FYI - You can easily mod the size of Mechs

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Mojo Amok

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Feb 23, 2018
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Battletech's source material is rather loose with mech size with many of us surely having different opinions on what is "correct." ;)

The default size of the game is 'MWO scale' which probably fits with Jordan's soundbite in a recent Paradox stream where he mentioned the Mechs are "30 meters tall." However, with just one quick toggle in a JSON, you can set them to whatever you want!

The file in question is 'CombatGameConstants.JSON' - you just need to alter the line with this label: 'TEST_MechScaleMultiplier" ; This section is maybe 30% into the file and under a header section named "CombatValueMultipliers":

It's set to 1.25 in vanilla whereas the screenshot below is modded to 0.8, which means the mechs are about 60% the size of vanilla values - that's a Demolisher for comparison's sake. I had been using 0.9 but shrunk the Pantzers down for a more dramatic photo.

0lfxELe.jpg


The only real issue is Mechs will engage in Melee at ranges that are farther off than their reach, so you can expect a few graphical anomalies in those instances. Even then, it looks convincing enough at 0.9, at least for bigger Mechs.

I've tested it a number of times and only my first run in Skirmish Mode with 0.75 values saw any issues beyond the Melee. That time, a Panther ended up floating some distance up in the air, but I haven't noticed any other issues in the 5+ hours that I've used this since then. The scaling of the particle effects and so on works really well too (ie. the damage effects on your mechs also shrinks, the explosions when a CT goes also shrinks...etc. and so on).

Shrink responsibly! :D
 
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The only real issue is Mechs will engage in Melee at ranges that are farther off than their reach, so you can expect a few graphical anomalies in those instances.

There's a line in there for Melee engagement range (set to 100), that might control how close they are or it might have to do with AI weighting for attack or a number of other things. Haven't tried it myself, but it's possible it might be a fix.

Is there one for vehicles? It would probably be easier to make them bigger rather than mechs smaller

Not that I could see after a quick peek.
 
Battletech's source material is rather loose with mech size with many of us surely having different opinions on what is "correct." ;)

The default size of the game is 'MWO scale' which probably fits with Jordan's soundbite in a recent Paradox stream where he mentioned the Mechs are "30 meters tall." However, with just one quick toggle in a JSON, you can set them to whatever you want!

Shrink responsibly! :D

I think you mean 30 ft or approximately 10 m. or a 2 storey building.
 
Yeah, I’ve got mine set to 0.9 as well.

Originally, I had it set to 0.6, which is roughly how the scale should actually be for 12 m tall mechs, but the Mechs just looked way too small when viewed by the camera during gameplay. 0.9 is a good balance of being readable and not having to squint, while still having them more in scale with buildings and vehicles.
 
Is there one for vehicles? It would probably be easier to make them bigger rather than mechs smaller

Not in that section of the JSONS, no. I had thought of that and it would be convenient, though I do think scaling the Mechs has some advantages as they fit better with the scale of the man-made construction littered around the map (ie. the size of the doors, windows, trucks and so on).

I think you mean 30 ft or approximately 10 m. or a 2 storey building.

I'm talking about what Jordan Weisman said in a recent Paradox video, not my own sensibilities. That's the whole point of this thread.

I'm aiming for a balance between 10+ meters and what looks good in-game, but MWO definitely is more like 30 meters. We've been retconned as illustrated in this photograph:

40DJeND.jpg

Original scale middle, MWO scale to the right. Just stand your vanilla mechs next to some scenery from bases or vehicles and zoom in. You'll see that they're not scaled to be 10 meters tall in this game.

#ItIsWhatItIs #WeCanModIt

Yeah, I’ve got mine set to 0.9 as well.

Originally, I had it set to 0.6, which is roughly how the scale should actually be for 12 m tall mechs, but the Mechs just looked way too small when viewed by the camera during gameplay. 0.9 is a good balance of being readable and not having to squint, while still having them more in scale with buildings and vehicles.

