Arms mounted vs Static weapons

[Mizzri]

Not at all interested in over-complicating things, this is more of a curiosity question: We all know a mech can torso twist 45 degrees on each side, and that mechs with flexible arms can aim beyond that 45 degree mark. Is that something likely to be implimented in MWLL? That perhaps Mech with fully flexible arms would be granted the equivalent of additional torso twist (in their HUD only) to reflect the ability to target with weapons on that arm (and that weapons on the other arm and torsos would not fire when a target beyond the normal 45 degrees was selected and fired upon).

[ToeBall]

At this point that is mostly dependant on the animation team. As we're actually starting to feel the crunch right now I don't think we'll implement that right away, unless you know some skilled animators who want to help rig and animate mech legs and arms then by all means, we'll be happy to set that up. From the code side it's pretty easy, just a matter of turning on AimIK.

[Chaoswolf]

heh.. franly it sould be a 60 twist and limb move but eh... waht the hey... oh out of curiosity, are we going to have *true torso* mounted weapons? aka weapons that are locked into a singular position that only fire in the the direction of the torso (no aim control)... kinda like cannons mounted on fighter craft, they are fixed, and not turreted.

[MWLLKeeper]

heh.. franly it sould be a 60 twist and limb move but eh... waht the hey... oh out of curiosity, are we going to have *true torso* mounted weapons? aka weapons that are locked into a singular position that only fire in the the direction of the torso (no aim control)... kinda like cannons mounted on fighter craft, they are fixed, and not turreted.

Unknown but prefered (honestly depends on a few different factors atm...and the preferred is preferred by me, not necessarily the entire mod).

[shadowkiller]

I prefer that as well actually. Its makes no sence that a torso gun sould be able to shoot at an angle. (aka mw4) I would love to have 2 crosshairs, 1 for torso weapons that is fixed in the center of your hud and a free floating one for the arms.

[korsen]

I'd figure just bore a hole a little deeper to allow the torso gun some form of movement via ball joint.

[shadowkiller]

That would imply that the barrel of your gun is flexible which is a bad thing.

[SintoX]

Than you should have a crosshair for each arm or the whole thing is useless (plus one for the torsoweapons).
Why only move both arms but not the torso? That would just be stupid and make some 'Mechs less worthy.
And some people want this game very "real" and close to the original tabletop rules.
But in the tabletop you can fire at 90 degrees with your torso without turning it.

So I'd prefer moving the mouse moves the torso and not just the arms which makes more sense in my opinion.

Also don't forget that nearly all missiles are mounted onto the torso.
Because they are not really guided or have to lock on you also have to move the torso.

And I don't see the difference between a gun turret (ball joint) and a gun in a "flexible" arm.

[ToeBall]

Shadowkiller, while all barrels are technically flexible (when you shoot a gun, the gas preasure behind the bullet causes the barrel to blow up like a balloon strightening it from the sag all barrels have) I thought you might enjoy this...



It's a WW2 experiment those crazy Germans tried for shooting around corners. It actually works though. They dropped the idea because the barrel fouls too quickly.

[Chaoswolf]

they also did a curved barrel on top of a tank the a small shell was launched into. the ricochet shattered the shell, and it came out of an anti-infantry flack gun.

[paul1290]

What about torso mounted lasers?

A lot of them don't really seem to have straight barrels and have little bowl shaped emitters instead. I think you'd be able to redirect them with some kind of lens assembly at the end of the weapon. If you weren't able to aim them around I'd imagine some mechs would have a hard time using them, especially mechs with medium or small lasers mounted on the torso. (a small weak weapon that is also slow to aim is rather useless.)

[Criminal]

You'll find that the weapons on the arms are fairly standard. The implementaion is a little complex to explain not because it's difficult to understand or anything just that it's difficult to tell you exactly how it works without really understanding somethings in the engine.

Basically Kamikaze was the pioneer of this technique where the cross hair from the torso or vehicle cockpit seems static. There is however a "overflow" sortof zone where you can push the cross hair further to the left or right and up or down from the center of the screen. Thing is though the Torso stops moving at whatever limit we set while the cross hair will continue to move a few more degrees off center.

This feel is actually really good! It gives you a great sense of control and freedom too. Since the weapons can "overflow" to either side and up or down you aren't locked down to a tight cockpit view but more a cross between the floating crosshair from Mech2 and the solid Crosshair of Mech4.

[Seraph]

That sounds to me like a great mix between MW3 and MW4 - that's excellent! I am sure steering will be totally different to anything else we played before .. and that's a good thing You really are creating a whole new Mechwarrior for us!

[Razgriz5555]

I believe that depends on the 'Mech model. Most have some space in the weapon sockets to allow the weapon to move a few degrees. It's not like the weapons are welded or bolted on the torsal structure, but on a kind of ball joint. Again it depends on the 'Mech in question. For example an Uziel's MGs (or SLasers) can move a few degrees to track a target, but an Awesome's PPCs, mainly due to their size are completely static.