Captain Hoax
Traveler 52
16
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Posted - 2014.01.17 16:59:00 -
[1] - Quote
CCP Rise wrote:
Finally, I just want to say that the 'fun' factor of the mechanic is very difficult to evaluate objectively. There's evidence pointing in a lot of directions, and I still like the idea of doing something different more than sticking with something very safe and normal. The evidence that says it is fun, since I'm sure you will be skeptical of that claim' is both direct (my experience and the experience of some players posting here or talking with me directly) and also the existence of similar mechanics in other games. War Thunder for instance has this mechanic on every single plane in the game and people seem to find that very fun generally. I'm still trying to gather as much info as possible and if you guys are using it and are able to say it's not fun (separate from it not being good, which is a different issue and could be corrected with numbers tweaks like 30s reload or more ammo per launcher) please post and let me know.
This is going to sound weird, but I've had a bit of a play with RHML on a golem, and I think they fire too fast. The T2 RHML I was using hold 23 missiles a piece and fire once every 5.18 seconds. If my math is right then it will take just shy of 2 minutes till I need to spend 40 seconds reloading. So far so good. The problem I found was that since my missile velocity bonus is not being applied to RHML's I end up with so many fish in the water that the target often dies while 2, sometimes 3 volleys of missiles are still in flight. That adds up over the space of 2min, and when you only have 23 missiles per reload then any wasted missiles hurt that much more. Yes, some of the onus here is on me, a good missile pilot switches targets early, but when you have 2 or more volleys already in flight that can be a little bit difficult to judge.
On top of that the damage projection of RHML is actually rather poor. Because they don't receive any of the native bonuses from my golem, I actually receive better hits and damage on small targets by fitting a second target painter and using cruise missiles. In addition, because they don't receive the velocity bonus the range for RHML's is only around 50 - 60km, about 20km better than if I was using torpedo's with the same fit.
I've tested and compared with the L4 mission Buzz Kill, one with an excessive number of frigates and cruisers. If ever there was a "right choice" for the RHML I would have thought it would be this mission, however I've found this to be very much not the case. My time to completion has been significantly worse when using RHML as compared to cruise missiles every single time. In its current iteration I don't see myself ever using RHML's again.
If it were up to me, I would increase rapid launcher capacity by 50%, lower RoF by around 40%, and reduce reload times to 20s instead of 40s. That, or allow all ship bonuses to apply to all rapid launcher types and increase capacity by around 30%. |