207 replies to this topic

[steelblueskies]

okay big nasty bits.

take an a1 with 6xssrm2. stand face to face with a nice big target like an atlas or awesome. perform a functional alpha strike.

you will have a hex pattern to initial launch.

--xx--xx--
xx------xx
--xx--xx--
where x's would be missiles more or less.

now you can have rounds from the launch on your left aim at the enemy's left arm, and overshoot and zoom off past him to the side.

this can happen with chain fire as well, but happens less frequently.

same deal the other angle.

next up, they will target legs.

if the enemy is in water they will come in at an angle to ping on the water doing no damage, every single time they aim for the legs. chain or alpha fire.

next up, is the fact that if you are standing in water, even in something like a cat-a1 with high placed launchers, that 6xssrm2 launch will use the hex shaped launch i noted above, and the missiles at he bottom row of the alpha launch pattern will auto ping off the water and die rendering a 6x launch into a 4x launch.


theres also the issue of pre nov.6 when they homed to center hitting anything in between that homing line(so you could control damage to body locations through positioning.) dragons in particular wouldn't register hits to ct by streaks from many angles, even with a non moving target at 90m with two cats chain firing away.

this appears to still happen but is harder to demonstrate clearly now.

-------------------------

as to logic, streaks now work very close to tt. and one cannot aim as one could before and without any approximation on target location efforts to aim for specific locations are gone. they also still won't lock on a head..
personally i favored using jumpjets to stay out of torso mounted weapon arcs while endeavoring to get the perfect angle for headshots with them. it was hard to do. this more than anything else is what punished torso mount heavy assaults like atlases.
if i can evade 3-5 of your weapons for up to three alpha strikes and land in a position that you can't fire on without ponderous turning, buying jj recharge time to do it again, yeah, i'll crush you and be able to do it a few times more. worked pretty well for gausscats, and taking a hunchie with a side box by using a \ angle jump instead of a direct over the top center like going for the head was easy as the box was HUGE from above.

the chain firing derp was mainly of use on targets not properly registering alpha damage, and if you were doing it without the third dimension/airborne you really were a dumb cat pilot eating fire due to lack of skill and or laziness.

you can do the same things now with ssrm6's it's just a bit more of a pain to get the god angles due to needing to use cockpit freelook(default ctrl) while midair, to look further than normal angle down to make the shot and lead target.

before with streaks only had to do that to maintain lock if they moved forward too far or if i had to rotate midair above the target to keep the angle i was going for.

calling them no skill was a testament to many of the pilots who saw them work and picked them up thinking it was the guns, not the people behind them that made them truly hellacious.

[QuantumButler]

SSRM should still all "hit" the mech [mostly at least], but not the CT, spread out is ok, half of the ssrms not even hitting isn't.

If this is still too OP, drop Streak damage back down to the TT value of 2 per missile instead of the current 2.5.

[Rhaegor]

They are not nearly as good as they were before, but that is a good thing. Personally I have started using SRM6 rather than streaks at this point, but streaks are a good option for those who are not that great at aiming or only have a little bit of fitting space.

[Eleck]

My primary mech right now is a 3 SSRM commando with tag that I use as a scout-killer.

Prior to the nerf, I could easily kill heavy and assault mechs via concentrated fire, which really shouldn't be possible with missiles.

Now I'm stuck to hunting scouts again and picking them apart with a constant barrage of missiles while I dodge their return fire.

/|\
This is balanced. Before, I was overpowered. I accept this, and support SSRMs in their current implementation. A Streak cat can still eat my commando for lunch.

I'm considering replacing the torso Streak for a SRM6 now, which is good, because that means there's a reasonable tradeoff now.

Edited by Eleck, 10 November 2012 - 07:50 AM.

[darkness404]

@ Eleck:

True! Second that. SSRMs where much to powerful before.

[Lightfoot]

I am running a medium 'mech with 2 or 3 SSRM 2s.

Instance 1:

I am fighting a faster Commando who is circle-strafing at around 120 kph. I fire off 20-30 salvos of 3xSSRM 2. About 3 minutes. The Commando takes only light damage and after 3 minutes of this runs off.

Instance 2:

I am fighting a Jenner who is not moving because it is trying to capture the base. It takes 15 salvos of 3x SSRM 2s while stationary. Shows only light armor damage. Base captured.

Basically SSRM 2s are like LRM 2s now. That can't be what you intended for them to do.

[SUG] Make SSRMs aimable. So you need a lock, then you aim them where you want them to go. If you don't aim them and just fire with a lock, then they do area damage.

Edited by Lightfoot, 11 November 2012 - 01:50 AM.

