And for multiplayer oO Technically speaking, Fire Dragon = Flame based weapons, destroy the enemy, fortifications, vehicles, burninate all the things. A plasma gun is pretty hot.. So, all the tactical special weapons (= not bolter) go to the fire dragon. Who's to say that the eldar aren't able to make a fusion gun with some extra range? Melta guns are plasma weapons, kind off anyways. Although, I could also see a "plasma" weapon going to the swooping hawk: get high ground, and lob down some plasma ball love. Regardless: I feel it would be pretty stupid if a meltagun can't handle a space marine, but somehow melts a landraider..
I'm pretty sure melta weapons as they are depicted in Space Marine are inaccurate to lore. Melta weapons fire what are essentially microwave beams to melt the target, and are short ranged because of atmosphere. I imagine they would do damage over time as opposed to one large spike of damage, possibly with an accelerating effect, so as to make them more effective against vehicles than infantry. So if you keep your meltagun trained on a large vehicle, the damage will start off slow but increase exponentially as time goes on, whereas the same happens to infantry except they're a lot harder to keep the gun trained on due to their size. Melta weapons should have comparable TTK against vehicles as lascannons, give or take. On one hand, it can be used by capping infantry. On the other, it is extremely short ranged. Lower TTK makes sense because it is only Str 8 to the lascannon's Str 9. Higher TTK makes sense because it has the melta rule and AP 1, whereas the lascannon does not. Up to the devs. Either way, it will be a terrifying weapon to the squad who leaves their spawn-transport vehicle undefended. Just don't make it completely worthless against infantry like the lascannon, meltaguns are not heavy weapons, and although they are comparatively mediocre anti-infantry weapons due to their range they can still be used as such.
Have to agree with most of what is said. Fire Dragon makes the most sense to have as a "Tactical" class, they'll have Fusion Guns/Pikes, Krak Grenades and probably Melta Bombs, whether the Meltagun from Space Marine is accurate to the lore or not is somewhat irrelevant, because what we know is that they just do a hell of a lot of damage at short range (with extra effectiveness against vehicles because of "Melta"). Whether they're shotgun-esque or damage over time it would be unreasonable to just make them good at taking out Vehicles, because quite frankly anything that can melt through a Land Raider's armoured hull sure as hell can melt through a Marine. As for ranges, comparatively you expect the Fusion Gun to have somewhat similar range to a Meltagun, but the Fire Pike is there in all it's extra range glory. It'll probably have a slower RoF but you still get the high damage at somewhat medium range. Keeping in mind, with all of this, Dire Avengers are meant for Anti-Infantry because they're more general purpose. Yes you may be able to melt a Marine up close, but if what i'm expecting out of the RoF winds up true you probably wouldn't fair too well against an entire enemy squad in one room. As for Plasma... Dark Reapers have Plasma Missiles and Starcannons are left to be mounted on Vehicles.. that's about the extent. However, given that we're taking some liberties here, I can see Starcannon armed Dark Reapers.. but I'd never expect it on Swooping Hawks outside grenades. Either way i'll be keeping and eye on teh coming weeks.. they're looking quite interesting both in and outside of Eldar.
a word from the devs on proposed melta mechanics from the thread http://forum.eternalcrusade.com/threads/an-idea-for-meltas.8352/ sadly dated may 2014 due to its age much may of changed, but at least you get a glimpse of what they were thinking
Hmmm.. urgh. Eternal Crusade looks like it will be filled with "charge-up" mechanics. Vindicator? Charge-up. Plasmagun? Charge-up Plasmacannon? Yup, duh. Lascannon? Charge-up Now melta, and then probably multi-melta too. And how we will have missiles able to hit a target at range remains to be seen. (lock-on prior to launch?.. ) The list of charge-up weapons is getting bigger than the list of non-charge up weapons; bolters (all types, admittedly), and the predator autocannon. For gameplay, some more variety would be nice. At that point I'd rather have the "Space Marine" meltagun, or an "unreal tournament Link gun" sustained beam weapon. (but where the beam has a max duration, then the gun cools down again). Or, why not, both. I don't like the "increase in damage" @Judasilfarion system btw: as for lore accuracy, the space marine meltagun surprised me; it isn't that far-fetched to me (besides the visuals). Meltagun: microwave rays, ok. But in order to defeat armor, it makes perfect sense to me that this would be fired as one big blast of energy. If it is a sustained beam, why would "beam tick nr 7" deal more damage than beam tick nr 5? The big blast: I could see at that energy level, this whole firing process isn't exactly perfectly stable. I would see it as a small nuclear explosion, where all the energy is directed at an enemy tank; not a sustained reactor in a power plant etc.
Microwaves agitate the material's particles (whichever resonate with the waves, our ovens affect water), longer action -> higher particle velocity -> higher temperature -> more damage. There is no reason the process couldn't be sustained, especially for better effect, unless it's an overkill. That said it seems the GW wanted melta-stuff to act like plasma or laser beams with a limited range.
I like the way Fusion/Melta works in Dow1, DoW2 Elite Mod and in WH40k Kill Team. It is a constant beam that causes constant damage. DoW1 animated it funny but the effect is still there. There should be no reason it can't kill infantry fairly quick, just like how the Lascannon's charge up seems an unneccesary artificial limitation.
As water-based lifeforms, all humanoid life is pretty susceptible to fluctuations in temperature beyond the boiling point of water (100 C). Caution: Having a tiny sun (5000 C) ejecting plasma into your chest is bad for your health, regardless of armor (which is most likely to just bake you and make the heat worse, not better).
Meltagun game balance vs bolter: Meltagun = crap at range Meltagun= crap RoF, long reload, low mag size, Meltagun= ermagerd dmg at short range. The Lascannon I totally get needs some balancing mechanic. The Meltagun is an assault weapon. The proposed "charge-up+ aim-pseudo-fixed" doesn't strike me as particularly assaulty.
