I am not a big fan of the change for multiple reasons. For one, LRM's aren't the issue, players are the issue. They change may intrinsically make LRMs better in direct fire situations and it may encourage more people to use them in direct fire but I think the reality is that a player who has already been inclined to hide fire LRMs indirectly will still continue to do this. That being the case, it fixes nothing.
On the other hand there is the potential to break a crapton of things.
First, any pilot who already uses LRMs in the second line, using direct fire and getting there own locks already knows that with the proper build they are deadly without the buff. With the Buff, used in this way, they are going to be more deadly. This could result in LRMs becoming OP and getting a nerf in some other faction which makes them less effective that they were in the first place.
Second, the change has the potential to break both current mech and skill builds. AMS may become mandatory. Radar Dep may become mandatory. If that is the case I will have to rebuild 200+ mechs with AMS and change most of their skill builds, build that many of my mechs rely on to be effective and fun for me to play. I really DON'T want to have to do rebuild everything because of a change that doesn't fix the problem which again is the player, not the LRM.
Third, as some who does have a few mechs designed to use LRMs and still function close to the front lines, one of the critical abilities to make this play style work is to be able to fire directly OVER your teammates heads. With the change to a direct fire mode your going to firing into the backs of your teammates kind of like what often happens with MRMs and ATMs. That being the case, the change breaks an entire play style or tactic. Granted that tactic will be replaced by something else but your SOL if you happen to enjoy playing your mech in a fashion that uses the higher arcs to play the 2nd line and fire over your teammates heads.
Fourth, the change really encroaches on other missile systems in the game and could very well result in replacing those systems. With the change the new LRMs would have characteristics of ATMs, MRMs, Streaks and traditional LRMs. You can look at this from multiple angles. For example, 1 point damage streaks with 900m plus ranges. Lock on MRMs (same damage per missile but your guaranteed to hit with all missiles). 1 point damage ATMs but with a faster speed making them less succeptable to AMS fire than ATMs. All while retaining the indirect, lock on fire mechanics that currently exist for LRMs. My point is that LRM's kind of become the jack-of-all-trades missile that can do a bit of everything.
Obviously we won't know what they will be like until the reach general usage especially since you can't get anything even approaching a normal match on the PTS and many or perhaps all these concerns won't even be present but I just don't understand why PGI keeps "Fixing" things with solutions that don't solve the issue but will potential break other things.
So again this issue is people using LRM's for indirect fire while hiding 800m away from the fight. Those people will still be able to do this with the new LRMs and those people will likely still continue to do this because they can and it is obviously their preferred play style. This solution solves nothing.
Edited by Angel of Annihilation, 07 February 2019 - 07:12 AM.
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Cyanogene, on 06 February 2019 - 06:18 PM, said:
