Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So...many people hate the reload times on missiles, it seems most think that they are generally useless beyond hit and run tactics.

My idea would be for a Rapid Load Missile Rig. This rig would basically consist of an additional magazine of missiles which can be loaded with the same or different missiles and allows for a more rapid reload by switching the missile magazine presented to the launcher in ~5-10 seconds (or whatever testing deems appropriate). In practical terms this would be equivalent to taking the cylinder from a revolver containing standard rounds and swapping it for a cylinder containing dum-dums for instance. Faster than reloading the current cylinder but still takes time.

The trade off would be that you've used your rig slots for faster reloads and flexibility instead of armour/shield/whatever boosts instead.

nice idea +1

Whoa, can't we just rebalance RLMLs and make them useful without adding a special rig just for them?

They did get nerfed for a reason, and that reason was that firing smaller missiles ended up getting both better damage and better damage application to anything cruiser sized and below. However, now you're going to be hard pressed to use them for anything aside from maybe a support weapon. They were too good, but now they are too bad to use, and I don't think a rig (which would be basically mandatory if you wanted to use them) is a good way to solve the problem.
EDIT: I think they also got nerfed in fitting too

Better to just balance missiles as a whole and then unfuck rapid launchers than to introduce a custom and mandatory rig.

Or.... they could simply fix the module by conventional means.

Let me think about it.

Yeah, I think fixing the module is better than introducing a Band-Aid.

Thanks for playing.

Even if they put the reload times back to the pre-nerf values my idea for the rig still has purpose in that it allows for more rapid reload/change between ammo type at the expense of other areas. This would allow you to reload the rig magazine whilst using the current magazine, then swap out magazines in whatever duration was appropriate based on testing.

Alas poor RLML's, I knew them well...pass me a banana...

My thinking was that this would provide sorter reload times and flexibility in loadout so probably an increase in dps but at the expense of whatever you would normally use the rig slots for. Using rig slots would also limit the impact it could have on larger missile boats as you could only ever have up to 3 spare magazines at any time.

I also liked the idea of the pilot gaining a benefit from making effort to manually manage the missile loadouts.

I would agree for the most part, although you will be giving up substantial defensive capability with a lot less tank. In addition, getting the attention of certain developers to address issues with rapid launchers through said rigs is not going to be an easy undertaking… But for the sake of argument, let's say the impossible happens. Let's look at what the actual improvement would be using a Tengu (which is definitively the worst platform for rapid launchers). We'll use -5 seconds for a T1 rig and -7.5 seconds for a T2 rig, with a calibration of 100/150 respectively (this means a maximum reduction of 20 seconds, so a 15-second reload).

Tengu configuration: 6x RLML II, Scourge Fury light missiles, 4x ballistic controls, V skills; no implants
Before: 780.4 DPS (49.75s fire time / 84.75s volley time = 58.72%), 458.2 DPS actual
After: 780.4 DPS (49.75s fire time / 64.75s volley time = 76.83%), 599.6 DPS actual

Is it worth potentially giving up around 20k EHP for 140 DPS? Hard to say… I'd still rather see rapid launchers dropped to a reload/swap of 20 seconds, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope...