Perhaps I could suggest a halfway between the old and new ways? haven't played in a while, but what if torps tracked normally during the early phase, then once they reach what is currently the "cutoff" on the tracking, they lose 4/5 of their tracking instead. So great tracking at first, which drops to low (but not zero) tracking at long range.

That sounds like a decent compromise.

Wouldn't it be more logical for torpedos to have terminal homing?

No tracking for the first part of their run then they start looking for a target and home on that.

Because Russell, it appears that if the admins manage to find something that they messed up on years and years ago, it's better to "fix" it and break a whole bunch of things then just let it go.

what lemon said

Bump. I've gotten pretty tired of getting clobbered by Zebra AI on my SD.

Since torpedos now track from the start, it's become more difficult to avoid the shots at close range (while it's now easier to avoid them at long range). The only class I can think of that particularly benefits from dodging ZHT at close range is Speed Demon (since others either use longer range, low vis, or couldn't dodge them to begin with). So I see the change as a penalty mostly to Speed Demon and not really affecting the other classes much. It has certainly become more difficult for me to kill Zebras using close-range weapons such as 3-shot, even though I was quite good at dodging before the change.

I would like to know if the change was intended to hurt SD over the other classes. If so, that's fair although I don't think SD required a nerf at this time and would be interested to hear the reasons for it. If not, it would be nice to have some input in how the change could be tweaked so that SD does not get nerfed unnecessarily. I'm fairly confident that either the code or the weapons could be adjusted to keep the spirit of the change while not ruining close-range SD combat.

I also think Llessur makes a decent point. The way torps used to behave by having a blastoff period followed by tracking just works. It's possible to dodge them at very close range and at far range, but you will get clobbered in the middle.

How about giving SD's +projectile speed on pulses? That way your close-range fighting is easier and dodging torps becomes less of an issue.

Or having a new T20 SD ship thats specifically designed around faster pulses. Too many nub panthers and DS's.

No, that would be too limited to solve this problem, which is global.

I don't think this would solve the problem at all. The point is that it's very difficult to approach and circle a Zebra AI now if you also have to aim a pulse in its direction.

Well, the idea is that with increased pulse speed it would be easier to hit them with the pulses so you would have more attention devoted to dodging. I would assume that since a SD can go faster than their torps, then assuming you can dodge them at all you could avoid them fairly easily as long as you can just get your damage in there.

I just don't know why you keep bringing up this suggestion. No one who has an endgame SD (pardon me if you do and I don't know of it) has voiced any particular fondness for it. Added tracking to pulses that aren't of the 3-shot class would be decent, but again that's not really what this thread is about.

Torpedos start tracking right out of the gate and stay that way for a while. It is very difficult to get close to a Zebra (but not so close that it uses its lasers) and stay in there without taking damage. I used to approach at a slight angle to avoid the first salvos of torps, circle around sharply, and finish them off. That strategy has been nerfed rather severely and I am simply asking why.

Honestly, no SD has even given an opinion on my idea.

The trouble with strategies like yours is that they are based on things working in a very specific way. Change almost anything and it will be disrupted to some extent. I believe that this is a circumstance where you will just have to find a new strategy...

That's why i suggested this. If it were done properly, then you could zoom in at a slightly higher angle and pirouette around your target and they'd be dead in roughly the same amount of time. At least, that's the general idea.