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You can hardly recreate the total energy from chemical projectile from kinetic projectile. In fact, you can modify missiles so that they can do both. (Which a lot of modern weapons are)
(Also, most missiles travel way faster than standard artillery rounds. There is that railgun, but come on... that railgun is like gajillion tons and not very mobile... and shoot in either a predictable line or arc.)
In MW3, it wasn't some crazy pinpoint laser that killed the Summoner. It was the legged Vulture with a final lock-on that finished the Summoner with LRM-20s. Missiles are hard to use, but it's especially effective in SP because AI are stupid and just walk straight into you. But the point is there, again ideal situational targets, they HURT by both incredibly large damage AND knockdown.
And if you look at more evidence lore wise, there is a reason why almost every single mech wants to have that random LRM 5 launcher. Because quite simply, missiles are just supposed to be better.
Now, I understand that is REALLY REALLY hard to replicate in video game without it just being the ultimate weapon. IMO the issue started when PGI decide to balance effectiveness of all weapons to be roughly the same. Which, even as of now, it's not really balanced, so... (though the skew is definitely dependent on who you talk to)
But the way I see it, is that we don't go that route of balance. Just straight up make LRM the best.
*dodge audience projectile
Now, I know what most of you are thinking. LRM good? Flame bait! But hear me out. Despite being vastly powerful, there should be a lot of good countermeasures AND increase the difficulty of LRM use.
That would be the balance. Basically, we create a weapon of extremes. It's either going to work out awesome for you, or not at all.
For one, in MW3, it took skill to shoot and hit someone with it cause, you can DODGE incoming LRMS with no countermeasures. So you can spam missiles and might hit absolutely nothing if the other pilot is an ace. I think that should be the starting point.
The missiles I hate the most is the MW4 LRMs. Your missiles act like spinning bees for absolutely no reason.
I have some ideas...
Direct fire - low arc fire, fastest way to hit enemy
Indirect fire - can be fired with mere red targeting, but missiles will only travel to last recorded positions
Direct support fire - if friends have NARC or direct site, see Direct fire.
However, direct fire can be changed to indirect fire if lock is lost during flight path.
TC Support Unlock
Direct Support Fire - will create stronger arc to move over obstacles.
Indirect fire - can fire on map coordinates directly like artilleries. However, you don't just click and fire, there's a 5 seconds flight path calculation based on every new location click. (thus if you click click click click click on 20 new locations, none of your missiles will fire)
Missiles deal 2x more damage as they do now.
Ton for Ton, LRM damage will be by far, the best weapon in the game. Even considering the missile spread, the 2x modifiers will more than have enough centralized damage to equate to essentially pinpoint direct fire EXCEPT you are also blowing other peripheries up.
But as the changes indicate, if you are someone that hid in the back and spam, you may hit absolutely nothing. It will change LRM mech behaviors... forces new interesting squad play (protect your artillery piece). More terrain consideration as herding enemy into a choke point for artillery fire is now a possibility.
But anyways, my idea is definitely not complete, but I feel it's a good starting point to starting matching IRL expectations with game mechanics balance.
Edited by razenWing, 04 December 2018 - 07:08 PM.
