Payload launcher is good and all but...

[gnotheo]

I doubt it will improve gameplay much.

My thought on what would happen as lvl 260 is;

At the beginning, players won't use it to save alloy to get to tier 3 as soon as possible. Crafting payload launcher will cost alloy, so will the stuffs we launch out of it. Considering that most data shards are getting salvaged for alloy as of right now, likely most of payloads will also be discarded.

So theoretically, people may start using it once alloys are no longer needed, meaning after ship is maxed out or near getting maxed out.

But why would they be necessary, when your ship is destroying everything before bald lady can finish her warning sentences?

Again, perhaps fun idea, but will likely be seldomly used at all and have nigh zero impact on gameplay as is.

What really needed to be focused on is variety of weapons, rework on relics, and class perks reworked to add variety of builds that are competitive to each other.

Biggest problem I see is that this game has such clear meta option that almost every run ends with identical build.

Most of fun of rogue-like game is that each run and its drops builds your character, making each run feel different from one another keeping things fresh and exciting. This game does not have that wonder of "what new things will I discover during this run?"

I do not believe payload launcher will help us feel that way at all, nor add anything meaningful to the gameplay.

[Lord451]

I think it runs into a fundamental issue with how the upgrades are set in that there's such a huge power curve in better modules and such a high up front cost and relatively low afterward costs to make tier 3 stuff. The bang for your ore skyrockets with the upgrades which encouraged hoarding and clawing at every scrap of ore until you can drop t3 items. If the upgrade costs were less onerous it may change the mouth but as you said anything that costs money to use strikes people as a bad investment even if incredibly useful.

[shadain597]

Yeah, the current game does heavily incentivize dumping every bit of alloy you can into weapon upgrades. For example, the T3 scoop would be super nice to have in solo play, but by the time you can justify spending the alloy on it the ship is already almost maxed out.

We'll have to see how it works out once it is actually added. I mean, my group would rather find a payload launcher to mess around with than a useless gun. Part of the issue with data shards is that they really aren't that good. Definitely not worth crafting and the scrap is generally worth more than the looted consumable.

On the other hand, I know my group's Scav would love to carry around a throwable missile on EVAs, and I wonder if the launcher could end up fulfilling the role the data shards have in theory: a relatively expensive consumable that actually helps win a tough fight. Also the decoy rework sounds potentially promising, but another issue has occurred to me: why have a launcher hardpoint if a player can just stand in the airlock and toss the weapon?

[Greybishop]

The big thought for me is usage vs cost. With non-energy weapons, it costs 2 alloy to make ammo for the kinetic weapons and energy weapons need 4 alloy for a battery.

If the launcher is something like 5-15 alloy per use like with the minefield/ship call-in, then it is not worth the cost nor the ship slot. If you get something like a stack of 5 torpedoes for 3 alloy, then it might be worth it depending on how the missiles perform.