Gamasutra looks at State of Decay 2, Star Citizen, and Battletech and how they design characters as UI.

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The mech model: Battletech

The model damage in Battletech is actually a holdover from its genesis as a tabletop game. A wireframe of each mech was displayed on a record sheet with a certain number of empty circles allocated to each section (its center torso, for instance, or each leg). A dice roll indicated which area was hit and every time the mech took damage, players would fill in circles in that area, until all the circles were full and the entire piece was destroyed.

“Being able to dynamically reflect that visually in gameplay is an advantage we have in a video game over the tabletop game,” says Steve Rynders, Battletech’s principal character pipeline artist at developer Harebrained Schemes. “Fortunately, Piranha Games shared their Mechwarrior Online assets with us and the models were already built in a way that supported damaging and destroying geometry. Aside from it being awesome to see an arm blown off and its pieces rain down on the terrain along with the sparks and explosion, it helps to reinforce and communicate to the player that there has been a state change.”

To show off meaningful systems or parts damage, Rynders and the team dynamically toggle between different assets.

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Thanks Farflame!