Request for some help
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You are currently reading a thread in /m/ - Mecha
You are currently reading a thread in /m/ - Mecha
/m/ I am an amateur game dev working on a pretty simple project game in UE4 (top down twin stick shooter featuring a customizable mech).
I'm planning on most of the mechs primary armament being carried as a gun-pod type configuration in the manipulators (these are anthropomorphic as it lets me use readily available mo-cap libraries with a little massaging).
However, I realized that very few pieces of artwork of mecha show them carrying any kind of spare magazines or reloads for their primary armament.
The only anime that immediately comes to my mind that shows a reload of a gunpod is Macross Plus (the fight between the veritech prototypes at the end).
I'll post up what art I've been able to find, but anything you can suggest to me or show me of mecha with reloads present or even better, actually performing a reload, would be super helpful.
Kind of what I am planning right now is a sort of hopper or 'magazine of magazines' that would mount flush to the lower torso of the mech. This would have a port from which the mech could draw a fresh magazine (one would be exposed only during a reload to protect the ammo store) to load into the gun pod.
I'm going to switch to my other machine which has a larger image library to continue posting from.
For reference, these are intended to be roughly 4.5-5.5m Tall mecha loosely modeled on a VOTOMS or Heavy Gear.
Primary armaments will mostly be varieties of cannon, with a few lasers and gauss/railgun type weapons mixed in.
>>14185877
eyy its off brand Aaron Beck.
>>14185864
Why not just use magazine pouches.
>>14185890
That was my original plan, but to really do it right you have to have a graphical asset associated with each magazine type. Now, you can get away with murder in this regard as most box magazines are shaped roughly the same and no-one would likely notice, but when you start getting into drum mags and the like it can get awkward.
The other aspect is that I've already been working a bit on a system to let players paint their mech however they like, and mecha-sized web gear capable of carrying a combat load of ammo would cover up a lot of their work.
The upside of doing it that way is that you do get more visual variety with the different pouches on the exterior, and if a PVP element is present, shooting off the other guys spare ammo becomes a possibillity.
I'm mixed on it to be honest, which is why I'm trying to find examples of how its been done elsewhere.
The magazine of magazines isn't without precedent, there is a company called STRAC that makes something like this for STANAG magazines. Here's a link to a review:
http://milspecmonkey.com/weargear/pouches/209-strac-technologies-fast-system-preview
>>14185913
For drum mags you could just have it be hanging off the back of the mech, instead of having a separate mag pouch model.
>>14185942
For some of the larger cannon with belt feeds a feed chute from a back-mounted pod was going to be an option. By drum mag I mean something akin to what an AA-12 can feed from. See pic for example.
>>14185949
I see.
>>14185963
Whoa, whoa, no need to go posting that Kraut Space magic shit!! LOL
To give you an idea of what I'm shooting for, I plan on Autocannon to basically be the mech analog for the assault rifle. Mech SMG's will basically be a heavy machinegun in a stubby pod, and larger stuff will have analogs as well.
Machinecannon will be LMG analogs for the mech that can feed from a shielded belt or snap-on nutsack type belt feed.
The reason for the focus on ammo stores is that players will be able to carry two ammo types for gunpod mounted weapons, and switche between them by using a slightly different control input for initiating the reload.
So having an autocannon loaded up with HE-FRAG shells and swapping mags over to APFSDS shot will be a mechanic.
By the way, I'm a sucker for pics of mecha with their armament laid out around them, so those are super welcome as well.
>>14185984
Sounds pretty neat.
You got any concept art, sketches?
>>14186023
Nothing worth sharing yet (my hand drawn art is terribad). For now I'm primarily focussing on just getting the engine set up and the controls as tight as possible, so I'm primarily using placeholders.
The player mech is actually just the generic Unreal placeholder dude for right now.
I've got it handling really well via controller at the moment, and the movement system is pretty close to done. I've got a very simple cover attatch/detatch system integrated (which was WAY easier than I expected, though I will need some mo-cap data for the animations) and a simple boost-dodge mechanic.
Most movement in the game is pretty slow in comparison with other twin stick games, but the boost-dodges give a limited ability to players to get out of trouble or rapidly close distance if they desire.
