Things That Catch You Off Guard

[PrettzL]

There's a few things about Telos that really intrigue and surprised me the more that I read @JustinPierce 's devblog and other articles about AoT.

Here's one that hit me pretty oddly:

• The Spider Mech is 2 stories tall

That's somewhere between 25-32 feet tall for those who have the capacity to visualize how much bigger one of these things is compared to you.

I had a "holy fuck" moment when I read that. Cause that's big.

[JustinPierce]

Yeah my size reference was basically a gundam from the waist up. Or one of these.

Right now it's hard to tell in-game except when you're on the bridge inside the asteroid -- it'll be more apparent as the environment art improves.

[MKULTRA]

Right now it's hard to tell in-game except when you're on the bridge inside the asteroid -- it'll be more apparent as the environment art improves.

Is there going to be any back story or lore letting the player know why 30ft chrome spiders are killing each other in zeroG?

[JustinPierce]

Maybe. I wanted to wait until game was farther along so the story could be made with the gameplay in mind. Don't want to put myself in a situation where a necessary gameplay change would not work with the story.

But these mechs are piloted by regular sized people (humans and I guess perhaps other aliens).

[DrunkenJedi]

Maybe that's something Justin intends to work on?

I mean to be quite frank it does not feel that way. When playing your perspective inside is very close to the ground and when you're outside you are dwarfed by your surroundings yet the map doesn't feel any bigger than maps that can be found in other games.

There is truly no feel to the mechs being that big. Even when you can see the legs when you point your mouse down in a G-environment.

[JustinPierce]

It's tricky because I didn't want to do like hawken where you're inside a cockpit looking at screens or outside windows. Essentially, you're 'jacked in' to the mech so you have more direct control. Eventually, the environment art should give more context -- right now there's little frame of reference.

[DrunkenJedi]

I can see how the environment could be worked on to make the player feel smaller but I really don't see how you could change the current map to make you feel bigger without some pretty drastic chages

[JustinPierce]

Well I mean, my goal is not to make the player feel too big for the map

The sense of being big will come from art. Environment detail (like the bridge inside the asteroid), effects (dirt kickup when mech lands to give them a better sense of weight, etc).

The intent isn't so much for it to affect gameplay. Mostly an opportunity to explore art in a way that other games don't. Another way to help the game stand out.

[Fixious]

Right now it doesn't feel like you're that big, and fortunately that isn't a real issue. Legions had a very serious problem with scaling that never got fixed (sorta impossible without re-doing...well...everything). I don't think you can make it very apparent without scaling things down a bunch. Everything is scaled up with the mechs, which takes away the feeling of being huge yourself. Imo it isn't important to feel huge. The game feels fine as-is, at least regarding scale.

[PrettzL]

Understanding that you're that big and then feeling the speed you're going really feels awesome for me.

They move fast and are very powerful.

[MKULTRA]

I think sound design will go a long way toward making you actually feel big. A proper thud when you hit the ground or leap into the air. With these mechs being 2 stories tall I'd imagine they'd displace quite a bit of air when moving indoors.