Anvil Ballista revealed. $120 warbond, $140 store credit

Radegast74

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Oct 8, 2016
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Radegast74
No presale or presale emails?
nope, part of their new "straight to live" thing. We think it must be an asset used/needed in SQ42, so it has been worked on for a while. I still think larger/more expensive things will have a pre-sale, but this is like the Valkyrie at CitizenCon last year.
 

DirectorGunner

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Sep 17, 2016
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It will be sweat because these might make ships like the Vanguard Sentinel more useful for its wild weasel role. Strike group approached target area, detect Ballistas (ala SAM sites), fire off an EMP charge/disruption missile to jam them, while a Harbinger takes them out.
You, sir, brought back wonderful memories of playing an old F-117 game with the SAM mention. Thank you
 

Shadow Reaper

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Jun 3, 2016
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Shadow Reaper
CIG needs to give us ranges that missiles will lock on and travel...
Hardpoint lists the Stalker, Reaper and Valkyrie V missiles as 31-34k lock range, 17-19km flight range. No update for the new missiles here yet. I don't think anything else calls out S7 missiles. Certainly there is nothing on Hardpoint nor SCDB 3.5. If the ranges are between the S5 and S9, we should expect tracking about 40 km and flight about 25 km. This is all presuming these S7s aren't very different from what ships normally carry due to their terrestrial purpose, which is quite possible.

If these missiles have ranges commensurate with other missiles, this platform could be quite invisible to their targets when in range, meaning you would need to spot them prior to an attack on them and go after them directly, like with a Wild Weasel. Question is, could a Sentinel locate them on the ground amidst all the ground scatter, before becoming the Ballista's dinner?

Range, range, range is the key! I think these things are gonna be very dangerous. If CIG uses a mechanic anything like real radar use, they're going to be much harder to find than ships in empty space, meaning they will have an enormous range advantage.

Others have said these are great for static placement, and this is true, but static facilities will probably come later and be cheaper. If I had a squad of Novas, I would want a couple of these with them on the move. Novas don't have much to defend against air strikes, and these can protect Novas quite nicely. To manage them you would want to know where they are and come in low so they can't lock on you early, much the way A10's attack AA.

These things raise the bar toward more reaslistic battlefiemd dynamics. A welcome addition.
 
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Printimus

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Dec 22, 2015
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Hardpoint lists the Stalker, Reaper and Valkyrie V missiles as 31-34k lock range, 17-19km flight range. No update for the new missiles here yet. I don't think anything else calls out S7 missiles. Certainly there is nothing on Hardpoint nor SCDB 3.5. If the ranges are between the S5 and S9, we should expect tracking about 40 km and flight about 25 km. This is all presuming these S7s aren't very different from what ships normally carry due to their terrestrial purpose, which is quite possible.

If these missiles have ranges commensurate with other missiles, this platform could be quite invisible to their targets when in range, meaning you would need to spot them prior to an attack on them and go after them directly, like with a Wild Weasel. Question is, could a Sentinel locate them on the ground amidst all the ground scatter, before becoming the Ballista's dinner?

Range, range, range is the key! I think these things are gonna be very dangerous. If CIG uses a mechanic anything like real radar use, they're going to be much harder to find than ships in empty space, meaning they will have an enormous range advantage.

Others have said these are great for static placement, and this is true, but static facilities will probably come later and be cheaper. If I had a squad of Novas, I would want a couple of these with them on the move. Novas don't have much to defend against air strikes, and these can protect Novas quite nicely. To manage them you would want to know where they are and come in low so they can't lock on you early, much the way A10's attack AA.

These things raise the bar toward more reaslistic battlefiemd dynamics. A welcome addition.
CIG needs to put range info on the HUD when using missiles.
 

Crymsan

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Mar 10, 2016
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I admit to not having much interest but there are clear balance issues if a space ship missiles cannot hit ground vehicles from the same ranges. (Even if you need air to surface missiles).

I just do not see the benefit of sitting around waiting for something to fly nearby that is not fun and engaging game play. If you need air defence just fit them to a base.
 
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Michael

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Sep 27, 2016
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I admit to not having much interest but there are clear balance issues if a space ship missiles cannot hit ground vehicles from the same ranges. (Even if you need air to surface missiles).

I just do not see the benefit of sitting around waiting for something to fly nearby that is not fun and engaging game play. If you need air defence just fit them to a base.
A current thinkable option (for the future) would be:
Place your vehicle
Hire NPC
put them on Gunner and Missile Position
-> SAM Cover for your (ambush / base setup / whatever) operation

while bases might prefer to rely on turrets thats right.
 
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Vavrik

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A current thinkable option (for the future) would be:
Place your vehicle
Hire NPC
put them on Gunner and Missile Position
-> SAM Cover for your (ambush / base setup / whatever) operation

while bases might prefer to rely on turrets thats right.
Yes, that's pretty much how I see it too. These are for offensive maneuvers, invasions and protecting areas temporarily. And show of force. I put far less stock in NPC crew but that's just a kind of personal preference.

A base is better protected by fixed positions, though it would be nice if they had the same or better weaponry, and a lot more of it. We'll see how that pans out. I know that any base we construct is going to be vulnerable while under construction too. That turns out to provide a number of opportunities for ground operations. If we can work together to achieve objectives, we won't need missions to provide entertainment.
 
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