So What's In A Mech Cockpit?

[Twelvefield]

All you lore masters: what's in the cockpit? I've played some of the Mechwarrior games, so I know you look out the front window. That's about it.

Does the pilot sit in a chair and move a bunch of levers like Pinky And The Brain? Is it some sort of virtual reality gymnasium like Pacific Rim?

Does the pilot wear a helmeted environment/space suit like in 2001, or just a jumpsuit with shoulder pads and a big silver triangle like Mork And Mindy?

[Hardrod]

Play some Mwo or watch a video of it, you'll be able to see. They sit in a cockpit with joysticks and wear a jumpsuit, to anwer quickly

[B. Arner]

Originally posted by Velthelm:

Play some Mwo or watch a video of it, you'll be able to see. They sit in a cockpit with joysticks and wear a jumpsuit, to anwer quickly

You forgot the neurohelmet. And the cooling vest.

[Beltane]

Might want to check this one out, at least i found it pretty interresting:

https://bg.battletech.com/universe/battlemech-technology/

[Gralzeim]

"What the pilot wears" varies wildly based on how far back you look at BattleTech art. Some of the oldest stuff showed them being nearly naked with just underwear, cooling vest, and neurohelmet (the idea was that even the vest wasn't enough by itself to keep a pilot from getting too hot and passing out). This uh, changed over the years, and nowadays pilots are portrayed as wearing full (probably fire/chemical resistant) suits with the cooling vest over the suit, and a neurohelmet (which also has had its design updated to look more like a modern pilot helmet than the original "this looks more like a brain control device").

BattleTech is over 30 years old, it's gone through several phases.

[MadCat]

I suggest you watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZWxgLQZano
It has a lot of in-cockpit moments.

[Wantoomany]

Cockpits are laid out more like modern aircraft then anything else. As an example.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Cockpit

As far as pilot gear, at least in this time period, its hardly fashionable. They generally wear as little as possilbe due to heat. Standard garb is just a pair of shorts, a set of heavy boots to protect the feet, a bluky cooling vest, and an oversized nerohelmet that covers the entire head and face and attaches to a collar around the shoulders.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Neurohelmet

[Battleseed]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

All you lore masters: what's in the cockpit? I've played some of the Mechwarrior games, so I know you look out the front window. That's about it.

Does the pilot sit in a chair and move a bunch of levers like Pinky And The Brain? Is it some sort of virtual reality gymnasium like Pacific Rim?

Does the pilot wear a helmeted environment/space suit like in 2001, or just a jumpsuit with shoulder pads and a big silver triangle like Mork And Mindy?

Think more like a F16 pilot with a stick and throttle.

[wendigo211]

For 3025, it should be underwear, a cooling vest and neurohelmet. There are armored mech suits, but they're Lostech and only the Draconis elite guard and DEST have them.

In short they pilot the mech with the neurohelmet and use the joysticks for weapon fire.

[Isha]

Originally posted by Gralzeim:

"What the pilot wears" varies wildly based on how far back you look at BattleTech art. Some of the oldest stuff showed them being nearly naked with just underwear, cooling vest, and neurohelmet (the idea was that even the vest wasn't enough by itself to keep a pilot from getting too hot and passing out). This uh, changed over the years, and nowadays pilots are portrayed as wearing full (probably fire/chemical resistant) suits with the cooling vest over the suit, and a neurohelmet (which also has had its design updated to look more like a modern pilot helmet than the original "this looks more like a brain control device").

BattleTech is over 30 years old, it's gone through several phases.

You know, Lori Kalmar getting out of her Locust wouldn't have been as striking if she was wearing a Nomex body suit.

[DasaKamov]

Also, it depends on the origins of the mech-pilot as to their equipment. While the IS mech-pilots can find similarities with modern real-world compat-aircraft and tank crew, FASA went with a more techno-shaman-warrior-cyberpunk angle with the clans.

http://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/3647322/pics/original/3182820.jpg

The "Enhanced Imaging" (EI) clan-warriors had tattoos/subdermal implants which allowed them to experience a Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality HUD without the need of a neurohelmet. It also gave them finer motor control over their mechs, as the mechs acted as an extension of their own bodies. They could even "pilot" their mechs from outside the cockpits, to a limited degree.

