I rarely get my phoenix rockets shot, maybe 1-2%. Romoving it will makes it a bit more able to hie ESF from front or AI mana turret (The best phoenix jammers)
Oh! Okay. By "Shoot down" I thought you meant being able to fire at a downward angle, rather than shoot the rockets out of the air. Personally, I would like them to leave shooting rockets out of the air, but the hit-box would have to be immensely small. So it's quite difficult to shoot down, and more an achievement than an easy fix. Of course, I would like to see all explosive projectiles like this, so that it adds realism and more possibility for lucky shots. Obviously, shooting explosives out of the air should be difficult for anything, even mounted weapons like the kobalt, vulcan, walker, etc. As for if I have the phoenix personally, Yes, I do. I got the Phoenix in July (Long after it's nerf) though I did trial it once in it's original state. I am up to 503 kills, and 50 ribbons. My goal is to get Auraxium. 656 kills to go. Vehicle kills should count toward the kill counter as well for rocket launchers. Not assists, just if you get the kill on a vehicle (Like an MTB, Lightning, etc.) and the driver bails before you hit them. Here is one of my proudest moments with the Phoenix: (Keep in mind, this is after the nerf, so the phoenix is a two shot kill, not a one shot).
Wow, thats a lot of kills in such a short amount of time. I am only up to 703 kills with the Phoenix and I have had it since March. I am guessing you target infantry a lot more often than I do. So...... you ever shot down ESF's and Libs with the Phoenix, cause it is a f*ck ton of fun! It is one of the things I love about it, if you can land a shot it just completely messes them up and negates the fact they spent 250 air resources just to hoverspam.
I have shot down a fair amount of aircraft. Too bad it's so difficult to do! ESFs can dodge so fast they can wait til the last second and simply go a meter or two up or down. Either will negate the Phoenix' turning ability by far. Then there's libs. Hovering around +500 meters up. Even when they do get close enough, they still outrun the shot by a mile. If you get a hit on an aircraft, it's only because the pilot is either: A. New to planetside 2 B. A REALLY bad pilot. (Love these guys ^_^) C. Has landed to repair (Lucky for you they did so in range and somewhere you can reach with it's limited turning ability. D. Is incredibly distracted Or E. Has so much to pay attention to that they do not take notice of the bright blue missile screaming it's unique Banshee wail to all with a 100 meter area. With this thing's unique blue color, it should use a special fuel that doesn't leave a smoke trail for all to see. Afterall, unlike the other ESRLs (HelI, ALL other rocket launchers) you cannot move or protect yourself from infantry or incoming vehicle fire. Leave Phoenix pilots to the infiltrators. On my TR I LOVE phoenix pilots. One claymore to the center. Worst part is when a friendly Mossy Hellfire Pods me because they've tracked the smoke trail and cannot see my friend/foe marker thanks to the distance.
I'd like to share my thoughts on the Lancer, since I've used it quite the bit. First, Lancer is indeed an alternative, not an upgrade nor downgrade. I'm not always running around with it, most of the time I'm using the stock rocket launcher S1. Lancer is inferior weapon at shorter ranges, that's one of the main balancing features. Lancer fills a role of anti-vehicle sniping rifle, poor man's anti-infantry sniper, and also air-deterrent weapon. That's quite the list of features in single weapon. I haven't run into any severe bugs with my Lancer. The ones I've encountered have been the empty ammo counter on the weapon itself and sometimes the charger around the crosshairs hasn't updated despite the audio cues. Increase the damage of a charge 3 shot to 800 damage, from 750 damage. Increase the damage of a charge 2 shot to 435 damage, from 375. Increase the damage of a charge 1 shot to 175, from 150. The numbers might sound small but I still say no. I haven't had any problems destroying everything with Lancer even when I've been the only Lancer user around. The thing is to have an engineer supplying ammo for you, always fire fully charged shots, and to learn to control ammo in a battery. Replacing a full battery is slow, especially when compared to reloading with some ammo still left in the weapon. Add a range finder in the top right corner of the screen when you ADS with the Lancer, that shows how far away the thing you are pointing at is. This makes it easier for people to lead their target because they can estimate the travel time of the Lancer to the place they are pointing, allowing them to lead a moving target properly from longer ranges. I personally think this is pointless but some people might want one. Leading really isn't that difficult even with first level of charge as the beam has no drop and it's considerably faster than traditional projectiles. New Optics Attachment: Zoom Optics. Zoom Optics have 3 levels of zoom the Lancer can equip individually, those being 2x, 4x, and 6x. 2x zoom optics cost 50 certs, 4x zoom optics cost 100 certs, and 6x zoom optics cost 150 certs. I'm strongly against the idea of increased zoom scopes. The current one (1,5x something) is more than enough. Full charge has insane beam velocity so being able to zoom in more would make it even more annoying weapon on the receiving end. There's no warning for the one being shot at and there really isn't a counter either. If Lancer would have a better zoom, it would have to have far more visible beam to make it easier for receiving end to spot it. An audio cue wouldn't hurt either. Having a