[Suggestion] Striker Revamp - No whine, no rant

I know, another Striker thread ! I made this one because I was annoyed by all the other Strikers threads that are basically people whining without suggestions about how to fix the damn thing.

Just as an introduction, I'm rolling a BR91 TR on Miller, PL/SL for my outfit, and I play all three factions on different servers.

Problems with the striker :

• It's not OP because it does too much damage, it's OP because it's baby-proof. It's incredibly easy to land 100% of the damage on the target. As a result you see a lot more people using the Striker than the Lancer, whereas the Lancer actually yields more kills and xp/min in the hands of experienced users (Higby stats).
• It's skill-less, hence boring to use. Right clic, vaguely aim, wait, left clic, profit.
• It's not original compared to what the VS and the NC have got. It's basically an annihilator on steroids. The only difference is that it shoots several rockets.
• It's lock-on, and lock-ons are annoying to receive.
• It's much more efficient at anti-air than the two others ESRL, which makes playing air against the TR tedious.

To sum it up, unlike the Lancer and the Phoenix, it doesn't require any skill or effort from the user to be efficient.

Let's fix that.

Simple steps, no fancy code required :

• Make it entirely dumbfire, with high projectile speed, no recoil and very little drop to make it usable at much longer ranges than a regular rocket launcher. See: Lancer.
• The alt fire should be a rocket launcher optic with a x2 or x3 zoom to aim at long ranges.
• No better at killing infantry and MAXes than the others ESRLs. It takes two charged Lancer shots to kill a MAX, it takes two Phoenix rockets to kill infantry, so it should be impossible to kill those with a Striker without having to reload at least once. 8 rockets look like a good number.
• Keep damage, magazine size, rate of fire the same, it'll work perfectly and still give that very TR-ish "red dots spam" effect, like the original Striker.
• Look at the stats after a few weeks and fine-tune the weapon to get it on par with the Lancer.

All in all, a shoulder-fired Fracture without the insane AI capability. Higby pls.

/discuss

Also on reddit : http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1ko5gt/suggestion_striker_revamp_no_whine_no_rant/

Looks like a good idea, but it's hard to justify changing a lock-on to a dumbfire now that you've been selling it as a lock-on for months.

I'm going to copy what I posted on Reddit here (But the TL;DR is pretty much what Sossen said):
So basically a Lancer that has slower velocity and only one fire mode? Seems to me like it would just be a slightly worse, TR flavored Lancer. I would prefer to see it do less damage but be wire guided to the same range that you can lock on now, so around 500 meters or so. So you know, its actually unique.
Anyway, I don't think the devs have any intention of changing the Striker into anything other then a Lock on launcher. These suggestions, though a nice thought, no matter how much they are agreed with, will sorrowfully do nothing. The Striker being a Lock-On launcher is here to stay, whether we like it or not.
Far too many people have purchased it, and for it to be completely changed, to an entirely different mechanic, would upset more customers then then it would please. People have purchased it for its lock-on mechanic, as their Anti-Air and Ground Lock-Ons. Changing it would require these people to purchase other Lock-On rocket Launchers. The Saron and Enforcers were changed, and we saw how many people that pissed off. This is an even bigger change then that.
Its a nice thought, but an unrealistic idea.

You forget it would have a much higher dps than the lancer at closer ranges, while being indeed worse at longer ranges. I'd like something wire-guided too, but I didn't want to suggest anything that required additional coding. Indeed one max weapon and one turret have it already, but maybe it's a hassle to get a wire-guided rocket launcher into the game. Only the devs know. If the idea has a high development cost it's more likely to get rejected.

Otherwise I agree, but it costs nothing to try

Make it more like Fracture? You know what the non stop complaining will be about once Striker is nerfed don't you?

I think you are wrong that the complaining is not about damage. Any complaints with substance I think do come down to damage.

Although ESF are the ones complaining most loudly I think that is more due to their cohesion as a sub community and ability to project their voice. Striker is nothing that special against ESF compared to other lockons. The only complaint they have is that it is a lockon at all and that it is popular with TR.

