Wingbreaker, on 20 February 2013 - 04:39 AM, said:
In other news: There is no canonical height for individual mechs, and this has greatly varied over the course of MW/BT games in general. We have a basic few ideas of how tall they're supposed to be (Usually between 11-15 meters).
Why is this? In game terms, it simply doesn't matter. As far as I recall, a Commando is rated just as hard to hit as an Atlas in terms of a Y axis by the original game rules. Mechs that are designed with a more logical low-profile such as the Bushwacker don't receive bonuses for their designs, even though the fluff text specifically mentions it.
In art terms, it provides an excellent opportunity for the artist to put their stamp on the feel of the individual mech as a comparison to its colleagues. Take the Stalker, for example.
I'm sure most of us have seen MW4 Mektek's Stalker.
*This is a render.
Does it look like the TRO stalker images? Barely. It's far more angular, and I swear that render looks like the poor thing just came out of mothballing on a dense jungle world.
*How does this even stand?
Does ours look the same? Well, to be fair it's closer to the original TRO, but it's far disparaged in the less-than-egg-shaped torso.
So in the end, it's basic artistic interpretation. The mech's class usually determines more of the difficulty in targeting in the first place - no one is going to argue a wide-bodied Awesome isn't easy to hit, but an Atlas isn't exactly difficult. Some of them are quirky, and occupy weird spaces like the Centurion's easy to hit but hard to kill design.
In the end, most of them couldn't even stand in real life, so it doesn't really matter. We can all criticize, but respect the artists for what they portrayed - they aren't doing it haphazardly.
I am not here to debate how it stands, or can't in real life, and I don't care about what kind of artwork they choose to use for it, that is not the point. They could keep the exact same artwork and shrink it in half, to the same hieght as a hunchy, and use the same artwork. The point is it is a 50 ton mech, and shouldn't be the same size as an atlas, or close enough that it doesn't matter when the atlas is twice it's weight. There is no good argument for making the treb that big.
In table top it didn't matter as much because you didn't rely on peoples skill to hit it, it was roll based. I think they should standardize heights based on weight class unless there is some logical exception. I feel the same way about the cents. They should be as tall as a hunchy. I think they are about the right size for their weight. I think the cats heads are a little big, but not too bad. This is all based on the atlas vs the comando. I think those two should be the reference points. They seem right.
As for LRM's, I think that the game has them sized way way too big. If you see them dumbfire and hit a close hill, the missiles are huge, how are you going to fit hundreds of those huge beasts in a mech. They should be shrunk, and they launching tubes should be reduced a lot as well.
0
