112 replies to this topic

[Ovion]

Tomorrow it's here.

Kassatsu, on 16 November 2014 - 05:42 PM, said:

Not gonna lie I'm tempted to buy both because that Shadowhawk is probably the best of the lot, and well, I'll wait until the hype dies down before I actually use that locust... Probably use 4 mlas and ECM with max engine and armor. Ballistics on a Locust are worthless... Though if you could mount 6 MGs that would be a different story. What they should have done for that 4 MG Locust is given it some completely silly MG range bonuses, a fire rate bonus and maybe even an ammo/ton bonus.

Related since the same day, ice lynx is DOA. Gonna call it. Again.

Hellbringer when?

MGs on the locust are fine, though extra range woulda been nice.
Don't think the Mist Lynx is going to be 'DoA' either. It has ECM and a mix of Energy, Ballistic and Missile Hard Points, and jump jets.
Things like ECM, 3E, 2M or ECM, 2E, 2B, 1M will likely do pretty well, like the deranged love child of an Ember and a Spider.

My only complaint is we're getting everything so close together.
Mist Lynx + the Hero Locust, then the other clan mech, then the Gargoyle, King Crab and whatever else on Dec16th.
Not only will that mean we're flooded with Assaults at the same time / Lights at the same time making it take longer to get matches with our new shinies.

Yeonne Greene, on 16 November 2014 - 08:55 PM, said:

6x MG Locust was my suggestion for a Hero Locust, but apparently we aren't allowed to have fast 'Mechs packing lots of tiny bullet-spraying guns.

Eh, I think we get a damn good hero though, so I wouldn't complain.

ECM was up there on everyones wishlists, the only thing to 'improve' would have been Jump Jets.

JediPanther, on 16 November 2014 - 10:37 PM, said:

Ac2 on a locust is worthless i've tried it with the lct 1vp. Rip off the ecm to throw on the max xl190 add on the 3 mandatory shs/dhs then the gun which weight almost half the mech's weight with a nice half ton ammo and only 37 shots. I'm betting even without missing all your shots you'd have done a lot more damage than 74 with any laser. As for machine guns all you can do is sit and hope your team mates rip the armor off a few mechs before dashing in hoping to get a crit hit.

The hawk is great but since i'd just play it like an hbk I'll pass.

You've got to remember, you don't have to have the Max Engine, and the Hero doesn't need arm armour.

You could pretty easily run An XL170, a Small Laser and an AC2 with 2T of ammo
Could be good for a giggle at least.
You could even drop 0.5T of ammo to up it to a ML or a second SL.

[Strum Wealh]

MauttyKoray, on 13 November 2014 - 01:17 PM, said:

If the Locust hero can run a max XL 200 engine I'll be happy. We know what its coming with, but that doesn't mean its the max, look at other lights and you'll see there's a variation between what the variants can run.

If the leaked info is accurate, the Hero Locust has a maximum engine rating of 190 (and starts with an XL 190), and the Hero Shadow Hawk has a maximum engine rating of 360 (and starts with an XL 275).

[Y E O N N E]

Ovion, on 17 November 2014 - 03:08 AM, said:

Eh, I think we get a damn good hero though, so I wouldn't complain.

ECM was up there on everyones wishlists, the only thing to 'improve' would have been Jump Jets.

Perhaps, though I don't think the Locust really needs ECM. I just find what they did with it to be incredibly boring. It's like...more MLas spam? Do we not already have two Locusts that are good, nay, better at that? We also have two Locusts focusing on missiles, so the deficiency is in ballistics; only one Locust has ballistics as a primary and that one would be so, so much better if it could mount two more.

Then, of course, there's the engine cap, which was a missed opportunity. An XL195 would put the LCT-1V at ~174 kph, and would have been a cooler differentiator than ECM that will be about as useless on this chassis as it is on the COM-2D.

[Gattsus]

Hans Von Lohman, on 10 November 2014 - 10:20 PM, said:

On reddit there is a post about the upcoming Hero mechs for the Locust and Shadow Hawk (lore = the Grey Death Legion mercenary unit husband and wife leaders).

Hero Locust and Hero Shadow Hawk on Reddit

The Locust gets ECM, 2 energy in each side torso, and 2 ballistics in the CT.

The Shadow Hawk gets 2 energy in each arm, 1 missile in the head, 1 missile in the RT, and 1 ballistic in the LT.

