I. Overview
Mecha Musume Tournament is a UT2004 Total Conversion where the gameplay takes on a Mecha Musume-styled twist. You take control of a highly customizable Mecha Shoujo or Mecha Shounen and get to equip your character with all kinds of uniforms, accessories, and of course, Mecha Anthro Equipment (MAE). Other features include a "sandbox mode" where you can literally hang out in various lobby maps, do stuff, and start matches along with sign up for missions that you can randomly generate or test out custom-made missions, be they your own or from others, and a unique gore system that fits Mecha Musume Tournament to a T--it's not a UT2004 derivative if it's not gory. XD
II. Character System--Equipment
The characters you control are inspired by the Mecha Musume designs of Shimada Humikane--cute-looking character with leg parts, weapons, and outfits based off of the vehicle (usually a tank) they are an anthro of. Unlike Humikane's original concept, Mecha Musume Tournament also includes Mecha Shounen--males (usually shota-ish looking) crossplaying as Humikane-style Mecha Shoujos for complete and utter lulz. (This has already been done in the form of Panzer Len Kagamine for UT2004. Thanks, xeno! XD)
Basically, your Mecha Anthro's equips fall into the following categories: Uniform (Headgear, Outfit, Bodywear, Animal Ears/Tail), Weapons (Primary, Secondary, Melee), and Mechanized Equipment (Humikane-Type or Super-Heavy-Type. They are as follows:
Outfit: This is basically just for looks and does not affect your character's performance in any way, shape, or form. Headgear can range from all kinds of hats and helmets while outfits can be either a uniform jacket, dress uniform shirt, or some other wacky outfit. Last but not least, bodywear pretty much consists of a selection of various swimsuits and undies for our Mecha Shoujos/Shounen to wear (unfortunately for the Mecha Shounen, most of said bodywear happen to be briefs of various leg cuts to the delight of their female counterparts. Insert straight shotacon jokes here. X.X ) Animal Ears/Tail are self-explanitory.
Mecha Anthro Equipment (MAE): This is the most important equipment you should keep in mind regarding your character. Just like how all tanks are different in design and performance in the real world, Mecha Anthro Equipment, or MAE, are just as different from one another in those same parameters. Unlike in UT2004, equipment weight is a core factor and what weapons your Mecha Shoujo/Shounen can carry is based heavily on that and in turn, that affects everything else from running speed to jumping height and even attack accuracy.
The MAE Type your Mecha Shounen/Shoujo utilizes will put him/her into one of three categories and they are as follows:
1) Humikane Type: These are your basic, all-arounder Mecha Anthros with MAE designed in the mold of traditional WWII Mecha Musume as designed and envisioned by Shimada Humikane (like his ever-famous M4A3 Sherman Girl). With the simplest form of movement most akin to Armored Core-style dashing and boost-jumping along with the compact nature of their MAE, Humikane Types are perfect for multi-role applications with their solid endurance, decent mobility, and versatile mix of weapons. The only drawback to Humikane Types is that the compact nature of their MAE does not leave much room for upgrading movement speed, Magic Shields (HP), and the like leaving them without much of a real niche that makes them stand out. On the flipside, they counter their inability to carry the much heavier weapons normally carried by Super-Heavy Types by being able to dual-wield most weapons they are able to use and are the perfect units for Close Quarter Battles or CQB due to their balanced offense and defense abilities.
2) Super-Heavy Type/Meister:. Pretty much more along the lines of this, Super-Heavy Type Mecha Anthros, or Meisters as they are commonly labeled, are more like armored exoskeleton-equipped shounen and shoujos. They sport the highest defense capabilities in terms of critical hit resistance and Magic Shield levels (highest HP of all three Types). In addition, Meisters have access to the biggest weapons that are too heavy to be hand-carried, thus making this Mecha Anthro Type the best in artillery and defensive roles. Their form of movement has a more vehicular feel as they take time to finish accelerating, turning, and decelerating to name a few things and that leads to their rather obvious weak point--very low mobility and agility. On top of that, the sheer size of their primary weapons leaves them unable to dual-wield and add to that their ineffectiveness at melee combat and close-confines combat makes these walking tank Shounen/Shoujos rather vulnerable if they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fortunately many of the medium-sized cannons and other large-caliber guns that are normally Primary Weapons on other types can be used as Secondary Weapons by a Super-Heavy Type Shounen/Shoujo.
