Locust UAV - Sneak Preview

Sometimes Kixeye likes me, sometimes Kixeye doesn't... so I think.  But they don't pay me... you do.  My readers have overwhelmingly told me in a poll that you prefer for me to write articles based on preview data, even if it is subject to change.  The information in this article is based on the info mined out of the game files by the guys over at bp-information in their dump of changes in the update for March 3 and the image came from their Feb 23 article.

From the March WIP Post:  https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/531495

Running a little late guys? 

EDIT: WOOPS - I missed it (posted as promised) over in the strategy section...
https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/531947

It doesn't talk about the Locust much anyway, except for the mention that the Reaver mothership is "equipped with a new aerial weapon that swarms Forsaken ships like a cloud of mechanical locusts."

EDIT - THIS IS NOT A RAID PRIZE, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE THE REAVER MOTHERSHIPS WILL BE ARMED WITH THESE.

So here goes - ALL THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS PRELIMINARY, UNOFFICIAL, AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

BP-Info grabbed this teaser image of a UAV, which certainly looks very Reaver-like.  

That article also showed preview images of this week's new Forsaken Mission items and the Warbird Carrier.  It's been pretty accurate so far.  FYI they also showed two other hulls that we haven't seen yet.  One looks like a Forsaken hull similar to a Vindicator, and the other looks like a Reaver hull similar to the Hellhound.

This Locust UAV is expected to be a prize in the upcoming raid - Apocalypse (starting March 12th).

The following chart shows the key stats that have been mined out for the new UAV, compared to other UAVs:

Statistic	Locust	Hornet	Dragonfly	Scarab
Range	96	97	94	95
Damage	84.0	66.0	110.0	122.0
Building Damage	109.2	33.0	55.0	158.6
Bonus Damage	33.6	0.0	0.0	0.0
Reload Time	4.0	2.0	4.0	4.5
Swarm Duration	12.0	3.2	6.2	6.2
UAV Reload	0.8	0.6	1.5	1.2
Weight (Shipyard 2)	547	479	595	453
Damage Type	Explosive	Penetrative	Ballistic	Explosive
Fleet DPS	470.4	198.0	137.5	162.7
Fleet DPS/hton	86.0	41.4	23.1	35.9
Building DPS	571.2	99.0	68.8	211.5
Building DPS/hton	104.4	20.7	11.6	46.7
Other	30 DPS fire	-	Acc Debuff	-
Build Time w/off	20h 27m	15h 28m	15h 28m	20h 27m

Before I did any math on this UAV, the first thing I looked for was the reload time - The Hornet has a 2 second reload time, where all other existing UAVs have a 4 (or more) second reload.  The Locust also has a 4 second reload, which means the Hornet remains the UAV of choice if you are solely concerned about Override Launch UAVs (pinch in particular).  The Locust range is similar to all the other UAVs.

The Damage output of the new Locust is huge, although that damage is spread over a very long swarm time.  The other feature of the Locust is the fire pool - it does 30 DPS in a relatively small area, damaging all stacked up ships.  Moving ships will move out of that field, but new fields will be created as the UAV continues to fire.

When I thought about the long swarm time, I was concerned that although the Locust potential damage output was very high, the long swarm time means that the damage could take a long time to build.  I decided to compute one more statistic - DPS per UAV.  This statistic compares how quickly each UAV does damage.  

Statistic	Locust	Hornet	Dragonfly	Scarab
Damage	84.0	66.0	110.0	122.0
Bonus Damage	33.6	0.0	0.0	0.0
Reload Time	4.0	2.0	4.0	4.5
Swarm Duration	12.0	3.2	6.2	6.2
UAV Reload	0.8	0.6	1.5	1.2
Damage per UAV	1,882	396	550	732
DPS per UAV	147.0	110.0	73.3	101.7
DPS per UAV/sec	36.8	55.0	18.3	22.6

With the Explosive + Radioactive damage, a single Locust UAV does damage more quickly than any of the other UAV types, but when corrected for UAV launch rate, the Hornet (with its short swarm time) does damage most quickly.

Advice:
The huge damage output of the Locust makes this new Reaver UAV a very desirable option.  In order to maximize your damage, UAV Powercells should be used on any build utilizing Locusts.  With such a long swarm time, you will want to chain to new targets.