It would be the first hero mech with ECM, but at the same time it is just a Locust so don't be expecting it to suddenly rip everyone to shreds.

The Shadow Hawk hero sounds good. I honestly cannot think of a better hardpoint setup for the Shadow Hawk that it already doesn't have than this.

I think that it sets a troubling precedent. The locust is under-performer, but despite this, the new paid model has unique properties that the other versions do not have. Thus, we have to be vigilant, imagine a Stormcrow MC variant with ecm!

[Ovion]

But it won't happen.
The Storm Crow is incredibly powerful, an upper tier mech. It's not going to get an ECM hero.

Locust however, is effectively bottom tier, and hard to play effectively.
It having ECM doesn't matter, as it's only going to make it marginally more effective, at the cost of some firepower.

This isn't the first time a Hero has had unique hard points to the rest of the chassis.

[Gattsus]

Ovion, on 17 November 2014 - 08:14 AM, said:

But it won't happen.
The Storm Crow is incredibly powerful, an upper tier mech. It's not going to get an ECM hero.

Locust however, is effectively bottom tier, and hard to play effectively.
It having ECM doesn't matter, as it's only going to make it marginally more effective, at the cost of some firepower.

This isn't the first time a Hero has had unique hard points to the rest of the chassis.

Clearly, in the case of the SCR, there is no way it's going to happen without angering the player base.

Still, the worrying fact is that the LCT hero/paid version has a feature that the non-pay versions do not have. This behaviour in the future might be expanded and monetised in other chassis versions, reason why, we should condemn this kind of releases.

In other words, at least as it stands now, the LCT hero variant follows the P2W model. I define as P2W as the act of locking content behind a paywall, not allowing the free player base to access such content, therefore yet again, segmenting the player base.

Having said that, this particular chassis, the LCT, it's pretty bad compared to other mechs, therefore Conspiracy mode on: I hope it's not the case, but this may be a small test where the developers may be trying to understand with what they can get away with without having a mob with pitches and forks at their doorsteps claiming P2W and asking for their heads.

Edited by Gattsus, 17 November 2014 - 06:51 PM.

[clanwolf3050]

Hero Info at 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

[mad kat]

Seriously want to get the locust hero, but i have spent FAR too much on this game and getting a bit fed up of the guilt of buying MC.

[MeiSooHaityu]

I would not want an A/C2 in a Locust.

Normally the A/C2 does too little damage. Even if the Quirk system makes it fast firing, now it goes through ammo too quickly. I'm just not sure it is a good idea.

[CrashieJ]

FupDup, on 10 November 2014 - 10:30 PM, said:

The ballistics will be 1.5 tons (2 MGs + 0.5 tons of ammo). The ECM is 1.5 tons. For energy, most will probably just use 4 MLas, so another 4 tons. This brings us up to 7 tons, which is able to fit fitted in reasonably enough. Some people might just skip using the MGs entirely because only 2 of them is kind of pointless.

with the ability to raise the engine cap for the locust to 200XL or more will have more space and better heat efficiency than the 190+3

[Ovion]

Gattsus, on 17 November 2014 - 06:47 PM, said:

Spoiler

Clearly, in the case of the SCR, there is no way it's going to happen without angering the player base.

Still, the worrying fact is that the LCT hero/paid version has a feature that the non-pay versions do not have. This behaviour in the future might be expanded and monetised in other chassis versions, reason why, we should condemn this kind of releases.

In other words, at least as it stands now, the LCT hero variant follows the P2W model. I define as P2W as the act of locking content behind a paywall, not allowing the free player base to access such content, therefore yet again, segmenting the player base.

Having said that, this particular chassis, the LCT, it's pretty bad compared to other mechs, therefore Conspiracy mode on: I hope it's not the case, but this may be a small test where the developers may be trying to understand with what they can get away with without having a mob with pitches and forks at their doorsteps claiming P2W and asking for their heads.

However, it has been done before.

