Inspired by a suggestion to make the basic rocket varaints more useful (especially for newer players with lower levels) this idea came up.
Why not have rockets that are on par with sunflares and pose a good alternative to them, depending on what you prefer in combat?

Here are the stats that I proposed in the other thread which have gotten some support. Given that I upped the level requirements, I adjusted them a bit to reflect that they are a top tier weapon alogside the sunflares:

Iceflare Rocket Launcher MkII:

Damage: 800
Speed: 105 m/s
Energy used: 0
Delay: 0.8s
Mass 400kg
Splash radius: 60m
Proximity: Detonation (30m)
Ammo: 16
Safety range: 60 m
Levels: 8/10/6/-/-

This is a rocket launcher for people who prefer to be in light setups. Most notably is the increased speed of the Iceflares which come at a 105 m/s. The delay has been reduced for quick rocket juggling for rocket-experts. It also comes with the same safety range that sunflare rockets have to put it in no disadvantage to them in common rocket battle.
Most notable is the level requirement increase. To symbolize that this is a weapon of extreme light weight, the requirements for the light level license has been set especially high. Other than that it is close to the requirements of the sunflare rockets.

Starflare Rocket Launcher MkII:

Damage: 1200
Speed: 95 m/s
Energy used: 0
Delay: 1.0s
Mass 700kg
Splash radius: 60m
Proximity: Detonation (30m)
Ammo: 14
Safety range: 60 m
Levels: 9/7/9/-/-

This is sort of a medium choice for pilots who want a bit of increased rocket speed but also don't want to miss out on hitting the enemy hard. The damage has been buffed to 1200, still keeping it ways off the Sunflare rockets. The speed of the rockets is 10 m/s higher than that of sunflares but still doesn't come close to the speed of the proposed iceflares so it's medium all the way on that level, too.
The weight has been buffed by 100kg to justify the notable increase in damage.
Suggested license levels symbolize that good skill in every area is needed to use this rocket.

Conctructive criticism welcome. The stats aren't what I ultimatively demand, but appeared to be most reasonable to me. It'd be cool to be able to make a choice when assigning rokets to the ship. So let's do it!

EDIT:

Below there are alternate proposals by players who commented on this suggestion. I list them as an easy way for the developers to overview the discussion and for new commenters to see what's been said.

Alternate proposals:
- bojansplash requests the damage of the Starflare Rocket Launcher MkII be reduced to 1100 instead of 1200
- Greenwall suggests the splash of Iceflare Rockets to be reduced to 50m or 45m as another tradeoff for the high speed
- Hawkfeather would like the license level requirements a little bit lower than I proposed

+1

I love flares but hate the weight of suns. There are a lot of setups where this ice flare would be perfect, matched with ravens.

Inc said that LockoutDistance (what we call safety range) for sunflares is 60m so you might want to change that in your stats.

Also, 1200 dmg for starflares makes them very close to sunflares, I would stick to your original idea of 1100 dmg.

As for speed... not sure what to say. Seekers speed is 120 m/s and the fastest rockets we have atm are screamers with 95 m/s speed and they use energy to fire.

Up to Inc to have his say but +1 from me.

I'd prefer only the Iceflare Mk2. The Starflare mk2 feels like "one too many" options.

I'd only suggest reducing the splash of the Iceflare MK2 to 50m or 45m. Increased precision requirement traded for dramatic increase in speed. This flare would definitely be used as a sunflare alternative, but it won't stop the whining.

When these new rockets hit they should change the impact sound from an explosion to a Garfield and Friends "Splut!!"

+1

This is very cool, although no license requirement should ever go above 9, as 9 is pretty attainable but 10 and up get kind of ridiculous.

bojansplash - Thanks. Safety range stats have been updated. I took the number from the post of your other thread I think. Must've overseen incarnate's reply to that.

Yeah, I suppose the damage gets somewhat close to Sunflares. 1100 may be more appropriate. If I get more counter proposals, I'll edit them into the the thread opening post.

As for the speed of the Iceflares - yep, the buff I suggested in your thread seemed really marginal, so I figured I'd up that a good bit more. It still won't be as fast as seekers (which are crazy fast) and I think the low damage it does justifies the speed I proposed.

greenwall - I can't agree with the first remark. There currently is no small port alternative to Sunflare rockets that I'd consider "as good". Having 3 options to pick from seems reasonable.

A decrease in splash for the Iceflare Mk2 seems good with me. I'll add it to the list of counter proposals that I will edit into the main post if I get more of those.

EDIT:
Hah, seen you late, Hawkfeather.
I don't think that 10 is too much to ask for, to be honest. But I guess it may feel different to others who are even less supporters of XP grinding than I. So that goes on the list!

To put it in perspective, I don't even currently have light or heavy 10, I'm at 10/9/9/12/4. Vets have the higher licenses as a result of slow growth over a long period of time, but someone trying to grind to 10 for the first time will be super frustrated.

The Stars Mk II look at lot like a Valk "SCP Variant", best of all worlds, but the Ice Flare Mk II should be fun.

+1

Edited the main post. It now features the counter proposals and extra ideas that have been added by the commenting players.

Let's hope the discussion isn't over already!

*Bump*

Hooray for cool new weapons!

*Bump* again, because a bunch of less cool stuff is above it again.

Thank you for keeping it alive.

I suppose that's sometimes the issue with suggestions. Ideas pop up, get some support but then quickly vanish down the site.

The best I can do is make it sound better! The developers don't even need a lot of time to implement this! We have everything ready, don't we?

+1

I'm not sure about the specs, but they could be tweaked later on? I say drop them in, let us test and if they are too much, tweak?

So yeah.

+1 to everything said here

Add them in and tweak any that are too hot to handle. You can rely on people giving feedback to this sort of thing, as it directly impacts day-to-day experiences.

Makes me smile to see civil conversation on the suggestions board

Good point, yodaofborg and Darth. Rockets is really a daily thing. I expect we would get complaints in a matter of hours IF something is wrong with the rockets (I hope not, I tried to be as reasonable as possible!)

I'll even promise to write a report if we're getting them implemented soon (like I did spontaneously with the Raptor UDV). I'll try to get other PvPers together to fight them with various loadouts involving those rockets. I'll do scenarios where I fight with normal flares against them and Scenarios where I have normal flares used against me while I fly with the new launchers. That should be a good comparison.

Let's do it!

+1 rar

Bump!!!

Oh yes please do this, this'll make rockets even harder to dodge from range. My kinda rocket.