Buffing Seekers

[Abomination]

The usual 1v1 between a fig and an int will be very similar to a 1v1 between an int and an int. These are actually the situations where your seeker will hit.

Why do these situations even come up?

Because to outmaneuver a good fig requires excessive usage of fuel (example: save half a tank of fuel and take a seeker hit or 2, rather than do some positioning trickery) or, to use less fuel, in a more hands-on approach which usually leads to possibly eating minepacks.

And get this, seeker usage revolves around gearing yourself for dogfighting, which is required far less often than killing important targets. For example: miner d, con d. (These are usually required a lot less on any real team because a comm can "hide" his miners/cons or wait to make them mine/move at the right opportunity... while a comm cannot simply "make" the enemy miners disappear. Alleg tends to be mostly all about offense... and then you defend once every enemy miner is dead, etc.)

Get this, since the enemy int is usually in your territory or in neutral space when you're on miner/con d, that means he needed to boost to get to you, most of the time. That means it's stupid to waste fuel on "getting into position to pwn" a fig. That means it's a traditional 1v1 fight, admittedly at a shorter range.

So in other words, seekers are pretty good at what they do. Not great, but they get the job done. If an enemy gets into a good position on you by boosting, AFTER he's just boosted a sector and a half to get to you... and you're guarding a miner... well, don't feel bad if your seekers don't hit. Most of the time the idiot won't have enough fuel left over to boost on over to the miner/con, to catch a miner/con's nan, to ram a rock and get picked up by a friend, or to make sure he gets close enough to a miner so that when he dies he can PK himself on it. Feel bad for these players... because they'll likely be sitting in a fuel-less int or a useless pod far longer than you.

[CronoDroid]

I voted lock time. It does feel really quite slow, but why all the Sup perks? Could Exp have a perk for a change?!

The main reason I say this is that I don't really like the idea of people driving figs suddenly thinking they should go around dogfighting ints.

[WhiskeyGhost]

That situation seems biased towards the fighter Abom, no offense, but that looks like it's assuming a very good fighter pilot vs some random voob int. A decent int pilot knows he can get 525m from the fig in the front before it can even see him, which means you can close distance if you remain uneyed, and if its a 1v1 fight, theres no scout to spot for the fighter.

If there's an enemy base, the fight would have to be within 2100m or so of the base.....so....just pointing that out. Seekers are a fighter vs fighter missile if nothing else, designed to engage other fighters at ranges outside of the gat fight range, where quickfire won't work well (low shield dmg mod) and dumbfires can miss. Seekers work fine even in furballs if your not expecting them to be hunters and do all kinds of crazy tracking magic. At least thats my take on it.

[Raveen]

QUOTE (Dorjan @ Oct 16 2008, 01:09 AM) With locking, isn't it true that the difference between a full lock and not is the chance a CM will spoof it?

I don't know about CMs but I think a Seeker with no lock will have a track of 0 (like a dumb, it'll head to where the target is), if you let it lock it'll have a track of 1 (it'll head to where the target will be) with a range of intermediate locks inbetween.

[Dorjan]

So it's not all bad shooting before a full lock.

[Abomination]

QUOTE (WhiskeyGhost @ Oct 15 2008, 11:56 PM) That situation seems biased towards the fighter Abom, no offense, but that looks like it's assuming a very good fighter pilot vs some random voob int. A decent int pilot knows he can get 525m from the fig in the front before it can even see him, which means you can close distance if you remain uneyed, and if its a 1v1 fight, theres no scout to spot for the fighter.

There's a con or a miner or a base. The only situations in which case a fig would load out for dogfighting.

[Adept]

QUOTE (Raveen @ Oct 16 2008, 12:02 PM) I don't know about CMs but I think a Seeker with no lock will have a track of 0 (like a dumb, it'll head to where the target is), if you let it lock it'll have a track of 1 (it'll head to where the target will be) with a range of intermediate locks inbetween.

Seeker 1 has .75 track. Seeker 2 has 1.0 (othervice, no change in stats, I'm pretty sure).

In cadet we were told that firing without lock has half the track value of full lock, so seeker 2 would still track at .50.

[takingarms1]

I agree with K's post above completely. I read abom's post and wonder if we are playing the same game.

When I'm in an int, I drive slow to the target normally, unless there's a pressing reason (usually miner/conD or miner/con kill - in which case eye doesnt matter as much). I actively avoid getting eye. If I'm eyed way off and the guy starts hucking missiles, I'll side thrust and barrel roll + booster until I get in minigun range.

When I get in range, I'll sidethrust + boost as needed to avoid enemy fire and missiles. I don't hold boost constantly, just to add thrust as needed. I very rarely run out of fuel, unless I've engaged 3 or 4 targets, but I'm not that good so I usually get podded before that point. I also very rarely get hit by missiles, whether they be dumbs or seekers. Most of the time if a missile hits me it's because I'm not paying attention and am looking the other way.

Biggest problem with seekers I think is when I see an int, by the time I have a lock, he's on top of me. The only times I get to fire seekers with lock at an enemy is when I'm chasing him or when he's not paying attention. Frankly seekers almost never hit for me, and when they do, they do negligable damage. So I usually just mount dumbs. If it's a voob, I can probably score a hit and put him in a pod quicker. If it's a vet, I'm not hitting him with dumbs or seekers so what does it matter.

Admittedly, I can't ever recall a time when I've used seeker3. I'm sure I must have at some point, but really I can't remember. Moving ss3 and seeker3 to sup is probably all that needs to be done, with maybe decreasing seeker lock times since the misile already sucks so much.

[Dark_Sponge]

Seeker 3 outperforms Hunter 1 in damage per sec (counting lock time), damage per rack, and tracking.
If it was easier/cheaper to get I'd be all for keeping it as is.

[Kltplzyxm]

QUOTE (Abomination @ Oct 15 2008, 07:26 PM) Get this, since the enemy int is usually in your territory or in neutral space when you're on miner/con d, that means he needed to boost to get to you, most of the time. That means it's stupid to waste fuel on "getting into position to pwn" a fig. That means it's a traditional 1v1 fight, admittedly at a shorter range.

If this is the case then you've flown only against idiots. Smart pilots conserve fuel and have the patience to walk without eye. This one point throws your whole argument out the window.

And this is even before considering that smart pilots grab powerups and extra fuel and ammo from those they podded.