With the new ES launchers, I have to question the role of AV weapons for breaching an enemy facility. When I am breaching or defending a facility, there are always HA using rockets on both sides. The high direct damage of rockets makes them widely used for AI, and use against MAXs to bust through their armor is often a necessity. Looking at all 3, none of the new ES launchers really seem as reliable or effective as a Decimator or the variants of the default ES launchers. The Lancer is too slow and too low of damage for effective indoor use, Striker lock-on prevents any indoor use, and the Phoenix is kinda slow and cumbersome but potentially useful. Are the new launchers really meant to be limited in this way? Is there any implication that other changes will be made to older rockets to limit their effectiveness for AV and AI at close to long range, or if the new ones were just designed to not be used as AI / Anti-MAX for breaching bases?
Well it's pretty obvious to me just based on the mechanics of the launchers that they aren't intended for effective indoor use. Not sure you have to question the role of these weapons - seems more useful to question the insanity of the Devs releasing even more faction specific weapons. There is no reason these shouldn't all be Common Pool.
The whole idea is that there are no direct upgrades, only "sidegrades". Now there is a lot of debate as to how true that is in certain cases, but the main idea still holds. The point in releasing new weapons is not to obviate the old ones due to power creep (I'm lookin' at you, Mass Effect multiplayer), but rather to present new sets of options. Empire Specific gear is designed to be better at filling a niche particular to the empire in question than any other piece of gear. At the end of the day though, a player who spends money on the game isn't supposed to be orders of magnitude more powerful than someone who just started to play for free.
Agree with the first bit. Launchers really ought to be constrained to Anti-Vehicle use- if a HA wants to fight infantry, they should pull out their LMG or Shotgun or what-have-you. In that sense, the new launchers really are better than the old ones. However, "... no reason these shouldn't all be Common Pool." ... WHAT!? I ain't one for personal attacks ("people like you", yadda yadda) but seriously. If you wanna play a game where everyone has access to the exact same stuff, head over to Tribes:Ascend or one of the MMFPSs. Planetside is supposedly about factions with intrinsic ideological and technological differences, and a player's choice of faction should be as much based on how their weapons and gear performs differently as from cosmetics (mm spandex) or 'Fluff'. This is one of the major gripes everyone has with the Infiltrator and MAX units (non NC)- they're too similar across factions. If you ask me, all of the ESLs (because anything not NS is ES) should have had specific, gameplay affecting differences right out the gate. Vanu should've had no drop but slow proj speed. NC should have had longest reload and highest damage. TR should have had lowest damage, but with incredibly fast reload and high ammo capacity. BAM. Now you choose your empire because the Heavy Assaults are different. This is what the LLP have done, in a way- they're effective, and have completely different playstyles and uses. Hoora devs, for giving us less NS. Hoora.
I agree with the concept of factional differences if it they are comparable but in this case they are not. The Phoenix adds a completely new mechanic to NC which just so happens to synergize amazingly well with their SCATMAX. Being able to one-shot-kill infantry is just icing. The Striker doesn't add anything new to TR with its lock-on only mechanic (and can't even lock onto MAXs?) and the Lancer still requires the shooter to be in direct line of sight and visible during the firing. It is simply undeniable that the NC's strategic and tactical options were greatly increased with the addition of this weapon and the other two factions increases were negligible. Factional differences need to be somewhat equal in the end and in this case they are not. Having been on the receiving end of the Phoenix for years while playing PS1, them adding it back into this game without giving the TR or VS something as fun and actually useful..things aren't looking too good here.
