Screenshot variety and some other thoughts/ideas

[Vespid]

If things are at a point where this is possible, I'd love to see some wide-angle screenshots of scenes that involve a bunch infantry, battle-suites and vehicles fighting it out with just a few mechs towering over everything.

Also, can you guys release some screenshots from an infantry POV with a couple of tanks right up next to him and some mechs a little further away so we can get a feel of the scale?

Do you have any shots of the setup screen where you buy and modify equipment and mechs?

Another question. Sorry if you guys have gone over this already...are you planning on adding gravity effects to the slower projectiles like the autocannons?  I think that would be good--it would provide a challenge in mixing weapon types and grouping them together--especially with long range fights. You'd have to aim directly at your target with lasers, them move up slightly for gauss rifles, then aim even higher for the ACs.

I've noticed in past MW games, when your weapons were out of range they just sort of seemed to disappear.  Is that what you plan on doing this go-around? Instead of that could you just add a big decelleration factor and stability factor on projectiles so the further they get the slower, less accurate and less powerful they get until they eventually just hit the ground? For lasers maybe you could just fade them out so you can still see them but no damage is taken. For missiles they could "run out of fuel" and veer down and hit the ground.  What do you guys think of that? Is that even possible with this game engine? You guys probably are beyond the stage where you make decisions like this, but I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Thanks!

[Ghiest]

There is no infantry, they are just battlesuits at the moment.

[Zomby]

But the gravity effect would be nice, especially on long range AC's, and to have to adapt to different planet gravity (but just to add little flavor to ballistic weapons, not to entirelly change how battle have to be fought because of gravity effect on bullets).

For missile in previous MW game, when they would get a their max range, they would simply fall to the ground and detonate (and by falling I mean more like going full thrust toward the ground than simply falling)

[Vespid]

Oh man that's too bad about the infantry.

I saw the infantry in the assets list and assumed they would be included. Is that the permanent answer or has the dev team just not gotten to that yet? (Or are they saving that for an post-release update?)

Thanks for the clarification about how the missiles expire. It's been so long since I played MW I guess I was remembering things wrong. Now that you mention it I do seem to recall the missiles doing that. That seems like kind of a cop-out solution though...like when the wicked witch of the west melted because dorothy spilled water on her. They had to get rid of her somehow, didn't know how, so they just spilled some water on her and called it a day.

Does anyone know how many players the maps will allow?

[AoP]

I saw the infantry in the assets list

Which one? Certainly not ours, at least not anytime in the past 12 months or so.
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/content/view/52
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/content/view/51/74/

Is that the permanent answer or has the dev team just not gotten to that yet? (Or are they saving that for an post-release update?)

Infantry has been removed for balancing reasons. Whether or not it will ever be implemented largely depends on if we ever see them seriously take any other role than that of cannon fodder, which isn't likely with the current player limit of 32 per server.

[Vespid]

Oh I see.

FYI I saw the models here:
Media Gallery-->Various Models-->Inner Sphere Assets
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=27

and Media Gallery-->Various Models-->ClanSphere Assets
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=28

I think if you were interested in having infantry, the game *could* be set up in a way to encourage mech pilots to focus on mechs and vehicles instead of infantry. You could modify the reward system (whatever it may be) to grant rewards based on target value so mech pilots would need to focus more other mechs instead of infantry. For instance, a pilot or team would not get awarded anything for a kill if it was a mech killing an infantry...Or if it's a ticket-based game you could set it up so the loss of an infantry player does not result in the loss of a ticket (or boost the ticket scale and have a lost mech cost 200 tickets and a lost infantry cost 1 ticket)

In games like BF2142 (which kicks ass despite what the whiners say) a vehicle/walker pilot is encouraged to focus on infantry because they can rack up points that way. When another tank or walker comes around, you need to defend yourself, but I still keep an eye out for easy kills while I'm fighting off the threat. Making the changes I noted above would discourage that tactic unless there are no other real threats or valuable targets around.

Infantry players could have fun fighting it out between themselves, and can do various other useful tasks like laying mines, lasing targets for LRM salvos, capturing bases and reparing vehicles.

Further, you could encourage players to choose to be infantry by reducing or eliminating spawn time if you die as an infantry soldier. You could also grant reward enhancements for actions accomplished while playing infantry. (The justification to that would be that you just saved your faction 15million cbills by doing your job without buying and losing a mech)

Sure, if there are 32 players on the map and 28 of them have mechs, that would be ridiculous to have 4 infantry running around. I was kind of thinking for a 32 player game it would be more like have 4 mechs, 10 vehicles and 18 infantry. All the MW games are the same in that regard--everyone pilots mechs. It kind of makes piloting a mech jaded. Having the mechs be rarified makes them more valuable and more fun to play when you can get your hands on one. Also, I think it would enrich the game visually and add multiple levels and types of play.

FWIW.

But whatever you guys do, I'm sure it will be awesome. Thanks for your work.

[AoP]

All of these things you brought up have been discussed and tossed around more than just a little. If you're interested in the discussion and some of the arguments, please use the search function. I'm quite sure we made a number of the things public.

As you correctly noticed, infantry models and weaponry had even been created already, at least some of them. The fact that we still decided not to use them should make clear that we did not see reasonable use for infantry without giving up major parts of our current design - which simply is not an option.


Also note that the amount of c-bills credited to you for destroying enemies of different weight classes indeed takes various factors into consideration.

[Vespid]

I see. That's too bad about the infantry being scrapped. But you guys have probably worked hard at this and if you don't want to jepoardize the quality--that's extremely understandable. The elemental combat videos look really good, so that will play a great intermediate role between mech and infantry combat.

I did a search on the forums and all the posts I found (and read) had the Dev Team commenting that it wasn't just a battlemech, but a battletech game (pointing out that infantry was a fundamental part of the original plan). What is a good search string to narrow down the results so I can follow the argument that lead to the scrappage of infantry?

Thanks for the replies.

[Ravir]

What is a good search string to narrow down the results so I can follow the argument that lead to the scrappage of infantry?

I doubt you'll find a public discussion about it.  We don't really discuss the development process in the public forums unless it's a "this feature is done, hooray" announcement.  It's best for a developer's sanity to leave the assumptions, arguments and blatant misunderstandings to the fans and have them surprised and happy when the game is done and is better overall than they thought it would be.  As far as BattleTech vs BattleMech, that's why you still see tanks, vtol's, areospace, hovercraft, and the ever-annoying battle armor.

[Gnarlycharly]

I want to see the kodiak in one of the advent calenders. I love that mech.

[Tiger842]

I want to see the kodiak in one of the advent calenders. I love that mech.

and it's first advent should be on the Frostbite map!

[Gnarlycharly]

I want to see the kodiak in one of the advent calenders. I love that mech.

and it's first advent should be on the Frostbite map........

.....Death from aboving a vulture!

[Stormin']

@Vespid:

Just wait until you see an elemental driving a mech, lol... (yes, seriously)

[DigitalStef]

@Vespid:

Just wait until you see an elemental driving a mech, lol... (yes, seriously)

Personally, I didn't like that screen shot, I'd prefer to not even see the element in the cockpit... (or better yet just a normal pilot even though idk how he could change out of a element suit so fast.)

[Stormin']

Not to mention that elementals are supposed to be genetically engineered for those suits.