Truth be told, I’m a much bigger fan of western mecha than I am anime meha. I do feel like the strategic side of western mecha would fit better with a choice game, but I’d really like to see a fast-paced anime-influenced choice game as well. So, I’m really trying to fit them both in. I’m mostly keeping the low-end machines, such as the military tanks and ground mechs, close to something you’d see on Armored Core, and the missions you have to destroy them will be much the same. But, the missions where you go up against other high-end mechs, like the ones you will pilot, they will be a lot more like anime.
My reasoning behind this is that missions involving many weak and average enemies naturally call for weapons with area of effect and things like that; the usual weapons they use in western mecha.
Where as the missions against other, fast, mechs calls for weapons that do a lot of damage to a single target. Going up against weapons that can rip you in half with a single hit, you need to be fast. So fast that it’ll be more like anime than western. And don’t worry, squads of mechs travel in threes, so your friends in the story will have your back if you pick the slow mech.
I was going to wait to tell everyone this, but I guess telling now would give people a better understanding of what the overall game will be like. The parts of the game after the introduction is mostly western mech in style and misson based. But, later on, it will take a very story-driven approach and be more anime than anything else… And it will involve governement experiments and aliens. I wanted to add a bit of foreshadowing, so that’s why I made one of the tank crew an alien nut.
@Ramidel Yeah, a ball big enough to although shaking without hitting the wall would be pretty big… I don’t have an answer to this. I’ll think more on it over the week though.
Here’s my idea (would realistically be only workable for smaller suits, but there’s precedent in anime for them being used for really big suits too) to replace the first kind of ball (hanging from straps? That’s gotta be uncomfortable)…
Exoskeletal: The pilot wears the mech, with pseudomusculature around his arms and legs that translates his movements into mecha movements (kinda like the ball but with more apparent integration of human and mech). Highly agile and very useful for close combat, but not likely to be as useful for high-speed movement. It’s rather well-protected (right in the middle of the body). Artillery-type weapons are likely to be a pain, as are any kind of funky sensors or E-war; also, pilot endurance will be minimal.
It can’t be agile without high-speed movement. In a lot of ways, quick strafing and dodging is more dangerous for the pilot than straight-ahead speed. Straight-ahead speed has the dangers of blood pooling away or inside your head too much, but bursts of speed in different directions could lead to ruptured organs.
Aware. The issue isn’t with acceleration (while this isn’t gel, I imagine that the body padding is better than that of the cockpit) but with muscular effort. Agility and maneuverability come from the fact that the response time is quicker.
Admittedly, the ability of mecha to stop on a dime has always been one of the things that the genre has always handwaved for good reason. It allows for stunts like swordfighting and like not killing the pilot whenever a mech falls down.
@trollhunterthethird I have never heard of Zone If the Enders. I’ll look it up though.
@Ramidel Had a couple other ideas, but neither of them would work. I think you may be right; an exoskeletal setup would be the best option at this point.
How tall are these things? I was gonna do a gundam type thing when I finished some of my projects and I thought that smaller would be better like a metal like tank suit that’s like 10-12 ft tall
I’m mostly going by the picture of the mech I have in my head during its attack on the tank crew, and I picture it about two stories. And from a quick google search I just did, a typical story for a commercial building is 10 feet. So, I’m probably going with 24-30 feet tall, unless someone has suggestions.
I’ll be leaving for a few days now. Hopefully the first three chapters will be up for testing. Feel free to talk while I’m gone, the first three chapters are pretty light on the mechs, so I won’t need full-fledged concepts for now.
