Latorque, on 28 May 2018 - 07:22 AM, said:
Still this. I admit, i have no real idea how to implement LRMs in a way that doesn't either make them a completely overpowered indirect fire-and-forget system - as they have been several times already - or a lackluster and rather annoying secondary support artillery. I tried some IS-LRMs on my older, unused assault chassis, and one thing that still stuns me is the absurd amount of ammo per ton. Might be something to adress - if LRMs are made more powerful (either by improving them directly, or weakening the countermeasures), i want their users to actually watch their ammoand choose their targets instead of just farting out endless streams of missiles.
Whenever i miss with my AC20s/U-AC20s, i just know i wasted 20 points of damage and several seconds of cooldown of a rather limited ressource. With LRMs, i just don't give a damn.
The 20 points from a LRM is not going to all hit in the same location, even if it by some miracle it all hits the target at all. So 10 shots per ton is too much? You want it to be the 7 an AC 20 gets? Fine, double the velocity, tighten the spread to pinpoint.
The fact you see the sky cloud over with bad shots is because LRM carriers will dedicate at least three or four times the weight towards ammo. The weapon system is so poor at pinpoint that saturation is needed to be effective. It teaches LRMers to take risky shots, start firing at first opportunity, and keep up a constant barrage. I am all in favor of making this change so that you will see more blended builds and fewer dedicated LRM boats. ATMs are more like what you are asking for, just IS does not get them. As it stands, you will not see a reasonable atlas or king crab with LRMs because they are such a weak weapon system in direct conflict. Double velocity is still very poor, having an alarm go off in your cockpit is a unique nerf that allows most players to very easily roll the damage if they cannot find cover, and they will always be a spread weapon.
edit- It all comes back to the alarm in my mind. You would not complain about 2-4 folks shooting you with direct fire weapons in polar since you are standing in the open without any cover, it's the alarm that causes this anxiety that generates all this bile from the average player. The best players don't complain about them because they are not a effective threat to them.
Edited by Cloves, 28 May 2018 - 10:25 AM.