G5 Rocket Launcher

[iRobot]

I shall return to this.

[iRobot]

The killer problem with the weapon is that it is necessarily an explosive weapon with high damage and high radius and it's difficult to make such weapons safe or skilled. If the rocket's speed is any decent value, there's always going to be a range where it's massive free damage just to shoot the G5 into the floor. Medium speeds ruin the long range potential, making the guided fire a better option. High speeds make the impact of the rocket nearly instant at close to medium range. This is why I feel the only safe implementation is high speed + arming delay, to avoid the midrange damage problem.

There is the option of doing something similar to the Longhorn, to prevent one of the more obvious G5 problems - firing the rocket straight into the floor and watching in awe as it reflects perfectly with an acute angle between its trajectories.

Option 1 - Increase self damage penalty.

Make the weapon dangerous to use carelessly, and remove any and all arming delay. Sure, you can shoot at feet, but you'll die so theres no real motivation to do so. Self damage to 2x or 3x.

Option 2 - Increase the load and damage.

2 rockets only really hurts this weapon, making it into a sub-par Longhorn. Grenade on the Longhorn does everything the G5 does but better, with more mobility and magazine to boot.

Option 3 - Make mortar attractive.

Remove the warning from a rocket locking on. You don't get a warning when someone has a railgun pointed at your head, and that instagibs you. There is no valid reason for the rocket mortar needing this warning. The rocket speed would also need to increase by at least 30%. G5 would then be viable at range, primary currently is not due to travel time.

Option 4 - Add G5 to the list of Dual Wield weapons.

Then you can pretend to be Blastoise.

[Azarael]

Removing the arming delay with a self-damage penalty still gives a massive range between "point blank" and "long range" where the rocket will instantly explode for free damage.

Damage was increased, load increase isn't an option because it can physically only hold 2 rockets.

[iRobot]

I'm not seeing that free damage as a huge issue given it only holds 2 rockets and has a piss poor fire rate.

[Azarael]

Yeah, but it deals 150 damage. People complained the Longhorn destroyed the game when alt clusters remained on the floor and when direct impacts dealt 150.

[iRobot]

It was only melee + almost melee range where Longhorn was a gib. I really doubt people would adopt G5 to that role.

The clusters on the floor is an unrelated issue that meant the weapon suited all ranges, just right click for all jobs. G5 would still be poor choice for range unless you have height.

[iZumo]

Am I understanding right the problem with G5 is "any noob can use it in close range (and not so close) to get free dmg"? So why don't you add a "safety" that prevents firing the weapon when you're on short range or say "free kill range". This could be indicated by the aiming laser color and the rocket would catch up on the laser with appropriate delay to prevent bypassing.

[iRobot]

That would mean you just run towards someone with a G5 and laugh at them as they can't shoot you.