Reason for gunboat missile change?

[crimecities]

This is a change that just came to my attention. At some point gunboat missile turrets were changed to be shield damage only. What would the reason for this change possibly be?

The 4.84 missile boats were a nightmare that I am glad was nerfed. 4.85 gunboat missile turrets were only useless unless you understand a certain function of missiles - target a subsystem with Shift-N and a direct missile hit on that turret with the target's shield down does a LOT of damage to that turret even if it does nothing against the hull (basic gunboat turrets can get blown off with 2-3 Cannonball missile hits, at least during 4.85).

But now, gunboat missile are anti-shield only, removing their anti-turret potential. Why? I think most would agree that a pulse cannon is more reliable then a missile. And Nova Torpedoes and Fighter Missiles can also operate in such an anti-turret capacity, so why deny gunboats the same capability?

They were underpowered enough during 4.85, but at least had a specialized use. I could be missing something, but I don't see the reason for the hull damage nerf.

[Hone]

85 missiles were in no way underpowered, they could slaughter snubs. Did you never use them against snubs, and try using them against caps?

But I'm not sure why they only do shield damage now.

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[AeternusDoleo]

Subtargeting with gunboat missiles was pointless, even in 4.85 half their damage was shield based. For the exact reason I'll defer to the balance folk in dev central, but I suspect it has something to do with folks fielding 4 gunboats and just missile spamming the snot out of fighters - since there's no ammo to the missiles, fighters really have no defense against mass missile use by light caps. Switching them to EMP forces gunboats to actually start aiming at their targets (although missiles can still be used to surpress targets, especially bombers, by disrupting their power core).

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[ryoken]

Bla it is simple. Snubs whined, and GBs got nerfed.

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[CzeReptile]

What he wrote. It renders the missile useless.
Shouldve add ammo.

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[Mao]

Switching them to EMP forces gunboats to actually start aiming at their targets (although missiles can still be used to surpress targets, especially bombers, by disrupting their power core).

So what you're saying is that people who can't aim have nothing to do now if they find themselves in a combat situation, right? Oh, sorry, they can disrupt bomber power core and delay the SNAC and torps gank. I can assure you that even with 3-4 GB missiles, snubs were still giving a hard time to GBs. You (as in devs, not just AD) fixed something that wasn't broken.

A better way to solve the "no ammo" would have been to actually add ammo for every missile launcher. And of course, more ammo space for bigger ships.

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[celestina]

I didnt see anyone using the missiles since 4.86, so i think it shows how underpowered they are

[jakub963]

... since there's no ammo to the missiles, fighters really have no defense against mass missile use by light caps.

And what exactly was wrong? Gunboat role was exactly that, pinning down fighters. Also fireing a missile ment giving up half of your core every shot. Now its still half of the core but only for EMP blast which fighter/bomber can just laugh at, shieldrun for 5-10 seconds and them continue fighting.

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[Knjaz]

Subtargeting with gunboat missiles was pointless, even in 4.85 half their damage was shield based. For the exact reason I'll defer to the balance folk in dev central, but I suspect it has something to do with folks fielding 4 gunboats and just missile spamming the snot out of fighters - since there's no ammo to the missiles, fighters really have no defense against mass missile use by light caps. Switching them to EMP forces gunboats to actually start aiming at their targets (although missiles can still be used to surpress targets, especially bombers, by disrupting their power core).

Did those folks responsible for balance take into consideration that once gunboat is armed with a missile, it's anti-gunboat capabilities in 1x1 fights go down the hill, if it's a turretboat?

This, and gunboats were already pretty useless in large furballs, they were always first to go down.

[Echo 7-7]

I didnt see anyone using the missiles since 4.86, so i think it shows how underpowered they are

That's because they're all flying lighter Gunboats which are all prim-boat optimised and don't have the power core to handle the weapons that real men use. :cool:

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