Bishop Steiner, on 04 June 2016 - 09:20 AM, said:
How good are the SplatArchers, really? Pretty bad. Because of terribad geometry. Now the Cyclops gets the the same level of bad geometry (better cockpit location... shame with all it's guns low, that doesn't really matter), will be considerably slower, and much larger, along with a Huge movement profile.
Outside of extremely limited ambush duty, how successful does that sound with a hard range cap of 270 meters?
I'm not trying to be a downer but you think the Cyclops might be good because you WANT the Cyclops to be good. And even if by some miracle it does end up being a passable SplatBoat... it still won't be good at what it's supposed to be (just as the Warhammer you mentioned utterly fails to actually work...as a Warhammer. None of the Meta Builds resemble a WHM remotely).
After the Archer fiasco, and Russ's recent return to Bunker Mentality, my rose colored glasses are completely off. I would LOVE both of these mechs to work. But I don't see one bit of tangible evidence to support that at this time.
More than ANYONE, with the upcoming rescale (something I have been campaigning for for most of my 4 years here), I WANT to have a reason for Optimism. PGIs actions and attitudes of the last few months are too shades of 2013 to do so, though.
With the way the new maps are, the gun locations really don't matter that much. It'll be just like piloting an Atlas, where you move cover to cover, and round the corner and beat the **** out of whatever is on the other side. As far as it's geometry, I think it's geometry will allow it to roll damage somewhat, as long as you stay mobile. It'll certainly do it better than the DRG, Catapult, Awesome, and Archer even I think. The CT doesn't seem to jut out as far, and the STs look big enough that while moving I think you can catch shots on them deliberately.
Sure it doesn't have the sheer tankability as the Atlas... but the thing is capable of carrying more than enough firepower to compensate for the lack of toughness. 42 SRMs man.. That's not something you want to be on the other side of. Especially if they come out of the front of the STs in a nice narrow grouping that looks like it'll be narrower than the Atlas's.
As far as Comp Play... who gives a ****? Comp Play would have us all running around in UAC40 Kodiaks, followed by whatever else crops up the KDK gets a Nerf.
This game is about as suitable for Comp Play as my C4 Corvette is for trying to take down a Porsche 918 on the road course, with randy pobst behind the freakin wheel.
Viable in the quick play ques? That's all that matters. And in reality where 98% of all the games are actually played, what matters isn't even the geometry...unless the Geometry is especially turrible, coupled with horrendous mobility, like the Not Awesome.
We'll never see a mech fail as hard as the Not Awesome, ever again.
I think it'll be viable in the quick play group and solo ques. Honestly that's enough for me.
Hell I can still do decent in my TDRs (all built to brawl all shiny and chrome), even squaring off against known T1 players, and groups. It's just a matter of adjusting your style to the new mech, in the ques. Granted, most people can't do that to save their life, but it is what it is.
I ordered the $70.00 package for the Cyclops. Because when a mech is carrying that much firepower, hitboxes and their meaning gets muzzy.
Hell look at the Direwhale. Slow as **** horrendously easy to hit CT, STs, Arms, whatever you want to hit you can blow it out just about no matter how it's facing, and yet the thing is still scary.
If you strap enough guns onto something, I'm of the belief it won't matter. People won't want any kind of face time against it. And the sickening thing about it, is it's going to be fairly quick for an assault mech. There won't be much in the way of Escaping it, if you are in a big slow mech.
As for how XL friendly it is, that's debatable...but I'm generally of the opinion that if you are IS, and in an Assault mech, you probably shouldn't be XLing it up anyway, unless your mech isn't supposed to be near the front line. (like a Mauler which not so coincidentally I think other than the AWS seems to be about the only IS assault the Kodiak Beats The **** Out Of.