Lack of bomb bay shield breakers

[ebon falcon]

While bomb bay provides a lot of important tactical options, it is also missing any shieldbreaking utility which is really weird, considering that, hwacha, one of the Raptor's primary weapons, cannot realistically break a shield without assistance from somebody else, which, under normal circumstances, would not be an issue - a team game that requires teamplay, who could've thought, but, at that point, if you got a dedicated raptor pilot who's sole purpose is to provide machinegun fire to break open shields so your weapon could be useful, both raptor pilots could just switch to a manta for a significant increase in firepower, basically rendering the presence of hwacha on raptor obsolete, unless used for some gimmicky tactics that are already covered by other weapon options

[lavish sable]

Hello! Thank you so much for sharing this feedback with us.

I'll note this down for review and we'll see if we want to add a shield-breaking secondary weapon for fighters!

[tropic slate]

What if the hack missile did plasma damage? That way it's not just a better space superiority missile

[past grove]

laser cannon is mainly for taking down shields

dumping all 45 rounds of laser cannon into a shield does 157.5 before taking fire stacks into account. not sure precisely how fire stack application or damage is determined in this game, but fire damage from the stacks should be very effective vs shields as well, as fire has the highest damage multiplier vs shields (1.25, vs 0.5 at best for any other type of component)

[ebon falcon]

Yeaaahhh but it's not exactly a quick burst
I mean it's quick-ish, definitely faster than a shotgun or a firecracker, but it's still not ideal for hit and runs

[ebon falcon]

Also isn't hacking missile's tracking just bad?
I've had this thing miss Leaper like 4 times in a row in the same dogfight

[past grove]

according to the descriptions, the superiority missile is supposed to be better at tracking than the hacking missile, but i've never been able to get a concrete feel for what the difference actually is (not saying there isn't one, just can't really tell without doing something like sitting and watching a teammate get shot with each lol). the hacking missile does do more damage and has a bit more range, though

[ebon falcon]

I swear there is a huge difference between them, please, hacking missile to superiority missile is what shotgun is to a minigun, I swear, it can barely hit an experienced fighter pilot even without a chaff cloud being present

[past grove]

there definitely could be. i haven't used either of them since the tech test, and didn't use them much then either

[ebon falcon]

You haven't lost much, both missiles are eh to use, unguided missiles are somewhat engaging at least because you got to actually aim the things

[past grove]

yeah, my experience with them was mostly that they were more trouble than they're worth to try to use, and i don't really have any issues when people are trying to use them against me. i'm definitely happy to fight vs lock ons rather than direct fire or laser cannon

[ebon falcon]

Idk honestly, I think superiority missile could use a smaller cone of lock on due to it's better tracking after the lock

Also because it's meant to be actively used against fighters because rn it feels like you're just required to aim somewhere in the general direction of a fighter instead of looking at them which is just
Eh

Feels as rewarding as seeing your gun automation get a kill from a side you weren't even looking at

[past grove]

gun automation kills are hilarious

love when my robo buddy spams shots at fighters and wipes them out

R2 D2 carry

[ebon falcon]

Sniper automaton scary :<

[past grove]

tbh i havent tried the sniper rifle much but definitely should, have mainly been using firecracker at range for shield pressure

queso's sniper rifles have definitely done a number on me before though

[ebon falcon]

"Okay, time to flank that mant- Where did my shield go"
"It's distracted, time to swoop- My gun?!"
"Almost made it, another successful bomb ru-" "YOU'VE GOT A HOLE IN YOUR LEFT WING"

I swear that rust bucket on a sniper rifle is making me experience all of the Arashi Ravager flashbacks at once

[tropic slate]

I heard the Devs trained the automaton in TF2 public servers

[vague cypress]

Human on sniper might be a bit less consistent, but humans can learn how to aim at components