Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Unfortunately, 35 sec still considered as long time, but I'm glad you are focusing on the problem you caused last expansion and working for solutions

light missile nerf when

I agree! :D


I know that now its done and we need to look forward, but what was the point of having to change them in a state that didn't satisfy anyone? Clearly after months in their current state, some of their main issues haven't been adressed, like ammo swapping or remaining reload time.

So these changes have been pushed regardless of the numerous issues that would cripple a system that would still be critisized even if the features around it were working. (Remaining reload time not displayed, etc...)

So why didn't you wait for having everything working to release these changes at once ? The only reason that I can find is that there was a serious imbalance problem, yet rapid lights haven't been touched for years. So the issue, if there was any, wasn't that urgent.


Now talking about their stats, I still believe that this burst thing is a bad idea. Voluntarily creating times of inactivity is not an improvement, its a regression.

What was wrong with the last interation anyway ? Why isn't it possible to get a whole missile rebalance all at once and be done with it?
Or just to turn rapid lights stats into the stats of light missile launchers, but mounted on cruisers? Eventually with a shortened range.

Edit : And yes, rapid lights could use a buff to flight speed and a nerf to flight time to be able to catch with some snake-fitted interceptors. Even by using a very expensive, flight speed rigged Cerberus, its nowhere near effective against a 7km/sec unheated crow.
The problem is not really the crow because to be able to reach such speeds it will have an anemic dps and tank anyway, and won't be able to point anything for more than a few seconds... But it goes so fast that it litterally cannot be killed by anything. Just like an annoying bug. Rapid lights could be the solution if they were, well, "rapid".

Nice to see you're still working hard on trying to find a most optimal solution for these launchers. Although the changes are small, they're still welcome.

I really like the sound of these rapid missile launchers. Going to have to try them out and see what they are like in practice as have not had a chance yet. Nice idea though, I like the concept of doing massive burst damage and then a long reload time.

I'm not sure you will enjoy the reload time if your target is still alive and you're sat watching yourself dying still.
The same with any time you wish to change ammo type before a fight, you will be waiting 35 seconds before being able to go and start the fight with the right damage type.

I do agree go and try them, but they sound much better on paper than they are enjoyable in real time use.

I'm sure EVE players are patient enough the problem is in EVE a fast kill is normally a better kill.
35 Seconds where you can't apply any DPS is time your opponent can.
* Repair any damage if active tanked.
* Nuet more of you cap if using neuts.
* Get more cycles on ECM mods/drones if they're being used, if one of these lands at the 34 seconds mark ... ouch!
* Call in reinforcements if the fights not going well.
* Have adaptive hardeners adjust to your damage type.
* Continue to damage your ships making a close fight not so close.

Adding all that to the fact missiles are not greatest of weapons systems in all cases any way and it's too much of a gamble for most people to want to use. There was a vast amounts of feedback and pointing out the flaws before the initial changes were made (the major one being we can't switch damage types more than once a minute) but the missiles were pushed out any way and to my knowledge been a flop.

Yeah, I even heard that some of them are making posts that only consist in insulting the community. Yes yes, it exists...


On a more serious note, I hope that the winter summit brings a new light on what the hell happened during the rapid missiles rebalances to be so bad where other iterations have been much better.

Would you mind sharing the data you're basing this claim on? While I certainly don't have access to all your metrics, the sales volumes for RLMLs in Jita strongly suggest that this is not the case - they've been trending downwards pretty steadily since Rubicon 1.0.

Regardless, I suspect that this change is basically sticking lipstick on a pig; the problem isn't so much their overall dps as that there's no way to make long weapon reloads fun. Pair that with the fact that the ammo switching problem is unresolved and I don't see this doing anything to change the current picture; there'll be a brief spike in sales and usage that will persist for a week or two as people investigate the changes and then things will return to their slow decline as players realise that the weapons are still very poor for general use and the core mechanic is extremely unenjoyable.

Yes, but your comparison ist wrong here!
The new RLML ARE the fast kill.
After the initial 20 missiles, your enemy should be dead, that ist the point!

If he is not, then you are doing it wrong.
All the things (the neuts, the reinforcements, the repairs) would have happened to your old-style Caracal as well, because that one would not have killed the target in the first 40 seconds either. And most likely not in the reload time of the new version either.
The only difference might have been that you seee all the time some of your missiles heading towards the enemy ship and get a warm fuzzy feeling while dying.
Choose another weapon system with lower burst and higher sustained DPS before you tackle heavier targets.

Oh, and reactive hardeners do not adapt anywhere if you do not continuously apply damage.