Well, do you think lock on rocket weapons are boring and over rated? I do, for a few reasons since I've been using T2 Striker, which is supposed to be the best one. not just lock on, but rocket launchers in general are stupid, the velocity of rockets is hilarious. just go on youtube and watch some stone age talibans with rockets that are better than a futuristic intergalactic empire's. why don't we have launchers like the Mana AV Turret that will let you fire a high velocity rocket and steer it to the target? the lock on launchers are boring for the user and to the person in the aircraft there's not really much choice, pick a dumb fire rocket with crap velocity and boring ridiculous attack range which needs you to predict it's impact like kicking a football, or a crap lock on that'll have you shot dead before you lock on/hit anything with it
For a short time period (one GU patch) they were amazingly fun for me because you could make the missiles do a top down attack with your OWN skill because they flew out a bit before turning (now instant turning & stupid looking). It was replaced with the game deciding it for you instead (auto). Then for a short while, lock-on dumbfires had a fast velocity that you could basically snipe with (although beta days you could do it). Recently that was changed too. So now they are back to being incredibly boring and unsatisfying to use, at least for ground attack. Still very much worth it for anti-air. Anyway, back to the T2 Striker. When it came out a lot of us thought the mechanic was ULTRA BORING compared to the other two. A lot of people just talked it up about DPS/TTK/DAMAGE BLAH BLAH but it was always boring to a good chunk of people. I always wished it was laser guided or dumbfire (fracture like) or something entirely different (people proposed neat ideas). Sure, for a while, it really pissed off many NC/VS but to me it was never rewarding in the fun zone.
I haven't stopped using my phoenix since I unlocked it. I'd agree lock-ons are boring but they must be utilized (at least the AA). Recently they nerfed lock-on dumbfire speed, effectively limiting them to just that.
If you have a phoenix/lancer, I don't see the need, now that harassers are a rare beast. Air will generally flare away your lock-ons anyway.
Totaly agree. Lock-ons are stupid and boring. There's no... game in using them. Also, totaly love my phoenyx.
Tell that to all those newbies spamming air to air to locks over the game, they seem to enjoy ruining people's gameplay. And yes I find lock ons ultra boring. Make them challenging to use please? And some missiles could be laser guided, why not? Snipe like laser tracking missiles?
It's a game. Reallistic weapons characteristics have nothing to do here (IRL, does a bullet reduce your life expectancy by 20% ?) If RL had realistic speed, ground vehicule wouldn't have a chance, and lock on wouldn't even make sense. And Air vehicule should be able to fly at least 600 km/h. But I do agree that lock on mechanism sucks and laser guided rocket launcher would be more rewarding (like AT4 in BF:BC2)
If a rocket launcher can't set an ESF on fire with one hit, then it's worthless. Might as well not bother with firing at all. That's my rule of thumb
I use them for AA when we dont have a dedicated AA MAX in our squad. They work pretty good in groups for harrassing/distractions actions. Which can be fun for a squad or two. Though everyone else receiving them hate them.
Seeing as 2/3 of my lock-ons get flared I guess I am the only one still using them and I dont think them to be very effective. I get the same results when trying to hit ESF with my Lancer, so why bother using A2A since the acceleration bug got fixed. They drop like stones when dumbfired and most ESF flare or outrun them. Even as a bad pilot, lockons rarely kill me. Vanguards kill me a lot more often at ridiculous angles my Magrider can never achieve.
Lockon G2A/G2G launchers are pathetic and shouldnt exist. There should be universal type of laser guided launcher that fires fast rockets not those slow 50 m/s like the phoenix does. 50 m/s is a joke. SOE might aswell introduce speedhumps for tanks so the phoenix will catch up with them. All those Igla, Javelin analogues are cheap gameplay experience and catering to players that hardly ever play the game. Now, ESF A2AM shouldnt do 180s turns and have 1000# accuracy. It should also either require maintaining lock visually like striker does or have the lockon time increased drastically.
Lock on's in general are extremely boring to use, the only reason they exist in gaming is because they exist in real life. Just imagine all the unique weapons we could have had if the dev time was put to something else than lock on's.
I honestly reckon lock ons should impose restrictions as a 'penalty'. Eg. G2A launchers should have no G2G or dumb fire ability. G2G launchers should be vice versa. Its the versatility of these launchers that make them so common. Why have the starter launcher when for 250 certs you have a launcher that locks onto air yet still dumb fire for ground? If you have lock ons, they should be dedicated for their role. Currently its like having a watered down version of Fractures that also have a G2A lock on ability.
I would love it if we removed lockon launchers and replaced them with very fast velocity launchers. Especially for AA. Like an AA launcher that has the projectile speed of a Titan AP round and one shots ESFs like one (damage multipliers make it less effective against everything else).
I don’t get your peoples experiences. I easily have over 50% Aircraft hit rate with my AA launcher. It seems most people don’t carry flares. Even Libs its less common then I imagined. The thing is a cert printer.
I hate using rocket launchers on vehicles. Things just take way too long to kill. If I want to play anti-air, I play Lightning Skyguard. If I want to play anti-armor, I play Lightning Python AP. Since you unfortunately HAVE to carry a rocket launcher as a heavy, I still take Annihilator over dumbfire most of the time because I prefer actually hitting the target.
Whether something is boring or not is up to you. I enjoy lock-ons, all kinds. I don't care if they're used against me, I'm still having fun. And it's easy to dumbfire rockets, you guys are exaggerating.
I don't mind the lock-ons and use them, because it's what we have for AA and the only viable solution to long range AV short of a Lancer or Phoenix (Striker doesn't count as it's lock-on, but has it's own problems). I wouldn't mind more of a Lancer type weapon somewhere in the middle bracket of cert costs without lock-on, but better bullet velocity than the regular dumbfire. Maybe something like a Lancer "lite" with only one shot doing comparable damage to a 2 shot charged Lancer or something, as I feel it'd give an affordable alternative to lock-ons, while not actually being a lock-on or outperforming the dumbfires completely.
