PATCH NOTES - discuss

"Depot – New Mana Anti-Vehicle Turret available for purchase."

The Ideal: Engineers set up AV turrets to attack mineguarded Sunderers and rear sneak attack MBTs and Lightnings.
The Reality: Engineer runs around waving his crosshair wildly over the terrain looking for valid placement. Is put out of his misery while doing so.

No matter how low damage the AV turrets will be, I see this problem:

Wanna bet it 1 hits infantry?

VS will have no bullet drop again. Bullet drop stops tons of (TR/NC) engineers from setting up and mashing vehicles in platoon-sized turret teams.
VS will just set up a ton of engies with no bullet drop turrets and click away at vehicles, while TR and NC try their best to actually hit their targets.

Just more sniper food, though maybe they'll fix the gunshields...

I wonder what weapon it uses. If it uses those dumbfire rockets, they'll be used to farm spawn points and capture points with HE splash.

Im afraid it will just be a basilisk on a tripode... we will see soon!

It's a command-guided rocket launcher. Think a TOW, but wireless. You have to keep your reticle on the target, it looks like.

I like that. It's not lock-on and requires some skill (and bravery) on the engi's part. Plus? No big glowy shield. You're exposed while using it, but you're also not lighting up the night for a klick in every direction. Also, it has the same directional restriction as the AI MANA turret, looks like it's got about a 60-degree arc of fire after deployment.

Waiting for proper mobile field turrets that are *enclosed*. What comedy.

It is indeed guidable. Like... bend over the brow of a hill guidable

If it's SACLOS, maybe we can hide them on reverse slopes and use them like Phoenixes? Or perhaps defilade them so only just enough of the turret peeks out. Hrm.

Yeah, and you can put quite a bend on it too--as in, once you get a feel for the velocity, you can hit stuff behind the edges of cover. The flight speed looks similar to a Devastator, it's not very fast. And I don't know how much damage it does. I haven't clocked the ROF yet but it seems a little faster than the reload animation cycle on a shoulder launcher, but not much. I'm just firing at stuff in the warpgate right now.

Its a rocket launcher!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Video incoming soon.

You can corkscrew the things through the air!!

They also take out 66% health off a Vanguard if you hit them from behind.

Awesome

$5.00 says it's a Basilisk-on-a-tripod instead of a Kobalt-on-a-tripod.

The anti-vehicle stuff is cool and all... But is it just me that wants more empire specific stuff and less Nanite Systems stuff? Like.. Its cool and all, but the Anni launches, the AI and now AV turrents, the lightning, etc, etc.. As Vanu, a lot of stuff seems very generic.. I would LOVE to see more faction-specific stuff, so much stuff i see being used loses the feel of the faction.

The Anni-launcher is cool.. but i don't want to use it because i want my faction specific feel (and my faction lock-on does slightly more damage).

Maybe its just me?

Its not just you i love empire specific traits and weapons but they are also harder to balance.
Nevermind... they are harder to DIGEST for most players.

AV Turret? Audio-visual? Does it deploy a disco ball and play "Stayin Alive" to lull the enemy into complacency?

Id pay 5000 sc for that.

What you have descriped here is very situational. And putting a clip into a freshly revived player because one was not aware of the invulnarbility would have been gone with the new marker.
As shown in many other MP FPS, a short periode of invulnerbility after a revive supports coordinated and dynamic infantry gameplay. In all complaining-posts in this forum I have not once seen a bit of evidence (video, etc.) that invulnerbility lasted too long or whatever evil it did. So this good feature have fallen prey to oppinion...

But that is just another oppinion

I am already in love with it looks like its useful without being OP.

So basically the turret is a TOW, not bad.

OK, a bit more first impressions on our tasty new rocket launcher...

- Refire rate is on par with a shoulder launcher, basically the turret generates 100% heat when fired and goes through a normal heat decay cycle before it can fire.
- It's command-guided. And you can put some SERIOUS curve on that thing. Guidance is not lost when going behind a mountain, you maintain control of the rocket all the way out until it quits rendering.
- And speaking of range, it would not surprise me if this has longer range than a lock-on launcher, But, there is no magnification, just a shotgun-style circle reticle. Velocity appears close to a Devastator, maybe a tick slower than an Annihilator.
- Damage: Two hits take off about 1/4 of a stock Vanguard's front armor. One hit does around 60% to a Vanguard's rear armor. One hit will also do around 65% damage to a Reaver.
- Splash is VERY small. A direct hit to the face will kill an infantry, but I landed it less than two meters away from guys and got a friendly fire warning, but it didn't even take their shields down.
- Placement restrictions and field-of-fire restrictions are about the same as a normal MANA turret. You can only point up about 30 degrees so don't think you can use it on those pesky Liberators unless they're far away or low.
- It has no shield so you are sniper bait. But you're also harder to spot.
- There is a new set of certs (50 certs for the first block) that reduce the refire time from 6.0 seconds to 4.5 seconds, .25 seconds per block. And yes, if you have two rockets in the air at the same time, you're guiding them both.