Rocket rifle on PTS

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by McMan, May 8, 2016.

  1. McMan

    Light assults have a new tool on PTS the rocket rifle!! Try it out.
  2. Iridar51

    From reddit, by Wrel:


    Other facts:
    • will be NS (no ES flavor of any kind)
    • Ammo combination is pre-defined (can't choose primary fire and secondary fire separately)
    • HEAT possibly will be renamed into AP
    • Up x 1
  3. LaughingDead

    So you're telling me, a group of light assaults can be a flak squad and possibly out anti air heavies?

    And don't get me started on MORE vehicle removal for non specialized infantry. Heavies and anyone carrying C4 and able to sneak around was bad enough, but now I basically have to run a kobalt to peck a light gank squad on a roof?
  4. Neo3602


    the rocket rifle does not to a whole lot of damage it takes a little less than 30 shots to the rear armor of a lightning to kill it.
  5. Psykmoe

    Primary fire: Projectile drops like explosive crossbow bolts, takes 25 shots to destroy a Harasser, 24 to kill a MAX without suit slot (no idea if this will be affected by flak or kinetic, VR dummies have nothing) and like 30 to the rear armor of a Lightning. Takes 7 direct hits to kill an infantry soldier.

    Secondary fire: Flies a lot straighter, but currently does no damage to air (not even ESFs), cannot kill a MAX in 30 shots, 30 shots leaves a Harasser at half health, doesn't damage heavier vehicles, but only takes 6 direct hits to kill a regular infantry soldier. On a 240 rpm weapon you can only hipfire.

    Neither projectile has splash.

    I guess if you were super mad about explosive crossbow bolts too, the rocket rifle could turn out to be frightening. But right now it's too early and the current version too bad to say what this thing will even do.
    • Up x 3
  6. Iridar51

    Be careful what you wish for. Evil Genie will take your wish literally.

    When I said "we need a weapon that can fire accurately while flying" I meant "weapon that can deal damage while flying".

    Welp. Rocklet sure is accurate, the only problem its damage is total crap. As it stands, you may as well fire your carbine while flying and deal the same damage with stray bullets that manage to hit the enemy despite horrible CoF.

    EDIT: Messed around with Rocklet in PTS VR.

    "Accurate" lol. Effective range against stationary MBT of about 100m, and that's after adjusting for insane drop and projectile travel time, crouched single shots.

    Yeah, CoF doesn't increase while flying, but it's huge to being with.
    On the plus side, very high rate of fire, so kinda "burst alpha damage in CQC sort of thing".

    So no accuracy and low damage.

    Fun toy, but useless in combat in current iteration, sincerely hope for some buffs. Nobody needs weak weapons.
    • Up x 1
  7. LaughingDead


    Not everyone runs explosive crossbow, EVERY SINGLE LIGHT ASSAULT will have it FOR FREE. How many people play light assault? How many will peck down a single tank? How easy will it be if tank can't respond?

    Basically it will be like archer squads, 5 people with a low damage sniper rifle can gib tanks at long range with a fair amount of time. Except a lot of people run light assault, a lot of ways this could get out of hand. I'd rather not evem let light assault have armor options beyond c4.
  8. Iridar51

    Archer is a sniper rifle. Rocklet fires a slowly moving highly arched projectile.

    Seriously, 100m = 2 second travel time and huge drop and huge CoF. Impossible to hit anything consistently.

    Tank can respond with weapons or run away ez.
    • Up x 3
  9. LaughingDead

    Completely forget that max drifters lets you just hover over the tank and peck at it, even if thats not viable it's still a way for light assaults to consistently harrass vehicles.
  10. Iridar51

    Completely forget that vehicle pilot at any moment can exit his vehicle and just shoot defensless hovering LA out of the sky, even if that's not viable it's still a way for pilots to consistently defend their vehicles.
    • Up x 1
  11. Pat22

    Okay, first, Iridar, I told you on PTS that the splash damage currently was not working. Any kind of damage calculation done on the weapon in its current state is pointless. The HEAT rounds will do more damage to vehicles than they currently do and will be able to splash infantry. To what degree remains to be seen but it's still too early to be judging the weapon or even complaining about it.

    Second, it gives every single light assault the ability to carry ten smoke grenades with them. You can blind your targets while also raining down rocklets onto them. Even if the weapon ends up being mediocre at actually killing things, its ability to rapidly shroud an entire hex into darkness is still worthwhile.

    However, even without splash damage, it currently does enough damage to Harassers that 2-3 light assaults can easily scare them away, and enough damage to Liberators that they won't consider coming in low for a tankbust if there are a few light assaults around.
    So, even if the weapon were to come out in its current, obviously incomplete state, it's still got some use to it as a C4 finisher, smoke machine and limited anti-vehicle damage.
  12. Iridar51

    Didn't see, I left right away.

