I hear MP4 is bringing back the Free Aim Reticule that was in MW3. I'm curious, however, of the mechanics it uses and how one uses it during gameplay. I tried to search for it but I couldn't find any topics.

There are many ways it could work, so clarification would be nice.

Do you toggle between Torso mode and Free Reticule mode?
Do you hold a button (Right Mouse) to use it?
Does the reticule return to the center of the screen once I switch back to torso mode?
Or is it mixed into torso turning? That is to say, is the reticule always free and the torso turns if the reticule is on the edge of the screen?
Or does the torso turn if the reticule is not in the center of the screen (sort of like a rubber band effect where the torso tries to align with where you're aiming)?

Thanks in advance for any information you provide. I'm just a bit uninformed.

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Unfortunately its not like mech3 or fortunately, depending on who you ask.

Mech3 auto centered, the one in mech4 does not. Ie you get hit by something your torso whips into the air something fierce then you have to get it centered again.

So I have created a little script that lets me hold a button down to move it around and when i let go it reorients to torso.

i hope that this is implemented. it makes a lot of sense to do it that way. (to me, at least).

I'm confused by this statement, I thought the MP4 version auto-centered when one gets shot.

If it doesn't, then it'll be a hell of counter against "rock-oriented" offensive mechs.

It doesnt, people do this themselves, its amazing to imagine this but when your hit when you use a joystick, the joystick itself is in a specific position and the whole torso wants to be at that position.

Same with the mouse, when your hit you auto move your mouse to move the whole torso.

When you unhook the mouse from the actual torso movements, the torso simply does not re center, so if you get hit by an auto cannon your torso flips into the air and you have to bring it back down.

Against computer opponents as show in my video it doesnt matter as the game doesnt really arm mechs with much firepower, but I had a fight against a beta tester at one point that was using an anni, and they flipped my torso so hard it made it impossible to play.

I don't really get how that is a big disadvantage. When using a free ret, you have keys for torso twisting+pitch right? You just use those to center yourself again like what you already do with a mouse/stick. Also you have a bit of tolerance for getting knocked, since your reticle can move across the screen a number of degrees independent of where your torso is pointing. But hey, I haven't played with it yet.

this just makes the Gyros much more of a "must" if you wanna use this

Once a new version is released and we get some more testing in I will run a vid with a fellow tester and give you an example.

But wait, by auto center do you mean what already happens with MW4 when you get hit? Like if I don't touch my controls and get hit by something, the torso will first recoil but then quickly jerk back to something close to it's former position.

Or do you mean how it worked with MW3, which was similar to this but much more pronounced.

In mech4 the game is not actually auto centering, it is auto centering because your joystick auto centers, it is orienting to the joystick.

When you are in mouse as torso mode you also center based on the fact that you jerk the mouse down over your target, so kick isnt as noticeable.

When free ret is on, there is nothing to orient the torso to, so the only way to orient the torso back after getting knocked around is to set the ret back to the torso or use a joystick in combo with the free ret (requiring you to be ambidextrous).

Free ret mode is really making the mouse as the input for the hat. If you run your joystick and hit the hat button it can fire in between moving the ret from your center to the right or left arm, in free ret mode i think they just took this and made it attach to the mouse.

I think I get what you mean, but I still don't see how it would be a problem when you have control of your torso x/y axis through another four keys. I'll just wait for the video

Sounds like mouse users will be pulling back a bit often against kickback loadouts. Either their hand falls off the desk or they'll basically be scratching their desk like a cat, mouse in hand.

A rubber band effect that combines free aim and torso turning seems like the ideal solution to the above issue... but it'll probably be too hard to code in time.