I recently discovered the Playstation 2 game "Robot Alchemic Drive", although I haven't gotten to play it yet - but it looks incredible. Giant robots punching each other through buildings is pretty much impossible to NOT be fun. Something about the controls of R.A.D., which it appears are very clunky and awkward - just the way a mech should operate - gave me a brilliant idea for a Mech game. Humor me for a minute here:
It's an in-cockpit simulation like the Mechwarrior series, of course. Nothing beats the feeling of being in an authentic, detailed fictional war machine! In the regular Mechwarrior games, movement is controlled via a throttle configuration to control speed, while the torso twists from side to side to aim or move weak armor away from the enemy. This basically amounts to the mechs handling like a futuristic tank, with jump jets and lasers. That's awesome, it works great for that series. What I really like about the clunky control scheme in R.A.D. is how it gives the mechs such a sense of scale, and how it adds an entirely new layer of skill to even basic piloting. Think about a massive, tall, bipedal robot. It's not going to be a very stable vehicle. Again, it works in Mechwarrior because pilots wear neurohelmets to control balance effortlessly, but I'd like to see something different in a new Mech game. In many cases, giving more control to the player is a sure-fire way to add more depth to game mechanics - something the current video game generation could stand to learn. That's what I propose for this Mech game.
In R.A.D., you control each limb of the robot individually. The robots control slowly and awkwardly. I'd like to see even MORE clunkyness in my Mechs, though! It's not nearly enough! Part of this idea comes from watching some really good R.A.D. videos where the players know what they're doing. They make the robots do some ridiculous stuff! I've seen robots uppercut enemy robots, and then punch them again on the way down - all using pretty detailed control of the individual limbs of the robot! That type of control takes SKILL! A beginner could not do that sort of thing. A real mech shouldn't be pilotable by just anyone, they should take some real skill to control a humanoid bipedal robot, right? So, the clunkier and more awkward you make the mech to control, the more awesome it will be to make the mech do awesome stuff! That's the assumption I'm working with, anyway. But just how clunky do I want this mech to handle?
In this fabled Mech game I'd love to play, there will be detailed control of each limb of the mech - of course. But here's what R.A.D. doesn't do, that I want to see: control over the mech's balance. If you screw up walking forward, you should fall over. If you want to run, you need to lean forward and lean into your turns properly and time your leg movement properly, just like you're really running. Unlike Mechwarrior, you can actually sidestep or make quicker movements in this game, although doing so will be DIFFICULT. As it should be. Dodging enemy fire and melee attacks would be more dynamic in this mech game, unlike in Mechwarrior where you need to just run perpendicularly to enemy missiles to avoid them and use cover to avoid everything else. Ducking, diving and maybe even rolling on the ground could be possible to avoid enemy attacks. In the Battletech books which I've recently started reading, the mechs are capable of this - why can't they do it in the games? Melee attacks would be much more physics-based, and you could have a chance to regain your balance if you are struck or pushed, provided you have enough skill at controlling your mech's posture and leg positions to maintain balance. Guns would of course have recoil, requiring a slightly forward posture and good arm position to fire accurately. Seriously, I think the skill ceiling for this game would be insane! Playing the game as a noobie would be a neverending hell of falling over and being killed over and over, but improving at such a game would certainly be rewarding.
Of course this sounds like the most detailed mech simulation anyone could think of, but how on earth would you actually play it? I can think of only three possibilities. The first is one way in which you could control everything AT THE SAME TIME: a special controller in the vein of Steel Battalion - but even more complex and probably expensive! Analog sticks for both hands could control the arms, conceivably - maybe with the addition of hat sticks and sliders and things for finer control of different axes of motion of the arms. Legs could be controlled via foot pedals, but simple analog pedals with a single axis wouldn't be enough. Multiple pedals or perhaps rotating pedals might do it. There would then be a ton of additional buttons, and maybe a third middle joystick, to control the mech's posture and other functions. Weapon switching, power and heat management, and other things would need to be handled by traditional buttons. Ridiculously complicated and impractical? You bet. Fun as hell once you get good at it? YES!
The next solution for control is one that allows for real-time simultaneous control of the mech, but I think might take away from the clunkiness and skill ceiling: motion controls. Something like a wiimote, in each hand, and strapped to each foot, but with a LOT more buttons to deal with. Or, perhaps, all those motion controls in addition to a PC keyboard and mouse, might be satisfactory. That would still be ridiculous fun to play and control, but I think remove some of the skill involved with managing each limb.
Finally, the solution easiest and cheapest to implement, but the clunkiest of ALL: pure mouse and keyboard control. Really, it would center on mouse control for the axes of movement for all limbs and posture, and using the keyboard to rapidly switch between limbs using hotkeys. It would be POSSIBLE to control the mech with adequate speed using a mouse with hotkeys - look at any RTS and you can see how possible it is to control so many things at the same time, so rapidly. But it's really, REALLY difficult. Running while shooting, for example, would take ridiculously fast and accurate mouse and keyboard skills. It would be FAR easier to make mistakes resulting in the mech falling over. But this is still probably the most realistic control method that still provides the adequate amount of control.
SOMEBODY MAKE IT HAPPEN!
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