Ok, I understand when it comes to ship dynamics, you have few options. I understand it ranges big and slow, to small and fast. The Interceptor class bothers though for a few key reasons.
Absolute king of objectives.
Yes, I understand, being good at objectives is their thing. But you can predict victory based on which team has more interceptors. It’s too much of an extreme, especially because…
Vastly degrades the usefulness of non-laser weapons.
Ok, missiles work ok too, but if you can’t get behind cover in an interceptor you’re doing it wrong. Now, I won’t say “You can never hit them with other weapons.” Or even “Can never kill them with other weapons.” But tell me. Where do you aim to hit one with say, plasma? Not at the lead indicator, that thing is bouncing around like crazy a huge distance from the ship. You fire at it and you’ll miss. Not at the ship, obviously. No, you have to predict where in a large grid of space the enemy will be at one exact milisecond… or fire randomly, blindly. Or wait for the player to get too lazy to tap the WASD keys and wiggle the mouse. I have watched interceptors fly through entire teams doing that. The only thing that stops them are lasers.
Look, I know no matter what I say it won’t head off the inevitable “Play better” complaints… Despite the fact that I’m in the top three in the vast majority of my games. But honestly, the next time you’re playing, just watch an interceptor. Watch anyone with plasma try to take one down. Just, watch. Unless that interceptor is making literally no effort to dodge (And some don’t), get comfy. It’s going to be a very long show. I’m not saying the ship needs to be removed, just, that the balance between them and 2/3rds of the weapons needs to be seriously reviewed.
This is precisely why I have found Interceptors so fun to play; the ability to fly in, Spy Drone targets, drop a Minefield and perform my finest Trollface as I fly straight out of the hot-zone with nothing more than a few stray rounds bouncing off my shields.
Of course, when I dared to suggest that Interceptors might be too good, especially against the hulking, ponderous, “takes me a fortnight to turn around” Frigate I got my post voted down. Let me repeat the important part…
I am an Interceptor Pilot, and I feel we have it too good.
The thing I hate most is having to deal with other Interceptors, mainly because my Recon has no missiles. The best I can do is Drone them, use a module to steal their shields and then either hope they fly into a minefield or wait for an ally to kill them off.
This is not right. Interceptors have their place, but I’ve said before I see my place, as a Recon Pilot, as that of a De-buffer, an Objective Grabber and the bane of Long Range Frigates. Everyone else should see me coming and think “okay, providing he doesn’t have any friends I’m safe…”
Who the hell has ever thought that when an Interceptor is inbound unless they were flying an Inty themselves?
I see an interceptor coming in and immediately check my minefield compliment and pray it’s not a cov. ops with a plasma arc. I see two interceptors coming in and I know I’m dead. If I’m out of minefields or my pulsar is recharging, my only option is to run. Even then, inty’s can easily catch me if I warpgate.
Try use stabilizer rail or hail plasma with Acceleration coils+ jericho rank 6 skill and you wil se they cry(at leat i cry). You guys are tryng kill fast ships using slow weapons and want that be easy? And interceptors are all about close range, in long rang we are vulnerable.
Only when shooting with lasers, otherwise the extra shot travel time more than negates the reduced angular velocity.
My Templar’s stabilized railguns have a projectile speed exceeding 10k m/s. My shots land in less than one second. With a little bit of practice, it shouldn’t be that difficult.
stabilizer rail or hail plasma with Acceleration coils+ jericho rank 6 skill
Read what I said again. With that setup you’ll still hit an interceptor more easily at 2k than 6k. Only if you’re using lasers is it actually easiER to hit an inty at longer range.
I feel the need to highlight the word “easiER” again because distinguishing between comparisons and absolutes is apparently difficult.
You see my post, the #7? I do that all using a stabilize stabilizer rail with Acceleration coils+ jericho rank 6 skill and kill 8 interceptors. I think what you want is a rage buttom to instant kill all interceptors on map.
Currently, frigates have a choice in how they want to specialize.
Interceptor killing: stabilized railguns or hail plasma with booster circuit and acceleration coils,
Fighter killing: stabilized railguns or hail plasma with booster circuit and acceleration coils, or heavy weapons.
Frigate killing: heavy weapons.
If you’re having problems popping interceptors with stabilized railguns or hail plasma with proper mods, you likely have serious problems with aim and need practice. The other potential issue is that you’re not taking weapon mods and passive mods for increased projectile speed on weapons or spread reduction (as interceptors are quite small in size).
Suppose you’re in a very long corridor with a camera on a tripod. You have two friends standing in front of the camera: one of them is closer such that he fits nicely into the frame, and the other one really, really, really far away.
Now, both your friends take a step to the side. The person who’s closer appears to have moved more, while the one further away seems to have moved less, even though they have moved the same distance sideways.
The same applies in-game. Suppose you have two interceptors with the same speed circle-strafing you, one using pulse lasers at 1000m, and the other with a stabilized railgun at 6000m. They are moving at the same speed, but their angular velocities are all different. The laser inty has a higher angular velocity simply because it’s closer.
Therefore, it is easier to engage an interceptor with long ranged weaponry because their absolute speed would not matter to you at all; you’re only required to move your guns to match the angular velocity (which is low at long range engagements). While long range lasers could be more accurate, stabilized rails and hail plasmas are also capable of hitting consistently if you know how to aim off. Faster projectile speeds will help reduce the amount you have to lead by (do I need to explain this?)
Then of course if there is an engineer nearby, all your hail plasma and railgun shot is useless, since they heal up faster then you can shoot. Really, if an ECM and Covert Ops are together there is nothing you can do as any ship. The ECM jams you into immobility, and then the Covert Ops plasma swords you to death. They might take a mine hit or two, but now that is insufficient to kill them.
It is my beef with the current interceptor setup that there is no real defense close in, and all it takes is one engineer frigate and they are effectively invulnerable.
Then of course if there is an engineer nearby, all your hail plasma and railgun shot is useless, since they heal up faster then you can shoot. Really, if an ECM and Covert Ops are together there is nothing you can do as any ship. The ECM jams you into immobility, and then the Covert Ops plasma swords you to death. They might take a mine hit or two, but now that is insufficient to kill them.
It is my beef with the current interceptor setup that there is no real defense close in, and all it takes is one engineer frigate and they are effectively invulnerable.
Counterstun, ram a nuke, fire ion missile or two into them, focus fire on one of them on approach…
I do completely agree that current healing is broken, thought not only on interceptors but everyone.
