So its confirmed dumb fire is removed from Ground to Air Launchers

Absolutely agree with you. People egotistically thinks they should be able to do it all, like Rambo. No way, this is not gladiatorial combat like Quake or Unreal Tournament, its warfare that emphasizes cooperation. [I love Quake and Unreal Tournament by the way]

You paid for the rights to use a piece of intellectual property. Nothing ANYWHERE says that SOE cannot change it as they see fit. They could change the G2A launchers to be hot pink and shoot stuffed unicorns to a Taylor Swift song if they wanted to. You have two choices - get over it, or complain with your dollar.

Besides, this change is really not that big a deal. How long does it take to run to a term or Sundy and swap to a second loadout for a dumbfire rocket? I can't believe how many 'sky is falling' threads there are post-patch. Yikes.

This isn't a balance change. If it's confirmed that dumb fire is outright removed, then it's an all out basic ability removal. It would essentially be half the weapon it was before. If they wanted to "balance" they canhave nerfed the hit points against armor even more so than it is. As such, if this is correct, then there will no longer be an ability to hit anything dumbfire anymore, which is actually why I paid 700SC to get - even if it was nerfed against armor. It's near useless now as it is with most aircraft sporting flares. Hope it's not $7 down the drain.

Flares have cooldowns.

It'll never be useless. I have flares, and the "lock on" flashing will 9 times out of 10 make me run for the hills.

You don't even have to fire this thing to scare most ESF's off.

How much XP do you get for scaring pilots off with the GTA launcher? How much XP do you get for killing a single anything with the default launcher?

The math seems very obvious to me: the player almost always has a much better incentive to go with the default launcher if lock on is required to fire. Not doing so is a sacrifice that can't be reasonably expected by other players.

How much XP do you get for dying to rocket pods because you can't be arsed to do anything about it, even point a gun at it?

If XP is your only incentive, then your outfit or the people you cooperate with are going to suffer. Although many people will play just for XP, and there are alot of solo players that will just chase certs, that's not the point of Planetside, never was never will be. Maybe in the first week I was after certs just to get going and explore the pretties, but after that it's an afterthought, XP shouldn't come into it.

I like SAM launchers as they are now, and as they were.
Watching ESFs blow up gives me a warm feeling in my heart, it's not about the XP or the certs, it's about the warm fuzzy feelings I get inside when I watch a plane fall out of the sky. It's a real david and goliath sort of moment
I don't do it for the money, or the fame, I just want to watch the world burn

Didn't read all of it. A consolation is in order.

Its not the only incentive, but its still an incentive, and a fairly important one. If, however, your only goal is to help your team, it would be a better idea to work or save outside the game so can buy them all weapons and camo. That way they can all afford AA weapons; problem solved, right?

if you fire a crow or hawk at infantry, you're seriously doing it wrong. they have practically no blast radius. If you want a dumbfire weapon use a devastator or the stock rocket launcher. they DO have a blast radius.

Crow and Hawk are long range, stock rocket launcher is a decenty mid to short range, and devastator is definitely short range.

Hmm.

It seems like whether this change is good or not, getting undone or not, or whatever, something needs to be done regarding how weapons are unlocked.

This probably won't be the last time things are changed around. On one hand, I get that when you pay for something and it completely changes, it sucks. On the other hand, re-balancing is still necessary and probably always will be.

I think it would make sense, therefore, to allow people to get the full SC points back out of a weapon in PS2 (and then re-locking it). That way, when something stupid like this happens, we can be like "ah, that sucks, but now I might as well get that X I've been wanting for a really long time" instead of "I want a full refund".

I don't see how this would be the same as a normal refund, because SC points aren't exactly US dollars. Sony's got their money once you've got them, so who cares if you ask for a "refund" for your PS2 gun.

EDIT/Disclaimer: I haven't bought anything for PS2 yet. (including this launcher)

Because essentially if they DON'T give a refund, a tonne of people will still go and buy other stuff with SC anyway.

If they DO give a refund, they're losing money, because some people are going to say "cool, I was bored with that anyway and wanted xxx, now I don't have to buy more SC" basically.

