7 replies to this topic

[captainoblivion]

Oh boy, another 0-post forum newbie with so many of his own ideas for the game! But bear with me, I only have one suggestion and I think it's worth consideration. And to be fair I have been lurking a bit so I'm not 100% new to the forum.

I notice there are plans to have visual customization, which is very neat and it's nice that people will be able to distinguish different players by more than just the name over their head. I also notice there will be customizable stats for mechs, and that's also very cool- but one thing that bothers me about some games (cough Black Ops cough ahem) is it's very difficult to distinguish what setup a player has until after they've started using it- for example the flak jacket looks very similar to the regular uniform so it's difficult to know when throwing grenades will have little effect. To put it in Hawken terms, how will a player be able to tell if an enemy has lots of points in speed or more in armor_ I would argue that it's very important that that sort of thing be possible to discern before engaging in a fight (so you have a sense of how many rounds you'll have to pump into them before they go down, or how capable they'll be of moving around you)

Now, I don't know for sure that you haven't already addressed this issue, or if you even consider it to be an issue (if you don't, I'd plead you to reconsider) but after a bit of thinking I've only come up with a pair of somewhat passable solutions.

-My first idea was rather inelegant, but pretty straightforward to implement- some hud element that would display the stats of the targeted mech. Perhaps the reticule would be a certain color- say, one color if all the points are in offense, another for defense, and so on- or some color between if the stats are divided. Like I said, not very elegant.

-My second idea is, I think, much cooler- but most likely infeasible to implement. Basically, it'd be neat if a mech's custom parts related to its stats. The way that makes the most sense to me is a hardpoint system- in one of the videos Khang le mentions that the stats will be a few points (currently, three) to be distributed by players at the start of the match. What if, instead, there were three hardpoints (say, legs, body, head, or something) and the player could choose between a few parts that corresponded to stats_ So one might choose "speed" for the leg armor, "speed" for the body armor, and "defense" for the head armor- the stat result would be the same as if they had chosen "defense, speed, speed" or "speed, defense, speed" but they'd end up with a different looking mech- and whichever way players could tell at a glance what stats any given mech has (given that armor corresponding to each stat would be designed to look as such- maybe speed armor would be more streamlined while defense armor would be bulkier, or whatnot)

Of course I have no idea how your source code is set up, and how feasible such a suggestion would be, even if you thought it was worth looking into, but I figure it might be interesting food for thought and just maybe make an already very excellent looking game just a smidgen better.

[Moc]

That sound pretty cool.

Love the second idea, and i agree with the first being "not very elegant"
Be interested to see what others think.

[Barcode1]

I like it a bit. The last idea reminds me of how Terran units change slightly as they get upgraded in SC2.

I'd be happy with the mechs just looking different with improvements in defense/speed/(damage_). (aerilon-style nubs on the armour for speed, or bumpier, wider armour for armour), which is the aim of your idea here.

[Flyingdebris]

It could probably be easier to do without the location specific changes, justing using bolt ons.

So lets say i put a point of defense for my mech.  The mech now has what looks like a few armor plates bolted on.  Adding more points adds more of these.  By level 3, its covered in these, and looks slightly steel battaliony in so far as the large armored surfaces.

For speed, additional pistons and shocks added to the legs.  At 3 points, the legs are looking really muscular in mech terms.

Not sure how offense will work, but maybe more doodads around the guns, so that by level 3, the guns on an offense oriented mech look significantly chunkier.

In all cases you don't have to change the base model, you just add bits to add onto what already exists.

[LazyFailKid]

I think that Flyingdebris has the best idea and it would probably be worth adding it to the game

[xXxTALONxXx]

I say you can op to add a  Defence weapon called scan!

it'll tell you where they are even if their cloaked and all stats

'cause the paint job might hide the custom parts I know I'll hide mine make it look like one and have the other

it uses energy but you know what your up against

I say both mine and birds


yea or nea_

[SixSeconds]

Flyingdebris said:

It could probably be easier to do without the location specific changes, justing using bolt ons.

So lets say i put a point of defense for my mech.  The mech now has what looks like a few armor plates bolted on.  Adding more points adds more of these.  By level 3, its covered in these, and looks slightly steel battaliony in so far as the large armored surfaces.

For speed, additional pistons and shocks added to the legs.  At 3 points, the legs are looking really muscular in mech terms.

Not sure how offense will work, but maybe more doodads around the guns, so that by level 3, the guns on an offense oriented mech look significantly chunkier.

In all cases you don't have to change the base model, you just add bits to add onto what already exists.

This, please. I was thinking of literally this before I found this thread, and of course someone else came up with it. Not only does it provide immediate visual identification, it would be incredibly stylish if done right; and with Hawken's art direction, it can't go wrong.

A bit of exaggeration would go a long way, though. Each addition needs to change the silhouette significantly, or, at least, enough to be unique from a distance.

[Ashfire908]

Flyingdebris said:

It could probably be easier to do without the location specific changes, justing using bolt ons.

So lets say i put a point of defense for my mech.  The mech now has what looks like a few armor plates bolted on.  Adding more points adds more of these.  By level 3, its covered in these, and looks slightly steel battaliony in so far as the large armored surfaces.

For speed, additional pistons and shocks added to the legs.  At 3 points, the legs are looking really muscular in mech terms.

Not sure how offense will work, but maybe more doodads around the guns, so that by level 3, the guns on an offense oriented mech look significantly chunkier.

In all cases you don't have to change the base model, you just add bits to add onto what already exists.

Nice idea, that is perfect!