Mobile Suit Controls

[Int3rmission]

Hey everyone,

I'm sought of new to the Gundam universe. I saw (or should I say got through) all of Gundam Wing. I recently finished watching Gundam Seed (which I enjoyed way more so than GW). Anyways, this question may have been anwsered before but:

* How do you control a Mobile suit? In GW AND GS they seem to have two handles that are positioned next to the pilot, one on each side, inside the cockpit. One of these handles seems to control thrust or acceleration. But how do you manuvre the suit without a stick or wheel? So I guess the gist of this question is: how do the controls on a Mobile suit work?

[Anh_Minh]

Handwavium.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Handwavium.

Exactly. -_-;

There is no logical way for the controls you see on screen to actually control those suits to such a fine degree.

There are a set of foot-pedals in most every MS. I would suppose those are actually more for forward-backward/acceleration-deceleration than the handles.

Hoo-ah!

[MagikalFly]

The only real way to control a mecha, from what I've seen, comes from 2 sources. The old American cartoon Exosquad where the exosuit would jack into your brain. The other is from Macross Plus. The YF-21 had a brain interface. Those would be the only viable options for full control over any mecha. I mean, how would you move each individual finger with just 2 control sticks? They can be laced with buttons but still..

Also I guess G Gundam. But that has its own problems.

Brain/Mind interface. It's the only way to go.

[M_Flores]

I always thought that certain moves are programmable with certain controls.
Like if you press a sequence of buttons or shift a short sequence with the sticks, you will draw out the beam saber or perform a certain move, etc.

Like certain movements or slashes with a beam saber could be just programmed moves that the user configures in the OS and stuff - certain parry and slash moves are programmed whilst in saberlock mode or other recognisable situations by the system's OS.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by JagdPanther

Exactly. -_-;

There is no logical way for the controls you see on screen to actually control those suits to such a fine degree.

There are a set of foot-pedals in most every MS. I would suppose those are actually more for forward-backward/acceleration-deceleration than the handles.

Hoo-ah!

That wasn't my point. It doesn't matter if it's possible or not to move a giant robot with two sticks. It's a show about giant robots. Just accept that the controls work.

I'm reminded about an interview of Georges Lucas. He was telling a story about Harrison Ford's first time in the Falcon. So, he was in the cockpit, and Lucas told him "Start it up, take off and pilot it." Ford looked at the commands for a few seconds, and asked "Hm... How?" Georges answered: "I don't know. Just, you know, pilot it."

The MS aren't real. Gundam is a sci-fi show, not engineering reference material. We don't have to think too hard about how the controls work anymore than we have to think about how to actually make giant humanoids fly.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

That wasn't my point. It doesn't matter if it's possible or not to move a giant robot with two sticks. It's a show about giant robots. Just accept that the controls work.

I'm reminded about an interview of Georges Lucas. He was telling a story about Harrison Ford's first time in the Falcon. So, he was in the cockpit, and Lucas told him "Start it up, take off and pilot it." Ford looked at the commands for a few seconds, and asked "Hm... How?" Georges answered: "I don't know. Just, you know, pilot it."

The MS aren't real. Gundam is a sci-fi show, not engineering reference material. We don't have to think too hard about how the controls work anymore than we have to think about how to actually make giant humanoids fly.

Ah, I did miss your point but I get it now and agree. ^^;

Hoo-ah!

[kiramuro]

MX518 and a Logitech keyboard should do just fine.

[wingdarkness]

There's obviously a PS2-type of controller in there and you just have to time your combos up with shielding^^...

But seriously , that's why you have to be a Newtype, Coordy, a druggy, or a brain-raped trained automaton (alla the Wing Boys) because controlling a Gundam is hard as $hit...

[Icehawk]

The more refined human like combat movements MS do would have to be done by the onboard computer control systems. They likely have a load of pre programmed movements that happen when the proper control stick/peddal movement and button combinations are done by the pilot. Apart from having brain activity interface of some kind like YF-21 in Macross Plus thats the only real way it could be done with the simple controls we see in the shows.

[artquest7@]

anyone here play World of Warcraft? Its not that hard to macro several commands to one key. Heck I had a macro that let me stealth pounce rake and mangle all by pressing the same key 4 times. Oh and you can even go further then that like adding in different pre programmed situations to change the command again based on the situation. So really I don't see it being to hard for that control scheme to actually work.
Now I will say... sometimes hard as heck to remember what key does what when your staring at a page full of oh.... 48 hot bar buttons. So yeah... that can get confusing so thats where your newtype/coordinator/trained since birth factor comes in

[Int3rmission]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

That wasn't my point. It doesn't matter if it's possible or not to move a giant robot with two sticks. It's a show about giant robots. Just accept that the controls work.

