it is true Locusts are hard to hit, and outgun several heavier Lights, however they are very fragile, if someone manages a solid hit on the Locust it is usualy out of the fight, if not outright destroyed.
the Jenner is still a pretty good Light, and these days the best Light is probably the Arctic Cheetah, with good hitboxes for spreading damage
(the Spider has better) good mobility with jumpjets
(again Spider can be better) fairly fast
(Spider, Commando, Locust, Jenner, Jenner IIC, Firestarter, Raven and Wolfhound can all be faster) and the ability to mound good firepower for a Light
(only surpassed by the Firestarter), and finaly the ability to mount an ECM
(about half the Lights have at least 1 ecm capable varient, but the ACH along with Kit Fox and Myst Lunx can mount it on any varient thanks to being Clan Omnimechs)
now for the requested summary of the diferances between Clan and IS Tech
Clan weapons compaired to IS usualy have 2-3 of the following advantages, lighter, more compact, longer range, higher damage per shot.
IS weapons compaired to Clan usualy have the following advantages, shorter discharge time
(shorter burn time for lasers, single shot as opposed to burst fire for most ACs, fire all in 1 go vs in a stream for LRMs), higher rate of fire
(mostly due to the longer discharge time, weapons do not start to reload/recharge until they have finished discharfing), lower heat,
that may not sound like much but having to hold a laser on target 33% longer means you are much more likely to spread the damage or miss with some of it, and an Inner Sphere AC20 is 1 solid hit for 20 damage, as opposed to 4 shells each dealing 5 damage over 1 second with the Clan AC20 also the heat diferance is significant.
a lot of Clan equipment is lighter and/or more compact than the IS equivelant
Clans have both Omnimechs and Battlemechs, the IS only has Battlemechs.
the Mechs you have are all Battlemechs so I will not explain how they work, I will just explain the diferance with Omnimechs.
Omnimechs have a fixed base configuration, meaning you cannot change engines, armor or structure types, or heatsink type,
many also have other equipment ether hardlocked to the chassis or locked to omnipods, this equipment includes Jumpjets
(locked to the omnipod, only way to remove them is to find a pod without any, many Mechs do not have pods without, and many do not have pods with) Active probes, heatsinks, and while this is no longer the case when first released the Adder had a fixed flamer, as every varient had a flamer in the CT.
With all those limits on Customisation why would anyone take omnimechs over Battlemechs?
Weapon hardpoints are linked to the Omnipod, that means if your Mech has no missile hardpoints if any varient has them you can borrow
(if you own the other varient) or purchase the pod from that other varient (unless it is the Center torso which is fixed) to put it on your Mech.
lets say you purchased the TBR-Prime which does not have Jumpjets, and only has 2 Balistic hardpoints but you want as many Machine Guns as possible, and also want it to jump, the TBR-S has Jumpjets and a Balistic hardpoint in the left torso, and the TBR-C has a B hardpoint on the RA, so taking those hardpoints you have this, a jumping Timber with 4 B hardpoints, 3 M hardpoints and 2 E hardpoints, this gives you a lot more freedom with weapon loadouts.
unfortunately this means Clan Mechs usualy have a much higher initial purchase price than IS Mechs, but by the time you have fully upgraded an IS Mech including a big XL engine, Endo Steel structure, and Double Heat Sinks the prices tend to be pretty close between Clan and IS Mechs, however you can use that expensive
(usualy 4-6 million cbill) XL engine on multiple Battlemechs
(by removing it from one and putting it on another), meaning in the long term IS Mechs
(most Clan Mechs are omnis) can be cheeper, but just outfitting 1 will cost about the same as an Omnimech.
the Clans do have Battlemechs, the Supernova, Kodiak, and anything with -IIC in its name, anything with a -Prime varient is an Omnimech
Edited by Rogue Jedi, 01 March 2017 - 03:25 AM.
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