The high number for "Damage per UAV" makes the Locust very attractive for hit and run tactics - launch a volley of UAVs at max range, then turn and run out of range while the UAVs do damage.  This strategy would work best with a fast ship like the Lightning Carrier.

I've been a big fan of Hornets, and anti-Scarab.  This tables show that maybe Scarabs aren't too bad, but the Locusts eclipse the Scarab in just about every way (except weight).  Hornets will do their damage sooner and give more chance of a special UAV, but the Locusts blow all the other UAVs away in the sheer amount of damage they can do over time.  This will be a very good UAV against ships and buildings.

On the defensive side, the long swarm time means that the Locusts will be on target for much longer, giving more time for them to be shot down by countermeasures before doing their full damage output.  Full UAV fleets will generally overwhelm any reasonable number of countermeasures, but don't discount how much counters can reduce incoming UAV damage.
Update: In the comments, a reader pointed out that countermeasures do not shoot at UAVs that are on swarm (only incoming), and shared some video evidence of that.  Thanks for the info!

Update 2: With the long swarm duration and relatively short reload time, Locusts will be boosted by UAV retrofits (and you can see "Locust UAV" in your retrofit lab already) more quickly than any other UAV.

New Forsaken Mission Prizes - Nuclear Accelerators, Earthshaker Cannon, Eruption Pyre

The Kixeye update for today contained a lot of new content.  The long awaited repair specialist is here, and so are new some new Reaver tech items for the Forsaken Mission.

I'm not going to go into too much detail on the Repair Specialist in this article.  My quick impression is that it is fairly underwhelming - for example, the V2-H gets a 25% repair bonus once reaching Legendary rank.  This is appreciated, but even 25% is somewhat mild.  Even worse than that, the Repair bonus one step down, at Specialist 1 (70% rank bonus) is only 15%.  Many players won't sniff the 25% repair bonus; they will be at 10% or less, which really won't make much of a difference.  

Reaching Legendary rank takes a lot of time or a lot of coin.  My V2-H, which I have spent some time ranking, but haven't ranked compulsively, are in the Elite ranks, so they only get a 7.5% bonus.  I will also say that coining Legendary rank just to get a 25% repair reduction will have a VERY LONG payback threshold... 

So overall, I wanted to be positive about the repair specialists, but the repair reduction is not enough to make a difference in how people will be using their ships and playing this game.  So it's a fail.

I also see that the repair specialists do not require any particular rank in the Naval Lab... so I hope you didn't waste too much time with Lab upgrades. I definitely wasted the last two weeks, so come attack my base soon before my Apocalypse Mortar gets built.

Speaking of Apocalypse Mortars... one of the new Forsaken Mission items might pair quite nicely with one... the Eruption Pyre.

(Build times in this article are pulled from the Unofficial BP Information blog)  

Eruption Pyre:
As released, the power consumption of the Apocalypse Mortar resulted in many turret specials being unusable even with a Level 5 turret platform.  The previous "best choice" was the Slide Loader 2 (+8% power consumption, Explosive Reload +125%, Explosive Damage - 55%), and that was usable with either Turret Platform 4 or Turret Platform 5.

The Eruption Pyre becomes a choice when you put the Apocalypse Mortar on a Level 5 Turret Platform:
  
The special options for the Apocalypse Mortar now break down as follows:

	Apocalypse Mortar	With Eruption Pyre	With Slide Loader 2	With Frontline X-M
Range	65 - 160	65 - 160	65 - 160	65 - 160
Damage	6000	4800	2700	6000
Bonus Damage	1500	1500	1500	1500
Salvo	4	4	4	4
Reload Time	15.0	6.5	6.7	13.0
Splash	30	36	30	30
Spread	80	80	80	80
Equiv. Accuracy	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%
DPS vs. Stationary Target	481	885	578	550
Power	3,420	3,967	3,694	3,865
Power Margin Turret 4	8.19%	-6.74%	0.17%	-4.26%
Power Margin Turret 5	16.96%	0.83%	8.30%	3.50%
Other	300 DPS fire pool	+30% Projectile Speed		+40% Missile Defense
Build Time (w/Officer)	5d 7h 58m	22h 34m	6h 42m	11h 17m

The Eruption Pyre is clearly the best choice for mortar turret special.  With a better Reload and lower Damage penalty than the Slide Loader 2, an EP-equipped Apocalypse has tremendous damage potential, and the increased splash and projectile speed will result in better damage done against moving targets.

