Nightcrept, on 26 May 2013 - 10:28 PM, said:
I'm honestly starting to wonder if they can fix missiles at all?
Not while the current missile code is still in-game, they can't.
Problems:
* (Excessive) splash damage
* Missile clustering bias towards CT
The first problem means some 'mechs will take more damage from missiles than others, purely by how their hit-boxes are arranged. The only solution to this problem is to remove splash damage altogether.
The second problem needs to be solved as well, and I'm afraid it's going to take a complete re-write of the missile code to do so.
However, once these two problems are solved, missiles can then be balanced by their per-missile damage (which needs to be around 1 for LRMs, and 2 for SRMs). Flight pathing and missile clustering should take care of spreading the damage over the target, so there's no need for splash damage.
Remember, in BT it was a dice roll that determined how many of a LRM-20 volley that hit; 6, 9, 12, 16, or 20 missiles, with only a roll of 11 or 12 meaning all 20 missiles hit. Damage was then allocated in groups of five: 5+1, 5+4, 5+5+2, 5+5+5+1, or 5+5+5+5 damage.
Currently, we're still running the old, broken, missile code. They've said they're working on a replacement, but they haven't gotten that into the game yet. One can only hope that they'll get it done soon, and that the new code has no splash damage and proper grouping (not biased towards the CT). If so, there's still hope for missiles.
Edited by stjobe, 27 May 2013 - 06:35 AM.