518 replies to this topic

[Khobai]

narc buff is a lie

[poopenshire]

Just for fun I made and was running a Narc/Tag Raven for about 15 games last night, hoping the new Patch would make it work. Needless to say in every match I would go through all my Narc ammo and only about 2 of the 12 Narc Beacons actually worked per match, and when they did it was only for about 2 minutes. I was about 200m to 275m away most of the time and saw the Narc actually hit the target. Several times I Narc'ed an ECM Atlas and sure enough he was still protected by ECM....

I wasted an entire Mech bay and millions of C-bills when I got this Raven just for team support..... any bets PGI will do something to make this right for me or the hundreds who made and run Ravens in a Narc/Tag role? Do not answer its rhetorical, we all know they won't do anything.

[wanderer]

You do realize there was no NARC buff with the patch, right? It wasn't announced with it, it hasn't changed one whit for months.

And yes, it's absolute junk right now. This is just what they want to change it to, no changes were made- yet.

[poopenshire]

Didn't need to be in the patch, I had this mech and bay wasted by a system thats is not working at all. Just wanted to show that its still broken.

people tend to forget if not reminded often.

[Victor Morson]

The NARC buffs aren't enough anyway. At all.

NARCs need huge, massive overhauling upgrades not minor buffs to get dug out of the hole they're in.

Again, Living Legends finally made them useful after a similar start by:

• Increasing their max range to 1000
  
• Adding tracking ability to 800
  
• Making every unlocked missile home on them in sharp arcs

And keep in mind in that game, it also would help you target the unit with artillery and fire brutal strafing shots from Areospace fighters, too, that's not even applicable here.





Now I'm not saying "do this to fix NARC" I am saying "These are the lengths you'll need to go to before anyone even considered it." You also need to account for, again, the lack of those other uses of it and do something like, at the least, double the ammo per ton.

Asking people to carry a NARC and multiple tons of ammo to do the job of a TAG/UAV is hilariously bad.

EDIT: Oh yeah..

MAKE FREAKING NARC STACK WITH ARTEMIS!!!!!

It still blows my freaking mind that a very expensive niche piece of gear specifically designed to help missile boats is incompatible with most missile boats. W. T. F. The fact the TAG works great with Artemis is just a double-down on this stupidity.

If someone managed a TAG+NARC+Artemis hit they deserve whatever buff they get. That's like winning the missile lotto.

Edited by Victor Morson, 19 February 2014 - 11:50 AM.

[Funky Bacon]

NARC buff yet? I tried using one today but it kept falling off after hitting the enemy once or twice. =/
No wonder it's so useless.
Also I recall people saying it was hard to aim the NARC? I didn't really think so, but that's just my opinion.

[Mechteric]

Funky Bacon, on 21 February 2014 - 07:45 AM, said:

NARC buff yet? I tried using one today but it kept falling off after hitting the enemy once or twice. =/
No wonder it's so useless.
Also I recall people saying it was hard to aim the NARC? I didn't really think so, but that's just my opinion.

I don't think the changes have gone live yet, best to hold off until it lands.

Speaking of 'landing', shots that is, while I've never used the NARC I think from what I heard is that its pretty difficult to hit faster moving targets.

Edited by CapperDeluxe, 21 February 2014 - 08:37 AM.

[Kjudoon]

poopenshire, on 19 February 2014 - 05:26 AM, said:

Just for fun I made and was running a Narc/Tag Raven for about 15 games last night, hoping the new Patch would make it work. Needless to say in every match I would go through all my Narc ammo and only about 2 of the 12 Narc Beacons actually worked per match, and when they did it was only for about 2 minutes. I was about 200m to 275m away most of the time and saw the Narc actually hit the target. Several times I Narc'ed an ECM Atlas and sure enough he was still protected by ECM....

I wasted an entire Mech bay and millions of C-bills when I got this Raven just for team support..... any bets PGI will do something to make this right for me or the hundreds who made and run Ravens in a Narc/Tag role? Do not answer its rhetorical, we all know they won't do anything.

The narc buff has not been implemented yet.

[Mavairo]

Ammo per ton will need a massive boost as well. That was one of the single worst aspects of Narc, in addition to it not working through ECM.

What do you feel is more valuable otherwise. BAP which counters ECM full time anyway, or a disposable short duration weapon?