3) (Boy) Witch Type: Pretty much the direct opposite of Super-Heavy Types/Meisters, Witch Types are the most agile of the three Mecha Anthro Types. With their MAE taking the form of aircraft parts, Witch Types are capable of flight allowing them to reach objective points rather quickly. As for weapons loadouts, Witches are more or less restricted to small arms like general-purpose Machine Guns, man-portable Rocket Launchers, and the like. They can still carry some of the Autocannons on the lighter end of the spectrum and are capable of mounting vehicular-style machine guns like Miniguns on their leg parts. Still, they have the lowest Magic Shield levels of all three types and thus a Witch must remember to keep moving at all times lest they enjoy getting gibbed in mid-air.
Note that Mecha Shounen of the Witch Type are referred to as Boy Witches--this is nothing more than fluff reference that states male Witches tend to be rather unstable as opposed to the more mentally stable Witch girls but in terms of gameplay, there's no difference between a traditional Witch Type Mecha Shoujo and a Boy Witch.
On top of that, you can choose for your Mecha Shounen/Shoujo to remain normal, go Neuroi (Gain HP regenerative capabilities at the cost of melee offensive capabilities, or go Pseudo-Data Weapon (Critical hit rate and melee damage increased, all defensive capabilities degraded). Unlike MAE Types, which can be changed on a whim with simple equipment changes, these attributes can't be un-done once chosen--that's why it's good to create multiple Mecha Shounen/Shoujos to play as. C:
Weapons: Each Mecha Anthro can carry a Primary, Secondary, and Melee Weapon. Primary Weapons are a Mecha Anthro's big punch and usually consists of various Tank Cannons, Rocket Launchers, and other heavy weapons such as Autocannons, Gatling-style Guns, and Vehicular Flamethrowers that have been modified to be man-portable (at least by Mecha Shoujos and their Mecha Shounen counterparts). Secondary weapons are akin to such weapon on a Mecha Anthro's purely vehicular real-life counterpart. Usually these are light to medium Machine Guns, smaller flamethrowers, and minelayers amongst other weapons. Last but not least, Melee weapons can pretty much be anything, such as an oversized combat knife, a Chainsword (Two-handed Sword with a Chainsaw-style blade), Forearm Claws, or Wire-Guided Circular Saws (Inspired by the Remote Control Disc Ripper from Dead Space, only that it's purely melee with the tethered saw blade being retractable) to name a few.
III. Gore System
Mecha Musume Tournament's Gore System is conceptually different from the UT2004 and Bloody Hell Gore Systems in that it's "very bloody while leaving the victim's body mostly intact". It is as follows:
- Like in Bloody Hell, blowing off arms will leave stumps that leak out blood while blasting off legs will result in a shower of both the target Mecha Anthro's legs being blown to bloody bits and the mecha leg parts being torn apart into shrapnel.
- Head shots no longer decapitate, but instead create an exit wound at either the back of the head, the side of the head just in front of the ear, or the forehead where blood will burst out of, depending on where the shot hit the head. It's gory while at the same time giving the victim relief that their Mecha Anthro still has his or her head (though the brain's pretty much reduced to a useless bloody mush inside).
- As for body-goring shots, Mecha Musume Tournament takes a different approach. Instead of reducing your foe to a lower torso and upper legs (UT2004 gore system) or an upper torso with blood spurting from where the now-pulped head, arms, and lower torso were once connected (Bloody Hell), Mecha Musume Tournament has you blasting your foe's entrails out of their chest and/or abdomen, or back. Depending on where the gib-happy shot came from, your target's entrails can either explode out of their back, thus leaving an exposed spine and rib cage or the entrails can explode out of the front, spilling internal organs from their abdominal area. All of this happens above the waist as a reference to the UT2004 gore system's "indestructible lower torso" gag.
To sum up the Mecha Musume Tournament Gore System, It's gory enough to satisfy those making the kills, those who like mostly intact ragdolls, and even those who get fragged alot. XD
IV. Summary
The concept of Mecha Musume Tournament 2004 is nothing short of bringing Mecha Musume-style gameplay to our favorite mod-friendly FPS in a way that appeals to fans of Mecha Musume and UT2004. With a new engine that reflects how a Mecha Shoujo and Mecha Shounen would fight along with the simplicity of UT2004's "pick up and play" status, this would be one idea no Mecha Musume fan should pass up. God, I wish I could code, map, and model to make this a reality--as usual, blame college. XD
Siggy under construction again since no TekTek equivalent and stuff. o.o
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