This! Everybody who doesn't know how powerful this is, hasn't a clue or is playing on story-mode.
Cyclops disappoints
- Thread starter LongRange
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This! Everybody who doesn't know how powerful this is, hasn't a clue or is playing on story-mode.
If you don’t care about a Gyro, the Cyclops becomes the missile boat from hell.
Armor it up, 2X LRM 20, 4/6 Move, 4 tons ammo. Breaching Shot/Bulwark Pilot, still moves in phase 2. If anything gets too close... you’re still 90 tons and 4/6, punch it!
Then in the front you can have a 2 AC20, JJ King Crab (or Atlas II) with Ace Pilot/Bulwark or Breaching Shot/Bulwark that moves in phase 2. Jump for 4 pips into cover, but screw everyone else’s cover. The Victor and Battlemaster start looking way better compared to the Orion, now that they’re in Phase 2 and still mount 1 ton Jump Jets.
Seriously, until now most of my Improved Initiative pilots were there to drive assaults. The Cyclops also addresses my longstanding concern with Sensor Lock as a secondary skill- now maybe you’ll want a pilot with Sensor Lock just because you don’t need Improved Initiative, but want a Steiner scout lance that moves in phase 2 that can spot for indirect fire.
Armor it up, 2X LRM 20, 4/6 Move, 4 tons ammo. Breaching Shot/Bulwark Pilot, still moves in phase 2. If anything gets too close... you’re still 90 tons and 4/6, punch it!
Then in the front you can have a 2 AC20, JJ King Crab (or Atlas II) with Ace Pilot/Bulwark or Breaching Shot/Bulwark that moves in phase 2. Jump for 4 pips into cover, but screw everyone else’s cover. The Victor and Battlemaster start looking way better compared to the Orion, now that they’re in Phase 2 and still mount 1 ton Jump Jets.
Seriously, until now most of my Improved Initiative pilots were there to drive assaults. The Cyclops also addresses my longstanding concern with Sensor Lock as a secondary skill- now maybe you’ll want a pilot with Sensor Lock just because you don’t need Improved Initiative, but want a Steiner scout lance that moves in phase 2 that can spot for indirect fire.
I am so glad the Cyclops Battle Computer is not simply +5 to Fury Accrual.
+1 Initiative to each of one’s Lancemates is a truly precious and powerful advantage. : )
+1 Initiative to each of one’s Lancemates is a truly precious and powerful advantage. : )
What about the CP-10-Q?
I'm not sure i get this version. Same tonnage as Highander 733p with 7 missle slots. The 773P i can load up with 2x 20LRM, 1x15LRM, ammo, heatskins and 2x MLs. The Q can't fit half of that with the same armour? Been a while since i played, may be i'm overlooking something?
I'm not sure i get this version. Same tonnage as Highander 733p with 7 missle slots. The 773P i can load up with 2x 20LRM, 1x15LRM, ammo, heatskins and 2x MLs. The Q can't fit half of that with the same armour? Been a while since i played, may be i'm overlooking something?
The engine is bigger, therefore it takes up more of the base tonnage.
One thing I do want to say about the Cyclops is that while I love it in my lance, and it ended up being my first career mode assault, I'm not a fan of the enemy having 1-2 of them in endgame fights. Fortunately I've always had my own Cyclops to offset the advantage of theirs, but I can't imagine going up against some end-game missions without one right now. The idea of conceding absolute initiative control to the opfor is just too much.
I think the +1 initiative for the entire lance more than make up for the firepower downgrade to a heavy mech equivalent. I dropped an Atlas to use it and i´m not going back.
It's not that bad. The bonus is a nice feature but if you know they have it you can work around it. Only one or two of my mechwarriors in the barracks even spec master tactician. I usually spec piloting more often than master tactician. (I do like to have it on my LRM unit, for early round cleanup of enemy mech that barely survived the last round)
I just played an assassination mission last night that I only took a Grasshopper, Highlander 732, Blacknight, and lrm Orion.
The Assassination target was a Cyclops initiative buffing a Victor, Atlas, Zeus, and Quickdraw?
They came at me diagonally from both sides with me pinned in the middle. I alternated aggressive advance for close up facing fire and retreat to cover for my BK and GH when they closed near to melee range. Supporting fire from Highlander/Orion. Rinse repeat. I smoked them.
The initiative was noticeable obviously. But not egregiously so. The AI should/will not be as adept with their initiative advantage as a human.
PvP may be different...
Got one and it got absolutely wrecked in its first combat mission. To add insult to injury, it almost took my commander with it. Well , at least the battlecomputer seemed to be salvagable and was in my inventory afterwards..
Its a permanent part of the unit, you cant lose it except temporarily. Just repair in the mechbay.
The Cyclops was lost permanently. Cored. The battlecomputer showed up in my inventory afterwards. I was able to put it in a Kintaro instead.
The battlecomputer showing up in the inventory was lucky. I´m glad with the cyclop because of it. I´d like to strap it on an Atlas instead. But i´m yet to core my cyclops.
I'm still fiddling with both variants' loadouts, but, as others have already noted above, 'your full assault lance is initiative 3 now' and 'more SRM for the SRM god!' are quite fun and useful.
More than being able to fit both armor and armaments to my satisfaction at the same time, I've been running into issues with having no weight left for heatsinking thingamajigs. But what do you know, there is this new guts skill line perk that helps out with exactly that...
More than being able to fit both armor and armaments to my satisfaction at the same time, I've been running into issues with having no weight left for heatsinking thingamajigs. But what do you know, there is this new guts skill line perk that helps out with exactly that...
the CP-10-Z is, in my opinion, useless, yes, i get +1 initiative but what good is it when im entering missions with 3 mechs? if you want to max its armor the only thing you can put in it is a ac5, srm6 and 2 medium lasers, making it as powerful as your average shadow hawk, if you want to have guns you better put expendable mechwarriors in it because it has 0 chance of actually finishing a mission
ac5, srm6 and 2x medium lasers = 143 damage. Yeah that's very low, but how is that the "only thing you can put in it"? First off, even at maximum armor that still leaves a minimum of 4-5 tons of unallocated tonnage; and secondly when tonnage is an issue you should never bring an autocannon, that's a tonnage dump when you have spare, which is the opposite of the scenario faced by this 'Mech. If you want a close-range brawler with those medium lasers and SRMs, try 2x SRM6s and 6x medium lasers = 246 damage. Personally I think this 'Mech is best as an LRM20x2 boat, just chilling in the back while improving the initiative of the front-liners.
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Don’t max its armor. You have 24 tons to use if you give it stock Highlander levels of armor, which is plenty beefy. That’s exactly 2 LRM 20s and 4 tons of ammo. Just don’t walk it out of cover in front of an enemy lance.
I have dropped an Orion-K with stock Marauder armor into 4.5 and 5 skull missions and come out with all my components intact.