MischiefSC, on 18 February 2018 - 04:39 PM, said:
A lot on this has already been covered. How bad players would use buffed LRMs isn't relevant - how good players would (and have) is. That's what will shape the game experience for most people.
*shrugs* Again, you tell me "we can't buff LRMs except into an inferior direct-fire weapon because THINK OF THE HORRIBLE THINGS THAT WOULD HAPPEN AND NOTHING COULD BE DONE!". And don't tell me they wouldn't be inferior. If it ain't hitscan or at least PPFLD, it's going to end up plunked down right next to Streaks.
And I say "Nobody uses AMS, and AMS becoming a standard piece of equipment would be a good thing, and LRMs should be balanced taking a field full of players spitting flak at them."
Has anyone here actually seen a game where such a thing happened outside of a bug-ridden lurmageddon where players were desperately trying to stave off screwed up missile coding to save their own necks? Missiles should make AMS worth picking. For a weapon that seems to be nerfed and has a zillion counters, the most specific of which barely gets used...LRMs really don't do all that much when they're unopposed.
They generally don't. This is a fundamental balancing error that needs fixing.
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IDF (and god mode and whatever else) is fine in a SP game. It's not supposed to be balanced, it's supposed to ensure the player can always win but with a bit of challenge.
I cannot believe you just equated being able to fire in a ballistic arc with god mode. The guy with the LRMs still needs a spotter, which means SOMEONE has your number. Shoot them. Even these days, you can be that LRM guy and watch as your potential locks pop and drop because the guy giving you the red square is also a red square to the opponents, who logically attempt to turn him into a pile of scrap (or he gets out). And every guy hiding behind a hill waiting for that is one less distraction for a potential spotter, one less set of armor to spread hits to, and one less person actually shooting if all they're doing is waiting for someone else to hitch to their missile targeting.
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Irrelevant to a PvP team based game., which needs skill balanced - as in skill is the deciding factor.
I get that some skill is involved in using LRMs in the same way skill is involved in not walking out of bounds. Having accuracy, as in being able to effectively put shots on target, doesn't mean it's a twitch shooter like CoD. That's so disingenuous that it's not far from bald faces lying.
LRMs don't even function at a median level of skill. They are balanced right now to be roughly equal to what Paul considers the worst players in the game, using no counters whatsoever. That is, they are balanced to only be modestly effective against people who could faceroll a keyboard and reasonably improve their gameplay, never mind an average player, much less a good one. You could noticeably improve LRMs at this point and they STILL wouldn't be average, even at their supposed unique role in the game as you can dump red smoke on your opponents for better effect and less tonnage.
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Top performing players would still destroy you with LRMs if you make the game all about IDF - which would happen (and has happened) if you buffed IDF LRMs. Only it would eliminate all other play from the game in the same way pre-hoverjet, PPC speed nerf, ghost heat Poptarting made everything else irrelevant. You either had Heavy Metal, Dragonslayer or something similar or you got chewed. That's a pretty ****** game and not one most want to play.
This isn't about making the game about IDF. It's about making LRM strengths be balanced against what is put into the game to be it's counters. And if newbies can't use the usual counters- give them ones they can.
LRMs should not be balanced against unskilled potato pilots. LRMs should be balanced against unskilled pilots given LRM counters that require no pilot skill to function properly.
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Make LRMs largely direct fire and buff them to compete in that space. Make them 600 MS, tight spread, whatever. Leave IDF as a dedicated teamwork function.
Making IDF into some kind of awkward, super-situational teamwork dance is basically saying the game should be straight up only a direct-fire shooter, where manly men fight with their powerful shields of hills and random invisible walls to see who can put all of their damage into one critical location the fastest. Except for the airstrikes. Those are apparently A-OK, even when they can backshot a target from the front. It costs spacebucks, after all.