44 replies to this topic

[evilauthor]

The problem with implementing any ideas that distinguish between direct fire and indirect fire for LRMs is that the game engine itself doesn't distinguish between the two. If you have a lock, the LRMs will fly over to the target. If you lose lock or never had it, the LRMs fly to the last point it was targeted at. Having line of sight doesn't matter at all unless the LRMs run into obstructions before they hit their target.

However, one possible idea that could be easily implemented into the game engine (and might be for all I know) is that if you lay your crosshairs on a mech but have no R lock on it (because it's under ECM or something), you can still fire LRMs at it (instead of the terrain behind it) because your rangefinder still works on it (I think). So your LRMs follow the range finder to pummel that location, and at 200-400 meters, there's not all that much time for most mechs to dodge even unlocked LRMs.

[Ruar]

evilauthor, on 12 June 2017 - 06:45 AM, said:

The problem with implementing any ideas that distinguish between direct fire and indirect fire for LRMs is that the game engine itself doesn't distinguish between the two. If you have a lock, the LRMs will fly over to the target. If you lose lock or never had it, the LRMs fly to the last point it was targeted at. Having line of sight doesn't matter at all unless the LRMs run into obstructions before they hit their target.

However, one possible idea that could be easily implemented into the game engine (and might be for all I know) is that if you lay your crosshairs on a mech but have no R lock on it (because it's under ECM or something), you can still fire LRMs at it (instead of the terrain behind it) because your rangefinder still works on it (I think). So your LRMs follow the range finder to pummel that location, and at 200-400 meters, there's not all that much time for most mechs to dodge even unlocked LRMs.

But the game engine does distinguish. No lock-dumb fire, lock-homing. The difference is the player can't manually toggle between the two modes. However we know toggles are in the game (ECM) so it's just a matter of having the player choose which mode to be in instead of the game automatically doing it.

The problem with the rangefinder idea is leading your target. If you want them to home then you are just doing a guided missile and imagine how that would work out at 700m when you can fire and manually guide your missiles in instead of waiting for a lock.

[evilauthor]

Ruar, on 12 June 2017 - 06:53 AM, said:

But the game engine does distinguish. No lock-dumb fire, lock-homing. The difference is the player can't manually toggle between the two modes. However we know toggles are in the game (ECM) so it's just a matter of having the player choose which mode to be in instead of the game automatically doing it.

All things considered, I'd prefer to fire with a lock than without. So even if such a "feature" were implemented, I doubt anyone would ever use it.

Quote

The problem with the rangefinder idea is leading your target. If you want them to home then you are just doing a guided missile and imagine how that would work out at 700m when you can fire and manually guide your missiles in instead of waiting for a lock.

Given how slow LRMs in flight are, you really shouldn't be dumb firing them at a moving target at 700 meters. You're better off guestimating where the mech is going and shooting the ground in front of them. And I was talking about situations where the unlocked target is at 400 meters or less.

[Shifty McSwift]

I never meant to have projected paths of the lrm arc fire idea, all it would take would be adding markings to the crosshair to show approximately where the range is between min and max, when aiming upward or downward, and those mins and maximums don't have to be anywhere near torso max edges necessarily, more like iron-sighted markings on the crosshair.

It ends up similar to straight firing them, just an elevated (from standing position) arc path instead.

Aiming to the minimum range (unless the missiles hit within the min range and did nothing for IS), would be much the same as direct fire really.

Edited by Shifty McSwift, 12 June 2017 - 08:08 AM.

[G4LV4TR0N]

To make LRM useful when they are dumb-fired, they would need to do some splash damage. There, they could be finally used a suppress weapon against hill/corner poking mechs.