Last time I played on this server I fought a Falcata with my Liberator. Ordinarily I mop the floor with any fighter 1v1, but this Falcata was wielding a Sidewinder and a Paralyser. I had no idea they had been made much more accurate in this mod. I fired a CD or a couple CMs every time he launched his missiles, yet half the time, unless I changed course or he fired them from a long range the missiles would hit me regardless. Considering that I was flying a Liberator, that is a very bad thing. How if a Titan or Sabre supposed to avoid missiles if a Liberator barely can? In fact, once I ran out of CDs and CMs the only tactic I had left to avoid the Falcatas' 20 odd missiles (of both kinds) was to pull away and evade eradically to throw off the missiles' targeting.
In the end he ran out of missiles, though. Then it was all over for him. Far too many people use missiles to make up for their lack of ability to aim, and that just ain't right. Missiles should be your secondary weapon, not your primary and I believe they should be balanced as such.
Cannonball and other high-payload missiles should become dumb fire, while tracking missiles such as Sidewinders should have their payload reduced (except for the paralyser. This missiles' purpose is to neutrilise a shield with one hit.) All missiles should have an explosion radius increase, also. This may also be a buff, but it will stop people from "missile ramming" ships; flying in close range and launching missiles to reduce the time the opponent has to launch a counter measure. But importantly, missiles should require energy to fire. Right now they are being launched on every single pass, and this should not be so. Making a significant energy use will force people to use their missiles more carefully and will reduce spam, and cause people to rely more heavily on their guns.
Quote:Far too many people use missiles to make up for their lack of ability to aim, and that just ain't right.
Amen.
Where's the balance in someone pressing Q and draining 1/4th of your hull every time a missile hits, while it takes MUCH more skill to dodge and inflict damage with guns?
Cannonballs in 4.84 had nowhere near the tracking they do now. In addition, the new missile trail is practically invisible unless you're in Omega-49 or Tau-37...
CMs seem to have little effect as well, while TCDs spin around in random circles half the time and by the time they detonate, the missile has already gotten to you.
Ok - two days ago I fought a falcata with 3 missile launchers + a nova torp.... 2 missiles are hard enough to dodge and you can survive if hit. 3 missiles and a nova on the other hand is a pure one shot kill. That completely kills the balance of a fight and it all comes down to the ability of the person being missile spammed to avoid them at all costs and at the same time trying to kill his oponent by blowing his missiles up with the cd. I mean if you are so terrible at hitting people with guns, go to Connecticut and practice...doesnt hurt and it helps alot. But mounting a full load of missiles + torpedoes and spamming them is just ridiculous.
P.S. I dont have a problem with people using only 1 missile launcher. I use cannonball on my fighter aswell but thats it.
The problem is not missiles themselves. Missiles are fine and I think their damage and tracking is balanced perfectly with guns. The problem stems from how people use them, and that's something you cannot police. You can impose certain restictions, like Mjolnir said. Increased energy requirements to me seems like the way to go, something along the lines of the energy consumption of a HCM on a fighter. It's not missiles that annoy me, it's the people that use them on every single pass. From people I've spoken with, it's not cause they can't aim (mostly) it's because they don't have the tollerance for long, drawn out fights. Personally I think those fights are the best, but that's just me, it seems. People spam mines and missiles because they would rather not spend half an hour or more fighting one person.
' Wrote:The problem is not missiles themselves. Missiles are fine and I think their damage and tracking is balanced perfectly with guns. The problem stems from how people use them, and that's something you cannot police. You can impose certain restictions, like Mjolnir said. Increased energy requirements to me seems like the way to go, something along the lines of the energy consumption of a HCM on a fighter. It's not missiles that annoy me, it's the people that use them on every single pass. From people I've spoken with, it's not cause they can't aim (mostly) it's because they don't have the tollerance for long, drawn out fights. Personally I think those fights are the best, but that's just me, it seems. People spam mines and missiles because they would rather not spend half an hour or more fighting one person.
i like long fights, but i dont like long duels.. i really do hate people who use 4-6 missiles. 1 or 2 is anoyying(oh wait. i use two on one of my ships) but more then that is crazy
' Wrote:<span style="font-family:Century Gothic">Violence is Golden</span>
An all missile loadout will leave you at more of a disadvantage, believe it or not. So does a bomber with two missiles. A part of me squeals gleefully when I see a bomber with missiles (Like Jake in 4.84) because most of them forget to strafe when they fire their missiles. Then I spoon feed them a SNAC.
But 6 missiles will eat through ammunition like a fat man through cake. And when you run out of ammunition there's nothing you can do. If you really hate missile spammers, shield camp until they run out or leave. If they frown upon you, just frown back upon their missile spamming ways.
Hang on, isn't the point of fighter missiles to take up a gun slot without taking up the energy that an extra gun would consume? Otherwise, I might as well have mounted 5 Magma Hammer's and a Magma Hammer turret on my Guardian, instead of substituting one of the guns for a cannonball launcher.
I would agree that it should take skill to use missiles. In fact, to use them correctly, it already does. Right now though, I believe that missiles are not secondary, but complementary. Missile spam is certainly unskillful, and can be easily countered with enough practice against such targets. What is much harder to counter is the sparse use of missiles, perhaps not one every pass, but maybe one every three or five. The trick with missiles is to keep your opponent guessing...
If you had asked me a month or two ago about what I thought when I saw a guy with missiles, you'd get a completely different answer. To that end, perhaps a change such as the reduction of the detonation distance of all missiles would be a good thing.
' Wrote:Hang on, isn't the point of fighter missiles to take up a gun slot without taking up the energy that an extra gun would consume? Otherwise, I might as well have mounted 5 Magma Hammer's and a Magma Hammer turret on my Guardian, instead of substituting one of the guns for a cannonball launcher.
I would agree that it should take skill to use missiles. In fact, to use them correctly, it already does. Right now though, I believe that missiles are not secondary, but complementary.
I prefer to think of missiles as finishers. That's always been how I've used them... for when your opponent is hanging on by a slither of hull and just won't die. But that's just me.. and I've only used missiles against npcs (apart from neutrilizers on my Stiletto...)
Missiles would work well as complementary as well. And imposed restrictions would not impeed this. They would impeed the use of missiles as primary weapons.
Quote:Missile spam is certainly unskillful, and can be easily countered with enough practice against such targets. What is much harder to counter is the sparse use of missiles, perhaps not one every pass, but maybe one every three or five. The trick with missiles is to keep your opponent guessing...
It takes a lot more skill do dodge a missile spammer than it does to spam missiles, hence, imbalance. Freelancer is a game based heavily on skill, and I believe freelancer should remain this way. Those with the skills should be able to dominate against those weaker than them in pvp, even if this is an RP server. It's one of the differences between this game and character-skill games like WoW and the likes. One should not simply be able to press Q a bunch of times and watch everything around them die. That's more of an RPG thing.
Quote:If you had asked me a month or two ago about what I thought when I saw a guy with missiles, you'd get a completely different answer. To that end, perhaps a change such as the reduction of the detonation distance of all missiles would be a good thing.
I don't believe there is a problem with the accuracy or the damage being delt from missiles. I believe it is the way they are being used that stems the problem. Energy useage or cargo/ammo restrictions are the way to go.
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