Sat Dec 20, 2003 3:26 am
Do you actually use homing missiles?
It seems to me they're a waste of hardpoints. After playing through the game and experimenting with all the weapons, I've never found a situation in the game where homing missiles (from Jackhammers to Raptors) were more useful than screamers. Seems to me there are three basic situations:
Hordes of novice Coalition fighters. Sure, a vagabond or a couple raptors will reduce a novice-piloted Coalition fighter to dust, but you've spent an entire hardpoint to kill one. It doesn't take long to get on the tail of these novice fighers and blow them sky-high with a few screamers up the tailpipe. You can kill 4 or 5 fighters with a single hardpoint when you're using screamers.
Veteran Coalition fighters. If you fire a Vagabond at them, they'll just drop countermeasures (it doesn't matter how distracted they are, they'll launch countermeasures). Same goes for Raptors, except add the phrase "or they'll cloak to break missile lock." But Screamers will make short work of even cloaked Basilisks, and countermeasures don't stop dumbfire rockets
Heavier targets, from torpedo bombers to kurgens to subtargets on capital ships. In the five seconds it takes to get a jackhammer to lock on, you can get close, fire 10 screamers into the target, and get clear (doing at least as much damage, probably more).
So does anyone out there like Vagabonds, Raptors, or any of the other homing missiles? Am I just missing something here?
Hordes of novice Coalition fighters. Sure, a vagabond or a couple raptors will reduce a novice-piloted Coalition fighter to dust, but you've spent an entire hardpoint to kill one. It doesn't take long to get on the tail of these novice fighers and blow them sky-high with a few screamers up the tailpipe. You can kill 4 or 5 fighters with a single hardpoint when you're using screamers.
Veteran Coalition fighters. If you fire a Vagabond at them, they'll just drop countermeasures (it doesn't matter how distracted they are, they'll launch countermeasures). Same goes for Raptors, except add the phrase "or they'll cloak to break missile lock." But Screamers will make short work of even cloaked Basilisks, and countermeasures don't stop dumbfire rockets
Heavier targets, from torpedo bombers to kurgens to subtargets on capital ships. In the five seconds it takes to get a jackhammer to lock on, you can get close, fire 10 screamers into the target, and get clear (doing at least as much damage, probably more).
So does anyone out there like Vagabonds, Raptors, or any of the other homing missiles? Am I just missing something here?
. And I always bring at least one fuel pod.