Every once in a while, I get it into my head that I really should try flakking down the swarms in a CZ. After all, it can't be THAT bad, right?
...yes. Yes it can.
Today I took my T10 with THREE flaks into a CZ. At first, it didn't seem to be going that bad. I killed the first swarm I saw as it spawned, and was able to quickly take down the Cyclops that spawned it. With the combined firepower of the NPCs, we were able to make quick work of it.
Then I set to work on a Basilisk. The first swarm was irritating; it was chasing someone else, so I wasted four or five shots when it suddenly changed direction unpredictably. Bear in mind, when it's chasing me I have almost a 100% success rate with a SINGLE flak; with three, I can hit it easily, if it's flying predictably, and even kill it in a single salvo. But, of course, it doesn't fly predictably; with the wide variety of targets, it swaps directions regularly and completely, and even if it does get on me, the Interceptor will often move away and it will leave. Lots of ammo wasted, especially when it suddenly refreshed the swarm when it got to 5-6 thargons. But I did finally kill it, after 2-3 minutes of effort. During which time, several of the NPCs died.
We then killed a heart, and another swarm spawned. Meanwhile, a new cyclops also spawned in, spawning its own swarm. Atop this, because I was focusing on the swarms, the Basilisk caught me and hit me with lightning, allowing the swarms(which had entered missile mode) to missile me and damage my weapons fairly severely.
After several minutes of effort, I was finally able to kill the basilisk - but it took me more than twice as long as if I had just ignored the swarms and focused purely on the interceptor, killing them both at the same time.
---
This brings me back to the same old question I've always found myself asking; why bother taking flak, or worrying about the swarms at all, when it's so much faster to just ignore it and kill the interceptor?
Why have flak at all, when it's so completely useless?
It might have been acceptable once upon a time, but the gradual additions since then have completely devalued it.
1. We have modified weapons now, allowing us to kill interceptors faster than ever.
2. We almost always fight Thargoids in group settings, making the swarms unpredictable, if not impossible to hit entirely.
3. We often kill multiple thargoids in succession, which means flak requires a large amount of synthesis, which is often cancelled by incidental scout or swarm fire.
4. Even solo interceptors now warp out if you move more than half a dozen km away, meaning kiting the swarm is no longer as consistent as before. Focusing the swarm may sacrifice all your progress if you accidentally drift too far out of range.
5. With the addition of experimental weapon expanders, we can actually use those slots for other things now.
All in all, Flak is now almost completely useless.
Which is very unfortunate, because if you lack the piloting skill to evade swarms, they can feel impossible to deal with - which leads to the strong player preference for ground fights, where swarms are not present. It's easy to see this in practice, as they even recently added settlement CZs on the attack. Sure, some of that is the ability to rearm and repair mid-fight, but even absent that, the sheer annoyance of swarms shouldn't be underestimated.
We have a situation where swarms are simultaneously completely annoying, but also completely not worth dealing with. Any effort put towards dealing with them would be better spent just learning to fly well enough to avoid them, or just going somewhere they're not an issue in the first place.
We desperately need a new and better anti-flak option. Something to make space CZs less repulsive, and ground CZs less necessary. I don't know what the right answer is, all I know is there's a problem.
But it needs an answer. And given the rate at which the war is progressing...sooner, rather than later.
...yes. Yes it can.
Today I took my T10 with THREE flaks into a CZ. At first, it didn't seem to be going that bad. I killed the first swarm I saw as it spawned, and was able to quickly take down the Cyclops that spawned it. With the combined firepower of the NPCs, we were able to make quick work of it.
Then I set to work on a Basilisk. The first swarm was irritating; it was chasing someone else, so I wasted four or five shots when it suddenly changed direction unpredictably. Bear in mind, when it's chasing me I have almost a 100% success rate with a SINGLE flak; with three, I can hit it easily, if it's flying predictably, and even kill it in a single salvo. But, of course, it doesn't fly predictably; with the wide variety of targets, it swaps directions regularly and completely, and even if it does get on me, the Interceptor will often move away and it will leave. Lots of ammo wasted, especially when it suddenly refreshed the swarm when it got to 5-6 thargons. But I did finally kill it, after 2-3 minutes of effort. During which time, several of the NPCs died.
We then killed a heart, and another swarm spawned. Meanwhile, a new cyclops also spawned in, spawning its own swarm. Atop this, because I was focusing on the swarms, the Basilisk caught me and hit me with lightning, allowing the swarms(which had entered missile mode) to missile me and damage my weapons fairly severely.
After several minutes of effort, I was finally able to kill the basilisk - but it took me more than twice as long as if I had just ignored the swarms and focused purely on the interceptor, killing them both at the same time.
---
This brings me back to the same old question I've always found myself asking; why bother taking flak, or worrying about the swarms at all, when it's so much faster to just ignore it and kill the interceptor?
Why have flak at all, when it's so completely useless?
It might have been acceptable once upon a time, but the gradual additions since then have completely devalued it.
1. We have modified weapons now, allowing us to kill interceptors faster than ever.
2. We almost always fight Thargoids in group settings, making the swarms unpredictable, if not impossible to hit entirely.
3. We often kill multiple thargoids in succession, which means flak requires a large amount of synthesis, which is often cancelled by incidental scout or swarm fire.
4. Even solo interceptors now warp out if you move more than half a dozen km away, meaning kiting the swarm is no longer as consistent as before. Focusing the swarm may sacrifice all your progress if you accidentally drift too far out of range.
5. With the addition of experimental weapon expanders, we can actually use those slots for other things now.
All in all, Flak is now almost completely useless.
Which is very unfortunate, because if you lack the piloting skill to evade swarms, they can feel impossible to deal with - which leads to the strong player preference for ground fights, where swarms are not present. It's easy to see this in practice, as they even recently added settlement CZs on the attack. Sure, some of that is the ability to rearm and repair mid-fight, but even absent that, the sheer annoyance of swarms shouldn't be underestimated.
We have a situation where swarms are simultaneously completely annoying, but also completely not worth dealing with. Any effort put towards dealing with them would be better spent just learning to fly well enough to avoid them, or just going somewhere they're not an issue in the first place.
We desperately need a new and better anti-flak option. Something to make space CZs less repulsive, and ground CZs less necessary. I don't know what the right answer is, all I know is there's a problem.
But it needs an answer. And given the rate at which the war is progressing...sooner, rather than later.