[Kobura]

Or they could be made to always seek a random torso. Not CT, not RT or LT, just "a torso" be it front or back or side, not avoiding intervening obstacles/arms/legs/heads etc

That way they'd have a subtle boost to effectiveness without an actual change of numbers. It's really irritating for me to streakcat build to try and chase off lights when it very perfectly sands off their armor in even layers at best, IF IT EVEN HITS (let alone the "streaks loligag to nowhere" bug that sometimes shows up)

I do feel like streaks have hit a bit under their mark as far as usefulness with the extreme randomness... even though honestly that might need to be where they stay. Especially once SSRM4-6 arrive...

[Black Ivan]

Streaks are spreading now too far put, many of them even miss.

[impar]

Its a bug introduced in this weeks patch.
Now SSRMs fail to hit stationary mechs 100m away.

[chewie]

Streaks are not *weak*, they still have the highest damage per shot over time ratio of nearly all weapons I'd like to think.

They might be broken, ie something got fudged when they *nerfed* the LRMs (as people keep crying over) meaning they aren't always hitting the target like folks think they should.

Or the person your aiming at is using cover to block them at the last moment.

As far as someone on base and your piling into them with them not bothering to move..... no idea, did they have a high ping at the time?

[shabowie]

A teammate in a game last night fired a streak at a catapult from very close range and one missile missed to the left, the other to the right. Something's rotten in Denmark.

Forgot to add, both mechs were stationary.

Edited by shabowie, 11 November 2012 - 03:40 AM.

[QuantumButler]

chewie, on 11 November 2012 - 03:32 AM, said:

Streaks are not *weak*, they still have the highest damage per shot over time ratio of nearly all weapons I'd like to think.

They might be broken, ie something got fudged when they *nerfed* the LRMs (as people keep crying over) meaning they aren't always hitting the target like folks think they should.

Or the person your aiming at is using cover to block them at the last moment.

As far as someone on base and your piling into them with them not bothering to move..... no idea, did they have a high ping at the time?

Yeah that stationary Atlas at 50 meters with 50 ms ping sure is using cover to block my guided missiles when half of them miss.

They completely broke them last patch.

Edited by QuantumButler, 11 November 2012 - 05:28 AM.

[Alopex]

In my opinion, streaks could use a bit of attention. They were great before, and they weren't unstoppable by any stretch of the imagination.

[T Hawk]

Streaks are better this way than before, you can't troll with your easymode lock-ons anymore now you complain. How about you spent some time learning to aim properly?

[ATao]

T Hawk, on 11 November 2012 - 05:58 AM, said:

Streaks are better this way than before, you can't troll with your easymode lock-ons anymore now you complain. How about you spent some time learning to aim properly?

Your post smells more trollin than streaks . FYI before the patch scats didn't outdamage LRM boats (top damagers) or gk2s. So yes they were easy-to-use good CQC weapon but clearly not top dogs in dps or alpha.

Lightfoot's suggestion looks fresh and really interesting but I guess there will be problems with usability cause of latency issues. Anyways something should be done to make ssrms viable again.

Edited by Alexander Malthus, 11 November 2012 - 06:17 AM.

[T Hawk]

Alexander Malthus, on 11 November 2012 - 06:11 AM, said:

Your post smells more trollin than streaks . FYI before the patch scats didn't outdamage LRM boats (top damagers) or gk2s. So yes they were an easy weapon to use but not top dogs in dps or alpha.

So because LRMs were over the top Streaks are to follow? I see what you did there. Gausses need to be aimed, there is nothing wrong with the damage.

Alexander Malthus, on 11 November 2012 - 06:11 AM, said:

Lightfoot's suggestion looks fresh and really interesting but I guess there will be problems with usability cause of latency issues.

Yes, sounds interesting.

[impar]

chewie, on 11 November 2012 - 03:32 AM, said:

Or the person your aiming at is using cover to block them at the last moment.

Which part of firing at a stationary target at 100m makes half of the SSRMs miss didnt you understood?
Even SRM+Artemis are more acccurate at a stationary target now.

[ATao]

LRMs were not over the top before artemis patch .

[Corison]

With the last change SSRMs became worthless. They should hit random locations on the mech, but they should at least hit with clear LOS on a sitting target.

Right now, not even close. Even on very easy targets you can see 1/3 or more of your missiles fly around the target.

[Lightfoot]

chewie, on 11 November 2012 - 03:32 AM, said:

Streaks are not *weak*, they still have the highest damage per shot over time ratio of nearly all weapons I'd like to think.

They might be broken, ie something got fudged when they *nerfed* the LRMs (as people keep crying over) meaning they aren't always hitting the target like folks think they should.

Or the person your aiming at is using cover to block them at the last moment.

As far as someone on base and your piling into them with them not bothering to move..... no idea, did they have a high ping at the time?

No, both these games featured near perfect gameplay. No rubber banding and my Gauss Rifle was working fine, although it was shot off when I was firing on the stationary Jenner.

True, maybe a bug was introduced in the Hot Fix patch.