59 replies to this topic

[Ethicus]

Soooo i looked around on here and couldnt find it,(feel free to move or remove this if it is here) but i really want to know if the DEVs are considering the classic (awkward) moment when:

Me in Hunchback taking on an assault mech - "oh crap that AC20 hit the wrong spot..."
*mini nuke goes off where Assault mech used to be*
*i die too since im to slow too run away, AND weak from a few PPCs to the gut*

Now, i am in NO way complaining about this. I've always loved the wildcard of a mech blowing up in your face, or getting that beautiful guass kill that blows up an enemy mech while hes standing next to all of his lance-mates. (MW:LL did it amazingly)

Im just wondering if its going to be in MW:O and how the visuals will looks for it

[Gabriel Bekker]

I am also wondering if it will be possible to down and "kill" and enemy mech without it going critical. What will the minimum amount of internal damage neccesary be to take out a battlemech?

[StandingCow]

I am positive you can kill a mech without it going critical.

I haven't heard anything (or I just don't remember) if a mech going critical near you can affect surrounding players... that would be cool... sorta like MW:LL.

[Ethicus]

Im honestly hoping that MW:O does EXACTLY what MW:LL did with their version of beating a mech.

If you break through the armor points on the center torso then the mech just goes down, but if the amount of damage you cause to the torso maybe goes into the negative, or goes -50 points or something, then the core is breached.

So basically it would take one aimed, preferably strong, hit to blow up a mech, though its possible to just down a mech without it blowing up and damaging everything in a 50 yard radius

Dont shoot a commando in the chest with 3PPCs and not expect it to go critical

Edited by Ethicus, 10 May 2012 - 09:49 PM.

[JakeNzC]

i have read a lot of battletech books and its rare for a mech to blow up when it is taken down, usually there armor fails and the other guy destroys his internals until he is put down, then its time to salvage a nice new weapon.

tho the games are a little different, particularly mechwarrior 4, damn mechs keep blowing.

[Varjen]

As far as pseudoscience goes i dont think a mechreactor would go nuclear (It's NOT nucular, curse you GWB!) but more likely melt the CT location and possibly cook off ammo and suchlikes. Those might go boom though?

[Saiph]

I think it should be based on total amount of damage received by the defeated mech. If it really gets hammered then it's going to go critical and kaboom. Sort of like overkill. If internals are damaged moderately, or the pilot ejects to save his own skin, it's counted as salvage.

I really liked the way Mechcommader 1 implemented salvage. It wasn't necessarily guaranteed, and if you assigned all of your mechs to attack one enemy there was a good chance of damaging it to the point of scrap. Killing an enemy mech was an exercise in precision. Reactors went critical all the time, but if you knew what you were doing you could reap quite a salvage.

So there's the balance, between salvage free-for-all by making it really difficult to destroy the reactor, and having every mech's reactor made of tinfoil.

That said, I really hope that an enemy mech's reactor going critical is a spectacle to see. The one (and only) thing that MechAssault did above all other Mechwarrior games was reactor criticality. They were basically kiloton-scale explosions erupting hundreds of feet into the air, boiling and bubbling and violent. MW3 looked like a Ford Pinto immolating, and MW4 was just a blue flash. I want to see and feel the devastating effects of a fusion reaction becoming uncontained when a mech goes critical.

[Endai Baekem]

Read the third and forth paragraphs...
http://www.sarna.net...i/Fusion_Engine

It was very rare for the engine to go critical, and when it did the engine was shut down and safety measures were taken. The actual explosion you see when the 'mech go critical is little more than air being sucked into the engine, super-heated, and expelled to appear as if the 'mech is going nuclear, this superheated air can only really damage unarmored infantry.

Edited by Endai Baekem, 10 May 2012 - 11:40 PM.

[BenEEeees VAT GROWN BACON]

I'm with no mega-nukes going off, that just reeks of poor sci-fi and over-the-top sfx. I'd rather have something more sensible and realistic in the age of Micheal Bay.

[Celestial]

I really hope they include nukes!

[ChalybsUmbra]

I'm not for gigantic nuclear explosions, but I'd like to see some mechs erupting flame and flinging limbs if we do score a critical on the reactor or cook off the ammo.

What would really tickle my pickle though if we could shoot at a disabled mech (i.e. cockpit shot out or legged) on the ground and see if we can still cause it to go critical and explode. Kind of like in Battletech: Blood Legacy when Kai-Allard Liao caused Sun-Tzu's ejected Dire Wolf to go critical, knocking out two of his opponent's mechs in the Trial of Position on Outreach.

Edited by ChalybsUmbra, 10 May 2012 - 11:56 PM.

[JakeNzC]

nukes and mecs are a bad idea, i read a battletech book, cant remember which one but as the story went two forces battling to the death and some rebels set off a nuke wiping out a chunk of both forces, way to much collateral damage.

[PANZERBUNNY]

Stackpole alert.

Mechs don't go into nuke mode but I doubt the devs will be able to resist it.

[StandingCow]

According to what Endai posted, there would be a large bright flash at least... apparently that is mistaken for a nuclear explosion... but it would be cool that if a mech went critical that there was a huge bright flash.

[SquareSphere]

From a "fun" stand point, I hope they're in but are rare (like 10% chance occurance). But only large enough to impact mechs that are in "hugging" distance, ie within 150~200m. Most mechs can get out of that range pretty quickly.

I'd even be ok if they applied only little damage (say the same amount as a small laser, but hits all over the mech) but the real side effect is heat and a temporary scrambled HUD due to EM.

Edited by SquareSphere, 11 May 2012 - 06:44 AM.

[Adridos]

SquareSphere, on 11 May 2012 - 06:41 AM, said:

From a "fun" stand point, I hope they're in but are rare (like 10% chance occurance).

That means every 10th mech to go down is going critical. Probably 2 in a match.

10% is far from rare.

[Major Tom]

Mechs should only crater the map if you critical their machine gun ammo.

[SquareSphere]

8% then, that's one per about 12 mechs If it's more rare the impact/effect has to be greater, else why include it

[SideSt3p]

Trying to equate what would happen in "Real-Life" to a game built upon a whole series of impractical/made-up details seems hilarious to me.

Devs, do what you like I'll just try to figure it out when I get to play

[Arctic Fox]

It's easy. If you must have them, just treat engine explosions the same as the Stackpoling rules in TacOps. If an engine takes 4 critical hits in the span of seconds, it has an ~8% chance of exploding and delivers damages to everything around it according to the engine rating.