If using Victory Mortars or Meteor Mortars, the other offensive Special option available is the Fire Support Platform X, which gives the same +30% Projectile Speed, a higher +150% Explosive Reload, but a -50% Explosive Damage reduction at a cost of +25% power.  Slide Loader 3 gives +200% Explosive Reload at a cost of -66% Explosive Damage at a cost of +20% power.  I would take the higher damage, splash bonus, and lower power of the Eruption Pyre... wouldn't you?

Nuclear Accelerators:
At a glance I thought this new tech was like Strike System for Ballistics.  But then I realized it didn't have enough Combat Speed to let you leave out an Engine Special.   Let's hope you can stack an Engine Special with this...


Unlike the engine or ballistic options, this seems to come in only one size (no 1, 2, 3 like most engine or ballistic specials) 

The other options for Ballistics compare as follows:

	Nuclear Accelerators	Hardened Barrels 3	Cannon System 3	Autoloader 3	No Special
Weapon Weight	55%	60%	89%	60%	0%
Combat Speed	20%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Ballistic Range	50%	50%	35%	0%	0%
Ballistic Accuracy	40%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Ballistic Reload	0%	0%	75%	110%	0%
Total Build Time w/Officer	9h 51m	10h 45m	10h 45m	10h 18m	-
Bypass CG 3 DPS	456.9	326.4	430.4	463.2	326.4
Bypass CG 3 DPS/hton	43.9	30.4	33.9	43.1	48.6

So this is really like Hardened Barrels, but better.  It gives the same range as HB3, but at lower weight and adds on the Speed and Ballistic Accuracy bonuses.  Although the build time will likely be longer, the Nuclear Accelerator special will always give better performance than HB3.

I think players who use SCX with Bypass Chainguns should really be salivating at this... oh yeah, and you Goliath users too.  Autoloaders are less useful on the Chainguns with their long salvo time.  Cannon System's range penalty compared to HB/NA makes it not very helpful in most situations.  Be sure to confirm the build time - I expected this one to be over a day, not shorter than HB3.

Earthshaker Cannon:
This new Reaver cannon seems to be intended as a new & improved Siege Cannon.


How does it stack up?

	Earthshaker Cannon	Siege Cannon Z	Bypass Chaingun 2
Max Range	47.0	43.0	50.0
Damage	650	350	2620
Bldg Damage	1,950	962	2620
Bonus Damage	325	175	1310
Salvo	3	1	30
Reload Time	4.0	4.5	7.5
Accuracy	40%	40%	70%
Weight (Shipyard 2)	480	350	446
Bonus Armor	500	0	0
Fleet DPS	88.6	46.7	206.8
Fleet DPS/hton	18.5	13.3	46.4
Building DPS	517.0	252.7	295.5
Building DPS/hton	107.7	72.2	66.3
Build Time (w Off)	1d 15h 47m	1d 15h 47m	12h 34m
Other	Splash 6, Speed +5%, Fire Field	Splash 4, Speed +5%	27% Ballistic Bypass

(DPS numbers do not account for splash or fire)

In comparison - it gives the speed bonus and even better splash than the Draconian Siege Cannon Z.  The fire field strength is not shown in our blueprint preview, so that also is not considered in DPS above.  Although its anti-ship DPS is computed to be lower than the (similar weight) Bypass Chaingun 2, that does not account for the splash (even when the shot misses) or the fire fields.  

With NA or HB3 on a 20% range bonus ship, the total range becomes 79.9, and on a SCX or Goliath with 40% range bonus it is 89.3.

.

So we have decent range, splash damage, fire fields... yeah this is a usable weapon for Ballistic Hulls.  Just add the new Nuclear Accelerator... and you got yourself a meal.  Watch out for Reavers sporting this combo in the next raid... try to spread out if it shows up.

Overall, this content drop in the Forsaken Missions looks pretty powerful.  The re-release of the Vindicator in the previous raid may have been for players to have a ship available to take advantage of the new Reaver ballistics.  Even if you don't plan to use these items, they are equal to or better than their previous equivalents in just about any category of comparison. All three are in Tier 4 of the Forsaken Mission this week... don't miss out (all the Tier 4 items are fairly useful this week).  Again, I would watch out for the build times - they seem really good right now and we've known Kixeye to change them... double check before you start builds.