No replies to this topic

[zorak ramone]

Aside from their power, it seems that one major complaint about LRMs is that they're too "easy" aim or boring to use due to missile lock. Due to missile lock and their unique ability to hit targets behind hills with the help of a spotter, they are potentially the single best weapon for focused fire in an organized team environment. They may even be to good relative to the other weapons: even if the target has no cover, a coordinated team of GR K2s won't be able to focus fire nearly as well as a team full of LRM pults.

There may be a way to implement LRMs in a way that requires you to aim them, but doesn't make them too hard to use and doesn't take away from their unique ability to fire over hills. Here's my suggestion:

-LRMs speed is massively increased, comparable to SRMs (maybe faster) and travel in a slight arc. Raising or lowering the mech's torso affects the angle of the arc.

-LRMs do not lock on, but require a target to be acquired by radar

-When LRMs come with a certain distance (exact distance to be determined by playtesting) of the target acquired by radar when launched, they start to track that target. Depending on how well the player aimed, the missile tracking will be able to hit the target or will miss. The flight pattern of the missiles can be adjusted to modify the probability that all of the missiles in the flight will hit (wide pattern = lower probability, tight pattern = higher probability)

-If the acquired target was behind a hill/did not have LOS, the LRMs will launch at a much higher angle in an arc determined by the range of the acquired target

-Equipment like Artemis 4, Narc, and TAG either increase the distance at which LRMs start to track or increase the angle/speed with which missiles can turn while tracking a target

-LRM minimum range does not mean LRMs do zero damage within the minimum range. LRMs leave the tubes at a high angle and do not track before leaving the minimum range, making it very hard, but not impossible to hit with LRMs within the minimum range.

The effect of this would be that when you attack someone with LRMs, you target them, and then aim your flight of LRMs toward where he'll be in a second or two, depending on his range/speed. Aim well, and your missiles will be coming down right about the time he gets there and, most of them will track and hit him. You'd fire the same way for indirect fire, but your missiles would automatically take a much higher angle.

You could even use this to implement special ammunition for LRMs:
-Swarm ammo behaves the same way, but tracks everything, not just the target you acquired (including friendlies)
-Thunder ammo doesn't track at all, but drops mines where it lands.
-Listen-Kill ammo tracks tighter, and at a longer range, but stops tracking at all if it hits an ECM bubble.
-Clan LRMs adjust their arc based on range to target and can start tracking right out of the tube