New ESF Weapons and Cert Lines - 01/10/2014

Ok noticed a couple of things.

Locust does practically zero damage to sunderers. Not sure if this was intended or not, but its basically useless for A2G. Might want to consider giving it some versatility there (it doesn't need to be the Banshee of anti-vehicle, but should probably be more than a 22LR).

I am concerned on the behavior of the Coyote missiles. Fast firing zero lock time. Do we know what the mitigation options are for them, or were any built in? I'll bribe someone in my Outfit to be my guinea pig in the morning so some real testing can be done on that. I'm not sure what the damage is going to be looking like, but we obviously want to avoid the "I Win" button that the current (bugged) A2A lockons are.

Hornets.... Where to begin... This is... Umm... This is a game changer. The possible applications of the Hornet missiles are nearly endless. Given that the VR is still not calculating splash damage I dunno what the AI impacts are, but for AV... This will be very interesting indeed.

On a side note:

I run Fire Suppression nearly every time I go up. Only time I use flares is when the smurfs or their spandex brethren have picked up on me pillaging their infantry lines and start pointing their lockons to the sky.

With the changes to the regular A2A missiles, the need for flares will be much lower as the epicsauce threat of lockons will be primarily G2A. Find a tree and go behind it

Speaking of lockons and flares and stuffs... With the changes to A2A, including the introduction of the coyote missiles, it seems that the Tomcats (or the spandex purple stuffs) are more radar guided than the assumed heat seeking. Lets not go the way of EA and assume that flares do any good against a radar guided missile eh? Flares counter heat seeking (a flare is hot) missiles, not laser or radar guided goodies. Some kind of an ECM jammer would be the in-air *activated* counter for that type of a missile.

Anyway to made new nose guns similar for every faction just to avoid another topic about imbalanced nose guns?
Hornet Missiles sound really good, want to test it more on PTS.

I like the patch for the most part, especially the changes for lock ons and afterburner functionality. A big thumbs up.

The Hornets though will cause some problems. Counting on the expectation that their damage will be reigned down (it is ridiculous as it stands), then its problems will be namely centred around two issues.

First is their damage effectiveness at range. As a laser-guided weapon they can be effectively used against any target; even ESFs by some clever use. This will especially cause trouble to ground targets in the same way engineer's AV turrets did.

And secondly is the tracking while using nose cannon. I still have to see their real effectiveness in ESF engagements, but what is clear is that someone can simply fire off missiles and simply switch back to nose cannons, all the while maintaining laser lock. So that has to be kept in mind.

In the end if it does present issues by being too effective, the ideal solution I feel would not be not to outright nerf the weapon and condemn it to the bin of uselessness. Instead make the projectile capable of being shot down much like the phoenix - frankly this should be the standard for any lock-on missile.

And furthermore, in the general implementation of such weapons, make sure there is a consistent relation between missile speed and missile damage. Thus a measure is kept similar to that of the relation between small arms ROF and Damage; the faster a missile is, the less damage it should do and vice versa. Naturally, lock on accuracy needs to be taken into account too. In the end none of the new missile entries should do more effective DPS than existing rocket pods.

Poor Locust... they were so awesome (visually), now I'll probably won't even bother with yet another nose cannon.

BOOOO.

i realy ask myself what kind of stuff the SOE DEVs are smoking?

Hornet missles...many are complaining about the current Engineer AV turret and YOU are bringing a the same **** with a 4 missle clip, possible 2x zoom and nearly the same damage and also no range limit on a flying platform...you cant be serious!

When you bring this weapon you can say bye to the most of your players, especially the ones who are driving arround in ground vehicles.

i tested the weapon on PTS vs a skyguard and it was a joke. I could kill the skyguard, a vehicle that has only one duty in this game...AntiAir!!! with an ESF that can attack and kill everything (you can even OHK infantry with the Hornets) from a save distance without problems even when he tried to kill me most of the skyguard shots missed and did no damage and even the damge he did was not enough to kill me before i killed him cause the horrible arc, cof and bulletspeed of the skyguard.

Not to mention this weapon works best on the Scythe (easy to hover and guide your missles into the target even on very, very long ranges), good on the Reaver (also very stable hover) and worst on the Mosquito (its much harder to hit a target over very long ranges cause the Mossi sucks in hovering)

If you wanne bring this weapon then finally buff the Skyguards CoF, bulletspeed and drop so we have a effectiv counter vs those longe range hover sniper rockets (the skyguard really need a buff anyway),

lol. what?

Please PLEASE expand this to ALL lock-on weapons!! Not just A2A. Thank you <3

Now outrunning a missile will be a "007" moment with this change.

Beautiful

whats wrong...to much fear you couldnt lol-pod anymore

I can count the times i died to skyguard when i used an ESF on 2 hands since release. A Skyguard only force me to run after i did my pod-volley and got my kill...quick repair and i am back. And the possibility to snipe Skyguards with the hornet from a safe distance wont make it better for the SG.

I want to say that each and every gun looks fabulous and very fun to play, GJ SOE!!
Now to balance them where they need and gg.

I'm really happy with what i'm testing on the test server right now.

seriously SOE. i really really really would appreciate it if locusts were moved back to the wing mounts. (im not even going to touch the rest of the weapons)

why?