    Smoke is too much of a double edged sword to be used to advantage with consistency. It blinds LA and his allies too, and has potential to do more harm than good. If smoke functioned like Threat Detection Grenade by highlighting enemy silhouettes through smoke, and prevent allies from being spotted through smoke, then it would be actually useful.

    I made some suggestions on reddit about smoke issues, if you'd kindly vote and comment here.

    What you're saying is "in current iteration Rocklet can deter 2 vehicles that are known for being only possible to deter and not destroy". Changes nothing.

    And last piece of LA-directed attention for the years to come. if they're gonna do something right now, they better do it right, and I will complain loudly and often to make sure that happens.

    Sorry if I seem negative or ungrateful, I'm happy they're doing SOMETHING, I just want to make sure to get the most out of it.
    • Up x 1
  13. Pat22

    I get it, you're fully entitled to complain, and I agree that LA gets attention so very rarely and a tool has been lacking for over three years now, but at least wait for it to be functional before doing so.

    It literally just got put on PTS, the HEAT rounds don't HEAT, the Flak rounds don't Flak! It doesn't even have a drum to hold the rockets. Of course it's pretty meh!

    Also in regards to deterring stuff. There aren't many things that can deter a liberator from doing his tankbust run. If two Light Assaults that happen to be near the lib's target can drain half his HP in a single mag, that'd be pretty effective deterrence that can really only be matched by AP rounds.
  14. LaughingDead

    Would still rather have a variety of different grenades instead of heat rounds. A light assault with flashbangs or just a salvo of smaller grenades to chuck into doors to break open a point would be better than vehicle deterance left to heavy assaults.
  15. Pat22

    If the indicated stats on the HEAT rounds are to be accurate once the splash kicks in, it does 150 direct damage and 150 splash damage up to .3m, down to 1 damage at 1m.

    If you land a single direct hit and every other round at the feet of your target, you basically score a kill. Even if you don't score a kill, it'll soften up your target real good for when you land and pull out your carbine or pistol.
  16. SupaFlea

    I am actually with Laughing on this, ive never needed more ways to take out armour and the lasted thing our dedicated class players need is the new surge or ppl spamming the rocket rifle.

    Versatility with usefulness thats what I always wanted, something I can use on my own but would be a welcome addition to a tactical squad. heck I even think being able to pick up are unused C4 would be better than another weapon like that.

    Whats the dmg again other infantry?
  17. Pat22

    You guys are ignoring the possible awesomeness of a Light Assault Valkyrie capable of engaging Infantry, Vehicles and Aircraft effectively.

    Get a medic pilot for Triage, Engineer gunner for reps, 3 HEAT/Flak Light Assaults and one HEAT/smoke Light assault in the back seats.

    Combine Frags with HEAT rounds and nose gun to effectively deal with infantry groups.
    Nose gun, HEAT and drifter C4 for vehicle killing.
    Finally, not only do Flak rounds give you defense versus aircraft, you can actually drop out of the Valk and hover around with drifters acting like a Flak Mine, giving you more firing angles on enemy aircraft. Also putting you in close enough range to libs to hit them with the HEAT rounds.
  18. Iridar51

    Rocklet has different ammunition types, including FLAK, slugs and smoke fire modes.
    That's exactly what Rocklet is supposed to be. Its damage against vehicles is meh at best.

    I have to remind you that direct damage + splash damage mechanics are unclear to this day. As my experiments have shown, players take roughly half of the indicated splash damage, so more likely to be a five shot kill with direct hits.

    So waste time of 6 people and coordination to accomplish much less than 6 ESFs would? Even one ESF, lol.

    Sounds like directly inferior to Striker Valk, which granted was a TR only tactic. Even then I've seen a couple of times at most.

    Please, if you're gonna come up with ideas how Rocklet can be used, at least be honest to indicate how desperate they are, and how far removed from being useful to players without super coordination aka the majority.
  19. Pat22


    Oh please, not everything in this game is done because it's the most effective thing to do. Even though Striker valks, or even just full engi valks, aren't particularly effective, you did see SOME. Not because it could do tremendous damage on the battlefield, but because it was FUN.
  20. LaughingDead


    You mean armor, other armor, useless and downright annoying as hell to the point everyone runs IR sights and it's pointless to run smoke.

    Just because it can do damage to vehicles doesn't mean it should, light assaults being a better deterrence to air in a group than heavies is a bad bad bad bad idea. You don't even need to lock on with a launcher to make the air flee, just a group of lights shoot flak at it.