Alright, so my outfit (I'm on NC) and I were holding Indar Comm Array last night for a good hour. That was the only outpost the NC owned in that area, and the closest NC territory was the crown. We had 3 squads, and we all went HA and Engi with a few burster maxes. All the HAs had the Annihilator rocket launcher (the one that can lock ground and air). We held off an all out assault for around an hour from TR forces (mainly the outfit TRG). We just set up on the rofftops, and lobbed rockets at whatever came close, flashes libs esfs tanks sundys all of them melted away. We were heavily outnumbered, yet we just lolrocketed everything. I think this is rocket launcher needs a change. Either remove it entirely, and make it so that people have to choose between taking a ground lock launcher, or an AA lock launcher. However, I understand that SOE can't do this, so make it so that the launcher has two "modes" to switch between. So you can have it on ground mode, to kill ground units, and then switch to air mode to kill air units. However there is a timer on the switching mdoes maybe 15 seconds? So that you cannot just instantly go from shooting tanks to shooting ESFs. I think that this would help a lot. Right now, the lock on spam is so bad I can't even fly my ESF over empty territory (no activity) without getting a lock.
I believe the damage on the Annihilator is reduced over the skep and equivalents. It is fine and needed. At least now they actually have a chance to hit a moving plane. I guess you don't spec for flares? They won't be removing it as you had to pay to get it.
So you want a weapon nerfed, because you had success using it? Really? You held on for one hour and that's all it takes for lock to be OP? Come on, if the TR had gathered their forces they'd do well enough. Grab a few Libs and bombard you, two galaxies filled up and drop shocktroopers on top of you, apply half a dozen snipers to thin you out.. There's a million ways to counter a million tactics. I'd say that most, if not all, single weapon types are quite balanced as they are. There are a few faction inconcistensies but we're all aware of that already. Lock on works fine, you've already traded away some damage for it. After all, it only took an hour for them to figure out how to push you out.. some fights can be at a stalemate for an entire day, perhaps we should just nerf left mouse button while we're at it. (Comming from a guy who does not even own a lock on weapon, but suffers from them in his lovely tank)
sounds almost like a legit story, but the fact that you have a reaver as your avatar makes me suspicious about your real intentions on the lock on rant
Your enemy was foolish for continuing to zerg you with vehicles after it became clear you had a heavy anti-vehicle defensive setup. They should have sent in foot troops to battle you supported by snipers picking off people with locking scopes pressed to their eyes.
Use the counters designed for lockons or use cover. Of course, if 3 squads co-ordinate and use the direct counter to vehicles they can pick off specific targets well. But if the other side organize and play smart they could win.
You and your mate use it as it should be used, congratulations. Seriously I use it a lot and alone you can't do much with it, it just plink the target, now one or two squads equipped with it will make it shine. This weapon is fine,
I dont think that the problem is the "OP" aspect of this rocket launcher. its the ease of use, coupled with the versatility. any lock on launcher is , of course, complet child-proofing of an FPS. it literally takes no skill. then you couple that with the other universal child-proofing of a universal weapon, and you set your self up for some pretty lame gameplay. the problem with this combo, is that fights are now determined by mass, and not by quality of players combined with their organisation. simple numbers will suffice against any opponent, and the only means of beating back that mass is to garnish a greater mass for your group. IMO that gameplay sucks. OP I agree 100% a i ran into this issue yesterday (i play NC so i know it wasnt you guys ). My solution to this would be simple. take the Annihilator and split it into a dual function rocket. one stage offers a fast rocket, with no bullet drop, that does a small amount of damage to tanks, and the other section gives you a TV guided missile that you can remotely detonate to damage aircraft. or at least a faster missile that acts like flack. this doesnt address the universal aspect of the launcher, but it would certainly force a higher skill cap and render numbers less effective.
Does the Annihilator have a longer lock range or something? I trialed the AA launcher once and its range seemed barely beyond the infantry render distance, if not exactly 300 meters. It didn't seem very practical with such a short range, to be honest, as aircraft were rarely close enough for me to even initiate a lock no matter where I went, so you talking about getting lock spam in inactive areas is puzzling unless the Annihilator simply has a notably longer lock range.
