Missiles in the games

General discussion about the game.
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stylesrj
Posts: 3644
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:54 am

Re: Missiles in the games

Postby stylesrj » Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:50 am

I like the games very much but I feel there is no necessity of Missiles in the games. It takes long time to reload, very bad accuracy and spends all scraps in stores for missiles ammo.


In most of my games, missile weapons benefit the enemy more than the player. They always fire one off before you can disable their weapons system and the missile always targets the system you need the most, breaches it and sets it on fire. Especially the 1 damage Leto missiles. They can fire one every 8 seconds.

Missile weapons do have their uses though - as free scrap! :lol:

Also, missiles don't have bad accuracy. The enemy ship just has high evasion. All weapons except for beams have the same accuracy.

There's also the Artemis Missile for maximum BS potential - 2 damage, 10 second charge. Really hate it when the enemy has that.
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5thHorseman
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Re: Missiles in the games

Postby 5thHorseman » Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:08 am

Missiles exist to give the enemies weapons that work better for them than for you, and to make the Bulwark and Stormwalker more challenging.
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Levgre
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Re: Missiles in the games

Postby Levgre » Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:15 am

I agree, although there are lots of awfully imbalanced weapons.

In my mod I'm making them much better, lower cooldowns, higher breach + fire, plus missiles only cost 2 scrap in the shop. But their damage is staying the same or a bit lower, so the AI doesn't benefit as much. Plus I make it easier for the player to get ship repair drones and defense drones.
Dirka
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Re: Missiles in the games

Postby Dirka » Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:03 pm

Balance-wise, missiles are in a bad spot between lasers and bombs. They are better than Lasers at causing damage, but since they run out quickly, you can't use them as your main DPS-weapon. Bombs, however are better for disabling systems, since they have generally a lower energy requirement per system damage and cannot be intercepted. Missiles still are a nice support weapon, but I'd much rather have a bomb than a missile any day. Possible exceptions to the former are stun and heal, and exception to the latter is swarm.

I think the only thing wrong with missiles as they currently are is their prohibitive cost. The AI never has to worry about cost, so everyone can merrily chuck Artemis' and Letos at your face, whereas you have to be much more economical with your shots (barring ER-Augment). But that argument goes both ways, as the player can sync up lasers and beams, which the AI does not (what 5th Horseman said). The reduced cost of ammunition would also affect bombs, but since missile massacre would become a more valid strategy, the overlap between those two systems would actually decrease. The only real problem I see would be the ability to spam good bombs (Breach II, Fire, Ion) with even more abandon.

Improving missiles in any other way (cooldown/effects) would mean that missile-heavy enemies become even more of a pain than usual, a tradeoff I, for one, would not like to make.
Smauler
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Re: Missiles in the games

Postby Smauler » Fri Oct 03, 2014 12:42 am

You could just make missiles dirt cheap to buy, but I guess that would make bombs all the more attractive.

In my opinion, the biggest problem with missiles is that there is a defence against them, in drones. A well equipped player ship with 2 bombs and 2 lasers can't be countered by the AI ships. A well equipped player ship with 2 missiles and 2 lasers will find life difficult against an AI ship with 2 defence drones.

Ships with only three weapon slots are even more limited.