9 replies to this topic

[PhelanKerensky]

A cool option that I would pay for would be the ability to record the actions of any Battle Engagement or Mission for viewing/dissecting/learning new tactics from post battle.

Now this could be achieved in two distinct ways:

Cockpit Camera.

In this mode you get to see what the pilot view was from his cockpit during the engagement. With key instrument readouts superimposed over. This is in many respects identical to the battle camera footage you sometimes see in the news when a military operation has gone well/wrong and has somehow been authorised to be released.

Tactical View.

In this mode, you get to see a “Gods Eye” view of the whole map, and can see all Mechs that were visible to all friendly units at any given point in the battle. You can Play, Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward, and generally see the whole engagement from any perspective. This would give the PAYING customer an out of game heads up on where they went wrong, and which members of their unit were punching above their weight, and which were just spectators.

This would be an invaluable Mech Corps tool in increasing their combat effectiveness and trialing potential recruits. To be clear, there would be no in game tactical advantage, but out of the battle, it allows lessons to be learned to improve combat effectiveness during the next engagement.

How Feasible Would This Be?

At first glance you may think the above would be outside the scope of the game, but let me take you through my reasoning as to how this would work in the Engine Bay of the Mech so to speak.

You may be thinking for the Cockpit Camera that vast amounts of video footage would need to be recorded in order to make this work, but in reality, this is not the way the information you are seeing would be recorded. Every physical movement and weapons fire, both yours and your opponents mech makes is already known to the game engine running the server on which we are playing. To enable my idea you simply have to record that data stream to a file. Once the engagement is finished you simply re run the data stream from the file as the input to the server to make the whole engagement re run. As such, you can then view the battle from any recorded mechs cockpit view in order to see what they saw. One file for the whole engagement, regardless of how many mechs were involved.

The same sytem can then also be run to allow a viewpoint not from a Mech Cockpit, ie the Tactical View. In fact, once the data stream has been recorded, you could then manipulate that data in any number of ways.
My Battle Recorder idea, is only the start of what this system would allow.

SOLARIS VII Holoscreen Arena

Engagements could be uploaded to the, “Solaris VII Holoscreen”, and then replayed to all MechWarriors who have paid to view such material. The Holoscreen Arena is basically a Drive In Cinema for Mechs. You pay to enter, and then get to view the latest and greatest uploaded battles. Merc Corps or individuals get paid in game C-Bills to upload them and then gets an additional C-Bill Royalty payment every time someone views it at the Holoscreen Arena. The Holoscreen Arena itself is like a giant stadium with a central Arena, with mechs all around watching the recorded battle unfold on the holographic battlefield of the Arena Floor (the Arena Floor becomes the recorded battlefield but scaled down to fit in the space of the Arena Floor).

News Channel Arena

Similar to the above Solaris VII Arena but this venue plays out recorded news feeds from Inner Sphere News. You in effect use the Battle Recorder to Create a recorded battle version of the news items, so that you can actually see the conflict unfold in front of you. Much like an undercover reporter in the middle of a battle, reporting back the news live (everyone Remembers CNN coverage of Desert Storm).
You could Edit between Tactical View & Cockpit Camera view in order to create a really slick news report “From the frontline”.

In my opinion, this is something that people would pay for (in money) and potentially be paid for, for uploading footage (in C-Bills).

Let me know what you think.

[Aegis Kleais]

Been suggested multiple times.

Edited by Aegis Kleaisâ„¢, 09 April 2012 - 06:47 AM.

[Thorqemada]

I remember in the late 80s and early 90s being heavy in the sim games of its time like Gunship, SWOTL, Falcon, Flight of the Intruder, etc. almost every one had a recording function, even offering to redo the mission from a specific point in the record - really awesome feature.
In MWO it would be a record only but i believe still a great feature offering unique views, slow motions etc.
A Mech, some World-Structures blow up in slomo must be a great visual!

[FinnMcKool]

Sorry but this has been brought up before, but Im just going to point out (again)

this would be a great tool to prove a Cheater , and after some Ideas others are

tossing out there , I am more and more ardent about it. so yes lets do it.

[PhelanKerensky]

Apologies if this idea is not new.

I was approaching this from the perspective of what I would pay for as an additional feature. And the suggestion that this could be incorporated into a Solaris VII Arena and also to recreate news footage, presumably that has not been mentioned before? But of course I stand to be corrected.

[Aelos03]

well i would like to see that in game also i would like to be able to see fights and move around my camera, Its good for analyzing combat
but also for making movies, i would love to make HQ movies and adding effect and stuff. But i dont expect to see it on beta but i hope
devs make it happened.

[Long Draw]

Okay, first, a recording of the combat as recorded on your computer can't prove cheating in the slightest. There's a little thing called lag caused by the delay of your computer's connection to the game server and back to your computer again.

Second, how about a 15-30 second duration battle recording that can be uploaded to facebook, youtube or some other similar site that other people on social media sites can view?

[canned wolf]

Most cheaters aren't very smart, so a recording will get the job done. I've played several games of battlefield where a guy killed me from accross the map with his knife. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out he's cheating. Video helps get him banned. Hell, most of the time you can just look at their stats and tell. The guy with a 46:1 kill death ratio... he's a cheater. So is the one with 4000 kills 3500 of which are head shots. Or the guy that has the web page where none of his weapons has more than 2 or three kills but he somehow has thousands.

[Long Draw]

Well, that or you just suck at the game lol!

[canned wolf]

Long Draw, on 30 April 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

Well, that or you just suck at the game lol!

^^^THIS^^^


is a stupid comment.