Originally by: Chssmius

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Edited by: Chssmius on 22/09/2009 18:48:37
Edited by: Chssmius on 22/09/2009 18:29:18
Yeah, there is very little to love about rockets but they are not a total loss.

The briefest explanation is that a frigate at full speed or webbed with an AB will only take about 75% damage +10% for variability in signature and top speed for both rockets and light missiles.

Light missiles will always deliver ~5%(ex: at 400 m/s LM do ~73% while R do ~68%) more of their total damage than rockets will unless you get below ~250 m/s. Lights do better compared to rockets the faster the target is going.

Rocket vs Light Missile graph*
Now rockets only do ~10% more damage to begin with so there is only going to be ~5% damage benefit from using Rockets. The exception is if a target frigate is doing basically half its max non-propulsion mod velocity. Because of the higher DRF(Damage Reduction Factor) if a frigate is doing ~850 m/s or more(typical Frigate ABing speeds) then LM and Rockets are within a 1 or 2 DPS of each other. DRF is kind of complicated in how it works but the short version is the higher DRF the faster the damage falls off with higher speed and/or smaller sig signature. Keep in mind that ships which are likely to use rockets that ~5% improved DPS will translate into about 5 DPS, which isn't really noticeable.


This wouldn't be so bad if the range of rockets wasn't so terribly poor. EFT max rang is only 10.1 km. Realistically that is much shorter in a real fight and more likely to be 8 or 9 km after you account for rocket acceleration and target travel during rocket flight time.

Finally the max velocity for a rocket is less than 3.5 km/s which is a little on the slow side considering T1 frigates can go faster than that. Granted anything with an MWD has to be in scram and web range to take damage anyway, but short flight time isn't the only problem.

Javeline Rockets vs Light Missile graph*
Also, Javelin rockets, while they have 50% more range(15 km), they exasperated the lack of damage improvement for rockets over LM. Between the ~25% reduced base damage and 0.2 difference in the DRF for Javelin rockets compared with their faction cousins means faction LM always do at least 10% more damage with ~3 times the range.


In short, rockets need a target frigate to be double webbed and scrammed to improve noticeably on light missile damage. Furthermore, rocket users can either engage well inside web and scram range or would be better off with light missiles.

The only redeeming attribute for rockets is their low fitting cost compared with LM. But then, about every small short range turret system has some option that would be easier to fit(in at least one way) and out damage a rocket inside its optimal(which isn't that far off the rockets max range). Though, admittedly, direct comparisons aren't strictly valid.


*DPS lines are for a Kestrel with 4x T2 launcher, navy kinetic ammo(unless otherwise noted), perfect skills, one BCU II, and one small Warhead Calefaction Catalyist rig firing at a ship equivalent to a Rifter without any signature bloom. % lines are equivalent for all ships except for the Heretic and Flycatcher(the Amarr and Caldari Interdictors).

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Originally by: Ashley Thomas

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There's a person in my corp that's become rather successful with rocket kessys, but ya, damage increase would be nice.

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Originally by: Robert Caldera

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rockets are fail anyways...

why use 2 terms for 1 thing?? Missiles and rockets are basically the same.
why use another (useless) weapon where light missiles are a good option? There is no similar fail useless weapon for hybrids, there is no such for lasers, why did we get such crap for caldari weapons and even ships which have bonuses for that??

remove them from the game and remap all ship bonuses from rockets to light missiles.

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Originally by: Mike Voidstar

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That's why I suggest treating rockets as a type of turret rather than a full-blown missle system.


Rockets are little more than fancy bullets that bring their motive force with them when fired. You point, you shoot, if you did it right, it hits. Very simple, just like a gun.

Treating them as turrets with a long optimal, zero fall-off, and a short delay to hit models rockets very nicely. You lose the perfect accuracy but keep the consistant damage regardless of range.

You could tinker with the idea of making them truly explosive and making them have a smartbomb-like effect centering on their target, making them more tatical in use, as you have the ability to disrupt drone rep on the target, but also risk interfering with missiles and drones from your own fleet as well. (fratricide in missle volleys is a consideration in RL missle use as well)

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