32 replies to this topic

[Cannibal Cat]

When I fire an LRM volley then immediately switch to a new target before the LRM's impact their target, do they lose their lock, or are they "Fire and Forget", once they lock onto their target they stay locked until impact (or until an ECM causes the missiles to lose the lock)?

Note to webmaster: I originally wrote hit instead if impact and it viewed the 's' in LRM's next to 'hit' as a swear and censored it.

Edited by Cannibal Cat, 24 December 2012 - 01:29 AM.

[The Cheese]

You have to hold your lock on the target in order for them to track all the way. If you lose lock, they go dumbfire mode and will probably miss.

So no, they're not "fire and forget".

Edited by The Cheese, 24 December 2012 - 01:29 AM.

[GalaxyBluestar]

yes they lose their lock in MWO you have to hold the target for the whole duration of the missle flight for them to "chase the target" many people don't or simply lose lock on's which is why you see them hitting hills and building or weirdly just falling short. caustic valley is really the only map that lrm's have a killer edge, on other maps they just pin mechs in a spot at best but do little damage as you take cover or run out of radar's sight.

[Kaijin]

Contrary to the haters, LRMs are not 'Fire-and-Forget'. You need to keep the lock for the entire flight time of the missiles. The moment you lose the red circle, the missiles are no longer tracking their target and will impact the last location the target was occupying just before lock was lost. However, if by some miracle you reacquire lock before the missiles hit the ground, they will resume homing.

LRMs are mostly a waste of tonnage now due to the hugely overpowered ECM which was added a couple of patches ago. The only way you can lock a mech covered by ECM is for it to be tagged by you or a friendly unit. How long will your friendly unit be able to keep the TAG on target before they get annihilated because everyone an their cousin can see they're tagging? The same goes for you.

Until and unless ECM is nerfed hard, your best bet is to avoid lock-on weapons entirely. Use ballistics and SRMs if you can lead your targets. Use lasers if you aren't so good at leading.

Of course, you won't neccessarily encounter ECM in every match, but the ones you do, If you've got LRMs, you're hauling around tons of useless weaponry for the most part.

Edited by Kaijin, 24 December 2012 - 01:42 AM.

[Erasus Magnus]

Kaijin, on 24 December 2012 - 01:38 AM, said:

Contrary to the haters, LRMs are not 'Fire-and-Forget'. You need to keep the lock for the entire flight time of the missiles. The moment you lose the red circle, the missiles are no longer tracking their target and will impact the last location the target was occupying just before lock was lost. However, if by some miracle you reacquire lock before the missiles hit the ground, they will resume homing.

LRMs are mostly a waste of tonnage now due to the hugely overpowered ECM which was added a couple of patches ago. The only way you can lock a mech covered by ECM is for it to be tagged by you or a friendly unit. How long will your friendly unit be able to keep the TAG on target before they get annihilated because everyone an their cousin can see they're tagging? The same goes for you.

Until and unless ECM is nerfed hard, your best bet is to avoid lock-on weapons entirely. Use ballistics and SRMs if you can lead your targets. Use lasers if you aren't so good at leading.

Of course, you won't neccessarily encounter ECM in every match, but the ones you do, If you've got LRMs, you're hauling around tons of useless weaponry for the most part.

solely depends on your team. lrms are a team based weapon. i only do pugs and lately i found out that people are starting to carry tag again, so every once in a while, i dish out insane amounts of damage and kills with my missile boat( DDC with ECM, 2 LRM20A with 5 tons of ammo, 2 LLs, endo, ~17dhs and 325 std. engine) .

almost felt like pre artemis patch

lrms CAN be beast.

Thank you to all the fast scouts/harassers that carry tag and made my day with it. i love you guys!

Edited by Erasus Magnus, 24 December 2012 - 02:42 AM.

[Enemista]

Kaijin, on 24 December 2012 - 01:38 AM, said:

Of course, you won't neccessarily encounter ECM in every match, but the ones you do, If you've got LRMs, you're hauling around tons of useless weaponry for the most part.

not true, once you figure out how to work with tag, how to position yourself, it is not that hard to kill even ECM ravens with LRMs now that TAG range is buffed to 750m. and killing slow ECM atlases is fun, they think that they are invincible under thier ecm buble, but after landing 2 volleys of 50LRMs on they, they get like "WTF?"

