Do you think we need female units and commanders in the game

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Ya'know, I'd like to hear a female's standpoint on this discussion.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Just allows players to choose feminine colours.

The only reason I could think of to have 'female' commanders is to convince your girlfriend / wife to play.

I'd prefer not to create an obviously feminine character though, since it identifies specific traits that people may not appreciate.

In the end, custom colour is just a better choice.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

As someone who usually only plays games when there's the option to play female or just have a completely custom character, I don't really care because they're all giant robots that go pew pew and have no need to be gendered one way or the other.


Stop being silly.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

There is no reason to shoehorn female bots into the game, especially considering the face that there are no male bots. Commanders are equipment, just like CAT bulldozers, and have no gender, only form for function.


That said, I hope to see a mod adding Mechcommander style pilots to the game. Those need genders.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

If this game doesn't churn out an amazing BattleTech Universe mass 'Mech warfare mod then I will be disappoint

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

I threw this together quickly just because I wanted to try. Basically the same shapes, just slightly modified. I think you can guess which one is the "female".



I am guessing many of the units won't even have a standard humanoid appearance (just look at the TA units), so does it matter if a few of them look feminine? I'll leave that to Uber to decide.

Though I think genders should be left out, they are simply robots. Like arax said, "Commanders are equipment".

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

You know, if I hadn't been told in advance that one was more female, they'd both be masculine looking to me at first glance.

Ultimately, war machines will almost always carry a masculine connotation. Unless you really skimp out on shoulder armor and arm weaponry, use strictly female proportions, or use less military/war-esque shapes, it's going to feel masculine.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

The right one. It has a strong, load bearing lathe.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

This kinda fits SMNC's lore on Karl with him being a human and ****...

On a serious note this thread is ridiculous.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

@larsethearse Neither look "female" to me. They are robots. Though one does look bulkier than the other.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

I tend to believe that in order to be a successful war machine, you need to be able to be creative and slightly irrational, willing to take risks and thinking outside the box. If the great Bolo war machines can develop male or female personalities, why not a commander? Are these mindless robots simply acting out their programmed orders from millenia ago? Why have so many factions if so?

Is the male the only one who has combat prowess? Is the 'best' commander always the one that can stand on the front line and punch the enemy in the face, or could it be one that chooses her battles and shepherds her troops to victory with sharp tactics and good intel?

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

To create a successful war machine does not involve 'thinking outside the box', slightly irrational, or otherwise insane. No, either your war machine is successful or it is not, and we are already told that all the factions in PA already use the best stuff they can.

You are just lumpy squishy organic emotional pseudo logic to justify shoehorning 'feminine' onto what are genderless, emotionless, machines of war that use planets for their giant pinball machine.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

As I understood the gameplay visualisation narration this is exactly what happened. As far as factions go there would be multiple factions because there was more than one faction using self-replicating tech in their conflicts prior to their extinction.

Secondly let’s say you are right and that the commanders develop male or female personalities. This is completely independent of their visual appearance which would reflect utility and purpose not the gender of an AI personality.

Finally why should the commander AI have gender at all? It could be genderless. Why should a commander limit itself to specific thought process advantages that we have stereotyped as male or female, why not both?

I don’t see why these types of strategies would be limited to male and female personalities.

To my mind having gendered commanders is a bit silly. We are going to have varied commanders, and I would think of them as utilitarian and purpose designed rather than “male”. Some of the commanders may not even be bipedal from what I have been reading.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

It's a real shame the army doesn't make more feminine-looking tanks and assault rifles.

This whole idea strikes me as "We're trying not to be sexist, but in reality we're being even more sexist." I completely agree with the point that machines are genderless. Also, I can't stand units that say things when you click on them. It's ok at first, but goes from annoying to "how do I turn this off?" really fast.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Gender identities are mental constructs, that primarily center around which hormones you are coded to produce. It also centers around how your brain develops which is dependant on which chromosomes you end up with. Obviously your millage may vary. As such, gender identities are entirely organic constructs, and would be completely non-existent in any AI whether it be coded by an organic, by another AI, or self emergent. AI do not have gender, unless it is specifically programmed into them to have such.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

I dunno, I just remember all the fanfic stuff that came out of TA and Supcom, and I think that eliminating genders and rendering the units down to emotionless robots that are executing orders from ages ago, kind of limits the ability for players to relate, simply because WE are human, and we tend to anthropomorphize things that look like us or are controlled by us.

And, before you get into 'utilitarian' and 'purpose designed' - who did the designing? As a commander, are you the leader of your faction? Or are you a subunit of a larger consciousness? At some point SOMETHING has to have the creative talent to design / assimilate / envision something that has not existed before in order to adapt.

Plus you have to admit there is a fascination in the human psyche for 'beautiful and deadly'.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Why do we need to relate? You really have no idea how AI work do you? They arent people who happen to live in computers, they are alien and the way they work and think is foreign to us.

If there were any kind of story, then yes, we would need to be able to relate to the main character or protagonist, otherwise we would not root for them and become emotionally invested in their shenanigans.

However, there is neither a story campaign, nor a protagonist other than yourself in PA. It is primarily a multiplayer game.

As for why wouldnt humans design feminine commanders? Ask yourself why assault rifles and tanks do not look feminine. They werent designed with masculinity or femininity in mind at all, they were designed with function and utility in mind. The same is true for an AI as it is for a human, the tank was designed with human/robot needs in mind, not for aesthetic concerns.

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

Well, maybe you missed the part where I said we tend to anthropomorphize the things we control.

I ascribe dark motives and personality to Visual Studio every time it comes up with wacky compile time errors, I don't think my commander will be exempt


Additionally, it's ironic that we are trying to argue over whether or not a feminine form is suitable for combat when we have the ultimate unit be a humanoid robot

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

In terms of in-game lore, anthropomorphology isn't needed as humanity is long gone. Everything is brutally efficient.

However, outside of that, PA is still a game played by people who still tend to do that.

How do you balance the two?

Re: Do you think we need female units and commanders in the

By charging $1000 a pop. :lol: