92 replies to this topic

[cipher]

You know: the 8 walking/12 running mechs. Those light things with big engines for their weight class. Locust, Spider, Ostscout, Cicada, et al.

For those of us who played World of Tanks, some of us know what 72 km/h feels like in the game. That's typically the max speed of the fastest tanks. But with almost 130 km/h, it's approaching twice that speed. That's fast. That's blazing fast.

So, how true is MWO going to be in terms of scaling speed accurately to the in-game distance we'll be running with our mechs? And it gets even better with the mech lab when we can go faster than that.

If it is accurate, I hope both our systems and the client itself can handle that blazing fast run speed! If so, it will be a wicked ride.

Edited by cipher, 13 June 2012 - 10:03 AM.

[PirateNixon]

129.6 km/h is ~80.5 mph. It's fast, but not so unreasonably fast as you may be thinking.

[CoffiNail]

I hope they toss in those fast light mechs. I love speed, and will be running often in a FireMoth or Dragonfly when they come out sometime during or after Clan Expansion. FireMoth with MASC, 216 kph!

PirateNixon, on 13 June 2012 - 10:05 AM, said:

129.6 km/h is ~80.5 mph. It's fast, but not so unreasonably fast as you may be thinking.

Faster than one can go on the Highways legally in Canada, 100KPH max.

Edited by CoffiNail, 13 June 2012 - 10:06 AM.

[DLO]

You would also have to add scale to your perspective.

130 km for something the size of a tank is very fast.

But put that speed on a giant mech and it isn't going to be the same thing.

[80sGlamRockSensation David Bowie]

I remember in MW3, getting the biggest engine possible in a Firely, adding a MASC and lots of heat sinks. I'm pretty sure you could easily pass 300kph for a short while before your overheated. That alone was fun! (Although, armor and weaponry was near non-existent on that build).


Would one Hell of a scout 'mech though!




Edit: And even faster still in MW:2 Mercs, if you had enough JJ's on a 'mech you could use the directionals to propel your self forward at insane speeds and then lift off! I forget the furthest/fastest I've jumped but I've nearly bypassed entire missions that way. Felt so wrong but was so fun to figure out something like that when you were a kid.

Edited by mwhighlander, 13 June 2012 - 10:11 AM.

[Grokmoo]

From a technical perspective, i don't think the 130 km/h speed poses any problems. There are lots of games with speed this great, or even greater. This includes all of the previous mech games.

Edited by Grokmoo, 13 June 2012 - 10:10 AM.

[wanderer]

Of course, the fun thing here is that by 3049, XL engines are available in-canon.

This means some of those speed demons will be pulling even more heinous acceleration, and that's before (and if) MASC becomes an option, which'll give you risky temporary boosts that launch you even further.

At that point, my worry would be about not ramming into things, as steering may become an issue.

[PirateNixon]

CoffiNail, on 13 June 2012 - 10:06 AM, said:

Faster than one can go on the Highways legally in Canada, 100KPH max.

I go that fast on the drive to work every day...

[Arturus]

I just hope MWO will have BIG maps to accomodate those 'Mech speeds

[Stone Profit]

Just wait till someone strips all the weapons from the Cicada and ramps up the engine to 200kph or so. Or am I the only person who wants to do this?

[Der BruzZzler von Wiesndoof]

Tarantula light quad. 129,6 kp/h. 172,8 kp/h with MASC.
Heck yeah!

[cipher]

DLO, on 13 June 2012 - 10:07 AM, said:

You would also have to add scale to your perspective.

130 km for something the size of a tank is very fast.

But put that speed on a giant mech and it isn't going to be the same thing.

Good point. Things will be at a much bigger scale, so a huge mech might not feel as fast as a small tank going the same speed.

Here's the T2 LT tank in WoT (someone else's video) of it hitting 71 km/h...

Edited by cipher, 13 June 2012 - 10:18 AM.

[Lumpi]

Fast mechs loose so much, even with XL-engines... look at the Cicada's armament and armor...

[Skymech]

CoffiNail, on 13 June 2012 - 10:06 AM, said:

Faster than one can go on the Highways legally in Canada, 100KPH max.

Some highways you can get up to 110.

[CCC Dober]

If MW3 and MW4 are anything to go by, then I guess the netcode will have a direct influence on the viability of fast Mechs.
In MW3 it wasn't given terribly much attention with a known outcome. Lag-shooting was required and was not a guarantee to hit either. Best guess and roll the dice would sum it up best, I think.
MW4 did better, but speeds were severely reduced, nowhere near the 300 mark AFAIK. Also Lasers and guided missiles had some sort of auto-aim once they were aimed/locked. That also helped to keep excessive speeding in check.

[Aegis Kleais]

I'm interested in seeing this as well. I'm not familiar with KM/H metrics, but 130kph = about 80mph. And I can picture 80mph. That is FAST! I hope the animations look believable. Something that nimble would be a nightmare to get a bead on.

[Aleksander Storm]

Physical speed in a game has little to no bearing on system performace.

[cipher]

Aleksander Storm, on 13 June 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

Physical speed in a game has little to no bearing on system performace.

It depends on how fast we're talking. Have you tried mods to run through Skyrim or Oblivion at insane speeds? Loading all of those textures on the fly and an increased pace = graphics subsystem slow downs. But the speed would have to be pretty fast.

I remember modding BZFlag back in the 90s. We did all sorts of hacking on it. At one point I was messing with the speed. I made the tanks so fast that they would travel from one corner of the map to the other in a second. Not only did it put a strain on my old PC at the time, it also put a strain on the slower packet updates. The server we were messing around on couldn't keep up, lagged, and eventually crashed, lol. Doing anything faster than a client/server intended is bound to cause performance issues, whether it's swapping out a ton of textures in rapid succession or forcing too many packets to transfer at one time.

Of course Piranha will be thoroughly testing their client and servers before launch, but I really hope they test max speed with the biggest engine and MASC to see just how much they can graphically stress the client.

[Eximar]

When the first 747's came out, pilots found they often taxied at over 50 mph, because they didn't have the sensation of going that fast, due to the height of the cockpit being greater than other aircraft.

I suspect high speeds won't feel too ridiculous with Mech 'pits being fairly high off the ground, as well.

[CCC Dober]

Not just that, but netcode, ping and average reaction time come into the equation as well. Otherwise those zippy buggers have lag shield/invulnerability all the way from Terra to the Clan Home Worlds and back again. Nobody would be able to nail them ... which would break this game quite easily.

P.S.: I forgot Mech size and hitboxes as well. That is something I learned from another unofficial MW mod. Plenty stuff that can go wrong here as well. But it's a bit too deep to discuss openly and I think I have hinted at enough problems already LOL

Edited by CCC Dober, 13 June 2012 - 11:04 AM.