[Video] Latest changes to ESF weapons on PTS (Jan 13 patch)

I detest having to keep hitting mouse buttons all the time playing an NC MAX, its rough on the mouse hand and causes fatigue! Maybe if I had some 'saws.

Doesn't seem to occur if you're even slightly adjacent though... It's hardly difficult to fly side-by-side with another pilot and all spam missiles at other ESFs...

I haven't been flying with more than one friendly, much less seen any 'wing-oriented' action, but will remain worried until I see utilisation on live...

Hornets were stupid OP, glad they're nerfed. They'll still have their place but they were just ridiculous before

Coyotes... hmm, I dunno. I'm gonna have to test em out to get a feel for em.

Hornets are completely useless now. Just some stats (firing on the front of an MBT):
TTK Photon pods: ~10s (3s firing per volley, 5s reload, two volleys)
TTK Hornets: ~22s (.5s firing time per volley, 5s reload, 4.5 volleys)
Both with MAXed reload speed on a tank in VR (no upgrades on that thing obviously).
And the maximum range is pretty much 450m as Hader said... now i do think that any decent ESF pilot can hit a tank at ranges closer than 300m with rocketpods.

So 150m more effective range (not taking into account that you can't dogde all that well during that time) for more than twice the TTK and the fact that you are pretty much unable to kill infantry?
Not really worth it, like, at all.

Imho they should increase the magazine size to 3 and increase the range to 600m. The TTK disadvantage wouldn't be so hilariously bad, and there was some actual range advantage that would make them worth equipping...

I'd keep the original mag size of 4 and lower the damage per missile to 1200 (down from 1500) or so, and 600m would be more decent range. I really doubt if ranged sniping will be that effective, and certainly the odds of landing 4/4 at range is pretty unlikely. As it is, unless you're careful with aiming, when they had 4/4, it was more typical to get 3/4 hit at moderate ranges, this on a non-moving VR target too.

+1 more for thinking the Hornets are dumbed down rocketpods. Rocketpods do more damage, have faster TTK and can kill infantry. Hornets blind the user (missile smoke and flames do up into your cockpit) cant kill infantry and are not fire and forget like rocketpods.
Hornets need some sort of little tweak

They (might) have overnerfed hornets (seems they balance stuff like a pendulum)

The main problem was the relatively high alpha strike coupled with render range. Now they nerfed both.
I think that the range nerf was a good call, but the damage/rocket number nerf was too much on top of it.

God, just when you thought idiots trying to spam their AH when in tight pursuit wasn't bad enough...

My main worry is those situations where several ESFs are chasing a single enemy, I get hit by friendly stray bullet enough already, I don't want to imagine what would happen if there 2 guys try to spam their Coyotes behind me, but as you said it's better to wait and see how it plays out in Live.

I have to disagree with this, you don't have to hover or head strait towards the target at any time to hit them.



But I do think that the range should be increased a bit and allow 3 missiles a volley.

They don't make you as easy of a target that you may seem to think. If anything they make you less of a target if used skillfully, which is a good thing. Reward skill.

Why not make it 4 missiles and duck 20% of the damage per missile. Its almost the same as 3 missiles, and just more fun to play with/use.

There shouldn't be a range cap really - no one can get the accuracy of the AV mana turret with Hornets, and in this case, you don't have render distance issues. When a Skyguard can hit you at render distance, you shouldn't be limited to responding to them (but good luck getting all the missiles to hit at that range, the Skyguard has AOE making it a lot easier).

And no you don't have to be a totally easy target but you can't totally break off/run away either, which you can do with pods, once you have them fired.

Well considering that you have to guide each rocket and the rockets only fire one after the other, adding rockets means you have to track the target for a longer amount of time, which would only increase the drawback that you bring up when comparing them to pods.

Hornets are not that hard to get on target. Especially when their primary roll is to hit vehicles. If you allow infinite
range people going to be firing from a further distance and be able to bob in and out of render range. A possible exploit WILL be exploited.

Though I think the Hornets need to be brought up a bit in effectiveness your proposed changes are contradictory to your opinion about the weapon and could cause utilization of exploits.
(i.e.

• tracking is a disadvantage -> you want more missiles which mean longer tracking
• they are hard to hit targets -> you want longer range which makes targets smaller thus even harder to hit)

In the end I think that with and added rocket/volley and a bit longer range they will be fine because they would offer an advantage over rocket pods with a higher level of skill which, in essence, is perfect balance.

Finally, someone recognizes that having more isn't necessarily better. Yes - I do realize this... I estimate the average accuracy over time will likely be more like 2.5/4. Which is why I wasn't overly concerned about them being OP even in their original state, cause the possibility of landing all 4 shots in the real world is slim to none unless you're in a one on one and there's nothing else around for miles.

But from a gameplay perspective, 3 just feels wrong. So I'd rather just do 4 reduced rockets with a bit more damage potential than 3 of the current would do, and it would reward the extra skill if you can land all 4 shots. Even with 80% of their original damage and 4 per volley, they will be about 75% the DPS of rocket pods or so given the damage they seem to do vs. pods when I tested them. There's really no big reason to run them over pods, except for variety and using something different.

And no

You obviously don't fly much and I'm not sure about your experience with the AV mana turret. You can snipe moving vehicles at distances that you really don't even have a blob to shoot at, by spotting and tracking the icon of your target. No one can do this with Hornets, and even Raven MAXes given having to fire and keep multiples in flight can't achieve this level of accuracy.

The AV mana turret is one of a kind, its simply the wrong comparison.

This creates an infinite advantage for Skyguards to abuse their render distance advantages, and what might seem to be a bit longer range is not very much, you have to realize there's both the height of the ESF and the distance from the target, creating longer distances.

You're just creating a reverse advantage and another render distance issue if you limit the range on them. But in any case, it might be a moot point, because I'm not expecting very much effectiveness if you're firing from too far away anyways.

Hornets are now the lancer of the air. Seams pointless solo, devastating in groups.

Dually noted. In all fairness trying to balance around the AV MANA is a bad idea, that weapon is beyond broken. Same could be said about the skyguard, I use it all the time and the damage beyond 500m is overzealous to me, my personal belief is that it should preform like the ranger (be a deterrent not a destroyer) beyond 500m.

That being said, I don't think it's a good idea to balance around imbalance.

honestly they should nerf pawds against vehicles, or at least armored vehicles

then they can have roles for all dese weapons.