mecha storyline

What do you mean by "Mecha Cliche"?

I still don''t get the idea behind the mecha cliche, I have seen few mecha shows that it is just one guy in a giant robot and without him the world would see to be, save maybe Escaflowne, but that is not to say that mecha shows are not cliche in other ways. If you want to avoid the cliche that the anonymous poster said though, along with his suggestions, there are many things you can do. You could completely change the idea of what a mecha is. For example, traditionally mecha''s are robotic. Make them organic living creatures that have been bred in such a way that they can be implanted with electronics that allow humans to pilot them. Evangelion did this, as the Eva''s were really synthetic angels that have plugs that can be inserted into them in order to be piloted, and since they are living creatures, they did have a mind of their own, which is what caused them to go bezerker at times throughout the series. You could also make mecha common place, like a car is today. Everyone has mechs, but few have the know how to convert their mech into a fighting machine, and those that do have gone rogue and tried forming their own gangs. Also, remember that following a cliche is not always a bad thing, as it creates a sense of familiarity with the person playing the game, just make sure you add different twists to it in order to make it unlike other games and shows.

The problem with making a Mecha game without the Mecha cliche is that you are already presupposing parts of the Mecha cliche. You are asking "How do I make a game about giant robots that isn''t like games about giant robots?" And the answer is don''t make it about the same giant robots.

Here''s some suggestions, in the Socratic vein:

* It''s kind of a stupid idea to put a person inside a giant robot if you don''t absolutely have to--after all, why not just control it remotely? What ramifications would this have, and how can you leverage that into interesting gameplay?

* Mech games I''ve seen concentrate solely on the pilot. Who else would be involved in the process? Keep in mind that only a very small percentage of people in a national air force are pilots. What other interesting roles are there?

* Why would a mech be anthropomorphic? A mech that spends all its time in space doesn''t need to look like anything in particular; one that runs around on the ground only needs form for mobility. What non-human forms might work better? Tank? Spider? Dolphin?

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How appropriate. You fight like a cow.

NGE ruled. And what type of game are you desiderating? Is it an RPG (Action RPG no doubt), Action-adventure, or possibly Simulation? I have yet to see a great Mecha Action RPG (am playing Xenosaga now...not even close...but still a great game), and thus your game would be welcome, not cliche. And I would agree that the robot should be made in a better image than a human.

DON''T COPY THAT FLOPPY!

I''ve always been fond of a police force made up of humans and imposing (enh, 12-15 feet) mechanical suits. The story line has been beaten, but not to death (Appleseed and Jin-Roh). The story could perhaps be based on what you think police might typically be handline.. giving tickets, stopping criminals from robbing a 7-11, or beating back rioters while in a gunfight with a drug cartel. The story itself doesn''t have to revolve around the robots.. it could instead revolve around the members of the police force and their personal problems? If for a game, this could be difficult to pull off.. being more suited to a book or movie.. but could be done..

falkones got the right idea, the robots need not be the focus of the story just part of the gameplay. a game to take a look at (if youve got an xbox) is phantom crash, not much of a story but the robots you fought in really had little to do with it. PatLabour is also something to look at. great storyline. also gasaraki is another anime worthy of mention, particularly if you like lots of political intrigue. you could look at Full Metal Panic, but i find it very generic.
another idea, why not do a parody of mecha story lines? something that takes itself as seriously as mecha is just crying out to have a send up
i personally always enjoyed the Heavy Gear universe. lots of political factions plus earth always trying to screw things up.
there are plenty of options open to you.

Get busy livin'' or get busy dyin''... - Shawshank Redemption
Altered Vision

I think you can directly avoid the cliche giant fighting robot story real easy if you just keep the mindset that these robots are mass-produced tools and the pilot has no connection to them onces he''s left the cockpit. Right there you totally step around the problem. I''m making the suposition that this story would go hand in hand with a game, I''d make the mecha a type of volitile equipment. You can limit the number of course, but allow the player to mix and match Units and Pilots. The thinking is that if a pilot and a mecha can''t become considered a distinct inseperable pair, then you can''t associate any mysticism to the machines.

Hey now, NGE was good but dang, nothing, IMHO, will ever come close to Escaflowne. ^-^

That aside, there are a number of glaring flaws in mechs that you should take into consideration. Who knows, trying to bypass one of these could lead into a reason to give your game world less need to rely on mechas or something like that.