I said from when I first used it that the biggest thing about it is that it is very efficient against high HP vehicles like sunderers and libs. You simply don't need as many people using strikers as you do any other HA AV option. The MANA AV turret is a good alternative against land but not libs. But Libs pilots are either able to fly above lockons or are among the lib pilots who wouldn't last long anyway. So really it is an alternative to the MANA AV turret I think that also let's you scare away ESF.

Another complaint that is true is that it is easy to use. But it does also leave you out in the open and it is also easy to block by pressing one button. But it is still easy to use.

So I am in favour of Striker changing to a weapon that is lower damage and harder to use. But in exchange for damage I would want dumb fire. Slow projectiles are fine. And for higher aim or positioning skill I would want to make it so it has no hard counter and does not leave you exposed but I would still expect it to be guided in some way otherwise it is not a Striker it's something else.

The main whine about the Fracture is it's very low infantry TTK, and as a daily Fracture user, I agree that it's a bit too much.

The main advantage the striker has over the other ESRLs is its effectiveness versus ESFs.
Its main disadvantage is the inability to engage infantry, maxes and turrets.

A possible solution could be to change the striker into a G2G lock-on launcher with the ability to dumbfire, wich would bring it more inline with the other ESRLs without changing too much.

You mean a powerful SKEP instead of a powerful Annihilator ?

Why not make it something new instead ?

Wait until the lockon changes have been implemented.

Interested in what this may be, any ideas?

I agree that the striker is boring. TR as a faction imo is pretty boring atm

Wireguided instead of lock-on with it otherwise the same would be amazing.

DO WANT!

As far as picking up G2A lock-on... it's only 250 certs now FFS.... and a wire guided striker (still has pretty fast velocity) would be able to still cause problems for ESF's trying to slow down to attack ground forces while not giving TR the supreme lock-on AA weapon.

Please list all the other lock on launchers that do 80% damage to an ESF with one lock and fire, and can lock at 500m.

Ill wait right here.

Include significant drop to create a soft limit on range (and requiring skill to extend effective range) and you have my support.

Another thread about "Striker will be nerf, give us the Fracture" ...

And of course Styker is not OP, it rocket goes only faster than others (sorry mistake), deal more damage and have greater range (compare to other AV).

Did I say I don't like the Stryker (and Fracture) ?

they should make it a carbon copy of phoenix, that'd be the most hilarious nerf ever.
noobiest weapon in the game turned into the most useless.

The Fracture has a very low infantry TTK because it is Dumbfire, spams with lots of damage because it is a 10 round magazine and 2 fractures pretty much doubled the damage going out. It is basically, what you are proposing with the Striker.

Furthermore, you do not know the actual history of the Striker... The Striker was the only Lockon weapon in Planetside 1 available to the infantry, just as the Phoenix is stylized to how the Phoenix worked in Planetside one and the Lancer for the VS... The only changes between then and now is that the Striker is using a Fire and Forget Lockon method that the rest of the lockons use, does not dumbfire (Which it did in Planetside 1). The Phoenix missile spawls when it is hit by fire, cannot be dumbfired (Which it did in Planetside 1 after much requesting). And the lancer did not have a charge mechanic like it does in PS2.

The Striker also was originally a 3 round missile launcher, which was nerfed to a 5 round missile launcher because the 3 rounds were pretty powerful.

The NS Annihilator and the ES lockon weapons are variations of the striker, but this fix won't really 'solve' the problem.

They changed the Saron/Enforcer.
And despite the rage, they didn't change it back.

Its not just the low TTK against infantry. Its the low TTK against infantry combined with a hard to kill unit. Having a Fracture type rocket launchers on a HA is actually going to be less TTK than all the other dumbfire rocket launchers the HA has.

There are none... and that includes the Striker. The Striker does 71% damage. And as a side note, all AA lock-on launchers have a lock-on range of 500m including the Annihilator.

It's almost like you think I'm arguing that Striker does less damage than other lockons when in fact I am clearly saying the opposite. How odd.

They need to refund the purchases and admit their mistakes. If there is one AI weapon that is literally game changing it is the striker. The annihilator should be the de facto general use LO launcher to be used where as the ESRL should all be unique.

Striker's only unique quality is how awfully powerful it is. By the way I am TR and I'm not that good at vehicles but this weapon is incredibly boring compared to the pheonix (almost useless) or lancer.