20 replies to this topic

[TungstenWall]

Before reading: Using the word "realistic" was a bad choice on my part. A better word would be "Believable" because it is a sci-fi game after all.
(thank you Alexa Steel)

I find that most players describe MWO as "A Mech combat Simulator"
That suggests that the game is meant to be realistic.

Take CoD vs BF.

Quote

BF (from what i understand) requires everyone to play as a team. Your fighting in a realistic environment, with (somewhat) realistic vehicles and weapons. Exp: A sniper would likely hide in a building or in a bush, attacking from afar.

CoD makes you a BADASS. A one man army! Battles can take place in small combat zones. Your run around like a boss and shoot it up. Exp: A sniper can be viable running around in skirmish ranges and even CQB! "BOOM HEASHA!"

Obviously BF is meant to be more of a simulator than Cod.

I think the same argument could stand for Hawken vs MWO. (but to a greater extreme)

So if MWO is meant to be a simulator, how realistic should it be.

Now I know what some of your are thinking "LOL Realistic! We are driving laser shooting mechs and you want to be 'realistic?' u stupid bra."
Well I think the game still is realistic. Lasers are being looked at as a possible weapon for war even now. I think Lasers are being used to cut metal sheets and other materials as we speak.
And while Quad-Mechs are superior platforms to Bipedal-Mechs, and Tracks far more than both, I believe the lore suggests that Bipedal-Mechs are considered to be "Knights", and equally skilled Tanks are considered "those other guys".

History Example:

Quote

Stug vs Tiger (WWII)
From my understanding, the Stug was a great tank. Efficient, Powerful, thick+sloped Armor, and Reliable. They didn't break down often, and repairs were efficient.

The Tiger was also a powerful Tank. Think armor, and devastating firepower! However Tigers were complicated machines. Tigers often had mechanical problems that were a nightmare to fix (if an inner wheel broke, you had to take half the tank apart to fix it). If you got stuck, they were too heavy to pull out. They took a long time to build, and were expensive to build.

Tell me; How many of you knew what a Stug was before WoT? How many of you knew what a Tiger was before you learned WWII history in school?

Its the same with mechs.

Ok, Ok... ill get to the point!

How realistic should MWO be?

Obviously being stuck in cockpit view makes it rather realistic. Mechs can't fly around like planes. The weapons are real weapons or are theoretically plausible. There are no energy shields, no beam swords. And mechs are somewhat clumsy.
These make the game feel realistic, but are we going to make it simulator realistic?

In CoD; Explosions, Flashbangs, Stun Grenades can cause shell-shock to the player's character or even momentarily blind them.
If an AC10/20, LRMs or SRMs hit your cockpit, should your character also suffer from shell-shock?
If a Flamer or Lasers hit your cockpit, should your character suffer short blindness?

It sounds like PPCs are getting an EMP effect. Should AC-20s get the same treatment?
Maybe AC-20s could trip Light Mechs on direct hits?

Should Flamers light mechs and the environment on fire when used much likre a real flame thrower?

Will weapons ever be able to shoot down Missiles? Or even just MGs?

Weak spots in Armor (like WoT)?

Mech Fuel? (oh i hope not!)


How far is this game going to go? How far do players want it to go?

IMO:
I like the Simulator feel of the game, but I don't want to go as far as having to Fuel, and feed my pilot, or file taxes or all that extra stuff. All I want it a Mech COMBAT simulator.

Edited by TungstenWall, 16 November 2012 - 04:17 PM.

[DrBunji]

Well, for my c-bills, I feel that first and foremost the devs should focus on delivering a nice and unique core gaming experience. Adding too much "clutter" to it risks obscuring the important mechanics and seriously alienating new players. That said; Battletech has always been a "realistic" sci-fi setting, mainly taking liberties only where it was needed for the game or storylines to work (HPG's, Mechs, and so on), and I think thats what alot of people enjoy about it. There are more than enough eastern-style unrealistic mecha games to go around, so the game has a good chance of carving out a niche for itself.

You also have to discuss what you mean with realistic, for example, it would be realistic for me to be able to put up a webcam on my Atlas' left butt-cheek and see backwards, but it would ruin any flanking tactics instantly.

I think your question is perfectly valid, but that it should rather be discussed on a more general level than wether or not flamers should light bushes on fire. All those things you bring up are pretty interesting, but they would probably be better served posed as stand-alone questions than under the "realistic" umbrella!

Also, if a dev takes a look at this topic and decides that ontop of rearming my mech i now have to refuel it aswell, im coming for you in a Hauberk armor

[bizzQc]

I think more atmospheric and realistic the game get.

more the game will get success full

we have a **** tone of free 2 play arcade shooter.
they get borring fast but the grinding keep them alive.

more deep the game will get.
more the people will grow in interest and time money investment

[Odins Fist]

"How Realistic Will/should Mwo Be?"... Well with "HUGE" Stompy Robots firing lasers, then I guess I would have to say "NOT VERY"..

Edited by Odins Fist, 16 November 2012 - 11:55 AM.

[OpCentar]

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

...
If an AC10/20, LRMs or SRMs hit your cockpit, should your character also suffer from shell-shock?

Who do you think we are? some middle aged IT dudes? FFS we are seasoned MechWarriors who eat Gauss rounds and sh*t LRMs for a living.

There's no such thing as shell shock in our line of work.


However, it should rock your mech somewhat. Nor permastun kind of levels - but enough to throw off your aim at long range, you should be able to return fire in CQB with a moderate degree of accuracy.