First and foremost, why put a pilot in a mecha to begin with? Having a huge 50'' tall suit of heavily-armed steel to run around in would be like having MEGA super-powers, which is really awesome. But ask yourself, why endanger a pilot to begin with? Although it can easily be assumed these suits aren''t sentient (à-la NGE, or controlled by a very sophisticated AI) and thus require human input to work, there''s very little reason why they couldn''t be remote-controlled. This leads to an interesting question: would there even be a realistic use for a full body mecha "suit"? (Emphasis on suit, btw, and I don''t mean the quotes)

Next, the shape. A humanoid mecha may look imposing but, honestly, it isn''t the best of ideas. NGE demonstrated this: the first time the protagonist, Shinji, was in his "mecha" he had to learn to walk. Keeping his balance when just lifting a foot required all of his concentration. Even then he toppled over and, well, quite bluntly got his tush kicked. My point is, stnading on two legs is a lot harder than having wheels or tank-like tracks (terrain-dependant). Maybe a bit more versatile and movable, though I can''t see it being any better (mind you, nor any worse) than tracks that can move in any direction or, better yet, a suspended (hovering) base capable of movement with little thrusters or something like that. Hands and arms are rather useful but if the mecha''s designed solely for combat, why not just put cannons there instead? Or better yet, why stop at two arms? Why not a few extra sets which could be manipulated via a reactive AI to parry attacks?

Then there''s the cost. Let''s face it, building a 50'' tall suit of robotic glory would definitively put a glaring hole through anyone''s budget. As such, mass-production is most likely not an option. On a related note, training a pilot to fight in one would definitively not be something accessible to just anyone. Combine the two together and it''s sorta time to ask yourself just how common these would be. Or how a lone hero-type character could get his hands on one. Even if he/she is part of an elite class in the army, would "they" consider entrusting a mecha to someone whom they aren''t 100% certain is psychologically stable enough not to suddently go rogue and steal it to save the world?

Finally, there''s weaponary. A lot of animes depict mechas as having totally awesome futuristic energy swords and stuff. As well as particle cannons. Now, if I managed an army, I would look into providing particle cannons to my troops and wouldn''t really consider ressearching, much less outfitting my army with, short-ranged butterknives. If you consider the actual use of these when faced with long-range weapons, animes like Gundam Wing sorta lose their flare a little.

That''s pretty much all outta me for now. Good luck!

I just want say that not having a pilot in mech and instead controlling it by remote would be a very bad idea. Its just the kind of flaw and enemy would love to exploit, since all they have to do is jam your remote signal and now they have own mech army. You wouldn''t send remote controlled tanks into battle so why would send a remote controlled mech?

the whole idea of the humanoid form of the mech is that its an extension of the pilots body and they can manuver it accordingly. Besides a mech would be able to travel faster then any other vechile over varies terrain and be able to fight in areas where traditonal vechiles couldn''t. They would be ideal for combat in large urban areas, provided there not super tall.

Then again it depends on the mech each anime has there own decion on how big they are. usually between 10-50 feet I''d guess.

As to why have hands, that easy its called adaptability if a vechile with fixed equipment can only be used for certain tasks, but by allow the equipment to be easily changed as in the case of mech it can be outfitted for any task or mission it undertakes.


Now sure a mech isn''t cheap to build but then military hardware never is, the US spends a billion per stealth plane, 100 million on a M1 abram tank, and over million on each cruise missle. How many of them do you think there going to use in war? lots that for sure. The kinds of work a mech will be used for is based entirly on the cost of constuction,maintaince and training. If its expensive then its going to be used for gurrila style warfare in which it would excel. If its cheap then will be used for everything including civilain use in task such as constuction, just like in patlabour.

The reason mechs are given close combat weapons such as swords, is because in those series the mechs get very close to their enemy. Most troops in mondern where attack their enemy from far away and thats why guns are imporant. But if your enemy is up close then a rifle becomes less and less effective. Besids is you have a knife you can always fall back on it when your out of amuination. And lets face for the most part a knife is disigned for mech vs mech battles and if your mechs are going to be gurrila forces then you''ll probably want to give them a knife or some other weapon that allows them disable the opponet quickly with a minimum of noise.

the most imporant thing to think about when it comes to your story is how common are mechs? Are they rare with only a few in existance or are they so common that people take mech to work every morning and battle and engage in gaint robot battles with their neigbour for stealing the morning paper.



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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

treads? wheels?

no offense, but I don''t want to see this turn into MEtal Walker for the gameboy color. mecha is mecha because it is MECHA.