Rocket Launders should be cleared by infantry before armor moves in. Sounds like your TR buddies learned it the hard way.
I too partricipated in Annihilator spam last night. The biggest issue I saw was that the TR forces we were bombarding didn't say "Oh my there's a wall of rockets coming from that ridge, perhaps I should organize a liberator crew to bombard that area." So long story short, it's a problem of situational awareness. People get tunnel vision and just play the game as if it was a check list: Step 1: Get in my tank Step 2: Get to the fight Step 3: Profit. But last night when we were on a ridge hammering their vehicle spawn, no one gave their head a shake and thought of a way to counter. Which isn't 100% true, some people did try to flank us on the ridge but it was so unorganized as to be pointless. Tldr: Annihilator camp can be overcome using situational awareness and tactics.
Lots of people share teh same sentiment. Most of them are the vehicles pilots though lol Even users though can kind of see how incredible potent they are for a man-portable free FAF weapon. They could do several things to make them more rounded off. Quite a few people have suggested having to actually keep the crosshairs on the target for the missile to track. So at the very least it would force the HA to dedicate the next 2-10 seconds to actually being Anti-Vehicle. Instead of snapping off a homing rocket and going right back to his Anti-Infantry gun. Plus it would also limit your ability to spam. Since you would have to wait until the warhead hit the target or you gave up on that one if the vehicle has obviously gone behind cover. I know that sounds like a huge nerf but it kind of needs it. The stock RL is being severally outclassed and it takes away from the game having such a simply time putting applicable damage on targets from such great distances. Infantry are supposed to be soft counters to vehicles. Enough that when a particular threshold is reached they can effectively buy time or even kill the offending vehicle but they shouldn't be the first pick unless said vehicle has made the fatal mistake of being in close enough proximity for them to get rear hits. Vehicles should be countering vehicles. Or at least MAX units in enough numbers. Lock-on should NOT allow infantry to put 100% unavoidable and easy damage on vehicles without having to aim. If you are using lock-on then you have sacrificed power for accuracy and should be penalized for it. Sure the DPS per warhead is smaller then the dumb fire models but when you can snap off shots, reload, and keep a constant flow of nanite seeking death from distances that the target doesn't even register you in the game client. There is a disconnect from 'on paper damage' and 'how effective the weapon really is' damage. Besides even with that change or even a general range, warhead velocity, lock-on time, ect balance. The true power of the lock-on is still extremely exploitable. Before the buff clever outfits were delegating a squad to anti-vehicle duty. 12 lock-on rockets all fired a the same target at the exact same time. With no indicator of what is targeting you most vehicle stay out in the open and tank it. Next thing you know they are debris. With proper coordination a relatively small group of players could utterly shut down any armor push in very short order. A MBT every single reload of the Annihilatior? That is better then most dedicated AV vehicles can claim to put down in the same time. A group using teamwork and numbers in that way, and i'd be happy to die to that. Being pecked to death by a sole HA from a hex away forcing my tank to crawl on its belly across 400m of terrain because I have no idea of exactly where he is and he probably has buddies? That is not good game balance. For me or for the HA who is having his AV role dumbed down to the point of 'point in the general direction of armor and watch it run for its damned life'. Cathartic and sounds nice to a vehicle weary infantry player but it is a greater whole of combined arms. If there is armor coming, your faction should have it's own to meet it. Or ESF interceptors to slaughter podders who spec into anti-ground. Being this potent and simple to use renders not only the enemy armor inept but also your own. Waters down everything to HA spam utterly melting any vehicle push by sheer weight of numbers with unerring 100% hit death from ranges even snipers could only dream of zooming in and scouting at.
Everything used in large enough numbers will win. The enemies mistake was to not use infantry at all, if the entire team is using AT weapons and all you do is keep bringing in Tanks then yeah, your screwed.