[Kaijin]

Erasus Magnus, on 24 December 2012 - 02:39 AM, said:

solely depends on your team. lrms are a team based weapon.

I'd think a team based weapon would be very powerful, but LRMs are not. And they're not a team based weapon. They're an individual type of weapon just like Gauss Rifles are, and Large Lasers are, and PPCs are etc. The only distinction they have is they have been uber-nerfed by ECM, rendering them useless unless perhaps all of your teammates have given up one energy slot to mount TAG. Oh sure - you'll still kill newbies with them, but you come up against experienced players and you don't have a prayer.

Use weapons that don't require the stars to align is my advice to the OP, who can take it or not.

[Havyek]

LRMs go both ways.

Newbies can pretty much only kill other newbies with LRMs, skilled players can kill skilled and new players with LRMs.
ECM throws a bit of a wrench into it, but there are still ways around it.

The only "nerf" to ECM that I'd like to see is to make it a single target, active jam. Kind of like TAG, but you need to pick a target, turn ECM to disrupt and as long as you have that 'Mech targeted it's jammed. Lose target, and it stops being jammed.

[Felix]

BDU Havoc, on 24 December 2012 - 05:16 AM, said:

LRMs go both ways.

Newbies can pretty much only kill other newbies with LRMs, skilled players can kill skilled and new players with LRMs.
ECM throws a bit of a wrench into it, but there are still ways around it.

The only "nerf" to ECM that I'd like to see is to make it a single target, active jam. Kind of like TAG, but you need to pick a target, turn ECM to disrupt and as long as you have that 'Mech targeted it's jammed. Lose target, and it stops being jammed.

That would be an interesting way to make ECM work

[FrostPaw]

Seems my experience has been contradictory to the advice people are giving you here. Before ECM I had several occasions where I launched a salvo of lrms, switched targets and was waiting for the lock on tone when the reticle blinked red to indicate the previous salvo was hitting somebody.

It's been my experience that you can hit a target with lrms as long as when you launched them you were locked on. Even if you lose that lock after they have been fired, I still see them in the distance swooping down in a swarm followed by a red blinking reticle. There are also plenty of times where I hit terrain too of course.

Perhaps it's dependent on how far the target moves from their last known location when fired, if they just stand there, they get hit anyway. I know firing lrms without a lock means they just go straight into the ground most times so I don't really understand how the devs champion dumb firing and then locking on, by the time I lock on my lrms are well gone.

I don't see enough targets since ECM to bother switching any more.

[AlexWildeagle]

Kaijin, on 24 December 2012 - 03:53 AM, said:

I'd think a team based weapon would be very powerful, but LRMs are not. And they're not a team based weapon. They're an individual type of weapon just like Gauss Rifles are, and Large Lasers are, and PPCs are etc. The only distinction they have is they have been uber-nerfed by ECM, rendering them useless unless perhaps all of your teammates have given up one energy slot to mount TAG. Oh sure - you'll still kill newbies with them, but you come up against experienced players and you don't have a prayer.

Use weapons that don't require the stars to align is my advice to the OP, who can take it or not.

You either don't use LRMs or are completely ignorant on how to use them.
TAG and narc that your TEAMMATES carry are incredibly helpful. Teammates helping you is called team play.
Premades LRMs can be an art form, stars align? I wish. Most matches I PUG we have no ECM and a lot of those turn into LRM rain matches.
Even with ECM it's easy to get around its just the people who refuse to learn and just sit there and whine because super easy mode was turned off.

[Havyek]

FrostPaw, on 24 December 2012 - 06:02 AM, said:

Seems my experience has been contradictory to the advice people are giving you here. Before ECM I had several occasions where I launched a salvo of lrms, switched targets and was waiting for the lock on tone when the reticle blinked red to indicate the previous salvo was hitting somebody.

It's been my experience that you can hit a target with lrms as long as when you launched them you were locked on. Even if you lose that lock after they have been fired, I still see them in the distance swooping down in a swarm followed by a red blinking reticle. There are also plenty of times where I hit terrain too of course.

Perhaps it's dependent on how far the target moves from their last known location when fired, if they just stand there, they get hit anyway. I know firing lrms without a lock means they just go straight into the ground most times so I don't really understand how the devs champion dumb firing and then locking on, by the time I lock on my lrms are well gone.

I don't see enough targets since ECM to bother switching any more.

You can't trust the indicator going red with missiles, I've noticed that they go red when exploding, not necessarily when they actually damage a target.

