I remember how it worked in PS1 but it was also able to dumb fire. In PS2 the striker needs to be locked on to something to even fire, which does cut down on the alpha striking, to some extent; however, you can change targets and lock onto another target and the missiles will redirect to the new target at the moment if done before target lock is lost. If you don't get the lock on in time the missiles will fly up into the air and blow up after 1 second or so.
they did kind of go from broken (OP) to broken (crap). i do still get hit by them on a semi regular basis though.
The way I see the striker is to give the rockets a 2-3 sec loiter mode when they lose lock they stay in an area circle a bit if some thing closes on the circle there is 50% chance they will lock and fly to the new target.
i wouldn't want to encourage heavies to just fire shots in an area just so they can soak up kills. if they did that then they would be more powerful than the pheonix launcher.
Here is a way to buff the striker without increasing the damage it can do over time. Increase projectile speed to 300 meters per second Time between rockets is 0.15 +(distance of lock in meters divided by 600) seconds. Rate of fire is thus 60 divided by the time between rockets. You will find that it takes the same amount of time to get 5 rockets on target between this suggestion and the current way striker currently works. Now, how is this a buff if it does the same damage over time you might ask. Well you will notice that it is a flat increase in projectile speed. Current Striker- firing the rockets take 0.6 seconds and you have to keep lock for the time it takes for your rocket to reach target. With 100 meters per second speed it will take 3.6 seconds to put five rounds into a tank at 300 meters. If you lose lock during that 3.6 seconds, then any rockets in the air will self destruct. You will have the chance of losing only one rocket for 0.3 seconds. Two rockets for 0.3 seconds. Three rockets for 0.3 seconds. Four rockets for 0.3 seconds. And a chance of losing all five rockets for 2.4 seconds. Firing rockets take between .6 and 2.6 depending on distance. And you have to keep lock for the time it takes for your rockets to reach target. With the 300 meters per second speed it will take 3.6 seconds to put five rounds into a tank at 300 meters. If you lose lock during that 3.6 seconds, then any rockets in the air will self destruct. You will have 2.2 seconds to lose one rocket and 1.4 seconds to lose two rockets. Difference, with current striker 67% of time you have to hold lock, you will lose all five rockets if you lose lock. Suggested striker .39% of time you have to hold lock, you will lose two rockets if you lose lock. This is at 300 meters. Another difference between my suggestion and the current striker is that at 300 meters the current striker takes 3 seconds after lock before one rockets hit, 3.15 seconds after lock before 2 rockets hit, 3.3 seconds after lock before 3 rockets hit, 3.45 seconds before 4 rockets hit, and the 3.6 seconds before all 5 rockets hit. My suggested striker takes 1 second after lock for the first rocket to hit, 1.65 for the second to hit, 2.3 for the 3rd to hit, 2.95 for the fourth to hit, and 3.6 seconds for the fifth to hit. The advantage of this is that if you have more than one striker user locking on to a target the damage will happen sooner than latter. If you have 5 heavies locking onto a tank at 300 meters, it will be one second before your first five rockets hit rather than 3 seconds. You would have put 4 out of 5 rockets per heavy into the tank before the current striker first rocket would hit, of course the 5 rocket of both current strike and suggested will hit at the same time. There is a disadvantage of this though, since the target takes damage sooner, they will know your direction from the damage markers and have an understanding where to aim and where to hide from. Of coarse this isn't that bad of a disadvantage since the current striker gives target 3 seconds of lock warning before the first rocket hits, so while it doesn't know where it is getting lock on from, if it does hide from lock during that 3 seconds it will take no damage. So this isn't going to increase the strikers killing potential, it is only going to decrease how bad it can preform. Do you think this change is a good idea?
All the ESRL's are currently downgrades to the "standard" launcher types. The Phoenix is the ESRL that you die most to simply due to how fun it is to use. It's incredibly fun to use, but if you're using it you'll probably get killed twice as often as you would with any other option, and you'll barely make 1/4th what you would make using any other launcher available to the NC. 4/5 people out there are only getting assists, but there are simply too many to escape, because you're just out numbered. If you spend some serious time with the phoenix, you'll start to know when a vehicle is out of your ability to hit, and which are able to out-repair you (Which is anyone more than 70-80 meters away with a repair tool rank 3 or higher. ). When you get used to knowing what you can and cannot hit, that is when you will know where you can hide safely to repair (Even when you are so out numbered that you cannot out repair the combine DPS). One thing that is seriously killing the Lancer and Phoenix (The striker is already dead, and needs reworking) is that they messed up the assist XP. The assist XP used to yield 50% of whatever the kills worth of XP would be (IE, 50% of a MBT kill, 50% of a sundy kill, etc). With a crit assist being 75%. Now it only gives so much based on how much damage you did. This is perfect for those in vehicles, so they do not just tap everthing before it dies. But for soft and squishy ground infantry, this is terrible. Ground infantry die to one shot from pretty much any explosive vehicle AP/AI weapon. They are at risk of insta-death every time they go up against a vehicle. Therefore, with that massively greater risk, should come greater reward. If you hit a vehicle and only get an assist as an infantry, you should get the old 50% assist mechanic. The old 50% assists used to aid infantry vs armor, with everyone pitching in. The new physics cause infantry to stop firing until they can try to scoop the kill for themselves at the last moment, because otherwise they will get next to nothing.
