Reply With QuoteSLOW DOWN BIG FELLAS
The comment gave me a terrifying thought about a cover system. In this thread overgrown nerds worry about kids on their lawn and I am adding my own waah, though not in the designated thread.
I agree withe eveybody, i also would crouch in that situation, in urban combat. At least, it wasn't wallhugging a la Gears of War!
I also agree with Charles. Console mainstream gamers are usually as retarded as he described them. They want fast, easy, straight forward action games. With bald space marines, if it is possible. :P :P
About Mechwarrior games, they aren't really simulation games, at least they aren't the typical "use every key of your keyboard, twice" sim . I would call them slow action games with a decent sized strategic side, both in-game (heat and weapon management, tactics) and off-game (loadouts and all that).
Edit: but of course, the limits of "action games more complex than usual" and sim games were always blurry.
SLOW DOWN BIG FELLAS
The comment gave me a terrifying thought about a cover system. In this thread overgrown nerds worry about kids on their lawn and I am adding my own waah, though not in the designated thread.
Charles : as much as I hope you're wrong, I fear you're right. I don't much much - read: next to nothing - about how publisher/developer relationships work, but there does appear to be a certain amount myopic tunnel vision on the publisher end.
To be fair though, there IS something undeniably appealing about controlling a 100 ton lumbering humanoid robot.
I remember way back in the days of Mechwarrior 2 (at least I think it was #2, it's been what, 15 years?). I had a couple of friends who were (and still are) complete non-gamers, but they both absolutely loved that game. We'ed sit for hours in front of my computer, pew-pewing away. I totally understand the gaming marketplace has changed significantly since then, but part of me believes the concept still sells itself, if marketed correctly.
Man the Mechwarrior games were fun. I remember playing Mechwarrior 2 and loading up on Arrow IVs, then one-shotting all the other mechs with an unguided supermissile.
CRITICAL HIT TO COMPREHENSION CENTER.Originally Posted by Supper's Ready
Ahem... the ability to take cover behind things is not what people mean when they're referring to a "cover system". A cover system in a mech game would be "PRESS X TO BUILDING-HUG".
And that would be the most blisteringly retarded thing in the universe.
It's my fault for typing without considering what I meant. When I was thinking about ducking it had nothing to do with squaring off and crouching behind a building in an urban setting.
I seriously doubt a cover system would even be brought up for a MW game. I just saw my life flashing briefly before my eyes, that's all.
In today's more accessibility-focused gaming space, it's pretty unlikely that this game won't be very streamlined and simplified. I'm guessing something like Chromehounds.
It needs QTE.
Now we're brainstorming. Would probably work best with a rapid L/R trigger button toggle to recover from overheating.
I like where your going Tim. We just need to fit a non skippable cutscene in there somewhere.
Maybe they can do brutal finishing moves, where you almost destroy a Mech, and then get into melee range and press an action button to start a QTE sequence where you tear off the head of the damaged Mech and then proceed to shove it up it's ass. The decapitated head would off course be gushing motor oil all over the place.
Hehe, understood, Tim.
Why would it be in there? It's not an FPS. And they specifically mentioned they don't want to create another MechAssault. I understand the publisher mandated changes fear, but, come on, Mechwarrior is Wiseman's baby, and it's probably his last chance to re-invigorate the franchise. They can't possibly screw it up that bad.
The mechs should also do a little Power Ranger dance when you code in the alpha strike superpower.
At least give fans of the series something to cheer for. Bring back the touching mech pilot romances and relationships from MW4 played out in a 100x100 pixel box, only this time unskippable.
I honestly don't even care if the single player is good at all. Having never played a single mission of MW4 campaign or any of its expansions, something like Chromehounds with a focus on online play would be perfect for me.
But, in order to actually sell, it needs something like CoD4's excellent single player experience. But, please, for the love of all that's holy, no pilot romances! Leave that to Bioware.
Something like Steel Battalion: Line of Contact would be perfect for me. Except with actual functional US servers.
Fucking Capcom.
Get out.
As someone who plays games almost exclusively single-player: FUCK YOU.
No, really.
After giving it some thought, I think the Battletech franchise, along with Mechwarrior, is done. It’s finished its useful life and needed to go to pasture some time ago.
The circumstances and elements that brought it to life and made it (comparatively) successful are no longer there or relevant. I’m speaking from a mostly cultural standpoint, which of course has ganglia reaching into other subjects such as politics and science.
