Lock on for Annhilator ruined with latest hotfix

[CraazyCanuck]

Lock on time now 5sec+ which has made the weapon useless and this is over 3 hours of playing with HA and it was consitently longer lock on times. Also seen an esf using landing to break lock as I could not lock him for over 20secs when I had clear line of sight and within 50m as he played touch and go with the ground. Not sure if its a known bug or a new one.

Anyone else seen anychanges with other lock-on air launchers or finding similar experience with annhilator?

[MrZero]

The latest hotfix dosent say anything about the lock-on time being increased. Its most likely a bug

[duomaxwl]

When I shoot the darn thing after lock on, it sometimes doesn't even go to the target at all. It seems like the pathfinding is bugged.

[Blynd]

They need to increase the lock on time anyway as its an op weapon. It should be dumbfire or only av or only aa not will lock on anything but as it isn't they should make it a 6-7 second lockon that way the specific aa or av lockons may be more highly used

[TheSaltySeagull]

They need to increase the lock on time anyway as its an op weapon. It should be dumbfire or only av or only aa not will lock on anything but as it isn't they should make it a 6-7 second lockon that way the specific aa or av lockons may be more highly used

A base 6-7 sec lock on time before factoring stealth, IR smoke, or flares would effectively make the weapon useless. You would be looking at like 20 sec periods before you could actually damage a target.

[Frostedawg]

lol i play HA and i fly mossy and i have to say i have never had a problem with the annihilator... the short lock on time makes up for the lack of dumb-fire and the lower damage. skep and grounder do more damage but are single role and dumb-fire does the most. so what i get from this is you want the lower damage AA to suck more so people will use the better AA... good strategy @Blynd

[Pella]

When you deploy flares its gives a +Lock on time which depends on what rank of flares you have.

[CraazyCanuck]

No I understand the delay with flares Pella. This is on ESF that have no countermeasures. Throw in countermeasures and you might as well forget your target and the fact you explosed your self to risk for nothing.

The Annhilator's dmg compensates for its utility. I use it as a deterrent to shoo air away with the occasional kill when the pilot is careless or already dmg and to annoy armor. But now with the increase lock time its extremely hard to get a lock on with terrain and range plus countermeasures unless your at Crown with its high elevation and open plains on the north side give you the visibility on the target to compensate.

I hoping its just a bug, as its now a waste of resources in its current state.

[Pella]

No I understand the delay with flares Pella. This is on ESF that have no countermeasures. Throw in countermeasures and you might as well forget your target and the fact you explosed your self to risk for nothing.

The Annhilator's dmg compensates for its utility. I use it as a deterrent to shoo air away with the occasional kill when the pilot is careless or already dmg and to annoy armor. But now with the increase lock time its extremely hard to get a lock on with terrain and range plus countermeasures unless your at Crown with its high elevation and open plains on the north side give you the visibility on the target to compensate.

I hoping its just a bug, as its now a waste of resources in its current state.

You may want to test it with a friend. As it seems to be working fine for me.

Also Stealth mod give +Lock on time.

[Thunderhawk]

I like your Sig Pella......do me !!! do me !!!

[Pella]

I like your Sig Pella......do me !!! do me !!!


Mate, If i was the other way i would perhaps do you :P

Just PM me an idea of what you want il sort it.

[CraazyCanuck]

You may want to test it with a friend. As it seems to be working fine for me.

Also Stealth mod give +Lock on time.

Yeah I use them as well on my vechs. Your right I'll have to test again if your having no issues. Was ongoing last night, perhaps it was my side with borky ISP. Hoping that's the case.

[Canaris]

When I shoot the darn thing after lock on, it sometimes doesn't even go to the target at all. It seems like the pathfinding is bugged.

I can confirm this, both myself and my friend who plays next to me noticed that sometimes it will launch up and then shoot straight down to the ground instead of tracking its target.
I love the new pathfinding missile guidance btw, when it works ;)

[Kalbuth]

I like your Sig Pella......do me !!! do me !!!

Is it me, or this EXACT SAME POST was written like 8 years ago? :)

[CraazyCanuck]

I can confirm this, both myself and my friend who plays next to me noticed that sometimes it will launch up and then shoot straight down to the ground instead of tracking its target.
I love the new pathfinding missile guidance btw, when it works ;)

Yes the pathing could be improved some. Missles can go a little squirrely sometimes.

[Pella]

Is it me, or this EXACT SAME POST was written like 8 years ago? :)

Lol i remeber doing tons of sigs back in the day.

Jeffbeefjaw still uses his.

Hold onto them they might be worth something in the future :P

[Gimpylung]

I pray its not a bug and a stealth nerf. I know the render and lock on warning issues have exaggerated the annihilators annoyingness, but lock on weapons are still annoying and cheap.

