In the new 1.6 Cthulhu patch, the New Jericho Archangel RL1 Heavy Rocket Launcher has had its blast damage increased to 100, its shred increased to 20 and its effective range increased to 999, but it STILL hasn’t been updated with a blast radius stat. It now has blast 100, but strangely, still no blast radius to go with it. The Archangel RL1 needs to have a blast radius of about 3.5 added to it so it can become genuinely useful to the player as a proper rocket launcher that acts as a net tech upgrade over the Phoenix grenade launcher. Otherwise it continues to function like an odd pseudo-sniper rifle that serves no clear or useful role for the player. I’ve written a forum post and Canny feedback post about this before, and other players had written about this issue before I did.
The blast and shred rating the Archangel RL1 now has is appropriate and makes sense, the new effective range of 999 gives it infinitely high accuracy instead of say 30 effective range to give it a reasonable degree of inaccuracy, but it remains the only blast weapon to have no blast radius to go with it. Can this please be acknowledged as an issue to be fixed?
I think of it more like a long range direct fire weapon for armor busting. That’s the role it has in the Heavy’s arsenal, and it’s classified as an explosive weapon to benefit from Boom Blast.
Boom blast does work with the post-Cthulhu Archangel RL1, and the weapon is quirky in that it does seem to have a very tiny blast radius where if a rocket hits between two body parts of an enemy then it can damage and shred both of them. For example, if you aim where the neck of an enemy would be, then the Archangel rocket will damage and shred the head and torso parts.
Yet if the Archangel RL1 is not supposed to have a blast radius stat, then the weapon would not need a blast stat at all and could just do normal damage instead. Another oddity is that in the 1.6 Cthulhu patch, the Thor AML mounted missile launcher has the same blast and shred ratings that the Archangel RL1 now has, but the Thor AML has a blast radius of 3.5 whereas the Archangel RL1 does not. The ‘Advanced Rocket Technology’ NJ research that unlocks the Archangel RL1 states that ‘a breakthrough in explosives technology has led to the development of a new rocket launcher design. It packs a huge punch, capable of taking down even the larger Pandoran creatures. The rockets are expensive to produce, but will be effective if deployed intelligently’.
The blast stat of 100 and shred stat of 20 reflects this description, but how the Archangel RL1 rockets could be filled with such an advanced and powerful explosive and yet have the blast radius of pop rockets is mystifying. Especially when the Thor AML is implied to use the same explosives tech that the Archangel RL1 uses.
The ‘Advanced Missile Technology’ NJ research that unlocks the Thor AML directly comes after the Advanced Rocket Technology research in the NJ tech tree.
The Advanced Missile technology research states that ‘A new infantry missile launcher system has been developed, capable of hitting targets with pinpoint accuracy with devastating destructive power. The missiles are expensive to produce, but they could be decisive in critical missions. The AI guidance tech may prove useful in further weapons development’.
The main difference between the Archangel RL1 and the Thor AML is that the Thor AML uses a more advanced and accurate guidance system, but the Archangel RL1 has an effective range of 999 whereas the Thor AML has an effective range of only 35. Seems more like it should be the other way around instead. The Archangel RL1 should have a blast radius of 3.5, same as the Thor AML, but the Thor AML should be the more accurate of the two launchers. Otherwise, the Archangel RL1 could be considered the most counter-intuitive weapon in the game, with the Destiny III coming in second.
Snapshot games managed to properly balance Kydoimos grenades and the Phoenix Shock lance in the new 1.6 Cthulhu patch, they can manage to properly balance the Archangel RL1 at long last.
Personaly, I dont understand the purpose of this weapon at all. What is it supposed to be used for ( what was the vision behind the weapon)?
We already have sniper rifles that are cheaper, more sustainable ( ammo wise), doing more damage with great piercing and accuracy that’s good enough.
So why would anyone design such a weapon for a heavily armored front line brawler?
I never use Archangel, at that point , end game, you have better armors for Heavy soldiers, skills , abilities, mounted weapons and penalty is mostly gone
In its current form, the Archangel RL1 is like a rocket launcher that launches rockets filled with Schrodinger’s explosive, pretending to be a sniper rifle in a game where we already have a variety of actual sniper rifles to choose from that are meant to fulfill the dedicated long-range weapon role.
If the player wants their heavy-class operatives to attack enemies at long range, then using Phoenix grenade launchers and mounted rocket launchers in conjunction with Boom Blast can give them a 50% range bonus that allows heavies to hit enemies almost as far away as sniper rifles can. But because the Archangel RL1 has an effective range of 999 that gives it perfect accuracy, the range bonus of Boom Blast becomes redundant when applied to that weapon. Multi-classing heavies into Sniper or selecting the Sniperist personal trait if they have it, are also options to allow heavies to use sniper rifles as dedicated long-range weapons.
I just want the Archangel RL1 Heavy Rocket Launcher, to be a rocket launcher that acts the same way as rocket launchers do in a hundred other games.
Voland, I’m afraid I don’t agree.
You can talk about Archangel giving new options to heavies, but truth is, noone is using it. And thats because its a sub par weapon that does not respond to battlefield needs.
Lets not talk about artificial options. Let’s talk about real ingame scenarios. Whats the scenario when you’d say " I’m really glad i took an Archangel with me"?
Oh, I completely agree, I can’t think of a single situation where I would have wanted to have this thing with me.
What I was trying to say is that this is how I think it was envisioned, and I think it would have made sense in a different context. For example, if Boom Blast didn’t give a 50% increase to range, or mounted rockets weren’t so effective (or didn’t cost 0AP to launch with BB), if there wasn’t an armor deletus spell (Armor Break), if there was more extensive use of weak spots that cause a lot of bleeding/loss of max HPs (like the eggs in the Spawnery)…
The problem is that what the OP is asking for - giving Archangel a blast radius - in the current context would add another hugely OP explosive weapon.
EDIT: it would basically be like having 3 Thor rockets per Heavy per Turn.
I wouldn’t mind having the Archangel RL1’s blast and shred stats toned down a bit, as long as it is given a blast radius of about 3.5 so it can finally be usable as a proper rocket launcher. Being able to have Heavies fire three long-range explosives a turn using Boom Blast, two from a handheld launcher and one from a mounted launcher, seems strong, but it is already possible using the Phoenix Grenade Launcher and any of the mounted rocket launchers. But by giving the Archangel RL1 a blast radius, the Archangel RL1 can act as a late-game net upgrade over the Phoenix grenade launcher, at a time when even the Phoenix Grenade Launcher can become a bit underpowered against the evolved Pandoran species that the player will eventually fight against.
Archangel is an example of what happens when you design a product without thinking about real value it can deliver to the customer ( in this case PP squad).
Devs made it a sub par sniper rifle with sub par armor shredding. Now, whenever PP squad needs a sniper rifle or armor shredding they will use other available solutions that fulfill those roles better.
In order to be useful this weapon needs its own niche. For example large blast radius(5+) or maybe multirocket ( like chiron) combined with lower damage. So that it has lesser killing potential but covers more ground than other explosives.
Yes, and it’s absolutely OP even when using the old GL that does 60 damage 10 shred. Personally, I want to nerf it, not upgrade it
I think there are many interesting things that could be done with explosives (different munitions, for example) to make it both more interesting and less OP, and that’s the context in which I think Archangel has to fit somewhere.
Making Boom Blast like Quick Shot would at least increase WP cost. Still I’d say Infiltrator / Berserker with heavy weapon spec is more OP. He won’t get +50% range, but still 4 Grenade Launcher shots with +100% damage. It’s like WW1 Verdun for Pandas