greater magnification would also make it even easier to snipe infantry. Sniping infantry with the current zoom really isn't that difficult once you get used to the crosshair and always use full charges. I've sniped snipers with it, not to mention other oblivious enemies or both kind of turrets. Zoom is fine as it is. Remove the limit you can hold a charge on the Lancer, and instead change it so as long as the user of the Lancer holds down the firing button they can hold the charge as long as they need to, this allows people to coordinate fire and gives people as much time as they need to lead a moving target at range accurately. Charging all the way to third level really isn't that slow to warrant the ability to use Lancer at closer ranges. Coordinating fire is already easy enough if you're playing with organized squad. If you aren't playing with a squad, the odds are you won't be coordinating fire anyway. Leading targets really isn't that difficult as you can always abort the current charge and re-adjust your position or aim. Time limit has its balancing role, I only wish it was more visible and audible. Lancer model could have an actual overloading animation and sound to it to make it more obvious for the user. Remove damage drop-off from the Lancer. There needs to be a damage drop-off since: a) it's a VS weapon with great velocity and foremost b) it would be way too powerful at longer ranges if it didn't have one. Overall, Lancer is a great, balanced weapon in its current form. I'm not trying to sound mean but you might want to use Lancer more before proposing changes to it as it really doesn't need any. I really think none of the empire specific launchers need drastic changes, Striker just needs to be fixed (as the developers finally said they'd look into it) since its mechanics are clearly broken.
What I can collect from your thoughts of the Lancer is that you are perfectly happy with the Lancer in it's current form, right? I just thought of tiny-small improvements to make the Lancer feel better, handle better, and be more predictable with shots to kill at longer ranges. The zoom and range-finding makes it a bit more newb friendly, so that way people that cannot turn down their DPI on their mouse can have a bit more accuracy in their shots. Range-Finding combined with knowledge of the velocity, allows you to mathematically lead your target instead of just guessing what range they are at, because all you would have to do is divide the distance at which your target is by the speed of the projectile (charge 3 is 800 meters per second) and then estimate how long it will take for the target to intersect your projectile. This may only be useful at longer ranges though (i.e 300+ meters). Maybe the Lancer does not need an increase in damage though, but I do think that damage drop-off on the Lancer is redundant at this point because it makes the weapon less predictable as far as shots to kill goes, and it happens at such a long range that why even bother having it there? Also, they gotta fix the damn bug where you re-supply from a terminal and the Lancer won't charge up, it is extremely annoying! So.... have you used the Phoenix before? I certainly have, had it since March. I want to like it, but it doesn't really allow you to do anything you can't do with another rocket launcher except for disallowing the use of cover for the enemy to some degree as well as firing from cover yourself.
That's right. I think handling is already quite good. Despite the fact that I have a Logitech gaming mouse I haven't ever tampered with the DPI, so in this regard I could be counted among the "newbs". Lancer is very accurate weapon when you're using the scope, hip-fire on the other hand is useless, as it should be. I think that the distances that could actually benefit from the increased zoom are so great that even more skilled players would have trouble hitting the intended targets purely because of the sheer distance and rendering. I can't recall the exact maximum distances I've used Lancer at, I'd guess ~200 meters or so, but I really haven't needed to lead that much. I haven't had any problems leading ground vehicles, Galaxies or Liberators. The fast flying fighters are where the problems are, since most of the time you won't have time to charge. Most of the time fully charged Lancer is pretty much point-and-click weapon when it comes to leading targets. First and second charge levels aren't that much worse either. I think most of the Lancer users won't even notice the damage drop-off but I think there's also people who'd take advantage of the range, especially if they had better zooms to utilize. When it comes to damage prediction, I've had quite simple rule of thumb: nearly every vehicle requires most of your ammo, even when using full charges. That bug does sound annoying, never ran into that myself.
A range finder on the Phoenix would be GREATLY useful. No more using the personal waypoint to gauge distance on a target you can already see.
How about balance the damn Phoenix so others see a use for it again? Give us the range a ******* Striker has, that 500M or the longer one that they can travel to which is at least a kilometer. Give us a booster function on it so we can accelerate into a target. Give us a better viewcam so we can more easily see **** while we're firing it. I'm sorta tired of having to constantly tell my outfit members to buy this weapon so we can effectively use it in numbers. To no avail... My primary problem with the viewcam is that it has such a limited view that when I predict a shot on a liberator if it changes its path I can't determine where it is. nor could I even try a boost to shorten that distance and time and hit it.
