18 replies to this topic

[Mako109]

While they felt a bit clunky at first, I'm really starting to warm up to MRMs. The ammo per ton is absurdly good, (240 + 48 from ST), their range feels (mostly) right, and are pretty fun to play with. Super satisfying to nail someone with a whole volley by leading. Currently, I am bouncing between a Catapult C4 with 4MRM10, 2MPL (or 2ERML if I add two more JJ), and a Catapult C1 with 2MRM20 and 4ERML, both on LFE300s.

However, just a few things seem to be holding them back from being truly great weapon systems, in my opinion. The damage is incredibly spread out, making them quite inconsistent nearing their range limit. The slow-ish missile velocity doesn't help, nor does the heat they generate per-volley, ESPECIALLY MRM30s and 40s. In light of this, I suggest the following changes that will push these weapons in stable, well-worth taking weapon systems for all the little Mechs out there with a single random Missile hardpoint in the side torso.

-Lower Heat Generation: Fairly obvious. An MRM needs to fire often to hit with appropriate damage, so missile mechs without Missile Heat Gen quirks (like the C1) suffer for it. Maybe, minus 10%?

-Increased Missile Velocity: Without any guidance systems, it's a huge pain in the rear to hit near it's maximum range. A small boost in velocity will make them more consistent in their intended range: Medium.

-Slight Increase in Max Range: 500/550 seems about right. Their current range seems a bit too short to be considered fully "medium-range."

-And finally, the weirdest suggestion: Missile convergence. At about 200m/250m out, I suggest the missiles quickly converge on themselves before straightening out again, leaving them in a tight group for the rest of the distance. This will help their damage be more pintpoint and dangerous at longer ranges, but also harder to hit.


With changes similar to these, they'd be rather amazing, and hell worth taking in almost any missile mech, I feel. However, I see very few people talk about MRMs where I look around, so I'm genuinely curious about how people have taken to them. What do you guys think of these changes, and more importantly, of MRMs in general?

Edited by Mako109, 29 June 2017 - 06:38 PM.

[Midnight Camel]

One of the problems with them that I really hope is a bug is that all of the missiles lock on to the point in space that you're reticle is aimed at when you first pull the trigger. Because the missiles ripple fire, if you're tracking a target that is moving laterally and thereby turning or torso twisting when you pull the trigger, ALL of the missiles home in on that point that you were initially aiming at. You can actually see the final missiles in the volley physically turning to home in on that initial aiming point. The expected behavior should be that each missile shoots out in a straight line at the point that is under the reticle at the time that each missile is launched.

[50 50]

I'm not sure that is a bug.
I had a go last night and rather liked the way they fired.
It perhaps could use a bit more animation for it but it felt like the missiles were being ejected from their tubes before they ignited.
As a result, the weapon has a different feel to the other missile systems which is really nice.
Had fun using them with a Centurion.

[Midnight Camel]

50 50, on 29 June 2017 - 09:18 PM, said:

I'm not sure that is a bug.
I had a go last night and rather liked the way they fired.

You like not having the ability to lead a moving target with the entire volley of missiles? I really hope you're wrong about it being a bug because it severely reduces there effectiveness, and it's just not reasonably expected behavior. When a dumb-fire rocket launches out of a tube, you expect it to go straight.

[Innocent]

The only issue i have with them is the smaller launchers do not have a lower cooldown. All the other weapon systems fire faster with smaller payloads, srm2 fires faster than an srm4 which fires faster than an srm6, etc.

[QuePan]

i have to agree the stream of missles should FOLLOW the reticle . when you fire other Time on target weapons in the game the damage goes where the reticle is during its firing time . if PGI want them to stream then this is the behavior they should take , if they wanted goes to where trigger is pulled then make them more like srm and all the tubes fire at once at that moment to make the missiles effective . seeing the made them fire like Missle lasers than they should use laser damage behavior .

[Orkimedes]

Honestly I don't think it's a bug. It's super useful when it comes to torso-twisting. Without it the face-time they require would probably make them kinda bad.

[Midnight Camel]

Orkimedes, on 30 June 2017 - 09:17 AM, said:

Honestly I don't think it's a bug. It's super useful when it comes to torso-twisting. Without it the face-time they require would probably make them kinda bad.

