I wanted to let those of you still paying attention here know that we aren't satisfied with the current state of rapid launchers and are expecting to make changes in coming releases to improve the situation.

For now, I don't have details to give you but I want to let you know what we're looking at.

First, and most importantly, it's important to me that this mechanic feels fun to use. It still hasn't been that long since they hit TQ but a lot of the initial feedback is not great on this aspect. It's likely that for Rubicon 1.1 we will make a small adjustment to both RLML and RHML to either give you more active time or less reload time, I'll let you know when that change is pinned down exactly. Going past 1.1 we want to collect more data and feedback so that if we make a larger change (which we are considering) to the system as a whole it's as informed as possible. That larger change would come either in 1.2 or in summer depending on what it was.

Second, I've been working on the ammo swapping issue and will not be able to get in a change for 1.1. Solutions for this have been messy and we aren't satisfied enough with any of them to try and make them fit in this release. As we iterate after 1.1 I want to solve this issue one way or another.

Last, I'm doing some investigation for getting some kind of reload timer work going. Can't say if and when this would happen but it would have enormous value so I'm looking into it.

Giving cruisers the ability to destroy frigates easily without a compensating penalty against cruisers simply obsoletes frigates.

Really there is no place in the game for rapid lights. If you want an anti-frigate missile system it should be light missile launchers. Just the same as it is for turrets.

Hi, time to visit this thread again!

I wanted to let those of you still paying attention here know that we aren't satisfied with the current state of rapid launchers and are expecting to make changes in coming releases to improve the situation.

For now, I don't have details to give you but I want to let you know what we're looking at.

First, and most importantly, it's important to me that this mechanic feels fun to use. It still hasn't been that long since they hit TQ but a lot of the initial feedback is not great on this aspect. It's likely that for Rubicon 1.1 we will make a small adjustment to both RLML and RHML to either give you more active time or less reload time, I'll let you know when that change is pinned down exactly. Going past 1.1 we want to collect more data and feedback so that if we make a larger change (which we are considering) to the system as a whole it's as informed as possible. That larger change would come either in 1.2 or in summer depending on what it was.

Second, I've been working on the ammo swapping issue and will not be able to get in a change for 1.1. Solutions for this have been messy and we aren't satisfied enough with any of them to try and make them fit in this release. As we iterate after 1.1 I want to solve this issue one way or another.

Last, I'm doing some investigation for getting some kind of reload timer work going. Can't say if and when this would happen but it would have enormous value so I'm looking into it.

In regards to the Up-time vs. Reload-time disjunction: Are you of the mind that it is an either/or situation? While it would not make the melodramatic posters happy, I could see a very small change to both being beneficial. By small I mean ~5sec less reload and ~5 more units of ammo in the clip for RLML.

Really there is no place in the game for rapid lights. If you want an anti-frigate missile system it should be light missile launchers. Just the same as it is for turrets.

Giving cruisers the ability to destroy frigates easily without a compensating penalty against cruisers simply obsoletes frigates.

Or are we going to also have a proliferation of "rapid 150mm railgun arrays"?

It's time to end the experiment. Dump this wrong-headed idea. Force anti-frigate cruisers to fit light missiles and (probably) buff heavy missiles a little bit.

Fixing the underlying issue would be nice. You know, the issue where Heavy Missiles are sized for cruisers and BC and yet they cannot apply full damage to cruisers without 3 painters and 2 webs, thereby losing all range advantage they had.

Fix the core issues with missiles first (mostly just heavy missiles). Otherwise, you will need to re-visit all the band-aids you apply to the launcher.

Hi, time to visit this thread again!

I am wondering if you considered playing with the heat statistics of modules instead of playing with reload times and ammo capacity. It is a more natural way to tune things and allow periodic burst damage without having complete damage blackouts.

And the anti-missile crowd returns with a vengeanceGǪ Sorry guys, RLMLs are here to stay - and if anything, missile systems as a whole are due for a buff. I can almost taste the tears...

A faster rate of fire when overheated offers zero benefit because it just compresses the DPS into a shorter timeframe. Extending ammunition capacity is the ticket.

Extra ammunition does not help the problem of entering a fight with the wrong ammo loaded, or having to swap ammo because a situation changed. Being able to swap ammo actually lets the pilot make a choice during combat and possibly be rewarded for that choice with more damage or in some cases the ability to deal damage at all. A 40 second reload does not give you a choice, even a 20 second reload would feel punishing to use in combat.

I still maintain that frontloading rlm damage like this is a poor mechanic solely because it makes the fights binary, either frigates die remarkably quickly or they live long enough that you have to question the value of using the ship over any of its equivalents. Polarizing weapon systems for launchers (rlm only good vs frigs, hams and hmls only workable vs cruisers or larger) is unfun because it makes the pilot feel like they undocked the wrong ship when they could've taken an omen or thorax or arty rupture and had the ability to kill both cruisers and frigates decently without having to change its entire fit.

Caracal proliferation in small gang was mostly from the triple lse and lse/xlasb style fits where you had enough tank that you could stay on field almost indefinitely. Dual lse caracals were actually very balanced against other cruisers, thorax could project far enough to outdamage them in point range, omens could also hold their own (single lse omens couldn't stand up well but aar omens would have little issue provided you were in point range).

Currently reloading isn't an interesting and tactical choice, but a punishment intended to create 'tense moments of fun'.

Extra ammunition does not help the problem of entering a fight with the wrong ammo loaded, or having to swap ammo because a situation changed. Being able to swap ammo actually lets the pilot make a choice during combat and possibly be rewarded for that choice with more damage or in some cases the ability to deal damage at all. A 40 second reload does not give you a choice, even a 20 second reload would feel punishing to use in combat.

I still maintain that frontloading rlm damage like this is a poor mechanic solely because it makes the fights binary, either frigates die remarkably quickly or they live long enough that you have to question the value of using the ship over any of its equivalents. Polarizing weapon systems for launchers (rlm only good vs frigs, hams and hmls only workable vs cruisers or larger) is unfun because it makes the pilot feel like they undocked the wrong ship when they could've taken an omen or thorax or arty rupture and had the ability to kill both cruisers and frigates decently without having to change its entire fit.

Caracal proliferation in small gang was mostly from the triple lse and lse/xlasb style fits where you had enough tank that you could stay on field almost indefinitely. Dual lse caracals were actually very balanced against other cruisers, thorax could project far enough to outdamage them in point range, omens could also hold their own (single lse omens couldn't stand up well but aar omens would have little issue provided you were in point range).

Currently reloading isn't an interesting and tactical choice, but a punishment intended to create 'tense moments of fun'.

How would it look if you halved the missile capacity but made the reload time 10s?

The DPS with 10-round capacity/10-second reload.

At the point that you drop this module back to a 10 second reload, you have invalidated the fundamental purpose to the change, and may as well slow them back down, revert the ammo capacity to pre-Rubicon, and leave them the way they were originally.

Here is an interesting question. Assuming PvE and missioning (clearly not going to work in PvP) would a mobile depot bypass the 40 second reload problem?