Also, there is a mechanic by which the camera maintains position roughly between the reticle and the player model, with the maximum range the reticle can be panned out being determined by the FCS and weapon equipped. I only have placeholders in for these right now, but I've dorked around a bit with different settings and doing builds like close-quarters fast-on-target mechs and long range sniper types are absolutely possible. In game, the reticule represents the desired point of aim while the aiming line (looks like a laser) indicates the actual pointing of the weapon. This means that things like handguns and SMG's for the mech are very fast on target, while big stuff like sniper rifle and machinegun analogs are a little slower to bring to bear, but devastating once on target.
The next big step is to get some low-poly models in and start goofing with modeling armor penetration dependent upon the facing and angle struck by an attack.
Once I get something worth lookign at (which isn't a bunch of placeholders shooting at each other in a world of gray boxes) I'll come back and post some up.
>>14186036
That is actually a pretty sensible arrangement for a vertical launch bin. Neat.
>>14186064
I'll definitely look forward to it.
>>14185802
>HeaveyARNaMentloadbearing HARM
>Not HeavyArnamentUtilityLifter HAUL
>>14185864
Reminds here this
>>14185864
>>14188501
Magazine of magazines isn't a terrible idea.
There's also plenty of instances of Zeon mobile suits (mostly Zakus and Doms) carrying magazines for rifles on their skirt armor.
>>14185984
>Machinecannon will be LMG analogs
I don't know what you mean by "machinecannon" since that's basically just an archaic term for autocannon that almost immediately fell out of use, but I would think rotary cannons would be the LMG/SAW analogue.
>>14189724
It's a term that, in the game world, started as slang for a mecha sized MG and stuck. In game terms any autocannon designed with sustained fire in mind that can accept a belted feed from a source off the gunpod would fall into the category.
>>14188501
>>14189614
Images like these are precisely what I was hoping for. Thank you!
Rotaries are going to be pretty much restricted to the heavier units and will have their own category as they will require mounting much like what you have pictured to allow for stabilization.
>>14191648
Fucking formatting got dicked up. That last line should have been part of the initial paragraph.
>>14191648
I can dig it.
Have some drum-fed bipod-stabilized goodness.
![s2bDKg1[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/djxbhDC.jpg "s2bDKg1[1].jpg")
>>14185802
You could just give them ammo backpacks.
>>14186143
The fuck is an arnament?
And OP don't explain your ammo that's for pussies, it just works.
You think you can escape gunpod? Think again motherfucker, this shit will crumple up your spine like a wad of paper and toss your crippled body into the dumpster without so much as a second thought. In fact you never got a first one because that was just the blast wave of hitting my real target, you're literally nothing. If your balls aren't shriveling up and retreating back to your throat in a paralyzing rush of fear and respect then you're literally fucking retarded. This shit will annihilate you. Not some weak Navy Seal copypasta shit, actual physical removal of your atoms which violates the conservation of energy but gunpod doesn't give a single fuck you retard, it simply allows the universe to have its own pussy laws when it isn't around. Gunpod will shred flesh, metal, concrete, and the string structure that constitutes the fabric of space-time because it does whatever the fuck it wants and anybody who tries to stop it can face the wrath of one billion trillion suns, of a monsoon of energy not experienced by the universe since the Big Bang, of a horror so powerful you couldn't even begin to fathom how incredibly fucking immense that unbridled fury which exists in but a fraction of one of its electron's force. But thankfully no dipshits numb enough to question gunpod exist because the aura of limitless intensity erupting from it could make a stone think twice about crossing it, let alone a hairless runt ape like you (yes, YOU, you mentally handicapped fuck) who is bound by instinct. You'd go running tail between your legs before you even saw it. Gunpod only lets the concept of existence exist because it's not worth even acknowledging, let alone make the effort to end. It transcends your pussy EGD and Aquarion because it is the one constant. It doesn't even register on your notion of the word "concept" or "being". Gunpod is simply gunpod.
>>14192023
Pic related, fucks = 0
>>14192026
What is that a gunpod for ants?
>>14186064
as long as you can avoid some of the issues that some games like Helldivers have with Enemies being able to see you from offscreen(cause man does that make that game almost unplayable at times)
>>14185984
Look at Heavy Gear.
>>14186077
>Toward Enemy --->
>>14192199
I was showing how the ammo wraps around which is why I posted in the first place.
