Hey guys

Another potential change for you to chew on. While the Large Missile Turret is already getting it's damage profile fixed, there's another change we're considering.

At the moment the Large Missile Turret has a very long reload time. While this means that you have to be careful with when you fire and when you choose to reload, encouraging a hit and run playstyle we feel that this limits the turret more than is healthy. So in trying to find a middle ground, we came up with the idea of making it a single reload weapon just like the shotgun (that is, it reloads one round at a time).

Current numbers we are sitting on are the following:

Reload start time (delay before rounds start loading once you start a reload): 4 seconds
Time to load round (delay between loading each round): 0.5 seconds

This will mean that reloading an empty magazine will take 10 seconds which lines up with with the current reload time. On the other hand, reloading a magazine with just a single round fired will only take 4.5 seconds.

One other thing to keep in mind is by making this change Large Missile Turrets will also be able to interrupt their reloading sequence and start firing any rounds that are already loaded, just like a shotgun.

We're aware that this alone will likely not make Large Missile Turrets on par with the other turrets, but it's a nice usability and combat buff that we can put out and see if it improves things to give us a better baseline to work with when we next take a look at it. I'll be looking specifically for feedback on just this change in this thread.

Please also note that this does not affect the Large Missile Installation, which will remain as a burst fire weapon.

Does it mean that also like the shotgun, could you interrupt reloading by firing again? If no, then scrap all the missile changes. All you do with vehicles is nerf nerf nerf.

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This will mean that reloading an empty magazine will take 10 seconds which lines up with with the current reload time. On the other hand, reloading a magazine with just a single round fired will only take 4.5 seconds.

One other thing to keep in mind is by making this change Large Missile Turrets will also be able to interrupt their reloading sequence and start firing any rounds that are already loaded, just like a shotgun.

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Yeah ... I'm not too sure about this change actually.

Functionality wise? Yes, it totally makes sense for Large Missile Turrets to function in this manner. But I don't believe you're going to be able to balance this buff to the Missile Turret without also lowering their obscene alpha damage to compensate. Right now, as other posters have said, the long reload time is the balancing factor that keeps them tame. They already exist in a situation where they can effectively melt any armor tank they find in a single volley assuming damage mods are added to the equation. I'm not confident in saying that this would be OP though because the profile change to Missiles indirectly effects their ability to melt armor tanks.

I'd only say be to cautious with this, Missile turrets may be underused but it would be a mistake to believe that that is due to performance related reasons. It's more likely that the large fitting requirements is the culprit on that front.

If you have missiles still left loaded, firing while in the reload delay will interrupt the reload and fire a missile.

This should definitely help the Large Missile Turret's Anti-Aircraft capabilities.