I'm reminded about an interview of Georges Lucas. He was telling a story about Harrison Ford's first time in the Falcon. So, he was in the cockpit, and Lucas told him "Start it up, take off and pilot it." Ford looked at the commands for a few seconds, and asked "Hm... How?" Georges answered: "I don't know. Just, you know, pilot it."

The MS aren't real. Gundam is a sci-fi show, not engineering reference material. We don't have to think too hard about how the controls work anymore than we have to think about how to actually make giant humanoids fly.

I just thought that, because Gundam is such a detailed sci-fi anime with explanations for just about every piece of tech, that they would at least have an explanation about the controling of the Mobile Suits.

[Ikematsu]

IMHO they don't explain everything. It's more like they give bits and pieces of information and leave the rest up to your imagination. It's the way sci-fi works.

-Ikematsu

P.S.: Does someone has an explanation or an idea why the Gundam's eyes light up every time something dramatic happens (I mean besides looking cool)?

[artquest7@]

Originally Posted by Ikematsu

IMHO they don't explain everything. It's more like they give bits and pieces of information and leave the rest up to your imagination. It's the way sci-fi works.

-Ikematsu

P.S.: Does someone has an explanation or an idea why the Gundam's eyes light up every time something dramatic happens (I mean besides looking cool)?

I dunno about other gundam series but it seems that Turn-A's eyes are used as flood lights in dark places.

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by Icehawk

The more refined human like combat movements MS do would have to be done by the onboard computer control systems. They likely have a load of pre programmed movements that happen when the proper control stick/peddal movement and button combinations are done by the pilot. Apart from having brain activity interface of some kind like YF-21 in Macross Plus thats the only real way it could be done with the simple controls we see in the shows.

Indeed, Amuro did say in the first episode "all the basic movements are handled by the computer" or something like that ;p

[Phantom-Takaya]

The way I see it, it's like having a car with automatic shifting. Less stress on every little function in the car and more concentration on the driving.

[Ikematsu]

Originally Posted by artquest7@

I dunno about other gundam series but it seems that Turn-A's eyes are used as flood lights in dark places.

Cool, finally a plausible explanation and here I thought it was just for the looks.
Thanks for the answer.

-Ikematsu

[Fafnir]

Depending on the universe, there are different explanations.

In UC, I'd imagine there'd be a bunch of hotkeys and such, as described above. That is, until we get psycho frame. Although I'm not too sure about psycho frame, so I'll leave that alone.

For FC, we have the motion tracking system. However, it's quite unrealistic, because even though it would mimic movements, some just wouldn't register right(say you were being held back, although you could move in the cockpit, the MS couldn't), not to mention some collision detection problems. But then again, FC has Love, Courage, and Hotblood, so physics need not apply.

As for AC, we know the ZERO system sends information into the pilot's head, so why can't the opposite be done? I'd imagine that it would either be mentally guided, and/or once again, pre-programmed hotkeys. But from ZERO on, it would be easy to imagine that MS would have some kind of mental interface.

CC, the Turn A and the Turn X, along with all other mobile suits, use very advanced technology. My guess would be mental interface most definetly.

For CE, since this series is made of plotholium, I'm going to go off what I know is in there. In the GUNDAM acronym, Neuro Link is in the place of the N. Now, this is probably just a random place-holder in order to spell Gundam, but for the sake of this conversation, I'll use it as evidence. That would mean that their's a mental connection atleast from the times the first Gundams were built, and there's nothing saying that it wasn't there before then. So a mental interface is a given.

[Nanohafied]

For mecha to move...normally u hv 2 ways(derived Gundam wing n seed). U either use the keyboard...lik wat kira did but it is vry slow and inefficient. The most commonly used is the handles and watever by the side.

Normal mobile suits have joysticks, lik in the case of ginns, which r dam easy to contraol.

For GUNDAM...the dam complicated version...u have the handles tat controls yr acceleration...foot padles for back thruster...and a series of buttons infront of the panel. Various buttons gives a diff reaction...lik in the case of Gundam Seed EP 2...where Kira pressed a button for the raising the hand n slamming my opponent stance and he jus simply moves the handle to his right forward to move the Strike Gundam forward. And taking into account tat every action taken to do a certain is always repetitive...i would say the butons each d have a function...lik the Srike Freedom to fire its chest cannon 1st has to fly upwards, thrust out its chest and fire regardless of where or who he is fighting...its always the same.

Hope its not too wordy

[Int3rmission]

Thanks everyone for their interesting explanations.

I wonder if they ever released a Gundam encyclopedia that details the controls of a mobile suit??? Was their ever an official Mobile Suit Gundam encyclopedia?