Totally agree on 0.9 - it's pretty much the sweet spot if you want smaller Mechs. The default camera is just zoomed out a bit far for 0.6 or 0.7 to properly communicate the big stompy-war-machine vibe with emotional impact. I like how the Mechs at 0.9 or so look like they could wreak havoc on vehicles, but not necessarily by stomping them underfoot. I imagine them grabbing and bending gun barrels or flipping tanks on their back. :cool:
 
Cyclops and Atlas are a bit closer to 18m

MechScales-IS-Inverse.png
 
Cyclops and Atlas are a bit closer to 18m

View attachment 367544

The size of the MWO mechs in relation to one another seems to be scaled for gameplay purposes within an F2P shooter. My guess is that it's based on what would make sense for target size to balance the lights against the larger models in a way that incentivizes people to spend money.

If you really look at that picture and kick the tires, there's a number of problems. For example, the Locust is maybe a quarter the displacement of the Blackjack despite being almost half the weight. That's not a solid foundation to establish canonicity from.
 
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Yeah, id love if MWO and HBS both made the mechs actually the proper size. Mechs the size they are now, the cockpits would be like sitting in a studio apartment, not a cramped, tiny cockpit.

The same humans who are in those tiny tanks are in these gargantuan machines?

The only mechs who even begin to look right are the lights, you go to the mediums and larger and it just starts to look silly...

IT feels even more goofy when they are just driving through buildings like they are a house of cards.
 
Jordan has always been more about the rule of "cool" than about rigorous worldbuilding...

30 meters is just plain SILLY, and it looks ridiculous when a light mech towers over a multi-story building and stomps around like Godzilla.
 
Would be really awesome if 'Mech size was able to be overridden by a modifier in the CHASSISDEF file for each 'Mech/Vehicle. Then you can have 1 default modifier for everything, and manually adjust the individual 'Mechs/Vehicles as you wish.


The size of the MWO mechs in relation to one another seems to be scaled for gameplay purposes within an F2P shooter. My guess is that it's based on what would make sense for target size to balance the lights against the larger models in a way that incentivizes people to spend money.

If you really look at that picture and kick the tires, there's a number of problems. For example, the Locust is maybe a quarter the displacement of the Blackjack despite being almost half the weight. That's not a solid foundation to establish canonicity from.

Totally agree - I posted that more to give people an idea of what MWO uses for their scale.
 
I think I'll try just turning this down to 1.0 and see what it looks like, it might at least mitigate the goofiness.

Seriously, watch when even a medium mech stomps on a tank, and consider that those tanks are probably about 30 feet long (just the hull, not counting any weapons).
 
I think I'll try just turning this down to 1.0 and see what it looks like, it might at least mitigate the goofiness.

Seriously, watch when even a medium mech stomps on a tank, and consider that those tanks are probably about 30 feet long (just the hull, not counting any weapons).

Yup, an Abrams is about 32 feet long and in its TUSK revision is 72 tons.
 
Would be really awesome if 'Mech size was able to be overridden by a modifier in the CHASSISDEF file for each 'Mech/Vehicle. Then you can have 1 default modifier for everything, and manually adjust the individual 'Mechs/Vehicles as you wish.

Yeah, I'd like to adjust the King Crab and Atlas. They're both 100 tons but the former looks like it has at least 150% of the mass of the latter.
 
For me it would be ok, if all mechs are about the same size. Light mechs then simply have thinner arms/legs/torso. That alone could easily explain the mass ratio from 100 to 20 tons. Otherwise small mechs would actually be slower (using the same gait), because of their short legs. A large mech stomping would be as fast as a medium mech walking and a small mech running. The nomenclature is light and heavy, not small and large.

On a further note, you can not simply take the total mass and apply cubic scaling which would make the 20 ton mech about 60% of the height of the 100 ton mech (20 = 0.6^3 * 100). Obviously weapons and other equipment is the same for all mechs and should not scale. And assuming armor is only mounted on the surface, armor mass would scale quadraticaly with size.
 
The only real issue is Mechs will engage in Melee at ranges that are farther off than their reach, so you can expect a few graphical anomalies in those instances.
Can't you also adjust the grid size accordingly? Right now two mechs standing next to each other are 24 m apart IIRC. A grid size of 14m should fix this again.