That is true for stationary targets but how often are shooting at targets that have zero lateral motion? Almost every single non-laser shot in mwo is an angle-off shot. That's especially true for weapons with a low velocity like missiles where even slight lateral velocity of the tsrget requires significant leading.

[P10k56]

450m is not medium but rather close distance.
Range need to be buffed and face time is needed to not become super useful in CQC.

[Baeolophus]

I'd like to see increased velocity, reticle following, and reduced cooldown if reasonable (and I think it is).

[Orkimedes]

Midnight Camel, on 30 June 2017 - 09:52 AM, said:

That is true for stationary targets but how often are shooting at targets that have zero lateral motion? Almost every single non-laser shot in mwo is an angle-off shot. That's especially true for weapons with a low velocity like missiles where even slight lateral velocity of the tsrget requires significant leading.

While you are correct in saying that you'll often miss a fairly significant part of your volley, and that this is something that limits the usefulness of the weapon. I do believe that it is in keeping with the spirit of the weapon, and being able to snap-shot a pancake of missiles is a pretty valuable asset. If they're not doing enough effective DPS because of lateral motion, I'd rather have them reduce cooldown (which is quite long atm) than change the way in which they are fired right now, the ammo per tonne is generous enough for it.

[JejoDPanthor]

Midnight Camel, on 29 June 2017 - 09:07 PM, said:

One of the problems with them that I really hope is a bug is that all of the missiles lock on to the point in space that you're reticle is aimed at when you first pull the trigger. Because the missiles ripple fire, if you're tracking a target that is moving laterally and thereby turning or torso twisting when you pull the trigger, ALL of the missiles home in on that point that you were initially aiming at. You can actually see the final missiles in the volley physically turning to home in on that initial aiming point. The expected behavior should be that each missile shoots out in a straight line at the point that is under the reticle at the time that each missile is launched.

This should be changed indeed. Its darn near impossible to track moving objects with the way it currently works. Wasting more than 700 rounds trying to hit a Firestarter shows just how frustrating this currently is. I dont mind the stream fire but the initial space targeting is bad. A little velocity should help the weapon systems as well, the spread I feel is fine just to keep it from being too good once the aiming/sweeping + velocity is fixed.

[davoodoo]

They really arent great, they are actually barely viable.
Not only they suffer from spread, but also from burn time combining worst aspects of both uac and srms.
Atm its not good at brawling due to long firing time and at range uac5 will provide more reliable damage to ct compared to mrm40.

It should be heavy ac of missile weapons so why not simply have it as twice/thrice the burn time of burst fire ac and pinpoint damage.

Also 6x mrm10 cplt a1 with light 275, with 15 dhs it can put nearly constant chainfire without much worry about heat

Edited by davoodoo, 30 June 2017 - 02:36 PM.

[The Pug Commander]

they just buffed them with the new patch. increased the velocity by 50

[Sagor2]

Today I tested the MRMs.
I'd a lot of fun to play with them.
In my opinion the velocity of the missiles is good. I agree in the opinion, that the missiles should follow the reticle. The velocity of leaving the tubes could be a little slower, perhaps as fast as C-LRMs, So you can use the to follow fast machs with the missiles. The cooldown should be different for the different kinds of missies.

[SmokinDave73]

MRM's need more velocity to be viable at "medium range" 350-400m, shooting at 70+kph targets is impossible at that range unless you lead a lot and get lucky. It would also be nice if the smaller MRM types had a lower cooldown like all other missile systems, If these two changes happen they will be a great addition.

Edited by SmokinDave73, 02 July 2017 - 10:38 AM.

[Damnedtroll]

They are fun but the spreading make finishing touch difficult if the target is not cored all over the place.

But they are funnier than lrm and srm, you don't need to fear the minimum range and they got enough range to not me worry about it.

[charliedelta76]

MRMS no doubt is fun...
watching them streak towards an enemy mech is fun.
Whats not fun is the heat generated.
Whats the point of having a really hot weapon that shuts you down when the enemy is less than 500 meters?

[phoboskomboa]

Maybe MRMs need an acceleration curve. Start at 200 m/s out of the barrel (about half of SRM) , but be moving 600-800 within 100 meters or so.

This would make them get to their max range in a similar amount of time to how long SRMs take to get to theirs, while having SRMs still be easier to hit with up close.

Plus, I think they'd just look cool like that. I honestly wish more missile weapons would have that effect.

Edited by phoboskomboa, 02 July 2017 - 04:01 PM.