Quoting: Epsilon
Oddly enough, I was thinking about that too at one point. It should probably be limited to walking and hover jets OR arc thrusters. Although that depends on how mecha legs move in GearHead.
Mecha with more than two (or maybe three) legs could walk sideways...
For hovering, it would reduce the value of turrets a lot if you could get up to speed and then turn around. (like a rocket in space, rather than a plane in the atmosphere, or a space ship in Star Wars...) Maybe you should start decelerating if you're not facing the direction you're moving.
This reminds me how screwed up jumping is. If you're standing in front of an obstacle, you can't take off and fly over it. You have to be able to move into a square at your current altitude before you can get to altitude 5.
I guess I'll just put all my pet peeves in one post. I hate doing a protect-the-truck mission and finding myself in an ambush with my mecha all deployed ridiculously badly. If you start out facing the left edge of the map (so you were just going along the road in reverse when you were ambushed?) and you're in a mecha that can't walk (which makes turn time 3 or 4 times faster than in any other move mode), the truck will probably drive 10 squares before you even get turned around. The battle might well be over. This was a major problem with the Argoseyer, but at least it had turrets. It's not just being able to shoot at the ambushers that's the problem. The main problem is when the truck is closer to the ambush than any of my mecha, so it gets destroyed before I can move. I actually put a drone launcher in a turret of my Argoseyer so I could draw fire away from the truck (esp. blasts).
If I was actually escorting a truck, I'd have it driving down the middle of the road, and someone on each side of the road. I'd also have someone far ahead scouting. If we found raiders, the truck would stay far away from them, rather than trying to run the gauntlet in front of a couple Radcliffs! Racing for the far side might work in the early game, when the firepower of the mecha on both sides doesn't so totally outclass the truck, but when the PV gets up to multiple Savins among the Raiders, it's just no place for a truck.
I guess something has to simulate an actual ambush, so not getting to set up your positions is one thing. But facing the wrong way in a slow-turning mecha is just annoying.
It should be possible to transfer items to/between lancemates in a hostile area. Using the transfer item option would make the two characters involved walk towards each other and do the exchange, and it would take some time. If someone runs out of repair supplies, it sucks not to be able to give them some. Or ammo. Or a weapon you just picked up. Or to let you use a strong robot as a mule! Hmm, it would be possible to implement this. The AI already knows how to walk over to someone to use a repair skill on them.
There should be a global hold-fire order, or don't attack this target order, that's easy to use when you want to dominate a monster or capture a mecha. Once the armor on a mecha starts to thin, it usually gets ripped to shreds with its pilot only taking one or two turns, and that's not many ejection checks. (The ejection check happens when it's the mechs turn, not when it's damaged.)