Larger viewcam = larger FOV, already said it. Lets be realistic btw, Striker has a lock-on range of 500 meters, Lancer potentially has limitless range (or at least until render distance), and the Phoenix has a pitiful 300 meters. I don't suggest buffing it past 400 meters (if it is even possible to expand the range despite what was said on twitter) because to be honest, the Phoenix is the most balanced when fighting enemy vehicles because you cannot fire it past your own render distance, therefore it creates a situation where each person's skill is what determines the outcome of the fight. Plus it already has the ability to fire around cover, something no other rocket launcher in the game can do. Basically everything you said in that post I covered in my OP, so I take it you agree with my ideas?
Never saw your ideas on the Phoenix.... let me read it again.... But yes The phoenix has balanced damage, (******** nerf damage to infantry) but balanced against vehicles nonethless, Takes a ton of skill to hit targets on the move as well.. We just need balanced range, give us the 500m give us maybe a boost thruster function that allows us to accelerate to a faster speed at a reduced ability to maneuver. Since they decide the raven needs a nerf.... Even though its our only option against infantry, it really is guys.. The shotguns are worthless now. Not wasting 1400 station cash on hacksaws and then 1k certs into slugs just to be worthless at range. Please tell me that thread "Fix Max AV weapons!" in your sig is not telling SOE to nerf our ravens.... Gonna be pretty angry with you if it is... Anyways, not like these threads get any replies from Devs..... I've rarely seen a single useful thread get replies by a dev or by Luperza etc. Firefall is however worse at times, their devs constantly reply to worthless crap threads that don't actually give any good advice about the game but are random talks about Memes and stuff.. I half the time give worthless rant replies to threads so I shouldn't be listened to half the time....
The phoenix's splash damage is non-existent in the first place, the Static screen did exist at one point and it ruined the ability to fire that damn gun. Thirdly we still Stand up after firing while crouched which is unbelievably stupid. And for Pikachu's idea to work we'd have to have a high enough turning speed to easily turn back from that 300m, and have a circle representing the radius so we know when to turn back... But yes to the new utility attachment, yes to the lower reload speed, yes to the higher damage. However, How many phoenix rockets would it take to kill things then at that higher damage? Right now the Phoenix is best used by an organized squad with at least four of those rockets, Any idiot that sat still would be dead (like Liberators hovering above) I can't get most of my outfit to actually buy the damn thing though....
I'd suggest you look @ the updated OP, it contains updated ideas that is different from the original. Look for it in the middle of page 2.
I feel your pain. I hate how every shot on an air target that isn't standing still has to be lead by so much that you are entirely blind. Then when it does change course, and you miss it, you don't know until you've spent two or three or more times the time flying out into the air. 99% of the time they do change course, and it's a one in a million shot thanks to your simply not knowing where the missile is headed. Sadly, they cannot give the Phoenix more range than it has without the missile pilot having to go through a loading screen (Like when you travel to a different continent). I personally would like to see the Phoenix have two fireing modes. "Regular" and "Long Range". Regular would be limited so that if you're about to go past the 300m, it goes into dumbfire. Currently, they found that 300m was the distance, so they stuck a max range of 300m so you don't go into a loading screen. I want to see it so that you can fly around indefinately within that 300m radius, and never get "Disconected" from your missile til you impact something, or you're about to actually leave your body's render distance (Just like Messaiga recommended). The Long Range firing mode would allow you to travel a greatly increased distance ( between 500m to 1000m). Though you would have to endure a loading screen, this would allow you to chase after a target who is staying just at the edge of your max distance.
I am actually in favor of the higher damage. As far as how that effects how many shots that would take to kill things, they can do this: -Infantry damage is 750, increased to 975 (Still not a one-shot kill). - Air currently has a 1.5x damage multiplier (1.5 times 750 is 1,500). New damage would be 975, so give it a 1.54x damage (1.54 times 975 is 1,501.5). -Ground vehicles currently have a 2.67x multiplier (2.67 times 750 is 2,002.5) Change that to 2.06x (2.06 times 975 is 2,008.5) Additionally, I think the splash damage should have a larger raduis, but extremely reduced damage. My one and only reason for this is so that it's possible to hit C-4 or other explosives without hitting the target dead-on (Possibly while it's attached to a moving vehicle). Ever had a guy run up and stick C-4 to a vehicle, but die before he can detonate it? With a squad, you should be able to tell him not to redeploy, and then fire at and hit the target without having to hit the tiny piece of C-4 perfectly while the vehicle is actively trying to dodge your shot. That in mind, the splash damage would not have to be high, but it should have a half to full meter radius so it will engulf the explosive. And C-4 doesn't have a high damage tolerance, so it would only have to do about 100-200 damage.
Last time I knew this bug did not exist. If you are trying to hit infantry with it in the VR, it won't hit them because the Phoenix is treated as a vehicle, so it treats hitting infantry as if you are trying to run them over, which you also cannot do in the VR.
It mainly happens in VR (I haven't purchased the Phoenix yet), but it also sometimes happens in the "real world".
