BUFF the TOW!

I know im beating a dead horse here…But It is a fun weapon but come on devs at least make it be able to fly in the air not just hover on the ground and do piss poor dmg and the speed of it is a bit slow to! :eggplant: :dash:

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i know right.they could leave a flaming puddle when they hit something,not just go poof… :kissing_heart:
'i played it a couple times and thought it could be more than it is…

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Tow has needed a buff for literal years.

They are finally fixing the reaper giving it an actual perk, but hte tow is just sitting there forgotten again.

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I remember when the tow was a weapon that earned respect. Then the nerf hammer swung… Forever changing it into solely a reconnaissance weapon. Now no more than the power of a water balloon splash . Yes, ! Buff the TOW!

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A little while ago they accidentally gave TOW a huge amount of impulse, and it was glorious while it lasted. I didn’t own one, but I was the victim a few times, and loved it!
Then they fixed the bug.

Bring back the impulse bug!

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Well if we get a lot of ppl saying buff the Tow maybe devs will listen?

They really should just give it 3d flying since they’ve already have that working. Just being able to target something from any direction would be a big advantage over what they currently can do.

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I’d be happy if they just allowed more than one on a build. You could “ride” the first one, and the second one just follows right behind. Shouldn’t be hard to do.

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That’d be kind of interesting. I was actually thinking it would kind of be cool if they changed the warhead type. Like maybe let you hit a button to trigger a cluster bomb release or something similar. That with 3d flight I could see work really well for de-gunning from above.

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That would be epic.!!

i found out about this a few days before it got fixed but omg i thought it was hilarious. i really want a weapon in here as a joke weapon in a mode that just has ridiculous impulse and sends you flying at mach speed.
id love a mode where its just TOW missiles and you have unlimited ammo but your objective is to hit your opponent so they fling so hard they hit a wall and explode from the impact. idc if it makes sense or not man that would be fun xD

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I’m Crossout’s top Clarinet player. This is what the weapon needs:

  1. In the ground mode:

a) More missile flight time is necessary. There is a direct relationship between how fast an enemy hovercraft advances on a Clarinet pilot’s position, and how far they need to be to safely intercept it. At 75 km/h, the 8 base sec. + 2 sec. from Hans’ skill was enough. Now, at 90 km/h, it has to be a total of 12 sec. (when the Icarus VII flew at 95 km/h for some time, that number was 13 sec.). Increasing the Icarus VII’s top speed past 75 km/h resulted in the balancing issue where increasing the Clarinet missile’s flight time would restore its balance with respect to that single movement part, but could make it OP toward all other movement parts, especially the slowest ones. BTW, isn’t the VII OP in relation to some other movement parts anyway? Bringing its otp speed back down to 75 km/h would fix a number of balancing issues. Hey, Yuri made a stupid mistake. It happens. Especially when one doesn’t play the game. Let’s do 75 km/h, and it’s fixed.

b) Being able to fly over bridge debris. This is the very least the weapon needs after new vegetation was introduced on several maps, along with destructible trash on the ground, the bridge on the Bridge map became destructible, and vehicle wrecks were added. These are all serious new obstacles to using the Clarinet. Here’s one example:

b) The ability to activate modules and other weapons while piloting a missile. Such as a Verifier/Oculus, a Chameleon, an Argus, an Interceptor, or a turret/drone. It shouldn’t be a balancing issue, especially if only limited to defensive applications. Some would want to be able to use it with a Mandrake or a Heather, for precise aiming, and perhaps that wouldn’t be broken either. It’d have to be properly tested. I’m used to having to cancel missiles to uncloak sneakers, but it feels like reduces the Clarinet’s damage output too much.

Optionally:

c) +100% damage upon launch, dropping to +0% when the missile travels 100 m. This is for defending against melees, shotgunners, and especially Destructor hover pilots that unabashedly charge alone, knowing they can pulverize anything with their OP setup. Or it could be less than 100 m, but it would be useful. Even a boosted Clarinet car is typically used beyond that range. Or there could be a limitatation requiring the vehicle to be stationary for some time (with only maybe being allowd to spin on tracks/rolling parts), in order to launch missiles with this buff. And it’s a small thing, a really minor improvement, but it would be useful.

d) Missile turn speed increasing with time. A Clarinet pilot invests considerable time in piloting every missile, and such a buff would serve to offset that costly investment, especially at longer ranges. It could be OP against non-hover vehicles, but with how nimble some hovercraft are, it would seem a badly needed improvement. Or maybe the Icarus VII could be properly balanced instead.

