59 replies to this topic

[Floppy waffles]

Not going to bad I think

[Krivvan]

Lights in general require quite a bit of experience, awareness, and skill to do well in. A ton of terrain awareness is absolutely necessary to maintain cover and peek effectively. The Locust is even more fragile than most lights and lacks jump jets to boot, so they're one of the worst mechs for a new player to use really. At their best they're not very good, and it requires a very good player to be somewhat effective in one. Your legs pop like they're nothing.

Floppy waffles, on 17 October 2014 - 03:53 PM, said:

Not going to bad I think

But compared to what you could do in a firestarter...

[Alaskan Nobody]

Floppy waffles, on 17 October 2014 - 03:53 PM, said:

Not going to bad I think

Well you picked one of the "better" ones at least.

If you are looking for more advice with it (or the other variants)- I would suggest this thread

[Void Angel]

Floppy waffles, on 17 October 2014 - 03:53 PM, said:

Not going to bad I think

Well... Your Elo is adjusted downward during your cadet matches; it'll be an uphill battle once you're past the cadet bonus - 84 average damage per match with a .43 KDR won't net you consistent wins over time.

However, while I don't think you're going to have an easy time of it, you'll still be able to take the piloting experience to your future 'mechs. My best Locust - while I haven't played it recently - sits at a 1.36 win/loss ratio, with a 1.20 KDR. My Spider, on the other hand, with more recent stats, is at 2.25 and 2.60, respectively. So while the Locust isn't a terribly good 'mech by a long shot, I do find it to be fun to pilot - I just hate fighting people with it - so keep your head up and remember that every time you get shot at, it's like flipping a coin to see if you die. No matter what happens, you'll get new 'mechs as you play and have fun, and everything will be fine.

[oldradagast]

No... just... no...

The Locust is the hardest mech in the game to use well. It is the lightest, thus having a hard time packing enough weapons, armor, or engine to matter, and it is the most fragile.

Worse, it does absolutely NOTHING special.
- It is not particularly small compared to other lights
- It does not have abnormally good hitboxes
- It cannot carry ECM
- It cannot have jump jets
- If it is the fastest mech, it is only by a tiny bit... not enough to matter.

On top of all that, it has some of the worse cockpit visibility in the game, which is laughable for a "scout" mech and one that NEEDS to see everything to have any hope of surviving.

I know it is cheap, but it is really a money pit and nothing else.

Buy any other light mech and actually have fun... heck, buy ANY other mech and you'll still be better off.

I know some people can make the Locust work... but that doesn't make it a good mech any more than my enjoyment of playing Awesomes makes them good. Objectively, the Locust is terrible.

Edited by oldradagast, 18 October 2014 - 08:45 AM.

[Tim East]

Despite it being literally my favorite mech to drive and my most-twinked vehicle, I would have to say no, do not start with the Locust. You'll want to get some experience with something a little more durable first. Weapons do not matter as long as you have some, and speed is not absolutely critical, but for a starter mech I highly recommend getting one that can mount a little bit of armor so that you can learn from more than one mistake per match. I drove a few things on and off before the wipe, but afterwards I really learned to play the game on the COM-1B. Commandos are interesting mechs in that they can be the fastest in the game, but the stock loadouts trade that for significant offensive power.

The Jenner is the classic chassis for light mech newbies, and the Firestarter is newer but also very good, and both of them will give you practice with jump jets, which are still something I do not use terribly often.

The main problem as I see it that prevents the Locust from being good for newbies is that even if you max the armor, you can make two mistakes, tops, before you explode. That means that you are going to have to play more matches to really get the hang of driving it and you may get frustrated from dying all the time. Some people do. Also, for the ideal experience in any mech, you want to kit it out in a custom loadout that suits your playstyle WITH THAT CHASSIS. For most people who drive Locusts, myself included, this means XL engines, since weight matters so much and you die in one good shot most of the time anyway. So, you know, they probably aren't as cheap as I think you are assuming, especially if you want to try a variety of armaments on them to decide what you like best.