Of course, there were some side-effects -- gradual insanity probably being the most detrimental -- but the Clans solved that "problem" by treating EI mechwarriors as rampaging berserkers whose ultimate goal was to die in glorious battle. :b

[Deckire]

https://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/135931-mech-cockpit-layout/

This was the Cockpit layout in the Mechwarrior Online forum I followed

It is a easier layout then the Sarna's and I say goes into more detail.

[9g6t7g967t]

One thing about battletech is that even though for gameplay purposes everything has the same stats. It's all made by hundreds of different manufacturers over the course of hundreds of years. So there are almost countless variations in the specifics of how things look. Like any big fictional universe it has developed over time and has a number of contradicting elements across various sources.


The basics are.

Fighter like cockpit: Primary seat that the mechwarrior sits in. Various screens showing relevant sensor and mech system information. Main controls are usually throttle, stick and rudder pedals. All your requisite knobs, switches, dials and buttons in whatever configurations the artist felt like putting them in. Most mechs have a spare folding jumpseat and other small cargo spaces in the cockpit. There are even a few multi person cockpits for command mechs where flag or communications officers sit to manage the battle. But those are rare. All mechs carry basic survival gear appropriate to whatever environment they are operating in.

Neuro Helmet: This is similar to Pacific Rim in that it transfers the pilots innate sense of balance to the mech. But you only need one person in this case. In the earlier artwork from the 1980s and 1990s Neuro Helmets were shown as comically huge trashcan-like things that sat on a pilots head and shoulders. More recent iterations of the franchise have been a little more conservative and modern looking.

Cooling Vest: Sitting on a walking fusion reactor expending vast amounts of energy to melt your opponents gets toasty. In the past mech pilots have often been portrayed as wearing minimal clothing. All pilots wear a cooling vest or suit of some kind. Again in the past the artwork was a bit goofy and portrayed a mostly naked mechwarrior wearing a giant catchers vest. Modern artwork generally has less revealing clothing and more streamlined cooling vests. Cooling suits are a more advanced form of vest that cover the whole body(duh) and might be considered lostech during the 3025 period that Battletech(2018) currently takes place in.

[Twelvefield]

Interesting, thanks for the replies!

I find the no space helmet bit interesting. If you space the cockpit on an airless world, the pilot should die quickly. Same for puncturing a cockpit that's sumberged.

If the controls for a mech are so discrete, how come the pilots howl like Maria Sharapova whenever they make a mêlée attack? Do they play tennis in 3025?

The Airbus coporation builds the same cockpit for every airliner, regardless of how large or small it is. That way, the pilot doesn't have to learn a new configuration whenever they change to a new class of jet. Not so for Boeing. Interesting, but not surprising, that the Mech's would have different layouts - thanks 1980s! Too bad they don't learn from the 2000s.

Related question: how does the calendar work? Do people in 3025 still revere Earth so much that their clocks still are the same as ours? With hyper-relativistic interplanetary commerce and travel, isn't that kind of bonkers? And why would houses who oppose each other to the point of mutual destruction by death robot all agree on the same clock? Please tell me they at least get rid of DST!

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

Related question: how does the calendar work? Do people in 3025 still revere Earth so much that their clocks still are the same as ours? With hyper-relativistic interplanetary commerce and travel, isn't that kind of bonkers? And why would houses who oppose each other to the point of mutual destruction by death robot all agree on the same clock? Please tell me they at least get rid of DST!

The answer to *any* "why do future-space-people still use the same time-keeping mechanism that we do" is usually "because it's a pain the the butt to force players to learn your cutsey sci-fi fake space-time increments". ;)

If they want to make a small effort to explain this away, many sci-fi institutions use the time-tested "Terran Standard Hours" and such.

[Rob'sEvilTwin]

Mine has a Jimi Hendrix bobblehead :P