Currently the best A2G loadout is rocktets+default/rotarty. it leaves you capable of handleing yourself well in the air, and the damage output of lolpods means they can be a force to be reckoned with (hah, id like to see a % of the BR100's that have auraxed lolpods)

then there is the PPA/Banshee +A2Am's. now im vanu, and have little experiance with the banshee, but once a2am's are nerfed this is yet again going to be the worse of the loadouts: a2am's are godly when paired with the rotaries, but the PPA is such a poor aa choice that its silly even trying to take on dogfights.

but the PPA is amoung the most fun weapons in the entire game at the moment: even if lolpods have a lower TTK and can actually kill tanks and land volleys on libs. but the biggest downside of the PPA is the reliance on having A2Am's as your ONLY A2A option.

so when SOE announced locusts: weapons that could deal with tanks and air (the PPA's downside) a lot of VS pilots were happy! loadouts could stray from rotary+lolpods for once, the PPA could have a viable backup weapon and we wouldnt need to rely in a2am's (and the constant barrage of hate tells) to not get ganked by a BR2. and considering that a2ams are getting nerfed: the ppa will be a horrific choice, with no real upsides or viable a2a defence.

---------

But putting locusts on the nose will almost remove the banshee/PPA's use from existance, and keeps the wing slot (tanks for dogfighting, pods for racking in easy kills) as stale as ever. with the best AA options on the nose, and the best A2G options underwing.

and it might make the whole lolppod/easymode thing go away if they were tweaked.

so please SOE. lets make wing mounts , and loadouts less stale, and have the locusts put back on the wings.

Thankyou

- Fuzz

and wtf happend to the mass drivers, like seriously they were fun and were the cool railguns that are kinda needed.

New mechanics of afterburners block maneuverability of ESF`s badly. This is especially noticeable when you fight against new weapon - coyotes missiles. In beggining of fight you feel fine, but when we wast fuel, dodge missiles really hard. I hope sony will not bring new changes of afterburner when in hover fight initial fuel cost higher.
With new changes and with new weapon very important for pilots have ability to reverse and dodge enemy fire. Without fuel even expirienced pilots are easy target.

Updating test server right now ! I can not wait to try, but before anything, thank you for doing these changes to A2A Missiles! I can't wait for them to come on live.

I will try them out and all others and then post back.

loving it!

So my biggest fear is around the Hornet missiles. Fun concept and such but they need some tweaks.

Mainly: Their current damage against ground vehicles individually combined with the current volley of 4 means that they hit hard, they hit in quick succession of one another and they hit accurately if the vehicle is stationary and/or the pilot is skilled enough (surprise at max distance render with zoom/luck and vehicles will have little chance of reaction.)

All this is meaning that they will not be an enjoyable experience for ground vehicles in their current state on the ESF which is the greatest choice for a player in choosing their engagements due to speed and maneuverability.

I would suggest something to do with slowing down the missiles fire rate or velocity. I am leaning towards fire rate but maybe both would help.

I am saying with these two categories that the current fire rate means you can point and click all 4 missiles to the same target in quick enough succession that they will pretty much act as one MOAB/heavy volley.

Their velocity is also fast enough that the esf doesnt have to commit too long to the process of aiming. I would think perhaps the esf should be stuck staying around a bit longer for either interceptors or g2a to react or even the target to begin moving.

Keep in mind that this is all still with one esf. As soon as co ordination between two or more comes, these long range (pretty much another version of a mass driver which had it's own fears to worry about according to Higby and I can see that in these too) artillery pieces are going to have a big effect easily enough against any ground vehicle.

Now the concept is cool (I would say great but its balance is key before that call) it just needs enough risk vs reward (stationary sniping time vs high damage missiles which require manual aiming -actually fun and has high skill cap, great!!-

Also mad props for the esf radar it is an awesome tool that I think alot of new pilots and even experienced ones will enjoy trying out to help give situational awareness.

Also quickly for the coyote missiles I think if they are going to retain their short range niche and active zone they should have maybe two more rounds per volley? Considering that their niche is well defined and such I think they will have a place for some pilots.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut this is all under a new system of afterburner and VTOL restrictions without AB tanks. Also on that topic I feel maybe the consumption rate shouldn't of been increased considering how little of it there will be for the non AB tanked esfs. I think the increased capacity and regeneration for the AB tankers is good enough to allow them greater choice and options while leaving the non tankers more than one chance to after burner/reverse maneuver before running out (one chance is crazy hard for even skilled pilots to utilise without making a mistake- imagine allowing these pilots to have at least two chances on one full tank to at least tap with their AB before running out completely since some of us pilots don't hold on AB as we reverse maneuver.

Okey after some testing on the PTR I'm loving the new weapons and here's some feedback.

-Loctus: I think this will be the weapon of choice for A2G (tanks) loadouts coupled with the Hornet, fire the hornets then switch to loctust and wait for the hornet to reload and then switch back. I'm pretty sure you can end a tank before the loctust even needs to be reloaded so a constant dps is possible.

-Coyote: Very fun to use and requires skill to do so, they have a drop and needs to pass the target to lock on to it. Flares doesn't help against em and they seem to have a max distance of 800-900m. My only problem was that in close combat they do crazy turns and it's very easy to hit your target even if your not aiming anywhere near close. I think they need to travel a certain distance before starting to track.
I would like if you only needed to hold the fire button to fire all of em instead of having to click 2 times to fire both.
And maybe flares should work? they are heat sources after all.

-Hornet: Very fun to use and if/once you can fire them and then switch to another weapon and still maintain laser tracking they will be extremely fun to use

All in all I love the changes and hope the heat seeking mechanic is something I would love to see more of in other weapons for tanks and infantry.

ok my thoughts. the coyote missiles does nothing for me. doesnt lock on to anything am i missing something here?

Please revert the AB Fuel Tank Thrust Nerf.
Its too much, and nobody asked for it. Leave Reversing alone!