Whats happening to the Phoenix, w/ statements from Higby.

Isn't this entire game too easy already?

Why stop?

Lock-on's, AA buffed to kingdom come, planes nerfed because apparently everyone can fly, mines acting like C4, I mean, you name it.

Shouldn't they nerf what EVERYONE does the most? excluding infantry gun gameplay of course, say a tank gets buffed and suddenly everyone uses the hell out of it and valid complaints surface, you then balance the tank, same happened to the lib but instead of retouching it, it was hit with many nerfs making it half useless.

How do you balance a game? you kill mainstream abuse, if everyone does it, then you nerf it little by little.

How do you break a game? you send a barrage of nerfs towards it until it is unplayable or nerf it based on pro gamer abuse.

How would you have balanced the phoenix? test 2 or 3 shots vs infantry until it is balanced, how do you balance the hacksaw? lower damage at close range and increase at mid range, nerf other maxes close range damage and keep their ranged damage, why? because range is everything in an FPS game.

Nerf the magrider? test slight changes on the strafe, nerf the reaver? introduce the same mechanic as a balance for the other two, nerf the saron? no, buff the NC secondary and tell TR to shut up because of their Vulcan.

Balance is a problem because there is nowhere to test anything to try different forms of balance before they go live, test servers are going to be a necessity for this game.

The VS have nothing left to lose so we could care less what happens to the NC and TR.

I like how some people consider everything said by a game developer to be a promise. I suppose subscribing to that particular delusion helps to justify the irrational anger you feel when things don't go according to plan.

Add fuel dial to missile = good
Damage nerf to infantry = I can live with it as long as they buff the AV damage, currently 1 engi can out repair the rockets like their are pebbles
Wants:
Afterburners to make it go faster at the cost of maneuverability and loosing range as well as using fuel up faster

Read as "OMFG MY MAGRIDER WAS BROUGHT IN LINE WITH THE OTHER MBT'S NOW ALL VANU IS BAD, ALL DEVS HATE VS EA-OGJEAWIGHEHHEGHO RAGEFORNOGOODREASONQQ"
Have a good day.

You want to say that again?

Ah yes, I forgot to add 'whether or not their exposed head/body on a turret is actually as it appears'.

The VR area is nice but how many times do you see an ESF over a warzone with 100% of its health ? Ok perhaps it needs two full shots to down ESFs but in reality over a conflict zone with ESFs getting shot by everything on the field it can easily be used to bring them down. It's a lot faster than any other launcher (almost Laser fast) and it goes where you aim. If that's not OP what is ?

That's all I wanted to hear.

Oh, and 2 charged shots only sets it on fire, doesn't guarantee a kill if they repair or have a fire extinguisher.

Which is not bad considering that once you AIM something and press the trigger you have 99% chance of hitting it....Can you say the same for any of the other launchers in the game ?

99%? Wow, I never knew that.

Oh wait, yes I do because I've tried it.



It's clear you're just better than I am while trying to hit ESF's and other moving targets.

You think there isn't a reward in shooting down a missile that is going to instability you?

**** man, there is such little reward in playing this games already (xp is pretty tired one) I think moments like this could possibly be the most rewarding yet!

Most shots in this clip (from up to 200m distance) hit dead on....But yea if you try to hit something moving away from you and from 300m+ distance you won't hit it because you can't even see it clearly. Again that's not the issue, the issue is Speed compared to the other two ESLs and that's where the Lancer excels.

Ofc you can look at it another way for those worried about XP

Shoot down the missile > keep's your Sundy safe > Allows you to capture the base > Woot * happy dance * XP

The striker deals 2500 in one clip, thats 500 dmg per rocket. The Phoenix one shots ESF's and 3 shots liberators and only needs 5 or 6 shots to take down a sunderer. The lancer only deals 1500 dmg per one fully charged shot and takes 8 fully charged shots to take down a heavy tank.

So the lancer excels at hitting things. Well that's just great.

And you can't shoot it down....You don't have to stand still until it hits the target......It is immune against flares/smoke.....And it's FAST....
Every launcher has its perks.....

The 2 other launchers can actually kill something.

Here's some reading material for you.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmUavphHXmIxdFhHUzJfN1VYalRnWS0xMnBUdTJpM1E&gid=25

Not sure how the Lancer works haven't trialed it .. Does each charge take an ammo ?
Ie: 3 charge uses 3 ammo or is it still only 1 ?

One fully charged shots uses 3 ammo. It was always 3.

The problem with the Phoenix is the zerg and the amount of players who are the Zerg. For example: on watterson you will see NC have almost a 10% world population advantage and then open up to look for open squads and there will be only 3 or 4 and two of them will just be like 3 people. I don't play the other facitons but i am sure the situation has to be similar. Having used the phoenix what makes it a farm-machine is the players who just blindly follow the large groups of other players and are so selfish and self centered trying to earn as much XP as possible and get as many kills as possible they don't have time and refuse to be more aware of their surroundings. I am willing to bet that for the first few days many was not even aware there was even a brand new threat to them because they did not read the patch-notes or anything. People need to get organized.

My experience with the phoenix is that whenever i click "instant action" and it puts me somewhere in the area of the crown with swarm of enemies as far as the eye can see it is easy to find a target that is not moving much or running in a straight line and 3 seconds later bam! I get a kill. now apparently there are rendering issues that need to be fixed which explains a lot because after getting the kills all i can think is "wow you saw this going at you and did not do anything to get out of the way?" However, when i play in my outfits platoon against another enemy platoon the enemy is ducking and weaving, using cover shooting down the missles, it basically makes the phoenix USELESS against infantry unless you get lucky and find an enemy who let their guard down! there is no splash damage to the phoenix you HAVE to get a direct hit and you get a 1hk just like noob tubes, which by the way used to have a huge splash damage and you barely had to aim but now you need a direct hit. (nobody complains about noob tubes because everybody gets them and that is the gun that everyone grinds certs for or buys with SC). if you are tired of getting killed by the phoenix ******* MOVE! There has been a game update, you need to adjust accordingly. The more infantry is grouped up the easier it is to find easy targets.

As far as balance vs the other launchers i agree it is symmetrical and i agree that is how it SHOULD be. Like Mr. Higby said they are faction launchers their should be lots of differences. As soon as the zerg sees that there is a difference between the faction they get on the forums and whine about every single little thing that x has over y. the grass is always greener on the other side etc. The striker is just be best lock-on launcher they have an advantage over the other factions there. The VS while there are many situations where the old launchers are simply more useful (i still mainly use lock-ons as NC) the lancer is a gorilla warefare weapon and also has a superior range. you have no warning you are about to get hit with one and with full charge it smarts. as a tank driver if your gun was not facing the direction it came from you have no idea what just hit you and the vs heavy could easily get a 2nd shot off before the vehicle finds cover. while the NC and the TR still have their dumb-fire launchers they would not be nearly as effective at a suprise attack as the vanu would be due to the precision and speed of delivery it offers.

Speadsheets mean nothing especially with all the buff/nerfs that go around every few days.

In any case like i said, each launcher has its pros and cons, not all can be the same. I too would like the phoenix to have longer range and be faster since now it flies with 60km/h but i can't have it (on a sidenote i am not using the Phoenix, not until now anyways).