MacClearly, on 07 January 2017 - 07:11 AM, said:
For clarity Evil Goof and I are the same person.
So radar derp allows people to break locks as soon as they make it to cover. Which is what it is supposed to do. If it didn't, lrms would become way over powered. This is because one lock would make a mech helpless in a lot of situations and would make a lot of cover useless. You would be forced to find tall enough cover to negate the arc of the missles.
You are in the minority of the player base that would like to see a non los and for the most part, lower skilled weapon become that powerful. There is a reason that lrms in most situations should be the least effective weapon. One of the key ones besides being able to inflict damage behind cover, is that no other weapon makes use of information sharing such as friendly players actually being able to provide locks for lrm pilots from distance. If you were to remove the effectiveness of radar derp, there would be a great increase in the number of lrm boats and perhaps scouts and aiming would become a thing of the past. No one wants that.
Also, radar derp is not being removed. It is included in the skill tree. Of coarse any mech not running ECM will use it, not just against lrm boaters, but it makes sense overall when being able to reposition.
May I ask (and forgive me if you've already answered this), how long have you been playing this game?
I ask because, long ago in a galaxy far away, we use to not even have ECM. LRMs where very much still in the game, and where not deemed over powered (on the average, with a couple faux pas mishaps exceptions). This was long before any module was even considered. I remember those days, and LRMs remained relatively effective, but didn't rule the battlefield. Direct fire weapons were still considered better as an average rule.
So, your theory that LRMs would become over powered I believe is a misplaced belief. They've been around a lot longer than many of their new counter systems (besides maybe AMS). Only a few times where LRMs considered too powerful, and each time it was normally because of a bug. (Like when Artemis was first added into the game, LRMs went in a straight up, over and done on the head of mechs path. Many mechs died from LRM hits to their head component... Now that was OP LRMs! And a complete and unintentional bug in the system.)
For the record, I actually don't want LRMs to become "all supreme overlord" of weapons. They should be a "weaker" (relatively speaking) weapon when compared to direct fire weapons. They should be weaker (in some sense) because they are a utility weapon. This utility and flexibility in their function should be their strength, leaving them powerful in their role (indirect fire, "terror tactics" providing bells and whistle warnings, pushing people into cover, forcing the enemy to move, innate focused fire, etc). This strength should be countered by some weakness (minimum range, spread, requirement for locks (this possibly could use some work though), etc).
In any LRM debate, I will never hide the LRMs weaknesses. However, I also am not going to sweep their strengths under the rug either. They have their uses, and in those uses and situations, they can be very good to have. I will never imply that LRMs are the greatest weapon, but neither am I going to say it's the worst weapon in the game either. They have their place and the run in the middle of the weapon rankings, depending upon what one is seeking to do.
To be honest, our target sharing is a little "off". We essentially have mini C3 computers in our mechs for free, which is why LRMs seem to function as they do. In lore (which I know doesn't always translate to a live action computer game, and I wont even try to on this one), LRMs could shoot at targets indirectly. How this was done though wasn't by computer target sharing, but instead by someone relaying comm positions from the front line to their back line support mechs. Then, the LRM mechs would shoot their LRMs blindly at the positions indicated and hope they hit.
Also, our LRMs don't have standard munitions, but actually have the advanced Homing LRM type ammunition. This is what lets our LRMs "home in" on targets that we have locked, and what would work with TAG and NARC systems. There are also other ammunition types we don't have in the game, such as Thunder LRMs which would deploy mines if they hit the ground.
As I said, LRMs are suppose to be a utility weapon. In this game they have some of their utility built in, but other pieces are lacking. However, don't even get me started on ECM, which does far more than it should, even with the need to change things to match a real time video game "simulator". Then we have Radar Dep on top of that (currently), AMS Overload, etc.
Of course, some of this may become moot once the new skill system comes in. We don't know exactly for sure what will be in the new skill system, and what will not make it. PGI may even change their minds on how things will work before it's released. We just don't know. Which is why I kinda speak on the forums like the new system is "coming" but make points about how the current system works. I can't talk about something I don't know about yet.
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