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Dev Blog 5 - Mech Warfare - Part I

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#221 Randal Waide

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 05:34 PM

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume a lot of the movement and throttle and reticle control will be mappable to my joystick. (I did stop reading comments after page 3 so don't flame me.) Nothing better than running a mech with a stick, IMHO.
So I'll put it in the form of a question. Joystick support? pleeezzzee. :P

#222 mulkosaur

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 05:39 PM

And not to nitpick or bother someone, but to the person that said pin point accuracy I can't see it. This is more like the old Telsa Pods. Where you hit is going to be more based on setting up a proper pass against your opponent. You have to have at torso at the right angle, your mech has to be headed in the right direction. And you have to do those two things in a manner that requires you to use as little of the pitch as possible as your closure rate is upwards to a couple hundred kph in a light mech trying to hit an Atlas. And this two cross hair and convergence thing really throws it back towards more what table top would be like in digital 3D form.

Granted I could be wrong I am looking this from the rose colored glasses as someone who fell in love with Battletech at age 14 and worked at a Virtual World site for 5 years.

#223 Orzorn

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 05:42 PM

View Postmulkosaur, on 07 March 2012 - 05:39 PM, said:

And not to nitpick or bother someone, but to the person that said pin point accuracy I can't see it. This is more like the old Telsa Pods. Where you hit is going to be more based on setting up a proper pass against your opponent. You have to have at torso at the right angle, your mech has to be headed in the right direction. And you have to do those two things in a manner that requires you to use as little of the pitch as possible as your closure rate is upwards to a couple hundred kph in a light mech trying to hit an Atlas. And this two cross hair and convergence thing really throws it back towards more what table top would be like in digital 3D form.

Granted I could be wrong I am looking this from the rose colored glasses as someone who fell in love with Battletech at age 14 and worked at a Virtual World site for 5 years.

It was confirmed by a dev earlier in the thread that weapon convergence is part of the game. You have to wait for them to properly angle themselves, or you might cross your shots.

#224 Wraith 1

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 05:43 PM

Everybody chant, it might help... BETA! BETA! BETA!...

#225 mulkosaur

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 05:49 PM

View PostOrzorn, on 07 March 2012 - 05:42 PM, said:

It was confirmed by a dev earlier in the thread that weapon convergence is part of the game. You have to wait for them to properly angle themselves, or you might cross your shots.


I missed that with all the Accounting classes in school. (I don't use FB in school I like my high GPA) But that is awesome that makes me wanna hit the spare six pack of beer I have in the fridge. Don't get me wrong the Alpha strike is handy at times. But all Alpha strikes all the time takes most of the skill and thinking away.

#226 FACEman Peck

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:03 PM

View PostStovebolt, on 07 March 2012 - 04:35 PM, said:



Seems like this control scheme is ready made for a joystick/keyboard combo.

Maybe... but I'd like to have them confirm it before I go out and buy a brand spanking new one.

#227 LordKelvin

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:07 PM

So, here's a little picture I drew up really quickly on how convergence will probably work:

Posted Image

Let's say you're that Hammerhands at the bottom, hiding behind a building, and your targeting reticle is centered on the building right in front of you. There's a Locust standing right out in the open. In the first picture, because you're aiming at the building, your weapons have converged on it, as indicated by the red lines; when you fire, your weapons will fire at where your crosshair is aiming, and you'll hit the building where your crosshairs are.

The second picture shows what happens immediately upon getting out of cover. You hit your throttle, move out from behind the building, and see the Locust. You put your sights on him, then fire. But because your weapons were converged on the building just a second ago, your weapons will fire in that direction, as indicated by the red lines; you'll miss the Locust by a very wide margin unless you stop and wait for your weapons to converge on the Locust.

If your crosshair is settled on something behind the Locust though, your weapons will fire more or less parallel, meaning that they won't all hit the same point on the Locust, which in turn means that accuracy will not be pinpoint.

#228 Jak Danels

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:09 PM

I would love to have a high-res wallpaper of that cockpit shot.

#229 mekabuser

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:10 PM

two crosshairs means you can shoot two mechs at the same time, which is going to be :P .
there are going to be some scary pilots out there who take to this fact.
Control scheme is going to have to be seamless
with this degree of detail,free look, two xhairs, its really imperative to have the ability to establish control in any way you see fit. Iow, its almost a fair bet to imagine quite a large percentage of players will expect to use hotas+mouse+keys if you so desire.
Like everything i saw... very nice.
Hope mechs damage is visually moddled because running active, and waiting for a damge readout from the enemy isnt helpful in a furball. Would be nice to have two layers of visual cues as far as assesing enemy health.
Nice work team!

#230 Bad Tongue

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:14 PM

Pretty much my control setup for Mechwarrior 4 Mercs. Derp!

I was wondering about coolant though. Probably a thread on that somewhere...

#231 Sprouticus

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:28 PM

I love the confergence model, it works great, but I am hoping you can work that convergence into the HUD somewhow. Either a 'convergence range indicator, or even a set of ghost reticles showing where various weapons would hit. I would LOVE to see like half a dozen (mostly transparent) reticles that zoon in on the primary ones as your convergence varies, until all weapons are converged. That would be super sweet,

Imagine having to make the decision to either wait for the convergence to complete or take the shot, especially if arms and torso converged at different rates.

For the Q&A:

Im still trying to figure out how we will control the head movement when we switch to pilot head movement, and if that will allow for more flexibility in the arm reticle. How will you switch between head moevement and reticle only movement? Does PGI consider that an aspect that would lend itself to advanced piloting skills. I.E, when you have mastered the basics, you learn when to switch to head movement to give yourself flexibility in aiming?

#232 guardian wolf

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:43 PM

All I have to say to T-Shirts, is SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY, and throw in some "coolant" while you are at it.

#233 Teuf

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:49 PM

Did anyone see anything about joystick support?

#234 Sir Iron Duke

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 06:54 PM

The guide is excellent!!! Bloody well done devs!!!
There is some changes in the keys, if you compare this key system to Mechwarrior 3 or Mechwarrior 4, but nothing dramatic.

#235 EDMW CSN

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 07:52 PM

Excellent info. :P
Too bad I can't get you guys to print out the control guide via hard cardboard like the old MW2 series :D

#236 Dimetime

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 08:03 PM

Reminds me somewhat of Mechwarrior 4. Granted there are some key differences, but overall if you've played MW4+ you should feel pretty much at home! :P

#237 Karyudo ds

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 08:37 PM

View PostBad Tongue, on 07 March 2012 - 06:14 PM, said:

Pretty much my control setup for Mechwarrior 4 Mercs. Derp!

I was wondering about coolant though. Probably a thread on that somewhere...


You mean the MW4 only thing that wasn't really cannon at all? (Max Tech had something similar but prototypish).

#238 Thatcher

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 09:04 PM

They forgot to mention something about COOLANT flushes!?

#239 CoffiNail

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 09:09 PM

View PostThatcher, on 07 March 2012 - 09:04 PM, said:

They forgot to mention something about COOLANT flushes!?

No coolant flushing here, take that MW4. No Coolant flush is for real MechWarriors.

#240 SL33TBL1ND

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 09:39 PM

Loving the look of things here. I'll probably end up messing around with the throttle/turning controls to make them more to my liking. But other than that, it looks great!





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