Player Features and Ideas Discussion

There are quite a few weapons that fulfill a tactical niche. Dual 150mm railguns for example and blasters (to a lesser degree) to name two.

I think it's ok that RLMLs have a nice purpose. The general case is already covered by HMLs and HAMs.

No?

You're taking on a frig gang with how many cruisers? A frig gang will take down a solo battleship. so what? Fight fire with fire, not paper.

Addendum: Need a "[Rubicon 1.3]" amended to this... Also, please sticky - because this thread isn't going away anytime soon.

Relax - this isn't the way to go about change...

*cough* what? So you're saying in a 6-minute tournament match where players start out 60-70km from each other that RLMLs have finally found their niche?

I haven't bothered with the rapids at all till yeasterday... and quickly found out they are superior... in sucking a lot.
20 missiles instead of 53 and a huge load time, thats 2 minutes of dps and then the next morning you can fire again 20 missiles.

Just give us rapids with normal reload times, then the 20 missile limit would be justifyable.

How about moving the swarm launcher design to rockets/HAMs and keep the rapid launcher design as is and just balance it as originally intended? You could then have both designs in the game without intruding into the old use of RLMLs and the Caracal. Also high damage output weapons having short range is fitting with the general EVE design.

Having some serious issues with the burst dmg of the missile launchers.. quite hard to rat as a new player :( and its booooooooooooringgg

fire fire fire
reload..............................................
wait some more
go read some stuff
make dinner....
wait some more
take a shower
fire fire fire
reload etc...

I see we're still waiting for a fix for the RLML/RHML reload time, and the ammo swap mechanic. Have there been any updates on when we can expect that? We're already discussing [Rubicon 1.3] summer changes, but I haven't seen anything solid on the ammo swap.

Against my better judgement, I've taken out a few Bellicose fits with RLML, since there isn't really anything else I can use at Cruiser level for kiting until Heavy Missiles are fixed. We had a bunch of T1 frigates swarm our station, and I managed to kill 2 of them before my reload cycle occurred. The Stabber that was with us on station managed to get 6 of them (solo on many of them), in the time it took me to warp off and back while reloading. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased. To be fair, I could have stayed aligned and tried to use drones/target painter to whore on killmails, but it was quite the blob, and I didn't want to give the ones chasing me any opportunity while I couldn't defend myself.

Since this is still being discussed, let me say yet again that changing the RML concept has rendered them nearly useless for my purposes in PvE. In this arena, turret ships can frequently use piloting to reduce a target's transversal, thus gaining effectiveness against smaller targets. No amount of piloting will improve a missile ship's damage application; thus, launchers designed to fire down-sized ammunition can potentially be of great use.

The current iterations of RMLs negate the very benefits they bestow.
- Should the target survive the first firing cycle, the extended reload time gives the target more total time to repair, making any initial advantage gained from a higher rate of fire a wash at best.
- Should a target be destroyed, higher rates of fire drastically increase the chances of having volleys lost due to travel time en route to a no-longer-existent target. One or two volleys lost out of fifty, with a ten second reload, are rather insignificant. On the other hand, two or three volleys lost out of twenty, with a thirty-five second reload, are quite significant. The "2+0=1+1" argument is invalid.
(I won't bother addressing ammo swapping, since it is not much of an issue for PvE, and in any case is already recognized as needing attention.)

When ASBs were introduced, standard Shield Boosters were not replaced. When AARs came on to the scene, regular Armor Repairers were not removed. If introducing a burst-mechanic weapon system is the next step, why must the original system be destroyed?

I am not compelled by the notion of being able to choose when to not be shooting at my targets. "Should I sit here and wait for them to come kill me, or should I throw a few missiles at them and then watch them kill me while I'm trying to reload?" This is not exactly a situation I desire to explore.

For my purposes, refitting cruiser-class ships with standard, small LMLs provides superior damage output over RLMLs or HMLs. CMLs, in most cases, still provide superior damage application over RHMLs. But in all honestly, the whole situation has only motivated me to explore entirely different solutions. So yes, CCP Rise, you have indeed provided new, strategic gameplay: my missile ships have been mothballed in favor of drone ships. Thanks for the interesting choices.