Seriously! How much do we have to rage to get this changed?

They don't lose money with a refund, because lots of people will still keep their G2A rocket launchers, the SC has already been paid for, and it functions just like store credit on a product return.

Read my post?

They do lose money. Just like giving someone store credit is LOSING money, because you're LOSING potential profit. I have the option of whining for a refund until I get one and can then use the SC on something else, or I don't get a refund, and have to dish out more SC for that other thing I want. Which one makes more money?

Hi. I am having no problem dumb-firing any of the lock-on rockets. Perhaps I read the OP's post wrong.

Matter of fact, the increased the damage of the AA Rockets to be in line with the AV Rockets. That's a 18% damage increase on AA Rockets against everything. So don't complain too much.

Here is damage info and ammo count:
Dmg Shots
1700 5 Dumb-Fire Default
1500 5 AV Rocket Launcher
1500 5 AA Rocket Launcher (was 1275 damage)
2000 4 Decimator (note lower total damage capability than the default dumb-fire)

Shots to kill Sunderer (hits to the back):
Decimator = 5
Default Dumb-fire = 6
AA/AV Launcher = 7

Do to rocket count restrictions, you can NOT solo kill a Sunderer even without Blockade Armor with any of the Rockets. If you could, there would be even less incentive to buy the Munitions Pouch.

Yeah, they seem to have not put in that restriction in this patch. You can still dumbfire all the launchers.

It was originally added in the patch notes, then a few minutes later it got updated with the no sign of the lock on change.

Don't think I shall be using the AV/AA launchers anyway. The dumb fire bullet drop got seriously nerfed

To everyone saying "You bought an AA launcher, now it'll do what it was intended to do!":
Nope, most people would have bought it after trialing.
When I trialed it, I found the lockon absolutely painfully useless, with a hitrate noteable lower than just dumbfiring at flying aircraft, due to a combination of flares, missiles just miraculously missing, ESF evading the projectile by a second of afterburner, or the missile hitting something in the way.
However, it was a great weapon with direct fire; It allowed accurate kills against Infantry, it allowed reflex shots against armor running past some distance away, it allowed me to reliably hit low flying aricraft.
I would have instantly bought it if an outfit member hadn't told me that it was going to be changed to only lock-on, and if that change had happened, which apparently it has not, it would have removed the only reason for me to have that weapon.
I can reliably hit high flying liberators with the standard launcher, but they have a tendency to juke and evade it; Projectile speed is huge.
Having only lockon would make the weapon flat out worse in my eyes.

However, luckily, I didn't buy it, and until they add a note that they won't change it in the future, I will refrain from spending any SC on the weapon for fear of completely wasting it if they change their minds. It's a matter of trust.

Maybe, one day, they'll add a dedicated high speed direct fire launcher. And while that would certainly be part of it's usage, I'd even be content with having it not one-shot kill infantry, and still buy it, just for the safety that the weapon is actually intended to do what I bought it for, it it won't be changed into uselessness because someone noticed they really wanted it to be a deployable grenade launcher after I bought it.

You could also throw a bucket of water in your customer's faces when they walk into your business.

But you probably wouldn't want to do that because you actually want them to spend money at your business and be a return customer.

It's good business to refund your customers (at least those who request it) when the terms of sale change, and it's simply not fair to expect people to make decisions based on future information that is impossible for them to know in advance. It's also a small matter for Sony, since the Station Cash stays bought (they keep the $ you spent) you just spend the Station Cash on something else instead. It's also standard practice in the MMO industry to refund people items or character stats when the game changes significantly.

A perfect example of a reaction to the unpredictability is how I only subbed for 3 months premium membership instead of 6. I really like PS2 over all, and as a PS1 vet I certainly see the potential in PS2 to blossom into something amazing. I'm still not completely trusting of the unpredictable nature of how things are being handled by the PS2 devs, however, and that is potentially costing SOE money. Small acts of good will like refunding SC purchases when items change would be a good step toward allaying any fears and hesitancy that me and others might have, and thus result in far greater profits for SOE in the long run.