New Mech Sim game

[Cyberdogs7]

Hey, I am making a new Mech simulation game and I was wanting to see what people looked for in their games.

 

I plan to have quite a bit of depth to the creation of the Mechs (you build the from modular pieces) but I was not sure how far I should go with the actual game play.

 

I see games like Mech warrior, Reign of Thunder, and Hawken, and they all seem very arcade like to me. Is there a place for a more hardcore game?

 

Anyway, I was just hoping to get some ideas.

[CyBerkut]

http://mwomercs.com

 

There, you will see what constitutes "hard core" mech simulation, and the forums will show you what the mecha community wants.

 

Another place to see what the mecha community wants is http://www.mektek.net

[Cyberdogs7]

Thanks for pointing those out to me, but I guess I was trying to find out ways to make the game more appealing to the simulation crowd. Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree.

[Impact]

Thanks for pointing those out to me, but I guess I was trying to find out ways to make the game more appealing to the simulation crowd. Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree.

 

Include armor penetration system which is usually used in tank sims. Internal systems which get damaged depending on what kind of ammo hit, how much kinetic energy it had etc... Think of it as a tank sim, but vertical, and with legs.

 

Make it so the Mech can fall down if it turns too fast with too high speed. How many crew members do you wanna have in a mech? Make it so the pilots are vulnerable.

 

What kind of weapons do you wanna use? Handheld weapons? If yes, make arms, legs etc cutable. How mobile will be your mechs? Are they aerodynamic?

 

Put in stuff like ejection seat, screen wiper, startup procedure much like the A10c in DCS, complex electronic system, which can fail in case of damage, making you a sitting duck.

 

Maybe being able to jump out, grab a sniper, shoot someone else out of their cockpit and then taking over the mech to continue fighting?

[Cyberdogs7]

Include armor penetration system which is usually used in tank sims. Internal systems which get damaged depending on what kind of ammo hit, how much kinetic energy it had etc... Think of it as a tank sim, but vertical, and with legs.

 

This is something we already have planned. It's not fully function yet, but the ground work it there. Like legs getting slower as they take damage, weapons misfiring and malfunctioning with damage.

 

Make it so the Mech can fall down if it turns too fast with too high speed. How many crew members do you wanna have in a mech? Make it so the pilots are vulnerable.

 

I can see this being very difficult to implement, but I will look into it.

 

What kind of weapons do you wanna use? Handheld weapons? If yes, make arms, legs etc cutable. How mobile will be your mechs? Are they aerodynamic?

 

Right now all the parts are modular (players build their own mech) so the weapons are built into the mech. We do calculate damage to the part hit, and if a part is destroyed, all parts attached to it fall off as well. This makes it so you want to armor up the weak links. We also use realistic physics on as much stuff as we can. So bullets follow a ballistic trajectory, a huge cannon's recoil force will be worse the farther from the center of gravity it is, impacts to your torso affect your aim to varying degrees.... etc. There will be no flying :/

 

Put in stuff like ejection seat, screen wiper, startup procedure much like the A10c in DCS, complex electronic system, which can fail in case of damage, making you a sitting duck.

 

Maybe being able to jump out, grab a sniper, shoot someone else out of their cockpit and then taking over the mech to continue fighting?

 

The focus of the game so far is 3rd person, as we didn't want to compete directly with the high profile first person mech games. I hadn't thought about ejection and taking over other mechs, that would be really awesome.

 

Thanks for all the feedback.

[Yskonyn]

Talk to the guys from eSimgames about stuff that's needed for 'hardcore armored warfare sims' and then translate that to an idea for Mechs.

[CyBerkut]

 

The focus of the game so far is 3rd person, as we didn't want to compete directly with the high profile first person mech games. I hadn't thought about ejection and taking over other mechs, that would be really awesome.

 

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

If you are looking to create a hard core sim, then 3rd person is NOT the way to go. You may make your programming tasks easier by taking some of the cockpit controls, etc. out of the equation, but you're doing it at the cost of sacrificing much of the piloting experience.

[aaron886]

I find the concept of a "mech sim game" a little ridiculous... it's a game.

[ZQuickSilverZ]

I will put it this way...... I would not be interested without a cockpit.

It needs to be made in such a way that it can use existing flight gear since we dont have this:

 

 

 

 

[cichlidfan]

The focus of the game so far is 3rd person, as we didn't want to compete directly with the high profile first person mech games.

 

'Sim' and '3rd person' do not go together, IMHO.;)

[Impact]

Ah Steel Battalion. When your Vertical Tank explodes before you press the ejection button your savegame will be deleted.

[Cyberdogs7]

'Sim' and '3rd person' do not go together, IMHO.;)

 

I completely understand that. I guess am walking the same line as racing sim's that have a chase camera option, so not a FULL simulation, just a quite a bit more then the arcade type games out there right now.

 

Things that I will have that I feel are 'sim-like':

 

Realistic bullet physics

More realistic damage (damage is localized, affected by armor, ammo type, and impact angle)

More realistic momentum in your movements

 

Large list of variable management, like less weight makes you faster, bigger engine makes you faster, damage to legs or engine slows you down, parts can be blown off, ect...

 

I feel now, it would be quite the stretch to call it a full on simulation.

 

Thanks for all the replies, they have been a huge help.

 

If you a intrested at all, you can see what I have done so far at our dev blog

[213]

mech warrior online is the most sim-like mech game out there. read up more about it before calling it arcade.

 

your mech designs leave a lot to be desired, btw.

[Cyberdogs7]

mech warrior online is the most sim-like mech game out there. read up more about it before calling it arcade.

 

your mech designs leave a lot to be desired, btw.

 

 

While I feel the 'control' of mech warrior can be very sim like, the actual game play is far from sim like. (I have played them all) They do have some additional systems going on under the hood to add to the realism aspect, like power, heat, body part damage, but I feel that in general the actual game play is very arcade. I feel it's possible to have sim-like controls but still have arcade gameplay, and I feel the reveres is true as well. I am aiming for sim-like gameplay with some arcade like systems on the controls and camera. This is just my opinion though.

 

 

Yes, I am sure there are things about my mech designs that are not appealing. I am the first to admit, modeling is not my strong point. In fact, this was my first serious attempt. I am hoping that the gameplay, and ability to use the parts to make what ever designs you want will make up for that fact. I am willing to accept that MechWarrior, a game made by hundreds and costing millions, will look better then a game made by 1 and costing what ever I can muster up to throw at it.

 

I do appreciate your feedback as with everyone else on this board. I was a complete outsider and the members here have been very nice and given me an incredible amount of information. Thank you all.