Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Another feature you guys will get your hands on very shortly on the public test server are the new Rapid Heavy Missile launchers!

Please keep in mind that they are still in an early development state in some ways. They still have yet to receive their new icon, there's definitely still some bugs with the firing animation and the stats themselves haven't undergone as much review as some other balance features.

With that out of the way we can talk about the launchers themselves. The idea here is pretty basic in being basically a copy of the Rapid Light Missile launcher group but stepped up one class. Doing this hopefully accomplishes a few goals:

Expands the fitting options for battleship sized missile users (currently there's not as much flexibility as turret systems get)

Opens up new tactics for battleship sized missile users

Adds continuity with medium sized missile systems

The high-level design for these launchers is very straight forward because of its parallel to the rapid lights. They should:

Fire heavy missiles

Have a higher rate of fire than normal heavy launchers

Have lower overall dps than cruise or torpedo launchers

Be easier to fit than cruise or torpedo launchers

The sticky part is hitting the numbers just right so that they are better damage output against smaller targets than cruise or torpedo launchers but not so high that they become the right choice in almost all cases. Here's where the numbers are at now, but they are certainly up for negotiation.

Type ( CPU need / PG need / rate of fire)

Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I (50 / 960 / 9.3s)
Rapid Heavy Missile launcher II (59 / 1210 / 7.45s)
'Arbalest' Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I (46 / 1160 / 7.45s)
'Limos' Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I (49 / 1160 / 8.37s)
'Malkuth' Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I (43 / 1160 / 8.84s)
Caldari Navy Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (59 / 1060 / 6.51s)
Domination Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (43 / 1160 / 7.21s)
Dread Guristas Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (59 / 1060 / 6.51s)
Estamel's Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (72 / 1060 / 5.21s)
Gotan's Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (50 / 1160 / 6.33s)
Hakim's Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (48 / 1160 / 6.7s)
Kaikka's Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (62 / 1060 / 6.19s)
Mizuro's Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (45 / 1160 / 7.07s)
Republic Fleet Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (43 / 1160 / 7.21s)
Shaqil's Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (50 / 1060 / 5.96s)
Thon's Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (66 / 1060 / 5.86s)
Tobias' Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (52 / 1160 / 5.96s)
True Sansha Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (43 / 1160 / 7.21s)
Vepas' Modified Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (68 / 1060 / 5.54s)
YO-5000 Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (51 / 1160 / 7.91s)

As you can see, we are going to put in a full range of meta levels for Rapid Heavy Launchers and they will all be attained in the same way you would get the Cruise or Torpedo launcher counterpart at a given meta. They will drop at the same rates and obtained at the same LP. The manufacturing costs will be between the cost of torpedo and cruiser launchers which should lead to prices that are very similar.

If you have questions or feedback let us know and I'll do my best to answer.
Thanks <3

edit:

Forgot to mention something important - Battleships with Damage bonuses (like Raven and Typhoon rate of fire) will have those bonuses applied to the new launchers. Any bonuses to damage projection or application will NOT be applied (such as Raven missile velocity or Typhoon explosion velocity).

2nd

Time to buy ravens

I assume power grid is actually the middle stat?

Phoon and Raven

The issue is damage application, not paper dps.

Alright, so now you're telling us that Heavy Missiles apply damage too well ?

There is a reason no one uses them anymore except on the occasional Drake and 100MN Tengus.

Heavy missiles are garbage right now, cant imagine why one would want to use them on a battleship except in some very specific edge case.

It would be wise to first take a look at heavy missiles. They were nerfed some time ago before the up of other medium-sized long-range weapons.

Now that these have been buffed again, I believe you CCP should first rebalance heavy missiles (I don't know for you but I never got to use them since the nerf) THEN tweak the stats of these RHML.

Edit : Also, CCP, you should first state what you want players to use in specific situations.
e.g. : For a BS versus BC, do you plan to make the BS player use Cruise or RHML ? What is your exact conception of "Balanced" ? Because RHML could become quite popular actually. I don't use BS missiles for small roams since they are almost always useless against smaller sizes, and this could change the meta. Where you planning to make another niche module, or something more important ?

Edit 2 : Of course, finally having a tracking computer / enhancer / remote computer / disruptor equivalent for missiles would also be a good thing to consider before actually balancing the RHML.

Because we really need another missile launcher in 15 meta levels of obscurity...

Just post about one thing everybody is really curious about: new deployable structures. Gief us all da detailz! NAOW!