11 replies to this topic

[Zordicron]

After waiting for my suckballs ISP to let me download the patch for 5 hours, I jumped in, saw 65% heavy%, and went to my .EXE's.

Prime first, of course. Couple things-

The JJ are.... like you would expect. With some MASC, you can cover a gap at least, like in that video. they are pretty pointless for verticals, though, with MASC, and good timing, you can SPRINT up the "stairs" in bog, I mean freegin fast. So that is the optimal slope, anything more and your feet hit, less and, well you prolly arent jumping anyway.

MASC:
Well, it gives a fairly good duration, initially. it cools off, slow. Like our heat scale, once it is pushed up, it takes a good while to come off it. More play time will tell on this, it has its uses for sure.

It is fixed in the LT, which is mostly a non issue as there are no hardpoints there.

MOST IMPORTANT ABOUT MASC:

The mech is balanced around MASC use. Now, I know that sounds like one of those "well duh" things. What i mean is, without masc, obviously, it is a 95 ton really tall assault. EXCEPT, it has an freegin XL380 in it. now, maybe it's just me, but it turns and accel/decel like an Atlas with a STD300.

That is to say, it was balanced around using MASC to overcome its giganticness. As opposed to having a 95 ton mech with an XL380, that is surprisingly nimble compared to say, a 95 ton mech with a STD 310, we get a mech that feels sluggish as all get out, and I found myself toggling on MASC in spurts, CONSTANTLY, to get the thing to respond. Respond it does Accel wise, REALLY well. however, I feel like the non-masc operation of the mech paid a price for the MASC operation. I would much rather see a smaller ACCEL buff from MASC and better baseline performance.

At least, right now. Maybe it will grow on me- who knows, but my first drop my first thought was, "my goodness, isnt this thing supposed to be like 50% engine?" I mean you pay in pod space for the XL380, I guess I wish it showed more. Then again, I have not seen the effect of speed tweak and double basics combined with MASC yet. remember, this is very early. Just want to put this out there so people don;t think this is some new Pay To WIn nonsense. it is certainly not a giant Stormcrow out of the box.



Now then- more normal things, like weapons etc.

I ran my Prime, in several configs.
2x UAC5, 5x ERML.
2xLPL, 3ERML
Gauss, 3 ERML
3x ERPPC

What I found with the Prime:
It has that RT ballistic point(2 really) and laser arms, or ballistic arm. you cant run 3x ballistics with ammo, maybe some AC2's, but that is pushing it IMO. Not enogh pod space. double gauss leaves like 2 tons for ammo or something, if that gives you an idea. What struck me was:

Those arms. Especially the right one, with lasers.

Holy ****, they duff the ground worse then anything I have ever run. it doesnt look like it on the model in the pics, but, Jeebus, aim up at an enemy on a ledge? YOU WILL HIT THE LEDGE, right up to the point of shooting over the top of the enemy, all the while it will shoot you back. Enemy can shoot you in the guts over that rock in the road? You will hit the rock.

The high RT mount is the only weapon that can shoot from any amount of cover. now, it does this well, and if you can time a gauss charge with MASC toggle, it can peek really well. Except it is a single gauss, so, meh. I did some of this with twin UAC5s, not bad, but easy to get greedy and show too much face time.

Bottom line: The arms are low. REALLY low, and fire like they are coming out of your kneecaps(compared to running other stuff) which is prolly a result of the mech being 1000 feet tall(I dont mind that actually) and just me not being used to the distance between arms and cockpit view. Sort of like that first run in a MAd Dog, where it feels like the mech gets hooked on everything because the cockpit and alignment of mech is a bit unique.

End of story here: CT feels a little squishy, hard to spread dmg, but I dont have basics all unlocked much less doubled. However, on more then one occasion i had dmg spread from my front CT, to my BACK ST, rather then front ST, so the hitboxes are going to take some getting used to. IMO, it could stand a structure buff on CT, being a 95 ton assault and all- it isn;t release day Kintaro, but it caught me by surprise how much dmg sucked into my gut.

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And now, the bonus part!! yes, I know this is getting loing, one last thing-

I ordered early, got the D variant. 10 laser hardpoints, 7 in right arm, 2 RT, 1 LT, 2 missile in left arm.

THIS IS THE .EXE.

Those ST mounts, they are what makes the chassis function. They are high enough to shoot without showing the whole giant mech to your enemy. I put ERPPC, one in each ST, 6 ERSL in the right arm, and 2x SSRM4 in left with one ton ammo, rest DHS. I am not sold on SSRM yet, might go pair of LRM5. Thought was for lights, to avoid the heat of ERPPC in real close quarters. .EXE can;t really chase, and doesnt dare move into an open ally to pursue a light mech without knowing where all the enemy are. this made the SSRM situational IMO, and I think some LRM "spam" would deturn a light, and be more useful overall.

the real story though, is the "high" mount ERPPC, with good range and an actual ability to shoot from some cover. The ERSL smashfist works wonders too when the enemy decides to get in yor face. The loadout is hot, for sure, but it just requires some trigger discipline, and not smash alpha strike for every situation.

IMO, I will likely not run the other variants without the LT from the D variant. A single high ballistic in the RT is not sufficient IMO for a mech this size. I think it will serve with huge small/medium laser spam as a front line deathblob type mech for now without that D LT, but it comes into it's own with that LT mount.

