Seem not to be working… the module just sits there with an empty reload bar.
They only launch against fighters, could that be it?
nope. defense lasers cheerfully pecking away at fighters within the engagement distances of the limpets, and it just sits there - no blob and a black reload bar.
it’s also somewhat strange - watching it on slow-mo, the reload bar sometimes seems to either vanish half-way through, or appear half-filled. and i thought it might be bugging due to its half-missile status … but i saw two limpets in flight at one point. … though one of them did seem to be aimed at a fighter too close, but it was dark and there were lots of explosions around, so i may have mis-seen.
i watched it fire about 3-4 times, go to sleep for a little, wake up … do the same again, but after a while it just went to sleep permanently - still with fighters around.
Another possibility is that all the limpets are in use. There are only 10 for each launcher, so if it has 10 of them out there already attacehd, seeking or hovering looking for targets, it cannot launch any more. Once the target of a limpet is destroyed, that limpet becomes available again.
1 fighter squadron vs 1 cruiser with a launcher.
it fires 10 limpets, and then ceases firing … but it keeps the lockon blob, and even though it’s not actually launching any new limpets, it still runs through the reload cycle, and tracks. what i was seeing was the weapon totally inert… no tracking, no lock, no reloading.
i guessed it might have been selecting a non-fighter target - but that wasn’t it. (cruiser vs frigate, it just dumps out a load of limpets before it’s even in range, and then stays active)… so i’m not sure what’s going on. [or whether it is a bug, or just misobservation in a big fight]
Interesting. I’ll do some tests.
Yup, I see whats going on now. I’ll fix it for the next patch. Basically the code forgets to tell the launcher to stop firing at its current target, even thoguh it knows not to look for a enw one. It can’t actually fire any more, until a limpet is freed up by its target being destroeyd. So if all 10 limpets are launched, and the last target of that launcher is intact, it will continue to do the animation for firing, without launching ny more. It might also screw up the stats a bit, although thats not a problem as limpets dont directly do damage.
Anyway, it will be fixed for the next patch, but it is purely cosmetic, not a balance problem.