Firstly, before stating what changes need to be made, I know that these weapons are incomplete. Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to list some problems/issues with the new ESF weapons. Let's get started. - 1. Locust Cannons (otherwise known as [ESF name] Spin-Up Cannons) Right off the bat, there's a major issue with the weapons. These weapons deal 50 splash damage. The splash damage is fine, however the major issue with this is that the splash damage also affects ANY aircraft. Let me put this in example for you. An ESF has 1750 base health. The splash damage does 50 damage. This splash damage has NO damage multipliers (i.e. lock ons do half the listed damage), meaning that 35 shots of the splash damage alone kills you. Also, this means you CAN kill yourself with the Locust Cannons (but you have to be within 2 metres to take the full 50 splash damage). Here's a video demonstrating that with a weapon similar to the Locust Cannons, the M14 Banshee. (note, lower volume, enable annotations) Notice the splash! This also stacks with the damage of the impact. Assuming that this is the air-cannon damage type, this means that an ESF will take around 71.5 (550x0.13 [air cannon 'resist' type on ESF]) damage PLUS the 50 damage, making for a whopping 121.5 (roughly) damage. This means that it should take around 14-15 shots in it's current state to kill an ESF. In testing, I found this to be the case. The problem with this isn't only the high damage, but it's also the fact that the splash damage also affects Liberators and Galaxies. Also, aside from that, the weapon has quite the magazine size of 100, with 1200 in reserve. I think this needs to be changed to exactly half of that, from 100/1200 to 50/600. TL;DR: This weapon's splash damage adds on to its normal damage versus any aircraft. - 2. Coyote Missiles (otherwise known as [ESF name] Dogfight Missiles] I feel that these are more of a rocketpod/lock on hybrid with some issues. As of now, they have a lock-on range of about 300 in-game meters, which is quite ridiculous for what their name suggest, dogfights. I think that the range should be reduced to about 100m, with the lock-on range certification bringing this to 150 max. Also, a bug with it, when you hold down the fire button and un-lock an enemy, you shoot tons of client-side missiles which do no damage. It's hilarious. EDIT: Also, lock-ons show the indicator in third person. TL;DR: This weapon locks from too far for its intended use. - 3. NS-50 Mass Drivers The weapon seems fine. High damage, small mag size, however in the test server, there's an Extended Mag attachment that allows for 6 extra shots per mag, leading to a massive 8 rounds per mag. In my opinion, the Extended Mag attachment needs to be changed from 6 extra shots to 2 extra shots. 4 shots per mag should really make this weapon act differently than having 2 shots and a faster reload. TL;DR: Extended Mags is broken on this weapon. - These are just changes that I'd like to see to 'fix' the weapons. These in no way completely balance the weapons, and anyone has any rights to share their opinion on the matter. Also, this is my first forum post, so it's not that great. Thanks for reading.
1. Chain gun This gun is supposed to have a high cone of fire but its effective range is about 400-500m for liberators and galaxies. This gun effective range is WAY too far away for what it is meant for. It also kills esf's,liberators and galaxies far too quickly. The damage needs to be toned down and the damage needs to drop off a cliff past a certain point. If they really nerf the cone of fire to fit with the description and tone down the damage, the damage drop off should start at around 250m. I see this weapon as a spray and prey anti esf cannon in dog fights for people who lack precision aiming and an effective weapon against galaxies in close range and a very effective and risky weapon against liberators at close range. 2. Mass Driver Get rid of the magazine upgrade and it seems pretty balanced. I used the reload speed upgrade on it and using it seemed to be fairly balanced. With the magazine upgrade it was ridiculously overpowered against anything I attacked. If you remove the magazine upgrade consider decreasing the default reload speed a bit. 3. Coyote Missiles This is supposed to be a short range lock on missile with fast lock on time. It has a lock on range of 300m that can be upgraded to 350m. The default a2a lock on is 400m upgraded to 450m. It also kills a esf with 2 volleys as opposed to the default which kills an esf in 3 rockets. The default also takes much longer to lock on. It is just a flat upgrade over the default lock on currently. It has 100m less range which doesn't matter, it has near instant lock on and it can 2 shot esf's. Nerf the range to 150 or 200m and it'll feel like an actual sidegrade As a side note if any devs are around, where is the external afterburner tank cert line? It seems like it would be a fairly easy thing for you guys to put in so we can test it.
Yeah, I'm afraid the Coyote missiles alone make the A2A Tomcats totally obsolete, which they have been very weak for some time now as it was. I am not seeing how this can be a side-grade. I have always felt the Tomcats needed a buff to allow multiple missiles in the air at one time.
You have your points. Maybe I was a bit too generous to the Mass Drivers. Also, yeah, where is that afterburner cert line?
I think the balance on the locust cannons is perfect because now when I shoot an ESF with it the pilots brain wont have enough time to even proses the threat before he dies and libs wont even be able to do a 180 degree turn before they die.
The Locust Cannon needs to lose the splash damage. They also need a drastic damage reduction, especially against ground targets. If not, this will restart the entire A2G/G2A balance swings and arguments. It'll be another 6 months of ******** and moaning. It'll be another 6 months of the Liberator being useless. Liberators and Galaxies won't even be in the air with this TTK. Best thing to do is remove these Vulcans for ESFs and replaced them with less damage versions of the rotaries. Dual rotaries that each do 3/4 the damage per shot of one rotary (Mossy or Scythe damage, Reaver or Scythe RoF, Mossy or Reaver projectile velocity). Make them the weapon dogfighters use who don't want to use lock-ons. Not a replacement for rocket pods.
