Question about mecha design relating to location

[Epsilon]

Okay, so I think Joseph states that GH1 sook place in East Asia(?). Nopw, we've seen from sketches and stuff that a lot of the GH mecha take kind of a "real mecha" approach, similar to the Gundam series.

Now, the question is: are the mecha designed like that because Joseph prefers that style of mecha to the Battletech/Mechwarrior style, or because the game is situated in Asia? If, say, GH3 were to come out and be set in North America/Canada, would we have torso-twisting Mad Cat Mk2-type mecha? Were the Americas even involved in the whole Night of Fire escapade?

[Joseph Hewitt]

It's because this is the style I like most. My main design inspiration comes from the 1980s Sunrise/Bandai mecha shows. I don't care much for the "American style" of mecha design (Battletech post-3020, C.A.V.), with a few exceptions (I will admit to having a weak spot for the MadCat and its derivatives from Battletech).

For GH2 I'm trying to give each area/government its own look. I think that the lunar forces have a nice unity to them; they're all rounded, bulbuous, and somewhat evil looking. Maybe one of the factions will use American-style mecha, but I don't know yet.

[Anticheese]

I think it would be great if each faction had their own flavour, It might even tempt me to play the non ASCII version!

[Epsilon]

I'm personally a big fan of a kind of hybrid between the two, mostly because I don't see how you get 60 tons of steel and titanium to do a mid-air turn. I'm starting to play Front Mission 3, and I'm really liking the wanzers; they all feel, look and move solidly, while still maintaining a degree of sleekness.

If you end up using American-styled mecha, I think it would be really cool if they were all low-manuverability, high-armor, high-damage types. What would also be kind of nifty would be a torso twist feature; that could help offset the fact that even the fastest scout mecha by that faction's standards is still kind of slow. I've got no clue how that would fit in with the current code though, not being a programmer of any sort. It would give them a certian type of uniqueness, though.

[macksting]

*pouts*
No wonder there aren't enough tanks. All this chatter and not a single mention of Earthsiege or Starsiege? Best mecha game series ever consisted of Earthsiege, Earthsiege 2, Starsiege, Cyberstorm and Cyberstorm 2, followed by Tribes...

Let me tell you, even if they suffered most of the sillinesses of other mecha series, the impracticalities of mecha themselves, at least they had tanks to liven it up, and the designs rocked within the genre.
Yes, very American in style, but not so clunky and arguably more elegent than Mechwarrior.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Unfortunately, I haven't played Earthsiege, Starsiege, or Tribes. I have seen some of the mechanical designs and agree with you that the tanks look great. I didn't really like the robot-type mecha, though.

[Phil Munoz]

I think Front Mission, and Armored Core mecha have the best look and feel for mecha.  For both games, it's possible to lay out a tank-like mecha.

I saw some concept art for Steel Battalion and I think they look pretty good, too.

For battletech/Mechwarrior:  I like most of their reversed joint mechas (MadCat, especially), however I'm not fond of their other mecha.  Most of them were "borrowed" from some anime or another anyway.