TAG also causes the reticule to go red, even when contacting a friendly, and TAG does 0 damage.

[FrostPaw]

BDU Havoc, on 24 December 2012 - 06:13 AM, said:

You can't trust the indicator going red with missiles, I've noticed that they go red when exploding, not necessarily when they actually damage a target.

TAG also causes the reticule to go red, even when contacting a friendly, and TAG does 0 damage.

Funny, somebody on the forums few weeks ago said the reticle turning red was the only way to "trust" you were hitting. I guess nobody really knows anything, we're all just guessing at a complete lack of accurate information.

I've not ever seen my reticle turning red from missiles dumb fired into the ground so I have to assume the red reticle means I'm hitting somebody. I've definitely not seen it turn red when I hit a rock or building on route to a target either. It could be misleading me but the damage numbers at the end of a match suggest I am hitting someone.

[Shlkt]

I am 100% sure that LRMs do not track a target once you lose the lock. You can still do damage, though, if the target doesn't move out of the way of the missiles (or if another target walks in front of them). If you lose the lock shortly before impact then the target is much more likely to take damage.

After losing a lock, it can be fun to reacquire it right before impact. The missiles will do a mid-air 90 degree turn to impact the target in the back

In my experience, LRMs can be quite effective in pug matches provided that you carry your own TAG and position yourself appropriately behind teammates. You can dish out a LOT of damage. Against a really skilled team, though, there are very few opportunities for LRMs to shine; due to coordinated fire (and players that can aim properly) engagements tend to be pretty quick. LRMs are slow weapons, both in terms of ROF and flight time. You just aren't as much help to your team as you would be with direct weapons which can focus fire quicker.

I would love to see invisible TAG lasers, though, as I feel that would make LRMs more viable. You could send scouts with ECM behind enemy lines to silently TAG targets for your missile boats.

[AlexWildeagle]

Quote

<snip>

boo hoo

Edited by Prosperity Park, 24 December 2012 - 02:33 PM.
edited quote

[SlXSlXSlX]

Mr. Alex Wiildeagle,

Perhaps you can explain why this community is gushing new players.

Even if you dont agree missles are easier... tons of people have that opinion. Most of them are now part of different gaming communties.

Question for everyone that attacked this "new beta tester" in this post:

If you had a choice between deviating from table top (creating new non bt mechs, weapons, and balancing current ones)... OR

Having the game tank and fail.....

Would you make that sacrifice? Would you keep playing your beloved mw? Even if it had to be drasticly overhauled to survive?

[CDLord HHGD]

You have to hold the lock for the duration if you want your LRMs to track. Having said that, with the advent of ECM, I have been practicing dumb firing my LRMs. They will hit the location you have in your crosshairs. Nice for stationary targets like snipers or other LRM mechs or for the lucky shot where you guess where the enemy will be when you fire. And especially nice as since there is no lock, the enemy gets no warning. But it's not easy.

[SpiralRazor]

BDU Havoc, on 24 December 2012 - 05:16 AM, said:

LRMs go both ways.

Newbies can pretty much only kill other newbies with LRMs, skilled players can kill skilled and new players with LRMs.
ECM throws a bit of a wrench into it, but there are still ways around it.

The only "nerf" to ECM that I'd like to see is to make it a single target, active jam. Kind of like TAG, but you need to pick a target, turn ECM to disrupt and as long as you have that 'Mech targeted it's jammed. Lose target, and it stops being jammed.

Ive never seen any "skilled" player kill me with LRMs. Its mostly by luck... Last week I got killed by LRMS once...in my stalker...and it was definitely because i was the one making a stupid play.

LRMS are mostly trash.

[Livewyr]

As a missileboat pilot.. having continued to play missiles through the ECM apocalypse, and since before their range was extended to 1000.. Missiles have become considerably more difficult to use now.

I find that with my missile boat.. half the time I'm up there with the brawlers.. and have had to change my mech to suit it.

I'm very good with my missile boat.. but it took a horrid trek through learning the new ECM before I could make it work.

[SlXSlXSlX]

Just bc its harder touse them now than when it was missle spam online... Does not mean they are balanced in ratio to teh other weapon types. They are still much easier to hit and score with than ballistics in use, and require far less effort to position the mech to make shots with.

Develop more skills than spamming missles. And dont think taking your asslt mech to the front line to help mates is a bad thing. Some of you, I jsut can't fathom.