Reaver Balance... a solution?

[Lartnev]

Ok, so I was flying my reaver today (*groan* :p ) and with the ethics thread still in my mind I stumbled upon a possible solution to the "reaverspam" problem. Now up until this point the general idea for removing reaver rocketspam was to make the chaingun more effective against infantry so that pilots opt for that instead of using the rockets. Either by a single nose mounted chaingun or turning the 20mm chainguns into 12mm chainguns. This I feel would make the reaver unbalanced. Instead I would like to take it in a different direction which other people have mentioned bits and pieces of.

In the last community night it was commented (I think by Biohazard) that the Reaver is based loosely on the AH-64 Apache gunship. Now whilst the nose mounted chaingun could probably be extremely nasty to infantry, the Apache is mainly a tankbuster. I propose that the Reaver follow suite. In other words, the Reaver becomes dedicated to vehicles as opposed to being an all rounder.

The Reaver's rockets could receive the same treatment as the TR Pounder MAX, the rockets have less splash damage in exchange for greater punch against armour and since the Reaver already mounts dual 20mms it's already got half of the AV requirement. This would make it desirable by those in command for their ability to counter armour, as opposed to people using it solo.

Overall this means that the Mosquito becomes an anti-infantry and scouting platform, the Reaver becomes an anti-vehicle platform and the Liberator stays the all rounder due to its speed, agility and fact it requires two/three players to achieve its full potential (although the 35mm means the best pilots can still fly it solo). Since the Reaver is bundled with the Mosquito, Air Cavalry users still retain both AI and AV air capabilities, just not both at the same time.

Anyway, comments? suggestions? OH GNOES MY REAVER!!11? :D

[Melkinov]

Personally i like the idea. Turning the Reaver into a AV gunship whould certainly take away a lot of complaining about rocketspam. However, I think if you do that you need to change the Mossy as well. My idea is to buff the armor. This would allow for two things, it would give dogfights between Mossy's a new life, and it would allow for Mossy's to take out the new AV style reaver without getting blown to bits before the Reaver is down.

[Lartnev]

Well considering all that's changing is the rocket power (which won't be able to hit mossies anyway) I don't think there will be any change in the AA abilities of the Mossie or the Reaver.

Personally dogfights between mossies are pretty cool, dogfights between reavers tend to be boring :)

[Hezzy]

Reavers suck. :p

[Nalar]

The thing is, the reaver was already pretty much designed as an anti-vehicle weapon. I mean when you think about it, the reaver salvos already take almost an enitre clip to kill just 1 infantry who is soloing. Now if you ask me that is pretty ineffective BUT it still kills infantry. Just like the TR Pounder whose primary role is anti-vehicle, it still kills infantry so people use it to kill infantry.

I think that your suggestions would make the reaver less effective against infantry but as long as it can still kill them, I doubt very many people will be detered by this fact.

[Lartnev]

It's not so much a deterrant, it's to stop the reaver being able to attack all targets effectively.

The Pounder won't be all that effective against infantry after 2.9 since the splash damage has been reduced and the pounder only really works against infantry when it's spamming a corridor.

[Hezzy]

What about the chaingun on the reaver? Would that be removed?

[Dharkbayne]

Replace the 16 missile rocket pods with 4 super heavy missiles, that do a shitload of damage (To everything), fire 1 per second, and have a 2 second reload, this would cut down on spam because, well, they *couldn't* spam, but they'd still be effective against infantry and vehicles.

[Warborn]

I suggested something similar a long time ago. Making any vehicle designed to excel at virtually every possible battlefield situation like the current Reaver (and tank) does is just extremely poor design. The fact that Reavers are so good against everything is partly why they're easily the most commonly used vehicle in the game. If they make it anti-vehicle, it'll do much more than give infantry a much needed break, it'll also give tanks a more potent enemy and better accentuate the need for combined arms rather than just "lot's of tanks, lot's of Reavers, lot's of guys with HA" as it is now.

So, needless to say, I'm totally in favor of such a change and believe it's an important step for PS to take.

Replace the 16 missile rocket pods with 4 super heavy missiles, that do a shitload of damage (To everything), fire 1 per second, and have a 2 second reload, this would cut down on spam because, well, they *couldn't* spam, but they'd still be effective against infantry and vehicles.

You're totally missing the point. Nobody gives a shit about the spamming. This thread is about the fact that Reavers are a serious threat to literally everything in the game. What Lartnev is suggesting is that they be made a serious threat to vehicles, and not as big a threat to infantry.

[Lartnev]

Hezzy - Well removing the chainguns would make the Reaver extremely vulnerable to mosquitos. I was actually planning on keeping the 20mms the same, because they're difficult to hit infantry with, it can be done if you're close enough so perhaps they should take an AI hit, but tbh I think they're necessary to hit the faster moving targets anyway.

Dharkbayne - I think the Reaver should keep its rocket pods, means less of a design change for a start. I also think slow firing dumbfire missiles would cripple the Reaver.

Warborn - I totally agree :)

[Baneblade]

I posted this on the Pilot thread too:

I have always thought the Reaver should be a 2 seat gunship. Let the back seater control a Phoenix-like missile, while the pilot uses the fixed 20mm (Gatling, not dual barrel).

Only problem I would have with it atm is no kill sharing.