Further thinking:
What must and does every mech have in common? Probably you could find exceptions to every rule you want to try. Battletech's Stalker is unquestionably a mech, being basically a torso on legs; likewise, however, the wheelchair-like Guntank of original Gundam is equally indisputably a member of the giant robot category.
But, if we leave the option of truly bizzare frame types open, then we run the risk - the likelihood - of ending up with most players using things that really aren't very mech-like at all, being essentially airmobile tanks or whatever. While that ability would be useful in designing NPC opposition and in increasing modification potential, and could make a quite interesting and entertaining game in its own right, it's really not the sort of thing I, at least, want to define as our 'core play'.
So, in setting, a mech (whatever they end up being called in the final version, that's what they are) is a war machine that uses a humanlike plan and articulation to increase speed, ease, and intuitiveness of pilot control. It's easy and flexible to use because it's like a human, and thus can take advantage of all the skills and tactics that make us flexible and able - and some more besides.
So, the design window starts with a plain structural skeleton with a cockpit bubble about where its 'heart' should be. The 3D viewable 'space' it sits within is divided up into cubical grid coordinates of, say, maybe a foot or half a meter or something.
Along one side of the screen you have a list of available weapons and components. Beneath that is a quick thumbnail summary of your machine's current and estimated final stats and performance - though the latter should probably be toggleable to save on processor time; calculating exact abilities and center of gravity would probably be relatively heavy-duty math.
Along the other you have rotational controls and a series of autofunction toggles to do things like automatically add structural braces to handle weight, or upgrade joint drivers to maintain a certain amount of mobility, or skin a completed design over in armor using the minimum number of polygons and/or mass. Also located here are viewing tools that use shaded blobs over a wireframe view to indicate either weight distribution or heat dissipation patterns - where it's heavy, where it's hot.
Internal components are then added to the frame like a three-dimensional game of tetris, then weapons hardpoints, then the armor shell is defined (either by hand or a handy-dandy 'wrap this up' 3D graphic widget... there are such things, right?), and then you can add color schemes and actual weapons.
Balance? Heat, weight distribution, power-to-weight... these should all pay off directly in how the machine handles in combat and when, what, and how often its systems fail or are damaged. These would be linear lists of characteristics attached to an 'empty' visible model based on the final design - actual damage modeling and such would be, IMHO, something to save for the sequel if bothered with at all.
===============================================
"Reseeestunce ees fiutil. Yoo weeel bee Useemooletud. Borg Borg Borg."
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
What must and does every mech have in common? Probably you could find exceptions to every rule you want to try. Battletech's Stalker is unquestionably a mech, being basically a torso on legs; likewise, however, the wheelchair-like Guntank of original Gundam is equally indisputably a member of the giant robot category.
But, if we leave the option of truly bizzare frame types open, then we run the risk - the likelihood - of ending up with most players using things that really aren't very mech-like at all, being essentially airmobile tanks or whatever. While that ability would be useful in designing NPC opposition and in increasing modification potential, and could make a quite interesting and entertaining game in its own right, it's really not the sort of thing I, at least, want to define as our 'core play'.
So, in setting, a mech (whatever they end up being called in the final version, that's what they are) is a war machine that uses a humanlike plan and articulation to increase speed, ease, and intuitiveness of pilot control. It's easy and flexible to use because it's like a human, and thus can take advantage of all the skills and tactics that make us flexible and able - and some more besides.
So, the design window starts with a plain structural skeleton with a cockpit bubble about where its 'heart' should be. The 3D viewable 'space' it sits within is divided up into cubical grid coordinates of, say, maybe a foot or half a meter or something.
Along one side of the screen you have a list of available weapons and components. Beneath that is a quick thumbnail summary of your machine's current and estimated final stats and performance - though the latter should probably be toggleable to save on processor time; calculating exact abilities and center of gravity would probably be relatively heavy-duty math.
Along the other you have rotational controls and a series of autofunction toggles to do things like automatically add structural braces to handle weight, or upgrade joint drivers to maintain a certain amount of mobility, or skin a completed design over in armor using the minimum number of polygons and/or mass. Also located here are viewing tools that use shaded blobs over a wireframe view to indicate either weight distribution or heat dissipation patterns - where it's heavy, where it's hot.
Internal components are then added to the frame like a three-dimensional game of tetris, then weapons hardpoints, then the armor shell is defined (either by hand or a handy-dandy 'wrap this up' 3D graphic widget... there are such things, right?), and then you can add color schemes and actual weapons.
Balance? Heat, weight distribution, power-to-weight... these should all pay off directly in how the machine handles in combat and when, what, and how often its systems fail or are damaged. These would be linear lists of characteristics attached to an 'empty' visible model based on the final design - actual damage modeling and such would be, IMHO, something to save for the sequel if bothered with at all.
===============================================
"Reseeestunce ees fiutil. Yoo weeel bee Useemooletud. Borg Borg Borg."
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."