Necessary fixes to other parts for ground use:

e) A working brake for the Omni, the Atom and the Meatgrinder. Upon arriving at a firing position, a Clarinet pilot needs to stop the vehicle quickly, then immediately launch a missile (in order to stay in vover or not fall of a cliff, or into a chasm). These movement parts did brake like that, some 6+ months ago. It was a roundabout methid, and required tapping a movement key for any other direction. Now, brakign them requires pressing + holding the keys for the exactly opposite direction, which makes the process longer, and more complicated when moving diagonally.
This is also a general issue with using these movement parts with other weapons, such as machineguns, when trying to take advantage of their superior mobility - which is now impaired for this reason. I spent long hours practising advanced strafing manoeuvers that required pressing 2 and 3 keys at the same time, but when the Omni was broken by the latest ‘fix,’ I gave up. There are some cool combat manoeuvers that can be carried out with these three movement parts, but they don’t work so great anymore.
I need an option in the settings to enable a regular brake for them, maybe one that would change the way the strafe toggle key works - between as it works now, and as a brake.

f) Being able to fly Clarinet missiles over my own Barrier IX turrets (or ones deployed by teammates). When chief developer Alex sent Hans off to a gulag, I had to make up for the weapon’s now-shorter range by combining it with four Barriers - in order to safely get closer to enemies. This is how it worked before that unannounced nerf:

I would arrive at a firing position, deploy a Barrier, and Immediately launch a missile. Now, I have to turn or move to a side slightly, or the missile will explode on that Barrier IX turret. It’s an unnecessary nerf that can’t have resulted in any practical balance improvement. This issue is dependent on the placement of the Barrier IX modules in the vehicle, and it affects every other Barrier deployed from the vehicle shown in the video, so I know that I could move them around to ‘fix’ it, but:

  • firstly - it didn’t use to be like this,
  • secondly - the car would be less compact or otherwise compromised.
    So let’s just have this fixed by restoring how it used to work.

g) Two separate Cockpit perks, for vehicles built from up to 80 and 180 parts. Reducing the maximum damage bonus to 40% was too big of a nerf for boosted Clarinet cars. I was using them throughout the entire period of reducing that bonus, and when it was changed from 50% to 40%, I started noticing that it was insufficient. There would be no problem whatsoever creating two separate perks, or at least two separate perk values, for regular PvP vehicles and for leviathans. Especially that the cabin is not sold as a leviathan cabin. Also, now the one can have hundreds of booster fuel units without this cabin, the increased booster heating should be disabled. Maybe this cabin could also be the only way to boost without reduced boost accelleration, like before that update. To make the cabin more useful in general.

An optional change to the Barrier IX:

h) Reducing the amount of damage received from ACs by the Barrier IX’s force field. A few years ago, it may have been update 0.2.60 that increased damage received from rockets and grenades. The patchnotes didn’t mention it also included ACs. It’s a problem, because I have to park out in the open, in order to make up for the reduced Clarinet range, and an enemy with 2 or 3 Whirlwinds will bring down the force field with just a few hits, proceding to shred my car from hundreds of meters. While I can safely hold that position when only facing cannon or machinegun fire. This makes the Barrier IX’s performance unevenand unpredictable. While predictability is ts pain parameter.