The weapons have to be enticing, or why bother switching out from pods? Right now, I wonder what the point of the mass driver is really- the damage is low, and the reload slow. I suppose its consistent damage from any distance, and so best used against libs and gals? Coyote missiles are ok- buggy but seem to be headed down a decent path to usability. The Locust cannons are a bit strong, but im sure that will be adjusted. They have a wind up, maybe that time to full RPM could be increased to make it a little less strong. New weapons are always welcome.
The mass drivers is basically an unnerfed air hammer, taking 4 reloads to kill an ESF. Locust cannons do way too much damage against air and slightly too much damage against ground. Coyote missiles are buggy so I can't speak now.
They need to be different, not simply stronger at everything. And rocket pods STILL NEED to have a place in the game. Anything else is blatantly bad design. We already have weapons that are almost unused (airhammer, PPAs), anything new needs to really be new. I'd expect the mass drivers to be used in air similarly like rocketpods are used, only more a opportunity/alphastrike weapon. They need to really only have 1 shot and much slower reload. Instead they should have no or next to no damage falloff.
Why should there be a secondary that's straight upgrade from an existing primary? Makes no sense whatsoever, even less than the current Locusts.
Pretty sure the mass drivers don't have mag upgrades and it is only a bug as there are no mag upgrades in the cert line for it. Locust cannons are absurd. The TTK of them vs galaxies and libs currently (yes I get it, it's not final and things will be tweaked but still, seriously) is absurd. About 5 seconds against liberators and around 10 vs galaxies. With decent accuracy and fall off damage only starting at 250m? Needs to have damage nerfed by at least half against the above and accuracy or fall off nerfed as well. Right now, any lib or galaxy within 250m is dead.
I'm suggesting 3/4s damage per shot of either the Mossy or Scythe, but bare in mind that the Locust Cannon is a dual cannon. That means the damage would actually be 1.5 the damage per firing of either the Mossy or Scythe. Bare in mind that right now they do nearly x2 the damage of the Hailstrom, per shot. As for why the projectile velocity and RoF should be the same as the ESFs which don't specialize in those categories is so that no empire can say that the NS weapon allows other empires to have their ability and they don't have that option. And they are an alternative, not a straight upgrade. While your nose gun reloads you switch to the dual Locust Cannon. Sustained fire, increasing A2A capabilities without requiring the use of lock-ons, because there are some of us who dislike lock-on weapons.
Exactly, nail on the head or whatever it's called. Rocket pods have no defined role. They were created because "rockets are an aircraft thing" but with absolutely no idea/role/balance in mind. It took several nerf to reduce their effectiveness to something bearable for anything on the ground. The AI guns are underused because overshadowed by the rocket pods in every way, plus they leave you vulnerable against aircraft. In this regard, locust feels like yet another upgrade. Unless afterburner certs are really significant... As a reminder, I think the ESF issues were already exposed for the most part, but the AA nerfs and recent lock-on changes will definitely change how things work and maybe we'll have a reasonable starting point for balance. Also, where are my EMP dumb bombs ?
He's right, there is no mag upgrade for it. Sadly, I can't edit my post either because I've edited it before, ooor something. The mag upgrade is a VR only upgrade. A friend told me this shortly after I edited my post. Agh. :/ This is exactly what I think at the moment. I believe it's the pretty buggy splash damage from the weapon. Thankfully, the splash damage doesn't affect tanks, but it's still pretty powerful against them. With the splash damage type being changed to infantry/flash only (or however the banshee works) along with a halved mag size and ammo pool, this weapon should feel more like how it's supposed to feel.
They do need to lose the splash damage versus aircraft, and that's the point I'm trying to enforce here. The splash damage has no resist type, meaning it will do a constant 50 damage. This means that a landed ESF can die within 35 shots without even being hit directly. This also means that you can kill yourself within 35 shots. Fixing the splash damage should give a more balanced outlook to this weapon.
Could you define what you meed by rocket pods needing to have a place in the game? Do you mean that they're overpowered, underpowered, or what? I'm actually serious, I'd love to know. Also, the air hammer is a great weapon, even after nerf. Personally, it can cover all forms of combat, anti infantry, anti vehicle, and anti-air. Sure it's not the best weapon at doing all those, but it works well. As for the PPA... oh poor PPA, only works well for anti infantry and, to a certain extent, anti-vehicular use, due to its better TTK vs. ground vehicles only (or supposedly so).
As far as I've heard, the cert lines will increase the top speed of your aircraft, which stacks with the racer frame. Not sure how I feel about this. Maybe it'll make a difference. I would rather wait until they add it in to test it out, as only time can tell.
Mayhaps give it the Flak resist type? Added benefit of being able to hard counter the splash with Comp armor.
It'd be nice, but I still don't think that'd solve it, especially of it's high air-cannon damage of 550. We'll see in the future, though.
New items making existing items obsolete = bad design (and bad balance). That's all. Rocket pods are the main secondary A2G choice. These new weapons were supposed to be A2A; they can't overshadow rocketpods in A2G role. As for AH, I'm not saying there's no use for it, just that it's underused along with other AI weapons. This is of course partly due to almost all vehicular AI weapons being constantly pressured into overnerfed state by bad base design.
