PherdnutChiken
09-20-2007, 08:59 AM
I gotta say, I've played and enjoyed Armored Core and I've played and enjoyed Mechwarrior.
Chrome Hounds seems like a rather nice blending of the two rather than an attempt at being either and falling short.
The graphics are sufficient. That's about all I'll say on that front.
I was no wiz on Mechwarrior so forgive me for speaking out of turn, but the customization seems a bit more interesting to me. You actually determine the general chassis of your critter by picking the legs, the body and a generator part that's necessary on all but the lightest hounds. Max speed, acceleration, rotation speed etc... are all determined by these choices and how much weaponry you haul.
Weaponry is quite diverse:
Light Machine Guns - fire with a continuous duration that continues when you switch to other weapons
Standard MGs - lower rate of fire and they stop shootin' when you take your hand off the trigger.
Shotguns - 'Bout what you'd expect. Medium. Strongish. Low ROF. Easy to hit with the spread.
Grenade Launchers - Biggest disadvantage is a crappy targeting reticle. Apparently very good for stripping weapons via splash damage. Haven't used these a lot yet but they have low weight for damage.
Heat Rockets - Build up heat which is really nasty when it goes critical but they're also a nice punch packing weapon for lighter hound pilots with skill. They arc down after a short flight so you can get more out of them at longer ranges if you have the eye for it.
Automatic Rifles - Standard rifle-type weapons. Good damage potential overall but not for the fastest kills. Fits in nicely between medium and long range weapons.
Cannons - Heavy damage. Slow projectile speed. Requires some tracking/angling skills but it hurts.
Sniper Cannons - It's the sniper rifles. Fast projectiles, LOW reload, lots of hurt and accuracy best direct-fire ranged weapon.
Howitzers - Artillery. You get a range finder for how far an arc will take your projectile assuming you're standing on a level plain. That's it. To make absurdly long shots beyond visual you have to guess basically or use a spotter and projectile travel time is pretty slow with a maximum arc. It takes a while to travel a few map square even for the fastest hounds but Howitzers can hit from over three map squares away.
Swarm Rockets - Spreads a crapload of rockets over a wide area. Kind of wasteful but awfully nasty up close against a cluster of enemies. Not a common choice in multi from what I'm readin' but fun.
Missiles - Haven't seen these. There are seekers available via multiplayer apparently and they piss people off when fired from light speedy types.
Recoil is big, by the way. Too many heavy-type weapons clustered on one side and you're due for spin that's going to send half your shots wide. On the other hand, spread them too far out and half you're shots will miss the target anyway.
Chrome Hounds seems like a rather nice blending of the two rather than an attempt at being either and falling short.
The graphics are sufficient. That's about all I'll say on that front.
I was no wiz on Mechwarrior so forgive me for speaking out of turn, but the customization seems a bit more interesting to me. You actually determine the general chassis of your critter by picking the legs, the body and a generator part that's necessary on all but the lightest hounds. Max speed, acceleration, rotation speed etc... are all determined by these choices and how much weaponry you haul.
Weaponry is quite diverse:
Light Machine Guns - fire with a continuous duration that continues when you switch to other weapons
Standard MGs - lower rate of fire and they stop shootin' when you take your hand off the trigger.
Shotguns - 'Bout what you'd expect. Medium. Strongish. Low ROF. Easy to hit with the spread.
Grenade Launchers - Biggest disadvantage is a crappy targeting reticle. Apparently very good for stripping weapons via splash damage. Haven't used these a lot yet but they have low weight for damage.
Heat Rockets - Build up heat which is really nasty when it goes critical but they're also a nice punch packing weapon for lighter hound pilots with skill. They arc down after a short flight so you can get more out of them at longer ranges if you have the eye for it.
Automatic Rifles - Standard rifle-type weapons. Good damage potential overall but not for the fastest kills. Fits in nicely between medium and long range weapons.
Cannons - Heavy damage. Slow projectile speed. Requires some tracking/angling skills but it hurts.
Sniper Cannons - It's the sniper rifles. Fast projectiles, LOW reload, lots of hurt and accuracy best direct-fire ranged weapon.
Howitzers - Artillery. You get a range finder for how far an arc will take your projectile assuming you're standing on a level plain. That's it. To make absurdly long shots beyond visual you have to guess basically or use a spotter and projectile travel time is pretty slow with a maximum arc. It takes a while to travel a few map square even for the fastest hounds but Howitzers can hit from over three map squares away.
Swarm Rockets - Spreads a crapload of rockets over a wide area. Kind of wasteful but awfully nasty up close against a cluster of enemies. Not a common choice in multi from what I'm readin' but fun.
Missiles - Haven't seen these. There are seekers available via multiplayer apparently and they piss people off when fired from light speedy types.
Recoil is big, by the way. Too many heavy-type weapons clustered on one side and you're due for spin that's going to send half your shots wide. On the other hand, spread them too far out and half you're shots will miss the target anyway.