  1. Reworking the Clarinet for the helicopter mode (to either give it a separate set of parameters for the helicopter mode, or to release a variant usable only in this mode - so as not to make it OP in the ground mode by improving it for the helicopter mode):

a) 3D flight. Just to be able to bring this weapon to helicopter battles.

b) Even more missile flight time. In the ground mode, this value is related to the fastest hovercraft speed. At 75 km/h, 8 sec. of base duration + 2 sec. from Hans was enough for safe hovercraft intercepting and reaching snipers in certain remote/elevated spots that required tricky manoeuvers. Assuming 10 seconds is the optimal duration for 75 km/h, and the fastest non-boosted helicopters flying at 120 km/h, we obtain th value of 16 seconds. But that doesn’t account for the vertical axis. Perhaps 3D flight would require 20 seconds, or more. And there has been a prcedent, in a way, in the form of the TOW brawl, where it was exactly 20 seconds. So testing could start with that value.
The final value could take into account:

  • the map sizes and the distances from the starting point to the center,
  • the presence of buildings and other cover a Clarinet vehicle could hide behind,
  • the maximum altitude,
  • the presence of tall hills and rock formations that helicopters would be able to duck behind.

c) Increased missile turn speed. Either a stable value, or one increasing with the distance travelled. Because hitting targets in 3D would be harder, and it’s a similar time investment as flying one above the ground.

d) A damage bonus of +100% upon launch, dropping to +0% after some distance travelled by the missile, would be useful when being ganked by a helicopter. Which would be even worse then in the ground mode, because escaping would be almost impossible (and the presence of a cave or a tunnel wouldn’t help a lot).

Optionally:

e) Increased damage against movement parts (and/or weapons). Derotoring helicopters would be fun.

f) Adding a non-explosive projectile that would be able to pierce a few blocks. Or the explosion would occur after piercing a few blocks. Like with certain cannons. I’m not sure aobut this - it’d have to be tested for balance.

These are conclusions of a skilled Clarinet user. Learning to use it takes a lot of time (e.g., after using it regularly for 1.5 years, I needed 2 months to get used to using it on a boosted car in 2020). Most of the other suggestions result from poor skill with the weapon, and if implemented, they’d make it OP when used by me. Buffing weapons to be very effective when used by lazy noobs is a bad idea in general. It’d be something like the old Caucasus that had automatic target acquisition.

3D flight for regular battles would add extra time, thus reducing the DPS. But now, with the various new ground obstacles, it would make more sense. Unless it’d be OP in the non-helicopter modes. And it’s necessary for helicopter battles.

This weapon is a scalpel, and can be very effective when used like one. If you want to use it like a hammer, because you don’t want to take the time to get good, then my performance with more damage would be OP.

That’s because you see this weapon as a cannon, so you don’t need an agile missile that could strike an enemy from behind, like in these examples:

On 2029.10.19, it was possible to control the missile in the boosted mode for a few hours (which was then disabled by a hotfix). I was using the Clarinet at that time, and hitting targets at the increased speed was noticeably harder. And the boosted mode is only some 15% faster, IIRC (I did tests to calculate that). I don’t need a faster missile, and I’m not sure it wouldn’t be OP. The base missile speed was identical to its current boosted speed, and that was probably in Closed Beta. But it was reduced - perhaps because it was concluded to be OP.

If the missile were faster, hitting targets would be harder, and the turn radius would be larger, making the weapon less usable. I’m glad that it’s not just a cannon with a little projectile guidance added.

That could be OP. How would you feel getting repeatedly hit by such missiles? Because for maximum efficiency, it’d be best to do just that - keep hitting a heated target.

Play a lot more to get good, and you’ll start doing enough damage. Except I can’t recommend using it with just 8 seconds of missile flight time - it has to be 10, at least for 10-11K PS.

I recall your consigning it to up to 6K PS repeatedly. While I used it at 10-12K PS for years. The only issue that is stopping me from using it again is the insufficient missile flight time, which should now be 12 seconds. It doesn’t really need other buffs, because it could become OP in the hands of skilled users.

When it may have been too powerful. There is no true respect for using OP items. Get good, and skill will earn you respect (although, again, I can’t recommend using it with the current missile flight time).

Like this?

If this is merely reconnaissance, what would a buffed version be like? Not OP?

It’s one of the hardest weapons to master. You can’t just pick it up and do great. But reducing the missile flight time was a bad nerf, which was made worse by increasing the Icarus VII’s top speed.

Apparently, it was OP. I seem to remember that buff from some 3 or 4 years ago. May have been too much.