Hero Mechs with something that the 'free' variants don't have:

Spoiler

Locust 'Pirate's Bane' - ECM
Spider 'Anansi' - Missile Hardpoint
Cicada 'X-5' - Missile Hardpoints
Centurion 'Yen Lo Wang' - Able to mount AC20 in arm (soon to be nullified somewaht with the release of the AH)
Hunchback 'Grid Iron' - Missile AND Ballistic on one frame
Quickdraw 'IV-Four' - Ballistic Hardpoints
Stalker 'Misery' - Ballistic Hardpoint

Honourable mentions
- Raven 'Huggin' - Higher Engine Cap
- Blackjack 'Arrow' - CT Energy hardpoint
- Vindicator 'St. Ive's Blue' - Higher Engine Cap, Extra Missile ports
- Jagermech 'Firebrand' - Arm Mounted Energy points, Higher Engine Cap
- Catapult 'Jester' - Higher Engine Cap, Effectively K2 with Jumpjets
- Awesome 'Pretty Baby' - Higher Engine Cap
- Victor 'Dragon Slayer' - Torso mounted Energy points
- Atlas 'Boars Head' - Higher Engine Cap, 2 more Energy Hardpoints than any other Atlas

As to P2W as a whole - Locked / exclusive content is not Pay to Win.
To be Pay to WIN, it would need to give the player a distinct advantage that cannot be reasonably gained for free.

There are equivalent or better ECM mechs available for free, most, if not all of which can be gained and kitted out inside a week of play.
Additionally, you still need to Elite the mech through playing it.
I don't think there's any mech in the game that would be legitimately classed as Pay to Win, as you can perform as well without having spent a penny.

Yes, you get the C-Bill bonus on Heroes, and you often reduce the time needed to get the mech by potentially a few weeks (in regards to casual play) when buying for cash-monies, but there's no real in-game advantage, apart from reducing earn-times.

And at a reasonable level of earning netting you 500,000-1,000,000 C-Bills an hour, you can expect to get even the most expensive mechs in the game (Atlas's, Dire Wolves, all running you around 18-20mil kitted out) you can get them within 20-40 hours of play.

Even at a 'low' level of income (250k an hour), you can still pump it out inside 80 hours of play, which you can earn playing around 1 hour a day for 2 months. (Or 2 a day for one month)

Edited by Ovion, 18 November 2014 - 05:26 AM.

[Gattsus]

Ovion, on 18 November 2014 - 05:21 AM, said:

However, it has been done before.

Hero Mechs with something that the 'free' variants don't have:

Spoiler

Locust 'Pirate's Bane' - ECM
Spider 'Anansi' - Missile Hardpoint
Cicada 'X-5' - Missile Hardpoints
Centurion 'Yen Lo Wang' - Able to mount AC20 in arm (soon to be nullified somewaht with the release of the AH)
Hunchback 'Grid Iron' - Missile AND Ballistic on one frame
Quickdraw 'IV-Four' - Ballistic Hardpoints
Stalker 'Misery' - Ballistic Hardpoint

Honourable mentions
- Raven 'Huggin' - Higher Engine Cap
- Blackjack 'Arrow' - CT Energy hardpoint
- Vindicator 'St. Ive's Blue' - Higher Engine Cap, Extra Missile ports
- Jagermech 'Firebrand' - Arm Mounted Energy points, Higher Engine Cap
- Catapult 'Jester' - Higher Engine Cap, Effectively K2 with Jumpjets
- Awesome 'Pretty Baby' - Higher Engine Cap
- Victor 'Dragon Slayer' - Torso mounted Energy points
- Atlas 'Boars Head' - Higher Engine Cap, 2 more Energy Hardpoints than any other Atlas

As to P2W as a whole - Locked / exclusive content is not Pay to Win.
To be Pay to WIN, it would need to give the player a distinct advantage that cannot be reasonably gained for free.

There are equivalent or better ECM mechs available for free, most, if not all of which can be gained and kitted out inside a week of play.
Additionally, you still need to Elite the mech through playing it.
I don't think there's any mech in the game that would be legitimately classed as Pay to Win, as you can perform as well without having spent a penny.

Yes, you get the C-Bill bonus on Heroes, and you often reduce the time needed to get the mech by potentially a few weeks (in regards to casual play) when buying for cash-monies, but there's no real in-game advantage, apart from reducing earn-times.

And at a reasonable level of earning netting you 500,000-1,000,000 C-Bills an hour, you can expect to get even the most expensive mechs in the game (Atlas's, Dire Wolves, all running you around 18-20mil kitted out) you can get them within 20-40 hours of play.

Even at a 'low' level of income (250k an hour), you can still pump it out inside 80 hours of play, which you can earn playing around 1 hour a day for 2 months. (Or 2 a day for one month)

Yeah, I agree. I guess the thing that got the the most is that ECM is a group buff and not a mech buff.