12 replies to this topic

[luigi256]

I'm pretty sure most experienced players will say yes immediately to this but,

As a newish player i just tried arm lock off for the first time seeing someone else do it and seeing the difference it can make when shooting up and down. That being said I was firing at long range and it did not help very much. I guess my shooting hand is not very still because at long range I had a lot of problems keeping the reticle straight firing up and down.

At short to medium range It is better but i also seem to end up looking inside of the cockpit when torso twisting a lot and that throws me off a bit.

How do experienced players deal with this? Do you just get used to it? Should my mouse sensitivity be lower?

Also i should note that I am currently piloting a highlander heavy metal on main and experimenting with a spider 5D on the side as that is my first light mech.

[CyborgDragon]

It all comes down to personal preference... i much prefer arm lock turned off myself. It helps much more when you're being circled by those pesky lights

If you're willing to give 'off arm lock' another shot keep in mind you can also hold the shift key to temporarily turn arm lock back on, which I find useful when taking those long-distance shots.

Hope this helps

[Least Action Jackson]

I say do what feels the most comfortable. I run with arm lock on, and (at the risk of sounding incredibly conceited) I'm a veteran who can probably out-fight 90% of people I come across. I take advantage of disabling arm lock with shift if it becomes necessary, but having all of my weapons converge to the same crosshair is more useful to me than the flexibility of being able to swing my arms around.

Bottom line, it's your call, friend. I believe pretty strongly that there isn't one single "Pro" control configuration.

[BigJim]

Both.

Some mechs I find utterly useless with Armlock turned on (Jenner, Hunchies, etc..), and others always use with Armlock turned on (Cicadas, sniping builds, etc..

With lock turned off should be the default, as arm weapons and their extra flexibility is a major part of piloting your mech, but some builds do work better with it turned on.

For example, the Cicada 3M, 2A that have no arm-mounted weapons work better with armlock turned on, because then you don't have an addition reticle to follow, and the responsiveness of the torso-reticle is improved.

So too with some sniper builds - It can be more valuable to have the arms always aligned to the torso to ensure that all your damage output lands on the same point, and this can be more valuable than the extra flexibility of the arm mounted weapon.

Personally I use arm lock a lot in the middle of a match, and do switch modes often (in some of my builds).

[Tarl Cabot]

Majority of experienced players would say no to Arm Lock, as noted for flexibility and a wider range of motion, not just the up/down range but also side to side.

As for motion of the cursor, if the mouse has an adjustable DPI, utilizing that and switching to a lower number while playing. You can also make manual adjustments, either using Options slider after tweaking the system's mouse behavior (turning off acceleration, slowing down the mouse, etc).

Now, with that said, making sure that your tics (weapon grouping) are on the same section. You would not want to set on the same initial tic to fire 2 PPC (arms: O section) and 2 Medium Lasers (center torso: + section) when the torso crosshairs are not lined up with the arm crosshairs. Why waste a shot and generate heat on a weapon that is not hitting anything.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 20 July 2013 - 06:19 AM.

[scJazz]

Tarl Cabot, on 20 July 2013 - 05:53 AM, said:

Majority of experienced players would say no to Arm Lock, as noted for flexibility and a wider range of motion, not just the up/down range but also side to side.

As for motion of the cursor, if the mouse has an adjustable DPI, utilizing that and switching to a lower number while playing. You can also make manual adjustments, either using Options slider after tweaking the system's mouse behavior (turning off acceleration, slowing down the mouse, etc).

Huge point here by Talbot since default mouse speed is frequently way too fast!

As for armlock... depends on the Mech and weapon config.

[luigi256]

CyborgDragon, on 20 July 2013 - 05:27 AM, said:

It all comes down to personal preference... i much prefer arm lock turned off myself. It helps much more when you're being circled by those pesky lights

If you're willing to give 'off arm lock' another shot keep in mind you can also hold the shift key to temporarily turn arm lock back on, which I find useful when taking those long-distance shots.

Hope this helps

Thank you very much Cyborg Dragon this is very helpful.

Also thanks everyone who answered i will be leaving arm lock on and using shift to turn it off when in a shorter range brawl when necessary.

[80sGlamRockSensation David Bowie]

For Snipers (especially Jump Sniping) There is a SERIOUS advantage to use it.


I still prefer to have it off.

[Redshift2k5]

Preference, range, and loadout are all factors.

Note that arm lock is not an all or nothing feature, and there are actually multiple ways to mix and match how and when your arms lock or do not lock.

• With Arm Lock on (default) you can hold the left shift key and your arms will unlock as long as you hold it down; this can allow you to make a quick snapshot when you need one.
  
• with Arm Lock off, you can press and hold left shift to force your arms to lock; this can be helpful for making longer range pinpoint shots when one is required.

[Captain Katawa]

There's no excuse for having arms locked 100% of time.
Yes I am angry because I just lost the game because the last survivor was an armlocked Heavy Metal that was slowly dismembered by one damaged hunchback which was too fast for locked arms but would be an easy prey for untied arms.

Whatever the mech is you should always have your arms free and turn the lock on when it actually is needed for a long range shot.

Lets think that you're a highlander wits gauss and PPCs. you better have you arms mobile most of the time and only when you're shooting long distance you should toggle the zoom and lock

Edited by Captain Katawa, 20 July 2013 - 11:51 AM.

[Stelar 7]

I keep my arms locked, most of the time and unlock for lights, or the death spin where lining up torso weapons can cost valuable seconds. However my snipiest mech is a quad ac 5 cataphract and I always unlock for long range, I find I can make much more accurate small motions when shooting distant mechs which has let me drive several back into cover and react fast enough to take the opportunity shots at poptarts and peekaboos.

[Corvus Antaka]

off. hold down the key to triger it to improve arm convergence shots.

[Captain Katawa]

Well the only actual reason to ever lock is to hit the target with pinoint accuracy from both arm and torso weapons.

If you lock your quad ac5 you're only denyng yourself of ability to shoot sideways.

After piloting the dragon for a while i got a habbit to use Ctrl (free look) to fire sideways so my arm is covering my sides and my sides are covering my center which is the most preferable target.

Cataphract is not that mobile but you if you got your right torso critical you could turn your left side on enemies and fire at then without exposing most vunlerable parts.