[Suggestion] Reworking the Striker Into a 'Fly-By-Wire'

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll try to update the main post, but I'm on my phone right now, and it's goof as sheesh trying to post with it.

Please continue the discussion; I've seen points worthy of consideration both for and against the idea.

I feel the striker is fine. It just needs to have an adjusted lock on comparable to the Annihilator and that you lose lock on if you do not have the vehicle under the reticle at all times. You can literally lock on, turn 180 degrees from your target and fire the entire magazine. If they can fix that, TR will have a great toy.

I personally like the Striker the way it is now. The reason somer people like lock on over dumbfire is that, at the range tanks are supposed to engage Infantry, dumbfire launchers are really inadequate for the job. Slow speed, immense drop, and you not only have to guess the target's lead but, assuming they don't see your rocket coming, you also have to hope they don't change direction before the rocket gets there.

The problem I see with a multi-fire guide-by-wire is similar and also different. On one hand, assuming a moving target, the rockets all will possess different trajectories and that will reduce the effectiveness of previously-fired rockets at the expense of future-fired rockets, provided the user calibrates changes in aim correctly along the same wire. That means to effectively use the weapon the user has to more frequently abandon his faction trait of high RoF and shoot rockets incrementally. On the other hand, users will note that the subsequent rockets fire from the same angle that the lock was attained under the current implementation, not the angle at which the rocket launcher is held to maintain the lock. This change might also mean more successful collision by all five rockets if the user calibrates changes in aim correctly, meaning the weapon could become less defensible. This is balancing feature would be lost.

Moreover, being able to hit with all five rockets grants better damage than just one normal dumbfire rocket, and that is a perk to successfully useing the weapon against a target that could not or did not manage to defend against it. If, to balance the weapon for guide-by-wire, we have to reduce the formerly lock-on salvo to the same power as a dumbfire singleton, the weapon has lost one of its benefits. Whether or not that is an important benefit is worth arguing. I see how other reason to distribute my normal shot into five parts unless each does slightly better than 1/5th damage of the single shot.

tl;dr: this change would have to go through the extensive testing SOE won't often perform (public testing server lol) but I do not think the benefits or perceived fun outweigh the loss in utility and stability.

Brilliant idea. Striker is just so boring currently. There needs to be some considerable range downsides, enough complaints already about invisible AV turrets. I'm thinking about the idea of individual rocket loading, like a shotgun. I can't decide if you should be able to fire midway in loading though.

No. Every TR heavy will spam this weapon is biolabs. In every building. But Bill !! its not anti infantry!!! Doesnt matter; every tr will spam this in very small rooms to clear out enemies. And it would be OP vs maxes.

Its a nice idea and i can see the thought gone into it. However the T2 Striker is a weapon from Planetside 1 and is a treat for the veterans. Changing its formula changes the weapon and it wont be the same. Remember there will always be more rocket launchers and they Striker certainly isn't blocking out the sun on Briggs.

Not gonna comment on the proposal since I dont have a Striker or even use one.

That said, the inconsistancy issue is a lock-on issue i'm sure. A2A missles are frequently non-damaging.

Well, I can't edit the main post. Super bummer. Just to elaborate:

This is not a thread about the Striker being OP or UP (there are a lot of threads on those topics already). This is a suggestion to improve a rather dull mechanic for the operator, and an annoying one for the target.

Launching in a volley will hopefully avoid issues with missile pathing. Having a short cluster of 5 will also be easier to keep them all on target. Perhaps an extra magazine to compensate.

Maximum rocket distance is an excellent point. I think 400-500m would be fine. (Dumbfire is 400 with the curve, and lock ons are 800)

ADS should be required, you're right.

The need to keep it on target while ADS, longer reload and higher visibility are a few.

Agreed. I know they have damage types in the game, so this shouldn't be too hard. Especially with no splash damage.

This is a good argument to make against being able to fire the missiles one at a time. With one-click fire and all rockets being fired in under a second, pathing shouldn't be an issue.

I'm just worried about being TOO effective in groups. I'm worried about the post-buff Lancer for the same reason, but it seems okay so far. Damage numbers are easily tuned with proper testing/patches.

1700 damage is the same as a dumbfire, and that's if every rocket is a direct hit. Also, no splash. So no, I don't see how this would be an issue in CQC.

To answer you question...
1. We were promised a Empire specific rocket launcher, what we got was an Annihilator with a 5 round clip. Since the Annihilator isn't Empire Specific neither is the Striker.
2. The NC and the VS got a new and fun to use rocket launcher, The TR Annihilator1.2 is no more fun to use the the Annihilator 1.0

We are paying customers same as you, we deserve better.

And there it is folks!
If the TR ever gets it hands on a weapon that is effective against the beloved SCATMAX we would never hear the end of the crying.

