Bringing this up since the current way missiles behave after the lock-on is unnatural and quite dumb. They go straight for the interception point with the plane instead of actually following the plane like a lock-on missile would do. It looks like my rocketlauncher has an elastic barrel. This leads to unwilled friendly fire and even easier dodging for the target, it simply dives slightly and 50% of the time, the missile hits the first object on its path due to the crooked approach. A more J-shaped path would improve the preformance of the AA.
Like the swarm missile launcher. No. This thing is way to much effective at tracking target. I reconnize that when I'm playing HA I don't like when the missile hit a rock or a friend or the ground because of the calculated path of it, but, if they fix this, it will be even more difficult to fly. If they add a straigth line on the early path of the rocket, they should give it less accuracy after this point. To balance the better efficiency of the rocket.
Less accuracy on a lock-on weapon? How would that work. I'm not asking for a buff here, just to avoid launching a rocket into a random pleb/wall/vehicle next to me. Lockon AA launchers already have limited range and power, no plane goes down in less then 2shots. Flying will still be the same, and infantry farmers will still get lock-on as regular as normal. Except, now the missile will come out of the actual barrel of my launcher and not take a 30° turn right after leaving it.
I'm a pilot and I agree. The way rockets sometimes leave the barrel at a 90 degree angle because the target is boosting to safety is beyond dumb. Tracking the target instead of predicting its path and trying to intercept it is how lockons worked to begin with, I still have not the slightest idea why that change was ever made.
Because of skyknights complaining on forumside that those pesky ground plebs are ruining their ground farming .... eh I mean honoburu air vs air circle jerking.
If the problem is what the rocket does shortly after leaving the muzzle, what about a grace period where it does fly directly towards the target, and, after a certain distance, then the rocket begins tracking based on linear intercept prediction?
Uhm... but air vs air would be up high far away from any cover to even use the advantage they gain through this change, it only helps A2G attacks...?
Yes 2 shots for an ESF, but this game is a MMO. Dont think like a lonely soldier has to shoot twice, think about a 96+ zerg. then you will have the right power of the AA. There is nowhere to hide in the sky. If you fly to low, you take tank shells, if you fly to high you have lockons. Flying max altitude is pointless unless you are playing only against air. The way AA launcher works is a nerf, so the HA have to get clean sight to shoot, this mean to be an easy target for snipers or face the possibility to see your rocket hit a wall or something. The swarm lockon can give you an idea of the possibility of all lockons working the same. On a large battle you can often see on your HUD: Lock-on x 12. (personnal reccord X18!!)
Sorry forgot the sarcasm tags. [sarcasm] But honoburu skyknights do nothing but 1 vs 1 dueling in the air.... Only when they come to close to the ground they have to defend them selfes preemtively with rocketpods and airhammers, banshees or PPAs. And when they do that, the least thing they want is someone to shot back.[/sarcasm]
I remember when this was the case. But it seems in my monitor my missile go around mountain chasing not predicting enemy aircraft. but to the Pilots it's going true the mountain, according to their complain.
Yeah ofcourse, but what did you expect? That infantry is just gone get farmed by air? You can come up from anywhere, behind mountains, buildings etc. Hide high in the sky and come straight down, attack and get out low. If you just fly over a battlefield with 96v96 and start pelting infantry within lock-on range, don't expect to live. And getting shot by mbt's mostly happens on hovering or when flying straight at it. Same goes for a tank driving into a base. Insta c4 gibbed. Still doesn't explain why my rocket launcher nozzle is made out of rubber.
It's not rubber, it's nanites!! Well, the reason behind it is to balance a bit the lockon. They are way too effective otherwise. And they used to be too much effective.
Ok, your post has been addressed before but you probably don't know it yet. Once upon a time surface to air launchers behaved just the way you want them to behave. You locked on and fired, and the missile flew straight out of the tube and tracked the target down in its wake. It did not predict or track the target's trajectory. It merely followed like you are asking for. The problem was that it made lock on launchers pathetically easy to use. If you had just the tiniest window of opportunity to squeeze a missile around a nearby obstruction you could. Missiles were changed to the "predictive" behavior in order to force you--the launcher--to have a clear field of fire, or risk having your missile collide with a nearby object. Missile flight time was also reduced in that patch. There is, however, a surface to air launcher you can use that does use the old more realistic flight behavior: The Swarm. In both modes--slow and fast (but especially fast)--the Swarm launches missiles straight away and they track the target's position directly, instead of tracking the target's trajectory and compensating. All other launchers use predictive behavior. This is not an accident. It was an intentional nerf, and it will not be reverted.
Well i guess that the random nc pleb will, once in a while, have to deal with a accidental rocket to the back of the head then due to this mechanic.
Even if they insist on keeping the derptastic tracking behavior, it really wouldn't be too hard to make the rocket fly in a straight line for a bit before it starts tracking. That should at least be enough to get it clear of adjacent cover, low hills, and friendly vehicles.
I'm thinking the only problem with ground lock-ons, is knowingly firing them at aircraft in these situations, and what happens. It's embarrassing how often that plane scrambling to survive, hits a tree, building, rock, or it's friendly. Anyway, it's currently not harming anyone in the base or immediate area..if was new pilot they might not react quickly enough..you also know the possible escape route for next craft. Almost all esf's will be running flares, or stealth {at full rank gives add'l 1 sec lock on time}. From personal experience, have to do some crazy flying to try and evade lock-ons..sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It feels like if the rocket flies past a certain point, it follows like crazy. I'm talking under, then over, then 270 around bio-dome...and hit. Run, get low behind cliff, paste urself to vertical wall...bam, bam, bam. And you don't know how many of the 8 red orbs following you incessantly on the mini-map are swarms or annihilators yet. If you are isolated, and have no real cover or support, I'm not sure it's really a good idea to lock-on. It's maddening for pilots that lock-on's do not show location on mini-map till fired, but does tell if ground, air, and gulp, BOTH, but then shows origination when fired, and if you are alone, or the one person of few with tube on your shoulder, they will hurt you....lol. Also, pilots that fly a lot, know where the spawn rooms, canyons, depressions, buildings, auraxium spires, etc. They've had to try and evade lock-ons there usually more times than you've tried to use them. Unfortunately, the best vantage points usually for firing rockets, also makes you a primary target. It's too bad rocket user doesn't get something for aircraft that dies while locked rocket is away, but not reached target yet.