OK, this is really long so, fin

[Juodas Varnas]

You're saying it turns and accels like an Atlas, but have you mastered it already? Mastering gives like 50% accel/deccel bonuses.

I mean the bonuses you get from skills are stupidly huge.
Should be 10% at most.

Anyway, i feel, people should master them before judging on that.


But when it comes to hitboxes, especially the damage to the back through the front, well, it seems a lot of mechs suffer from that. I've been back-cored through the front many, many times. (Mostly in Centurions and Urbanmechs, but happens with basically any mech)

JJs were expected to suck, since it's an assault mech and PGI really likes their hoverjets...

Arms being low-slung, well that's a problem, but that comes with having lower actuators.

Edited by Juodas Varnas, 16 June 2015 - 07:57 PM.

[Zordicron]

Juodas Varnas, on 16 June 2015 - 07:53 PM, said:

You're saying it turns and accels like an Atlas, but have you mastered it already? Mastering gives like 50% accel/deccel bonuses.

Yes, I said a few times I havent gotten even basics all done yet, and this is early.

However, I am also comparing this mech to other stuff, like my The Munchie I bought and put a STD.330 in, The DWF S I picked up on sale a while ago for c-bills, etc, which I recently also played without basics. And, in that light, I feel the .EXE has paid in base performance because it has MASC to cover it. Basically, if MASC wasnt on the mech, it would be a real clunker when it comes to movement, other then straight line flat ground speed, which is obviously not bad for a 95 ton machine on account of the XL380. And that is because it HAS the XL380, it SHOULD be more nimble IMO then my Munchie with a STD330 in it, but it doesnt feel that way.

Edited by Eldagore, 16 June 2015 - 08:03 PM.

[CaliburZero]

So far in the few matches I have played... I like it for all things save for one, huge thing about it. This damn thing is a walking CT hitbox. I've tried twisting as much as I can, no effect.

[One Medic Army]

I've found it to be incredibly effective when backed up by your team (like most assaults), and fast enough you can actually keep up with them (unlike the dire whale).

[Khobai]

Quote

This damn thing is a walking CT hitbox.

And Daishis arnt walking CT hitboxes?

The Exec's entire torso is the same size as just the Daishis CT.

Honestly its a 95 ton mech. Its not going to not get hit in the CT.

[El Bandito]

380XL is fine. And the MASC gives unparalleled mobility to retreat when you go around the corner and face the guns of 3+ enemy mechs.

Edited by El Bandito, 16 June 2015 - 09:07 PM.

[Dracol]

Any reviews on mechs by a person who does not have double basic unlocked is near useless imho. You comments about the sluggishness of the Mech and how it was balanced around MASC, may or may not change when you've got the double basics unlocked. But until then it is an inaccurate, although detailed and well thought out.

[Khobai]

people need to learn how to torso twist too.

exec has a 380 friggin engine which makes it very good at torso twisting unlike the daishi.

the daishi needs a CT fix way more than the exec does. because the daishi cant torso twist or engage masc and run away.

[CaliburZero]

Khobai, on 16 June 2015 - 08:58 PM, said:

And Daishis arnt walking CT hitboxes?

The Exec's entire torso is the same size as just the Daishis CT.

Honestly its a 95 ton mech. Its not going to not get hit in the CT.

Really, comparing the EXE to DWF? The DWF has blistering firepower to discourage just staring at it to death and serves a very different purpose on the battlefield. Plus, twsting, either they have great aim or the ST hitboxes are very small.

I haven't gotten to see what the hitboxes look like, can somebody post a picture that shows them for me?

Edited by CaliburZero, 16 June 2015 - 09:46 PM.

[Paigan]

Eldagore, on 16 June 2015 - 07:48 PM, said:

[...]

The JJ are.... like you would expect. With some MASC, you can cover a gap at least, like in that video. they are pretty pointless for verticals, though, with MASC, and good timing, you can SPRINT up the "stairs" in bog, I mean freegin fast. So that is the optimal slope, anything more and your feet hit, less and, well you prolly arent jumping anyway.

MASC:
Well, it gives a fairly good duration, initially. it cools off, slow. Like our heat scale, once it is pushed up, it takes a good while to come off it. More play time will tell on this, it has its uses for sure.
[...]

EXE's JJs are no more pointless for vertical hights than those of any other comparable mech.
You can easily pass about 1 EXE height vertically (e.g. walls on Mining Collective) which is clearly enough for an assault mech.
You're no light scout flying all over the place, but more like an armored whale.

You can sprint up the bog stairs with any JJ-mech, even DWF, without timing, if you just hammer the JJ button constantly.
No magic there and no masc needed.

MASC is not about the duration. It's about very short bursts of bonus agility to reach max speed (or stop in case of deceleration) in a moment's notice.

My impression: with the push of a button, the EXE handles at least like a TBR. ... for a short time.

(and don't get all smartass with "but have you mastered it?". Compare an unmastered EXE to an unmastered TBR and a mastered EXE to a mastered TBR. Separation of concearns. Basic principle of logic thinking)


So IMHO, the initial statemens are moreless all wrong.
The part about the EXE-D, however, I can confirm.
2 large lasers high in the torso is quite nice.
All the other variants are painfully missing them.

Edited by Paigan, 17 June 2015 - 12:26 AM.

[Duke Nedo]

First impression is that it's much more interesting than I had feared! The ST mounts are unexpectedly high, MASC really really agile even without eliting it so positively surprised here.