3xnihilo, on 02 July 2015 - 05:20 PM, said:
Better spread would be great, especially with cool down quirks too. The range quirks are pretty much useless since the spread is so wide on srms that 270m is further than they are effective already.
SRM spread from 10m (I think) to 270m is identical. It used to be that SRMs had a weaving pattern. This caused some specific distances to have extreme hit precision due to the missiles' weaving paths crossing into each other. Conversely, other specific distances had the missiles extremely spread out, due to each one being at the apex of its parabolic flight arc.
Now, however, missiles spread out into a formation within 10m (again, I
think - the actual number could be different) and maintain that identical formation to the end of their 270m (or more, with quirks and modules) range. Not only that, but the game seems to choose randomly from four or five specific missile formations that never change. Take an SRM-4 or SRM-6 to the training grounds, keep your reticle stationary, and hold down the fire button. You'll start seeing the missiles' patterns repeating themselves, almost exactly.
It's quite boring, and it also makes the weapon system less skill-oriented. You can't control which cluster the missiles will take. So that's RNG. Nor do you have any way of using timing to your advantage, since SRM flight paths are no longer dynamic. So that's removing variable options.
This latter option used to be available, by the way. By waiting until your target was at
just the right distance, you could get ALL your SRMs onto the same component. It was wicked. It required patience, but if you could pull it off, you were rewarded. Now, SRMs behave the same no matter what the distance is.
ShinVector, on 02 July 2015 - 05:06 PM, said:
We don't need no stinking guidance ! You got streaks and LRMs for that stuff.
Hey, look, I get what you're saying. And I agree. I just want SRMs to be more
involved as a weapon system. More
fun. And more effective, too.
You can have guided SRMs without turning them into just another version of LRMs or Streaks. I don't want them to have the simple "find target, lock on to target, fire missiles" mechanic that's been used in every FPS ever. Gotta get creative, man. Increase the interactivity, increase the
fun.
You know what would make for a killer SRM mechanic? Something intrinsically basic so that you can refine your skill over time. Something easy to learn but challenging to truly master. So how about this?
SRMs operate under three separate, but concurrent mechanics. The first is reticle tracking - your SRMs, when fired without a lock, will constantly veer towards where your reticle is pointing, adjusting in-flight to follow it. LRMs only head to where your reticle was pointing when you fired them, with no further course correction - SRMs will actually track your reticle.
The second mechanic is a charge mechanic, similar to what Gauss has. The long you hold down the trigger before releasing, the more clustered your SRMs will be upon launching. If you don't charge at all, they splatter all over the place in random directions. If you charge, they launch in a tighter cluster. Whether charged or not, they will still head towards your reticle while in-flight.
And the third mechanic is your basic target locking, which works similarly to what we have now for LRMs. But add in a bit more. Make it a progressive lock, so that the longer you achieve lock, the more missiles will track the target. The ones that don't track behave under the first two mechanics, following the reticle and spreading based on charge. Three mechanics, none too complicated, but all interacting with each other in vastly different ways depending on how YOU choose to use them. That's what I'd like to see.
Because illustration is sometimes better than explanation, I'll give an example. Let's say you round a corner to see an enemy Hunchback. He is about ten meters in front of you. You will use your SRM-6 against him. You now have several options:
---
1) You take advantage of neither the locking nor accuracy mechanics of your SRMs. You don't need any of that fancy stuff, not at a ten-meter distance. You simply tap the fire button. Your SRM-6 pack has not charged, and it has not locked - so, it blasts all missiles out in a haphazard, cacophonous
bloom of
death. You have elected to use the
Macross Missile Massacre approach.
Fortunately, because the target was so close to you, he eats four of those six missiles before they're able to veer off into the atmosphere. Two of them, however, do still go wide. They try to re-converge towards where your reticle is pointing, but since they have already passed the Hunchback, they do so far behind him. Yes, they spread that much when fired in "panic mode," missing even at ten meters. But, each missile that did hit, hits for two points of damage. Which in MWO should really be
FOUR points of damage. The target backs off, having just eaten sixteen damage points from you. Your pants have also suffered sixteen points of damage due to fear-pooping.
---
2) You don't fire at all. You back off, give yourself a moment, and figure out what you want to do. The Hunchback will be following you back around that corner soon, thinking he has frightened you off, and that you are now easy prey. He is mistaken. You have an SRM-6, and a second or two. You start charging your SRM-6. After a second, he comes around the corner. You RELEASE! Your SRMs, having already been charged, now launch in a nice tight little spit-wad of doom, hitting him right in his chest. He is now cored, and your lasers carve your initials into his internals. The Hunchback dies soon afterwards, succumbing to you as the fight continues. Your pants suffer a little dampness due to the anticipation you subjected yourself to after backing off, but they are otherwise OK.
