Player Features and Ideas Discussion

It's pretty clear CCP are intentionally relegating Rapids to secondary support weapons for use on ships that use something else as a primary ... in which case allowing defenders as ammo makes a lot of sense.

increase Rate of fire (+1 or 2 seconds) and decrease Reload time (10 - 15 seconds)

CCP Rise, I wonder if you recall the original pre-Rubicon discussions with the rapid heavy launchers with respect to missile velocity hull bonuses? At the time, many of us argued for inclusion of missile velocity, explosion radius and explosion velocity bonuses, as applicable. This is now more relevant than ever with the extended reload time and front-end loaded damage. If rapid heavy launchers are truly considered large weapons and the reload time is to be retained - then they should receive all hull bonuses as rapid light launchers do. Specifically:

• Rattlesnake; receives +50% max velocity for RHMLs as a role bonus
• Raven; receives +10% max velocity per level for RHMLs
• Raven Navy; receives +10% max velocity and +5% explosion radius for RHMLs
• Typhoon; receives 5% explosion velocity for RHMLs
• Golem; receives +10% max velocity and +5% explosion velocity for RHMLs as well as +25% missile velocity from Bastion

Right now the Rattlesnake, Raven Navy and Golem do not receive a single RHML-eligible hull bonus, and this seems like a glaring oversight. Rapid launchers are all but disappearing from the landscape, and I think the front-end loaded damage would be more palatable if these could be addressed. In terms of overall DPS, rapid heavy launchers rank last behind torpedoes and cruise missiles for damage application - so this shouldn't present any balance issues.

I would also appreciate if you could please comment on the exclusion (or future inclusion?) of rapid launchers with Defender missiles, which seems more applicable than ever. Thanks.

People actually use the RHML? :P

The problem is that there's no alternative for RLMLs. It's not like HMs or HAMs are any better. The damage application is horrible. How about you address the elephant in the room and have at least 1 decent cruiser sized launcher, instead of 3 different ones that all have issues? We just need a 'good' cruiser sized launcher.

hmm I have an idea
Introduce a new ammo type "Rapid Light Missiles"
when you use this new type with RLML it makes it the way it is now (the burst style)
and when you use the Light Missile ammo with RLML it goes back to the way it was (with some tweaking if needed)

Those changes are total crap, you should delete those 2 launchers from the database simply since arties are better in every way.

On the raven they are ok, but on the typhoon they are inferior to cruise because one of typhoon bonuses do not apply to RHML.

The Raven has only 1 bonus applicable to RHML. ROF, 1 very good reason RHML will never be more than a gimic.

This was when the original rapid heavy missile launchers were presented and they featured both a larger ammunition capacity and 10-second reload time.


You're certainly entitled to your opinion. Try running any L4 mission with RHMLs vs. cruise launchers and let me know how you fare time-wise.

They are, and that was kind of my point - that rapid launchers only fill a narrow PvP niche. The 35-second reload is a tactical nightmare in actual combat, however.