[Fuggles]

Floppy waffles, on 17 October 2014 - 08:40 AM, said:

Just looking after my first couple matches last night I saw the locust cheap and fast, is it good for a first mech?

In case it's not clear yet, no.

Start with firestarters or jenners then go from there.

[Ertur]

Commandos are 2 or 3 KPH faster than Locusts, when both have max engines.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Ertur, on 18 October 2014 - 03:43 PM, said:

Commandos are 2 or 3 KPH faster than Locusts, when both have max engines.

1.8 KPH after speed tweak.

Full armor (-2 on the head) and max sized XL engine the Locust has 8.75 tons free.
Commando has 7.0 tons flat.

I usually run my Locust and Commando with the same engines though (180)

[Takashi Uchida]

I held off on these beasts until I had well over 1000 games in lol. But, if you are a naturally good video game player (I clearly am not), go ahead and give it a try.

[InspectorG]

Well, ill be the contrarian...

IF you like a challenge

IF you understand it will be hard and sub-optimal.

IF you play for fun and not to be 'competitive'...

IF you have patience and like puzzles...

Start with the Locust.

If you get good with a Locust, @150 damage per mach and 1+ kills,

YOU will be better in just about any other mech having paid the blood price in getting good with the Locust.

You will have built the skills with lousy tools, what will you do once you get better tools???

[IraqiWalker]

Floppy waffles, on 17 October 2014 - 08:40 AM, said:

Just looking after my first couple matches last night I saw the locust cheap and fast, is it good for a first mech?

Check my sig.

I love locusts, I've practically written a book on how to pilot them effectively, and I will personally say that a locust is not a choice for a first mech, period. It's MW:O Hard mode. It's for when you've actually mastered a few light chassis, and want to up your game.

The mech can do serious damage on the field, and become a real terror. The problem is that one can do such things with a Locust only after mastering how to pilot lights. I'm not talking about just getting master level in a few chassis. I'm talking about learning exactly how a light mech pilots, and what's good, and not good for a fight. Predicting 2-4 seconds at least, and so on and so forth. The Locust is not advised for a first mech, and that's coming from people who have been running these things effectively for a while.

Is it a bad mech? no. It's very fragile, and packs a small amount of firepower (on a couple of the variants, the rest actually have respectable firepower for a light). However, the main problem, has and always will be that they are very fragile. The locust has as much HP and armor on it's CT, as a commando does on it's arms.

[oldradagast]

My problem with the Locust is that it simply has no purpose in the game. If we had tonnage limited weight drops (which may show up someday in some game mode), it would have a narrow use, but that's about it.

If it were the fastest mech by a decent amount, say... 10 kph or so, that would be something in its favor, but even that really won't make up for its drawbacks. But it's not the fastest, and it lacks ECM and jumpjets, items that are arguably mandatory for effective lights in the game (one or the other, not both, as much fun as that would be), and it's low tonnage combined with the idiotic leg armor penalty taken straight from table top makes the mech rather useless.

None of that could have been prevented, but I still ding PGI for the horrible cockpit view. The Locust has more junk in your way when looking out the cockpit then any other mech in the game, and it's just silly. If the mech manufacturers can create an armored "glass-steel" window the size of a 18-wheeler's windshield for the Awesome (best view in the game, IMHO), there is no excuse for the tiny Locust needing more support struts than a bridge for its cockpit window. And it's not just annoying - the Locust is insanely fragile, so it needs super-high visibility to see threats before they kill it... which it can't do as effectively thanks to that horrible cockpit view.

Edited by oldradagast, 19 October 2014 - 06:02 AM.

[Bront]

Is the locust a good starting mech?
No. Absolutely not.

If you want to start out in something light, the Raven, Jenner, or Firestarter are all better options. Those 3 mechs have not only a better weapons loadout and room to carry some heat sinks, they have nearly twice the armor of the locust.

Once you learn the instincts of how to run a light? Sure, give the locust a try. But otherwise, they're just a huge CBill sink to a bad playing experience.

