Chortles, on 03 February 2019 - 10:52 PM, said:
I thought I was comparing ATMs and streaks. You might as well bring dual heavy gauss and save the trouble.
You don't get it, at 120m, unless you're bad at aiming, the homing feature of both ATMs and streaks aren't that much of an advantage and if anything the extra locking would mean there's extra steps for what would be simpler way of delivering damage.
But okay sure, tell you what. Lets drop it, and say it's just SSRM vs ATMs.
Chortles, on 03 February 2019 - 10:52 PM, said:
Yes I'm aware that streaks travel slightly faster than ATMs, but that's not the issue that I have.
But I am just pointing out that for the purposes of light-hunting, Streaks are adequate.
Chortles, on 03 February 2019 - 10:52 PM, said:
A slightly injured light is still a deadly mech if it can just run away and attack at a different position. With the old streaks, the missiles had an equal distribution on each body part. With the new streaks, a bell curve is applied to the targeting, meaning less missiles on the legs and arms. The last time I took streak hits, all of my armor was equally orange. The new streaks has less ability to strip components because it only slowly kills you equally. ATMs has a slight spread, sure, but what difference does it make when you high alpha damage that is more directed on an area? As I said earlier, focus damage is what kills lights since tickling their armor does nothing.
But what you are getting is that, ATMs is less focused at smaller targets.
Chortles, on 03 February 2019 - 10:52 PM, said:
I've already said this. Streaks kill lights and fast mediums and are almost worthless against heavies and assaults. In the medium range bracket, ATMs kill lights, mediums, heavies, and assaults.
Streaks are less effective, but they can kill heavies and assault, given with enough tubes. Likewise, it's not a question of killing -- you could kill mechs with any damaging weapon as long as you have enough time to do, but it's a question of which is more effective. And the Streaks are much more effective to smaller and faster targets, because they are much more reliable in tracking them.
ATMs are less effective at smaller targets, and more effective at larger targets. But SSRMs are less effective at larger targets, and more effective at smaller targets.
And then there's also the question of reliability, as in ATMs need constant lock to guide the missiles, but streaks have 100% tracking strength and fire-and-forget capability which means they will still nab a light or fast-med even if they broke lock, saved for cover.
If you still don't get it, let me sum it up for you: ATMs and Streaks have different niches.
Chortles, on 03 February 2019 - 10:52 PM, said:
If you allow ATMs to fire at short range, why would anyone use streaks anymore?
First off, they can, but you won't do damage.
Second, it's easier to nab lights and fast meds with them because they are after all, homing AND fire-and-forget.
Chortles, on 03 February 2019 - 10:52 PM, said:
You said it yourself that ATMs don't need to be less effective than streaks at short range because they won't do what streaks do. Except that they will do it better and to a wider variety of mechs.
Unless they have volley-fire than stream-fire, 100% tracking strength (turns really fast) and bone-targeting (flies towards the component), fire-and-forget (doesn't need constant missile lock), no they don't. The point of streaks, as it seemed to me, that it's little about dealing damage but more of being the "easy-mode" short-range missile, basically a crutch.
Staying out of minimum-range isn't hard to do, fast mechs do it all the time like ATMs on a Shadowcat. But why hasn't SSRMs become obsolete? Where is your outrage for ATMs doing better damage (3-damage/missile) than streaks between 270m and 120m?
Your concern with ATMs obsoleting Streaks is a fundamental misunderstanding of the point of Streaks. To put it simply, Streaks doesn't exist to capitalize on the fact that ATMs have minimum range.
We (I) don't use the streaks for the 120m below that the ATMs couldn't do, we (I) use it for the 360m range it gives me and the fire-and-forget 100% tracking function it has. And this is why, despite the overlapping range of ATMs and SSRMs, the Streaks right now still see use and the ATM doesn't encroach over it.
Chortles, on 03 February 2019 - 10:52 PM, said:
Are we referring to ATMs medium range as its full 3 damage missiles? I was always referring short ranged as below minimum range since the entire point of this thread was allowing them to deal damage below 120m with some penalty, thus creating a new range bracket.
I don't get it. Whatever happen to "nerf at all ranges?" ATMs doing 2 damage at mid-range, which it deals less damage ton-for-ton than LRMs, it's already weak.
I'm pretty sure the close-range would have been 3 damage/missile. ATMs are supposedly multi-ammo launcher, in which the ER, STD, and HE ammo are fused into one, and the HE ammo doesn't have minimum range unlike the other two.
That being the case, if you prefer the 2 damage/missile within minimum-range, that is fine by me.
Edited by The6thMessenger, 04 February 2019 - 12:45 AM.
2
