see through our cockpit (that would be ridiculous), but I loved how taking a cockpit in Mechwarrior 3 meant getting a little spiderweb in the window, along with that sudden (and rather alarming) *Edit - it's rather annoying how some innocently-used words turn out to be racial epithets...* PING!. I think combining those spiderwebs with the flickering hud of MechWarrior 4 would be a good way to make it clear that taking a hit to the cockpit is very dangerous thing.
*Edit* Although it is transparent armor, rather than glass, I still think that it would show damage. The damage might not look like it would on glass, but you would still be able to see that your cockpit is taking some damage.

Edited by GDL Irishwarrior, 04 March 2012 - 02:25 PM.

[TimberJon]

It wont be glass but the best material available that has both factors of toughness and strenght. Maybe an evolution of something similar to palladium-based metallic glass. (http://www.popsci.co...st-material-yet)

But yes, spiderwebbing and such should occur when your 'Mechs cockpit area takes damage. It should not fracture as a rule when your 'Mech receives a % of damage, like in MechCommander. They would smoke when they reached X damage.

In the same way that it is suggested that armor shows signs of damage as it is slagged from lasers, pockmarked or shattered by ballistics, or torn free from a 'Mechs superstructure... only when those areas are directly damaged... the cockpit should also show signs of damage and only when it is struck.

To enforce the point that not everyone will gain successful head shots... the precision of the dual reticule aiming system should have a built in tolerance, that will send the lasers or weapons at your target but not always at the exact spot you aimed for. Maybe wide-area brackets can be used instead of something like crosshairs, or else the crosshairs (even in a bracket) will not allow pinpoint precision. This actually shouldn't even happen in a real 'Mech, unless it is fresh off the assembly line.

I also am a believer that if you take too much damage in the cockpit area, some of your display screens should short out, creating more of a challenge as you perhaps limp towards your enemy and try to take them down say... without help from your sensors. This would make you really lean in and focus on the sounds around you and what you can see.

Edited by TimberJon, 04 March 2012 - 02:10 PM.

[Silent]

It'd be nice to see cracking just to give the pilot a visual that someone is getting headshots on them.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Yeah, you can't just say the glass won't crack or that'd be what they use for Mech armor... ya know, if it "won't break" then it's better than ferrofibrous armor...

[Phos]

Hmm, cracking patterns are very specific to glass, and if the cockpit isn't glass it shouldn't behave as though it is. Let's see a bit of warping and scorching as it takes hits... If it's transparent and lasers are in the visual spectrum, wouldn't they go right through the canopy?

[Dirk Le Daring]

Phos, on 04 March 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

Hmm, cracking patterns are very specific to glass, and if the cockpit isn't glass it shouldn't behave as though it is. Let's see a bit of warping and scorching as it takes hits... If it's transparent and lasers are in the visual spectrum, wouldn't they go right through the canopy?

there would be an advanced mechanism such as in spectacles that darken due to the amount of light interracting with them. a laser would cause the "window" to become dark, thus eliminating/reducing laser penetration

[TimberJon]

Dirk is that from something you read? Because I thought that I recall the cockpit "glass" or whatever polarizing to reduce the flare created by a laser hit. The lasers aren't just light in this game, they are almost kinetic and can hit with some impact. Even in MW4 if you got hit with lasers it would **** your 'Mech a bit.

No a cockpit should not just melt away and it should have a very high melting point. There are materials like this.. but we are talking after year 3000, they will have material advances that we don't know so we need to take a leap of faith here that they have found a material for this. Perhaps in the era of 3049 such material is rediculously expensive and can only be put on BattleMechs and other military craft.

I am open to actually breaching the cockpit. If it is swelteringly hot outside, maybe the mechwarrior would pant or humidity build up on the helmet visor / hud. If it is freezing inside, you can see your breath and if it's snowing then some snow can come in and maybe build up a little on your dashboard. Maybe going too far but if it is really cold.. maybe your pilot will occasionally shiver and maybe **** your aim a bit. It can happen on a harsh planet..

@ Prosperity... honestly since the 'Mech is nothing without the pilot, the cockpit shield should be tough as hell, maybe as strong as ferro-fibrous and might cost alot more than standard armor. Because there is only one cockpit shield and a small square footage of it vs: a full 'mech suit of FF armor.. the cost would be worth it..The cockpits keep the pilot alive and maybe aren't mass produced but are instead specially made (I would want mine hand crafted vs: mass produced). The armor is mass-produced and stacked up in crates to be easily replaceable. So because it is essentially a consumable, the militaries would seek to obtain it at as low a price as possible. Not so with a cockpit. I will not allow a discount or used cockpit shield to be installed on my 'Mech.. no thankyoouuu.

Edited by TimberJon, 04 March 2012 - 08:36 PM.

[SI The Joker]

I'd be satisfied with dings and nicks in *whatever* material it is and an effect much like (and you're gonna need to go with me on this)...

Sitting inside your car and having someone fire a roman candle at your side window (window closed, obviously)... the little explosion against the glass material leaves a "burn" mark for lack of a better term.

Does that make sense to anyone? Sorry if it does not.

[Semyon Drakon]

The material used in cockpit windows is called Ferroglass. It is essentially a transparent steel analogue that is almost as tough as ferro-fibrous armour. It also has flecks of light disappating material through it to cause lasers to defocus and do less damage.

It's not quite armour but it's pretty good, hence the low level of armour on the 'Head' location.

According to canon it can be cracked, melted and shattered. Just not as easily as normal glass.

Semyon

[Polymorphyne]

Alot of the mech designs in the concept art have minimal amounts of exposed cockpit- the atlas only has a pair of eye slits, the jenner cockpit is a tiny window, the commando cockpit window seems to only exist in one side of the head, and the hunchback appears to have some kind of louvered armour in its cockpit.

[Victor Morson]

I'm going to push this even further and say that I want a Wing Commander 1/2/Privateer level of cockpit interaction based on damage. I want the screens to explode and fill with static, the radar to start glitching, smoke filling the cockpit, haze when the 'mech starts getting hot, you name it.

This did wonders for immersion.. in 1992. Why it dropped out of favor sharply afterwords I'll never know. It was very cool and made damage really have impact. Head shots that make the enemies radar flicker and such would increase their value, as well, outside of just kills.

Bonus points if the purchased cockpit accents can take damage. The Hula Girl blowing in two and catching fire or the fuzzy dice catching fire and falling off the window would be awesome as hell.

[Fiaura The Tank Girl]

Glass should break, systems should start to malfunction, controls should show they are not working or responding. Hell, even put blood and pilot injuries in my helmet, not excessive but enough that I know: "Oh that hurt.....my head....die you *******! I'm not going out here!" kind of feeling should be achieved.

[Felicitatem Parco]

We do have an extensive list of actuators and systems that can go offline... and the Devs will have months to make some glass spiderwebs that look good, even if they release the concept after the game, itself, goes online.

[Captain Red Shirt]

I'd be in favor of some minor cracking, although it shouldn't be to the level of not being able to see anything, just to show you're taking damage in the appropriate location