Junk//Common//Rare//Heroic//Legendary

Can we have Common tier missiles available at AI stations, Junk tier as common drops from weak missile slinging AI, and the rest as buildable and or boss drops?

I personally don't see a problem with missiles being nerfed. This among with slaves is one of the mechanics that needs to be nerfed in order for the balance to be fixed, because atm AI must be overpowered to compensate for the relative strength of missiles and RC. If such outliers were nerfed to be as capable as other things their tech, then AI could be adjusted to make sense of that, hence promoting more versatility in playstyles overall.

About this rebalance, could we do the numbers part in more than one step? I'd like to make sure this change gets done properly, so that all missiles I can access would be equally viable for their tech. E.g, I'd like to test the power of various missiles before the changes are considered complete. I bet I'm not the only one.
Overall, I think missiles should AT MOST deal as much DPS as a non-compromise optimized DPS setup of that tech, or in other words, a DPS setup that is designed for DPS, but doesn't take unnecessary tradeoffs to achieve it.

This idea I like, it makes sense and over time we can focus on getting each type of gear I to the same vein. The commonality tiers workup would be perfect to make that happen.

And they are still way over the players head at some levels. Its no fun to have to kite a lvl 20 fly when you are lvl 25....

At comparable lvls players should be able to rofflestomp individual AI

Its more enjoyable for casual players, much better lvling wise (lvling is slow as heck compared to the gains/lvl) and if you create DGs for players to fight you must ensure they are able to do the content at a lvl where the drops are actually valuable.

Vorp

K, you find me a level 100 that can tackle 7 ragnarocks, 4 goblins, 3 basils, and 5 parsley all at once without resorting to missiles, slaves, or drones.

Goblins are actually stronger, as they get Gunner destruction. Makes fighting a group of them a massive pain in the ass.

Basils used to not have that parasite weapon or slowing laser.

Parsley are unchanged.

Ragnarocks got the Wall of Lead superitem.

And technically the 19 AI listed are not considered a swarm, because each individual AI type has yet to reach 20. 7 =/= 20; 4 =/= 20; 3 =/= 20; 5 =/= 20.

@MasterTrader
I've been around since 2007. I do know very well what the strength of AI has been like over the years. Nonetheless, it is a balance concern when slaves are so strong that they are simply the best overall strategy. The same applies to missiles, but if this rebalance is done right, that part of the problem will go away.
I don't know if you were trying to surprise me or something, but what you said seems obvious to me.

@Vorporal
I disagree. I've always liked that optimizing your setups and figuring out how to play better is a fundamental part of this game. Making AI dead simple would counter that goal.

The way I envision ideal balance is that your build choices are decided by your own creativity, needs/situation and playstyle. Atm in some aspects this fails because some playstyles are flat out penalized in almost everything.

Noted. Much easier than what I had in mind, thanks!

Update: planning on removing class skills affecting Missiles by 1/3rd. Missile Mastery will remain to give full bonuses to Missiles (obviously). Note that Fighters will remain to have 1/3rd of class skills benefits.

The already do the most damage with missiles. What that change will mean is that missiles for non gunner classes will be nerfed. Currently even with the 1/3rd skills missiles for snipers still get a decent 70ish% damage bonus.

Even without damage bonus missile for non gunners should still be a usable part of there game play.

Over the last 2 weeks I've been working up the new stats for the missiles.
I've gone with Churchill's suggestion of basing the maximum launch range on a tech level combined with a certain range modifier. We've got low range (such as MIRVs and Bunkerbusters), midrange (most missiles) and high range (such as Lancer and Disintegrator) missiles. The modifiers I've used are:

Launch Range=Tech level*100*Range modifier
With the range modifers being:
-Low: 0.75
-Mid: 1.0
-High: 1.75

The damage on the missiles is also scaled. Highrange missiles do approximately 25% damage less than midrange and lowrange do 25% more than midrange.
Additionally, mining missiles will do 10% damage less than their other damage type equivalents at a given tech.

The DPE has also been changed. Most missiles follow this formula: DPE=1.0+(0.1*techlevel). However, there are exceptions to this which you can find out about for yourself once they're released into the game