Foundation Seldon
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
671
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Posted - 2014.05.17 08:01:00 -
[1] - Quote
Okay so I'm gonna be bringing in my experience as both LAV Driver/Gunner and someone who frequents an Assault Dropship, the focus will primarily be on Small Turret side as a result. In another post I'll try to respond to some things brought up in the thread.
Small Turrets as a whole :
All small turrets need to be effective against enemy vehicles in some fashion. This includes the Small Blaster turret as there's no way to really balance the dual infantry and vehicle killing prowess of the Small Railgun and Small Missile turrets (short of giving wildly different efficiency ratings for vehicle v. infantry) without also allowing the Small Blaster to deal a decent amount of damage against vehicles as well.
Small Railgun Turret
I want to highlight from the outset that these turrets are glitched. Currently they have a very annoying issue in which they can sometimes fail to hit their target or the turret itself becomes "desynched" compared to the actions of the gunner. I've had instances where I've fired multiple shots into a person only to do no damage and then, as my driver runs out, the heat indicator rises and the ammo count lowers as if I'm still shooting. This can cause random overheats and cases in which my driver will report my shooting randomly with no targets around. The same issue occurs when I'm driving and I notice erratic actions of my gunner despite him reporting to me that he's not shooting anything.
Glitches aside though,on the ground this turret is EXTREMELY effective on the anti-infantry front. It's a rapid fire, high damage tactical sniper that destroys pretty much anyone that thinks to go up against it. If you plan to tweak its damage against vehicles (I think it's something around 70-80% efficiency currently) then do so with the knowledge that you're making the thing very effective against both infantry and vehicles equally (like the Small Missile turret so not a huge deal). In either case I would not touch its base damage amounts, just its efficiency. DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT THESE TURRETS ARENT INFANTRY KILLING MONSTROSITIES ON THE GROUND. These are THE turrets to fit on any LAV or Tank.
Its infantry killing prowess is only really seen on ground vehicles though as Dropships (especially of the assault variation) can't very effectively use these turrets due to the pin point accuracy required. It sort of devalues the Incubus as a Dropship one should spec into because its only really effective against other vehicles. In the long term I'd consider releasing a Small Railgun (or Blaster as the problem is there as well) turret variation with smaller direct damage but a large splash radius in order to be more effectively used in the air and against infantry.
Small Blaster Turret :
Has little to no point on the battlefield. A turret completely outclassed both in the air and on the ground by the Small Missile and Small Railgun turrets respectively. Even if one specced into the Ion Cannon + Prof. level required to be able to be effectively used at its effective range one would still almost always be better off using a Railgun instead because they do MORE damage at LONGER ranges. It's almost the exact mirror of the situation of the original Rail Rifle's/Current Combat Rifle release compared to the Assault Rifle. It's a situation I've brought up multiple times among my LAV crew, a Small Blaster Turret LAV driver has to get much closer and expose their gunner to more inherent danger in order to do LESS damage than the Small Railgun turret would have done from afar.
So from the outset - Buff its damage. It's the one turret that sincerely needs it.
Beyond that though you still have a problem with the turret itself being only truly useful against one type of enemy on the battlefield. It's too specialized next to the Railgun and Missile turrets that can easily take on both Vehicle and Infantry equally. The Small Blaster turret can't be coordinated with other players to take out a tank, it can't be used to drive off a Dropship and so long as shield regen can't be turned off based on damage dealt over time the damage that a Small Blaster can put out will never be enough to take out any vehicle that has an existing, unbroken (as in the regen hasn't been stopped) shield buffer.
So in the short term what would also need to be done is for its efficiency against vehicles to be increased as well, perhaps even to the point where its doing 100% against both infantry and vehicle like the Small Missile and the proposed change to the Small Railgun, but in the long term we need to look at potentially messing with vehicle shield regen not being able to be stopped based on damage dealt over time and with multiple projectiles vs. a single powerful hit.
Small Missile Turret
Not super effective on the ground due to their increased difficulty of making use of splash damage on a horizontal plain / difficulty in getting direct hits against opponents but pretty much the end all be all turret for anything related to Dropship turret selection. If the above buffs are considered I would only advocate for a Small Missile variation with a high projectile speed and perhaps reduced splash as something that would make it more viably used on Ground vehicles against infantry.
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