Buffing it for a lot of lazy players would make it OP for a few dedicated, skilled players. And maybe the lazy ones would get some skill with time, too - which would make the situation even worse. A ‘cheat gun’ shouldn’t be easy to use. And it absolutely should be balanced.

Apart from avoiding the new destructible obstacles, the new vegetation and vehicle wrecks, 3D flight is not necessary for the non-helicopter modes. For a skilled user, it’d reduce the DPS. for years, I was plenty happy with the weapon without 3D flight, at 10-12K PS. How would you want to be targeted from any direction? :slightly_smiling_face:

Now get hit by two such missiles from one enemy. Then two more 8 seconds later. Until you explode. you’d see more focusing of targets, and there’d be complaints.

Having multiple launchers is a common argument from those that haven’t used the weapon much. While it never occurred to me, because before reading about this idea on the forum, I was already doing great with just one per vehicle. At 10-12K PS.

Coming up with these ideas is easy. Learning to use the weapon for months and years, working on one’s vehicles and tactics - that’s harder.

As long as it’s not OP. Disarming targets that can’t shoot back. What does that make you?

Yes, it would probably make you epic.

I was in the process of composing a lengthy suggestion for 3D flight for the helicopter mode. Thanks for expediting that process, I guess.

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The “buffs” that would fix the tow.

  1. 3d movement allowed. (this was needed for a long time, heli mode makes it a freaking requirement. Helis would auto hover while missile is firing for balanc.e)

The second would be depending on how you want it played. recon and weak point breaker, or long range cover buster.

Weakpoint breaker idea: direct impacts do full damage to all parts for 3 pins behind the hit part. explosion happens 3 pins into target.

This is to represent the tandem warhead version of the tow, The impact first cuts a hole then explodes in the target. good for detonating weak points or breaking interior structure.

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Area denial and scouting idea: Heats impacted parts based on distance traveled, On max perk charge marks enemy on the map for 15 seconds (similar to hipogriff)

I actually like collecting the flawless match badges even more so than MVPs so sneaky and stealthy would be on my list if you want to joke about it. I’m not looking to do anything OP but it’s rather amusing when you can pop something and have them looking around like where the hell did that come from. It’s no more crafty to me than sticking a claymore on a stick to clear access a hard to get at corner passage. Like you ask how would you like it to be done to myself, I’d have to reply I kind of expect them to do that too.

If were were doing this with a heli I wouldn’t mind being able to land on a roof and take a good shot it’s not that I don’t want to be shot but it’s just really unrealistic the way they snap fly down to surface level right now. It’s not like I would want to stay there long as someone might just take me out too.

Looking at some the modern maps that they’ve done for the heli mode also has me wondering if we could expand on the mounting directions for the item too. Being able to mount it vertically would be great for some of the cave caverns. I fly into and through these often trying to avoid the homing missile spam while playing with my dumb rockets. I’d find it fun to be able launch a missile up from some of the cavern roof holes to target them in return. 3d Flying for this would be a must.

Being able to do some of this would make it more likely that I’d want to pay that large energy cost for it’s usage.

I wouldn’t mind a few different types of warheads for these too. I could picture fire puddles working well for these too. Even if I had to craft them and pre-set them kind of how you apply a CK to a part. To me something like this would just make them more versatile.

Yha its is quite fun just hitting vehicles many wheels or a dead vehicle with it XD but is quite expensive on energy for what pathetic dmg it does. it does ok dmg with Pyres though but not enough.

so lunatics / firestarters in raids can have missiles with fire puddles yet we cant? blasphemy!

the missile needs more flight time. also nice video one shotting that hover build LOL i bet thats always satisfying xD
i can imagine how many controllers you have broken with your tow hahaha xD

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Your passion for the Clarinet is contagious! Your detailed suggestions feel like a love letter to the weapon, and I can’t help but root for its improvement. Here’s to soaring through the skies, dodging debris, and unleashing missile magic!

A lot of other weapons are getting updated and love but the poor Tow seem to be the un loved foster child locked in the basement just to be neglected.

yes i think you right. gb whatsapp pro