[Appogee]

Floppy waffles, on 17 October 2014 - 08:40 AM, said:

Just looking after my first couple matches last night I saw the locust cheap and fast, is it good for a first mech?

Hell no. Only for advanced and skilled pilots.

Get yourself a Heavy. At least you will last long enough to do some damage, and acquire a feel for the game.

Or for a bargain basement price next week only, buy Shadowhawks, which are versatile Mediums.

[Tim East]

I rather think that Light mechs are rather akin to light or fencing weapons in a stereotypical fantasy setting. They tend to be very quick at the expense of durability and raw stopping power. In such an analogy, the Firestarter would be something like a short sword in that it is arguably the most durable and practical tool of that type, the Commando would be something like a dagger, functional and concealable, but not quite as awesome at actually murdering someone in a straight-up fight, and the Locust would be something like a scalpel. No reach, no ability to parry, not really ideal for the job of murder by any stretch of the imagination, but usable for that on a purely circumstantial basis, i.e. IF you have the drop on someone, or IF you get inside the reach of their 3 meter pikes (I'm looking at you, Dire Wolf) or IF you run into a weak-looking person in an alley in the dark of night.

Sure, you run into the odd aberrant individual like myself or some of the others who post regularly in the underrated Locust thread who prefer it for one reason or another, but knowing the machine like I do, I have to second IraqiWalker's statement that it is not the one you want to start with. Once you learn lights on something a bit more durable though, I have to say it is a must-try, since you'll likely have a spare engine close enough to use it and it IS a really entertaining diversion, and there ARE some delightful bragging rights involved with taking something made out of tissue paper onto the battlefield and coming out with top stats all around.

tl;dr: I don't recommend the Locust as a first light chassis, but totally do as a second.

[Nick Makiaveli]

oldradagast, on 19 October 2014 - 06:02 AM, said:

My problem with the Locust is that it simply has no purpose in the game. If we had tonnage limited weight drops (which may show up someday in some game mode), it would have a narrow use, but that's about it.

If it were the fastest mech by a decent amount, say... 10 kph or so, that would be something in its favor, but even that really won't make up for its drawbacks. But it's not the fastest, and it lacks ECM and jumpjets, items that are arguably mandatory for effective lights in the game (one or the other, not both, as much fun as that would be), and it's low tonnage combined with the idiotic leg armor penalty taken straight from table top makes the mech rather useless.

None of that could have been prevented, but I still ding PGI for the horrible cockpit view. The Locust has more junk in your way when looking out the cockpit then any other mech in the game, and it's just silly. If the mech manufacturers can create an armored "glass-steel" window the size of a 18-wheeler's windshield for the Awesome (best view in the game, IMHO), there is no excuse for the tiny Locust needing more support struts than a bridge for its cockpit window. And it's not just annoying - the Locust is insanely fragile, so it needs super-high visibility to see threats before they kill it... which it can't do as effectively thanks to that horrible cockpit view.

Early design, but its cheap so there ya go...it was always one of the most commons mechs in BT lore.

That said, that's the thing I hate about Locusts. I enjoy running them, but if I could see what I was shooting at it would be easier

[ImperialKnight]

do not buy a Locust. The 1E and the 3M are the barely viable ones.

There are pilots who can do well in Locusts but they are piloting Locusts for the sake of piloting Locusts. They would have been much better off in a Jenner.

Everything a Locust can do, a Jenner does it better. If OP is looking to become a light pilot, Jenners are Firestarters are currently the way to go.

[Soulscour]

knightsljx, on 23 October 2014 - 06:51 PM, said:

do not buy a Locust. The 1E and the 3M are the barely viable ones.

There are pilots who can do well in Locusts but they are piloting Locusts for the sake of piloting Locusts. They would have been much better off in a Jenner.

Everything a Locust can do, a Jenner does it better. If OP is looking to become a light pilot, Jenners are Firestarters are currently the way to go.

This is very true. I consider the locust to be a training tool for top pilots.

[Tim East]

I consider the Locust to be a fun tool for mechwarriors who want to go fast and laugh hard.