lkavadas

Gross, meshing Macross story with BattleTech story would be horrible. They're simply not compatible in the slightest. It would be like mixing Blade Runner with Star Trek. They're just too different. BattleTech is a very pragmatically developed universe. It's dark and gritty. There are no aliens. Mixing Macross with BattleTech would destroy why everyone likes BattleTech. Not to mention the use and scale of mechs is completely different in both IPs. No, Macross is dumb. It's the same lame anime Japan has been pumping out for decades. BattleTech was different. I wouldn't ever want to see the two merged. It would destroy everything I loved about BattleTech (plausible suspension of disbelief). If an Atlas started flying through the air on jet skates and kung fu'd a King Crab I'd throw up.

This isn't entirely accurate. The mech(s) which spawned it were the original LAMs, Marauder, Battlemaster, Warhammer, Crusader, Phoenix Hawk, few others. Mad Cat didn't come around until the '90s. FASA never went under. They were bought by the original creator's brother (Jordan Weismann) who owns and operates Wizkids. Jordan than creates Mechwarrior: Dark Age, a lame game of weird clicky things and ugly models and mechs powered by gas engines. Big time backlash from that and the trashing of the entire established BattleTech lore and the fans went nuts. Mechwarrior "Dork Age" pretty much tanks so Classic BattleTech is reprised by FanPro. Also, FASA could have easily kept and used unseen mechs that HG was pushing them around about but at the time they couldn't afford the legal battle. Those "unseens" as they were later to be called have now resurfaced as completely redesigned mechs. A few of'em look pretty good too. @Hokum15 No, don't need to be original. Wizkids is about as lax as it gets when it comes to using BattleTech. They don't even give two craps if you use the original unseen mechs in a mod or game. MekTek has been doing this for years with their blessing. They're actually really, really cool about this sort of thing. There is BattleTech mod currently in production for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Link here.

If they allowed enough players and created travel points on maps which would move your character between worlds (either another map on the same server which is running simultaneously and/or moving to another map on a separate server) and just through editing you could build an MMO.

I'd like the following: 1. Multiple firing ports per turret; 2. Allow a gunner/driver seat; and 3. Allow a vehicle skeletal system. I want mechs!

I don't see video on that page. I see the header, the title, the short intro with the author's name and link Cee Gee, but then it just goes to straight to "215 Responses." Am I missing something?

Yes, read about it here. The FASA devs' forum names are Von, tryptic, and Mitch. There is also a reference to PAINGOD. He was the head of the entire BattleTech project over at FASA Studios. There's also this post where Heinz "tryptic" Schuller confirms the cancellation of Mw5.

BattleTech has origins anime via Robotech but BattleTech itself is not even remotely close to anime. If it were you'd see mechs with swords doing back flips in mid air while they all flew around with really annoying rising sun backdrops. Plus they'd be the size of a sky scraper. BattleTech is conceptually similar but the specifics of it are all completely opposite of established anime. BattleTech is not anime. Anime sucks.

That mech is a clan Vulture. It's a canon BattleTech omnimech.

Centrifugal force keeps them from falling out. Helicopters generally move fast enough to keep your butt planted pretty firmly. Even with really steep banks centrifugal force will easily keep you in place. As for strapping yourself into a little bird, you don't. I'm RL army and air assault qualified (Hueys, Black Hawks, and Little Birds). The only one you ever "strap" into is a Black Hawk because they have a few rows of seating inside the bird itself. The rest don't.

Okay, two more questions. I'd just like confirmation that ArmA is still restricted to one firing port per vehicle? I thought I saw a screenie of a Blackhawk firing both miniguns out the sides simultaneously? Are we still really limited to one firing port? Also, couldn't mech locomotion simply be handled by scripted animations? Meaning that instead of left foot, right foot, like a human model would move you would simply set the speed and then create an animation to match it. Would that work?

Alrighty, about CQB... I'm a 19D Cavalry Scout in RL, U.S. Army, over at Fort Carson in Colorado. As a 19D my mission responsibilities and tasks probably exceed nearly every other MOS by a lot. Imagine a mash of mech infantry, forward observer, and armor crewman all into one job. That's a 19D. I'm 22 years old and have already done two tours overseas. I'll be heading out for a third in a few months. I've done CQB training a bunch of times and have the certification. CQB is very misunderstood. CQB is not a catch all urban environment tactic. CQB is basically nothing more than entering a room or building in the quickest and most violent way possible. Urban environments will be a huge challenge for any game but even huger for a game that wants to simulate it perfectly. Urban combat is the only scenario I can think of which uses every single attack type at all times. You will constantly have gunships overhead. You will constantly have artillery at the ready. You will constantly have planes flying CAPs. And then you have the huge infantry and armored force to roll down the streets with. To properly simulate it the amount of units would be staggering, even for a relatively small city. Just using this image as a guide line I would reckon that you would need at least brigade of armored and infantry forces, at least a dozen gunships, at least a company of aviation transport (blackhawks) for air assults, and at least four batteries worth of artillery in the rear. Obviously that would be what's ideal, but when you consider how many men (approximately 10,000) and how many vehicles (including arty pieces, 200-400) the resources would be incredibly. I mean, this is simulating an entire Army division plus change in Air Force assets. That's no easy task. On top of that, urban subjugation is incredibly slow and arduous. It would take... at least four days to make it through that city. Probably two weeks to clean it up nicely and a month to get it near complete sans residual traces of insurgency.

Wow lordhorus, that sounds great. Still though, without skeletons for vehicles or multiple firing ports this seems pretty DOA until BIS addresses these deficiencies.

I was just wondering a few things about the engine. 1. Does it support bipedal vehicular locomotion? Can I make a battlemech actually move correctly? I need walking, running, kneeling, a shutdown posture, torso twisting, and a good range of arm movement. 2. Does the engine support multiple hit locations on vehicles? And if so, can internal mechanisms be modeled as well (I.E. support structure and myomer muscle fiber which when damage would make the limb fall off [structural damage] or make the limb move more slowly or not at all [myomer damage])? 3. Does the engine support multiple firing ports on vehicles? 4. Will the engine support "jump jets" on ground vehicles? Basically, some mechs have limited burn thrusters on them which allow them to travel through the air for short distances (couple hundred meters at best).

I want a city .

Well, with Classic BattleTech nearly dead and Mechwarrior: Dork Age being a complete failure, and with M$ canceling Mw5 and refusing to give up the BattleTech license, the only hope for a MechWarrior 5 rests with the player base and user mods. There are some good mods and games coming out though.