Keep in mind the Narc launcher ALONE weighs 3 tons.
For that tonnage... you can have the BAP AND a Tag.

The coming buff won't be close to enough.

Edited by Mavairo, 21 February 2014 - 10:26 AM.

[ExAstris]

Mavairo, on 21 February 2014 - 10:24 AM, said:

...in addition to it not working through ECM.

What do you feel is more valuable otherwise. BAP which counters ECM full time anyway, or a disposable short duration weapon?

Keep in mind the Narc launcher ALONE weighs 3 tons.
For that tonnage... you can have the BAP AND a Tag.

The coming buff won't be close to enough.

And how many players use TAG or BAP to counter ECM? Almost none. Only LRM boats carry TAG, and even more rare are the players using multiple streaks that have a BAP.

Here the problem is the cloaking field and bass-ackwards mechanics of ECM. Remove the cloaking field, then we can actually have an information warfare system to balance.

[Mavairo]

ExAstris, on 21 February 2014 - 05:42 PM, said:

And how many players use TAG or BAP to counter ECM? Almost none. Only LRM boats carry TAG, and even more rare are the players using multiple streaks that have a BAP.

Here the problem is the cloaking field and bass-ackwards mechanics of ECM. Remove the cloaking field, then we can actually have an information warfare system to balance.

I can think of a few people that use BAP as a counter for ECM with streaks at least.

Cloak fields of ECM is an issue yes. But even without the effects of ECM even with these proposed buffs. Narc will still be pants, due to the low ammunition that comes per ton and difficulty of use.

[OldCowboy]

I use tag just to bust through ECM with my ddc which runs srms and occasionally ssrms. Sometimes use a bap as we'll just for faster target info(won't counter ECM if I have it too). As crazy as running a tag with my srm ddc sounds. It's actually pretty good.

Edit: also to stay on topic. I am looking forward to a narc update. I hope it's enough to actually see them get used. Having them not be knocked off after a smack or two is actually a HUGE buff from where it sits now. I do t know how nobody sees this.

However... I think it should stack with bap, arty and tag as well. Only time will tell how this works out. And hopefully that timer starts with the next patch.

Edited by Sekzone, 23 February 2014 - 02:27 PM.

[Kjudoon]

Just remember, PGI has a screwed up idea that laser targetting can be jammed by Electronic Counter Measures that operate on radar.

If you are inside an ECM jammer's range, your TAG doesn't work. Somehow your visual sensors can't see the red laser to lock on target.

Also, for some reason ECM on a mech, regardless of TAG can amplify the amount of time needed to lock to over 30 seconds regardless of how far inside the effective range the target is.

Yes... this is mocking the system currently in place because well, it's a joke currently. TAG should be affected by things like smoke and scenery, not ECM. It should also be the longest range 'weapon' in the game. Same goes for range being interfered with by snow on Frozen City or rain on Caustic Valley. That would have a lot more logical consistency since we know that this isn't modelling realism as some people whine if, God forbid, you bring up that concept of matching to some degree what happens in real life .

Edited by Kjudoon, 23 February 2014 - 03:58 PM.

[Corvus Antaka]

I really hope we see this NARC change soon. Looking forward to trying it out.

[Stardancer01]

Allow us to air-artillery strike NARCed enemies from the ( B ) battle map.

Edited by Stardancer01, 27 February 2014 - 10:19 AM.

[Kjudoon]

Stardancer01, on 27 February 2014 - 10:19 AM, said:

Allow us to air-artillery strike NARCed enemies from the ( B ) battle map.

[VXJaeger]

Paul buffs NARC and brings launch module w/ tonnage limits...17seconds later game is littered with ECM-Commandoes shooting NARC-beacons and numerous LRM-boats spray death... I smell new LRMgeddon developing here.

Edited by VXJaeger, 28 February 2014 - 12:14 AM.

[Satan n stuff]

Having had some time to think about the proposed NARC buff, I think removing the NARC destruction mechanic would be a very bad idea, it's simply too abuse-able. Increasing the amount of damage required to take out a NARC beacon to something more reasonable, like 60 or 80 would however make NARC more useful for solo play without allowing multiple LRM boats to simply spam NARC assisted missiles on targets.

[aniviron]

Heeey, so about that NARC buff...

[Kjudoon]

April-ish. Like they were saying.

Edited by Kjudoon, 04 March 2014 - 10:36 PM.