3 replies to this topic

[Dreepa]

Hey,

I ve seen some of my friends (noobs) play the game while I was dead, and I noticed that they regularily fire their weapons into the ground.

This is due to the fact that they are not used to not hit something when it is clearly in the target reticule. Since most mechs in MWO have weapons mounted far below the target reticule, its a concept that is rather unintuitive.

This is especially obvious when you have an atlas or similar, with arms.

Now what about if the mechs could actualy move their arms to fire from further up? Maybe automatically, if the hitscan detects, that the weapon is pointing at something 3m away. That way, the arm would raise before shooting, trying to get over the obstacle in front of the mech.
Alternative, but not really noob friendly, could be a key press (and hold), for the duraton of the arms raise.

Could also make for some more balanced hill fights, where mechs like stalker or jager are clearly better, as they only need to peak and can shoot alpha strikes, while awesome, atlas, hunchback etc. must come all up over the hill to fire.

The question is, will it look cool? I don't know. Though you guys at PGI already did stuff that I wasnt expecting (brilliant job on actual gun representation on model, depending on fitting!).


So it would kind of go in that direction:

Edited by Dreepa, 07 April 2013 - 08:05 AM.

[Durant Carlyle]

Or ... you know ... the noobs could ... I don't know, maybe ... LEARN ... from firing into the ground. Incredible concept, right?

It took me all of a minute or two to figure out what was going on. And I didn't have the marvelous invention called the Training Grounds to practice either.

Also ... yes, we definitely need more people hiding behind hills, sniping away. That will certainly make the game more PURE WIN for those same noobs.

[Dreepa]

Or ... you know .. .maybe the game could actually arrive in the 21. century. I don't know, maybe....Removing inaccurate controls where you do not shoot at what you aim. Where signs and feedback tell you somehow that your next player action will not result in what you natureally would think it does. Incredible concept, right?

It has nothing to do with what you figure out, but with usability. In game design its called a "hidden mechanic" and they are bad. If you make a decision in a game you should make it based on the feedback of the game. If the communication between
player and game is not optimal, it creates frustration in the sort of "How was I supposed to know?!?" Adding the HUGE invisible hitboxes around every building and asset does the rest.

Also... yes, we definately do not have jumpjets and mechs with top mounted weapons already, that can do exactly what you desribe, no?


Now on to immersion reasons: No mechwarrior managed to mimic the more natural poses of the mechs so far, meaning some realistic usage of arms and a more dynamic animation system. It is all very rigid looking very stiff, not what you would expect from a Mech when looking at the artwork.


On a last note: This is the suggestion forum. Deal with people suggesting stuff.

[Durant Carlyle]

People should know that they are sitting in the head of a giant war machine. People shouldn't have to be told that their giant war machine has weapons that are mounted at certain heights and they must clear those heights so the weapons don't fire into the hillside in front of them. That's not a hidden mechanic if you're thinking giant war machine. They are thinking armored human like Halo not giant war machine, and that thinking is wrong for this game.

This is something that would normally be covered by tutorials. Since we're not released or even halfway finalized yet, we don't have tutorials.

I could see maybe changing the function of the six indicators around the aiming reticle to be whether the weapon group is clear to fire or not. Green for completely clear, yellow for partially clear (when you have multiple weapons in different locations in the group and only some of them are blocked), and red for completely blocked.

Artwork has artistic license taken. And a lot of the artwork depicts 'Mechs doing things like a human would. 'Mechs can only do that to a certain extent.

And for the record, I answered your suggestion with a suggestion, just like now. Deal with it.