---
3) You want this Hunchie to FEEL THE PAIN. So you hold down your trigger. You don't
release it - you hold it down. If you hold it down for a one-half of a second, your missiles will all head the same general direction - forwards. If you hold it down for a full second, they will actually start to cluster up a bit, similar to what they do now in MWO with Artemis. If you hold it down for a one-and-a-half seconds before releasing, all six of your SRMs will be instantly clustered upon release.
You choose to let all your missiles cluster up. In the meantime, though, the Hunchback has managed to move away, and is now running at an angle perpendicular to you. You launch your missiles. You keep your reticle on the Hunchback. The missiles don't know there's a Hunchback, they don't even know what a target
is right now since they have no lock. They
do, however, know what you are. Your sensors will guide them. So as you move your reticle to keep it over the Hunchback, your SRMs veer to follow wherever your pointing. Your SRM-6 was fully "charged," which gave it an immense accuracy bonus. The SRMs hit. The Hunchback is dead, having taking 12 (MWO equivalent:
24) points of damage up his rear CT. You sip on a victory Scotch, pants sparkling and unsoiled(aka shiny and chrome).
---
4) You are a fool, and for some reason decide you should let your SRMs
track the target despite the fact he is only ten meters in front of you. You keep your reticle on target, while achieving lock. If you keep it on target for one second before firing, two of your SRMs
will hit. The other four will have no lock, and thus behave the same way as in
situations #1 and #2. That is to say, they will follow your reticle in-flight. If you simply tap the trigger they will launch in a wide-spread salvo. If you hold down the trigger first, they will launch in a tighter cluster. Whether wide or clustered, they will still make an attempt to follow your reticle.
If you continue to achieve lock for two full seconds, four of your SRMs
will hit. Two will have no lock, so they may go wide, or they may hit. If you wait an unrealistically desperate
three seconds of lock-on, all six of your SRMs
will hit because they are now all locked. Or they would, if you weren't already dead! Had the Hunchback been further away, waiting for lock-on may have been a smart move. Since he wasn't, though, you are now pantsless, as he pushed a couple of AC/20 rounds right into your cockpit while you were waiting for that sweet sweet lock, making your pants (and everything else on and in you) nothing but a whispered memory soon swallowed into the howling winds of war.
---
Having all your fired SRMs launch out into, just, an outright panic blast just seems like it would be fun. And it seems like it would be just as much fun to have them slowly arc into whatever your reticle is pointing at. And it
also seems fun if you could lower that initial SRM spread by implementing a charge mechanic, like Gauss has. I just want SRMs to be more fun, more involving for the pilot to use, more immersive, etc. Just better all-around.
The above mechanics also allow upgrades to be effective without being overpowered, because each upgrade could have a separate use. Artemis could increase missile velocity and clustering. Narc could improve lock-on time and turning. Streaks could operate with the same lock-on mechanic as regular SRMs, with the only difference being that they don't fire unlocked missiles, saving both ammo and heat. They could also have a slightly better lock-on time if needed for balance.
Another great thing about a system like this? Having three SRM-2s still gives a natural advantage over a single SRM-6,
without having to mess around with quirks/DPS/heat values. The triple SRM-2 system will always achieve lock in a single second, whereas the SRM-6 would take three times as long to do the same thing. That's just beautiful to me. The design itself lends each option advantages! No quirks required!
I don't know, man, I know it's a pipe dream and all. I know the SRMs we have are gonna stay. But doesn't this whole concept sound a
LOT more fun than our current SRM mechanic, which is simply a lighter version of the LBX autocannon?
speaking of another weapon mechanic that should be compeltely rehauled... Doesn't it seem like this game should be capable of so much more than basic point-and-shoot?
EDIT: Of course, this is a Commando topic, not an SRM topic. However, I maintain that the primary reason Commandos aren't good is because SRMs aren't good. They never will be under the current mechanics. Either they'll be ineffective, as they are right now, or they'll only be effective due to having damage/cooldown/etc. values adjusted into OPness. Which only become effective by sacrificing balance and fun factor. I'd rather see SRMs as a whole become a more unique weapon system. Commandos would shine under the proposed mechanics.
Edited by Bloodweaver, 02 July 2015 - 11:16 PM.
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