((The below applies only to Campaign Play. I will leave PvP concerns to people who are experienced there, as I am not))
For campaign purposes, missiles are stellar over performers. An LRM 20 has an effective (heat neutral) weight of 18 Tons (10 for the Launcher, 12 rounds of ammo, and 6 Heat Sinks).
It deals 80 Damage, and 40 Instability.
The nearest comparable long range system, the PPC, has an effective heat neutral weight of 20 (7 for the PPC, 13 Heat Sinks).
It deals 50 damage and 20 Instability.
The big 'con' of the LRM is its inability to concentrate damage, but this inability is mitigated by called shots, either via precision shot or against a prone target (I will note that as shown above, LRMs are very, very good at generating prone targets).
In other instances, the spread damage is a bonus (trying to finish off a badly damaged mech location), so you have a weapon that can either sand-blast OR focus fire in one. Also with the ability to provide indirect fire.
So, for the audience:
1.) Would you still use LRMs if they could not call shots or focus fire? That is to say whatever you click on for called shots, the LRMs would still behave as it would against any other target attacked from that angle? IS there a way to mod for this? (I did not see it, but I miss a lot of things)
2.) Would you still use LRMs if they had their damage normalized to play nicely with existing weapons? 20 Missiles at 3 per missile would work, as would changing the '20' launcher to fire 16 4 damage missiles (I prefer the second solution, as damage appears to be integers only, rounding down, and a 3 damage missile is reduced to 1 against a braced target. This is too low.) Also with stability damage dropped to 1 per missile, and with the +damage mods retuned to give no more than +1 damage per missile (a 25% bonus).
For the record, I'm running #2 currently in a weapons balance mod, and I still find myself mounting and liking LRMs, but I dont want to get lost in my own head and want input from other players.
For campaign purposes, missiles are stellar over performers. An LRM 20 has an effective (heat neutral) weight of 18 Tons (10 for the Launcher, 12 rounds of ammo, and 6 Heat Sinks).
It deals 80 Damage, and 40 Instability.
The nearest comparable long range system, the PPC, has an effective heat neutral weight of 20 (7 for the PPC, 13 Heat Sinks).
It deals 50 damage and 20 Instability.
The big 'con' of the LRM is its inability to concentrate damage, but this inability is mitigated by called shots, either via precision shot or against a prone target (I will note that as shown above, LRMs are very, very good at generating prone targets).
In other instances, the spread damage is a bonus (trying to finish off a badly damaged mech location), so you have a weapon that can either sand-blast OR focus fire in one. Also with the ability to provide indirect fire.
So, for the audience:
1.) Would you still use LRMs if they could not call shots or focus fire? That is to say whatever you click on for called shots, the LRMs would still behave as it would against any other target attacked from that angle? IS there a way to mod for this? (I did not see it, but I miss a lot of things)
2.) Would you still use LRMs if they had their damage normalized to play nicely with existing weapons? 20 Missiles at 3 per missile would work, as would changing the '20' launcher to fire 16 4 damage missiles (I prefer the second solution, as damage appears to be integers only, rounding down, and a 3 damage missile is reduced to 1 against a braced target. This is too low.) Also with stability damage dropped to 1 per missile, and with the +damage mods retuned to give no more than +1 damage per missile (a 25% bonus).
For the record, I'm running #2 currently in a weapons balance mod, and I still find myself mounting and liking LRMs, but I dont want to get lost in my own head and want input from other players.
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