Factorio Forums

Now that we have the tank, we have something more directly comparable to the Rocket Launcher than the combat shotgod, and the RL is found wanting. For it's tier and ammo cost, I'd expect something better. It's also kinda unsatisfying to use, with the slow movement and lack of sound (except the HE rockets, which make an ungodly noise on impact due to all the explosion effects it creates), but that's more a matter of polishing, and we're still in alpha so that can wait.

I'd make the HE rocket the default, but double its damage, then make the AP rocket require research (their recipes would change accordingly) and do twice again as much damage as the HE rocket. Combined with the existing researchable damage upgrades this should be more in line with end-game tech, while still leaving the options useful.

yep, RL totally needs to be more powerful

I agree on that, It doesn't have adequate DPS right now, which is too bad, because it's a cool weapon.

The rocket launcher is not underpowered. It is useless.

I don't agree with the original sugestion about reverding the roles of the types of Rockets. One does single target damage, the other does area effect damage.

I do however agree that it should be buffed, it takes too many rockets to kill thing.

I agree the rocket launcher is very underwhelming. The only thing it excels at is popping groups of small biters, but by the time it is unlocked, small biters are not much of a concern. More range and damage would improve its usefulness, of course, but that's obvious and a bit boring.

To make it stand apart from the other weapons, it could be cool if there were more types of warheads, such as:
- Explosive: small area-of-effect, similar to the current Explosive
- Clusterbomb: larger AoE, less damage, somewhat random distribution of bomblets
- Poison or Incendiary: damage over time in the "explosion radius", similar to the Poison Capsule but with greater range
- Heat-seeking: makes more sense if all other rockets have some slight inaccuracy in flight path, homes in on nearest target
- Smoke: makes a cloud Spitters/Worms are unable to fire in
- Slow-Capsule: Similar to the slow capsule, longer range
And more upgrades, like:
- Range Upgrades
- Explosion Radius Upgrades
- Salvo Size Upgrades (Fires more than one rocket at once, increases inaccuracy)
- Duration upgrades (for poison/smoke/immobilizer)

So many rocket types might be difficult to manage, though. Just some ideas.