Battletech: In the Shadow of Giants

[Landros Radick]

Men of War is an awesome WWII game with terrible voice acting (stand ins for the english version). When I was playing with it, I found it would be an awesome engine to base a Mechwarrior game off of. Someone had the same idea and got a team together to do it!

http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3615

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y22pGrvBu5g

If you don't read through the forum here are some highlights:

The Mod Itself:
"So we've finished the initial R&D with mechs and the MoW engine, and decided that they are, in fact, very doable...so this mod is a full go from here on out."

AI
"The AI absolutely RUINS things with these mechs. They will simultaneously engage 2 or 3 targets at a time (or one target with multiple weapon glory), spot for each other for indirect fire, and pathfind well enough to not get stuck or tip over on a regular basis."

Animations:
"Please keep in mind that the animations are just placeholders, so they will be improved on over time. The walking system is fairly robust, as the mech knows what foot it's stepping with at all times and the ability to limp, fall, get up, and run are all worked into the system, and just lacking animations currently. Static turning is a bit of a sore spot, since there doesn't seem to be a way for the engine animation code to tell if a unit is turning left or right you'll notice a fairly odd looking generic turn animation for now."

Damage:
"There is a damage model in place. Not all of it is activated yet as some of it requires special animations (mainly the limps and falls), but the code is there. Not all damage effects are in place, but there are a few flying limbs in the video. There are no "kill shots" enabled for the mechs in this video as my main goal was to show how the AI engaged and moved."

"They die, but I haven't done the damage [states] X and XX models (didn't want to waste my time if it wasn't going to pan out) so a lot of the really beat up stuff isn't in yet. I did disable the fatal criticals (engine, cockpit, and gyro hits) for the video though."

"There's at least two points in the video where a mech loses an arm, though they fly off with such force that you have to look fast or you'll miss it (need to adjust that). In fact the second de-arming (disarming?) is actually due to an ammo explosion that destroys the right torso of the mech in the far right of the screen during the outro. One of the last missiles to hit it triggers a HUGE explosion up near the missile rack and the arm comes off as it should."

[Askis]

Looks interesting^^
Although I'm guessing, the finished Mod won't be Mechs vs WW2 units
Might have to get MoW when it's done...

[PanzerBoxb]

Damn, another game I may have to buy just for a mod. 

[Lord Samurai MC]

Well that completes it, a mechcommander mod! The dark dirty look that most WWII games try to achieve goes hand in hand with b-tech. This will certainly look good.

[Landros Radick]

Damn, another game I may have to buy just for a mod. 

The game should be bought on its own anyways, it's only $20 or so on Steam and it's well worth it!

[[MPB]OM_Sannyasi]

yay- another mech game! and as stated above.... another game i must buy for a mod.... long live battletech!

[PanzerBoxb]

Damn, another game I may have to buy just for a mod. 

The game should be bought on its own anyways, it's only $20 or so on Steam and it's well worth it!

Um, I'll take "No" for $200, Alex.  Being a long time wargamer and player of the Combat Mission series, I cannot abide tanks with hit points and knife fight ranged engagements. 

[~SJ~ Karuik]

looks pretty dang good. they have size down pretty well lol

[Ravir]

I do like the animations, and the independent arm movement for firing, but even though the AI can acquire multiple targets, it's currently a bit lacking it it's ability to decide which weapon to use, or which target is more important to kill.  Use your PPC's on the tanks first, THEN mow down rifleman with machine guns!

If they work on that a bit, I might have to pick up MoW as well.  $30 on Steam.

[CHHš Firestorm]

That video was epic. Will definitely be getting this.

[Jason1]

Damn, another game I may have to buy just for a mod. 

The game should be bought on its own anyways, it's only $20 or so on Steam and it's well worth it!

Um, I'll take "No" for $200, Alex.  Being a long time wargamer and player of the Combat Mission series, I cannot abide tanks with hit points and knife fight ranged engagements. 

I registered in this forum just to refute this!
Men of War does not have hitpoints for tanks!  The damage and penetration models are as good and deep as in any simulation, and while the default ranges are short, there are plenty of mods to make ranges realistic as well.  This mod (which I work on: http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/forums/viewforum.php?f=138) even tries to give the game a Close Combat-like meta game.  I grew up playing games like Advanced Squad Leader with cardboard counters and hexes, so trust me when I say this game is worth a grognard's attention...

[~SJ~ Karuik]

ive been looking at it, im grabbing the demo right now

[Landros Radick]

Um, I'll take "No" for $200, Alex.  Being a long time wargamer and player of the Combat Mission series, I cannot abide tanks with hit points and knife fight ranged engagements. 

You really are missing out if you're a Combat Mission vet! The game has penetration and damage models for tanks (such as tracks getting killed but the tank still working) so smaller calibers just bounce off some of the heavy assault tanks armor.

[~SJ~ Karuik]

WOW, i played the demo and the game is extremely fun but dude, you werent lying when you said it had terrible voice acting its just so awful... but the game is very good.

[death_grin]

As long as its MP.  I could not live with the AI in MoW.  I quit after one of my soldiers threw a grenade on their own and it hit the building that they where taking cover behind and blew up the entire squad.  Costing me the entire level (only one squad in the mission.)