WarHippy, on 13 November 2014 - 10:06 AM, said:
Lasers need to be changed. They are too easy to use, do too much damage, and cost too little. I see lasers used in every single match. I see them used by players in a 1v1 brawl trying to get in more damage.
I know they have a role in the game, but it needs more cost, risk, and skill to use. Point and click from almost as far as you like. That's more easy mode than LRMs...
1. Lasers have weight. Strikes do not.
2. Lasers have heat. Strikes do not.
3. Lasers have limited range. Strikes do not (unless you're on alpine, but it's not like people fight at 2000m even 1/4th of the time there)
4. Lasers dole their damage out over time, and not all-at once. Strikes are insta-hit.
5. Lasers don't shake enemy cockpits at all. Strikes most definitely do.
6. You would have to mount 5 Large Lasers just to do as much damage as a single strike shell with one click of the button - and you'd probably overheat if you fired a second time, no matter how many double heat sinks you have.
Drawbacks balance lasers. A lack of drawbacks is what unbalances strikes.
Voivode, on 13 November 2014 - 10:41 AM, said:
Range modules, cooldown modules, the wallhack seismic module, radar deprivation causing instant lock-loss, cool shots that are like saving throws for shutdowns, a UAV that overrides ECM and provides LRM locks and risk free scouting....
ALL of the modules have a significant impact on the game. I for one like the modules. It adds a layer to the game that is a nice touch.
None of those modules confer a direct damage bonus. It's merely that simple.
I agree that all of those modules are fun,
because they have drawbacks:
- Cooldown modules don't accordingly come with heat reduction (admittedly range modules don't have that problem)
- Seismic modules have severely limited range, AND you have to be sitting still for it to work
- Radar deprivation is still affected by the "target decay" module (instead of instantaneous, they still get a couple seconds of lock)
- Cool shots have limited capability (the 40k cbills one is pretty effective, but the expense adds up quick if you use it often)
- UAVs can easily be seen and shot down (a little hard to hit, but hey)
The only 'drawback' to a strike consumable is the fact that it's a one-time-use. The 'delay' between smoke and it hitting is negligible, the 'cooldown' between uses is too short to be noticable, and the c-bill cost is also dubious because the damage done helps pay for itself.
So in practical terms, it has no drawbacks. That's the issue.
Mystere, on 13 November 2014 - 04:07 PM, said:
I've been barreling through the red smoke for weeks now instead of avoiding it and I have been killed only once. So either I am a really special snowflake or someone here is a really unlucky *******.
I'd be curious to know how much of your damage taken per-match was dealt soley by those strikes then. I'd be willing to bet it'd be minimum 15% - pretty significant number for being instantaneous damage, and if you get hit by 2-3 of those in a single game...then what happened?
Nightmare1, on 13 November 2014 - 08:30 PM, said:
I took three hits from a single arty in my HBK the other night. Didn't even open my armor. Hard to call that OP. Another night I played 14 matches straight and only got hit by strikes twice (again, neither opening my armor), both of which were separated in different matches. Hard to call that OP.
Actually, since the nerfs awhile back, strikes have become rather tame, especially Air Strikes (those are almost laughable!). Individually they aren't much of a threat. It's when teams bring 12 to the table that they become a problem. Rather than nerfing them through the floor, PGI should just restrict the number of strikes to three per team, usable only by lance leaders.
Oh yeah, you should learn to maneuver too. I've successfully piloted a Dire Wolf clear of a strike zone, so I know it's possible to evade them if you are alert and keep moving. Stationary pilots are practically begging for Red Team to strike them, shoot them, or walk up and write insults in the grime on their windows. Bottomline, stay alert and stay mobile.
Finally, don't bunch up! That's also begging for strikes, and it cuts down on your team's maneuverability and lines of fire. Stay together but don't crowd. I usually tell my pilots to stay about 50 - 100 meters apart as best as possible so that friendlies have room to maneuver and fire. Rolling death ball does not mean you literally have to become a rolling ball of Mechs that dies. Just stay grouped up and moving together and you'll be fine.
Overall, I'm really getting tired of folks posting up these "I got my butt killed by this game feature, please nerf it!" threads. There's one for nearly everything in this game except Flamers and Machine Guns. Heaven help us all if PGI buffs those; the Griefers will be out in force demanding they be nerfed back down!
I feel like we've discussed this before, but I digress.
1. The strike either missed you in your hunchie, or you managed to tank it on all your most-armored locations. Either way, you took a considerable bite in damage for no perceivable trade-off.
2. Just because most pugs don't always use it 100% of the time doesn't mean it's not broken.
3. I would almost actually agree that strikes are only a problem because you can bring 12 of them (potentially) per team/game. Taken as a one-time use for an entire team per match, yeah, it would be no big deal at all. Three would be livable.
The problem with this idea, though, is finding a way to enforce such restrictions, and making sure there's no bugs or exploits, and so on - especially with everything that's already on PGI's development plate.
I think that adjusting the cooldown times (both between uses and the time between smoke-pop and strike-hit), damage output, and possibly accuracy/splash range, would all be far easier to access, while still allowing strikes to be an "area of denial" consumable and worth the 40k-cbills.
In fact, when it comes to area of denial, a longer time between the "smoke" and the strike hitting would be a
beneficial change - because then anybody would be able to notice the smoke and react, without question, unless they really did somehow ignore it for, say, 8-10 seconds.
I'd even be fine with a larger splash radius per shell if it meant the damage would be lowered significantly.
4. I really think that if you 'dodged' a strike in a DW, the truth is that it missed and could have been aimed better.
5. It's not about being 'killed' by it, it's about the amount of damage that's being dealt by a zero-drawback magic card consumable, especially in organized drops, and that it's too drastic.
As others have pointed out, it should be able to be an "area of denial" weapon.
The way it's currently implemented misses that mark by a very wide margin, and instead makes it a "pay to click this one time and get a huge amount of near-guaranteed, nigh-instantaneous damage" gimmick.
Jacobei, on 13 November 2014 - 09:05 PM, said:
They don't need a nerf... they are still hard to use and under utilised and used.
Nerf anything nerf LRMS - skill requirements are very low.. LRM should only be effective with Tag and Narc support.
This isn't a LRM discussion thread. You can look at my posts in threads about LRMs (find my posts via profile or whatever); suffice it to say I have multiple reasons to completely disagree with you.
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