For Backers Only: Megabot Experiment

That is my commander right there

The scale seems to be right compared to the commander and other land units. I am a bit skeptical about the scale in comparison to the naval units and their firepower.

I am not sure if I want to see this kind of units in the first release.

So looking at it more it's so top heavy, it's legs are so close together and its arms are so huge that this battle-bot looks like it's about to battle-flop.

So I must ask the question that burns within my heart;

Are the arms for ballistics or ballast?

Maybe it's just not animated yet, and it walks on all-fours like a gorilla?

Are there flaps, airbrakes or bafflers that I can't see to counteract the devastating effect of a stiff breeze?

Or maybe, just maybe it raises its arms, revealing advanced multi-polymer membranous wings and it will glade away like a flying squirrel!

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What am I looking at?

I am slightly in jest... but I just want to know why this is so top heavy? Why it has so many guns? and why it's not a tank chassis that would present a lower profile?

Nothing about the equipment it carries has sold me that it needs to be that big, or that top heavy. What does it gain by being so?

The scale is perfect. No reason to go bigger, otherwise the other units and buildings will look to small.

I don't like the design to much, but I know it is just a placeholder. Slicker body and less, but threatening weapons, like commanders d-gu... Eh uber-canon ;-)

Hope to see same things for air and naval!

Anyway, thank you a lot for sharing!

Thank you to show us this kind of early concept !
(Don't be unhappy with it otherwise they'll not continue to share... )

I like the idea of super-unit.

I like the size because it feels like it can crush the little kbots in front of it, just by walking on it. And if it can do that, it'll be fun !

For those who thinks the ship behind is too big or the super unit too small. It reminds me an evangelion episode with seafight and with similar ratios (with eva walking on ships !!!):

So for me it works great.

Bigger it will probably not be able to move easily on the planet (or planet path will be too big) but may be it can blow up mountains...

Idea of weapon: a super baseball bat to send back asteroid

I love the size, reminds me of the big dumb base robot from transformers.

I love the idea too, a damage sponge.

Here's a mad idea to address the super unit concerns.

Make this big boy not a standalone robot, but a battle suit for your commander.

Think the yellow loader from alein but 100 foot tall....

Yeah yeah white box I know I know.

:mrgreen:

Chris

You have to understand this is purely a scale test for a large mech unit. No design has gone into it.

Most of the stuff we show you guys is a lot less raw than this in terms of design. Do you want to see early stuff or not? Because I can't answer your questions about this unit until we actually think about it more. The only reason this even exists is the super unit thread. Think of it as going off on a lark to see what comes of it and what it inspires.

Big bot is big!
The scale is such that it could stomp it's lesser brethren GC-style so that is fine by me.

Not a lot more to say at this stage.
I too would be more interested in hearing about how Uber thinks it'd "work" in game.
Merely being BIG isn't really enough.

I think adding a unit like that adds variety to the game, because it will probably be built way more in the later stages of a match. I really like the scale as well, i do hope something like this will be implemented in the final version.

Hahahaha, I can totally see a planet-sized giant robot just standing on a continent in full batting gear.

"Announcer: And it's OUTTA HERE! *Asteroid flies into enemy player's home planet*"

This must be included now. We'll call it the BatterBot(tm).

I would be interesting in knowing how the size affects physics and pathing.
1. Will large units be able to crush small units?
2a. Will large units walk on top of smaller friendly units and buildings like in SupCom without destroying them?
2b. Will large units have to path around buildings?
2c. Will large units push smaller units?
3. Will large units be unable to pass through narrow passages where smaller units can go?
4. Will large units be able to step over small walls or terrain obstacles that small units can't surpass?
5. When large units collide into eachother will there be a grinding sound of bending metal or just a silent bump?

Scaling up a unit model is easy. Making size matter in the pathing and simulation is harder.

This game is meant to be about large armies clashing, correct?
How do you intend to prevent such large units making normal units irrelevant? This occurred in Sup com very quickly once experimentals took the field.

I think the size needs to be reduced by 50-60%. This would bring it inline with the ships (navies are meant to be bigger than land units) and make it imposing, but not ridiculous. Less Sup Com influence please, and more TA.

Hey c'mon, that's a bit of a low blow. Art assets are cool, but we also wanna hear some of this:

Art is a pretty intense and fairly expensive process. It's no good to start a grey box design without first having a grey box idea of how it's going to work.

I must be weird because I think it looks great as it is (sans needing a texture eventually, but whatever). I noticed the weak legs too, but that just means the unit would have to deploy before loosing its huge guns, which I'm okay with.

I'm not precisely sold on super-size robot. Can't exactly place my misgivings, just not feeling the super-size robot...

My questions have been answered, I love me some uber-units.

It kinda looks like a King Kriptor from SC2 with rocket pods instead of gauss cannons

So you've identified a lot of the work we would have to do to make these work. This is one of the reasons they are expensive for us to make.

It has been my experience that armoured assault bots (Bricks and percivals) were specifically designed to mob-down experimental, and do so very well.

Experimental's being very powerful was a case of their mobility over water and how air dominance was in that game.

TA's krogaths were much better at this, being strong weapons but poor game winning units.

Modders will probably be happy that a framework for varied sized land units is in place as soon as possible.
But if the support is made for a wide variety of unit sizes earlier rather than later, wouldn't it save on cost? Or can it just as well be implemented later on?

I'm also fine with adirect fire megabot, just so long as there's a variety of more specialised megas :twisted:

I think it is to big if we can have many of them.

If it is something the commander climbs into, so a unique unit it is ok.