But tell me how this launcher would be different from say a Decimator barrage?

Are you assuming that each rocket is capable of killing an infantry, or something? Because that is stupid.

In a biolab, the decimator or stock dumbfire would be much more effective than a dumbfire striker. You'd probably have to get 3 or 4 direct hits on an infantry to kill them with it. Decimator is instagib.

What? If you like something it's OP now? These forums really have gotten ridiculous.

You heard it here first guys, if you like something it must be OP. What a baseless statement.

The striker has its perks, but I would much rather have a Phoenix. Fighting off the air is nice but in my opinion you just can't beat being able to destroy sunderers without having line of sight to them. Just today on the test server my outfit split up and attacked each other to test the lattice network(Which is awesome btw.) I was on the NC side of things, our TR counterparts flanked our offensive with a sunderer. It was behind a building that we could not possibly get Line of sight with using normal missile/rocket launchers. So, we pulled out Phoenix's and just curved the missile around the building and into the sunderer. And you're calling the striker OP?

The lancer is another awesome weapon. Who needs lock on when you have a hit-scan laser beam? Get a squad of lancers, aim at anything, charge and watch it disintegrate. Sunderer's charging around you? Just aim and turn it to ash. Galaxy drop incoming? Aim and turn it to dust.

Each ESL has its pros and cons. The striker is the least OP since there's actually countermeasures for them like flares and IR smoke. There is no countermeasure for fly-by-wire missiles and laser cannons. If you think the striker is OP compared to the other launchers, you're just a cry baby.

Yes, the range definitely needs to be carefully balanced. Default RL max range is 400m, 800m for lock ons. 700 for Lancer and 295 for Phoenix. I think either 400 or 500 would be fine. Can't find the max range for AV turret.

Again, keeping the 5-round burst is important in making sure there's no issue with the missiles pathing strangely. If you could have big gaps between rockets, things could get funky.

I'd prefer it if they did your thing, but changed the following:

Make it like a MIRV.

You fire a packet. You trigger the packet. Out come 5 cluster missiles that you guide with your crosshair. This means you can keep the damage, but you are also upping the difficulty and skill ceiling. The packet should have a auto-detonate timer as well.

Example: I see a hull down tank on a hill. I fire my MIRV packet upwards, I hit shoot again to detonate it and then i guide the missiles to the tank. Because I shot the packet upward rather then at the tank, it is being guided at an angle so I can hit that tank. This rewarded my skill at using the weapon. If I just shot the packet forward, the missiles would not have hit.

Against TR you can see ****loads of packet's being fired that break into swarms of missiles. It would look sweet as hell.

Oh man, that's an awesome idea. Really is. The only issue I see with it is: what kind of damage would it do if it were to hit in single missile form? Full damage? Then a lot of people would probably forgo popping the cluster for close range targets. But maybe that's okay. Would certainly take more effort to implement though, and that might make it less likely to be implemented. Definitely a super cool idea.

NO. If the damage is as higher as AV turret, ppl will call this AV turret V2.0. It falls to a similar situation with current issue with Annihilator V2.0. Its not going to fix it

Alternatively:

- reduce damage per missile from 500 to 400. Total damage will be on par with AV turret. Fires in quick succession

or

- maintain the damage at 500 - give it poor accuracy - missiles fired will spin and getting all 5 missiles on target will be a challange. All missiles are to be fired in a single 1 click

I ment remain the same to what the OP suggested .. My fault for not being clear

The forums are making me laugh again. Once again its a case of something thats been around for years being too hard for new players. Striker isnt new, Phoenix isnt new, lancer isnt new. I played with all 3 in the old game and this version and they almost work the same as in the original. Only big diff i found was phoenix damages infantry waaaay more than it did in PS1.
That didnt stop me from sniping people with it but it took 3 shots most of the time and i would have to use manual detonate.

Back to the topic. If something as small as an auto lock on rocket launcher gives you a bad day then heh you are not prepared. Theres alot more "harder" stuff that can be add, and it still wont be new.

This is EXACTLY what I wanted the Striker to be. And was so damn sad it turned out to be Annihilator 2.0 instead. I tried the thing out in VR training. Realized it was pretty much a direct upgrade to other lock on launchers. But still didn't buy it just because I hate the weapon. I hate it because its no fun to use. Hate it because it doesn't offer the same options than NC/VS new launchers offered them. They get skill based launchers. They get the ability to hit at long range without warning. They get something not countered by simply hitting the flare/smoke button. Why the developers chose to stick TR with a weapon so different that it's not even really in that same category I don't know.

All I know is if they rework to be like the OP described or create a different launcher that works like that i'll buy it immediately.

Why would anyone use this over the AV turret which does more damage, has infinite ammo, and a giant model providing cover?