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to answer that question i would need to see the ratios of mecha games to total game releases over time. my ideal Large Map Long Range First Person Mecha Game has yet to be created. Titanfall 1 and 2 nailed the aesthetic but the gameplay was basically COD with double jumps, and larger-scale COD with no climbing when inside the mechs. i want something more like ARMA, with mechs that can go prone and lean (and maybe even dig trenches like infantry can in Enlisted) and with effective weapons ranges that are longer than the visible horizon. a 1990s tank should not be able to shoot farther than a huge mecha gun (i'm looking at you, mechwarrior series with your 900m max range '''long-range missiles''') also gimme some gosh darn mecha parkour, its wild that titanfall 1 and 2 focused so much on mobility for the pilot only for the titans to have their agility neutered to fit in the maps. in titanfall 2 there is a cutscene where your mech is climbing a mountain, i want to do that kind of thing in gameplay so badly. being able to navigate non-flat terrain is like, the entire and only advantage a mech might possibly have over other military vehicles. until that specific game is made gaming will be more or less irrelevant to me, an idle distraction full of annoying ads that i waste my time with until something better comes along.
Titanfall was the closest thing to a perfect video game ever made.
this take is objectively correct
the crown weighs heavy
(i'm looking at you, mechwarrior series with your 900m max range '''long-range missiles''')
Okay so a lot of the ranges come from Battletech, and the weapon ranges there in BT are mostly just for 'balance' reasons. Though it gets better, the in-universe reason why the weapon ranges are the way they are is because the battlemechs (and tanks, and everything else) have so much EW equipment as standard that it makes combat from out farther than the normal ranges a crapshoot, and pretty much the only people who can shoot out farther than normal ranges are typically named characters who are 0/0 gods amongst men (the typical mech/aero pilot is 4/5, 3/4 if they're a clanner, the lower the numbers, the better.). Though a lot of the novels stretch out what is standard range for the sake of better writing.
i kinda like the EW idea, i've only ever heard the 'fits on the tabletop' ranges excuse before, but its still a bit silly that the kind of missiles we currently use on trucks to attack things a state away suddenly shoot less far than the average infantry assault rifle, like if EW and active/passive defense was good enough that an Iskander or HIMARS could only shoot 900m effectively, we would stop using them in favor of some other weapon designed for those ranges in the first place, or use something that requires less EW capabilities like a direct fire cannon or dumb rocket. if there's passive defense that shoots down projectiles it would be cool to see that happen more often, but the AMS is fairly rare equipment in mechwarrior 5. i think some of the battletech lore clashes with the high tech clean angular aesthetic of the technology in battletech, like the mechs are ancient and passed down through generations in some cases with the original plans and factories lost forever, they should have like family markings and clan banners and custom retrofit parts and the like, but they kinda just look like futuristic (if kinda 80's retro) mass produced clean lines angular robots with the only customization coming in the form of paint jobs and which weapons you attach. the mech designs would make more sense to me in a more centralized, unified setting rather than the semi-feudal oligopoly in battletech.
i think some of the battletech lore clashes with the high tech clean angular aesthetic of the technology in battletech
Welcome to the mess that is BT's version of grimdark, it so desperately wants to be grimdark like it's more successful brother in 40k, but it falls over and explodes half way through the race because the guys at FASA came up with a setting with the intent on being very grounded first, and had to spend a lot of time trying to justify how the universe ended up the way it did by way of indirectly giving the roman empire a reach around. Which yeah, so much of the universe's premise is pretty much revolves around the fall of the space roman empire (The Star League) causing the universe to go to shit.
like the mechs are ancient and passed down through generations in some cases with the original plans and factories lost forever
A lot of people who write overall setting lore for the Battletech universe don't exactly know how mass production or logistics work, so much that one of the very first retcons was introducing "limited" battlemech production still happening throughout the succession wars. Another fun one that was quickly redacted, was the quoted number of jumpships (the FTL transportation for the universe) being at around 5,000-6,000, except that fell apart as the Invader-class jumpship (most common jumpship) with all it's docking ports filled with Mule-class dropships (most common cargo hauler dropship) had the effective cargo capacity of one normal 21st century blue water container ship. There is no way that only 5-6k jumpships was ferrying all that cargo for all the populated planets that is pushing 7 or 6 digits in total, a lot of those worlds being just as or close enough populated as Terra is.