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General Discussion / Should there be more Large missiles that don't shoot Large missiles?
« on: August 05, 2022, 02:28:45 PM »
Here's the thing. When you have a Small missile mount, you have all your bases covered. You've got anti-shield Sabots, you've got anti-armor Breachers, dogfight-ending Harpoons, anti-fighter Swarmers, dumbfire Annihilators, and if you're lucky and patient you can get a hit in with a torpedo.
When you upgrade to a Medium mount, you basically have the same options as a Small mount, but MORE: either more missiles carried or bigger volleys, or usually both. There are some changes to the lineup: You gain the frustrating Pilum missile which...no thanks. You lose the rather nifty Swarmer launcher and Atropos torpedo in favor of the Proximity Charge Launcher which is a little clunky. But overall Medium missile mounts are really great and I would rather spend OP on Medium missiles than most other gun mounts.
Then you get to Large mounts, which should basically be the pinnacle of "I am now a terrifying god of missile delivery!" But.... It's not. At least I don't feel like it is. The problem is your choice of weapons basically gets cut in half once you reach Large missiles. Your anti-everything Annihilator is replaced by the Squall, which fires slooooowly and in huge, long clumsy bursts that waste ammo. And according to the blog, this is going to change so that it's more anti-shield than anti-everything, so even LESS like the Annihilator. Large-mount Sabots? No. Large-mount Breacher or Harpoon? No. You don't even get a less-bad mounting for the Pilum. The only Large mounts that even seek targets are the Harbinger (which is very slow and carries painfully limited ammo and basically outclassed by the Hammer Barrage) and the Locust which has the same problem as the Squall in that it fires in enormous wasteful bursts.
Is there anybody else that feels like there should be some more Large missile mount options that are more... flexible? Or carried more ammo? Or didn't fire in huge salvos? How many Harpoons or Sabots could you fit on a Large mount??? Or since Pilum was introduced at medium tier, would a Large Pilum recharge faster or have a bigger magazine? Would a Large Prox Launcher have twice the ammo and fire rate?
Basically, it feels like there's really good options in Medium class missiles for punching both above and below your weight class while everything in Large mounts is only suitable for barge-on-barge combat with the exception of Locust which.... sure, it erases fighter swarms, but by the time you have a ship that actually HAS a large missile mount you care more about taking down carriers than fighters. There is nothing stopping a cruiser with Large Ballistics from using its guns to one-tap an enemy bomber then completely brutalizing a frigate then turning to a slugging match with an enemy cruiser. Where, if you have Large Missiles, you only get to kind-of do one of those things and then back off and reload for a while...and then you're out of ammo.
When you upgrade to a Medium mount, you basically have the same options as a Small mount, but MORE: either more missiles carried or bigger volleys, or usually both. There are some changes to the lineup: You gain the frustrating Pilum missile which...no thanks. You lose the rather nifty Swarmer launcher and Atropos torpedo in favor of the Proximity Charge Launcher which is a little clunky. But overall Medium missile mounts are really great and I would rather spend OP on Medium missiles than most other gun mounts.
Then you get to Large mounts, which should basically be the pinnacle of "I am now a terrifying god of missile delivery!" But.... It's not. At least I don't feel like it is. The problem is your choice of weapons basically gets cut in half once you reach Large missiles. Your anti-everything Annihilator is replaced by the Squall, which fires slooooowly and in huge, long clumsy bursts that waste ammo. And according to the blog, this is going to change so that it's more anti-shield than anti-everything, so even LESS like the Annihilator. Large-mount Sabots? No. Large-mount Breacher or Harpoon? No. You don't even get a less-bad mounting for the Pilum. The only Large mounts that even seek targets are the Harbinger (which is very slow and carries painfully limited ammo and basically outclassed by the Hammer Barrage) and the Locust which has the same problem as the Squall in that it fires in enormous wasteful bursts.
Is there anybody else that feels like there should be some more Large missile mount options that are more... flexible? Or carried more ammo? Or didn't fire in huge salvos? How many Harpoons or Sabots could you fit on a Large mount??? Or since Pilum was introduced at medium tier, would a Large Pilum recharge faster or have a bigger magazine? Would a Large Prox Launcher have twice the ammo and fire rate?
Basically, it feels like there's really good options in Medium class missiles for punching both above and below your weight class while everything in Large mounts is only suitable for barge-on-barge combat with the exception of Locust which.... sure, it erases fighter swarms, but by the time you have a ship that actually HAS a large missile mount you care more about taking down carriers than fighters. There is nothing stopping a cruiser with Large Ballistics from using its guns to one-tap an enemy bomber then completely brutalizing a frigate then turning to a slugging match with an enemy cruiser. Where, if you have Large Missiles, you only get to kind-of do one of those things and then back off and reload for a while...and then you're out of ammo.