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

If a Flamer or Lasers hit your cockpit, should your character suffer short blindness?

No, I don't know what those windows are made of but It would be really silly if they could melt from a ordinary flamer. Or allow harmful levels of light to hit our pilots.

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

It sounds like PPCs are getting an EMP effect. Should AC-20s get the same treatment?

No, but they should knock the sh*t out of a mech, depending on the target weight class and impact point possibly even trip him over.

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

Maybe AC-20s could trip Light Mechs on direct hits?

Hell yes, that's one giant slug coming your way and I don't think your gyro can compensate for a side hit while you run around at 130kph.

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

Should Flamers light mechs and the environment on fire when used much likre a real flame thrower?

Environment yes, mechs no. IIRC inferno rounds do just that?

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

Will weapons ever be able to shoot down Missiles? Or even just MGs?

Yes, AntiMissileSystems, that's why we have them. Still waiting for the laser version though

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

Weak spots in Armor (like WoT)?

Hell no, there are no weakspots as every weapon system does some damage. And our armor is ablative, it's meant to shed protecting the internals - it has no weakspots.

TungstenWall, on 16 November 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

Mech Fuel? (oh i hope not!)

I will pretend I didn't read that.

[DrxAbstract]

I want enemy pilots to see bloodspatters when i chew their cockpits down to internals.

[Kobold]

Short answer: No.


Battletech was never meant to be realistic. It was a big stompy robot game.

[Penance]

Considering it's based on a science fiction universe, not real at all.

[Metafox]

I'm not sure if there's anything to explore in this topic. We want a mech game that's cerebral but engaging. If you want to talk about realism in mechwarrior, though, check out this thread:

http://mwomercs.com/...ttletech-facts/

[Dagger6T6]

I think most of the hardcore fanbase WANT mwo to be a battlemech sim... but mwo is not... it's sim lite

for better or worse

[Enigmos]

I'd like more destructability to the environment. That is a realism I could get behind... until someone blew my cover into smithereens...

[DirePhoenix]

It should take about 2 weeks to travel from your starting planet to the system's Zenith or Nadir Jump Point and jump to the target star system (provided the target star system is within a single 30 light-year jump) and then another 2 weeks to travel from the jump point to the target planet's battle area... Assuming you can afford to hire a JumpShip (I'll go ahead and assume that we all have our own DropShips since that's what's shown in the MechLab). Ready everyone? Prepare to drop on our contract's target zone, ETA 1 month!

[Alexa Steel]

Simple really, realism isnt fun. Its a term missused in discussions like this, the term one is looking for is "believable". Since bipedal mechs arent realistic to begin with. We could only discuss how believable a setting is or how believable gameplay mechanics are. For example, if mechs were to respawn out of thin air, people would find that this would break immersion, since it is not believable. Having a dropship planting the respawning mech on the map is more believable.
So to answer your question: not much, but it should be believable.

Edited by Alexa Steel, 16 November 2012 - 02:39 PM.

[lsp]

Mech warrior online will never be a simulator, and will never be as realistic as I wish it was. Still a fun game though. If it was a real simulator the player base would be so small, that they probably wouldn't make much money. Everyone would complain how hard it is, and this game sux!! it's too hard.

Here's a sim.


And here's a really cool video of the same game

Edited by lsp, 16 November 2012 - 03:07 PM.

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

I think that MWO should take a similar stance to how ArmA II handles the game

It's "realistic" without being "Unfun"

MWO should strive to be as realistic as possible, but there are places where, frankly, the fun of the experience must be taken over the realism. A good example of this is how legging is handled. If a mech is legged in the source material, it's unlikely to stay upright... and will probably fall down alot if it tries to move, effectively making it a turret.

That's not fun to most players, so how MWO handles legging currently is the concession made to that.

I think overall, right now, how mechwarrior Online handles the combat, is about right...at this point it's about balancing weapons and the like.

As for the rest of the experience, I think that there SHOULD be downtime for repairs on mechs, that there SHOULD be travel time to planets when it comes to Community Warfare... ect.

[Scorm]

It should be as realistic as the source material suggests it should be. While it is a sim, the sim represents a fictional world and therefore doesn't need to, nor should it, try to conform to 'realistic' in our world.

[Adridos]

The day Battlefield could be called "something loosely like a simulator" is the day I become a pope and invent FTL drive.

ArmA is a simulator. BF is CoD, just on grander scale.

[Alexa Steel]

lsp, on 16 November 2012 - 02:43 PM, said:

Mech warrior online will never be a simulator, and will never be as realistic as I wish it was. Still a fun game though. If it was a real simulator the player base would be so small, that they probably wouldn't make much money. Everyone would complain how hard it is, and this game sux!! it's too hard.

Here's a sim.

Or they would simply disagree with your definition of fun.

[Elyam]

MWO should strive to be a good sim of the BT/MW universe, thus providing realism that fits that universe, but of course keeping the balance between fun, challenge, and that realism. The idea is similar to that of great books and films: you have to provide a suspension of disbelief (http://en.wikipedia....on_of_disbelief). This is easier in a pretty solid sci-fi like BT since it isn't loaded with fantasy (odd aliens, mystic abilities, huge breaks with hypothetical physics, etc.).

Edited by Elyam, 16 November 2012 - 03:01 PM.

[IIIuminaughty]

This is still a video game I don't want the game to be like flight simulator