Btw, if I admire Pella's sig, does that mean he won't make smithereens out of my mag next time he sees me :p

[Blynd]

lol i play HA and i fly mossy and i have to say i have never had a problem with the annihilator... the short lock on time makes up for the lack of dumb-fire and the lower damage. skep and grounder do more damage but are single role and dumb-fire does the most. so what i get from this is you want the lower damage AA to suck more so people will use the better AA... good strategy @Blynd

Kind of. What if like to see is the annihilator to be needed either damage or range its use should be for people who don't set load outs based on situation its a lazy AA/AV launcher. And because its lazy it needs to be less effective then it is now. The dumbfire has good damage and takes some skill to drop a mossie tanks not so much but that should be your go to weapon when its a mixture of tanks and aircraft we all have 3 slots for loadouts and as such my HA has a hades and a nemesis and a dumbfire and I use the loadouts as required but just having the annihilator removes the need to have either of the others so I say either make it a longer lock timer or nerf damage to balance its lazy playstyle

[Loban]

I must be the only one who uses the empire specific lock-on rocket launchers that only lock onto either land or air, but not both. I play NC, so I switch between the Hawk and the Crow depending on the situation. Sure, I can't lock onto both types of vehicles anytime I want, but it's easy enough to change my loadout if I need to (using pre-defined loadouts), and I can still dumbfire. I won't trade the extra damage the Hawk and Crow give me over the Annihilator just for the convenience of being able to lock onto everything.

I have 3 pre-defined loadouts I use. They are called "Air", "Ground", and "Decimator". Decimator is when I don't need lockon and want a dumbfire rocket that does high damage. I use this when in close quarter battles with tanks (like inside an amp station) and don't need lock on. I LOVE using the decimator against Lightnings, they don't last long.

[Black Creeper]

Since the patch I've had some strange behavior locking on. I was trying to lock on to a prowler on top of a hill. He was about 1/3 hidden by the ground and I couldn't get the square to pop up and start trying to lock. I think this used to happen more easily.

This morning I was trying to lock on a smoking sunderer. Not defense smoke but smoke from damage. While ADS, I just walked closer and closer until the squre popped up and started the lock process. I don't remember having this experience before.

[Rothnang]

Anything that makes the Annihilator useless is good in my book. That weapon dumbed down PS2 by a huge amount. It's like the Deus Ex Invisible Wars of PS2. :D

[wasdie]

Useless? Last night you couldn't be in a vehicle very long without getting locked on. The increased render distance has made the thing extremely over powered.

The gun has no cons, it's a 100% upgrade over the other HA launchers. Sure it's a bit less powerful, but its ability to have extremely effective engagement rates with both land and air and the fact that it is paired with the heavy assault which has a big shield and runs as fast as the other classes, is just 100% broken on all levels.

There is no way to easily fix this. There is no built-in mechanics like in PS1 that would make the thing more situational. In PS1 it would have taken more ammo slots and certs just to use it. This would force the person who pulled it to only have anti vehicle capabilities with little to no AI capabilities thus it's a tradeoff.

Here you pack the best AV with the best AI and you've just made a broken class.

[Hamma]

So was this thing actually nerfed?

[Blynd]

So was this thing actually nerfed?

not that im aware of i think it was bugged for the op :(

[Bear]

So was this thing actually nerfed?

It appears that the initial lock on time is longer but that it drops after the first rocket is fired.

I think they need to do two things:
1. Decrease the lock range of the Annihilator.
2. Add gravity and drop to the ESF rocket pods. Make pilots actually work for their kills rather that hovering six hundred meters away spamming rockets into towers and spawns. A2G attacks in an ESF need to be a risk/reward scenario.

MOAR strafing, less hovering!

[Twido]

I think the issue making us think the annihilator is bugged comes from the way that it now tries to fly to the location that the target is going to be at. If an aircraft can dive sharply after the rocket is launched then the missile will try to intercept the aircraft somewhere under the surface of the planet.

I don't know if this is a bug or a feature. As a sometimes pilot and sometimes annihilator user, on balance, I prefer the old guidence system. The current predictive guidence system can sometimes curl around terrain if you fly behind it and then slow down due to the missile initially thinking you are continuing on, this is annoying as a pilot. On the other hand, the missile can dive into the ground for the reasons given above.

On various forums I have seen much complaining about annihilators but not many people trying to come up with solutions in game to deal with them. I would like to see more people make use of sniper teams to counter the annihilator teams and then see where the game evolves naturally.

[CraazyCanuck]

Unfortunately haven't had time to get in since the initial post to really test it. Hoping tonight. Do the other lock ons lead their target as well or is it just the Annhilator? I'd much rather a faster rocket that chases as opposed to the current rocket's speed and leading the target.

Just wish the SG was an effective AA unit. Even with the last tweaks its still severly lacking.

[PredatorFour]

It appears that the initial lock on time is longer but that it drops after the first rocket is fired.

I think they need to do two things:
1. Decrease the lock range of the Annihilator.
2. Add gravity and drop to the ESF rocket pods. Make pilots actually work for their kills rather that hovering six hundred meters away spamming rockets into towers and spawns. A2G attacks in an ESF need to be a risk/reward scenario.

MOAR strafing, less hovering!

If they did that then they have to add more gravity to dumbfire infantry rockets. They should do that now infact.

[Bear]

If they did that then they have to add more gravity to dumbfire infantry rockets. They should do that now infact.

I'd be fine with that. It would add an element of skill into the game and might just eliminate the overwhelming amount of rocket spam that's in the game now.

I can't imagine how bad it's going to be when they release the empire specific launchers.

[Blynd]

I'd be fine with that. It would add an element of skill into the game and might just eliminate the overwhelming amount of rocket spam that's in the game now.

I can't imagine how bad it's going to be when they release the empire specific launchers.

Like there aren't enough launchers in game atm thy need to get rid of some in some way maybe make the av and aa launchers stay as they are nerd the annihilator and put the faction ones where the annihilator is in terms of damage.

[Mietz]

Next: LAs can dual wield rocket launchers with the downside that their jetpack has .3% less energy.