I think, first and foremost amongst the things that have changed to make Battletech and Mechwarrior unviable today is our relationship with machines and our vision of an “ideal” technological future. In the eighties, we still dreamed that we would break out of the chrysalis and become a space-faring species. Instead, we became cybernauts. This has implications to what our culture finds appealing in its science-fiction, and I don’t think anyone who thinks about this for more than a few minutes would disagree, the assumptions, expectations and even the desires we’ve got in regards to our technology have changed. That same individual, if so inclined, which we are, would also see that the Battletech universe was so locked into the mythos that it couldn’t keep up. It doesn’t matter if the technology is congruent and consistent within its universe, the audience sees the machines that make sense there and doesn’t find it compelling. We, who desire such a game, are of another generation. We are much more ‘mechanically-inclined’, if you permit me to define that term as “find mechanical forms and mechanical movement appealing”, while our society has become more ‘electronically inclined’, which prefers that the mechanical nature of machinery be hidden, concealed either through the impossible fluidity of its movements, or an organic disguise. In other words, we who would play MechWarrior are much more attached to our mechanical contraptions and toys, while those who wouldn’t, are much more attached to what those toys do to improve their lives.
There simply is no way to contextualize the BattleTech universe in a way that would make it widely appealing again, because its moment in time and culture has passed. Moreover, when it was at its peak, it wasn’t widely well-received. Of course, I’m setting aside the Tabletop game during this because it’s not relevant to the videogame and the chances that it’ll find a publisher, I’m talking about the (I’m sure someone will object to me using this term, but what the Hell) Zeitgeist of the Battletech universe, as a whole.
We need a new franchise for our Mecha games. For now, the Japanese seem to have the market on such things cornered, damned prolific as they are.
I think it's worth noting that these guys basically had to turn to IGN to help them find a publisher. Because that's what you guys are looking at: a pitch to publishers. That they couldn't get a publisher based on the strength of the design (a sim?) and the current videogaming marketplace (really? a sim?) speaks volumes.
That said, I'd love to play a game like the one they seem to want to make.
-Tom
Do you want a sim to be made so the franchise will die or something more marketable so it will live? Choose wisely.
I'm pretty sure both options have been attempted and the franchise still died. Maybe us Westerners just don't like giant robots. Oh, wait.
-Tom
Quit saying it's a sim. Does the Battlefield series become a sim the second you step into a plane or tank, just because you lose your complete freedom of movement to strafe and jump? Most of Battletech's 'science' would be laughable to engineers and physicists. It's only simulation-like in that contrasted to most games you are not (almost) invulnerable to your opposition, and play on even ground to them (intelligence excluded). That's it.
Solution found! Stencil Megan Fox's chest onto the Red Team mechs and her ass on the Blue Team mechs.
Now all we need is a 15-minute trailer that's better than the 10-minute game will ever be, and GM sponsorship!
Also, spiffy: Yes. It's a sim cleverly hidden in an FPS. It also started out with WWII, so people "took it seriously". You do understand that this is using the industry's definition of a sim rather than your own, of course.
Spiffy, they seem to be selling a sim in that cinematic sequence. The way they launch a drone and deal with situational awareness (or not) and mess with control panels and whatnot.
I know sim is a dirty word these days, but it doesn't have to imply fidelity to some actual thing to qualify as a sim. Consider X-Wing. Or the Mechwarrior series, for instance. :)
-Tom
I'm not convinced. Ace Combat 6 had wingman commands, re-arming and refueling mid mission, complex radar options, multiple dynamically evolving mission objectives, cockpit view and relative player fragility.. and yet, it was an arcade shooter most people who like to fly and blow things up enjoyed.
Xwing, even played third person with a pad, wouldn't fit that bill because of the very specific and unforgiving puzzle-like nature of the missons, not because it replicated the exact experience of flying a space fighter. (I'd also argue xwing was a shitty sim because everyone knows a real life xwing doesn't have Trek shields, can't take over 40 direct laser hits, and flies faster than 40mph.)
I don't like the way the mechs move in that trailer. It feels too much like a guy in a mech costume. Still, I'm not a really a mechwarrior fan. The last one I remember liking is Mechwarrior 2 because (iirc, it's been a long time) I got to choose missions and there was a story and such.
This is what i was thinking about today. If a game like AC6 can be somewhat successful(right? i mean..they kept releasing DLC packs with retarded skins), there's still hope for this one.
That's all good and well, but a publisher is going to look at this and think "sim". That's what's being sold in that cinematic. It's far closer to the Mechwarrior sims than it is the Mech Assault action games, which fit your Ace Combat 6 comparison very nicely.
I'm not trying to be argumentative, but there are two ways you can go with this. One approach will appease Mechwarrior fans and confuse people who can't grok your head being turned one way and your legs another. I call that a "sim". The other approach will be fast and fun and newbie friendly and it will probably cause an embolism in anyone who knows a Jenner from a Madcat. I call that "something that will make a publishing deal more likely".
-Tom
I totally agree with the exact opposite of what you just said.
Really, when the player's single mech can plow through a dozen or more enemy mechs, you're dealing with pretty much the same one-man-army conceit that most action games use. The big difference in mech games is that you face a few very strong enemies instead of hundreds of weak ones.
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