Should MWO add Melee Attacks?

[size=14pt]When you vote in the poll, please add a post to this thread that explains why you made that choice.

I voted in favor of Strongly Approve.

Here's the way I see it; melee attacks have been a hallowed part of Battletech canon since the early days, so much so that entire battlemechs have been built around the concept of mounting and using melee weapons (read: Hatchetman and Axeman). What's more, even basic punching, kicking, tackling, and the infamous Death From Above are attack options that have turned the tide of more than one battle in Battletech history.

Here's how I think it should work-melee attacks should be bound to the following keys (subject to change as usual) and limitations;

A) Punches can be activated at any time, but only if your mech has a working arm with a shoulder, upper arm, and lower arm actuator (hand actuator is not required). Kicking can also be done at any time, unless you only have one working leg. Tackling can be done with no arms, but both legs must be working. Death From Above can be done as long as you have one working jumpjet. All melee attacks can only be performed within the area targeted by the Body targeting reticle (the crosshairs) except for arms which will target the Arms targeting reticle (the circle), and the legs, which cannot target anything above the neutral vertical position (in other words, the legs cannot hit anywhere above the 0 vertical degrees position of the Body reticle). Death From Above attacks can only hit the target by landing directly on top of them after firing your jumpjets.

If you have a melee weapon equipped (i.e., Hatchet), then that weapon attack will automatically replace punching.

B) The damage values for each type of attack (both delivered and recieved) will be calculated as per standard Battletech rules, with the following modifications;
1) The speed at which you are traveling at the time of the attack will add damage; every 20kmh, or fraction thereof, will add 1 point of damage to the melee attack, as well as additional cockpit shake.
2) If you have jumpjets equipped on your legs, each leg-mounted jumpjet (maximum of 4) will add 1 point of damage to punch, kick, and tackle attacks.
3) If a single melee attack of any kind deals damage equal to or more than 60% of the victim's total maximum possible amount of CT armor points (i.e., 84 points for a Catapult, 40 points for a Spider), the victim will be stunned for a period of 1 second.

I believe that the following key binding would work for melee attacks (subject to change as usual)
Left Alt-Punch
Left Ctrl-Kick
Triple-tap Space-Tackle

 

1. No to melee weapons
2. Kill (or team kill) players with a name like "Optimus Prime" etc.

 

I'm all for the melee weapons. Might just add an extra level of fun to have an all melee mode match set-up or if you are dependent on ammo and run out at least you wont be useless. Some damage is better than none. Unfortunately, having melee weapons would be pretty OP on lights n mediums imo. Dodging around hitting people but never being hit. Also, most mechs dont really have the means of a melee weapon. How is a jenner or Jager going to hold something of that nature without going super sci-fi, out of the lore?

 

Melee-Attack-Weapons would change the value of some Mechs (e.g. YLW). That would be great.

 

YES TO MELEE!!

But a BIG NO to things like kicking. There are already melee things in battletech, use them!
I think the regular non-melee-weapon attack is a tackle or a splash-attack or something.

 

For god's sake, Just don't make the melee weapons too light or else fast light mechs will dominate the world
And I like that part you mentioned: auto damage for kicks and punches

 

FYI you do not just make up some melee weaons.

I think a melee weapon is tied to the weight of your mech and things like that, and does related damage. But yes it does have a really short range, and has tohit penalty, so it is probably slow.

PS: checked. weight of weapon depending on type is *1 ton+1 slot* per every 10-20 ton of your mech. Damage is 1 point per 5-10 ton of your mech. Modifiers exist that would add and subtract a few points to your total damage.

Basically it would not be too over powered. You would have to be REALLY up close to use it, and most really fast mech would only do a small damage even whey using them. Oh, and the long time of windup and recovery of the attack is not good when big weapons are around.

The are also weapons that weigh around 5-6 tons and does around 5-6 damage, taking up arond 5-6 slots.

Remember that all these weapons requires a HAND to use, as in hand with fingers. You cannot arm the thing on a Jager.

To pull this off you will really need to dedicate space and weight for it, lights cannot do much with melee. Medium and heavy does good amount of damage, but you will have to dedicate into melee to make it work. Assaults are REALLY powerful in melee, if you can catch your target, and if you will ever hit. Now, if you get OH next to a Atlas with a mace then you are dead.

 

Honestly? I don't think they should. It would really make it more like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and that isn't what MWO (or Battletech) should be converted into LOL Besides, how would you make the mechanic worthwhile? Melee attacks would have to do crushing amounts of damage to even make them worthwhile and in the age of the AC20 that would have to be considerable.

Charging attacks might be worthwhile, DFA attacks? Most certainly (who doesn't like sticking the landing on one of these?)

 

You mean you don't want to pilot this guy?


An axman would be nice.
a Charged attack would be a reasonable way to do it, yes, along with a recovery time after each swing.
The damage is definitely ok though, going with the old rules.

 

And I also saw one 'mech with Hatchet-Arm...I'll try finding it

 

Throwing axes

 

I would have voted "Hell No!" if that had been a choice.

Honestly, I don't really get what the big deal is about 'Mechs beating on one another.

DFA might be worthwhile if all of your weapons have been shot off and you want to do some damage before you die (assuming you're in a jump-capable 'Mech of course). Other than that, I don't see the point.

 

I think this shows the difference between eastern style and western style mech combat games.
Every japanese mecha game would have thrown in some melee attacks, even if they are a bit unrealistic. While mechwarrior go for a more realistic approach it would still be cool if the mechs can charge and smash each other a bit.

It really adds to the playstyle. And since melee needs to be up close and personal to work, it encourages mechs to move around more and not camp behind cover and shoots for minutes and minutes... they will actually have to mvre a bit more least a melee mech rush in and go to town with them snipers and LRM boats.

BattleTech elee attacks may be slow (with to hit penalty if I remember) but they are certainly powerful.

 

They have to fix, and re-implement, the collisions first. Then we'll a able to talk about physical attacks.
But what the point if as soon as you're walking on a mech you're randomly warping and flying in the air like you do at the moment?

Anyway, except for DFA (I love it!) I don't care much about melee attacks.

 

A dedicated button for making a physical attack? An atlas, or a mech with bludgeons, like cataphract, could use both as clubs. An axeman/hatchetman/centurion, would only use one arm for attack, the one with the physical weapon in it.

With every attack, your arm also takes damage, and any weapons that are housed in it can be destroyed.

 

the only legit way of using them and not destroying what the game is trying to be is to pull out some form of melee weapon once all ammo or weapons have been depleted/destroyed. I've thought about this for awhile after being brought up, and there just isnt a good way of putting them in atm.

 

Im out on the melee weapons...BUT i would like to see some sort of melee type attack for when you are weaponless. Such as when you have been hit so hard that you are just a head, core, and legs. At least you would be able to do something

 

unless they can make collisions work properly, I'm afraid that melee attacks with never be a possibility. While interesting, they are too easily exploited.

 

This is a terrible idea. You know how much people complain about hit detection now? Imagine the shitstorm that occurs when you can melee, as well. And that's just the tip of it. Now you would have a whole new weapons "system" to balance against the current, ranged one. This, along with the fact that collisions are a mess and have been since closed beta, would make adding melee combat a terrible decision.

Implementing this into the established structure would be like deciding to change the point value of field goals in football from 3 points to 5 points. Every single dynamic of the game would change because for about 100 years now we've adapted rules in football with the concept that field goals are worth 3 points. Read: the game (MWO, NOT TT) isn't built for it. Are we seriously talking about hotkeying a kick button? lol