Lock on rockets really have no place in this game

[Roy Awesome]

I'm not usually one for bitching threads (Because PS2 is really fun and I quite enjoy it, and because bitching rarely comes off as constructive), but the entire idea behind lock-ons has been a major problem for me ever since A2A rockets and lock-ons became prevalent in beta.

Every other weapon in the game requires effort and skill to use. Dumb-fire rockets require leading targets. Tank shells have travel time (lolprowler). Bullets have travel time.

You're ability to be effective with these guns is completely dependent on the skill of the user. Also, if the recipient of the rocket/bullet is good, he/she can dodge the projectile. The sender has to have skill to fire, and the receiver gets to exercise their skill to dodge.

For example, consider the following video posted to reddit today:


This guy oneshots and twoshots aircraft with his tank. He is fucking good at leading these shots and hitting air targets, and is rewarded with a ton of kills. Skill vs Reward is a nice curve where Reward falls off as skill goes up, but you still get good reward for high skill.

Now lets look at lock-on rockets, in particular the annihilator, although the a2a rockets are the same and pilots have been bitching forever about them. The general process to these weapons is point your screen in the general direction of the target; wait 3 seconds; left click when the box turns green. That's all you have to do. The receiver now has to either fire a flare/IR smoke (press a button), execute a perfect maneuver to dodge it (Very high skill), or be lucky to have terrain that will block it (pre-planning).

Just take a moment to compare these situations and the requirement for success here. It takes no skill to fire one of these guns, and takes a ton of skill, a hard counter, or pre-planning to dodge them. It's too skewed in the direction of the attacker, to where every other gun in the game isn't. To modify a quote from Shoot em up, 'Auraxis is the land of opportunity, where a pussy can become a tough guy with a lock-on rocket in his hand'

'Now, why don't we just nerf them so they are weaker than all the other rockets?' You ask. In any other game I'm right there with you, but for planetside 2 it's not possible to nerf it enough. Consider a standard 24v24 BF3 match, where at most 2-3 people will have these rockets. You have the dude in the tungeska, the A2A jet, and the one or two guys that use the stinger. Unlike PS2, this limited number of rockets per map allows you to balance not just the quality of the rockets, but also the quantity. With PS2, there is nothing to stop you from pulling 40 Annihilators.

So, you get two options. You can make the Annihilator an individual weapon, where one person can actually be effective with it (current state), or you can nerf it into the position where it is only good in groups (Previous state). If it's relegated to a group-only weapon then people will not buy it unless their outfit requires it on ops. If it's good in the hands of one user, then outfits will require it and just mass spam it.

How can we fix it? Frankly, Throw out the lock-on fire and forget idea. It's never going to be balanced. With that out of the way, How do we make these unique and useful? One option is a TV-Guided rocket. This requires some skill to pilot and fire, and there is a level of diminishing returns with numbers (have the rockets collide with eachother in air. Diminishing returns on numbers!). Think more BF2 click to direct, NOT the Phoenix rocket from PS1. BF2's system of high speed, click to give the rocket a bit more direction in where it is going forces the shooter to be actually good at the game. The Phoenix had a huge number of issues and external factors (like mouse sensitivity) factored into it way too much.

Another option is to force the user to remain locked on to the target or the rocket loses it's lock. You have to keep your gun pointed in the direction of the target, and this introduces the same type of skill that most other guns in the game have. EDIT: Sirisian brought up the idea of a HL2-laser guided rocket. Same vein of guided rocket.

A final option is to introduce High-Velocity dumbfire Anti-Air rockets. Put their velocity somewhere between a bullet and a tank shell, and make them do high damage to aircraft. They would require skill to fire and feel rewarding when you do damage.

So, there. Long winded post on why I think lock-on fire and forget rockets are dumb.